CoffeeFest has come and gone, and we’re recovering to the best our abilities – this means working on Sprudge while driving from Seattle to San Francisco. With that in mind, we’re proud to bring you this edition of Sprudge Best In Showroom:

Best shot of the weekend: Dual honors go to the Strada shot of Verve we had on day one from the gang at La Marzocco, and Victrola’s Ethiopia Koke SOE pulled on the Synesso prototype. Lemon meringue crema, yes, please.

Best sip of the weekend: Stumptown’s El Injerto, served up by Visions Espresso in their 12-hour driptastic Yama Cold Brew Tower. Super refreshing, clean and sweet, somehow just right for combating exhaustion and waking up tastebuds on the showroom floor. Honorable mention to the choice Kenya Gethumbwini we sampled at the Mercanta booth.

Very cool products: Orange Creamsicle VW Bus roaster from Diedrich, super clean mad rad camouflage Mazzer Robur grinder from Espresso Parts (perfect for pulling shots in your deep cover duck blind), and pretty much everything going down at the HarioUSA/Roustabout booth, including but not limited to the Coava Kone metal pour-over and Edwin Martinez’s custom bar. This is also where Sprudge pal Ryan Wilbur had his picture taken with a life-size cutout of the Hario Coffee Geisha.

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Top geekery: Tom from Water Avenue conducted thermocouple magna-transmogrifier readings using a V60, a ring stand, and two probes. His brew water extraction temperature and geothermal spectral radiation findings shook the CoffeeFest scientific community to its very core. Look to the Sprudge Science section in the near future for more on Tom’s daring feats of nerdery.

Beyond the Thunderdome, there were parties, more parties, expense account dinners (if you’re lucky!), hopefully, a little bit of chill time, and for your Sprudge editors, a lot of text messaging, fretting about delayed flights, and stress relieving bouts of pinball. The Victrola Brew Ha Ha was a total scene as predicted, but we could not have anticipated the fun and lovely shenanigans to follow next door at the Sprudge hangout. A special thank you to everyone who attended, said hi to us, took our pins, answered our questions, and gave us love throughout the weekend.

Hilarious Costumes from the Brew Ha Ha: a top-notch Brett Favre, both male and female Waldos, and an unattended Raggedy Anne, content to be without her Andy for a stolen moment or two.

Overheard at CoffeeFest:

A self-described Crusty Barista was heard to utter at the Victrola party: “This is why I hate coffee. Events like this.”

“It’s not a religion, you know…”

“This industry is full of huge egos and losers…I’m glad I found a home.”

This concludes your CoffeeFest recap. Check out more pics from the Friday night Trabant party here. Naptime now. Or more pinball…

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