Well I arrived home from the 2012 Golden Bean Coffee Conference and Competition about 7 pm last evening. The trip was punctuated with a late arrival at Sydney from Maroochydore Airport, resulting in my missing the connection on the next flight home. The airline kindly, efficiently and without fuss put me on the next available flight resulting in a 1.5 hour wait in the terminal, that was put to good use!
That said and after having had 3 great days at Golden Bean, there was no stress!
They're having a "free day" today and finishing off with the presentation dinner tonight. My compliments to all that have worked hard enough to win something in the comp and even to everyone else that submitted their entries.
The standard of coffee making this year was excellent. I was never presented with a badly made coffee, making judging that bit easier. There were times on my table when particular entries were asked to be "re brewed", and that was to check that whetever the judges detected in the particular coffee was indeed the coffee and not the way it had been brewed.
I'm not going to say anything about the standard of entries at this point and particularly as the organisers will have a much better overview of the total.
The seminars were very very good and I suggest anyone (industry) that didnt attend missed out on some good speakers and topics. Both topics yesterday (Utz Certified - fair trade movement / sustainability, and Cafe Pulse - surveys, stats and their use to improve your business) were eye openers. Mark Beattie (Coffee Roasters Australia) gave a very informative talk on Wednesday, and of course those I've left out (including keynote speaker Chuck Hahn) were also very well received ( and in the case of Chuck Hahn, very funny as well - what a great public speaker).
I'd also like to mention the Beer Matching Dinner (degustation) was well worth the attendance!
Lastly, my sincere compliments and best wishes to Sean and his Cafe Culture team, for putting on a very professional Conference and Comp.
Rgdz,
Attilio
very first Crema site sponsor