Monday I went to the coffee & tea expo to watch the result of the Canadian National Barista Championship. It was a lot of fun. Got to browse the expo, check out some other retailers, try various tea options as well as coffee, and watch the pro’s do their thing.

The competition was timed, and each barista had to pull out three beverages, usually a cappucino, an espresso and a signature drink, the latter of which could be mild or quite extreme.

The judging was on everything from the coffee, to its presentation to the barista’s ability to keep the work area clean.

In the end, the results stand as follows:

1. Colter Jones
2. Barrett Jones
3. Bob Blumer

Bob Blumer is a celebrity chef who came into the competition as a part of his new show, “Glutton For Punishment”, which has him sign up for competitions in various things, from this to being a great waiter and all sorts of other food-related competitions. Sammy Piccolo, our 3 time Canadian champ, trained up Bob in 3 days, and Bob, who hadn’t had a coffee in 17 years, zoomed up into 3rd place.

Tags: barista championship, bob blumer, canadian barista, barista, coffee, canada, vancouver

Today’s UserFriendly makes fun of flavoured coffee.

This weekend is the Canadian Coffee & Tea Expo in Vancouver. September 24-25 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, over 80 exhibitors will get together to display goods, classes will be held, cuppings, and the crown jewel - the Canadian National Barista Championship.

We will be attending on Monday, hopefully to witness the final round of the barista championship, which is being held between 1-4.

Tags: vancouver, coffee, tea, barista, barista championship, coffee and tea expo

Every morning, when I am making coffee, I wish that my french press would tell me if it’s going to rain later in the day… Well, not really. But if I you do care about having that feature in my coffee maker then take a look at the Melitta ME1MSB, a 10-cup grinder/brewer combo with a weather forecast display. It gets the weather data from MSN Direct, using FM signals, and no subscription is required.

Features include “brew-pause function allows for pouring a cup midbrew, and its clock display automatically springs forward, falls back, and resets after a power failure. Other highlights include a water reservoir with a large viewing window, high-quality stainless-steel grinding blades, a permanent stainless-steel filter basket, a warming plate with automatic shut off, and hidden cord storage.”

But the feature I like the most is “In addition to its optional sleep function, where if the unit is idle for a period of time an animated, napping cat appears”.

You can buy it from Amazon.

A little while back Trevor emailed me to let me know he was starting a new coffee blog: Coffee Tribune. And we seem to be partly responsible for this, in the blog he says:

“What is the purpose of this blog?” Well, I’ll tell you.

I love coffee. Most of my friends love coffee. Even my pastor loves coffee. My wife loves coffee, too. We love coffee.

Recently, I was scouring the internet for fresh new blogs to read, and I found Vancouver Coffee. The authors simply want to share their coffee experiences with you. They live in Vancouver, BC and they love coffee. Do you get it?

So I was thinking, “Hey, I love coffee.” and, “I like to share my opinions.” and, “I can blog.”

So now you have the Coffee Tribune.

He shares news, tips and opinions. I really like the story of how he met his wife.

So welcome Trevor, Coffee Tribune is now in my coffee blogs folder :)