Specialty Coffee Association Expo '25

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It’s hard to recap an intense week of coffee exploration in a few hundred or even a thousand words, but I’m going to try. First, what is Expo?* The Specialty Coffee Association puts on an annual event bringing together coffee roasters, vendors, farmers, tech companies, and more for a convention. The event includes a very large vendor floor, competitions for coffee skills, educational seminars, presentations, and networking events. There is also a very healthy party scene that takes place after Expo hours. This year’s Expo took place at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

*It was recently announced that next year the event will be rebranded as World Of Coffee! The exclamation point is theirs.

DENVER, CO

Sunday is all about coffee.

Torpedo Coffee: After a lovely week in the mountains with my better half, we’re on the way to the airport. Torpedo is on the way. They serve Corvus Coffee, and the art on the wall looks familiar because we have the same artist on our walls at home! The drip comes in a really big mug, and the owner, Katy, is behind the bar even early in the morning.
Honey Hill: A really cool cafe and ice cream parlor that is a great space for groups. The food smells fantastic, but the drip feels a bit of an afterthought. I sit on the patio even though the temps are only in the 40s. In Colorado, that feels alright.
Inside and Outside of Honey Hill Cafe.
Dandy Lion Coffee Co.: Plants, lots of plants, and baristas who give a hoot about the coffee they are making? Sign me up. It’s on the edge of a neighborhood and next to a weirdly busy for-the-hour liquor store, but it couldn’t have been a better experience. I’m drinking a Huckleberry roasted batch brew and so blissed out on the greenery that I don’t even notice the very chill DJ controlling the music.

Plants, swings, and specialty coffee? The opportunity for Dandy Lion Coffee Co. to go to far off the hipster deep end is right there, but they walked the line with aplomb.

My trip to Expo began Monday morning in Denver with a cup of coffee downtown at Little OWL Coffee in the Populus Hotel lobby. I was joined by Charles Carpenter from Tekwani Design. We met at the Expo event in Portland, OR in 2023. A lot of my job in the coffee media space involves cultivating relationships.

There are a lot of cool coffee people. I consider myself lucky that some of those work relationships have turned into honest to goodness friendships. Many of whom I’ll mention in this column! I don’t think I’m speaking out of school to say that Charles is one of those people. Beyond being a design and branding firm with a focus on coffee, the people of Tekwani also use their platform to uplift the coffee off community.

I stopped by a few coffee shops in my never ending quest to explore the industry, and came away with one major question? What’s up with the oversized mugs for drip coffees? Every shop gave me a Friends-esque soup bowl. Is it just Denver? Is this happening everywhere?

Jumbo mug aside, Denver in the spring is selling me hard. I enjoyed the mix of old and new architecture, the blooming trees, and excellent hospitality experiences.

The day continued with glass of wine with coffee sourcess Nicole Diefenbach. The former Coffee People podcast guest has had a lot of recent career changes, and her experience developing regenerative coffee programming has made her in demand in the industry. We caught up with a plan to meet up in Houston.

The day culminated with a few of the days golden hours on the highway and a hotel room in Pueblo, CO. There was a puppy adoption center next door. I think I was luckily it was after hours because I was already missing my canine sidekick pretty hard. The separation anxiety I’m feeling on day one without my wife is a good test for the upcoming Free Coffee Tour, but I can’t say I was feeling happy about it in the moment.

FORT WORTH, TX

What does 11 hours on the road do to a person? I don’t know, I’m asking. I blacked out and somehow the day was gone and a pint of pilsner was in my hand.

The next morning I woke up cautiously joyful to see the sun after a weather report that was less that stellar. My 1st steps out the hotel lobby teach me three things:

I’m old enough that a twinge in my back gives me pause. Today could go either way.
The humidity in Texas is not playing.
Fort Worth was a rough-and-tumble town with a penchant for celebrating the lawless cowboy.

My first stop is at Pax & Beneficia for a shot of espresso, which is excellent. I take a photo with JFK, wander past a large cowboy hat statue in Sundance Square, and numerous historical plaques acknowledging the criminal past and proliferation of brothels that once occupied this space. I loop around the water gardens and stumble into The Hogan Alley. The vibe is Q-tip, cowboys, and chill. It’s a spot for coffee, beer, and wine. I love it. Michelle, Nina, and Lou offered up more than a bit of character making the shot of espresso even better. Time to get back on the road.

INTERMISSION: WACO MAMMOTH NATIONAL MONUMENT

National Monuments are cool. They don’t quite have the same status as the National Parks, but they are often just as interesting and often much less trafficked. The Waco Mammoth location is an active archeological dig on a farm outside of Waco, TX where they discovered an entire nursery herd of Colombian mammoth bones. Additionally, male mammoths, dire wolves, and camel bones were found at the site but from different points on the timelines. https://www.nps.gov/waco/index.htm

Have you heard of Buc-ee’s? Every single Texan I’ve met has asked if I’ve been to a Buc-ee’s yet. Today stopped at one. As best as I can tell, it is a gas station + grocery + fudge shop + Kohl’s department store that costs a bit more than the gas stations on the other side of the road? I’m lost on what is inspiring the devotion here. Please ‘At’ me in the comments. I don’t get it.

I bet the Buc-ee’s coffee contract is a big one. Texas does shade in parks really well. That Mammoth tusk is the size of a small car.

AUSTIN, TX

Austin is my new number one worst city to drive in as an outsider who doesn’t know where they are going ever—and I’ve lived in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles! The driving is fast, intense, and seemingly without regard for the rule of law. Beyond that, what a fantastic city for parks. Texas, generally, seems to understand the value of the public park and the need for shady places. That may have something to do with the 64,000% humidity and 90+ degree temperature I’m experiencing in April.

It is an easy walk to Easy Tiger for my morning coffee (see what I did there?). It wasn’t where I planned to start the day, but I need some time to catch up with my journaling. It is my youngest brother’s birthday. I call to sing happy birthday to his voicemail and follow it up with a dozen texts about the NBA playoffs. The stop at Easy Tiger gives me time to miss his presence and make a plan for the day.

Today’s coffee stops: the quick version.

Flat Track Coffee: It’s in the hip neighborhood on 5th downtown. Even with a few warnings I’m shocked by the size of the homeless population and the grittiness I drive through off the highway. The cafe is half cafe and half bike shop, and it definitely feels like everyone in the room knows how cool it is. I can sense it like when my knees swells before a rain.
Figure 8 Coffee Purveyors: I saw the sign “Coffee Purveyors” from the car and just felt compelled to u-turn around. I’m not disappointed. The small rectangular roaster (also a wine and beer seller) is the best type of casual yet caring. Sometimes vibes area all you need, but the coffee is good, too. I sit at the bar and end up chatting about design and business with an off-duty barista. When I leave, I overhear their friend say, “It’s always the drifters…” I’ve never felt more seen.
El Tigre Coffee: A small cafe built into a vintage Spartan RV? Sign me up. I sit in the original kitchenette and sip an espresso appreciating the ingenuity of the hospitality industry when it comes to designing unique spaces. I wonder why the people of Austin have such an affinity for tigers? At small print and magazine shop next door I get my dog fix and a warning from an L.A. transplant that the driving in Houston is way more intense than Austin. Uh-oh.

INTERMISSION: KREISCHE BREWERY STATE HISTORIC SITES

I was looking for a stop to stretch my legs. A quick map search led me to a listing for a walk along a historic path to a brewery. A-ha! I thought. A walk and beer? Sounds good to me.

It was a bit of a drive out of the way and as I passed through the residential neighborhoods, I started to wonder if I was in the right place. I was, and I learned a lesson about reading descriptions on the internet.

The Kreische Brewery was built in 1860 on Monument Hill outside La Grange, TX. The site features a monument to soldiers who died in the Dawson Massacre of September 1842, as well as something called the “black-bean incident.” At one point the brewery was the third largest in the state of Texas, but—unfortunately for me—it closed in 1884. So…no beer here.

HOUSTON: DAY 1

I had planned on this Expo kick-off event and then that one. There are parties all over town on Thursday night, but instead I spend the afternoon (and most of the evening) reworking some packaging designs for the up-coming Collaboration Series of coffees we’re working on with Coffee Cycle Roasting and Marea Coffee.

HOUSTON: DAY 2

We’ll pick up the thread here tomorrow! Stay tuned for video clips from our interviews and an introduction to Season 14 of the Coffee People Podcast.

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