Coffeefest Recap Part II - The Show Floor

You can read the first part of my Coffeefest Recap here

Espresso to the Rescue

So with the Barista Training complete, it was time to hit the show floor and see what this whole Coffeefest thing was all about. I've been to a lot of trade shows in my time, some smaller and some larger then Coffeefest, but none as much fun. Of course a lot of my excitement could have been fueled by the dozen or so shots of espresso I had at the Barista training. And this just continued on the show floor as every other booth was serving either espresso, or lattes, or cappuccinos, or sort of caffeinated drink or food. There were all types of vendors there, from Roasters to Espresso Machine Makers to Bakers to Coffee Shops to Tea Suppliers to Gelato Makers to General Part Suppliers to pretty much anything to do with coffee that you can think of.  There was even an old ambulance that was converted to a mobile Espresso truck for sale there (picture to the right).

One of my favorite booths was the Cafe Vita booth where they were doing some very tasty pour overs using Coava's new Kone Coffee Filter.

They were also pulling some amazing shots from this manual espresso machine, which I found to be quite a visual experience.  I'm sure this is probably old hat to most in the coffee industry but I've never seen anything like it before.

I also enjoyed my time at the La Marzocco booth where I got to have some hands on with a 3 group Linea espresso machine with a automatic shot timer embedded in it (which came in very handy).

Other booths I really enjoyed were the Dippin Dots booth, the Seattle's Favorite Gourmet Cookies booth, the Synesso booth, and the Dillanos Coffee Roasters booth.

Everyone I talked to was very friendly, helpful, and patient with all my questions no matter how stupid they were.  I just wish I had more time to spend at each booth as there was just so much to see and learn.  So far Coffeefest has far exceeded any expectations I had and I still haven't even been to a lot of the classes I want to attend (that will be Part III).