Tony Siera, who judged the first round of the Puerto Rican Barista Championship, had the finals off, so he spent the day photographing the event at Coffee Cast. You can check out his photo set on flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baristapuertorico/
Also out today is a list of the “20 Most Caffeinated Cities” in the U.S. The rankings are based on the number of coffee shops per 100,000 people, the average monthly amount spent on coffee and the total of other sources of caffeine consumed. Spots one and two may not surprise anyone (Seattle and Portland respectively) but city three is San Jose, California! In other weird twists, the city of the current World Barista Champion, Michael Phillips, Chicago, is ranked sixth and right behind it is Phoenix, Arizona? Yeah, that sounds weird to me too. But it must be true because it’s on this list.