Barista Nation Sacramento, taking place Thursday, September 24, will be an awesome day, filled with coffee education specifically geared toward Northern California retailers and baristas, speeches by industry luminaries, great workshops on coffee prep, and of course, an amazing party!
One of the many reasons that we at Barista Magazine love being involved with the unique and creative coffee educational event, Barista Nation, is that is takes place in different cities all around the world. Barista Nations have been held from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, Boston to Seattle, Tokyo to Paris. And this week, Barista Nation will take place in Sacramento, Calif. for the very first time.
Sacramento is an amazing coffee city to begin with. Yes, San Francisco and its awesome coffee scene is close by ”only about 80 miles away ”but the success of Sacramento’s cafe culture and renowned roasters is something that has developed from the ground up, year by year, until now, when the state capital is considered one of the strongest coffee cities in the United States.
This Barista Nation will be structurally different from past Barista Nation events in a few ways: For example, organizer Brian Cornelsen of Unic has created content that addresses the specific needs of and issues facing California coffee retailers, such as the first morning session, “California Water Sources, Changes, and Filtering Technology.”
We’re also stoked about the people Brian has involved with the event: None other than Lorenzo Perkins, who is the Chair of the Barista Guild of America‘s Executive Council (not to mention a super fun guy) will be speaking at Barista Nation and generally entrenched in all the activities. We’re excited to hear that Bay Area coffee veteran Andy Newbom will be a speaker, as well as Eton Tsuno of Temple Coffee, and others in the second morning session, “The Coffee Supply Chain.”
After a lunch break (which will feature some yummo food from Brunch Boys and Chandos Tacos), Lorenzo will lead a Spro Down, which will be totally rad and fun. After this, we’ll head into a panel discussion to be moderated by Barista Mag’s own Sarah Allen, and which will feature leaders from Sacramento’s specialty-coffee community, Jason Griest of Old Soul, Sean Kohmescher of Temple Coffee, Gene Lemos of Vaneli’s, Edie Baker of Chocolate Fish Coffee, and Mike Drake from Insight Coffee.
Another new feature of Barista Nation will be a consulting table, where attendees can sit down with a variety of experts in different areas of coffee ”from social media marketing to green buying ”and get advice.
Of course, no Barista Nation would be complete without an amazing party in the evening, so reserve your babysitters, tell your roommates you’ll be busy, and get your shift covered, because this one’s going to be not-to-miss! Not only will there be great food and plenty of beer, but the Sacramento Public Latte Art Tournament ”known as S.P.L.A.T. ”will be taking place during the festivities!
There’s still time to register for Barista Nation Sacramento ”just go HERE and get it done!
Looking forward to seeing everyone in Sacramento next week ”it’s gonna be killer!
