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For the eleven folks who still peek at this dormant blog, wondering if I’ll return from my self-imposed blogging exile, the answer is (as always): “maybe”.

Last weekend I attempted with mixed success to liveblog the Western Regional Barista Competition in Los Angeles. I imagined a blog filled with some short, irreverent videos (like the fun videos on the now-vanished zacharyzachary.com), barista profiles, signature drink breakdowns, and a lot of interaction with the internet audience. What ended up happening was more of an IT wild goose chase of trying to set up and maintain a very fat, but very macguyver’d internet connection and the constant scrambling for the right cord or dongle or electrical outlet to keep the whole thing from collapsing. At some point I had to choose between trying to keep the live video stream on ustream functioning and tending to the blog. The stream won the day.

the nerve center of the wrbc2009.net huddled around our one powerstrip, photo by Ian Tobin.

Fortunately some really stellar folks had my back. The tireless Brent Fortune, Guatemalan Barista Champ Raul Rodas, Aussie by-way-of U.K. Tim Styles, and my flickr brother Ian Tobin got plugged in and kept things rolling. Foodblogger Joshua Lurie over at FoodGPS showed us how it is really done - competitor interviews and detailed play by play - picking up the ample slack.

In the end I’m filled with a sense of personal disappointment, but am pleased that the event overall was a smashing success, and impressed with the caliber of all the competitors (even the many first-timers) in attendance. We had over 200 folks watching on ustream and over 3200 visitors to the blog on our biggest day. With a little more effort and a little less duct tape, one wonders what the audience could become for these odd events in the future?

I finished posting photos from my amazing April trip to Guatemala where I met facilitators and producers from a project working on quality improvement for small coffee farmers in Huehuetenango, funded by Slow Food.

Starbucks buying Clover is becoming a publicity boon to “third wave” coffee. Nearly all of the many articles that have appeared about the move advance one or more of the fundamental conceits of the quality coffee movement.

I attended the Specialty Coffee Association of America annual conference in Minneapolis. As always it provided a fascinating snapshot in time of an industry in ever-increasing flux as well as a chance to connect and reconnect with the many beautiful people that make it move. Some photos here.

My friend and frequent coconspirator Kyle Glanville is the new US barista champion, edging out some well matched competitors in what might have been the tightest game this weird sport has seen yet. As a “prize” for his victory, his face will appear on thousands of bottles of vanilla flavored syrup. In June he’ll take his shtick to the WBC in Copenhagen. There is a slim chance I’ll be in attendance if flights magically become cheaper as the date approaches.

Michaele Weissman, who wrote one of the seminal articles on the new models of relationship coffees a couple years back, has a new book out God in a Cup The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee which chronicles the quixotic efforts of some familiar names in the trade and asks some intriguing questions. It deserves a proper review here once I’ve fully digested it, but for now let me tell you that she is a great storyteller and if you’re a reader of this blog its probably right up your alley. You should also check out her recently launched blog.

I’m part of a cabal of coffee folks attempting to deliver a best-of-class coffee tasting experience to attendees of this year’s inaugural Slow Food Nation event labor day weekend in San Francisco. The scale of the event will present some compelling challenges - I’ll be writing more about this as the date approaches.

Emily and I are looking to move back home to Seattle in the Fall (before the gas shortages kick in and Los Angeles goes all Mad Max on us). Before we go, there’ll be a blog post or two of my favorite things in L.A., a city I’ve come to dig despite my initial resistance.

I have a number of professional itches I’d like to scratch, and am working on a project that will encompass many of them. Stay tuned.

Pushing the limits of my camera’s battery and memory card, I shot over 900 photos during the three days of the Western Regional Barista Competition this weekend in Berkeley. Mercifully, I have edited them down to a reasonable 93 non-sucky images now up on flickr. Big congrats go to Ritual’s Chris Baca who came out on top against a very strong pack.

Also worth noting is “Brokeback” Steve Ford’s recent milestone of cup number 1000 in his obsessive First Cup series. Every morning’s first brew captured by his lens charting his progress as a photographer, roaster, and addict while the accompanying text provides insight into his continuing descent into coffee madness.