The Northeast Regional Barista Competition is back on track, scheduled for February 20th-22nd at Attic Studios in Long Island City and sponsored by Dallis Bros. Coffee. In advance of this event, our friends and longtime partners at Counter Culture Coffee are offering a fabulous competition workshop – or “Competitor Lab” – at their New York Training Center. The event is held this coming Saturday, January 26th, and will be led by reigning 2012 USBC champion Katie Carguilo this weekend. Here’s an overview from CCC online:

This lab assumes that its participants have a working knowledge of espresso equipment and technique and will serve to refine this knowledge into a set of skills tailored for the competition environment. This seasonal lab is held in conjunction with scheduled regional barista competitions. For more information about competition in your region, please visit the United States Barista Championship’s webpage.

Who should attend this workshop: Experienced baristas interested in competing in SCAA-sanctioned regional barista competitions.

Prerequisites: Barista experience and intent to compete; baristas attending this lab should be familiar with current USBC rules.

To give you a sense of what you’re in for at this training sesh, we attended Counter Culture Coffee’s “Training Lab” event in Chicago a few weeks back, which makes us uniquely attuned to giving you the deets. Counter Culture’s info-team knows a lot about what judges are looking for when scoring drinks and presentation, as well as the overall competition format. “The point of competing is to make better baristas,” Katie Carguilo told Sprudge. “That’s how the score sheet is set up.”

The Chicago lab demonstrated three barista competitor performances. For some attending the lab, it was the first time watching a competition run-through. The three baristas had distinct styles: one competitor weighed heavily on coffee, another customer service, while one was simply about their love for coffee.

Alex Brown, the judging instructor, led a heady discussion on the espresso and cappuccino portion of the score sheet and how scores are decided on and then calibrated. Katie served everyone two different espressos and cappuccinos – they together the group scored and calibrated.

Katie staged a complete run through of her winning United States Barista Championship presentation while the class acted as judges. Alex Brown did a competition style fifteen minute calibration with the class. “It gave the class an idea of what it’s like to be on the judge’s side of the table,” Katie tells us.

The lab finished with a technical cappuccino splitting and building workshop – everyone took turns making cappuccinos for each other and give each other scores on things such as temperature, foam distribution, and discussed strategies for consistency on a competition stage.

The instructors wrapped it all up by talking about how competition weekend is valuable for someone on any level – being a competitor, a judge, or a volunteer. “The point of the weekend is to bring the specialty coffee community together and engage with other professionals,” says Ms. Carguilo, “the best advice I ever got and something I share to those who want to compete – especially to those who’ve never competed before, is to have a couple of goals beyond winning the competition.”

The champ continues: “Whether that goal is to meet friends you’ve made on Twitter, or your goal is not going over time, setting up simple goals like that will make you more relaxed, you’ll have a better time, and walk away feeling like you’ve had a worthwhile experience. Of course the experience it worth it, but if you feel defeated, it’s hard to let that sink in.”

Sign up info for CCC NYC’s “Training Lab” is available here!

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Breaking news late this Friday as the SCAA has announced confirmed dates and times for the 2013 Northeast Regional Barista Competition. The event was supposed to go down last November, but that event was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy.

Your new NERBC dates are February 20th – 22nd, to be hosted at the Attic Studios in Long Island City (11-05 44th Road). NYC residents can access Attic Studios via the E, M, G and 7 trains. The event kicks of Wednesday, February 20th at 11am, with finals scheduled to start Friday, Feburary 22nd at 10:30am. Queens, New York based Dallis Bros. Coffee remain the principal sponsor for the 2013 NERBC; this is their third year sponsoring the event, and their astonishing 100th year in business as a coffee roaster.

Here’s more from the SCAA, who reached out to us via public release this afternoon:

All prior NERBC competitors will remain registered to compete and the SCAA will open a waiting list for those wanting to sign up if any original competitors drop out; competition spots will be given on a first come, first serve basis.

Learn more, sign up, and get stoked by visiting the USBC’s official website, and look for live coverage of the event from New York right here on Sprudge.com, your official Digital Media Sponsor of the 2013 United States Barista Competition.

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Superstorm Sandy and its impact up and down the Eastern seaboard has halted the North East Regional Barista Competition, which had been scheduled to take place over the weekend in Atlantic City. The Bally’s Casino remains boarded up as clean-up crews and rescue workers work through the day to help folks stranded, displaced, and looking for comfort.

Damage up and down Atlantic City (via Twitter)

Here’s the official statement from the SCAA:

After great deliberation with the SCAA Events team and our NERBC Host Sponsor Dallis Bros. Coffee, we have decided that due to the significant safety concerns and travel obstacles created by  Hurricane Sandy it is in the best interest of everyone involved to postpone the NERBC until a later date in the 2012/13 cycle.  This will ensure that everyone involved across the North East Region – our partners, competitors, judges and volunteers – will have safe passage to and from the competition.   As soon as we are able to confirm a new date and time, we will announce it via usbaristachampionship.org as well as via our 2013 USBC media sponsors Sprudge.com…

How does this news make you feel? Sound off in the comments below and be sure to stay tuned to Sprudge.com for more news at it develops…

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That nasty old Hurricane Sandy, she’s queening out in Queens, where our friends at Dallis Bros. Coffee are based. They’ve got some Flickr photos of the storm surge realness, like this doozy of Josip Drazenovich, Training and Development Manager for Dallis Bros, still practicing away for the maybe-still-happening NERBC:

Meanwhile the street scene outside looks pretty haggard:

Is the NERBC still actually happening? Will your intrepid Sprudge editors be flying to Philadelphia on Thursday, then somehow getting themselves to the storm-addled ground zero of Atlantic City? Did Lucy the Elephant survive? Have they succesfully drained the Bally’s valet station? Only time will hotel.

The post Sandy In Queens: The Dallis Bros. Coffee Storm Surge Flickr Set appeared first on Sprudge.com.

This just arrived in our inbox, and we’re passing it along to you folks who are prepping for this weekend’s impending Northeast Regional Barista Competition, which is scheduled to be held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The email comes us to from John Moore, V.P. of Sales and Marketing for Dallis Bros. Coffee, whose sponsorship anchors this year’s NERBC event:

Greetings from soggy and windy New York City,

Obviously Sandy may have a serious impact on our plans for this weekend. At this moment everything is looking as though we may be able to execute the event as we had previously planned – NERBC beginning on Friday and running through the weekend. We will be evaluating the severity of the conditions tomorrow morning after the brunt of the storm has passed, and we will pass along more information or changes in programming as the situation develops. Thank you for your patience!

Looking forward to seeing you all in Atlantic City for an outstanding NERBC this weekend.

Stay tuned to Sprudge.com for updates as news on Sandy’s NERBC impact continues to develop.

The post Hurricane Sandy and the NERBC: An Update From Dallis Bros. appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Folks on the East Coast are in full-on bunker mode as Hurricane Sandy comes barreling down. Restaurants and cafes are closing while cities up and down the coastline have been evacuated. Public transportation in NYC, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Boston have been shut down. Coffee shipments across the coast have been delayed, with the USPS and FedEx canceling services.  Northeast Regional Barista Competition venue Bally’s is closed for the day, as a twelve foot storm surge heads straight for Atlantic City.

STAN HONDA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES via NY DAILY NEWS

The Barista Guild of America have released the following statement via Facebook:

Attention, please bear with us as we work out the safest options for our competitors, judges, volunteers and attendees. We will be updating you as the week goes on about the status of the competitions schedule to take place this Friday, Nov. 2nd through Sunday, Nov. 4th. Your safety is always our priority and we will do our best to carry on with the show competition as planned. Be safe and stay dry in the mean time!

Atlantic City via Twitter (NERBC venue Bally’s in the background)

Stay to tuned to Sprudge for the latest…

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You thought you had a few more months to rest, prep, and mentally calibrate yourself for the 2013 United States Barista Championship competition cycle. You thought wrong. Dates have now officially been set by the SCAA for the opening event in this year’s USBC calendar, and it’s kicking off with a doozy.

The hotly competitive, immensely entertaining Northeast Regional Barista Competition will be held November 2nd-4th at Bally’s Atlantic City. Dallis Bros. Coffee continues their exemplary annual competition presence by anchoring this year’s event, to be held in conjunction with the first-ever Coffee and Tea Festival Atlantic City.

Sprudge.com will be reporting live from AC all weekend long as your newly appointed official SCAA Digital Media Sponsors. You can follow along right here on Sprudge.com and via @sprudge on Twitter for up-to-the-instant live coverage, daily recaps, original interviews and video content, and our best-in-the-business bird’s eye view of the proceedings from Atlantic City.

In the meantime, check out the SCAA’s official event page for NERBC, and be sure to join the NERBC group on Facebook. How many baristas can we photoshop into looking like old-timey Atlantic City gangsters? All of them. The answer is all of them.

Relive our exhaustive coverage of NERBC 2012 - Katie Carguilo’s victory, the joy and agony of Finals Sunday, and Dan Streetman’s many judging faces – by clicking this link here.

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Over the course of 6 weeks in the beginning of 2012, Sprudge.com had the opportunity to attend all 6 of the regional competitions in this year’s United States Barista Competition cycle. The result is a body of work that we hope does justice to the professionalism and dedication of the competitors, more than 200 in total. This work would not have been possible without the independent sponsorship of several companies, including Wilbur Curtis Co., Dallis Bros. Coffee, Verve Coffee Roasters, Counter Culture Coffee, Intelligentsia, and Alterra Coffee. In addition, our coverage was facilitated by virtue of the unfettered access and support supplied by the staff of the SCAA. It was a joy and a privilege to attend and cover these events as your Unofficial Media Sponsors.

This post is a clearinghouse for coverage from all 6 regions, spaced out across 5 separate weekend events in Tacoma, New York City, Atlanta, Santa Cruz, and Chicago. We’re proud to offer you this archive for the 2012 USBC regional cycle, because we sincerely believe that this is the kind of coverage these events deserve.

2012 Northwest Regional Barista Competition, January 27th-29th in Tacoma, Washington

Northwest Regional Barista (and Brewers Cup) Champion: Devin Chapman, Coava Coffee Roasters, PDX

Competition season kicked off on a high note in dreary, gloomy, beautiful Tacoma, Washington. This city has a special place in our hearts; both your Sprudge.com editors grew up here, so we love it and hate it with equal fervor. It was absolutely the right place to kick off this year’s competition cycle. Here’s a full list of all 20 competitors, and another list of the 16 Brewers Cup entrants.

We put together full recaps of all three days, and here they are: Day 1 (note the Boni & Willbur pic in the slideshow), Day 2 (check the Jen Prince video), and Finals Sunday (Neil Oney’s crotch). Here’s a complete schedule for all 6 Brewers Cup and Barista Competition finalists, along with a video shot Sunday morning detailing the agony and ecstasy of Finals prep.

In the end, Coava’s Devin Chapman won both the Brewers Cup and the Barista Competition, with second place going to Laila Ghambari (Stumptown) and third to Tyler Stevens (Barista). Read the full results from Finals Sunday, then click here for an exit interview with Mr. Chapman. Last but not least, treat your brain cells to this curated selection of Tacoma rap music from Sprudge.com’s Rap Anthem Curator (and Tacoma native), Michael Gardiner.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

2012 Southeast Regional Barista Competition, February 10th-11th in Atlanta, Georgia

2012 Southeast Regional Barista Champion: Lindsey Kiser, Peregrine Espresso, Washington DC

2012 Southeast Regional Brewers Cup Champion: Matt Ludwikowski, Octane Coffee, Atlanta, GA

Sprudge.com coverage sponsored by Wilbur Curtis Co., access provided by the SCAA.

A week and a half later, and we’re flying cross-country to Atlanta, with a 9 (!) hour drunken layover in Denver. The less you know about Atlanta, the less you know how cool it is. This was our first sponsored travel event, and in some ways, it set a template for the work to come. We can’t thank the Wilbur Curtis Co. team enough for stepping up to make our coverage possible, and a shout-out is definitely due to the folks at Counter Culture Coffee and Batdorf and Bronson, for putting on an awesome event and taking us under their wings for the weekend.

Here’s a list of all 28 competitors at the SERBC, along with all 13 entrants in the SE Brewers Cup. This competition packed a serious amount of action into like 36 hours, with competition taking place over just two days. Check out our Day 1 Part 1 recap (the Lem Butler video towards the bottom is a Sprudge staff favorite), then peruse the scene from Day 1 Part 2 (tech judge double squat .gif). This link takes you to a full list of all 6 Barista Competition and Brewers Cup finalists, and you can peruse our Youtube channel for video of the SERBC Finalists, a lovely Q&A with several competitors, plus a sit-and-chat with Sprudge favorite Camilla Ramos (of Miami’s Panther Coffee) and this in-depth down and nerdy convo with Ryan Jenson, owner of DC’s Peregrine Espresso.

Speaking of Peregrine, the barista du jour at SERBC was Lindsey Kiser, who placed first in a tough field of barista competitors. You can check out an exit interview with Ms. Kiser by clicking this link, which includes the very instant she was announced the SERBC winner. Meanwhile, Atlanta’s own Matt Ludwikoski (of Octane Coffee) won the Brewers Cup. We recapped the Finals Saturday hullabaloo here as best we could, before retiring to Jordan’s brother’s house for much-needed wine, BBQ, and play-time with Jordan’s baby niece.

There was another 3 1/2 hour layover in the Denver airport on our way back home.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

2012 Northeast Regional Barista Competition, February 25th-26th in New York City, New York.

2012 Northeast Regional Barista Champion: Katie Carguilo, Counter Culture Coffee, NYC

2012 Northeast Regional Brewers Cup Champion: Jordan Barber, Third Rail Coffee, NYC

Sprudge.com event coverage sponsored by Dallis Bros. Coffee, access provided by the SCAA.

Off to New York City for the NERBC, where Dallis Bros. Coffee played host to 28 barista competitors and no fewer than 18 Brewers Cup entrants. This one was another 2-day blitzkrieg, housed on the 11th floor of a Midtown skyscraper and presented in conjunction with the 7th Annual Coffee and Tea Festival NYC. We liveblogged this one, doing our best to both tweet and update the site throughout the day. Here’s our Day 1 Part 1 coverage, followed closely by our Day 1 Part 2 coverage (note the Justin Schulz head-noddage).

This link takes you to a list of all 6 Brewers Cup and Barista Competition finalists, which you can pair with video of all 6 barista finalists, as well as not one, but two interviews with NERBC champ Katie Carguilo – interview one (not into scales), and interview 2 (def into thanking people, guinea pigs). Katie sure did win that weekend, followed in 2nd by Jordan Barber (then of Third Rail, now of Intelligentsia), then Park Brannen, of Handsome Coffee Roasters. Mr. Barber also placed 1st at the NE Brewers Cup, using a Kenya Kieni coffee roasted by Denmark’s Coffee Collective. We wrote a little essay about each of the Barista Competition finalists, which you can peruse right here.

We really put out a lot of video content that weekend! Check out this fun interview with Sam Penix, owner of Everyman Espresso, then enjoy a little coffee talk with Brewers Cup finalist Tamara Vigil, of Irving Farm Coffee Company. Meanwhile, Handsome Coffee Roaster’s Park Brannen and Mike Phillips snuggle up before our unflinching lens, while John Moore breaks down the Chemex station offered by event hosts Dallis Bros. Coffee.  Our only big mistake was making a “Daria” joke (see #1) out of Pavement Coffee competitor Daria Whalen‘s name, because it’s pronounced “Dare-ee-uh”, and we were wrong to kid.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

2012 Southwest Regional Barista Competition, March 9th-11th in Santa Cruz, California

2012 Southwest Regional Barista Champion: Jared Truby, Verve Coffee Roasters, Santa Cruz, CA

2012 Southwest Regional Brewers Cup Champion: John Martin, Intelligentsia Coffee, Pasadena, CA

Sprudge coverage sponsored by Verve Coffee Roasters, access provided by the SCAA.

Egads, there were 40 barista competitors at the SWRBC! Here’s the full lists – Day One as well as Day Two. In addition to that, some 20 people competed in the Brewers Cup, making the SWRBC by far the largest regional event in this year’s competition cycle. There’s curated tweets, pics, and .gifs in our daily recaps: check here for Day 1 (lots of photography) and click here for Day 2 (the Charles Babinski .gif is a another staff favorite).

Here’s a list of the 2012 SWRBC finalists, along with video interviews of all 6: Kevin “Tex” Bohlin (Ritual Coffee Roasters), Charles Babinski (Intelligentsia), Lizzy Sampson (Verve Coffee Roasters), Alfonso Portela (Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters), Percy Ramirez (Intelligentsia), and Jared Truby (Verve Coffee Roasters). The SWRBC was such a wonderful way for Verve Coffee Roasters to open their community up to outside visitors, and so it felt kind of inevitable and natural for them to take home the win, like something out of a Hollywood sports script. Hometown hero Jared Truby won in the Barsita Competiton, while Intelligentsia’s John Martin capture the SW Brewers Cup. Check out this exit interview with Mr. Truby, read a series of essays we wrote for each finalist, then learn more about all the SW Brewers Cup finalists, including coffees and methods used by all six.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

2012 Big Central Regional Barista Competition, March 3rd-5th in Chicago, Illinois

2012 North Central Barista Champion: Ryan Knapp, MadCap Coffee Roasters

2012 North Central Brewers Cup Champion: Jon Ferguson, Independent, Lincoln, Nebraska

2012 South Central Barista Champion: Lorenzo Perkins, Cuvee Coffee Roasters, Spicewood, TX

2012 South Central Brewers Cup Champion: Mike Marquard, Half & Half, St. Louis, MI

Sprudge coverage sponsored by Counter Culture Coffee, Intelligentsia, and Alterra, access provided by the SCAA.

Two regionals, one weekend. This one felt like the toughest Koopa you have to fight before it’s time to battle Bowser. There were 20 competitors from the North Central and another 13 from the South Central, both yielding 6 distinct sets of finalists. Prelims were broken into two days – Day 1 and Day 2 – matched with a full slate of 28 Brewers Cup entrants. 

We somehow managed to cover it all, barely, and here’s proof: Day One recap in tweets and pics and Day Two with lots of photography. Here’s a listing of all 12 finalists for both regions, along with the 11 Brewers Cup finalists. There’s tons of video from that weekend, so check out these interviews with finalists Courtney Marie Vaquera (MadCap), Stacey Wieck (MadCap), Jacque DesMarais (Kaldi’s Coffee), Caitlin Corcoran (Parisi Brothers), and Charlie Habegger (Intelligentsia).

Finals Sunday was madness, a scene we attempted to capture in words and photos here. MadCap Coffee Company’s roaster and co-owner Ryan Knapp won the North Central for the second year in a row, while Cuvee Coffee’s Lorenzo Perkins took home first in the South Central; we’ve got these video exit interviews with Mr. Perkins and Mr. Knapp. On the Brewers Cup front, Mike Marquard won for the South Central, while independent competitor Jon Ferguson was crowned victor for the North Central.

That’s it. That’s all of it. Use this as an archive, and rest assured this information will always be here. Congratulations to all the competitors, and thank you to all of our sponsors.

The post A Complete Look Back At The 2012 USBC Regionals appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Here’s Park Brannen, chatting with us and snuggling up with WBC champ / Handsome honcho Mike Phillips.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Our favorite new person we met this weekend was Daria (pronounced dare-ee-uh) Whalen, of Pavement Coffeehouse in Boston. We were really impressed by the Boston showing at NERBC, and look forward to checking out the cafes in that city soon.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Sam Penix is the owner-operator of Everyman Espresso, in the East Village. He just missed the cut for this year’s NERBC finals. Sam’s store manager / right hand man, Sam Lewontin, placed 4th in this year’s NERBC, and will compete at the USBC in Portland.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Some love for the Brewers Cup, which had a circus-like atmosphere of onlookers and attention at this year’s NERBC. If you haven’t had the pleasure already, meet Tamara Vigil of Irving Farm coffee, a double-competitor in both barista and brewers events, who competed in the finals for Brewers Cup.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

We caught former Mid-Atlantic Regional winner Katie Carguilo as she was walking in on the very first day of NERBC, the calm before the storm.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

And finally, the ever-humble, still shell-shocked Katie Carguilo gave us a moment of her time after winning the 2012 Northeast Regional Barista Competition. She thanked the entire Counter Culture team for their ongoing support throughout her months of training.

Congratulations to all of the competitors this year!

The post Sprudge AV Club: NERBC Video Compendium appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Aside from our regular coverage responsibilities at NERBC, we couldn’t help but occasionally point the lens towards our friend, judge Dan Streetman. He is a man of many faces, and hopefully we’ve captured all of them here. We love you, Dan, and the community loves you more. Enjoy!

“This routine greatly pleases me.”

“This routine further pleases me, for I am Dan Streetman.”

“I am very distracted by the espresso machine.”

“Inquisitive, impartial, and ready to taste your coffee.”

“I might have to poop.”

“You can’t tell, but actually I’m just doodling over here…look, a sailboat!”

“At this precise moment, I am uncertain as to the vercaity of your many claims. Please, elucidate.”

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