This Thursday, the 12th of November come out and throw down at Mid City Caffe!  Sign ups start at 8 and pouring begins at 9.

Also, the following Thursday will be the New York vs. D.C. City smack down hosted at Peregrine Espresso!  Come out and support O.N.C.!  The event should begin around 9pm with pour-offs starting between 9:15 and 9:30.

An extraordinary event took place this past October the Eighth when a bunch of good sports sporting lip hair (that tended to travel) showed up at Chinatown Coffee Company for the 1st Anniversary of TNT D.C.  There was press, pizza, hair, beer, birthdays, cupcakes, icecream and a qualifier for a throwdown vs. our latte artist counterparts in New York City. 

Even a latte was spotted with a sweet moustache in the crowd…

So the attire was upper lip hair- it moved a bit…

Well, tonight served as a qualifier for a head to head with NY, so lets have a look at the top ten this evening… in no particular order…

The peoples pours featured in the top ten are as follows (again, in no particular order):

Tim, Travis, Will, Maura, Jeremy, Meredith, Grant, Lana, Nick and Danielle.

This crew is supposed to go on to rep O.N.C. against NYC in a throwdown that will tentatively take place on the first Thursday of November.

The top three this month were-

Lana…

Nick…

and Jeremy…

3rd, 2nd and 1st respectively.

3rd and 2nd prize were a t-shirt and mug from Peregrine Espresso, while 1st prize was given by Max and Katie of Chinatown Coffee…  can you say ‘Dom Perignon’?  WOW!  Thanks, Chinatown!

Huge thanks to our judges- Ryan Jensen of Peregrine, Trish Rothgeb of Wreckingball and Bethany Sterner!

Also, thanks to the Washington Times for coming out to journalize the TNT, Chinatown Coffee Company for hosting a great event, Julie Housh for Photos, Meredith Taylor for scoring and enforcing, Mick Miller for being the most amazing space user of a pizza box ever!

The next TNT will take place on November 12th at Midcity Caffe!  Be there…

I always enjoyed that ‘oct’ is (maybe Latin?) 8 and this TNT is on the 8th of ‘OCT-ober’.  I suppose you could say that about other months and their corresponding days that fit with their (Latin? again…) months.  Like, November 9 and December 10 and so on.

Ok, back to TNT!!!  This will be our celebratory TNT as it marks Washington D.C. TNT’s first Anniversary!  Cake and ice cream-YES!  Feel free to bring gifts, as long as they’re really expensive.  Also, this is a ‘Moustache’ party.  This means, break out your best eye liner pencil (sharpie works great), make a faux one and glue it on, or start growing it!  Must have moustache to enter, though, you can probably get one at the door.  This is to kind of go with Halloween since its in October and all. 

Now, for the best part of this shindig:  Chinatown Coffee rocks two espresso machines, but instead of head to head bracket action, we will feature fast paced, two at a time pours with scores!  The reason for this you wonder?  Well, we want to be able to get as many competitors through the session as possible because the 10 highest scores are going to be representing D.C. baristas in a big way.  At a date and time to be announced (in November) the top 10 are going up against New York City’s finest latte artists!!!  Friggin sweet…  This will all happen via the interwebs- streaming, uploaded photos to be scored by off-site judges and stuff.

So, to sum it all up:  Chinatown Coffee Company on October the 8th.  Sign ups will begin at 7:30pm with competition beginning around 8:30pm.  Grow some lip fuzz and come out to celebrate TNT D.C.’s Birthday!!!

We are heading full blast into fall.  October marks the one year anniversary for TNT in Washington D.C. and some interesting plans are in the works.  More on that later. 

September 10th, evening.  A relatively small crowd, but some first timers and even a first timer from a new shop!  This happened to be Mike Sala’s last TNT for a while as he heads off to France.  We’ll miss you, M’Sala!

He started the night off well with this fantastic gift from the TNT committee.  As Julie has said, ‘you probably wont get any of this in France!’.  Hope you enjoyed it, Mike.

On the evening of hardcore, fist-to-face, latte art badness (ok, its just coffee and milk) Lana from Bigbear stepped up first and stayed in first quite a while…

Nice one! 

A newcomer to TNT and repping his shop well, Kyle from Mid City Caffe threw down! 

Liz, from Tryst who always pours some sick multi art put this in front of the judges… What an amazing use of space!  I thought this would be the pour to beat for the rest of the night, but Lana held on.  WOW! 

Travis, who always pours well put this out followed by another newcomer!  Secret from Tryst threw down for the first time.  Nice-ta-meetcha Secret! 

A ground breaking turn of events took place when our first ever tag-team pour occurred.  I dont know if this is against the rules or not, but if it is, we all turned away because it was so flippin sweet to see.  David and Jocelyne teamed up for this one.  David took on the technical side of the pour, steaming milk and dropping a coupla shots in a cup, while Jocelyne-first TNT pour and (I dont think) trained as a barista put the milk in a cup.  Thanks for the sheer defiance, you two!  Love this stuff…

Mick stepped up in the middle of volunteering to post scores (thanks, man) and poured this for a score of 52, enough to bump Lana into second place and take the lead…

Maura from Peregrine layed down the love…

and some jerk put the multi art in because ‘alot of other people were doing mulit-art!’ 

Ummmm.  Well.  I won with this pour.  Mick took second and a sweet beer glass from a pub in Portland while Lana took home the super sweet shirt from 15th ave coffee and tea.  I’ll bet she’ll be inspired by star$’s every time she wears it. 

I hope that the bar is raised with each succeeding TNT and that more people, more new faces, more up and coming phenomenal baristas will come out to represent the craft of the barista.  Remember when you serve that cup that someone, somewhere, spent time growing and nurturing the coffee- pouring there lives and love into it.  So, when you prepare the luscious beverage, remember– and pour your passion into it.

Thanks to all the volunteers, especially our two newest judges, Kaitlyn and Paige as well as Alex from CounterCulture who donated the space, time and sleep deprivation.  Sorry about the hard counter!  We will start a fund for a futon for you!

See you in October!

Bring your friends.  Bring your skills.  Bring your money and throw it down this Thursday!  TNT September is taking place at the CounterCultureCoffeeD.C.TrainingCenter and we will be accepting donations for beverages.  The ’suggested’ donation for these beverages will be between 2 and 3 $’s.  The idea is that we will grow a bit of a fund to create a self sustaining TNT–  meaning BIGGER prizes, TNT D.C. t-shirts and more!  This week 2nd and 3rd place will be receiving a sweet prize from all the way over on the other side of the country- brought to you by Meredith and Julie!  Thanks Ladies!  You two are nice! 

Sign ups at 8 with competition getting underway at 9.  If you are interested in judging, please contact the committee at tntwdc@gmail.com.  See you there…

What a journey and what fun I have had at TNT.  The first anniversary of Washington D.C.’s Thursday Night Throwdown is approaching and so many things have happened.  This is my first contribution to the TNT blog.  The first TNT held at a location other than the Counter Culture training center took place in July at Chinatown Coffee where Janet took home the cash (a first time win from a NY resident, though, Janet had lived in D.C.)  Peregrine Espresso hosted the August event where a new first time TNTDC champ was named- Nick Cho won a bottle of beer and gave it away.(Pretty sure he kept the cash).  Katie Duris, the primary player in the birth and nurturing of TNTDC has moved to New York.  We miss you, Katie!

Well, here we are. 

Back to Chinatown Coffee and the event in July.  A first ever head to head match up took place as Chinatown boasts dual espresso machines, side by side with towering Robur grinders flanking to the right and left.

Here is the not-quite-champ-yet Janet behind the Robur E.

The head to head style was intense.  Two competitors faced off with their own machine, own grinder and choice of cups to use.  They steamed, they poured, the judges judged and the winner advanced while the loser picked up another beverage and enjoyed the rest of the party.  Judging was done by three with a simple choice– A or B? 

With bracket-style advancement, eventually it came down to the final two competitors.  Up for grabs on this evening, Nick Cho presented a WBC Reg Barber tamper from the Tokyo competition- definitely a hot 1st place prize!

Here are a few more pics of the pours and the people…  Then, the sweet ‘money’ shot!

                                                                            

I started to meander about and lost track of some of the match ups and stuff, sorry.  Here are some other great things…

Here is Nick’s winning pour…

and the presentation of the winnings…

 I think that it was quite a night.  Katie and David’s last TNT while D.C. residents, DNF’s last for a bit… 

A big thanks to judges, competitors, Jill and Ryan at Peregrine and the TNT committee for making this awesome.  I know I left out so much and will continue to work to make this site and the event great! 

Next TNT is September 10th at the CCCDCTC!

Before we launch into the play by play, I’d just like to thank everyone who came out last month for TNT. It was great to see so many of you, and on such short notice. A very big thanks to our judges this month. David Fritzler from tryst, Lana Labermeier from big bear cafe, and Justin “cupcake” Stegall from bakeshop dc.

on to the play by play.

Yours truly had the good fortune of picking the first spot, and poured the whispy thing (upper right), that did alright in points but didn’t stand much of a chance for the greatness that followed.

My pour didn’t stand much of a chance against allie turner’s beautiful tulip poured in cappuccino cup. She poured third and ruled the board for most of the night. I don’t know about you, but I think this drink looks just delicious.

In the spirit of perfect nights, meredith taylor, of peregrine espresso stepped up and poured her most beautiful competition pour to date. She had great use of space, fantastic definition, really just a lovely, impressive pour. With it she snuck by allie to claim top prize, and on her birthday! way to go meredith!

Every month I walk away from TNT excited about something new, and recently I’ve been stoked on just how great coffee folks in dc are. Increasingly TNT competitions are coming down to 2 point differences as the playing field is leveling off. And what’s awesome about it is that its because people are getting better, and its anyone’s game.

Pearce Arnold from tryst also poured (I think) his best TNT pour yet, with great contrast and a full canvas. Really impressive.

Point being, i’m grateful to have such a friendly and supportive coffee community to be inspired by. I think we’re have even greater coffee on our horizon.

PLEASE COME OUT TOMORROW!

Hello Loyal TNT followers,
I’m sorry I’ve neglected TNT. No updates, no photos, nothing. I haven’t even updated the calendar. My attention span has been deficient, and it is completely inexcusable. I hope you’ll find it in your hearts to forgive me.

I know everyone has full schedules. I keep hearing of exams, and birthdays, and visiting friends and family. I hope that in spite of my extremely late notice of this month’s TNT (tomorrow, May 7) some people can still make it out.

And while your at it maybe you’d like to investigate this bit of interactive art that hits close to home for most of us. This is not that cafe opens tomorrow night at the Philips Collection in Dupont Circle, just a short walk from the training center.

from the phillips collection website:
“Set in the museum’s café, this is not that CAFÉ is an art piece that pays homage to coffeehouse and café traditions. The artists responsible collaborate under the name dB foundation and are dedicated to creating temporary, ephemeral, and inhabitable art. For the duration of the piece, their wall collages, board games, books, and artistic foods (both real and fake) will transform the physical space.”

And just so I don’t make this mistake again, June TNT will be Thursday the 11th.

Hope to see you tomorrow!
hearts and stars,

Katie

post script. i also promise to dig thru flash cards to find images of the last couple of throwdowns.

In honor of latte art throwdowns of yore, this evening we throw back, to last year’s MARBC, where the conundrum of very little milk manifested into one of the greatest spectacles of coffee get togethers this side of the mississippi during a leap year.

What makes a mach off so great you may be wondering. Fair enough. First off you get two chances to make some magic. While competitors are still limited to steaming just one pitcher of milk, they are judged on the latte art achieved in a single macchiato. which means you can pour 2(!) and choose the better one to submit to the judges.

The next exciting thing about the mach-off is that judging is instantaneous! Two judges will deliberate over the submission in comparison to the leading pour. When they have come to a decision they will discard the losing pour.

here’s a taste…

still $5. winner takes all.

I thought perhaps I was exaggerating the incredibleness of last week’s TNT, but as I sit here drinking my afternoon cup, reviewing the photos, I think I was dead on.

BEST TNT EVER.

What sort of night could incite such gushing on my part? An incredibly well attended, up beat sort of night, with one really incredible pour after another. The upgrades of a projector, tasty mixed drinks, and big bear cafe made TNT FEB. the best yet.

People started out playful and experimental. To lead things off, David Flynn poured this fish looking thing.

Jeremy Sterner continued the break from tradition with this high scoring split cup kind of pour.

His pour was awarded 52 points, a feat the crowd seemed to think untoppable, because Jeremy has magic.
His first challenge came from Andy Sprenger, a roaster from Caffe Pronto up in Annapolis. He poured a beautiful tulip, reminiscent of some of Jeremy’s earlier award winning pours.

We waited anxiously, holding our collective breath as cho posted the scores on the projector. The score came back. 51. Jeremy remained on top.

Katie Duris came up to protect her crown, or rather bracelet. Showing some nerves for sure, she poured this pretty thing out.

The room nervously awaited, would her pour put her back on top? it does! and with a score of 57.5, its speculated that it could be the highest scoring pour to date. (on account of my poor recording keeping, haha, get it?). The room is a buzz! congratulations all around. Katie is all smiles, thinking about how that little bit of cash can pay off that ridiculous speeding ticket she got headed home from hotlanta…

anyway, someone should have warned her about spending money before it was hers. Aside from bad business, its plain old bad luck. After studying closely the first half of competitors, Ryan Jensen, espresso bar owner extraordinaire stepped to the machine and…

hold your breath….
54! not enough for first, but soundly in second.

While all the commotion over Jensen’s pour, Lana Labermeier of Big Bear Cafe fame, stepped up to the machine and nailed it.

again there was much excitement as the judges deliberated and the IT team transferred scores and pics. Lana’s score is up and…
58!! She eeks by Katie’s pour by half a point!

Exciting!

After Lana’s pour, the last shake-up to the leader board came in the form of a newly convert to right handed pours. South paw Sala, or Mike “mild” Salsa stepped up and addressed the challenge of his shaky hands – by switching things up. He poured with his right hand and viola!

a third place pour!

The night was simply incredible.