As the dates above suggest, I wrote this the day after I returned from the show, and how good it is to be home after a long, long weekend. I look forward to the SCAA exhibition each year, but this one started on a rough note. While I was driving to the airport for my flight east, my wife was driving one of our German Shepherds to the vet to be put down. She was a month short of 13 years old and had a great life with us as we had with her, so the mood on the way out was somber. Every morning as my wife and I enjoyed a cappuccino and some homemade muffins, the doggies got to enjoy some treats which were usually homemade dog biscuits.

      My room overlooked Baker Street, up into the heart of the downtown district. Right there outside the room was the Atlanta Aquarium (stated as the largest in the country), and the Coca Cola museum. To the right is Centennial Park, part of the Atlanta Olympic venue, infamous for the bombing that took place there. On a happier note, there was a concert there on Saturday night along with a spectacular fireworks display. It made for quite an eye-level show being that I was on the 10th floor!

      The show itself for me is mostly all work. While I would like to make use of some of the educational opportunities offered at these exhibitions, time and finances are major hindrances to that. My time is spent about 75% assisting Hottop by working their booth and 25% walking the floor and meeting up with friends. I got to see Dr. Johns, Alan Freu from Australia, Barry, June and Maddy Jerrett, Kyra and Kyle of Baratza, Greg Scace, Paul Pratt, Marshall Fuss, Jim from 1st Line, and Michael from Hottop of course. I hope my memory serves well enough that I have not left anyone out, and if that is the case I do apologize. For some reason the jet lag hit me hard this year. While the time difference is only three hours I never really adjusted and only got about five good hours of sleep each night. But enough about me....

      Part of my goal each year is to try to find some products to review that would be of interest to my readers. This is a far more difficult task than you might expect. Some of the booths are manned by representatives of advertising firms and not actual employees of the company. On the surface that would not seem to matter, but for an example I can offer my relationship with the Krups company (who were not even represented this year). For four years I have tired to get a couple of coffee appliances to review, and all I ever received from them were promises and an occasionally answered E-mail and no more than that. One year I actually said to them, "If you are not interested in having your products reviewed on my website, a polite 'Go to Hell,' would be appreciated." I never even got that from them. But there were some interesting things that caught my eye this year. Let's take a look at a few of them: *SCAA’s 2009 Best New Product Award - Packaging – Cafelat, for its entire line of products 2. Food – Coffeebark, Inc., for its candy product 3. Open Class – CSC Scientific, for its color track bench top roast analyzer 4.

(photo from advertising material)

      The top half unscrews and you pour in hot water. There is a closure that has a one-way valve that keeps the water from spilling when assembling. This has a patented one-way valve that open when the water chamber is pressurized. The bottom half holds a filter basket. In the handle is the cartridge holder that incorporates a pressure regulator.

      Once assembled, the user pulls a trigger under the handle and the pressurized gas forces the water through the coffee. The units they were demonstrating at the show were two custom CNC machined working prototypes as the actual units are just now going into production. These are so new that their website launched about the same time the show opened.

      The espresso? While it was brewed with water that was just a bit too cool, it was drinkable, and the flow seemed very much like that which would come from an espresso machine. They rate it at about 4 double shots and 8 single pulls per cartridge. A compact and elegant solution to portable espresso creation.

      They now offer four different tamper designs, all in various sizes, colors and materials, a tamper hanger that can be mountd to virtually any flat surface with your choice of screws or 3M double-stick tape, a tamping stand which works with standard or bottomless portafilters, their familar knockbox as well as a new one designed to be used in a counter cut-out, three new milk steaming pitchers, and their new ceramic cups in three sizes. The cups have rounded bottoms inside which should make cleaning a lot easier while adding a bit of mass to keep hot beverages hot when the cups are pre-heated.

      I look forward to receiving some samples for review in the near future, so watch for it here on Espresso! My Espresso!

(Photo from advertising material)

      I have long been using soymilk at home. Most adults are lactose intolerant to some extreme and soymilk can be an alternative, but many lack a milk-like flavor or texture which is a hindrance to the use of soymilk by some people. At the other extreme, some are too sweet to be palatable. Few react like milk when steamed for use in cappuccini or lattes. The best that I had found was the Kirkland.. until now.

      I had a straight sample, chilled, of the original Pearl and it was remarkably "milk-like." It had the texture and body of "real" milk and none of the aftertaste that accompanies some soymilks. For those who like stiff foam it will hold the stiffness for many minutes- far longer than it normally takes to consume a latte. Once again, I await some samples for my own testing purposes, but it looks like this product is a real winner. Click HERE to find a store near you which sells Pearl.

(Photo from advertising material)

Urnex has recently introduced a new line of cleaning products under the brand name of "Full Circle." While building on the effectiveness of their other brand names such as Cafiza and Puro Caff, the Full Circle line offers what users would expect from an Urnex product while also creating a product which considers the world around us.       The line includes powder and tablet products for both espresso and filter coffee machines as well as "Full Circle Milk Wash" for use on steam wands, milk systems, and dispensers.       Each of the Full Circle products have labels printed digitally to reduce carbon emissions. They all fully disclose every ingredient, the source of each each ingredient, and often a reference to where it can be found in food. The product and all ingredients are phosphate-free as well as petroleum-free. Here is the list from the Full Circle Coffee Equipement Wash: Sodium Bicarbonate: Also called baking soda, helps dough rise in cookies and bread. In our application, it assists in delivering oxygen bubbles to the surface of your coffee machine. Sodium Carbonate: Often used in toothpaste and baking German pretzels, this naturally occurring salt is found in the hills of Wyoming and can be derived from seaweed. It is a great cleaning agent that changes the pH. Sodium Gluconate: Used in dairy products and diet foods, this ingredient helps break down and rinse away soils. It is produced by fermentation of glucose (sugars). Sodium Citrate: Derived from corn sugar via fermentation, this salt regulates acidity in the cleaning product. It can also be found on the ingredient list of some of your favorite energy drinks. Sodium Percarbonate: This is a key ingredient used in toothpaste for its oxygen based bleaching abilities. Sodium Coco-Sulfate: As the name suggests, a terrific foaming agent and surfactant produced from coconut oils. Alkyl Polyglycosides: The scariest sounding ingredient is produced from the combination of alcohols and glucose. These sugars are derived from coconut, palm, and corn oil. This is a 100% renewable surfactant that would otherwise need to be produced from petroleum products.       "Equipment Wash" is intended for backflushing, soaking of parts such as baskets and portafilters, and the cleaning of brewing equipment. I am looking forward to receiving a sample of these products in the future for testing purposes and hope to offer a review soon.

A new name to me in the coffee business (or any business for that matter), this Danish company has a new grinder which was elegant to look at and may eventually be one of the most useful home espresso grinders we have seen. The simplicity and elegance of the external design is mirrored in the internal workings. Besides being nice to look at, these grinders feature a large, conical burrset and a straight-through design that limits the retention of grinds in the grinder. And yes, I asked about the possibility of an espresso grinder based on the current design, possibly for home use, and was told that they are working on that possibility.       The current model shown in Atlanta is aimed at coffee shop use and point of sale display. There is a wall mounted model as well as a table top adaptor that allows it to be used as shown here. The grind adjustment takes a special tool so once set cannot be changed by the customer or PBTC. It can recognize the size of a press pot or bag by the scale system built into the base and will automatically grind a user-programmed amount of coffee for that vessel sensed and then stop. When the hopper is removed a magnetic switch automatically disables the grinder so it will not run until the hopper is replaced, and a vane system at the bottom of the hopper automatically closes when the hopper is twisted to be disengaged and removed from the grinder.       This current model is 230v, 50Hz, but I expect that it will soon be available in other voltages and incarnations for other uses.. at least I hope so.

Coffee-Tech Engineering
      There had to be at least a dozen manufacturers of coffee roasting equipment there, some the size of a pickup truck. One of the more compact roasters was from the Israeli company, Coffee-tech Engineering Ltd. They currently offer two models, one with a 4.4 pond capacity and one with 2.2 pound capacity. These 220 volt units are interesting in that they have a very compact size for such capacity. They use an interesting combination of drum and fluid bed roasting to achieve the intended results. They claim that the overall design results in a 50% reduction in smoke production. They are intended to be fully automatic and pre-programmed but allow the user to change certain roast parameters.

      As you can see, the exterior of the two-pound model is elegantly designed and compact. The drum motor is mounted vertically at the rear of the roaster and drives the drum through a gear system.

      Beyond these smaller, tabletop roasters they make two commercial roasters with capacities of 33 and 100 pounds as well as a professional sample roaster. While some of the control systems and user interfaces is somewhat dated compared to what some advanced hobbyists are doing here is the States, the design of their roasters is interesting enough to deserve a look.

      It would have been great to bring a few coffee samples over to play with, and to spend some time pulling a few dozen shots, but life is short and so was many time, but I did get to pull and sample a shot. Hmmm.. Tasted a bit under-extracted form a low temperature situation. Easy- just up the temp a degree or two with the built in PID.

      Of course, with a dual boiler, this machine has the ability to steam and pull shots at the same time. The power switch on this machine allows the user to have just the brew boiler on alone, so if you don't often steam milk this can help save a bit of electricity.

      The rotary pump in this machine makes it so very quiet. They even had the machine set up to draw water up from a bucket located at floor level and while not the best solution, it seemed to be doing a good job even handling that.

Other
      There is lots of "other" at these shows. I used the walks to and from the show each morning and afternoon to practice some harmonica. besides the chance to keep my licks fresh, it is a a real workout taking a brisk walk and playing at the same time. On Sunday morning I stopped playing just as I entered the exhibition center door. I was headind up the escalator and a fellow behind me said, in a thick accent, "Why do you stop singing [playing]?"

      I told him that I don't want to bother people inside. He replied, "It is very good. You should play more." Very cool!

      These shows, to me, are about the people as much as the products. And if you talk to enough people you learn things. I met one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable people at this show that it has been my pleasure to speak with in all the years I have been involved in this obsession. Carlos Gonzalez de Cosio Vargas of Garcomex. He is the national Sales manager of this very large company in Mexico, roasting and selling coffee, a line of teas, placing coffee displays with a grinder in many major store chains in Mexico, they manufacture "NutraLight" sugar replacement, manufacture their own line of paper filters, and more.

      He is a certified instructor and since espresso instruction is a job I will soon be doing locally I picked his brain for a bit, and he was more than willing to share his knowledge- the mark of a true teacher. The one area we spent the most time on was stretching milk. We spoke not only of methodology but he shared quite a bit of science behind it that I did not know. His parents were dairy farmers and so he has a great background in milk. I will share the details of this in my How-To section of my website at a later date, so watch for that! Let me just say that if I could get in on a class he taught in English, I would fly to Mexico to take it if I could!

      Another year come and gone, marked by my annual pilgrimage to the SCAA Exhibition. Next year's show will be back in Anaheim. See you there.