Yesterday we went to Coffee Fest LA, part of a larger food service conference. Mostly uninteresting but I did see this which I thought was interesting. the was at a small booth titled Vietnamese Coffee:

Cầu Đất has the elevation and the climate to produce good to great Arabica coffee.

I just found the Robusta interesting, it was the first time I remember seeing Robusta shown roasted and ground.

Found the other thing I saw, a $70 stove top roaster called the Hive Roaster. www.hiveroaster.com. Seems about perfect for camping, claims you can do 6 ounces at a time.

Ira

It doesn't look like the handle is long enough to roast over a campfire, but it should work over a camp stove.

Need some way to cool down the coffee after roasting. I have a battery operated USB fan at work, I wonder if one or a gang of these might work while camping, could always use one of those external USB battery packs in conjunction with the fans.

Why was it mostly uninteresting? We were considering Chicago next year.

I've been to 9 of the last 10 SCA Conferences. This was a tiny show, only 1 machine vendor, no grinders, 4 roasters though I missed Mill City because I believe they were outside somewhere we never found. Loring had a 10 foot booth with no roasters and there were two others I don't remember seeing before each had 1 or 2 kilo machine on display.

It was $20 for admission and 7 miles down the freeway so worth going, but we walked all 3 shows in 4 hours and didn't really see anything new except we connected with people to make custom hats and custom socks for Fish Tuning. So it was worth it for that. Only 2 or 3 people set up to pull shots and only one actively doing so.

Might be different in Chicago and if you can get in for $20 and have the time, probably worth the effort., But if you can only go to one, SCA is a way more interesting coffee show.

Ira

I saw a flurry of last minute posts on Instagram from various companies in the coffee industry about their participation in the LA event. Mostly just putting maps on Instagram of the floor layout and where they'd be setting up. Looked like a lot of food/beverage industry (syrups/cups/peanut butter mocha in a can) sort of event. I think I saw USRC was going to be there.

Little late on the response here, but thanks for coming by our booth at the CoffeeFest LA. The hiveroaster is certainly great for camping over a campstove, or also just in your kitchen which is what it is designed for. The handle is pretty short for a live fire, however it can easily be replaced with a longer one. If you have any questions about the roaster, please let me know.