life, the universe and coffee. . .

Starting to get ready for the SCAA expo in April. Making plans to visit as many cafés as possible and learn as much as I can in four days! I need station instructors; I’m teaching CP102, who wants to help?

I have been in the specialty coffee industry for roughly twelve years, but have only gotten involved in the SCAA and BGA over the past three. I attended the first annual Camp Pull-a-Shot last year as a student, seeking my level one and two barista certification. I succeeded in passing level one and completing level two coursework. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the labs, and the campfire discussions even more. I learned a lot and really connected with all of the wonderful baristas and instructors that I met. I came away thinking that the biggest benefit was getting to “play” with new and different equipment and getting to complete so many of the certification courses in such a short time-frame. I enjoyed the team competitions and the campfire camaraderie, but didn’t grasp their significance at the time. When I got home and started receiving emails and Facebook friend requests from fellow campers, it really dawned on me that we had really been building relationships; adding to a very close-knit and AMAZING barista-community.

I went to the SCAA Event in Houston this past April and reconnected with many of those that I met at camp. I took and passed the level two certification, spent a ton of time volunteering in the BGA cafe, and tried to meet and talk with as many baristas as I could. I attended the BGA party at the end of the expo weekend and thoroughly enjoyed rubbing elbows with BGA chapter reps and executive council members. It really cracked me up that we were in this amazing little bar, incredibly crowded, most of us were quite intoxicated, and we were still all talking about coffee and how to make it better. How cool is that?!

I decided I needed to get more involved: I took it upon myself to attend the instructor development program taught by Ellie, Anne, and Heather at Dillanos Coffee. Again I was impressed with the level of passion and commitment of all of the attendees—whether they were baristas, sales-staff, or even roasters.

I couldn’t wait to go back to camp.

Year two of BGA camp was even better; for me personally, and for the barista community at large. I attended as an instructor this year: teaching CP102 (Intro to Espresso part 2) as a lead and then station instructing in GE103 (Intro to Cupping). I found instructing to be very rewarding; I learned a lot from the students—from the questions they asked, and from listening to them discuss amongst themselves.

Everything was so much more organized and flowed more smoothly than year one (Hooray for Marcus, Amber, Lilly, Claire, Anne, and well…EVERYONE who helped set up and schedule). The sponsors were amazing, especially the equipment sponsors. The team challenges were amazing: I’ve never seen so many crazy people in one place! (Of course I think my team was the best, but I was pretty impressed with everyone.) Having never attended camp as a child, I was skeptical of such shenanigans, but they were fun (and better planned this time) and I know they strengthened our connections with each other.

I made so many new friends this year, and embarrassed myself ever so much, but it was fun!

There are still many things that I feel could be improved upon, and I’m sure they will be. Baristas gave a lot of good feedback and there was much productive discussion amongst instructors. I did feel that we missed out on good campfire discussions; we didn’t have Aida Battle or Peter G. to lead discussions about seed to cup or the role of the barista, or to play us songs on the accordion and guitar. We missed Gianni, of course.  Maybe he’ll be back next year to show us all a proper keg-stand. I plan on coming back, I know it will keep on getting better.