Barista Magazine

OCT-NOV 2012

Barista Magazine is your home for the worldwide community of coffee and the people who make it.

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The topic of the importance of the people behind the coffee was brought up again for the final panel of the day. In "Beyond Being a Barista," seven panelists—myself included—reflected on their careers in coffee, whether they were working for small startups, family businesses and even Starbucks. The panelists included Alexandra Littlejohn from Verve Coffee Roasters; Jason Simpson from Starbucks; Sol Salazar from City Bean, Zachary Carlson from Sprudge.com; Bobby Roshan from Demitasse; Heather Perry, and Michael Phillips. Their various experiences in specialty coffee provided inspiration, perspective and illustration of the many possibilities working with coffee has to offer. After the panel, the event transitioned from serious to social, and of course that meant beer and food. Luckily temperatures dropped to merely mid-90s (which felt surprisingly cool after the 110 degrees we endured earlier) just as two food trucks rolled into the parking lot. One served Spanish-style tapas, and the other dished out delicious tacos. Attendees munched, drank and mingled as Verve's hardworking team set up for the final portion of Barista Nation L.A.: a latte art throwdown. Using Verve's custom-made wheel of fortune, contestants in Brant Curtis (far right) of Wilbur Curtis—whose Gold Cup Brewer is winning rave reviews from specialty cafés around the world—instructed during his popular brewing lab at Barista Nation L.A. the head-to-head format had to give the wheel a spin to discover what design they would pour and in what cup. A rowdy and hilarious contest ensued with the top three finishers winning bags full of loot and goodies, and first place taking a Baratza grinder. Beyond the baristas, the other big beneficiary of the Barista Nation L.A. event was the nonprofit organization C.A.R.E., the global network that fights on behalf of poor women around the world. Barista Nation L.A.'s $10 registration fee went directly to C.A.R.E. as did all proceeds from tshirt, track jacket and tamper sales. At the end of the day, Barista Nation raised a couple thousand dollars for the organization. Without a doubt, the Southern California region right now is one of the fastest-growing coffee scenes in the country, and that energy and enthusiasm was evident at Barista Nation L.A. In fact, the event was such a success that as soon as it drew to a close, planning for the next installment was already beginning. "You can really feel the groundswell, " " Erik Scott said. "We may be behind some other markets right now, but we're growing fast. And as coffee culture rises [here] everyone will rise with it as long as they're good at it and they care about what they do. where coffee, tea, soda, and chocolate lovers meet their heroes last crawl of the year indianapolis / october 27 contact us for 2013 opportunities a special thanks to Boulder's Perfect Crema co-sponsors www.baristamagazine.com 49 caffeinecrawl.com Facebook.com/caffeinecrawl Twitter.com/caffeinecrawl

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