Sac Specialty Coffee Week: Chocolate Fish Roasters home brewing class

For coffee lovers, Sacramento is the perfect place to be! Our local cafes are booming, and many of them are holding classes and workshops to inspire and educate the public about coffee from buying the beans overseas to how you too can roast your own brew at home. October 13–19 marks Specialty Coffee Week in Sacramento. We are actually the first city to host a week dedicated to coffee! Isn't that amazing?! I also feel extremely proud that we are listed as The 10 Best Cities for Coffee Snobs and 10 US Cities That Earn Their Coffee Bragging Rights. We don't just have classes; there are also competitions, such as SPLAT (Sacramento Public Latte Art Tournament) and even a Coffee Cocktail Competition in Hook and Ladder!

Today, I went to Chocolate Fish Coffee to check out their home brewing class, which is held every 3rd Saturday. I arrived 15 minutes late thinking it was in the Downtown location (turned out to be the East Sac location), and almost was unable to get in because of how packed it was (they usually only have 8 people but because it coincidentally fell on Specialty Coffee Week, there was a greater turnout) but I was allowed in once I said that this was for a group project for my class (they understood, because the people in my group for the magazine have contacted and visited them too.  My group and I are creating a magazine dedicated to local coffee in Sacramento). The coffee beans used in the demo and tasting was produced by Juan Luis Barrios of Finca La Merced, a coffee farm in Guatemala. Juan said that his family has been producing coffee since 1912. The class was hosted by Andy Baker, the owner of Chocolate Fish. He demonstrated different methods of brewing: French press, V60, AeroPress, etc. Throughout showing different methods, the crowd got a chance to taste the coffee based on those methods. The French press is one of the stronger ones. I would say the V60 is my favorite because of the hint of sweetness. I like my coffee with some sweetness, so I wasn't used to not having my sugar or stevia around. I have to say it did wake me up!