Throwdown in Boulder

I got an email for this cat in boulder the other day, listen to this.......

Dear Coffee shop owner we at Joe’s Espresso would like to invite your shop to participate in our second annual barista jam. The jam will be held on Sunday June 3^rd 2007 at our location (2500 30^th St. Boulder). This event will be very exciting and competitive and we hope to have every shop in Boulder in attendance.

Some things to look forward to:

• Great coffee of course!
• Free food from Whole Foods
• Live music/radio station remote
• Demonstrations by the 2002 North American Barista Champion Dismas Smith
• Latte art demos by Local baristas

The competition itself will be limited to one barista per shop as we want it to run smoothly. These baristas will be judged on four cappuccinos and will have Five minutes to make these; Specific guidelines will be given to competitors well before the event. Being a competitor it is only natural there be a prize, this year we were able to secure two roundtrip tickets on Frontier Airlines to Seattle for Coffee Fest 2007. All competing baristas will get a free event t-shirt as well.

We would like as many people from each shop to attend because we feel this will be a community building event as well as a great learning opportunity for everyone. We will have 10’x10’ tents available for each shop so if you would like to have a “home base” of sorts where you can sell merchandise or beans and talk about your product those will be available. T-shirts are being made for the event at our cost but we would like some help off-setting the costs. Because of this we ask that to enter a Barista in the Competition there is a 40 dollar entrant fee. To set secure a tent there is a 70 dollar price tag. If a shop does both we will ask for 90 dollars. We have no intention on making money off these fees we simply are trying to offset our costs.

I am really looking forward to seeing all of Boulder’s great shops at this event, if you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate in calling me. I need an RSVP from your shop by the 3/29/2007 so that we can get the T-shirts printed in time for the event. This can be done by either emailing or calling me to confirm.

Thank you,

Nick Feely

(720) 231-7778

nickfeely@gmail.com

So go and give him a call in the next few days so they can get the right amount of T-Shirt's printed. Don't forget to practice your Capps!

Ryan Palmer

Single Origin anyone?

April brings us to Novo at the Denver Convention Center, a shared space with Mad Greens, and Mad Wine Bar as their neighbors. This months featured theme will be single origin tasting, with an emphasis on different preparation methods. Turnout at last months gathering was incredible, I am hoping for even more this month. Make sure to pass the word on, and bring a barista friend, or anyone who would appreciate this event.

If you have any cool idea's, or want to see/bring anything, drop me a an email (mailforryan-at-comcast-dot-net), don't be shy, sometimes its a struggle for us to come up with good ideas. So to recap, NOVO @ the Denver Art Museum, single origin gauntlet, palette expansion, general lunacy, and good times and coffee to be had. There will be a little competition involving taste, we will leave the rest to your imagination, so bring your soon-to-be-expanded palettes.

See you there!

Ryan