Caffeinated competition: World's best tasters grind in Chicago at Specialty Coffee Expo

The Specialty Coffee Expo, a business-to-business convention dedicated to beans, brewing and everything in between, brought coffee and competition to McCormick Place through the weekend.

Every aspect of coffee was represented by vendors from around the world on the convention floor — which doubled as battlegrounds on Saturday for some of the world’s most refined palettes and sophisticated pours.

The World Coffee Championships — or the “coffee Olympics,” as one organizer put it — have included a variety of java jousts since 2000, including tasting, brewing and latte art.

It was Chicago’s first time hosting the cafe throwdown and one of its marquee contests: the World Cup Tasters Championship.

Caffeinated crowds gathered early in the day to watch competitors try to pick the odd cup out of three in eight different sets of coffee — all in under 10 minutes.

Eric Jara Davila, the Peruvian national champion as of November, competed in his first international competition as he faced off against tasters from Hong Kong and Poland, among other far-flung locales.

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

Jara Davila works in logistics connecting coffee farmers to companies, which inspired him to taste more coffee to better understand the industry. That led to him competing and eventually taking on eight hours of training everyday, which includes restricting his diet to largely just water and salt-free soup.

“My friends told me if I want to sell coffee, I need to know how the coffee tastes,” Jara Davila told the Sun-Times.

The field of more than 40 competitors was being narrowed down to 16 Saturday. Jara Davila said he got nervous on his last two rounds of cups and chalked it up to having largely practiced with Peruvian coffee rather than drinks made from beans elsewhere in the world.

While he managed to make his selections in under five minutes, he missed two of the cups, potentially putting his ticket to the next round in jeopardy.

“I feel proud to represent my country,” Jara Davila said while awaiting the results. “I don’t know if I will pass to another round, but I’m happy to be here.”

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

The art of the bean

On the other side of the convention floor, a different kind of competition was brewing.

Bill Alameda, the production manager at Washington-based Astra Manufacturing, spent much of Saturday afternoon standing among his company’s espresso makers, though he said he often makes his way around the convention to scout other companies’ products and see how their innovations could fit what comes out of their production line.

He said such conventions are important to an ever-evolving industry.

“Coffee isn’t just coffee anymore. It’s become an art, and these people are out here trying to put that art into machines,” Alameda said. “It’s just finding that next niche and seeing if you can develop it before the next guy. … Maybe it could be the next big thing.”

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

Budding local entrepreneurs got a taste as well, including North Central College’s Coffee Lab — a bagged coffee business run by professors and students, which had its first booth at the convention this year.

The program started as a fundraiser for student organizations but has turned into a full-fledged business that brings college students on trips to Guatemala so students see the business “from growing the coffee all the way to the consumer,” said North Central accounting professor and lab co-founder Jerry Thalmann.

“Our focus is on entrepreneurship with an understanding of the suppliers and environment that we work in,” Thalmann said. “It’s almost like I have an opportunity for a field trip every day.”

Justin Simbol, the group’s graduate assistant, said it has changed the way he views running a business.

“The project has had such a profound impact on my academic career,” Simbol said. “Students can actually apply what they learn in the classroom to a real business.”

Violet Miller/Sun-Times