CoffeeCon San Francisco 2014

Get your caffeine on at CoffeeCon 2014. Taking place on Saturday, July 26 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Terra Galleries in San Francisco, this one-day consumer coffee festival features flavors from around the globe. You'll mingle with other equally jazzed java aficionados as you sip from mind-bending blends that have been roasted and brewed in every conceivable manner. What makes this event so inviting is the many information-rich seminars, panels and classes. You won't want to miss the "For the Love of Coffee Lab" a two-hour interactive presentation that sheds light on what makes great coffee, well, great. You'll be treated to a lecture along with tastings from half a dozen different countries that will help you decipher the difference between natural and washed, ripe and unripe and new crop and old crop. You'll also be able to see what's hot in coffee now and what's brewing down the road during "The Future of Coffee" panel, which will be led by some of the beverage's best and brightest minds. For even more education, you can sign up for an array of hands-on classes. Learn about the lost art of siphon brewing, aka vacuuming. Popular from the 1930s through the 1950s, the method was taken over by the percolator but is making a comeback and you could be at the forefront of it. If you've got a French press at home, you may not be getting everything out of it that you can, flavor-wise. Take the French Press Brewing class and you'll be on your way to café nirvana. There's much more going on at CoffeeCon 2014 and you can research it at www.coffee-con.com.