WBC and SCAJ 2007 Update

I’m not really reporting on these events in general so much as a brief summary on my experiences.
For some nice updates on WBC check out baristamag and zacharyzachary.

Yesterday I had lunch with Mr. Shuji Akimoto, President of the Fadie Corporation and director of Membership development for SCAJ. He played a key role in aquiring our coffee through the CoE for a co-op of 16 micro roasters from all over Japan who I had the priviledge to have breakfast with this morning. Last night I attended the Gala dinner party that was the most amazing display of music and art representing many countries in Asia I have ever seen in my life. I’ve also enjoyed sharing meals with World Barista competitors/champions even though the conversation get over my head. Tomorrow the finals take place and I’ll be scouting out Tokyo with an old friend hunting down and checking out some strictly siphon coffee bars. Japanese seem to have the best of everything, and for some reason Vac Pot brewing has taken off. It is probably one of the best methods to prepare a great cup with phenomenal clarity, but the costs associated with this brew method – primarily labor make it a tough match for commercial use. In Japan however this hurdle is not as big. In fact an overlooked event that I made sure to set aside time to observe is the Japanese Barista Competition which ran simultaneously yesterday. This is completely different that the espresso based competition most of the world would associate a barista competition with. It is a siphon only competition!!!!! The tendency was to highlight unique traits in single origins and talk about them with acurate descriptors, which of course makes me happy. My wife bought us a new camera last week, and I’ve made the effort to shamelessly take many pictures. I’ll up load some of them with in the week.