We had an incredible time at Coffee Fest Portland 2015. Evans Brothers Won 3rd Place in the prestigious America's Best Coffeehouse competition! According to Coffee Fest, "America's Best Coffeehouse competition has been developed to determine and acknowledge the three best coffeehouses regionally in North America"
Several months ago we had applied with our video submission, and qualified for the 30 day fan voting and secret shopper period. Our customers came through in a BIG way with more than enough votes to help us get there! This narrowed the field to 6 teams selected to compete live at the Coffee Fest show floor.
For the on-site semi-finals and final round competition, dueling coffeehouse teams of three employees each filled the roles of barista, bar back, and greeter/cashier, who served both attendees and judges. Each team served a limited menu of espresso, cappuccino, latte, flavored latte, two manually brewed coffee options, and a daily special. The competition was designed to evaluate all aspects of operating a successful cafe, with a 15 minute opening and closing period, and 30 minutes of serving time. Each team was judged by 30 selected judges appointed by Coffee Fest.
Our signature drink was a huge hit! Cafe Cereza is a chilled drink with a double shot of our Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Adado, black cherry reduction and rosemary lemon thyme simple syrup, with vanilla bean creme floated on top.
Rick, Daniel, and Nicole were the team representing Evans Brothers. We did well enough on Saturday to compete in the final 3 on Sunday. This was for the entire west region. First place team was Publicus from Las Vegas, second place Klatch Coffee from Los Angeles, 3rd place Evans Bros from Sandpoint! We actually had the highest scores among the customer survey portion of the event! We learned a ton and will be back next year gunning for first place.
It was extremely gratifying for us to compete among the best coffeehouses and roasters in the country, some of which we have admired since before we started this business. We’ve always had the goal of being among the elite specialty coffee roasters in the country, and this is validation that we are making our vision a reality!