While the organizers of Coffee Fest plan for next year’s stop in Seattle, I’m just getting around to writing about this year’s show.  It was the first time that I had attended a Coffee Fest, the specialty coffee industry’s tradeshow with stops in Chicago, New York City, and Seattle.

     It was a great experience, with a very happy ending, as you’ll see below.

Aeropress was one of the exhibitors.  They have created a new brewing method that involves forcing hot water through the ground coffee into your cup.  It was cool that I just recently bought this coffee maker, so that I had time to try it at home before bring my questions to the exhibitor.  I wanted to be sure I’m getting the most out of it.  It was Jeremy Adams, owner of Portland’s Cellar Door Coffee, that had introduced me to the Aeropress.

Read: The Aeropress Brewing Method
Read: Profile: Cellar Door Coffee

     Nesco was another exhibitor.  They have designed the home roasting system that I use to roast green coffee beans for myself at home.  I found it interesting that they would exhibit at a tradeshow for roasters who do professionally what the Nesco unit allows you to do to some extent at home.  While a representative from Nesco described the system to a coffee lover, my timing was good to back up what he was saying, and how much I have enjoyed and relied on my own.

Read: Why Roast Your Own Coffee at Home?
Read: Introduction to Roasting Coffee

     There were a couple exhibitors on hand from the chocolate business.  There are so many similarities between coffee and chocolate, including how they are grown and the rich diversity of flavors.  I met a representative from Guittard Chocolate and described to him how much I was starting to enjoy dark chocolate, and have been writing about it.

Also on hand was the Portland Roasting Coffee, named by Roast Magazine as the 2012 macro roaster of the year.  Speaking of which, Roast Magazine themselves were on hand, and I was able to catch up with founder and publisher, Connie Blumhardt.

Read: Profile Roast Magazine

     And the happy ending I mentioned earlier?  After a week of travel, I returned home,  to find waiting for me at my door…16 POUNDS of chocolate courtesy of Guittard Chocolate.  I had mentioned that I’d love to try their dark chocolates from different sources, and they came through with more chocolate than I know what to do with.

The Seattle Coffee Fest was a fun experience, and my first coffee trade show.  As a coffee lover, it was interesting and enlightening.  Tradeshows keep their industry informed and educated, and as a coffee lover, it was cool to be a part of it.

     I recently sat down for a (wait for it…) coffee with Connie Blumhardt, founder and publisher of Roast Magazine, headquartered in Portland, Oregon and serving as a “technical” trade journal for the specialty coffee industry.  More on “technical” later.

Connie let me decide where we would meet, and I happily chose Coava Coffee Roasters on SE Grand Ave.  It has sentimental value to me as one of the first roasters I visited in Portland before I even moved here.

With over 15 years of background in magazine publishing, and the last ten of that in the coffee industry, Connie is a familiar face in the specialty coffee industry, and certainly in a Portland roastery.  We had a great conversation covering different aspects of the coffee business, and particularly the opportunities to raise awareness of quality among coffee drinkers.  I asked my most burning question first: “How does Connie make good coffee at home?”

     Connie was sure to preface her answer by letting me know that she is not a coffee snob.  I’m learning how relative a term that is, because I call myself a coffee snob, and Connie is a coffee black belt compared to me.  Connie uses a Technivorm coffee maker, favors coffees from African regions, and gets her beans from Batdorf Coffee out of Olympia, WA.

Ten years ago, the specialty coffee industry and its roasters were missing a technical trade journal.  Roast Magazine was founded with focus on all technical aspects of making the highest quality of coffee, from growing coffee to proper roasting to brewing, even to serving it.  If you buy your coffee from a local roaster, there is a good chance that they subscribe to Roast, and that means benefit from the knowledge that Roast provides.  Behind the scenes, this magazine is improving all of our coffee by facilitating the exchange of information in the industry. 

In fact, almost two thirds of roasters surveyed ranked it the industry’s most useful periodical, a full double the responses as the industry’s next most useful.

“Roast Magazine allows all of us roasters to share the outcomes and learn from each other as well as point-reference each other, which to me is amazing.” – Trainer, multi-store independent, West

I’ve been a subscriber for two years.  I was introduced to Roast when I saw a copy in London, Canada’s Fire Roasted Coffee Company.  Owner Dave Cook recommended it as reading not just for the industry professional, but for anybody interested in learning more about coffee.  I recommend the same.  While I am not a coffee roaster, there are several articles in each issue that are interested and enlightening to me as a coffee drinker.  You can learn more by visiting Roast Magazine’s website. 

Stay tuned!  Connie and I discussed a number of coffee-related topics that I look forward to sharing in the days to come.

And the next time I’ll see Connie?  This weekend at the Seattle Coffee Fest!  An industry gathering where Roast Magazine will most certainly have a presence.