A New Lease On Life For Coffee Kids
By Mike Ebert, Firedancer Coffee Consultants Coffee Kids was founded in 1988 by Bill Fishbein, David Abedon and Dean Cycon. Fishbein, a coffee shop owner in Providence, R.I., had been in the coffee business for several years. In 1988, Fishbein visited Guatemala and at the urging of friend, David Abedon, visited many small scale coffee farmers. …
SCAA Offers Education and Certificate Program Opportunities
By Mya Stark Maybe you have been thinking of getting certified, or even taken a few credits toward earning your certificate before the busyness of everyday life overtook you. Well, The Event is the perfect time to start down that path, or get back on track. Recently, SCAA published the findings of its first-ever Wages …
A Salute to 15 Years of the World Barista Championship
By Tracy Allen Years ago, a passionate handful of coffee folks committed to a vision. This vision was simple: bring awareness to our craft, create a common language, and seek excellence through competition. Thus the World Barista Championship was born. When I think back to the early days, I remember people like Alf Kramer, who …
Roasters Guild Offers Benefits to Members
By Joe Marrocco, Café Imports Many times the question is posed to us in the Roasters Guild, “Why should I join?” It is tempting to conjure a canned list of benefits doled out upon receipt of annual dues. This paints a picture of a very bleak future for our roasting community. For many within our …
Water: The Invisible Driver of Coffee | A Look Back at SCAA Symposium
By Hanna Neuschwander Water: It’s everywhere. It makes up 99% of a cup of coffee, 55% of human body mass, and 71% of the Earth’s surface. We can only survive three days without it. Yet, especially in a city like Seattle, where any tap will deliver unlimited qualities of clean, safe water on demand, it’s …
Symposium Provides Multi-Sensory Coffee Experiences
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA At Symposium 2015, coffee service and the Sensory Experience room sponsored by Swiss Water® were featured prominently on the Benaroya Hall Promenade. Coffee service has a reputation for being highly regarded at Symposium, and this year was no exception. Designed by 2014 U.S. Barista Champion Laila Ghambari, this year’s service featured …
Sustainability at The Event: Five Ways to Get Involved
By Samantha Veide, Mars Drinks According to the 2015 SCAA membership survey (hot off the presses!) sustainability is very important to you, our membership. 47 percent of you say that you would not belong to any association that did not dedicate resources toward conservation and sustainability; And 9 out of 10 of you are interested …
SCAA Lecture Series Offers Engaging Sessions Included in the Price of Admission
By Andrew Hetzel, Café Makers This year’s SCAA Event Lecture series promises to be one of the best in the association’s history, offering a variety of engaging topics that provide practical solutions to business challenges or encourage discussion of important issues facing our industry, all presented by knowledgeable experts in their respective fields. Returning from …
Driven: An SCAA Member Supported Cafe Experience
By Christopher Schooley, SCAA One important aspect of my role with SCAA is working to insure that attendees have access to excellent coffee offered at our events. Over the past few years, SCAA staff has been working closely with sponsors and volunteers in order to transform the way that we approach coffee service at the …
Opening Ceremonies and First-Ever Block Party to Kick-off SCAA Event
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA Welcome to SCAA’s 27th Annual Event! We’re so glad that you have joined us once again in the coffee mecca of Seattle. The show kicks off tonight, April 9th, with the Opening Ceremonies, followed by the SCAA Event Block Party and Thursday Night Throwdown (TNT), and runs through Sunday, April 12th. …
A Gen Xer’s Informal Review of the Millennial Coffee Scene
By Mark Inman, Olam Specialty Coffee As a 40-something Gen Xer, being approached to write about the Millennials’ impact on the specialty coffee industry seemed too good to pass up. Sure—I can poke fun at the younger generation just as easily as the next person. It would be simple enough to fill this space with witty …
Rules of the New School: Thoughts on Education and Shaping the Future of Specialty Coffee
By Todd Mackey Let’s face it–coffee is cool. You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, I already knew that!” But now the market is telling us loud and clear that it thinks so, too. Consumers are seeking more of the qualities that we always hoped they would, while slowly but surely beginning to pony up the premiums …