Slow Food Nation. How can something called Slow go by so fast? It was a whirlwind of frenetic activity and coffee magic. I keep realizing how historic the event was in every way. It was a monumental undertaking and was amazingly well executed. A huge bow down with high fives to the curators Andrew Barnett, Eileen Hassi and Tonx.

It was truly historic and groundbreaking. But it was also exactly the way all of us have been doing great coffee for years. The Coffee pavillion was not so much of a unique event as a typical gathering of the coffee lovers that habitually make up the artisan end of things. It was not just that everyone knew each other, even the new Baristas were welcomed in with smiles and high fives, It was how comfortable everyone was with the very idea of what we were trying to do. For most of the team coffee is treated as a culinary art every day and the coffee farmer has been front and center for years.

There was so many amazing coffees as filter coffee and espressos that it was hard not to get completely wasted on coffee. I failed utterly. I drank so much coffee and espresso that I got the dreaded coffee hangover. It is seriously horrible. And seriously wonderful.

A few coffee highlights. Probably the three standouts were the conciousness altering coffee from Abdellah Bergersh from Ethiopia Yirgacheffe. Roasted by the cool cat Andrew Barnett at Ecco Caffe. I have never had so many people startlingly actually taste strawberry preserves in a coffee. I am not able to speak about the coffee without tearing up. I managed to grab a whole bag. I actually had to wrestle it from the grasping hands of a rather concerned young woman who did not realize the treasure she was holding and the depth of my desire for this coffee.

The other mouth ringer was the Don Pachi Panama from Francisco Serrasin Jr. The boys at Stumptown did an amazing job of finding and roasting a huge bunch of orchids and orange blossoms hiding inside a coffee bean. It was truly remarkable.

And finally Edwin Martinez’s namesake micro-lot Edlyna from Finca Vista Hermosa pulled as espresso by Billy Wilson. Even though it was a year old and a 2007 harvest it was so lemony sweet and cacao powder chocolatey and amazingly balanced for an unbalanced lemon and chocolate drop. And best of all Edwin himself got to taste it several times as espresso and was blown away by how great his coffee tasted as espresso. We talked abotu it the whole way home that night.

So overall it was a historic and inspiring event that did a good job of highlighting the farmers hard work and the glory of truly wonderful coffee done well. It was extremely difficult to be a taste captain for literally thousands of coffee fans in a non stop marathon of 2.5 days. But damn it was worth it.