Coffee Fest Day 2: Murky Night, Anne Competes, Murky Morning, and Chocolate Day

So that night we went to the Murky Arlington Party where we were invited in with this sign:

fabulous

We talked with Darlene and Carol from Gorilla Coffee for a while until we got separated, and then Liz Clayton and Canada (aka Amber Fox) showed up and we hung out in the green room, which was full of open bags of coffee. Then Murky Liz got there and a good time was had by all. But unfortunately, Anne had to go to sleep early so she could compete in the morning and we bade the party adieu.

Anne went fourth at the Latte Art Competition the next morning. She managed to get her three drinks off, and even Heather Perry seemed impressed with them:

And the scores were:

Unfortunately, her scores weren’t enough to get her into the finals, but we’re happy anyway, and next time, she’ll do better.

After Anne competed, we left the convention center and went down to the Southeast to visit Murky Capitol Hill, where Murky Liz was working. We were looking forward to the mythic weekend lines we’ve been told about at this store. Given our past history of missing the line everywhere we go (see San Francisco), I wasn’t too surprised when we managed to get our drinks in 5 minutes, though the line was certainly in evidence.

left: the line. right: Liz makes us some drinks (striped shirt)

We’ve been to this shop before, and were mostly here to see Liz, but they were very busy. So we spent a little while watching the controlled chaos that is Murky Coffee, and then got some food from the crepe man down the street (thanks for the tip, Liz), and got back to the convention center just in time for it to open.

Saturday was chocolate day for us, and we spent most of it collecting samples to bring back to El Beit for Dan Griffin to use with his mochas. We collected several of them while we were there, and are having a bunch more sent. My favorite, personally, was the Guittard chocolate. It was rich, and I already know it’s good in mochas, because it is used by Vivace in their drinks (my personal favorite mocha, too).

We also managed to drink an extraordinary amount of coffee, splitting time between the guys at PT’s and Steve at Intelligentsia. We also ate lots of free pastries, and even talked to some nice people from Rainforest Alliance, whom we hope to see again this week.

Also, here’s a picture of us with Jeff Taylor from PT’s:

As the last item of the day before finding our way to Counter Culture later, they announced the finalists for the Barista Competition. Of the finalists, two were from Murky (Anne Boatner and Randy Kindle), one was from Caffe Pronto in Atlanta (Jeremy Sterner), and three were from Aldo (Belle, John, and Sonja). That Aldo sent all three of their entrants to the finals is amazing! Go Aldo!

~ by neoney on February 19, 2008.