Welcome back fellow coffee enthusiasts. It's been a fun hiatus, but it's time to return to the nitty gritty of monthly Smackdowns. And we've got some fun things in store for you.

First, the format of the Smackdown will be undergoing a bit of a change. Instead of the one pour-three judges, winner is picked format SNS will now be done in a more fast paced and thrilling head to head style pour offs. Enter the Single Elimination Bracket System, a tournament style latte art throwdown wherein two baristas pour head to head and one winner is chosen to move to the next bracket unitl we reach the last top two baristas to see who walks away with the top honors.

Secondly, the dates of the Smackdown will now be the FIRST Saturday of the month instead of the last of the month. This is for purely selfish reasons. At Medici, we will be doing a fun event called Medici Notte on the last weekend of every month. So moving the SNS to the first weekend allows me to have my cake and eat it too. And then tell everyone how delicious my cake was. Also, the Smackdown will run into less holiday time at the beginning rather than the end of the month.

Now for the meat of the post . . .

The next SNS is scheduled for February 6th at Frank in downtown Austin. Tyler Wells, the head barista and 3rd place SCRBC finalist, is pretty stoked to have the event coming to his neck of the woods. The first bit of the SNS will focus on Manual Brewing Techniques, specifically, controlling the amount and rate of extraction through dose, temperature, and contact time. We'll have Chemexes, Hario pour overs, and the ever impressive 5 cup Yama Syphon.

The latte art portion will be design of your choice, poured into one of these bad boys. Aw yeah!

A little lecture, a little hands on brewing, and some sweet latte art in Austin's only hot dog/bar/coffee shop. It's gonna be rad.

Rock.