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INAUGURAL EMPIRE CITY KNOCKBOX CLASSIC THE POSTPONEMENT OF THIS YEAR'S Northeast Regional Barista and Brewers Cup Competitions left a lot of coffee pros in the New York area practically twitching with pent-up energy. After months of cappuccino pouring, brewing, tasting, speech writing, and getting psyched for some hang time with coffee pals from all over, the letdown was heartbreaking. Instead of walking around in a lethargic daze, however, Joe New York managers Anna Utevsky and Matt Banbury decided to spring into action, conjuring an epic friendly contest for Gotham's rivalry-starved coffee community: The inaugural Empire City Knockbox Classic, held on January 27 at the Joe Pro Shop in Manhattan (www.joenewyork.com). "We just really enjoy hanging out with the coffee community, and wanted to create something fun, challenging, and somewhat educational," says Anna, who was then-manager of Joe's West Village shop. Matt from the Union Square location agrees: "We knew we wanted something a little crazy, but also grounded in real skills that baristas put into practice every day." Those skills were tested in a series of eight wacky contests, each devised to allow the eight participating teams to shine in various categories related (or semi-related) to their daily gigs. Contestants raced to hand-grind beans, concocted on-the-fly signature beverages, identified outlier coffees in a lineup, answered trivia questions, and blindly (and courageously) tasted and identified a host of mysterious foodstuffs—all in the name of coffee community. In one event, Double Bar Bar, a pair from each team (all of which comprised four members, linked by roaster, coffee shop, or simply friendship) was given a list of 20 drinks to complete in order as fast as possible, while being judged on efficiency, teamwork, hospitality, and drink appearance. "Double Bar Bar was the first event I thought of, and one of my favorite parts of working behind a counter in a café," Anna says. "I love watching people work through a long line of drinks together. It is the only kind of dancing I enjoy doing publicly." While each team approached the machine with a bit of cockiness—cocky? baristas? nahhh—they all quickly remembered how hard it can be to push out quality drinks under pressure, not to mention in such a distracting environment. It was a treat to watch the teammates work together, almost immediately sinking into the kind of shorthand language that we all use with our closest coworkers. Events like the Milk Relay, in which competitors simply had to race down the sidewalk carrying as many gallons of milk as possible, added the healthy emphasis on fun, too, to balance out the skill tests. Irving Farm Coffee Roasters' team captain, Amanda Ventresca of Café Grumpy bravely blind tastes and identifies various ingredients on behalf of her team during the inaugural Empire City Knockbox Classic held in January at the Joe Pro Shop in Manha an. Tamara Vigil, especially appreciated the way events like Double Bar Bar incorporated both the actual skills baristas need in their work with the fun that we're all lucky to have on our best days at work and at gatherings with our specialty-coffee peers. "Our staff is new to the competition scene so I thought it was a really fun way to introduce them to some other coffee professionals," she says. "I really believe events like these are important to our industry. Working at the café every day can get monotonous, but fun events like the [Knockbox Classic] remind us that coffee is fun. It also helps me, as an educator, show our baristas the things we do well and the things we need to keep working on." Sponsor companies including Verve, Heart, Granola from Another Mother, and Court Street Grocers pitched in with fantastic prizes, and an oldschool trophy was hoisted above the winners' heads. (Each team managed to achieve the top score in one category, so in effect everyone was a winner.) Part of the vision, say Anna and Matt, is not only to hold additional KBC events locally, but also to take the circus to the streets: "Both of us love traveling and think that regional coffee cultures are fascinating," Matt says." We fully intend for there to be another KBC—maybe the Golden Gate, maybe the Capitol Hill..." Anna chimes in: "We've also discussed trying to bring one to a regional event like MANE [Mid-Atlantic/Northeast Coffee Conference], or bookending a regional barista competition, where there is already representation from a multitude of coffee companies." Rally the troops in your city, and who knows: You might be walking home with some sweet swag, a bunch of new comrades in coffee, and a KBC badge of honor. Check out the Knockbox Classic Facebook page for more information, and to petition for an event near you: www.facebook. com/knockboxclassic —Erin Meister www.baristamagazine.com 23