Hi ho neighbour.

Back in town from the SCAA conference down in Anaheim over the weekend, and I think I'm just finally coming down from my caffeine buzz.

The show was awesome. I say awesome a lot, so I diminish its impact, but trust me, awesome is justified here. I got to meet so many people I know via email or phone, and I got to meet some heavyweights in the biz that do things like write books I read, invent and build machines that I admire, train and teach the things I learn, and make a difference for the world of coffee and espresso. What more could your friendly neighbourhood CoffeeKid ask for, huh?

A couple of highlights of the show include meeting Mark Pendergast and Ken Davids, both authors of works that have taught me a lot about coffee, espresso, beans and homeroasting. I got to meet Shannon Wheeler, the author of TooMuchCoffeeMan the excellent coffee superhero strip. I got to meet Joe Monaghan and John Blackwell of ESI and La Marzocco. I got to meet Don Schonholt, the walking encyclopaedia of coffee knowledge. And I got to meet guys like Barry Jarrett, Alan Frew, Randy Glass, Dave Lewis, Carl Lau, Glenn, George,  Chuck, David, Mark, and many, many other folks from alt.coffee, which was cool.

Schwag Day Report

Schwag Day (aka Monday final day at SCAA) was actually all three days at the show, but the last day was special. I came home with about 50lbs of coffee - 30lbs or so green, and 20lbs or so roasted. I got coffees from all over the world, including Hawaii, Peru, Costa Rica, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Yemen, Indonesia, Honduras, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Haiti, and many other places.

I was also given a very precious Thermos Nissan Titanium vacuum flask by Laura at Thermos Nissan. This is around $140 retail! She gave it to me because Thermos Nissan sent me about $800 worth of product last week to do a detailed review on. When I met with her at the show to thank her, she asked if I had everything I wanted. I joked that the package was missing some sort of cool factor - a Ti Factor if you will. She immediately went over to grab one of the Ti bottle boxes. I tried to refuse (I really did), but she wouldn't hear of it - she grabbed it and gave it to me, and said "make sure it's in the review". Okay!

The Bodum folks mulled over this one for a few days, but decided at the end of the show to give me one of the pre-production Bodum eSantos Jr. models. I got the anthracite one. I'm drinking a coffee made from it, right now as I type. It's cute, it's good, and it's small. $80 is the projected price on this baby.

I got hats and posters and cups and lots of product literature. I got copies of Shannon's newest TooMuchCoffeeMan Magazine. I got syrups and chocolates and stuff. I even got about 300+ teas (in boxes, packs, individual things) for Jeanette. I got way too much schwag. So much so, I had to go to Target (and risk missing my flight back) to buy a huge duffle bag to fit it all in. And it barely fit. The duffel weighed in at some 82 lbs at the airport checkin. Yikes.

I know I'm unabashed about all this schwag, and in most circumstances I should show more restraint. But in this case I think it's appropriate, and here's why. I have article fodder for the CoffeeGeek site for months, and they do gain benefit from this through exposure, and if their stuff is good, a good writeup. Everyone wins in this case.

Plus people were happy to give away a lot of this stuff. It meant less stuff to pack up and take home. Cool, huh?