Barista Bash 002 in Review

Big thanks to all who came out to Barista Bash 002 on Friday night and especially Sunergos Coffee for hosting and co-sponsoring the event with us.

The event brought out baristas, shop owners, and coffee fans from all over Louisville and the Midwest. I spoke with visitors from Nashville, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis throughout the night as we brewed some delicious coffees from Sunergos Coffee, La Grange Coffee Roasters, La Terza, and even a bag brought to the bash from B-Java in Indianapolis. The night was a wonderful picture of the Louisville and Midwestern coffee communities coming together to share ideas, skills, and knowledge about coffee as commodity, fine beverage, and culinary art.

The Latte Art competition featured some of the areas best baristas squaring off to prove their skills. Kenny Smith, now a two time Bash finalist, took 1st place and Ryan Soeder, one of the judges at Bash 001, took 2nd. Thanks to Sunergos Coffee, The Anchorage Cafe, Bunn, Barista Magazine, and the Barista Guild of America for providing a host of excellent prizes for the competition.

Thank you to Les Stoneham of the Espresso Guild who drove down from Cincinnati and presented an informative overview of the thorough and delicate process of getting specialty coffee from the coffee tree varietal to the consumer’s cup.

Kane Holbrook did an excellent job teaching cupping methodology throughout the second half of the night. His classes were so full of eager tasters that we had to turn many people away.

Last, but not least, we'd like to thank all those that made the brewing demos possible. Special thanks goes out to Jesse Harriott from Sunergos for brewing on the Bunn Trifecta, Chris Heiniger and our own Blake McKinney for rocking out the Mypressi Twist, Matt Argo from Anchorage Cafe for brewing on the V60, Phil Revell from Quills coffee for brewing on the Aeropress, and Brian Moats for brewing on the Chemex, V60, and Syphon.

Keep checking back for images taken by the excellent Juan Maclean, and possibly the video from the latte art competition...possibly.