Bay Area Coffee Community Finale Recap
Good morning readers! We just got back from the BACC finale held at Coffee Bar SF. If you follow our blog you know what the BACC is by now. It’s only one of the best organized latte art competitions in the country!
This past Thursday was the finale of the first comp. season. Espresso Parts was lucky enough to be asked to sponsor the event. Supporting the local coffee cultures from all around not only these 50 states but across the globe is very important to us.
What did we sponsor? Only the most radical tamp trophies you ever seen! For the finale we had to step up our game and make some even more boss tamps. The top three overall winners got super deluxe gold, silver, and bronze tamps.
The beer was flowing and good times we’re had. Our hosts at Coffee Bar really know how to throw a party. Richard Sandlin host extraordinaire killed it keeping everything flowing and organized.
After a few hours and a couple of Tecates later we had our winners! This event was so much fun to be a part of! Big thanks to everyone who attended these comps. over the past six months.
And now the top three:
Josh Bonner 3rd Place
Harold McGovern 2nd
Che Garcia 1st
BACC finale!
The time has come for the final battle of the first Bay Area Coffee Community series! We have bad such a great time being involved with this great organization
Tonight at Coffee Bar in The Mission we will crown a new latte art king or queen. Besides all the radical goodies from the awesome sponsors of this series the top three get super custom trophy tamps from Espresso Parts. Just take a look at those beauties!
We sure hope to see you tonight. If you can’t make it just check out out twitter and FB feed! We will also publish a nice recap tomorrow afternoon. Visit Sprudge too for Pandas coverage of the BACC finale.
For the past few months Espresso Parts has been hard at work on a “behind the scenes” project. As part of our Official WBC cup sponsor gig we were asked by Nuova Simonelli to partner up with them on the time-honored WBC cup gift set presented to key volunteers and judges.
Needless to say we were pretty excited to partner with the WCE and Nuova Simonelli in supporting the efforts of the WBC and WrBC. For years we’ve seen these sets, coveted them, and even received 1 or 2. In the past similar sets have contained an espresso cup and a cappuccino cup. We gave this traditional approach some thought and found ourselves inspired by coffee’s social side. We wanted to create an opportunity to share one’s love of coffee and thus our concept for a “Coffee for two” set was born.
The 2013 WBC set contains 2 cappuccino cups and saucers from the EP porcelain collection with custom printing featuring the very cool WCE Melbourne logo and art. We housed the set in a custom gift box designed by Espresso Parts using the colorful and whimsical WCE Melbourne identity and iconery patterns provided by to us for the project by WCE.
How do you get one of these sets? Well if you aren’t headed to Melbourne for the event chances are you are out of luck. However even if you are not a judge or key volunteer or sponsor they’ll be selling additional cups in the merchandise area
Espresso Parts Korea held their first #TNT!!!
While we were sleeping this morning Espresso Parts Korea was holding their first #TNT. It was really great working with our associates in Korea to plan this event! We also had to send them some amazing custom tamp trophies. By the looks of it they had a great time. Big props to Espresso Parts Korea for putting on anevent for the Korean Barista community. Also thanks to the sponsors La Mill, and La Marzocco Korea.
The setup!
Custom tamp trophies.
SWAG
Such nice art!
I picked that one too.
You don’t HAVE to pour into cups!
SCAA Boston Wrap Up
We had an amazing experience making the annual journey to The SCAA Event! This years event was located in Boston (across the country for us Espresso Parts folk) and promised to be an epic showing. We were especially excited with the unveiling of the new Espresso Parts display which features many of our greatest core products and the center piece of the display our restored and customize GS Hybrid.
This year we were showcasing a Custom La Marzocco GS2/GB5 MP designed and fabricated in the Espresso Parts Custom Shop! This beauty features the classic profile of the GS2 teamed with the GB5 Mechanical Paddle group and PID controlled brew boiler and steam boiler. GB5 steam valves with Sproline Vortex and Foam Knife tips. Sproline group screen and screw. Handmade teak side panels and portafilter handles (no CNC machines here!) Body powder coated semi gloss light gray and pearled cream. Brew boiler powder coated matte black. Two layer back panel, pearled cream and high gloss black, honey comb pattern. Finally to top it off we included some tall, Italian designed, chrome legs that go on for days! You may now wipe up the drool from your screen..
During The Event we were fortunate to sponsor some exciting events one of which was sponsoring the US Aeropress Championships and judging The Most Innovative Brew Method. We saw some really great methods and it came down to Andy Sprenger and his double filter method versus Dut Goodman’s awesome copper tubing heating system. Andy won not only because the method was innovative but because his coffee scored higher with the sensory judges. He was very happy to receive his custom Triple Brewing Station prize.
The top 3:
1st Place – Kenny Smith @sunergoscoffee
2nd Place – Charles Babinski @GandBcoffee
3rd Place – Cabel Tice @thinkingcup
Latte Art Exhibition
TNTs have really taken off in the past couple of years. These volunteer driven coffee events have become a haven for local coffee communities all over the country. We have been coordinating the #TNTNW for a couple of years now and it’s been so amazing being involved with the local Barista community. We can’t say thank you enough to all of the supporters and hosts that make these events possible.
*We now have the opportunity to bring this to the next level. A group of industry pros (including us!) headed by Skip Finley and Patrick Burns have been working to create a Latte art competition that can send an American Barista to the World Latte Art Championship. Right now there aren’t any WLAC sanctioned events in the U.S.A. which means no American competitor at the world level. We are here to change that.
At SCAA in Boston we will be helping present the first Latte Art Exhibition. On top of helping to organize the event we are the official porcelain sponsor for the Latte Art Exhibition!! That’s right! All of the Baristas will be pouring their beautiful latte art in OUR porcelain. While this event will not qualify anyone for the WLAC it will show that we have the ability to organize such an event. From this event on we hope to bring sanctioned latte art competitions to the masses.
To read more about the event check out the SCAA Special Events page.
*We from this point refers to the group of coffee pros.
Espresso Parts Dials-In For World Coffee Events Australia
Olympia, WA– We’re beyond stoked to announce, Espresso Parts Porcelain Collection has been selected as the official cup sponsor for the World Barista Championship and the World Brewers Cup! Competitors may throw down their drink with our stylish Tulip Cappuccino! Plus you might just spot our sturdy Diner Mug hanging about during the WBrC competition, be on the look out!
The 2013 event is set to be a milestone expected to attract a record number of visitors from all over the world, even more so now that Espresso Parts has joined the fun! Best of luck to you intrepid baristas, cheers mate!
Love Espresso Parts!
