USBC
NERBC 2013 Rescheduled! Feb 20-22
Specialty Coffee Association of America Announces Rescheduled NERBC Event Dates
LONG BEACH, Calif. U.S.A. (January 11, 2013) — The Specialty Coffee Association has announced the rescheduled dates and venue for the 2012/13 North East Regional Barista Competition, hosted by Dallis Bros. Coffee.
When: February 20-22, 2013
Where: Attic Studios, 11-05 44th Road, Third Floor, Long Island City, NY 11101.
Times: Wednesday: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Thursday: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Friday: 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
The event, which was originally slated to take place in November in Atlantic City, was postponed after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy only days before the first day of competition. All prior NERBC competitors will remain registered to compete and the SCAA will open a waiting list for those wanting to sign up if any original competitors drop out; competition spots will be given on a first come, first serve basis.
“Dallis Bros Coffee is extremely proud and excited to host the NERBC and Brewers Cup for the third consecutive year.” States John Moore, VP of Dallis Bros. Coffee. “2013 marks the 100 year anniversary for Dallis Bros and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate than alongside some of the most talented, innovative, driven, and passionate coffee professionals in the region right here in Queens, NYC. People throughout the northeast region have a reputation for resilience and grit, and it feels especially gratifying to bring the competition back to where Sandy hit so many so hard. We hope that all in attendance will join us in celebrating the remarkable talent and hard work of the competitors, judges, and all those part of making the coffee culture of the northeast so special and distinct.”
For additional information about the Regional Barista Competitions, visit www.usbaristachampionship.org.
Gearing Up to Wind Down
Today marks the final day of the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual Event. On this day we’ll honor our new ambassador to the world coffee stage that will represent our country in the World Barista Championships in Bogota, Colombia. At the same time we shall crown the first-ever national champion manual brewer to represent the United States in the World Brewers Cup in Maastricht, Netherlands.
It’s been a long road for everyone involved in this years’ competition circuit, but with along with the eventual exhaustion we all experience towards the end of the year lingers a sense of nostalgia. Over the past few months we as an industry have shown progression in craft, rapt attention towards the future and a resolve to face the challenges of that future head-on. Along the road we’ve all forged new friendships, drank some awesome coffees and maybe even learned a thing or two.
Now, it may have come to the readers’ attentions that we at Dallis Bros. Coffee were somewhat light on updates at this particular event, but rest assured that we weren’t resting on our laurels! Our Flickr account is rife with photos from every aspect of the event. If you want to see the competitors in (semi)action, or just scope out some of the latest and greatest in coffee-related paraphernalia, shoot on over to our Flickr and give our photos a gander.
Also, we have plenty more material we will be posting up in the next couple of days, so make sure to check back often for a deeper look into the lives of coffee professionals in the modern world!
See and be USB-seen!
A new day in Houston, TX brought with it sunny skies, a nice breeze and an overwhelming need for bananas. As the day winds down we’ve witnessed some of the best coffee this great country has to offer. Whether you came for the semifinals of the prestigious United States Barista Championships, the same round of the still-fresh Brewers Cup, the immense specialty coffee trade show or any of the other myriad educational, developmental or recreational goings-on at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual Event, attendees had no shortage of coffee geekery to amuse themselves with.
Front and center for The Event was the United States Barista Championship semifinals. The presentations this year were heavy on the close relationships that modern roasters are developing with the farms they support, and how those relationships benefit an industry in the midst of crisis. Never before has this industry looked to the coming years with more uncertainty, but also never before has this industry looked to our partners overseas and in distant lands and thought that maybe that distance wasn’t quite as ominous as it ONCE was. More and more we look towards the future and see not just our shops or our superstar baristi glowing in the halo of glory, but we now see that limelight shared with the farmers, processors and importers that provide us with those sweet, sweet beans that we’ve sworn our lives to.
Amongst the rumblings and hushed but urgent conversation buzzing about the convention space were spoken fears about rising C-Market prices, harsh global swings in supply and demand and the eventual stabilization of global coffee culture. Are these problems that we as an industry have the ability to change? What lasting impact will these crises have on the industry as a whole? Do current coffee prices and demand even leave room for Specialty Coffee. The answer to all these questions is, of course, a resounding “YES!”
The coffee industry on the whole has seen it’s share of cyclical ups and downs, but that unpredictability simply cannot stand any longer. With drastically increasing green coffee prices showing no signs of slowing their meteoric rise, retail coffee prices are reaching a critical psychological threshold in the eyes of the consumer that, once passed, demand a greater contribution on the part of all involved in the distribution chain. That means that growers must grow better coffee, and more of it. It means that roasters must delve deeper into the science and art of their craft to roast coffees that defy and exceed expectation. It means that the superstar baristi mentioned above must give their lives to their craft, not just pursuing that elusive perfect cup but achieving it, over and over again.
What’s so special about this years’ USBC is that more than ever, we as an industry are beginning to see these goals come into fruition. The competitors this year are showing more and more the value of supporting the supply chain to a fault. Local sourcing, fanatical and loving care for the final cup, an emphasis on hospitality and stewardship to the almighty brown bean are all hallmarks of this competition.
It’s an exciting time for our industry and all the billions around the world that rely on the beverage to add value to their lives. The bad news is that the future does hold uncertainty. The good news is that we, as an industry, are intrepidly gearing up to face down the greatest challenge we have ever faced. The consumer can rest assured that the next few years MUST produce the finest coffees the world has ever seen, or we shall simply cease to be relevant.
And by golly, we all know that can’t happen.
Dallis Bros Coffee is thrilled by the coming challenges we face, but we want to know what the consumers are thinking. Drop us a line and give us your thoughts. Leave a comment. Check out our Twitter and Flickr feeds. Most importantly, just get involved. Without the guy or gal on the other end of this whole thing drinking these coffees that we pour our hearts into, there wouldn’t be much of an industry to worry about, would there.
The competition is still in full swing, with a whole other day of finals rounds to look forward to, so keep tuned and let us know what you’re thinking.
See you out there!
Interview with our own USBC Semifinalist Philip Search!
In a little over a week, we’re thrilled to cheer our own Philip Search on to Houston, Texas, where he will compete as a semifinalist in the United States Barista Championship among the best of his profession. Philip took home regional title in this month’s Northeast Regional Barista Competition, and we couldn’t be prouder. We persuaded him to take a break from rigorous training and rehearsal to give the world a bigger preview of what he’ll be doing up there on the USBC stage.
What inspired you to compete in 2011?
I think there are multiple reasons I ended up competing. Every year I go through an internal debate with myself about whether or not I will do this all over again. The truth is though, I love coffee, I love being able to highlight it in this format. It excites me to be able to have unique conversations, and a chance to learn with other coffee professionals. I have to say though, I was truly inspired this competition. It started when I tasted the Liquid Ambar and the Don Mayo in a cupping. They both are compete coffees, unique in their own rights, and totally representative of the work of the families at origin, the cultivars, and the terroir of their regions.
The first time I roasted the Liquid Ambar as espresso, I pulled a shot and we were all floored. Pillowy body, a mind blowing espresso with a unique honey malt flavor I’ve only tasted a few times in 16 years. The Don Mayo was equally impressive. The spice note reminded us all of an Indian curry dessert. These coffees together create a unique combination of flavors that nearly brought me to tears. Completely unique to anything I had ever worked with before. After this, I was hooked. I wanted this coffee, and the risks the farmers took in producing it to be showcased to the world. There were other circumstances that came to light about the coffee. As you know there is a shortage of super high quality coffees in the current market. The coffee from the Don Mayo mill is part of what I believe is a solution to this issue. It is a Villa Sarchi Cultivar, a natural mutation of old Bourbon plants that happened in Costa Rica quite a few years ago. In showing off this coffee as a microlot separated out with its unique cultivar, I hope to encourage farms to begin producing more of this coffee in the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica where the climate and soil lend its self to its best potential.
I also enjoy being able to push our industry forward in unique ways. In the past this involved adding special dose control to things like the Anfim grinder. In this case, I wanted to show people a grinder platform that doesn’t have most of the existing flaws of current espresso grinders, and that there is a different way to pull shots even in a tight time frame. I also believe that in life, and all things coffee, we should aspire to our daily tools being functional works of art. This grinder reflects that aesthetic belief.
You use an unusual grinder setup. What is it?
I wanted a grinder that looks good, and avoids a lot of the dosing, heat, and grind spectrum issues of existing espresso grinders.
What goes into your signature drink, and how did you come up with it?
The sig drink is an infusion that mirrors the flavors of the two coffees I used. This allowed me to stretch out the flavor profile and make the complexities of the coffee more accessible. It involves using nitrogen cavitation, a common tool in the arsenal of cutting-edge mixology, to infuse flavors into liquids. I used a slice of orange, grapefruit peel, tamarind, smoked sea salt, sucrinate (dried unprocessed cane juice), raw orange blossom honey, and lapsong souchong tea, and infused this into water. Then I poured this “deconstructed flavor infusion” into champagne flutes and served it alongside the espresso. This helps people better understand the coffee. The cool thing is that, along with each ingredient as a flavor, there is a chemical reason I used them as well, each represent an acid or other chemical piece of the flavor that is in the coffee as espresso. For example, the Don Mayo had a unique tropical flavor from tartaric acid, this was then achieved in the deconstruction using the tamarind.
Do you find it easy to explain “nitrogen cavitation” to people at parties?
Sure! But I can be a bit of a nerd. Nitrogen bubbles are small, and when put with ingredients under pressure, they attach themselves to cell walls and weaken the cells, when you rapidly release this pressure, the cells burst and you have and instant infusion. Pretty simple really.
Who else are you watching closely in this year’s United States Barista Championship in Houston, TX?
Well, really there are always a lot of great coffee people, and it can be any ones game, But Pete Licata, from Honolulu Coffee, is another long term veteran with a lot of experience. He is solid, and his coffee has a great story.
What are you doing to refine and perfect your routine before you compete in Texas?
Practice, and trying to master the skills of being a coffee whisperer, also trying to get as much time in talking to people about the coffees as possible. This is key for me, because my routine, and everything I do is based more on being a practicing coffee professional than in just a routine for the great game that Barista Competitions are. I desire to be a coffee ambassador, both to the professional community at large, and to customers. That is my passion, and what I live for.
Follow Philip at the USBC on the road to the World Barista Championship this June in Bogota! And follow him personally on Twitter at @phineas984.
Thanks to all of those involved in the NERBC 2011
Congratulations to Philip Search and the Dallis Bros. Coffee team for the victory in the NERBC 2011! See you all at the USBC nationals in Houston, Texas!
