About Welcome to Pasteboard - Barista Magazine's blog. Here you'll find whatever is on our minds, in our hearts or under our skin while we work away on the next issue.
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 Ad from the Publick Adviser (London circa 1657) So I just tweeted yet another news story about the “newly” discovered health benefits of coffee. This one is from the Seattle Times and is a report declaring that drinking coffee will help you live longer. You can read the story here.
This comes on the heels of numerous other health and coffee stories that have recently been in the news. We have stories about coffee helping ward off Alzheimer’s and other brain/memory loss diseases. And we have stories about coffee helping prevent diabetes. Here’s yet another story about coffee fighting another typical health issue, high blood pressure. And here coffee fights that bete noir of modern life, weight gain (or rather green coffee extract is an effective weight loss tool.)
No doubt as coffee professionals, we love all these studies and reports, since we know that simply enjoying a cup of carefully crafted coffee can be heavenly and rewarding in itself, the idea that you could actually get health benefits from it is simply fat-free icing on the sweet but gluten-free cake.
But here’s the thing that really gets me thinking: Check out the ad at the top of the post. It’s from a newspaper published in London, England around 1657. It’s one of the first printed ads for coffee that we still have a copy of, and look at how it’s selling coffee. In fact, when coffee was introduced to Europe, it was sold almost exclusively as a medicinal tonic. You didn’t buy it from a café, you bought from an apothecary, or what we might call a pharmacy. And look at the number of ills it was said to cure!
I’ve used this ad in my presentation about the history of coffee advertising (and what it teaches us about marketing specialty coffee today) – shameless plug: I’ll be giving the presentation again at Barista Nation Vancouver next month. And mostly the reaction, including from myself, is one of gentle mockery at making such outlandish claims or at the types of diseases they claim coffee cures Dropsie or the King’s Evil for example.
And yet, here we are in 2012, and the reality is that coffee really does seem to have an amazing number of disease fighting agents! And that, in fact, whether or not they had rigorous scientific studies to back it up, the early marketers of our favorite brew really were onto something, and perhaps it’s something that specialty coffee can learn from. Not only can we change the world through paying fair prices for coffee. Not only can we change our experience of coffee by carefully picking, processing, roasting, and preparing it to highlight new flavor profiles. But we (and our customers) can actually change our very health through regular consumption of coffee.
Isn’t that something we ought to be talking about more?
I’m getting ready for a trip to Tokyo next week to join the Barista Nation team at the first ever Barista Nation Tokyo event! I almost said it was the first international Barista Nation, but that’s not quite right: Barista Nation had a great session in Vancouver, B.C., a few months ago, and will return to Salt Spring Coffee in Vancouver for the second installment of Barista Nation Vancouver this coming June (for details, check out the Barista Nation website).
 Barista Nation events always include an evening latte art throwdown! This one in Portland at the recent Barista Nation event, was a ton of fun. We're excited to see what the Tokoy Barista Nation Latte Art Throwdown has in store! (Photo by Tom Vincent) Barista Magazine has proudly supported the Barista Nation model as it has grown and developed over the past year and a half—it’s one of the most unique, and user friendly, coffee events in existence. The brainchild of coffee industry vet Anastasia Chovan, Barista Nation was created to foster education and community within the professional barista and specialty cafe owner communities. The success of Barista Nation has earned it the attention of quite a few international roasters who look forward to hosting their own Barista Nation events in such far flung locations as Paris, Dubai, London, and more.
 Anastasia addresses the audience at Barista Nation Portland in late April. (Photo by Tom Vincent) But at this very moment, all of our attention is focused on Japan, where our kind hosts, Key Coffee, will welcome the stateside Barista Nation team, as well as tons of baristas and cafe owners from around Japan.
 If I had to translate this, I'd say it reads: Come to the Barista Nation Tokyo event for loads of education, opportunities to make friends in the coffee industry, and super fun coffee activities! Obviously, I don’t have a grasp of the Japanese language.
 Hopefully I'll fare better than this guy... Before Barista Nation begins, Anastasia and I are going to do a cafe crawl around the city. We’re excited to visit Hiroshi Sawada’s Streamer Coffee shops, Bear Pond and many others!
 Hiroshi is so famous for his latte art prowess in Japan that he even sells latte art camo baller shorts. How sweet is that? But the main focus of the trip will be spreading education and excitement about coffee to the barista masses in Tokyo. Please check Barista Mag’s Facebook page often next week, as I will be updating it with photos and news.
Thank you to the many thousands of coffee friends who joined us in our very own Portland, Oregon, for the annual Specialty Coffee Association of America Conference and Expo this past week. We loved having you here!
We want to send a super jumbo sized congratulations out to this adorable lady, Ms. Katie Carguilo, the 2012 United States Barista Champion. As sweet-as-pie as Katie looks here in this photo, make no mistake: she is a fierce competitor. She’s competed at the USBC four times now, and she’s been a Regional champ twice. She knows what she’s doing, and she does it well. The United States coffee community has high hopes for how Katie will perform under pressure in Vienna, Austria, in June at the World Barista Championship.
 Katie is a trainer for Counter Culture Coffee in New York City. Katie was cool as the proverbial cucumber during her semifinal and final round of the USBC in Portland this weekend.
 Pretty intimidating scene, huh? Not for Ms. Carguilo though. In her performance, Katie focused on Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. She wanted to shine a spotlight on the fact that washing stations were only introduced in Ethiopia in 1959, as a way of pointing out how deeply the fermentation process effects the flavors of coffee.
At the WBC, however, Katie will be switching to a different coffee, some from her friend and the coffee producer who has championed the efforts of baristas more than any of her peers over the years, Ms. Aida Batlle of El Salvador. Katie visited Aida in the Santa Ana growing region where she runs her four family farms, as well as sources top coffees for her company, Aida Batlle Selection, to see the fermentation process in person as part of her preparation for the USBC. Obviously, the trip paid off.
 Coffee producer Aida Batlle earned her barista certification as a way to get to know the baristas who told the story of her coffees to their customers everyday. Aida, pictured, worked at Stumptown Coffee's pop-up bar during the SCAA show in Portland.  At the US Barista Championship Awards Ceremony, Katie chats with former USBC Champs Pete Licata and Heather Perry. But Katie can’t celebrate for long—she’s got only a little more than a month to prepare for the biggest stage she’s stepped onto: The World Barista Championship stage. Katie will compete along with barista champions from 50+ countries at the World Barista Championship in June. If you can’t be in Vienna to personally cheer Katie on, you can watch all the action online at the WBC’s official website.
For now though, a toast to you, Katie. You rocked this city, and your whole coffee family is proud of you.
On April 14th, in Louisville, Kentucky, Sunergos Coffee will hosting the premiere of Monkey Mocha Fantastique, a latte art competition, and coffee sampling. Seriously, if Barista Nation Portland, and the Specialty Coffee Association of America/US Barista Championship show weren’t happening next week, we would so be there.
But if you’re lucky enough to be located in or driving distance to Louisville, you should totally check this out.
 Monkey Mocha Fantastique is a short, comedic film about a couple of baristas who decide to settle an arguement—over a girl, what else?—with a latte art challenge. Timothy Strader, who wrote the film, gives the following synopsis: “Dave, a down on his luck and mediocre barista, loses his girl to the rival barista Stephan. When his ex-girlfriend Vella brings Stephan to the coffee shop, Dave impetuously challenges Stephan to a head-to-head latte art competition at the annual Finding The Flash competition. Dave must rely on Leslie, his bizarre mentor and sage of all things coffee, and a bit of luck to push himself to finally confront Stephan and seize his destiny.”
 The cast (above) and crew will all be in attendance at the event on April 14! Basically, April 14 at Sungeros Coffee (306 W Woodlawn Ave Louisville KY 40214), will be one big, awesome, caffeinated party. Here’s the schedule:
6:30 p.m.: Doors open
7 p.m.: Screening of Monkey Mocha Fantastique
7:15 p.m.: Q&A with cast and crew
7:40 p.m.: coffee tasting and mingling
8 p.m.: Latte Art Competition ($7 to enter)
 A still from Monkey Mocha Fantastique. Promotional gear to support the film will be available for purchase at the Sunergos event.
There are some sweet prizes assembled for the latte art competition winners, including:
• A Baratza Preciso grinder
• Coffee gear from Sunergos, Prima and Reg Barber
• Subscriptions to Barista Magazine
• Gift cards for Doc Crow’s, Cake Flour, Greenhaus, and Baxter Ave Theaters.
And if you want a sneak peek at the film, you can view the trailer on the Monkey Mocha Fantastique Facebook page!
We’ve been enjoying some beautiful sunshine here in Portland, Oregon, the past few days, and lucky for us, it was bright and gorgeous this morning when Ken and I headed to Heart Coffee Roasters on East Burnside to meet with our art director, Jessica, about the June/July 2012 issue. Jessica had snagged a table on the sidewalk out front, and we warmed up in the sun as we drank some beautiful coffees and worked on the plans for our next issue.
 The sunshine on our table at Heart Coffee Roasters this morning in Portland, Oregon. We hadn’t had a meeting at Heart in a while, and it was as busy and bustling as ever. The cafe/roastery that Finnish snowboarding champ Wille Yli-luoma opened in October of 2009 was a hit from the get-go, offering an attractive blend of Scandinavian and American design and style, not to mention some fantastic coffees. Wille stopped by our table to chat about some new developments at Heart—he’s been busy as ever, it seems! Heart rolled out new packaging today that is as tasteful and smart looking as it is environmentally friendly (it’s 100% biodegradable).
 Heart's new packaging, on display next to a cup of Rwanda Coko that was so good I pretty much chugged it. And in true Wille fashion, he’ll stay just as busy in the days to come: tomorrow he’ll unveil a newly designed website, so be sure to check that out at heartroasters.com. And last tiny task he has ahead? Roasting all the coffee for both the U.S. and the World AeroPress Championships, to commence next week at the La Marzocco/Marco booth (#3101) during the SCAA show on April 20. Whew!
For those of you coming to Portland for the SCAA, Heart is one of the cafes you don’t want to leave off your list of top notch coffee spots to visit. It’s located at 2211 E. Burnside, just 1.3 miles from the Convention Center. Stop on by!
We’ve got three amazing women on the cover of the new issue of Barista Magazine, and I want to tell you why we did it.
 I spent a lot of time talking to Anna, Sarah and Laila about issues facing women in the coffee industry—the conclusions they came to were that, in the circumstance of the barista community, women aren’t kicked to the curb by men—there just aren’t that many women to begin with. I think one reason for this is that, given the fact that a male dominated community can be intimidating to women, regardless of the industry, women are less likely to feel comfortable walking into what could be perceived as a boy’s club. They don’t know that they’ll be welcomed once they get there.
Besides the release of Barista Mag’s new issue, today also saw lots of reactions from folks on Twitter and Facebook about the fact that the just-announced roster of speakers scheduled for the Nordic Barista Cup is all male. It was also pointed out that of the 22 speakers scheduled for the SCAA’s Symposium, six are women. Not bad—not great.
No professional woman that I know in this industry wants to be invited to speak based on the fact that she’s a women—she wants to be invited because she’s an expert in her field, and has information to contribute. And there are PLENTY of women who fit this bill. I would list them here, but I can’t be sure I’d remember to include all of them—there are just so many.
Regardless of the speaker schedules for the NBC and Symposium, we’re just excited to be using our platform to celebrate some amazing people in the coffee industry who happen to be women. I think folks who attend all the trade shows and conferences, who head companies, plan events, and who are leaders in this industry forget sometimes how important it is for the majority of people in the industry—the people who aren’t as physically connected to our community as they might be—to see the strong women we have in our industry celebrated. We are honored that Anna, Sarah and Laila wanted to share their very different stories with us, to explain how they got into coffee, why it’s so important to them, and why they’re making careers out of it.
Somewhere I know there’s a barista, a roaster, a cafe owner, who feels isolated because she’s in this industry. We’re just trying to throw her a line, and let her know she’s not alone, and she’s a part—an important part—of our growing, changing industry.
 Photo from the Barista Nation San Francisco event in January, which brought almost 200 coffee people together!
It’s no secret that we here at Barista Magazine are big fans of Barista Nation, the one-day workshop events that are organized for baristas and cafe owners as forums for learning and sharing, and celebrating everything about coffee. In fact, when the organizer of Barista Nation—our old and dear friend Anastasia Chovan—first asked us to be a part of it, we jumped on board big time, and Barista Magazine has been a Council Sponsor ever since.
What we really love about Barista Nation is that it’s completely inclusive—no snotty attitudes here. There are certain product companies that sponsor the event, but Barista Nation isn’t about sales pitches: it’s about coming together as a community to learn from some industry experts, talk about topics that have been weighing on your minds, play with coffee equipment and products, and just have a good time together.
And hey, guess what? It’s been an enormous hit. No wonder—with a happy, grassroots, inclusive format like it has. Barista Nation has taken place in Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., and is set to hit Portland (April 17), Tokyo (May 10) and Vancouver, B.C. (June 22), along with even more cities later in the year.
If you’re planning on coming to Portland for the SCAA show in April, you’d do well to come early and hit the Barista Nation event, which takes place all day and into the evening on April 17 at the beautiful Wonder Ballroom in Portland.
And if you happen to be in Tokyo on May 10, join Barista Nation for its first Japan adventure!
As always, Barista Nation is free to attend, and all are welcome. For more information, go to baristanation.com.
 Last year's WBC Champion Alejandro Mendez holds his trophy in Bogota, Colombia. Competitors around the globe are working this weekend to be the next barista to claim the WBC's top honors. The Big Central Regional Barista Competition and US Brewers Cup is underway in Chicago today. The event is a combination of the North Central and South Central Regional Barista Competitions. Each region has its own competitors and will have separate finalists and winners, but they’re both held together in a single event. And judging from reports on the ground, the location is pretty cool.
You can watch the second day (and Sunday’s finals) on this video stream. Or go to usbaristachampionship.org/
But there’s a whole world of coffee and that means there’s a whole world of barista competitions too! In fact the barista champion of Poland has just been named and it’s Katarzyna Zyzalo! She’s got her ticket punched to the 2012 World Barista Championship in Vienna, Austria in June. Congats, Katarzyna!
Also this weekend, South Africa will be crowning its barista champion, and our correspondent on the ground there, Ishan Natalie tells us they’ve already got their six finalists lined up for the championship round tomorrow (Saturday). The six finalists are Mikhael Bou Rjeily, Travis Scott (reigning champ), Dirk Maritz, Bilbo Steyn, Kyle Fraser, and Wayne Oberholzer. Good luck to all of them, and we’ll be seeing at least one of them in Vienna. You can follow Ishan at the championship via his Twitter feed @ishan_natalie.
Know of any other national barista competitions or regionals? Let us know! We’re always looking for more photos and feeds from around the world as we build toward Vienna. Shoot us an email at info@baristamagazine.com or Tweet us @baristamagazine!
Happy Cup, a new roastery here in Portland, is running a contest this month for those who are interested in learning what it takes to be a roaster.
First you should know that Happy Cup is a different kind of coffee roastery. It employs individuals with disabilities to assit in the roasting, packaging and distribution of their coffees, and it donates 100% of after-tax profits to programs that help people with disabilities. That’s pretty awesome!
Here’s the deal with the contest: One lucky winner (and three of their friends) will get a hands-on coffee roasting lesson from Happy Cup’s Master Roaster, Trevin Miller. They’ll also create their own signature blend and have a year’s worth of coffee at their disposal for their personal consumption. This is a contest for anyone who digs coffee, so let your customers know too! (Oh, but I’m supposed to point out that travel to and accommodation in Portland are not included.)
Interested? You can enter by liking Happy Cup on Facebook or sign up at Happycup.com. The contest is open until March 27. Good luck!
We at Barista Magazine are once again thrilled to be a part of Barista Nation, a grassroots, traveling workshop and coffee community building organization, which will land next in Portland, Ore., just 2 days before the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual trade show comes to town. Barista Nation Portland will take place from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the beautiful, historic Wonder Ballroom (come to some of the event or all of it—it’s up to you!).
Barista Nation—which is a one-day event catering to coffee professionals of every ilk, complete with workshops, lectures, equipment play time, loads of coffee and good food (and did we mention that it’s completely free?)—has enjoyed great success and popularity on every stop it’s had since it debuted in Minneapolis in early 2011. Since then, Barista Nation has taken place in Vancouver, B.C., Seattle, and San Francisco. After the April 17 event in Portland, Barista Nation will travel to Tokyo in May and Vancouver, B.C., again in June.
Each Barista Nation has an individual theme to keep the events lively and unique. The theme for the Barista Nation Portland event is pretty amazing—it’s a Tribute to Dr. Ernesto Illy, whose groundbreaking research into the science, mechanics and industry of espresso have an continue to guide our industry. Leading researchers from illy’s Trieste, Italy, headquarters will be in Portland to share their knowledge with the masses gathered for this event.
Registration for Barista Nation Portland is open now—did we mention it’s 100% free? Just email baristanation@gmail.com to save your spot. And we’ll see you there!
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