The Village Jam

The Village Jam:  JJ Bean Yaletown.

On Sunday everyone in the coffee industry (professionals, fanatics, and professional fanatics) were invited to JJ Bean Yaletown for a barista jam.  

Thanks to the charismatic Shawn Barber who planned and mc’d the event, and I’m sure a ton of anonymous others, it was a success.

The turnout was even bigger than I had expected, and people from (almost) all around the city came.  Elysian Room, Re-Entry, Transcend, Coffee Geek, Ethical Bean, and us (Crema) to name a few.  If you had walked in unknowing JJ was a cafe, you might have also thought it was an Digital SLR convention as well.  Maybe it has something to do with attention to detail and craft, but whatever the reason, every barista happens to love photography and has an SLR.  I dare you to prove me wrong.  Aaron De Lazzer one up’d everybody by going old school and bringing in a black and white film camera.  You can view them here.

One of my favorite things about getting a whole bunch of baristas in the same room is seeing all the different styles we have for pulling shots.  Matt from Re-Entry had a pretty sweet 2 hand dose and tamp.

For the cupping part of the night, 9 mystery coffees were set along a few tables with numbers behind each one.  You also had a piece of paper with 12 coffees (yes, 12) and had to try to match the bean with the name.  It was incredibly hard.  Jeff from Ethical won, matching just under half of them.

After the cupping we did a shot pull contest.  The rules were simple:

2 judges.  2 shots.  2 minutes.  No grind changing.  There were 3 different blends to use, JJ Espresso, Vivace, and Ethical.  Whoever pulled the best of each blend would go on to the final round and shoot the new 2 bean organic blend from the Elysian Room.  CBC was also there apparently doing a piece on coffee culture or something for the radio.  John Neate is here explaining what is going on, and along with Mark Prince from Coffee Geek, the 2 were the first pair of judges.

Grady won the shot pulling contest, beating out Johnny (crema) and Travis (jj) in the finals. 

 

Finally, at close to what must have been 10:30 or 11 o’clock, it was time for the Latte Art Throw Down.  At this point there were probably only about 20 of us remaining, but it must have been the loudest 20 because the place was still going strong.  Music was turned up, and the judges gathered around the pass bar.  

It was time.  

Alex from JJ Yaletown pulled all the shots, so consistency was not an issue.  

My latte art score was high and remained on top for just about the whole event - 

that is until my brother Chris (crema) poured.  It was easily the best pour and took the crown hands down, leaving me in the dust and the crowd cheering.

It was most certainly a great night over all and I’m sure the success of it will encourage more similar nights Who knows – maybe it will even become a regular event?  For such a serious coffee culture that we apparently have in Vancouver, sometimes it seems we lack coffee community.  Here’s to change -