(All our amazing event guests)
Hey there Coffee Addicts! We hope you made it through this wild week of weather here in MN. Rainy one day, 100 degrees the next, who knows. Today we wanted to take this opportunity to give you a little recap of our 2 Year Anniversary Event. Part of this wonderful day included a tasting with the knowledgeable Sam of SK Coffee. We realize that this may sound intimidating. In this post, we not only want to give you all a quick run down of our super fun day, but also dive into what a tasting exactly is and what to expect.
We hosted our 2 Year Anniversary Event on Saturday, June 11th, at SK Coffee in St. Paul, which we named as our number one spot in the Twin Cities in our annual coffee recap post. Not only was the team at SK kind enough to let us use their gorgeous space for the afternoon, but they went above and beyond with their service and expertise. Baristas Bonna and Selah, we couldn’t have done it without you. Roasting expert/SK owner/super cool guy Sam, you made our time truly an experience to remember.
Meet ‘n Greet
(The stunning SK space)
Coming into the SK space, all of our lovely guests were greeted by the upbeat sounds of DJ Buster Baxter’s mixes. Next, by our charming greeting committee handing out wristbands, raffle tickets, and name tags. Everyone was chatting, milling about, getting coffee from the counter, snapping some great insta pics, and participating in our multiple questionnaire pillars around the space. We had questions posted like “What would you name your signature drink”, or, “If you could only have one drink for the rest of your life, what would it be”. We got some creative answers, but you’d have to be there to see them *wink wink*.
The tasting
(Grabbing our samples for the cupping)
After our meet and greet portion of the event, we went into SKs back room to get a first hand look at how Sam roasts his shop’s beans. That’s where we get into the tasting portion of our event. Sam started with two brews out for us to try with tiny white cups. He asked us about what notes we tasted. Then, Sam gave us some knowledgeable information about what causes these undertones. We all siped together, shouting out our ideas about what we tasted inside the cup.
When it comes to a tasting event, there’s nothing to be scared of. There’s no quiz at the end and no wrong answers. A tasting is simply a great time to be part of this lovely community of coffee lovers and learn from some really amazing, knowledgeable people in the field.
Learning How to Roast
(Sam going through his process)
Next, Sam took us from start to finish of a roasting process. All the way from green beans to bagging and selling the freshly roasted batch. He showed us how he monitors the temperature, charts the information, and self regulates his roaster. We watched and learned as he told us what to avoid, potential mistakes, and what exactly he was looking for in his beans. Then, he dropped the beans from the roasting barrel into the cooling pan and we all got to take a whiff of the fresh roast. Start to finish, the whole thing wasn’t more than 15 minutes.
After the cupping and roasting, we huddled up for a group pic by our amazing team photographers/videographers, and waited for the drawing to be conducted. Congratulations, Lauran, on winning your free bag of beans! We then all headed over to Lake Monster Brewing next door for some BOGO beers (a special of the event) and hung out.
Our Thanks to You
(Sam and Dillon saying thanks to all of you)
It’s safe to say that we have fun, and when it comes to coffee, we will always provide only the best. We had so much fun at our event and thank you for helping us make it to year 2, we couldn’t do it without any of you. We want to show our appreciation for all of you by continuing to throw community events like this. All in all, we had 43 guests show up and we are thankful for each and every one.
Of course, there’s always more to look forward to. As you all know by now, we are launching a Coffee Club, which grants members 10% off their coffee orders and partnered shops. For more info on the Club, check out this page. If you want to read more about exactly what we are doing, check out this post we did about the Club: Sneak Peak: Coffee Club Program.
If you’re looking for more fun things to check out this week, check out our recent post: 7 Minneapolis Cafes with Amazing Patios. However, with these scorching temps, you might even want to stay in. If that’s the case, test out our newest recipe: Foolproof At-Home Cold Brew. As always, if you try out our recipe or check out any of these shops, be sure to let us know! We love seeing what yall do. Enjoy your week 16ozDays family, stay cool, and don’t forget to tip your barista.
For a little more visual insight into our event, check out the tikok we made on our page @ 16ozDays.
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