you’ll find no USBC action here
May 6, 2007 – 11:55 amthis blog has long since ceased to hope for freedom from our ‘spro machine’s “tyranny of mechanical limitations“ — at least by the person who proffered the notion now more than a year ago. meanwhile, another fellow has modestly taken up the spadework, and now steadily offers nothing less than scintillating insight about how high is too high, say, or how quickly in declension one’s brewing pressure should go.
funny thing about the bottom line, though: those burly i-talians manning their rudimentary espresso levers well nigh a century ago … they seem to have had a strong sense of what they were doing! so while we wait for someone to post anything resembling live-action updates from the u.s. barista championship (a busboy, a cameraman, anyone), this blog intends to apply its prehistoric, declining, spring-loaded pressure profile to a batch of fresh toscano.
we always said the lady riviera was our semi-injurious reflective weekend muse…
UPDATE: this blog isn’t the only one who appears to be flummoxed that, yet again, the people and organizations who claim to be zealous about the spread of transformative coffee are punting, yet again, on one of the no-brainers of easy, gimme evangelism. information. to consumers. flowing, preferrably in something close to real time. from seminal coffee events. such as the national barista competition, say.
instead, what we got is party pics.
UPDATE: almost as shocking as the first-time competitor who has made the final round is who isn’t there. billy? jon? whaaa?
UPDATE: james is right. the final results hold the potential to shock.
UPDATE: hints begin to surface about what happened to jon lewis, billy wilson and phuong tran — your obvious USBC favorites.
UPDATE: what does it say when the only substantive usbc event-blogging to date comes from a guy who has already returned to england?! we rest our case! (bonus competition cheap shot [it's tough love, we swear]: steve leighton, it turns out, was looking forward to the barista action, but the poor view and lack of atmosphere force him to conclude: “I hated the competition.” it’s one thing to disenfranchise the slobbering fanboys like this blog … it’s quite another to disenfranchise a decorated industry insider!)
UPDATE: actual insider perspective, now bubbling up in the comments.
UPDATE: as you ponder the infuriating, near-total lack of meaningful info about this country’s best practitioners of the barista craft, consider this:
* the barista mag people live-blogged last year’s nordic barista cup with photos, eyewitness accounts, etc. four days after this year’s u.s. national bash began, though, we still got nothing.
* cafe customers in pittsburgh want to know what happened. so do devoted nerds in greenville, s.c. but, the tuesday after, still nothing.
* norwegian blogger gauperaa first called this problem after the 2005 bash. more than two years later, we got nuthin’.
* CI‘s blog hits have soared this week, from people googling “usbc finalists,” “coffee billy wilson what happened?” and “jon lewis 2007 usbc.”
what they’re getting is … this blog’s summary from last year. 2006. meanwhile, it’s noon on the tuesday after our head-snapping winner was named. and still we got nothing.
UPDATE: annnnnnd, now we have a coffee personality who built his street cred on the sheer vitality of web-connected enthusiasts, dismissing calls (two years’ worth) for meaningful online coverage with this line: “a lot goes on at this show.”
after all, it’s not like the internet was accessible within, say, half a mile or so. oh, wait …
UPDATE: some long beach blogging, mostly from the trade show convention floor (not the competition), now hanging here … including a spectacular account of one competitor reblending his competitions beans backstage.
UPDATE: competitor scott lucey, apparently, live-roasted some coffee before the judges.
UPDATE: a mere 20 points, apparently, separated first and fifth place last weekend. join this blog in a hearty “schnaikes.”
UPDATE: if this over-unctious brouhaha gets this blog nothing else, we at least have an unheard-of missive from the dred-ed former southeast regional barista champeen lem butler! woohoo. why the trippiest barista on the coast is commenting now instead of, say, when we turned him into a puppet this blog has no idea.
Not sure where opinion ends and sarcasm starts in your entry… but I’m also surprised that I can’t find any “live-action” updates from the U.S. Barista Championship. Billy Wilson posted a the list of semi-finalists (on coffeed.com), but what’s going on today? (Sunday.)
I’m used to live-action reports from events such as MacWorld… Where are the coffee nerds who are also tech nerds? I’m especially surprised and disappointed that the SCAA isn’t posting any updates on their site.
hear, hear. i usually live-blog the competitions when i attend (the southeast regionals and last year’s charlotte show). in the past, mark prince has provided semi-current updates at coffeegeek. but the flow of info this year is just pitiful. nada.
i saw the semifinalist list. which is SOMEthing. but sheesh. everyone knows by now that die-hards the world over want to know what’s going on, flawed as the competitions are … and still they pass by the obvious, goodwill-building opportunity.
but then, i’ve ranted about this before. *sigh*
Hey you’ve got to party too all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
On a more serious note, I tried on Saturday to get nito the competition but the layout meant you were very far away from the action, and the atmosphere was non exisitant, I was REALLY looking forward to this part of my trip, and just couldn’t get sucked in.
And alas work calls so I had to leave early Sunday Morning so missed most of the compertiton. Can I be let off the hook please
excused, steve!
no, seriously, there are plenty of ways that the power and drama of competitions are poorly captured, thus frittering away the opportunity to engage and excite people. the layout is one of them, and has been argued before.
but this lack of basic competition info — this is the pits. no wonder my hits went through the roof last year … and i was driving two hours back from charlotte each day before blogging!
That is unfortunate that Steve did not enjoy the competition. I cannot speak for the atmosphere in the stands, as I tried to avoid watching the performances as much as possible. (I get too empathetic and consequently very nervous)
I can speak of the back competition room though.
This competition was probably the best so far for over-all cheer amongst barista. I enjoyed thoroughly the comradery of those involved. It was very chill, and surprisingly not very competitive. I am sad to see this weekend go, as it will be another year (ish) before I see my friends again.
I feel as if we have all grown to much more of a community, and look forward to seeing how we grown in the next year!
for the record, billy, i got nothing but respect for the toil and (apparently) community involved.
but dang it … you guys need a reporter amongst you, so the rest of the world can understand.
i’d love to hear the skinny. was the competition really that good? did you change up the caviar any?
And still there is nothing… I can’t find pics, reports, video or anything. The only sig drink I know of was Matt’s and that is because I asked him what it was a week or two ago.
I am beginning to wonder whether we are alone in finding this interesting, or wanting to know more…
i’ve been shaking my head four straight days. i’m on the verge of vertigo.
it occurs to be that the barista mag people did a decent job of blogging the nordic barista cup last year … and that it’s even more stunning to reflect on the total lack of usbc info in that light.
i believe people do want it. my hits have always soared when i blogged about the usbc.
turns out my hits are soaring NOW … because people are turning to google and getting last year’s stuff. sigh.
please be patient with all of us. it has been a long week, and we just want to come home to our friends and families. i am sure that you will be gettin’ all the visceral juice you need as soon as we’re all settled in.
to be clear, billy: no one — NO ONE — expects you, the competitor, to bring the juice.
not at all.
I’ve long known we’ve needed a reporter among us. There are many stories to be told. There’s always a touch of controversy. But the story this year has to be all about the community… and I’m sure that we have it within (among) ourselves to help the competition evolve into something where everyone’s gifts and coffees are celebrated.
In the meantime, Billy, Kevin, Danimal and myself are headed Francisco-ward for a dose of Ritual… and then on the road home.
And the hits keep on coming.
as i’ve said elsewhere, what i do here is NOT reporting. i do enough of that during the day. but the reporter-like sensibility of knowing what people want and DOING it … yeah. i agree. there has to be a way.
Just briefly to chime in and say that I also didn’t mean to come off as if I expected competitors to be posting about the show. Comps are hard f*cking work and leave you feel utterly, physically empty (well, maybe just me). Hope you guys have a great time touring the west coast. Can’t wait to be doing it myself next month!
Uh…
“UPDATE: annnnnnd, now we have a coffee personality who built his street cred on the backs of web-connected enthusiasts….”
Kinda harsh there Ben. I’d like to think (or at least hope) I built whatever cred by actually doing things. Not just riding on others’ coat tails. You know, I’ve been doing this for almost eight years now, and if I’m not mistaken, was the first “consumer” to be judging in barista comps long before most of the players today even really knew anything about them.
Just sayin…
you’re right on all counts, mark. didn’t mean to imply that you made it on others’ work. the phrase has been edited for clarity.
your dismissive remark leaves the impression (true or not) that you’re now “in the bubble” and not thinking about the appetites of the consumers you’ve spent eight years reaching.
that’s all.
but as i said before, i’m not picking a fight with you individually. your summaries posted more recently on CG are quite nice, and appreciated.
The problem is, it’s not a dismissive attitude. It’s more of a “if you want it so bad, maybe do it yourself” call out.
The show’s freaking busy. It’s NOT just the USBC. It’s a lot more. And to be honest, just about every single person involved at the USBC would rather use the precious minutes of time away from the USBC that they have to walk the floor. And I do mean “minutes”.
To be honest, I see the whining about a lack of up to the minute blogging as being more dismissive – or at least blinders-on thinking. It shows a lack of knowledge for what is actually going on at these events. For instance, you made a point of calling “the event” the USBC, but it’s only a part of what goes on every weekend in late April or May. It’s actually a giant trade show, and a lot of what goes on, on the show floor is just as interesting to most of the USBC participants as the USBC is itself.
For five years now, I’ve covered every SCAA. I’ve tried to give a mix of the USBC (WBC) elements and the show floor. In the past, it was weighted a lot towards the USBC because of my involvement in judging and the simple fact that I didn’t have time to walk the floor as much as I should have.
And dude, for several years, I was *the only one* doing anything remotely close to live blogging and visualizing the event for people like you and other coffee and espresso fans around the world. Before I came along, you either had to be really familiar with alt.coffee and use your imagination because there were no visuals, or you had to simply attend the show (or wait two months before the trades came in).
And this year, a poll of CG readers clearly stated that the USBC coverage was not their first choice – it was sixth or seventh down the list. I’m probably going to have more full coverage of the USBC than that request allowed for. But the priority was gathering as much intel and info from the show floor as possible for the things the majority of the readership of the website wanted.
Oh yeah – I like how you just lumped me into the “establishment” with your comment above. Ironically, just about every industry person would disagree with you. So I guess I’m in Limbo at best (hello dead babies), or in purgatory at worst.
Next year, put us all to shame – attend Minneapolis, post fifteen updates a day (with videos and audio, of course, along with top shelf photography), and I’ll shut the heck up.
you seem to still think i’m aiming at you. not in the least. there’s a difference between marvelling at your attitude toward online coverage and saying YOU should have been the one to do it.
a lack of knowledge about what goes on? you seem to forget 2006. i’ve tried to avoid tooting my horn in this debate, for fear of leaving the impression that i think someone should be doing what i did last year (there are a lot of ways to do it). but since you bring it up, i was there, drove back two hours every day, posted into the night and covered both the usbc and scaa convention exhaustively. photos, video, you name it. shuttled interested coffee people up, came back, took my wife and kids.
obviously, there’s a trade show. for the purposes of argument, i chose to focus mostly on the need for usbc coverage — that’s the most obvious no-brainer, to me.
woulda loved to do it this year. no dough. would love to do it next year. we’ll see.
as far as “the establishment,” well … it’s an observation i’ve made before. it’s amazing how amateur enthusiasts stop thinking like amateur enthusiasts once they become “known.” membership in the social club has its lures, i guess, and a disconnect with regular people seems to be a common collateral damage.
i respect you for ducking out of competition judging and calling the system as you see it, mark. and i’ve said so. but it remains profoundly shocking to me that, in 2007, in a world where event-blogging is your cheapest and most obvious evangelism tool, where every other trade show/annual event reconizes its “duh” importance, where the online demand is clearly there, we’re still quibbling about the obstacles and who should do it and whether it’s really that necessary and who’s calling out who.
booyahh! lem here for the first time….forgive me, but i rarely have time in my pocket to surf the net. prefer surfing waves, but just wanted to say thanks to all the baristas that showed me lots of love this past comp. it was my first time on the west coast. enjoyed myself to the fullest. seems like there was way more comradery behind the curtains this year than last…could be me…i am sort of an introvert. if anyone is ever in north kak…stop by the grind in chapel thrill and i’ll show ya ’round! easy.
lem! wow, man. is this a first? a world debut? an internet relic?
welcome. would love to hear more from you.
wait to you see my two group krups.lol.maybe i’ll put together a puppet show with it…..hahahaha.
we await with bated breath.
…oh yeah, for the record…i never commented on the puppet show before because i have been too busy laughing and forwarding it to my friends…i met the kats from ritual coffee while out in the LBC and they say they recite the show all day around their shop in SANFRAN…thanx for boosting my “celeb” status on the west coast.
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