Travel to SCAA

We recently took a trip to our first Specialty Coffee Association of America Expo and had a great time. We finally got to meet some of our partners face-to-face, had great conversations with fellow farmers and roasters (which are helping us formulate new ideas), and learned a lot in the lectures offered at the conference.

Some take-aways:

There are plenty of great consumer coffee products that have been released over the past few years. We tried out an Espero Press which was very impressive. If you have problems with getting fine or grit at the bottom of your French Press or if it sits there a little too long when you brew and gets bitter due to over-extraction, you should check it out, it could offer you a much improved cup of French press.

Farmers are doing great things in difficult times. The number of wonderful coffees we tried from around the world was impressive. This coupled with the sustainable labor practices, sustainable production, and price-volatility issues discussed in lectures truly highlights the remarkable work done in some of the most physically demanding and instable jobs around. We were very thankful to hear about the challenges facing other farmers and their strategies they utilize to handle them.

There is a lot of room for specialty coffee to grow. Seeing the level of passion and excellence displayed from all the coffee professionals throughout the convention, and seeing the revolution and nation-wide popularity of craft beer, there is a lot of room for growth in specialty coffee, particularly throughout Middle America.

We are looking forward to next year. Please contact us if  any questions, suggestions, or just want to chat!