My Personal Guide to CoffeeCon NY

by | May 31, 2016 | Consumer Coffee Festival | 0 comments

_MG_6332_1CoffeeCon comes to Brooklyn for one-day only this coming Saturday, June 4. If you’ve longed for a coffee festival on par with the best wine, beer or food events CoffeeCon is for you. As you know, coffee is truly a culinary food item which means a world of recipes and measuring tools. To achieve at-home perfection, you need to learn how to find, taste, and brew it. Unlike any other consumer coffee event, CoffeeCon specific hands-on learning in classes held throughout the day taught by experts so that you will transform your skills.

CoffeeCon has twenty of the top local and regional roasters continuously craft brewing all day. Your ticket gives you free samples from all of these folks. Talk about a genius bar!

Sample as much as you like, but leave room for samples you’ll brew yourself. You want to learn to brew with what? A French Press? Chemex? Hario V-60? Hario Syphon (the coolest looking of all with their infrared heaters)? Oh, and do you know how to brew both ways (inverted?) using the Aeropress? We have classes and even hands-on labs. The Aeropress lab is being taught by a recent world champion AeroPress champ Rusty Obra. There’s even a several thousand dollar commercial Alpha Dominche Steampunk machine set up for you to try.

How’s your grind? Did you know you can learn all about grinding, perhaps the most underrated of all factors in coffee brewing? I wrote two books about coffee and I know this and so do my industry colleagues.

Have you shrunken back from making your own barista-grade espressos? We have a home espresso class using La Marzocco gear neither of us would be allowed to touch in a café. Oh, and don’t forget latte art? Aaron Owens from Toby’s Estate will be teaching his techniques.

One thing I never understood is why the vast majority of Turkish coffee, the world’s oldest method, is still made in restaurants using canned, mediocre pre-ground coffee. Turgay Yildizli is the World Champion ibrik (Turkish coffee’s real name) expert and he’s reinvented this method using modern Bow Truss keep pouring all daysourcing and roasting methods.

If you’ve read either of my two books or visited my blog you know how important I think grinding is. I’ve said it before: “Grinding is the least understood key to brewing greatness”. Yet I still see $500 coffee brewers flanked by spinning blade grinders. Our grinding class, taught by industry guru Chris Spatz will clear up any confusion about grinding’s role in your coffee and how to achieve it on a middle class income.

A seldom-understood tool to improve coffee is your own sense of taste and analysis. Learn to taste from Café Grumpy’s folks, who will share their wisdom on palate development, maximizing your enjoyment from every cup of coffee you brew._MG_6727

The ultimate dark side of coffee is roasting. I warn you. Roasting is addictive. It may start with tossing some green (unroasted) coffee beans into a home air corn popper. The moment you witness the alchemy converting these cherry seeds into flavor-busting coffee beans, you’re hooked. Behmor’s Joe Behm and Theta Ridge’s Kevin Kuyers are home roasting’s dynamic duo, and should thoroughly engage you to mortgage your condo and lose yourself in the world of home roasting. It’s an entire coffee subculture. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

_MG_6671The Future of Coffee Panel is where a few of us discuss where the bean is heading. We’re going to discuss brewing and even attempt to stay on topic! I want to ask our experts if we’re getting to the day when automatic brewing will supersede manual brewing as the best way to achieve flavor perfection. We’ll talk about new connected technologies that allow users (you and me) to share our brewing formulas, including micro tweaks between our brewers so that we can finally do what any self-respecting two craft beer enthusiasts can… taste the same identical beverage consumed at two different times and locations.

_MG_2177The Sustainability Panel, chaired by Coffee Review.com’s founder, Kenneth Davids, will attempt to explain and present some solid ways we can use our power as consumers to achieve market justice and ensure a lifetime of high quality coffee, no mean feat. I’d like to point out I believe in this objective enough to personally fund this panel. I’ve asked Kenneth Davids, whose bio would read longer than this article, to share his reviewing methodology in a special class. If you ever wondered what goes into reviewing the coffees and how he chooses between two top performing beans, you’ll be amazed at his vast knowledge and matter-of-fact way of sharing it.

Did I mention that it’s the 75th anniversary of one of my favorite brewing methods? The Chemex was invented in New York in 1941, during both a glass and paper shortage! To honor this event, we’ll host the Chemex Pop Up Museum, which is free with your ticket, as sort of event within the event. You’ll see old vintage Chemexes, many designs from the mind of Peter Schlumbohm, the Chemex inventor. Several products, including non-coffee ones, were produced and we have the samples, most which have never before been seen.

I’ve been known to stop his pause on Netflix and snap a photo when I spot a vintage coffee maker in an old film or TV show. Perry Mason reruns are always rife with vintage siphon brewers! Imagine my happy shock when Steven Rea’s book Café Cinema came out recently. Even better, Mr Rea and I met on the phone and he consented to appearing at our NY CoffeeCon where he’ll bring some rare film clips, more photos and tales about Hollywood and coffee.

No event happens in my family without food and we’ll have an assortment of treats that come under the heading coffee and… to help you pace yourself. These generous food crafters are hoping to sell you a larger quantity but that’s voluntary. Just take one taste to be sure. Haha

Oh, and last but not least, we have prize drawings. Cool prizes. Lots of them, including brewers and grinders. All attendees are eligible with a ticket.

More ticket options. 3-hour pass for $23 either morning or afternoon sessions, all-day experience for $30 and 4 tickets for the price of 3″ options available.

The event takes place from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Industry City 233 37th Street Brooklyn, NY 11232, a vintage space, perfect for our caffeinated one-day event.