Cold brew. Drip. Ethiopian. Turkish. Latte. Espresso. Grinding. French Press. Who knew a cup of coffee could be so interesting?

While CoffeeCon 2014 was definitely a playground for the coffee connoisseur, for the normal, “I just need my caffeine,” type of people (points to self), this was an amazing day of coffee university.

We learned how to make the perfect espresso, the correct way to grind coffee beans and how to get the right amount of foam for your latte art. I learned how the Turkish brew coffee using sand and how coffee from Ethiopia tastes a lot like berries. Even had cold brewed coffee out of a nitrogen cooler (or something like that).

The chocolate makers, TCHO, had drinkable chocolate (talk about a sugar rush) and one of my favorite doughnut shops, Kettle Glazed, was selling their infamous maple bacon doughnut. I think I tried about 12 different types of caffeinated drinks before my body started doing strange things.

But the highlight was definitely my friends from Kean Coffee who not only made a great latte, but took the time to show you how to make a great latte. Given I have a rarely used espresso machine at home, I took some serious notes. Looking forward to trying out some new techniques.

There were tons of great giveaways and best of all, the vendors were not shy with the samples which made my $15 ticket totally worth it!

CoffeCon 2014 – Mack Sennett Studios, Los Angeles