ST. ALI @ SCAA « ST. ALi

ST. ALI @ SCAA

Posted in Uncategorized by mattjohn on May 3, 2009

So the story goes a little something like this…

Don Salvatore comes in and says to me “hey matt, what you doing in the next two weeks…” Me being reluctant to commit to anything that far ahead said “not too sure, why?” Then he follows it up with “You wanna go to Atlanta? It will be fun…” By this stage I was looking for cameras in the room, anticipating a ‘gotcha’ from my fellow collegues. There were no cameras and the Don was serious. Next thing, I’m being pampered by Virgin…airline hostesses and on my way to Atlantic city for the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) 4 yearly event. This thing was massive! The World Championship Barista competition was being held there along with labs, lectures and tradeshows. It was 5 days of non-stop action. Even the nights were filled with excessive drinking and mingling amongst Australia’s best known coffee brands. Biggest highlight was hanging with the Slayer boys. These guys were exceptionally good blokes, not to mention genius’. If you’ve ever seen or played with their new machine, or even just hung out with them, you’ll see why.

Overall, the trip was likened to cramming in study before a big exam, only a hell of a lot more fun. The guys I’d like to thank, who babysat and introduced me to the world of coffee are Maria Paoli, Elenora Genevese, Kenton and of course Don Sal. Photos courtesy of the Slayer boys

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