I've been meaning to blog about the SCAA Conference in Long Beach, and I've had considerable trouble getting it done. I've started several times and not finished. I wouldn't be surprised if this is another false start. But I'll give it another shot. It’s been a while now.

SCAA
Hmm, where to start?
I guess I should start by saying that Amy Ferraris and I recorded three podcasts while I was in San Francisco, and we talked about a lot of what I experienced on my trip. Listen to AA Cafe #42, 43, and 44.

So I flew into Long Beach, after spending a cold night on the hard, air conditioned floor of the Dallas airport. I checked in at the LONG line in the convention center. Then I went for a walk around by the water, looking for a spot to spend the night. I found one (I thought) and then found a bar that served 175 beers on tap. During my stay I tasted the many Belgian and Belgian-style ales available at the Yard House. So distracted, I almost missed the keynote speech by Jackie's son, David Robinson (he owns a coffee plantation in Tanzania). David didn't seem all that interested in being there anyway.

Then I went to the big welcoming party at the Aquarium. Tons of people were there. I met my new friend Robin from Kenya, who introduced me to a lot of other African coffee people over the course of the weekend. And after the party, I walked down to the place I had found to lay my head, on a dirt trail down by the water, under a low tree branch. But when I got there, I found a homeless man in my spot. I guess I'm better at picking out places to sleep than I thought.

So I eventually lay down on a concrete bench on top of the walkway that led to the convention center. But it got really cold there. (I may discuss in this blog at at later date why I slept outside instead of in a hotel.) (Or maybe not.)

The convention (for me) basically consisted of some classroom lectures and the tradeshow. A few of the lectures were outstanding. My favorite was about sensorial evaluation of coffee by Paul Songer. The amount of knowledge and information he was giving us was incredible, and unfortunately they cut him off because they thought his presentation was too long. I feel that the monitor should realize when something exceptional is happening (like when the holy spirit is moving in a charismatic congregation) and keep it rolling.
The seminar about the changing coffee scenarios in Rwanda was very interesting as well, and Tim Schilling clearly has his shit together. He's way out of my league.
Kentaro Maruyama from Japan spoke on buying coffee from micro-mills and farmers. He was a funny, intelligent, excited guy, and it was inspirational to listen to someone who took a primitive coffee situation in Japan and surpassed what most of us are able to do in the U.S.
The worst "educational" session I was subjected to was called "The Pursuit of Excellence: Living Coffee Quality." Now, you can probably see why I was attracted to this. I guess I was hoping to be among fellow coffee purists; to have my opinions bolstered; to be encouraged and maybe even learn new ways of "living coffee quality." They were disorganized, unprepared, and irritating. Most of the time they talked about organic certification and the SCAA Gold Cup certification, which is really lame. Organic certification has nothing to do with the quality of coffee and Gold Cup teaches you how much coffee to use and how hot your water should be when you brew drip coffee; seriously, if you don't know how to make drip coffee, you might consider a different line of work. The panel of "experts" discussed things like whether or not you should put a cup under the brewer while it’s still brewing, how your market “demands” dark roasted coffee even though someday you’d rather not roast so dark, and the fact that people ask for certified organic and fair trade coffees instead of asking about quality. The panel focused, not on quality, rather on the certifications that marketers buy for coffee. And their ramblings were awkward and insipid. I sat as long as I could because I think it’s rude to leave in the middle of a presentation, but eventually I couldn’t stand it any more. I wanted to stand up and confess: I used to sell decaf. I used to sell blended drinks. I still have chocolate and vanilla flavor syrups. I used to make an exception and give a cab driver espresso in a to-go cup. I used to have employees. They wouldn’t have known what I was talking about. If this is the “coffee quality” that the SCAA advocates, I’m not particularly interested in being involved.

The tradeshow was more worthwhile. I met a lot of people there. I finally met Nick Cho from Portafilter.net and Murky Coffee in DC. And I met Jay Caragay of Jay’s Shave Ice and co-host of the Portafilter podcast. I was excited to meet George Howell of Terroir Coffee. He’s a legend in the industry, and it was nice to see that we kept running into each other at the same places, talking to the same people. I met Vince Piccolo of 49th Parallel Roasters in Vancouver. And his friends Alistair and Rob from Elysian Coffee (also the admin guys for Coffeed.com). I also got to talk to the two fellers (Zander and Randy) who own the Clover company. I got the thorough explanation/demonstration of how the Clover works and drank plenty of coffee from it. World Barista Champ, Klaus Thomsen was working for Clover and I was pleased he remembered me from our brief visit at La Minita in January. The coffee world really is a small place. My broker, Drew Zent, from La Minita was there showing off his coffees, and he was nice enough to let me stow away my backpack in his room during the day so I wouldn’t have to lug it around the showroom floor (and I even took a shower in his room one day; what a luxury). Drew is always very nice and generous; I’m a loyal (though small) customer and I hope they consider me a friend. Who else did I meet?
I met a young lady named Claudia who works for the Colombian Coffee Federation, and she was very nice, even though I’m such a small player in the industry that they don’t have any business talking to me. Most of my time was spent tracking down people from other countries, trying to figure out how to connect with smaller farmers and get to know the people who produce my coffees. I also talked to my broker from Royal Coffee, Jeri, who generously invited me to come to their office outside of San Francisco and cup with her.
The convention had complimentary breakfast, which was nice even though the pastries were pre-packaged CRAP and the complimentary coffee was absolutely terrible. (I drank Mountain Dew to dull the headache.)
I remember when I first met Claudia from Colombia (and her friend Carolina), I mentioned to them how amazing it was that Vietnam had recently surpassed them in coffee production and Colombia was now third to Vietnam and Brazil. Claudia retorted that they would never be surpassed in quality. What a gal. And that’s how it is at the DoubleShot. We’ll never be the biggest coffeehouse, but I’ll be damned if we’re going to be outdone in quality.

Most of the notes in my journal are tasting notes from the beers I was sampling twice a day at the Yard House. My one poor-man’s luxury. And going to see Ryan every day at his uncle’s concession, Tugboat Pete’s, for a hotdog or italian sausage and some fritos.

Long Beach was a beautiful place. The views were great. The weather was great (except for being really cold at night). The ocean was beautiful. I spent one afternoon walking down to the actual beach. I walked so much that I had blisters on my feet, carrying a 50# backpack everywhere. The sand and waves and distant islands and boats were a relief to my senses. The sounds and smell of the ocean helped clear the stress from my head. The people who live there seem content. One day I was walking down to see Ryan and get a hot dog, and I noticed that a large crowd had gathered. There were a bunch of pirates. They were dressed very convincingly, carrying swords and one of them even had a parrot. The pirates put on a little skit, sword fights and all, and we very much enjoyed their enthusiasm.

It was as if I was existing in three different worlds in Long Beach - the coffee world, the local/tourist life, and the nighttime homeless existence (with all its interesting encounters).

Now that I’ve finally finished this blog, I’ll try to write about San Francisco soon. In the mean time, listen to the podcasts and drink DoubleShot Coffee.