In the Grinder - Our Daily Coffee Weblog

 

The Motown Throwdown!

May 26, 2011

Last week I had the honor of stepping in as a judge at the second annual Motown Throwdown hosted by Coffee Express in the outskirts of Detroit. The event was the epitome of a coffee lover get-together. Tom of Coffee Express in Plymouth, MI schemed up the event to showcase the barista and roaster talents throughout Michigan, which ended up bringing out a good crowd to share the love of coffee and learn from each other.

Coffee Express staff set up all the machinery and supplies in the casual, intimate coffeeshop setting of AJ’s Café in Ferndale, just outside Detroit. Local baristas worked their magic following the USBC guidelines to see who will prevail in the judge’s eyes. Over the hoots and hollers of the barista challenge, one other judge and I fully dedicated ourselves to the roaster challenge. We blindly cupped our way through thirteen different Colombian lots roasted by local shops and wholesalers (I even snuck a Café Imports sample in the mix.) I was so busy tasting that I sadly had little time to watch the barista challenge! We narrowed the thirteen selections to the top five at which point we brewed up these five to let the audience and participants in on the fun. Keeping with the casual atmosphere, the top three winners were selected by a “majority rules” voting system. Winners walked away with armloads of Café Imports goodies and their reigning title. Until next year…
I want to extend many thanks to Coffee Express for their time and dedication to making this event such a success and for caring about showcasing specialty coffee in Michigan; thank you for inviting Café Imports to participate! Thank you also to AJ’s Café for opening its doors to the event as well as to AJ’s patrons who not only put up with a complete takeover of their local coffee joint, but also for joining in on the fun!

-Sally Rivera

Posted by Noah