Coffee Workshops with Kenneth Davids and Willem Boot

Kenneth Davids and fellow coffee consultant Willem Boot are offering two workshops on coffee cupping, sourcing and roasting in fall of 2004 at the Boot Coffee training facility in Mill Valley, California, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. These workshops are intended for coffee professionals and for those seriously interested in entering specialty coffee as business or career.

Cupping, Blending and Roasting for Espresso
November 17, 18, 19, 2004

Day 1: Intensive Cupping
• Review of tasting language and cupping protocols
• Basic taste tests and aroma exercises
• Triangulation and blind tasting exercises: cupping of various popular espresso components

Day 2: Roasting Training
• Theory of roast profiling
• Roasting for espresso blends; fine tuning acidity and preventing taints
• Roasting practice: optimizing flavor and enhancing balance

Day 3: Blend Development and Espresso Beverage Tasting
• Cupping previous day's roasting batches
• Espresso blending theory, exercises and practice
• Tasting espresso beverages: participant and competitor coffees

Roast Profiling and Cupping
December 1, 2, 3, 2004

Day 1: Intensive Cupping
• Overview of cupping language, systems, categories and uses
• Basic taste tests and aroma exercises
• Triangulation and blind tasting exercises

Day 2: Roasting Training
• Overview of roasting styles and roasting physics
• Roast profiling and preventing roast defects
• Roast profiling practice: optimizing flavor

Day 3: Blending and Discussion of Production-Roast Coffees
• Cupping previous day's roasting batches
• Blending theory, exercises and practice
• Blind cupping of participant and competitor coffees

The Instructors:

Kenneth Davids is the author of three books on coffee and the writer/editor for Coffee Review. His first book, Coffee: A Guide to Buying, Brewing & Enjoying initially appeared in 1975 and since has sold over 300,000 copies in five editions. His books on espresso and micro-roasting are both in their second edition with St. Martin's Press. He also wrote, co-produced and hosted the prize-winning training video Passionate Harvest. Kenneth Davids' consulting clients include both roasters and producers.

Willem Boot has over twenty years of experience in the coffee industry, from roastmaster to green buyer to international consultant to aid agencies, growers and grower associations. He holds a master's degree in business economics and as consultant has helped coffee companies develop business strategies, design blends, implement quality management programs, and improve marketing. He has been a head judge in many international coffee tasting events and is a frequent speaker and trainer at international coffee conventions and seminars.