here's to that day

first off, a big congrats to james hoffmann of the u.k. for winning the title of world's best barista. hats off to king james. look at his winning perfomance (and that of almost all of the other 44 contestants, here.

other than that, i have zero original thoughts to add to the groundswell of opinions already being posted around the net with regard to the recently completed wbc and/or barista competitions in general, other than to say that it is always inspiring to be reminded, as i was while watching some of those clips, to recognize that there are some really passionate and cool coffee people out there. there are so many more of you out there that i have yet to connect with and just hope for the day we'll get to hang out over beers, without the need to feel we have to impress one another, and just...talk coffee. i had a glimpse and a taste of that a couple weeks ago in boston (see snippet below).

here's to that day for more of that.