I admit it. I’m a coffee nerd. It’s the logical progression: if you love food, love craft cocktails, love microbrewed beer, you’ll probably start loving small batch coffee.
And if you think you’re a nerd or a geek about wine, or cocktails, or beer: you’ve got nothing on the coffee nerd crowd.
A couple weeks ago I went to the Big Central Coffee championships, hosted by the local coffee bean importers, Cafe Imports. This thing was intense: each competitor had to make a cappucino and a specialty beverage. There were four judges for taste, one overall, and two for style. Seven judges per competitor. Whoa.
They had a 15 minute time limit. Sprudge did a nice write-up of each competitor and each round (which might have some of you reaching for the Folgers).
Cafe Imports is the real deal: I had Joe Marrocco on my TV morning show to talk about the competition, and he was kind enough to leave me some Sulawsi Toarco beans that he “just roasted the day before.” Frankly, I wish Joe would bring me a fresh batch of beans every week because holy crap, this is the best coffee I’ve ever had.
Here’s the segment: Coffee Championships
Have you found yourself nerding out ? What’s your favorite small batch, craft roasted, nerdtastic coffee in the Twin Cities?