Caffeine Crawl Colorado - Coffee, Camaraderie, and Competition

Thursday July 16, 2015 // By Matthew Moseley

*Throwdown details updated 7/31/2015.

Do you love quality coffee, tea, or chocolate?  Would you like to spend a day visiting multiple cafés or coffee shops to enjoy samples and learn more about their products?  If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you need to come crawl with us!  Caffeine Crawl is making it’s way to the Front Range in just over 3 weeks.

For those of you who have never heard of Caffeine Crawl before, this event is like a bar crawl for coffee, tea, and chocolate enthusiasts.  How it works is Caffeine Crawl will select a city and for a day or over the course of a weekend they will compile a list of cafés, chocolatiers, and tea or coffee houses to visit.  Attendees will ‘crawl’ from place to place over approximately a 3 hour span for a behind-the-scenes look at the preparation, method or processing of the products within these businesses.  No other event offers you the chance to have such a unique and personal interaction with the artisans that create the drinks and treats we cherish so much!  

Caffeine Crawl began in 2011 highlighting 3 cities: Kansas City, MO; Springfield, MO and Denver, CO.  Since then Caffeine Crawl has expanded into a coast to coast event with stops in nearly a dozen different states throughout the year.  Each year since its inception, Caffeine Crawl has made a stop in Colorful Colorado due to the amazing support and fervent participation they’ve experienced, and we are extremely happy to announce that 2015 will be no different!

This year Colorado will be hosting Caffeine Crawl on back-to-back weeks featuring an unprecedented 4 cities during the first two weekends of August.  Northern Colorado will launch this 4-day, 2-weekend extravaganza with the first set Crawls commence on Friday, August 7th in Fort Collins then heading out west to Boulder on Saturday, August 8th.  The following weekend, Caffeine Crawl will follow the Rocky Mountains south to Colorado Springs on August 14th for the city’s first Crawl ever!  After visiting the city nestled at the foot of Pikes Peak, the Mile High City, Denver, will wrap-up this epic event with its own set of crawls.  Every city will host multiple routes so you can not only choose the times that work best for your schedule but also get a chance to select which shops or venues you would like to visit.  No matter which route you choose, you’re sure to get your money’s worth at a price of just $25; so don’t hesitate, get your tickets soon before the route you want sells out!

In conjunction with the Caffeine Crawls, both weekends in Colorado will include some awesome after parties as well as a couple of Latte Art Throwdowns which will be open to all ticket holders for Colorado crawls.  To wrap-up the first weekend, Dragonfly Roasters will be hosting an after party at Upslope Brewing which will take place following the conclusion of the final Boulder route.  The second weekend festivities will begin with a Thursday Night Throwdown latte art event sponsored by the folks at Huckleberry Roasters and Friday Colorado Springs crawlers will have an opportunity to visit Switchback Roasters for their after party.  Stay tuned to Caffeine Crawl’s Facebook and event pages on their website for more details.  

As you can see there is a lot to be excited about for this year’s Colorado Caffeine Crawls, but do you want to know what BPS is most excited for? Barista Pro Shop will be kicking-off the entire weekend with a latte art throwdown which will be held in our training café at the Loveland warehouse on Thursday August 6th.  This Thursday Night Throwdown is open to the public and will not have an entrance fee so anyone is welcome to come hang out, grab an ice cold beer courtesy of Loveland Ale Works,and observe the friendly, yet heated competition which will ensue as baristas in the area go head to head showcasing their free pour skills!  If beautiful latte art isn’t enough to pique your interest, we will also have coffee brewing with a Blossom Brewer and great prizes from The LAB, Barista Pro Shop, Barista Magazine, Dragonfly Coffee Roasters and Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters to raffle off. Proceeds from raffle tickets will be donated to the Larimer County Humane Society.  So, come join us in 3 weeks for a night-to-remember; the action will begin around 7:15pm!  Stay up-to-date on event announcements or invite friends and co-workers, by joining our Facebook event page.

Want to find out how your free pour skills stack up against others in your area?  Grab your lucky steaming pitcher and make your way to Loveland! This throwdown will be open to anyone who wishes to compete.  There will be a $5 buy-in for competitors, but that’s all you need to participate. You’re more than welcome to bring your own steaming pitcher and ceramic if you’d like; however, we will have plenty of pitchers and cups on-hand for you to use.  We will be pulling shots from a beautiful Stella Di Caffe espresso machine provided by UNIC and all of the milk will be the Barista Series Almond milk provided by Pacific Foods.  We will cap the list of competitors at maximum of 32 baristas and this will be on a first come first serve basis.  On Thursday August 6th, sign-ups will begin at 6:30pm.  If you would like to guarantee your spot in the competition feel free to give us a call toll free at 1-866-776-5288 or RSVP here. Our judges for the throwdown will include Jonathan Jarrow, Owner of Harbinger Coffee; Josh Taves, Brand Manager of Novo Coffee; and Tia Peck, our Customer Service Supervisor.  The baristas finishing with the top 3 pours will walk away with a cash prize as well as a full-year subscription to Barista Magazine for FREE!