by coffeestork on Fri Aug 20, 2010 1:48 pm With the start of my blog half a year ago, I have had many great adventures, not only in the coffees that I've tried, but also in the people that I've met.
Speaking to other home baristas, we've been looking enviously at home-barista events happening in other cities, such as the one in San Francisco. So after a bit of chatter, I would like to announce that there will such an event on September 18th in Toronto!
I'm hoping that this event will be enjoyable for all, and might be part of a series of quarterly events with different themes and topics. In the interest of making this first event happen quickly, I have taken the liberty to do some organization and structure. Of course, additional ideas, questions, and help are all appreciated, but I thought to layout the broad outline of this event.
Social Coffee has generously offered to host this event in their facilities (55 West Beaver Creek Road, Unit 45, Richmond Hill, Ontario).
The event will be an all day event starting at 9 AM with a BBQ at lunch, generously sponsored by Social, followed by more tasting in the afternoon. Everybody is invited to come and stop by as long or as short as they want.
The theme is going to be Espresso and technique.
We are arranging for an array of espresso blends for sampling from different roaster across the world. Some available here in Toronto, others not yet. We have had the pleasure to get commitment from a few including Tim Wendelbloe, 49th Parallel Roasters, Fratello, and Trancend Coffee. We are still awaiting confirmation from few more roasters that we had sent emails to.
We will have professionals dialing in these coffees on some top notch equipment including the Slayer and grinders such as Anfim and Mazzer Roburs.
Home baristas are encouraged to bring their equipment to try to pull these espressos with their equipment. With various equipment, peers, and professionals milling about, we hope the learning and experiences will be exciting in terms of learning techniques to improve home espresso. Also interesting will be how much machine and technique contribute to the final result. Everyone can be a judge.
We hope to have an interesting cross-section of coffee lovers both amateurs of all levels and pros. Everyone is encouraged to come out.
Finally, one of the other goals of this event will be to raise some significant funds for a CoffeeKid.
Considering the large donation from Social and the other roasters for this event, they are all hoping that you can pass on their generosity. Pay-what-you-can will be the cost of the event with all funds going to charity. In addition all extra coffee and extra donated coffee will be part of an auction to fund raise.
So how do you participate?
In terms of discussions and ongoing commentary, it would be appreciated if we could centralize to Home-Barista . This will limit cross-posting.
At this point, for organizational purposes, we would appreciate if you could let us know a few things:
1) If you are interested in attending the event (this will help get better numbers for organization). Of course this is not a firm on your part as it is a month away.
2) If you are interested in bringing your equipment. Please send details on equipment. We would like some variety and need to take space into consideration.
3) All comments, suggestions and questions.
If you could please send this information to: mike *at* Coffeestork *com .
Looking forward ...
I could bring along some temperature and pressure measuring gizmos.
