Find us at this year's Specialty Coffee Association Expo in Portland, Oregon, April 21-23! You can see us and our products at booth 909 during this time. Read more about our time there in this blog post here.
At our brew bar, we’ll have some special features from a range of coffee and tea companies. Check out the schedule below to see who’ll be brewing when you stop by.
Friday Coffee 10:30 - 11:30 – Camber Coffee
Friday Coffee 11:30 - 12:30 – Sweet Bloom
Friday Tea 2:00 - 4:00 – Smith Tea
Saturday Coffee 10:30 - 11:30 – Black & White
Saturday Coffee 11:30 - 12:30 – Olympia Coffee Roasters
Saturday Coffee 1:00 - 2:00 - Presta Coffee
Saturday Tea 3:00 - 4:00 – Spirit Tea
Sunday Coffee 10:30 - 11:30 – Sweet Bloom
Sunday Coffee 11:30 - 12:30 – Port of Mokha
We also spoke to a number of those who will be guesting at the bar and serving their delicious wares. Make sure to stop by for a sip and a chat if you're attending Expo!
Bean Voyage
Can you tell us a little bit about Bean Voyage and your role at the company?
Bean Voyage is a feminist non-profit social enterprise that collaborates with smallholder women coffee producers to build thriving coffee businesses. We currently work in Costa Rica and Mexico and provide training, seed capital, and market access to smallholder producers and their families. Sunghee is the co-founder and CEO and mostly oversees our Market Readiness Initiatives and our partnerships with market partners. Abhi is the co-founder, and Executive director and oversees our fundraising, partnerships, and operations at BV!
What will you be serving on the brew bar and what brew methods will you be using to make it?
We are excited to be bringing some delish washed and natural coffees from women-led farms and next-gen producers in Mexico! We will brew them using V60!
Is this your first time at Expo?
No, but our second time together
Do you use Acaia at your work and how?
We LOVE our Pearl and use it during cupping, and brewing coffee!
Sweet Bloom
Can you tell us a little bit about Sweet Bloom and your role at the company?
My name is Eric Yochim and I'm one of the owners here at Sweet Bloom. I've been in the Coffee and Service industries for about 23 years and have fallen deeply in love with the hospitality aspects of our work. Building and maintaining relationships with our team, our community, and the coffee producers around the world are the beautiful aspects of our business that keep me passionate about making sure Sweet Bloom continues to be an organization led by honesty and integrity, and serves our communities wholeheartedly.
What will you be serving on the brew bar and what brew methods will you be using to make it?
We'll be serving an incredible Washed Pink Bourbon from Producer Juan Jimeñez in Huila, Colombia. We've been experimenting in our cafes with the Simplify Brewer and we're liking it. So we'll be sharing this new method with all of you!
Is this your first time at Expo?
Finally! Yes, after all these years I'll thankfully get to my first Expo.
Do you use Acaia at your work and how?
How don't we use Acaia scales?!! They are everywhere! In our cafes, roastery, training lab, bakery... We use them for espresso preparation on all levels, and we've even built out custom pour-over bars with embedded Acaia scales.
Olympia Coffee Roasters
Can you tell us a little bit about Olympia and your role at the company?
My name is Nathan! I'm honored to represent Olympia Coffee. The company is based out of Olympia, Washington. They orient around two central themes: quality of life and quality coffee. Olympia Coffee intentionally works to improve the lives of everyone who plays a role in getting that little coffee seed turned into that magic in a cup. I work as the lead barista at the West Seattle cafe. I do my best to facilitate all-around good times and consistent and delicious coffees for us and our guests.
What will you be serving on the brew bar and what brew methods will you be using to make it?
For espresso, I'm stoked to be pulling some Worka Natural from Ethiopia. I'll also be brewing up our Clinton Ossa Micro Lot 31 from Colombia using my Origami dripper recipe.
Is this your first time at Expo?
This is my first time at Expo and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.
Do you use Acaia at your work and how?
I use Acaia literally every day haha. I have a Pearl and Lunar at home so I use those for my filter and espresso workflow. In the cafe, we use a Pearl to double-check our doses and weigh syrups as well as one for pour-overs. We also use a Lunar to weigh our yields for espresso.
Spirit Tea
Can you tell us a little bit about Spirit Tea and your role at the company?
Taylor: We started Spirit with a simple (but in practice difficult) mission: to make the beauty of handcrafted tea accessible. We started the company to share the true talent - the beautiful places, people, and stories - behind tea's creation. That was eight years ago. I'm more astonished than anything to say we haven't waivered since. I'm a co-founder but on a day-to-day basis, I'm the Brand Director and Head of Tea Education. Because so much of what we do has to do with sharing and educating folks, the two things are conveniently linked. In short, I ensure that what we talk about is what we do and that the values we embody within and without the company are commensurate. We are so lucky to have the talented group of folks we have on our team—very fortunate.
What will you be serving on the brew bar and what brew methods will you be using to make it?
I'm going to be serving a few different teas. The first is an experimental commission from an organic cooperative in Yunnan: a floral and honeyed yellow tea production. There are several infusion methods, temperatures, and times that work well for this tea. I won't give away too much but I'm excited for folks to try! I'll also be serving a Japanese gyokuro made by Omura san, our centenarian friend who retired from teamaking last year after more than seventy years of tea making. He is a true living treasure and lucky for us, gyokuro ages well. One thing that people may not know is that because of its deliberate shade-growing, the tea can be made with virtually any temperature and a variety of different intensities of dose. And I intend to do just that.
Lastly, depending on how fast our dear couriers reach our shores, I may also share a brand new harvest of Mr. Luo's #23 'Qi Yun' white tea. The early spring harvest needs to be experienced because it carries with it so much of the sensory elation that the turning of the season brings. It carries a natural lemon balm sweetness. If you are mindful of your ratio, white tea leaf material can be expressed in so many dynamic contexts: full-bodied and plush, acidic and sweet, even airy and pound cakey.
How do you use Acaia at Spirit Tea?
Incessantly. We've loved the Pearl Model S since we made a brew guide for our Exuding Jade on it, but our main scale is a black Pearl. At home, I have a very early version of the Pearl that I effectively stole from my barista roommate because I was using it so much for tea brewing (don't worry—he made me pay for it before he moved to LA). Once Acaia makes a Matcha grinder we'll be your first customers for it!
Black and White Coffee Roasters
Can you tell us a little bit about Black and White?
Black and White Coffee Roasters is the brainchild of two US Barista Champions. Founded in 2017, Kyle and Lem were inspired by the coffee they experienced at the competitive level and wanted to make those coffees as widely available as possible. We’re committed to connecting people to the most interesting and approachable coffees that we can find. We strive to be more than just a quality coffee roaster - we hope to challenge ourselves and our customers to push the envelope of what specialty coffee ‘should’ be and how it should taste.
B&W is guided by our three core values: Service, Community, and Excellence.
B&W is guided by our three core values: Service, Community, and Excellence.
We carry an attitude of hospitality into every interaction we have with our customers, coworkers, and industry partners. We aim to go above and beyond what’s expected of us to help create enjoyable and meaningful experiences with everyone that we meet.
It is our journey and the community we’ve built along the way that makes Black & White Coffee possible. We understand that none of this would be possible without the generous and kind relationships we’ve enjoyed over the past five years, and continuing to foster that same spirit of kindness and generosity is a huge part of what it means to be Black & White.
Excellence is the application of our commitment to service and community. It’s constantly striving to increase our attention to detail and fine-tune the execution of our craft. We have a healthy sense of competition--especially as it relates to the past version of ourselves.
What will you be serving on the brew bar and what brew methods will you be using to make it?
We plan to use the Kalita wave. We will be serving "The Future” - we made a new version of this coffee especially for Expo so it will be a surprise! ;)
Is this your first time at Expo?
It is not our first time at Expo.
Do you use Acaia at your work and how?
We use Acaia scales at our roasters and cafes from dialing in to bar flow.