Workshop Schedules

 

Saturday, May 16

 

Workshop
Locations

TEA
BNH Stage Second Floor

PANELS
BNH Stage Second Floor

ESPRESSO
BNH Stage Main Stage

SENSORY
The Hotel Concord, 3rd Floor, New Hampshire Room 

CUPPING
The Hotel Concord, 3rd Floor, New Hampshire Room 

BEYOND THE CUP
The Hotel Concord, 2nd Floor, Coworking Space

ROASTING
The Hotel Concord, 3rd Floor, Concord Room

 

9am–10am

Tea

Rare & Wild Teas: Beyond the Ordinary

Pratik Rijal, Nepal Tea Collective

+ Description

Step into the extraordinary world of rare and wild teas with this exclusive workshop. Sourced from across the globe, these teas represent the pinnacle of craftsmanship and rarity, often produced in limited quantities and highly sought after by connoisseurs. Participants will have the unique opportunity to taste five exceptional teas, each with its own story and distinct flavor profile. From rare varietals to wild-foraged treasures, this session offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience to explore some of the world’s most expensive and elusive teas.

Espresso

How to Manage a Multi-Roaster Espresso Program

Gio Cucalon
(9am–10:15am)

+ Description

TBD

Sensory

Put Your Senses to the Test

Angela Greenhagen, Covoya Specialty Coffee

+ Description

Confident in your coffee sensory skills? Put them to the test in this fun workshop with Covoya Coffee. Blind taste and smell sections of the flavor wheel and make your guess with the answers revealed at the end! This is a fun workshop for all looking to sharpen their coffee sensory skills.

Cupping

Defect Cupping for Roasters

Ana Mallozzi, Covoya Specialty Coffee

+ Description

Sooner or later, every cupper encounters a defect—an unwelcome flavor that stands out in the cup. But not every “off” note is a true defect, and skilled cuppers must learn to recognize the difference. In this workshop, we’ll explore the most common flavor defects in coffee, what causes them, and how to accurately identify and describe them. We’ll cup several coffees that *might* contain defects to build confidence in recognizing these attributes. This session is intended for participants with prior cupping experience and comfort discussing coffee attributes and quality levels—ideal for roasters or anyone interested in green coffee purchasing.

Beyond the Cup

Mental Health as a Management Priority

Brianna Stefano, Brewing with Brianna LLC

+ Description

Mental health plays a critical role in retention, performance, and workplace culture, yet it is often overlooked in cafe operations. This workshop examines the psychological demands of coffee work and how managers can build systems that support well-being without sacrificing standards. Participants will leave with strategies to recognize burnout, normalize support, and lead teams with care and accountability.

Roasting

Specialty Roasted Coffee and Packaging for Quality & Design

Mike Harney, Rare Breed/Caleb Hallowell, Lost Shoe

+ Description

Historically speaking, there has never been a consensus on the perfect packaging for coffee. From cans, to jute, polymer bags, nitro flushing, to even glass containers, the variables of each of these vessels related to quality is a constant & subjective debate. What containers preserve the life of the coffee roast best? Does a dark roast last longer in cans than a kraft bag? What is economically viable for reuse without quality compromise. We will explore the different approaches to these questions based on two different roaster experiences.

 

10:30am–11:30am

Panel

Why Compete? Are industry competitions important, fun, worth it? Or am I a glutton for punishment?

(Moderator) Rachel Apple, Algrano
Justin Enis, Enjoy Coffee
Amanda Ambrust-Asselin, Neumann Kaffe Gruppe
Pack Katis, Newbery Street Coffee Roasters

+ Description

Brewers Cup, Barista Competition, Cup Tasters, Latte Art; there are so many competitions in specialty coffee. Is competing or judging on your bucket list? These panelists have judged and competed on the world stage and are here to talk about their experiences.

Espresso

Water We Talking About

Juan Valentin
(10:45am–12pm)

+ Description

TBD

Sensory

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Not So Vanilla: Creating Seasonal Offerings with a Wow Factor

Sasha Grodsky, Coffee By Design

+ Description

An intermediate workshop on building profitable, creative seasonal beverage programs. Learn how to plan menus, develop signature drinks, price and cost recipes, and bring new offerings to life through hands-on recipe development, tasting, and practical launch strategies you can apply immediately in your café.

Cupping

Intro to Cupping

Britta Gustafson, New Harvest Coffee

+ Description

Cupping for Beginners is the perfect introduction for anyone curious about tasting coffee like a pro. Whether you’ve never cupped before or have only tried it once or twice, this workshop will guide you through the foundations and standard protocols of cupping. Together, we’ll taste three different coffees while exploring flavor, aroma, and technique. Expect a relaxed, fun, no‑pressure environment—an inviting first step into the world of coffee cupping!

Beyond the Cup

Building a Training Program

Kaera Wyse, Pavement Coffee

+ Description

Building a solid barista training program allows you to hire great people, regardless of coffee experience. Working with people who have never considered how their coffee tastes before, and getting them ready to dial in espresso with confidence can also be a unique challenge. Things like extraction and SCAA tasting criteria can often feel overwhelming to a complete beginner. This workshop will discuss ways to take these more technical skillsets, and scaffold them in a way that can be accessible for anyone, building curiosity alongside proficiency.

Roasting

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Exploring the effect of applied airflow in the drum roaster

Dana Bourque, J Rene Coffee

+ Description

In roasting, as in life, we often adopt certain ideas or assumptions which over time congeal into firmly held beliefs or habits. In roasting, we often apply the similar airflow treatments to coffee simply because it’s how we’ve always done it or it’s a continued ritual from what we have been taught or told is “right.” In our experience, it is often valuable to challenge and test assumptions. In this track we simply strive to better understand airflow in the drum roaster by assessing the objective effect of various airflow treatments on roasted coffees.

 

12pm–1pm

Tea

Tea with a Twist

Margaret Gay, 27Teas

+ Description

Tea doesn’t have to stop at “hot or iced.” In this hands-on workshop, you’ll discover how a few simple ingredients can transform tea into premium, café-worthy creations. We’ll talk about how this can enhance your overall menu and tea experience for your customers, and why this matters. We’ll give you an inspiration menu and then get creative! Watch live demos of drinks like a hibiscus margarita mocktail, mint mojito, and iced chocolate matcha and even get the chance to experiment with your own flavor combinations.

Sensory

How to Brew Better Coffee at Home

Anne Mercer, Victus Coffee

+ Description

Ready to brew better coffee at home? In this workshop, we’ll show you how to brew with a Chemex and French Press along with a few tips and tricks to help you take your coffee to the next level—all from the comfort of your home.

Cupping

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Intro to Processing: Taste the Difference

Todd Mackey, Covoya Specialty Coffee

+ Description

Why does one coffee taste clean and bright while another tastes juicy and fruity? In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn how processing methods can contribute to the flavor of what’s in your cup. After a quick intro to what happens to coffee cherries after harvesting, you’ll taste a lineup of coffees that highlight different processing styles. Expect insightful comparisons, new sensory perspectives, and a deeper understanding of what’s behind the flavors you love.

Beyond the Cup

Coffee For People Who Care: Local Choices, Global Impact

Mary Allen Lindemann, Coffee by Design

+ Description

The coffee industry demands new ways of doing business to ensure a future for coffee farmers as well as all of us. Rather than thinking outside the box, imagine there was no box in the first place. What ideas would be generated if there were no societal barriers. Coffee By Design Owner and Chief Creative Director, Mary Allen Lindemann facilitates a panel of industry superheroes who hold us accountable to our standards of transparency and integrity, as we work towards positive impact and equity for all in coffee. Listen. Learn. Make Positive Change a Reality. The choices we make matter.

Roasting

TBD

Neil Balkcom, Swings Coffee

+ Description

TBD

 

12:30pm–1:45pm

Espresso

How to Dial In for Milk Drinks

Sylvie Flanagan- Minor Figures

+ Description

TBD

 
 

1:30pm–2:30pm

Panel

Exploring Roast Levels

(Moderator) Jay Kling, Efficiency.coffee
Dr. Christopher Hendon, Overpotential
Scott Rao, Prodigal Coffee

+ Description

Experts in nearly all things coffee, Christopher and Scott will be discussing the ground breaking and influential projects they are working on. These industry lions have a lot to say and we get to hear it all!

Sensory

The Machine Whisperers

Jim Connolly, Sure Shot Coffee Service

+ Description

This class is geared towards cafe owners and baristas that own & work on espresso machines all day and want to know what’s going on in there. We’ll go over how water & power come out of your wall and then end up as espresso in your cup. As we trace the water and power pathways throughout the machine we’ll make stops along the way to explain common problems and how to diagnose them. The second half of the session will be reserved for Q&A so if you have a burning question about your particular setup, ask away!

Cupping

Black Tea: The Major Exports

Meg Tartasky, MEM Tea

+ Description

There are over 3,000 styles of tea produced worldwide every year, and when exploring them it can be easy to get lost in names, descriptions, and expectations. During this cupping exercise you'll taste 8 black teas; all produced via orthodox methods and coming from different origins. Each tea we taste will be from one of the major exporting regions. By the end of the session, you should be able to identify where a black tea comes from based upon specific flavor profile identification in conjunction with leaf appearance differentiation. Beginners, advanced cuppers, baristas, roasters, and anyone interested in expanding their flavor knowledge repertoire will surely enjoy this cupping.

Beyond the Cup

Brewing Strong Connections: Coffee Knowledge, Community and Customer Experiences

Allan Flores, Victus Coffee

+ Description

This workshop helps to inform about workplace community while growing coffee knowledge and customer connections. Learn how to support staff, train new baristas, and strengthen networks in the coffee industry—all while creating memorable experiences through coffee!

Roasting

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Drum vs. Air

Justin Enis, Enjoy Coffee Roasters

+ Description

We will take a dive into the nuances and differences between a more traditional drum roasting system and some newer fully convective roasting systems. What similarities and differences are there in each (in terms of recipe/curve building, work flow of a production day, cup profiles, etc.). Does one system reign supreme? Does it even matter?! Such big questions. We will aim to lay out our experiences and observations collected over a decade plus of roasting in a non-biased way and go deep down the rabbit hole of roasting systems.

 

3pm–4pm

Tea

Brewing Loose Leaf Tea Simply & Intuitively

Yin Guan, Broken Cup Teahouse

+ Description

Good tea is flexible, not finicky. This class is for anyone ready to move beyond the very specific steeping instructions printed on tea packaging (1 tsp, 185°F, 4 minutes…) and learn how a little knowledge and observation can help you brew any loose leaf tea well. You will learn to read a tea's physical characteristics and brew it with confidence, using only a mug! Each participant will brew and taste two of our single-origin loose leaf teas, while learning about their history and processing styles along the way.

Sensory

Demystifying Body in Coffee

Mika Thomas, Joe Coffee
Dana Borque, J.René Coffee Roasters

+ Description

An intermediate sensory workshop focused on one of coffee’s most misunderstood attributes: body. Taste coffees across roast levels and compare milk with different fat contents to better understand texture, concentration, and strength, while building practical tools to assess body more confidently in the cup.

Cupping

Exploring Vietnam Specialty Coffee

Gerra Harrigan, StoneX

+ Description

Coffees from Vietnam have traditionally been overlooked by the specialty industry, it’s time to take another look. We will cup various processing methods, regions and qualities from the current harvest.

Beyond the Cup

Community. Coffee. Culture. Company. How Heart, Hospitality, and Business Come Together

(Moderator) Jennifer Wilder, Laney & Lu
Jess Sabine, Rose Room Cafe
Harry Sultan, Another Round
Karen Bassett, Wayfarer Coffee Roasters

+ Description

What separates cafés that merely survive from those that truly thrive? In this candid conversation led by Jennifer Wilder of LANEY & LU and GINGER FOX, three café owners including Jess Sabine, The Rose Room Cafe, Karen Bassett, Wayfarer Roasters, and Harry Sultan, Another Round, unpack what it takes to build businesses that are financially sound, culturally strong, and deeply rooted in community. From coffee quality and guest experience to leadership, systems, and long-term vision, this panel goes beyond trends to explore what sustainable café ownership really looks like - and what today’s leaders must prioritize to grow with integrity.

Roasting

How to Shop for Coffee

Britta Gustafson, New Harvest Coffee

+ Description

Unlucky in the coffee aisle? In How to Shop for Coffee, we'll discuss where to buy coffee, what details to look for on coffee labels, and how to decipher those mystifying flavor notes. This workshop includes a coffee tasting where we will compare and contrast brewed coffees with their labels. Don't settle for a bummer brew! Join us in How to Shop for Coffee.