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I am travelling and uncharacteristically, I have yet to post anything to the blog. So despite it being midnight local Toronto time, and in an effort to stay on Alberta time, I thought I should write something.
This weekend has been a good one in terms of trade show / barista competition time. Josh Hockin gave his best performance to date and despite his best efforts, he missed the finals by 5 points. Having said that, our good friend from Victoria, Logan Gray, missed participating in the final six by only 2 points. Oh the agony of barista competitions. Despite these close misses, we need to celebrate the victories. Rob Kettner from Fernwood Coffee in Victoria gave a brilliant performance both yesterday and today, and is a worthy and deserving of the title of Canadian Barista Champion. Congrats to Rob and Ben and their crew for an amazing job. Closer to home, Ben Put delivered an amazing performance today and finished 10 points behind Rob to take 2nd place. While Ben was competing under the Phil and Sebastian banner, with their coffee, he is now working for us; so it is a sweet victory for Transcend too, as Ben is a great man, and a gentlemen in the world of specialty coffee, and we are delighted to have him part of our team.
At the other end of Hall number 1, we had the distinct pleasure and honour of hosting the first ever on Canadian soil, Canadian Cup Tasters Championship. This event was a lot of fun, which it should be, and was very well received. I had a blast hosting this event, and had tons of help behind the curtains from James, Chad, Mel, and a number of great volunteers. Sixteen competitors in all competed for the title of Canadian Cup Tasters Champion and finishing at the top of the heap both days was Patrick Russell from Second Cup Coffee. Today he correctly identified 6 out of 8 coffees in 5:45 minutes to grab the title. In second place was Steve from Social Coffee in Toronto with 6 out of 8 in 7:45 minutes and in third place was Matthew from Manic Coffee with 5 correct in around 7 and a half minutes. We look forward to hosting another round of Cup Tasters next year in Vancouver.
To top of this fine weekend, this evening, we (James and I) had the distinct pleasure of being hosted by Lisa Rotenberg (of Rocketfuel Coffee) at her home, with her husband Matthew. We had great food,wine, whisky and company. We were joined by a contingency of folk from Jamaica. It's not often that you get to sit down to dinner with a senator from Jamaica (Norman Grant), but tonight was one of those nights. We will post some pics and tell you more later, but suffice it to say, I had one of those memorable coffee nights, which seem to come along my way, where the conversation and company was simply awesome. The combination of good wine, food, cigar and conversation made for one of the most memorable nights of my coffee career. I am looking forward to some fine samples of Jamaica Blue coffee coming Transcend way, and I look forward to an opportunity to visit Jamaica in the future to see the coffee industry there in person. In short, this evening was one of those special times in my career where you count yourself fortunate to belong to the international coffee community. A distinct hi-light of this trip to Toronto, and for all of you who skipped out on the dinner, I can only say that you missed a great evening. OK, good night to all and stay tuned for more updates when we get home.
