08.17
NPR ran a nice piece yesterday featuring Peter Giuliano (who recently departed from Counter Culture) and Allie Caran, who opened Artifact Coffee in Baltimore this summer, that highlights specialty coffee’s focus on coffee quality and its diverse flavors.
Increasingly, specialty roasters are working directly with coffee growers around the world to produce coffees as varied in taste as wines. And how are roasters teaching their clientele to appreciate the subtle characteristics of brews? By bringing an age-old tasting ritual once limited to coffee insiders to the coffee-sipping masses.
The writer, Allison Aubrey, visited a cupping at Artifact to learn about tasting the flavor nuances in coffee and some of the characteristics that help them develop.
Listen to the full story on NPR
06.21
I recently worked with the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) to design their latest report illustrating sales trends among coffeehouses. This tool is developed by SCAA to give helpful insight into industry trends among specialty coffee retailers.
If you’re a coffeehouse retailer, the SCAA Coffeehouse Sales Trends Report a useful benchmarking tool available to assess the state of the retail environment and industry. Developed in conjunction with the Cleveland Research Company and a participating group of specialty coffee retailers, this report observes sales and cost trends including an examination of the competitive landscape, a 12 month outlook and category and segment trends. The report also provides an insider’s view of consumer preferences broken down by category as well as big picture trends compared to other foodservice segments. There is truly no better means of understanding your business within the larger industry than through the SCAA Coffeehouse Sales Trends Report. -SCAA
The SCAA is currently looking for more coffee retailers to participate in future reports. If you’re interested, visit the SCAA for more information.
05.03
United States Barista Championship
The last day of the SCAA Expo is also the culmination of the United States Barista Championship, where a new king was crowned by Mike Phillips, 2010 US Barista Champ and current World Champion. Pete Licata from Honolulu Coffee Company took the title and will represent the US at the World Barista Championship in Bogota, Colombia this June. Pete has won four regional titles, including two Midwest and two Southwest Championships, making him a fairly experienced veteran in the world of barista competitions. All of his hard-work has finally paid off, giving him and his impressive beard a shot at the world title. Congrats to Pete and good luck in June!
Mike Phillips about to announce the new US Barista Champion.
The top 3 competitors, Ryan Knapp (3rd), Nik Krankl (2nd) & Pete Licata (1st).
Ryan Knapp, who came in 3rd place from Madcap Coffee, getting his tamp on.
Ben Kaminsky, came in 6th place representing Ritual Coffee in the Brewers Cup and took home the USBC Cup Taster’s Award for the third year in a row.
