Holy June! I can’t believe it’s June! That means we’re just one week away from the summer fun-in-the-sun goodness of Coffee Fest Chicago (Ken will be there) and a couple of weeks from the French Riviera awesomeness of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) show in Nice, France (Sarah will be there). This is practically Official Latte Art Month, considering that the Coffee Fest Latte Art Championship will begin this Friday (June 7) in Chicago, and the World Latte Art Championship (as well as the equally esteemed World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship) will take over Nice during the SCAE show.
Want more latte art goodness? Then check out the definitive guide to how to do latte art right in the brand-new issue of Barista Magazine, which started hitting mailboxes last week!
But I’m not here to espouse the merits of this legendary latte art month, not really… I’m here to review the busy week we’ve had here on Barista Magazine’s piping-hot Blog!
In case you missed any of the action, here’s a rundown with links to all the stories…
¢ It hardly seems like the World Barista Championship in Melbourne, Australia, was only a week ago… the action still has us reeling. We published the final standing on Monday, but to catch up on all the finalist competitions, profiles of every World Barista Championship competitor, and photos of the fun we had Down Under, just go here for links to all the WBC related stories we published!
¢ On Tuesday, we celebrated the efforts of our friends at thirty-thirty Coffee in Peoria, Illinois, who are planning a big, bad, super boss Barista Jam for this Thursday! They’ve even put together a party bus to shuttle folks in Chicago for Coffee Fest down to Peoria and back! This article also talks about the fun set to take place in Chicago during Coffee Fest ”it’s gonna be wicked! Read all about it here!
¢ We love Wednesdays here at Barista Magazine, because it means we’re playing Humpday Giveaway! This is just a fun trivia contest where you readers can win awesome prizes from our dynamite advertisers.
This week, since we were still coming down from the WBC high of last week, we posed the following: The 2014 World Barista Championship is set to take place in Rimini, Italy, June 9 “12 of next year. When was the last ”and only ”time the WBC took place in Italy?
A record number of you got it right ”perhaps you were motivated by the superduper prize donated by Prima this week: an AeroPress and an Able Disk Fine?
¢ It was Humpday Giveaway Reveal Day on Thursday, so we put the names of all of you with the winning answer (pssst! Trieste, Italy, 2004) into a cup, drew a name, and it was…
Kate is CRAZY stoked about it. We packed up the prize and shipped it to her asap. Hooray for Kate! And for the rest of you, see you back here on Wednesday for the next Humpday Giveaway, OK?
¢ When the excitement from Humpday Giveaway had died down on Thursday, I wrote about one of the coolest things that happened at the World Barista Championship in Melbourne: the official announcement of the partnership between Nuova Simonelli and Coffee Kids! Read all about it here.
¢ Our friends at the amazing Colombian Coffee Federation told us about the second installment in the Colombian Coffee Hub’s free online lecture series on Friday, and we couldn’t wait to share the news with you guys! Get in on the action here!
¢ Also on Friday we wrote about some sad news that came out a few days ago: the violent burglary that took place at Finca Santa Maria in Colombia, and what roasting partner PT’s Coffee is doing to help. We included information about how you can help, too, so I encourage you to check this post out if you haven’t already.
¢ And on Saturday, June 1, we were so thrilled to be able to officially present our latest issue, the June/July 2013 issue of Barista Magazine. We worked so hard on this issue, guys, and we really hope you like it. Besides having the uber handsome Greek Stefanos on the cover, this issue has loads of other features and reports, with amazing photography, illustrations, and writing from the absolutely radical folks who came together to help us put this together. Read all about it here.
And that’s a wrap, folks! Another week at Barista Magazine over and out. Can’t wait to see what news and excitement in the coffee industry tomorrow brings. Thanks for reading!
