On Monday, March 22, CNN iReport featured a terrific short video on the 2010 Northeast Regional Barista Championship held in Boston on March 18-21. Almost 40 baristi participated, with the best six baristi qualifying for the final round, and the top three from the finals invited to the US Barista Championship to be held in Anaheim, California on April 15-18. The winner represents the US at the World Barista Championship in London on June 23-25.
In the first 24 hours, the CNN iReport video was viewed by more than 25,000 people. Student producer Abbey Niezgoda was able to capture the salient points of a barista competition that is easily understood by a general audience – it is a great journalistic piece! The video will provide long overdue and well-deserved coverage and exposure for speciality coffee and the role of baristi to elevate the quality of coffee and educate the consumer.
The video interviews two of the six finalists, Danielle Glasky of Stumptown Coffee and Jordan Barber of Café Grumpy, as well as George Howell of George Howell Coffee Co. and several coffee lovers who attended the Northeast Regional Barista Championship. We are thrilled that Jordan competed with our Terra Keramik espresso and cappuccino cups, shown towards the end of the video [apologies for the shameless plug]. In addition to Jordan, Todd Mackey of New Harvest Coffee (also a finalist) and Jared Mancini of SIP Cafe also used Terra Keramik cups.
Thanks to Andrew Hetzel of Cafemakers coffee consultants for blogging and tweeting about the CNN iReport video.
