Mid-West Regional Barista Competition

[Joe Marrocco]

The mid-west... you know... That empty space between all of the cool things like oceans and mountains and stuff... Anyway,... believe it or not we are here and love great coffee. We are ready to refine our skills and battle it out. Please show your love and support for us! Come and join us! Compete out of region with us! Judge! Volunteer! Send us good barista vibes!! It is hard being out here and we would love to have some encouragement. Yeah, yeah, yeah,... the Western Region is cool and all. Sure, the Northwest has that tight coffee community thing going. The Great Lakes are great and all. The South and South West are OOOoooozing with hospitality. Atlantic and Northeast are so trendy and hip. No, I haven't forgotten the Southeast and Mountain Regions. But, someone has been forgotten,... OH!! It's the MIDWEST!! Not really. We do get lots of love, and we appreciate it deeply. If you'd like to give us even more, Oct.30-Nov.1 are the dates that you can do that. More info. coming to www.scaa.org. I hope to see you ALL there. You can post your encouragement here on this discussion board. But, I'd rather hear it in person at the event!!

[Alexander J. Olsen]

love.

[Alexander J. Olsen]

do you have a mailing/message list i could sign up for?

[Kasey Klimes]

I do say, this is the year the midwest goes down on the coffee map once and for all. We're not playing around anymore.

Joe, I'll see you there - so y'best bring your A game ;)

[Tara Shenson]

The SCAA is streaming the competition live on our blog: www.scaablog.org. Stop by and check it out, if you aren't able to make it to the real thing!

[Tara Shenson]

If you'd like to be added to the SCAA list for future RBC mailings, please email us here!

Alexander J. Olsen said:

do you have a mailing/message list i could sign up for?

[Trevor]

I was pretty frustrated that none of the coffee blogs or forums I am aware of listed the finalists for the Midwest Regional Competition tomorrow. Luckily they had it recorded on ustream so for those who are interested here are the Midwest finalists.
Kasey Climes, PT's Coffee
Robin Seitz, PT's Coffee
Micah Sevada, Kaldi's Coffee
Mike Marquard, Kaldi's Coffee
Morgan Smith, PT's Coffee
Joe Morocco, Kaldi's Coffee

Sorry if I didn't get the spellings right all. Congrats to the finalists and good luck tomorrow!

[Paul Yates]

Looks like a smackdown event between PT's and Kaldi's!

[Dee]

I'm watching and cheering from u-stream, just couldn't fund a trip or miss work need the $$. Great job to everyone that is in the finals.

[Jennifer Graham]

I wanted to go SO BAD, but I didn't find out about it til Friday afternoon. I live in N W Arkansas, about 6 hrs. from St. Louis, so it was kinda within reach, but not really. Anyway, is Arkansas in the MWRBC, or are we not even counted at all? Are we forgotten even by the forgotten?! LOL. I'll follow the link above and get on the mailing list. Anyway, hope everyone had a blast, and I look forward to going next year.

[Jonathan Aldrich]

arkansas is in the south central region with TX, OK and LA. The regional is in Austin in January.

[Lorenzo Perkins]

What an amazing finals. PT's vs Kaldi's. Congrats to Mike M from winning, Robin Seitz from PT's (with love) for second, Morgan Smith from PT's third place, and Micah Svejda from Kaldi's, Joe Marrocco from Kaldi's and Kasey Klimes from PT's for making it to the finals.

The Mid-West has been represented very well and everyone who competed (I watched all y'all on ustream) should be very proud. The way the regionals have been shaping up this year, I expect to see a lot of greatness in California for the USBC.

[Jason Burton]

Midwest baby. Great job all and you've represented well, especially on SUCH SHORT NOTICE. Most people don't know how fast you had to prepare, so I give you mad props for that. Congrats to all and all of you that thought about competing and didn't, please give it a try next year or make it to the event (which I didn't this year). If anything, it's a great way to support the barista profession and the roasters they work with. Plus, it's amazing to watch. One of the few ways where beverage is crossing over into foodie world (in my opinion) as the sig drinks are amazingly put together these days. Net-net...well done.