On an unseasonably warm and sunny day in The Pearl, the EP crew headed to Sisters Coffee Company for pizza provided by La Marzocco, beer from Bridgeport Brewing, and most importantly a TNTNW of epic proportions.
Sisters Coffee is like leaving Portland and briefly stepping into a tiny piece of Sisters, Oregon. Antlers and maps adorn the wall. Large community tables ask you to sit down and stay for a while. Best of all, the brothers and sister who run the show instantly make everyone feel at home and like you’re family.
Portland was teaming with coffee professionals for Coffee Fest. In addition to our Northwest regulars from Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland, we had baristas throwing down from all over: Houston, North Carolina, Las Vegas, and even Japan! By 6:30pm the charming space was filled with people ready to throwdown.
Sign up started at 7:00pm sharp. By 7:03pm the bracket was full!
We had 32 world class baristas ready to win some wicked awesome prizes and a heap of cash. We had a Sock Pot from Yama Glass, magazine subscriptions from Barista Magazine and Imbibe, an Acaia Scale, Baratza tee shirts, and some sweet EP swag. Cafe Imports also provided a couple of $100 gift cards to local Portland businesses!
We were lucky enough to have a representative from one of our sponsors, Connie Blumbardt of Roast Magazine, judge for us! Also sitting at the judging table was Marcus Young from Sustainable Harvest. They had a tough job picking the best from all the amazing baristas that were pouring that night.
Slayer, Synesso, and Mahlkonig were all in the house. Kyle Ramage from Mahlkonig joined the action!
The throwdown was lightening fast, Jesse from Sisters Coffee kept the baristas on their toes as she called out the next head-to-head battle from her perch atop the espresso counter.
By 9:30pm it was the final epic battle between a past TNTNW champion Cole McBride from PublicUs in Las Vegas, NV and the contender Nick Kassouf of Tru Bru Organic Coffee in Orange, CA who was looking to win his first TNTNW.
And here are the winners! TNTNW was dominated this month by our out of town visitors!
3rd Place – Margaret Suttles @megasuttles from Blacksmith in Houston, TX
2nd Place – Cole McBride @cole_coffee from PublicUs in Las Vegas, NV
1st Place – Nick Kassouf @nik_kassouf from Tru Bru Organic Coffee in Orange, CA
Speech! Speech! Speech!
The final standings:
Okay folks, see you next month on November 17th for another epic TNTNW at the Synesso Factory in Seattle.
Stay caffeinated!
