Event: Sunday Mar 1st 2-4pm 1736 Mass Ave Cambridge MA

This Sunday there will be a second showing in case you miss the first (or want to attend both) of Square Mile Espresso from the UK at Simon's on 1736 Mass Ave in Cambridge. This event will offer another of our west coast favorites on tap, Ritual Coffee Roasters. The espresso will be one of their 'Sweet Tooth' lineup and should be a nice contrast to the former WBC champ's blend.

On Saturday, you get to sample Andrew Barnett's Ecco Caffe espresso alongside the Squaremile Coffees (a very limited per cup drip offering of Finca Kilimanjaro from El Salvador will be offered but won't be cheap). Then on Sunday you get to sample the Square Mile Espresso up against Ritual Coffee's espresso. There is not much coffee to go around and it will go quickly so show up early!

My best suggestion is to come out and support both events which are both donating the proceeds to the NE Primate Sanctuary in what we are calling the 'James Hoffman likes Monkeys and so should you event!' I remember some time ago that Mr. Hoffman sponsored Chimpanzees at the London Zoo and since we were donating coffees at an auction for this cause, we thought this would be a good fit.

This week's trade news

Photo blogger and roaster Steve Ford was traded from team Ecco to team Ritual for Drew Caitlin and a bag of coffee to be named later. Details of the across the bay blockbuster are still mum.

Rumors of a Ryan Brown (Ritual) for Aleco (Stumptown) trade still swirl but appear unlikely in the wake of this deal. With a starting rotation bolstered by the addition of crafty veteran Ford, it relieves the pressure on rookie Owens and the oft injured Brown. It is rumored team Ritual will now be looking for an acquisition to bolster it's offense.
and now back to your normal non sucka free program of things that actually make sense.

Baca!: Tops... (Drew: Also tops, but slightly less so)

tops, originally uploaded by baca!.

We rarely show love on this blog, we just never get around to it. We like to talk about new, different or exceptional things going on in some other part of the world that we feel should be brought to the attention of the community stateside. Additionally, we basically never talk about SCAA sanctioned events, news or otherwise... Hell must have frozen over though, because I will do both in this brief post (it's like therapy).

Anyway, I just want to congratulate Chris Baca of Ritual Coffee Roasters on becoming the new Western Regional Barista Champion. He's a goofy dude and takes a lot of photos of himself (see above), but he's a true barista and has really put the hours in to get where he is.

I also just wanted to give Drew Caitlin (also Ritual) a shout out for making it to the finals and giving what I'm told was a really solid performance in his first appearance at competition. No small achievement in a region a strong as the WRBC.