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Specialty Coffee Expo brought coffee and competition to McCormick Place all weekend long, a corporate conference dedicated to beans, brewing, and everything in between.
The convention floor featured vendors from around the world representing all aspects of coffee, and on Saturday also served as a battleground for the world’s most sophisticated palettes and sophisticated pours.
Since 2000, the World Coffee Championships (or “Coffee Olympics” as the organizers call it) has featured a variety of Javanese equestrian competitions, including tasting, brewing and latte art.
This was the first time Chicago hosted Café Throwdown and one of its famous competitions, the World Cup Taster Championship.
A caffeinated crowd gathered early in the day to watch as contestants tried to choose the odd cup from three of a set of eight coffees within 10 minutes.
Eric Jara Davila, Peru’s national champion as of November, competed in his first international tournament, competing against tasters from as far away as Hong Kong and Poland.
Eric Jara Davila, Peru’s national champion in coffee tasting, holds up a blue-bottomed cup to correctly guess which one was the odd one out during the World Cup Taster Championship at the Specialty Coffee Expo on Saturday. .
Jara Davila works in logistics between coffee farmers and companies, which inspired her to taste more coffee to better understand the industry. That led him to compete and eventually train eight hours a day, which included limiting his diet to mostly water and salt-free soups.
“My friend told me that if you want to sell coffee, you need to know what coffee tastes like,” Jara Davila told the Sun-Times.
More than 40 contestants had been whittled down to 16 on Saturday. Jara Dávila said she was nervous after the last two cups, and attributed it to the fact that she practiced primarily with Peruvian coffee rather than drinks made from beans from other parts of the world. Ta.
Although he was able to finish his selection within five minutes, he missed two of the cups and could have jeopardized his ticket to the next round.
“I’m proud to represent my country,” Jara Davila said as he awaited the results. “I don’t know if I’ll make it to the next round, but I’m happy to be here.”
But returning home might not be the worst thing, he said, as he gets to see his family for the first time in two months.
“All the effort I put in is for them,” Jara Davila said. “When I get home, the first thing I’m going to do is go see them. I miss them.”
At the Specialty Coffee Expo on Saturday, Terry Tse, a Hong Kong representative contestant in the World Cup Tasters Championship, showed an incorrect guess as to which cup was the odd one, and said that the white-bottomed coffee I grimaced as I lifted the cup.
bean art
On the other side of the convention hall, a different kind of competition was taking place.
Bill Alameda, production manager at Washington-based Astra Manufacturing Co., spent much of a Saturday afternoon standing next to his company’s espresso maker, scouting other companies’ products and discovering their innovations. He said he often goes around conventions to see how they fit into what’s coming. removed from the production line.
He said these practices are important for an evolving industry.
“Coffee isn’t just coffee anymore. It’s become an art, and people are trying to put that art into machines,” Alameda said. “It’s just a matter of finding the next niche market and seeing if we can develop it before the next talent. …Maybe that’s the next big thing.”
An automatic drip coffee machine from South Korean company Irhea that changes temperatures during different parts of the brewing process is on display at the Specialty Coffee Expo at McCormick Place on Saturday.
Budding local entrepreneurs also got a taste, including North Central College’s Coffee Lab, a bagged coffee business run by professors and students. The company set up a booth at this year’s convention for the first time.
The program started as a fundraiser for a student organization, but according to North Central’s accounting firm, it has turned into a full-fledged business that takes college students on trips to Guatemala, where students “go from growing coffee to consuming coffee.” He says he is now able to understand the business process of “all the way to the end of the journey.” Jerry Talman, professor and co-founder of the lab;
“We focus on entrepreneurship, understanding our suppliers and the environment in which we work,” Thalman said. “It feels like I have the opportunity to go on an excursion every day.”
Justin Symbol, a graduate student assistant with the group, said the project changed the way he looks at running a business.
“This project had a huge impact on my academic career,” Symbol said. “Students can really apply what they learn in the classroom to real business situations.”
North Central University graduate student Justin Symbol (left) and North Central University accounting professor Jerry Talman speak at the university’s Coffee Lab booth at the Specialty Coffee Expo on Saturday.
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