Merry Baristmas

Matt Will Get His Tamper

Intelly came through with a tamper after forgetting to put one in the original shipment.  So Matt G., who won the Gauntlet, will soon be tamping away with a genuine wood Reg Barber 58mm beauty. 

Question is, will it fit those Cimbali baskets?

Thanks to Intelly for fixing the problem.

For the Record (and those that keep records)

Thought we'd share the results of the competitions beyond just Matt, who won both.  Here are the top five for the Gauntlet and for the Latte Art Throwdown.

The Gauntlet [four numbers:  1. running time, 2. quality score points, 3. time bonus or penalty (1/10th point per second over/under), 4. final score (1-2)]:
1.  Matt (La Prima)  6:03 / 54 / -12.3 / 41.7
2.  John (Aldo)  5:58 / 50 / -11.8 / 38.2
3.  Eric (Beaver Falls)  7:06 / 46.5 / -18.6 / 27.9
4.  Len ("representing all underappreciated home baristas")  6:39 / 33 / -15.9 / 17.1
5.  Brad (Vault)  9:08 / 44 / -30.8 / 13.2

You're all nuts for competing in this ridiculous contest and we love you all the more for it!

Latte Art Throwdown (average of two scores, rated 1-10 on quality/contrast):
1.  Matt (La Prima)  16.5
2.  Lauren (Aldo)  15.5
3.  John (Aldo)  15.0
4.  Luke (21st Street) 14.0
5.  Jason (freelance HB) 13.5

The Latte Art Throwdown generated $90 in entry fees.  Half went to Coffee Kids, half to Matt, who then threw some his winnings back to Coffee Kids, being the gentleman he is.  Congrats Matt and thanks to everyone who contributed and risked embarrassment!

Thanks All - Photos Are Up!

Here are the photos.  I took a bunch as did Jake.  If anyone else took any, please add them to the Flickr group.

Congrats to Matt G. who swept both competitions.  Thanks to everyone's contributions we are able to donate $152 $182 to CoffeeKids - which we'll match - and we also received almost two dozen toys for Toys for Tots Pittsburgh.

Thanks to everyone who brought coffee, milk, knockboxes, pitchers, beer, food and most importantly, good cheer, to last night's proceedings.  It was fun beyond our wildest expectations.  The camaraderie, the passion, the humor, the skill levels... amazing, especially as it was the first time many of us had gotten together.

We never did get to that Ethiopian tasting - we ran late all night and apologies for that.  But... if you're interested, we're doing a cupping/tasting of the Novo Coffee Ethiopians on Wednesday at 1pm.   If it's fewer than 8 people we'll do an actual cupping.  If more than 8, we'll do a tasting by press pot.  Let us know by close of biz Tuesday. 

Bring Your Camera and Post to Flickr

We've opened up a Flickr Group for party photos:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/602298@N23/

The group is public, so just upload your photos from tonight's party at your leisure.

Four Hours to Go - Couple of Agenda Changes

We haven't heard from anyone other than the original two folks who wanted to do the Gauntlet, so unless we hear from two or three others by 4pm, we're going to cancel that and move to Plan B - a coffee quiz show.

Lauren and others will be showing those interested how to improve microfoam and pour rosettes. This is primarily so we can get your $5 in the art throwdown at halftime ;-)

Anyway, if you haven't done art before and want to learn how - this is a freebie.  And if you're up to the task of being an instructor and want to help out, feel free to contribute.

The original time on the invites said 7-10pm.  Obviously the game is going to go on until at least 11pm.  And then anyone who wants can stay and watch Black Gold.

See you in a few.

Btw, Sean is making Baklava... 

We've got some eggplant parm (vegetarian) and lasagne (not vegetarian) and Rich's famous Bigos stew from the Lithuanian side of the family.  Plus we've got hummous and pita, a salad, three cases of beer, some wine and a some sodas.  If you want to contribute more stuff, Frank will have a stone soup table set up for you.

Hail Hail the Gang's All Here

In addition to whatever you're bringing plus the Black Cat, here's a peek at what we'll be playing with tomorrow night.

Supporting Charities: Silent Auction for Coffee Kids

We'll be hosting a small silent auction for the benefit of Coffee Kids.  All monies collected during the evening will be submitted to Coffee Kids as a contribution from "Pittsburgh Indie Baristas" (if you can think of a better name before Sunday, go for it).

Here's what will be included in the silent auction:

- eight Intelligentsia t-shirts (2 small, 2 medium, 2 large, 2 extra-large)
- two Intelligentsia "Polar Bear" mugs
- an Intelligentsia "Espresso Enthusiast" gift box
- a can of Intelligentsia hot cocoa
- a two-hour Professional Barista Training session with Belle or John
- more to come, we think.

If you've got a pound of coffee or something else you'd like to donate to the auction, please let us know before Sunday, thanks!

Also, we're collecting toys for Toys for Tots Pittsburgh all this month.  If you can bring an unwrapped toy that would be appreciated.

Latte Art Throwdown - No Wagering Please

Reports from our spies tell us that Luke was pouring competition-level rosettes at 21st Street this morning.  Not that he doesn't every day (as evidenced in these photos and these), but our folks noted that the art's symmetry and contrast was especially notable this morning.

We're not sure yet if Luke or his staff are participating, but consider yourself warned that the competition will be stiff.

Not that we want to discourage anyone.  Remember, half your $5 entry fee (per try) will go to CoffeeKids.

Rich might even start things off so everyone will know they have a fighting chance to not finish last.

Who's Coming?

We won't know for sure until the actual event, but baristi from the following shops have told us they're coming:

UPDATED 11/27:

Aldo Coffee Co.
Beaver Falls Coffee and Tea
Beleza Community Coffeehouse
Coffee Tree Roasters (Beverly)
Crema Cafe (Grove City, OH)
Cuppy's
La Prima
Simpatico
Tazza d'Oro (coming late)
Espresso d'Milan
The Vault Coffee & Tea Bar

Plus four home baristas have told us they're coming - two with lever machines!

We'll post others as they confirm.  If you're pretty sure you're coming and are not on the list above, drop us a line so we can start to get a head count on this.  Thanks!

Black Gold Screening & Ethiopian Coffee Tasting

For anyone who's interested, we'll be showing Black Gold once the main festivities have settled down, probably sometime after 10pm. 

The film was screened at Regent Square back in December.  To date it's only been shown twice in Pittsburgh. 

It's not the greatest movie in the world and let's face it, its political motivations are obvious and the message is ham handedly presented.  But the film is important nonetheless for understanding why it's necessary for our industry to evolve from C-market procurement through Fair Trade into Direct Trade models (although the movie itself stops at Fair Trade).

In conjunction with the film - which mostly takes place in Ethiopia - will be doing tastings of several rare (to Pittsburgh) Ethiopian coffees from Novo Coffee (and possibly others).  Confirmed to date are the following coffees:

Aricha Selection Seven
Arena Selection One
Gololcha
Biloya
Worka

We were thinking of an actual cupping, but there's no way we could pull that off for this many people with this many coffees.  So press pots it is.  We might even fire up the vac pot for one or two of them.  Even so, this is probably the only time in the near future that any of us will really get to taste this many rare Ethiopians at once in Pittsburgh. 

Joe, Pat and the folks at Novo have done an exemplary job at bringing attention to coffees beyond the standard Yirgs, Sidamos and Harrars that have defined Ethiopian coffee for so long.