Our Coffee Specialist Rob Ward is back in Seattle for the SCAA Exhibition and World Barista Championships
Cimbali’s Rob Ward is back in Seattle for 2015
How time flies…it’s hard to believe that a year has passed since Rob’s previous trip out to Seattle. Last year Rob couldn’t believe how the Seattle and Portland coffee scene had really transformed since his visit in 2005, so on this trip he was looking forward to seeing if it had developed and grown even more.
Says Rob, “It’s great being back in Seattle two years in a row, and is also a bit of a surprise, as the Speciality Coffee Association of America (SCAA) exhibition, which normally switches between the US east and west coasts, is this time in Seattle as it hosts the World Barista Championships (WBC) too!
My time during last year’s trip was filled absorbing the coffee culture scene and seeing how it had changed, but this year, immediately after landing at Tacoma International airport I headed straight into the SCAA Symposium, which precedes the SCAA Exhibition and the WBC.
The opening focus of the Symposium tackled some key industry issues head-on, such as how we can solve the ‘Wicked Problem’ by looking into ways to close the gap on extreme poverty. In the early part of the century and more recently, the global recession has hit the world hard, but the coffee industry including roasters, coffee shops and coffee machine manufacturers have been less affected as people have still been buying coffee. Unfortunately though, farmers have still felt the pinch of this recession. This was really put into perspective when we saw the figures showing that many coffee farmers will only earn $3,200 per year, whereas in reality, the reasonable living wage is around $12,000. This poses a real danger in the sustainability of our industry.
The Symposium also covered other interesting topics a such as Sensory Science and how it can be used within the coffee industry to not only expand what we do, but also quantify and prove some of the things that we say very easily about specific coffees and the brewing methods that we use. We will be performing our own Sensory Science at the London Coffee Festival soon – but I will tell you more about that nearer the time.
Great news – the UK’s Barista Champion, Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood has just got through to the WBC finals. Go Maxwell!”
For more details regarding the SCAA annual exhibition in Seattle visit:
www.scaaevent.org
For more details regarding the World Barista Championships visit:
www.worldbaristachampionship.org
For more details regarding the London Coffee Festival visit:
www.londoncoffeefestival.com
