Image courtesy of SCAA from the SCAA 2010 Symposium (Pool) on Flickr

For those of us from Europe who attended this year’s SCAA show in Anaheim, how we will remember it will probably be determined by whether we managed to get home in reasonable time, or whether we had to spend even more time enjoying the Californian sunshine than we intended. This is a pity, because overall, it was a good event: lively, well attended and thought provoking.

One of the interesting trends that was highlighted in the Symposium was the very definite move by a number of leading coffee bars back to filter coffee. Recent developments in single serve brewing are certainly spearheading this latest move. But it is also the theatre that can be created using the more traditional single cup pourover filters that has played a part in the decision of a number of the leading lights in the US coffee bar and café scene to aggressively push filter coffees.

True, a lot of the discussion centred on the question of whether customers would be prepared to wait for three to four minutes for their coffee to brew. But those who have embraced this latest wave argued that if you get your logistics and customer flow right, it gives the barista more time to talk to the customers, thereby enhancing the customer experience, without any loss in throughput. There was a degree of scepticism about this, but there is no doubt that those who have made the move seem to be more than happy with the results, and they highlighted the fact that the additional staff costs are outweighed by the reduction in waste.

The USBC went off well, amid lots of excitement, noise and enthusiasm, with last year’s winner Michael Phillips taking the crown again. Indeed it was repeats all round, with Ben Kaminsky once again claiming the Cup Tasting title, with Barrett Jones taking the Canadian title.

Of particular joy to me was the Leadership Medal of Merit award given by SCAA’s Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) to the most gracious and elegant woman in the business, Sunalini Menon. This thoroughly deserved recognition of an outstanding character, who has contributed so much to our appreciation and understanding of coffee quality, was applauded by all who were there.

The SCAA also recognised another really good friend, Gale Lingle, who received the outstanding contribution award, and Donald Schoenholt who was presented with the distinguished author award. For some unknown reason, the SCAA also gave me a special recognition award, which was very much appreciated and extremely flattering.

Mick