Trip Report: 2014 CoffeeCon San Francisco
I was honored to once again attend CoffeeCon as a Media representative, this time in San Francisco, one of my favorite cities anywhere, on July 26th, 2014.Check out: Official CoffeeCon home pageRead: Trip Report – CoffeeCON 2013CoffeeCon is THE show tailored not necessarily to the coffee industry, but rather to the coffee drinker. For those who love coffee, there is a full day of brewing and home-roasting workshops, interaction with local roasters, and presentations for the coffee drinker by industry giants. I had my work cut out for me, looking at the schedule and having to finalize which workshops and presentations I wanted to see.Read: CoffeeCon 2014 San Francisco (planning)
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I'll have many updates in the coming days and weeks to talk about all the cool stuff I saw.
My first presentation of the day was by Kenneth Davids, author of three books on coffee, and founder of Coffee Review, the leading coffee evaluation website and report.
I was so pumped to see this presentation on the method behind how Kenneth evaluates coffee. I own the three books that Kenneth has written, and I follow his Coffee Review closely in order to run out and buy coffees in my area to which he has given a 90% rating or higher.
In an afternoon session, I was able to meet Alan Adler, inventor of the AeroPress coffee brewing system. I use the AeroPress at home, and for some coffee lovers, it is the only acceptable way to brew coffee.
Alan led a wall-to-wall packed session on how to properly use the AeroPress and get the most out of it. It was very cool to learn by the inventor himself.
Throughout the day, there were similar workshops given on how to properly use the Chemex and iced pourover methods of making coffee, as well as presentations on the science of coffee and importance of grinding. Keynote speaker George Howell gave the day's longest and most in-depth presentation, as he did when I attended in Chicago last year.
Read: Blog posts on George Howell
Finally, one of the coolest things about CoffeeCon is the people you meet, or see again. Everybody there loves coffee, no matter where they are in the chain. To the left, I met Wilford Lamastus, a coffee farmer from Boquete, Panama. We were introduced by Jason Griest, owner of Sacramento's Old Soul Coffee. I am visiting Panama in the early part of next year, and Wilford had great advice for planning my trip, and visiting his farm while I'm there.
And now, the big news...CoffeeCon has one more stop in 2014. Los Angeles on November 8th. Go to the official CoffeeCon site for information on how to follow them over social media, and stay updated. I'll be there at the Los Angeles show, and if you're in the area and love coffee, you should be too!