MANE!

I am still digesting all the ideas and energy from this weekend in Rhode Island. Before sun-up Friday morning, I set off for the Mid-Atalantic/North-East Artisanal Coffee Conference in Providence, with 10 other Buffalo baristas packed into the van.

This conference was different than other coffee events I've attended in two big ways. One: it has absolute zero dilution with crap vendors. Everybody attending, speaking, teaching, talking is focused on quality coffee, not selling you something. Two: price. Registration was $60, meaning it's something a persuasive coffee geek (ahem) can talk a barista into. Classes I've taken in the past have been totally worth it, but a weekend of SCAA classes jumps into the hundreds of dollars real fast. Sixty bucks, plus a hotel, in driving range of Buffalo, means that a lot more people were able to go.

Friday evening we checked into our hotel and then came down to Pawtucket to find the event. New Harvest was our host, and their facility is awesome: a huge repurposed mill with lots of great space. Sarah Allen, editor of Barista Magazine, gave the keynote address. Ending on a story of taking Marzoccos to origin so that farmers could taste their own crop as espresso for the first time, she had at least a few of us kind of choked up out in the audience.

After that, it was time to get hands-on with the machines, and sweet, sweet machines they were. Our tools for the weekend were three 2-group Lineas with manual paddles and PID retrofits. I'd never had a chance to play around with a paddle-group for any length of time, so that was pretty cool.

Spro down! I'd heard of it, but never participated: a sensory (rather than art-based) competition, we were given a grinder full of Flat Black espresso and allowed to pull one shot. After observing and tasting it, we adjusted our variables and served the espresso to two judges who quickly scored them.

Kristen won the spro-down! She won a big bag of swag, and made me quote that whole “when last we met, I was but a student” line a lot. Seriously, super-proud of her; Kristen was the first person to go through my new barista training at Spot. And now, in addition to winning the first Buffalo latte throw-down, she came out on top of about 60 pros, including me, on new machines and a new blend. Dang.

The night continued with much revelry, but we turned in fairly early so we could get back at it for classes on Saturday.

Class structure was a little odd, but I got a lot out of it.

-Tommy Gallagher of Counter Culture Coffee led 2 sessions of machine maintenance and discussion. I'm pretty sure he has my dream job, and I'd like to go shadow him for a while. He did a phenomenal job of explaining how espresso machines work in a very systematic way. I saw a lot of people in the class, mostly manager types, get this “aha, demystified” look over and over again while he was talking.

-Jay Caragay of Spro Coffee (might be my dream shop) led an alternative brewing class and lab, which was one of the main reasons I came to the conference in the first place. Hearing him talk about the logistics and financial realities of this kind of coffee was exactly what I needed. I'm still kind of ruminating on it. Awesome brew-to-order is something that NEEDS to happen in Buffalo; it's one of the biggest missing pieces we need to add to get a real quality scene here.

-Sarah Kluth of Intelligentsia (continuing the dreamy trend) led a cupping class: not how to become a better cupper, but how to organize cuppings better. Amazing session; Sarah's passion for coffee, and her eloquence in expressing that, was almost literally stunning. I wish I'd had a tape recorder for that...and also because it was the first time I've cupped with a large number of experienced cuppers, so I was very amused and satisfied with the volume of the slurping going on in the room.  I really can't wait to get the Buffalo Coffee Cabal going again: I want to do some "cuppings" with chocolate, fruits, spices, start getting creative with palate training.

Other highlights for me:

-Cascara! This is the dried outer part of the coffee fruit.  Somebody, I'm assuming Counter Culture, dropped off a bag on the alternative brewing table, and I think I was the first to spot it.

This stuff is amazing! Definitely the biggest sensory learning experience for me the whole weekend. I opened the bag and stuck my nose in: immediately slammed with this rich aroma of raisins, oranges, pipe tobacco. Seriously, why the hell is coffee this complex? I chewed up a few pieces right away, intrigued by the changing flavor profile as it softened. Somebody at the table suggested a ballpark brewing method of 20grams to 10oz hot water, steeped for 7 minutes, which worked well: we passed around a cup of the sweet, citrusy, tea-like infusion. Really interesting stuff, I need to get my hands on some to keep messing around with it. I'm thinking this stuff could be CRAZY popular if served right.

-As always, I'm intrigued with equipment. Paddle-groups are cool, PID kits are something I need to make happen at Spot, and Tommy pulled apart a GB5 for us to look at, which is cool for me since that's the next machine we're buying.

There was a Marco Uber Boiler on display, but something was wrong with it and it never actually worked. And, there was a Luminaire Bravo prototype at the brewing lab, but it still has some pretty massive problems. Precision, on-demand hot water supply, with programmable options (and, with the Marco, built-in scale) is something that will make artisan coffee much more repeatable—but these machines don't seem to have the capacity or the price-point to hack it in a commercial setting yet. Still, interesting.

Saturday night was a crazy, semi-free-for-all of head-to-head latte throw-downs. I won a couple, lost a couple, felt pretty great about it. Sunday, Drew took the BGA Level 1 test, we hit a couple Providence cafes, and did the long drive home.

The classes and events were cool, of course, but as per usual it was the people that made this worthwhile. Being in a room with a hundred other coffee professionals makes you remember that: oh, right, we are professionals. That camraderie and shared purpose is the biggest thing I wanted the other Buffalonians to pick up on, and I think they did, in a big way.

There were people at MANE who have made a huge impact on me personally, whether or not they know it. There are people who I think of as my peers, who are doing really cool things in different parts of the world and the business; getting to shake hands and share a drink with these folks once or twice a year keeps me from turning into a giant ball of existential angst. And I was continually impressed by how I just saw these kinds of friendships being struck up all around me, people jumping into intense technical discussions or amazing anecdotes at the drop of a hat. This is a really exciting time to be in specialty coffee, period, and that can be easy to forget when we're focused in on the problems and frustrations of our particular coffee-shops. Getting excited about new things, getting excited about old things all over again, meeting so many people of all ages who have the same goals and respect at the core of what they do: that's why we need more events like this.

Thanks so much to New Harvest & Cosmic Cup for getting the ball rolling on this, and all the sponsors and volunteers who made it happen. We NEED more events like this!  I'm hoping really hard that the knowledge and excitement that came back in the van with us is really going to start a new chapter in the Buffalo coffee scene. We will see.

I took a thousand pictures, and I will get them online as soon as I can get my computer to wise up.  Thanks for reading.
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Update: got a bunch of photos up on flickr!
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Update: other people's write-ups and pics:

• Counter Culture (flickr)
• Gimme!
• Barista Magazine