CoffeeCon, the consumer coffee festival, is unique. Our goal is to offer you the chance to try the world’s beans. The world’s roasts, and the world’s brewers. Each one of these is a variable. Let’s look at each one.
Every Bean – Coffee beans. Even a few years ago it was common to assume that a Colombian bean was, well a Colombian bean. This is partly because in earlier times beans were collectively gathered and transported as a commodity. One of the benefits of our modern age is the ability to maintain a single farm’s crop separately throughout the process from its being picked, processed, shipped, roasted – all the way to your cup. You may find a one Colombian farm’s coffee at CoffeeCon tastes different than any you’ve tasted before, and different from a neighboring farm. Multiply this factor beyond regional, bean lineage, farming practices and soil and climate condition variances within regions and you’ll see how you can spend the entire day comparing coffees at CoffeeCon.
Roast – Beyond varieties, be sure to try some of the same coffee beans, roasted to different levels. Even a few seconds can transform the flavor profile of a given bean. Sometimes you can’t even see a difference between two coffees, but if one is roasted longer, it imparts a significant flavor. At CoffeeCon, we are proud to invite a variety of roasters. Some like to roast just enough to allow the beans to be ground. They are proud of their light touch in the roaster. Other roasters are determined to explore a longer roast, where pronounced roast sugars develop. Still others want to take us to a darker roast. Many coffee roasters specialize on one roast and that’s why we invite them all. We at CoffeeCon believe in roast diversity. It’s part of coffee’s culinary experience. You can walk around and sample the artisan skill that our roasters have and their determination to find the perfect sweet spot of roast of each coffee.
Brewing – Perhaps the most surprising difference to many people is how different a given coffee tastes when brewed in two different types of coffeemaker. Some brewing methods highlight different flavors, acidity versus body or even different mouthfeels, and we’re talking about brewing methods performing within industry specifications. No matter how astute one is at reading product packages or how thorough our pre-purchase research, there is no substitute for tasting coffee, properly prepared from several different brewers to decide which one is your favorite. CoffeeCon gives us this opportunity. As a special treat, given the popularity of single serve brewers, we are planning a single serve section, where you can compare these units to your heart’s content.
CoffeeCon allows you to become thoroughly experienced in a beautiful, atmosphere among others taking the same journey.