Home baristas, hold on to your butts! Barista Nation Portland is fast approaching, with an epic home-barista-targeted event on Friday, October 17th, 2014. The event is hosted by Seattle Coffee Gear at its Portland location (26 NW 23rd Place), with more than a dozen wild throwdowns, no-holds-barred talks, and innovative labs. Not to mention free food and wine!
Each Barista Nation event has a specific theme, and for #BNPDX it’s all about the home barista. Attendees will be faced with the task of “choosing your own adventure” with two sessions running simultaneously during nearly every hour-long block of programming. That means there’s something for everybody. At Barista Nation, not only do you get an opportunity to attend up to eight sessions, but you can also expect a divine spread for lunch, food trucks on hand for dinner, and all the delicious coffee you can drink! Admission is stunningly reasonable, with just a suggested donation of $10 to CARE.
“We are getting a lot of questions why we are changing the format this fall,” program founder Anastasia Chovan explains, “so here is the scoop. Since the US regionals are heavy this fall we decided to go with the Home Barista theme to not compete or distract from the regionals and be mindful of our sponsors’ wallets. The format will be aimed at consumers, coffee enthusiasts, but as always everyone is welcome. We will offer one to two sessions per hour and folks can come and go on the hour, so we are only offering food and wine at the party. There will also be an all-day cupping organized by Seattle Coffee Gear. Finally, we collaborated with Caffeine Crawl and Coffee Fest to make a coffee week in PDX extra awesome. We are no way trying to change the format of Barista Nation in the future but always looking at new directions and collaborations in coffee.”
This year’s Portland event will include talks from Nathanael May (Portland Coffee Roasting), April Strogen (Jura), Sasha Kaplan (Capresso), Stephyn Ackermann (UNIC), Sarah Dooley and Colin Francois (Baratza), Ross Beamish (Caffe Vita), The Hellweg Brothers (Clive Coffee), Ed Panzella (illy), Maxwell Mooney (Spotted Cow Coffee), Jeremy Kuempel (Blossom Coffee), Bill Crossland (Crossland Coffee), Darryl Miller (Fidalgo Bay Coffee), and Saura Dall’Aglio (2008 Italian Cup Champion). Here’s a complete event card for #BNPDX
Your Sprudge editors will be there, providing epic DJ services at that evening’s “Home Barista Throw Down and Coffee Weekend Party” from 6pm til 8pm. It’s going to be a wild ride. To register, donate $10 to www.care.org and e-mail your receipt to baristanation@gmail.com. Space is limited so register early! Questions? Call 866.295.8642.
Top photos by Tyler Bruno for Sprudge.com.
