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The World Barista Championship is just about two weeks away.  After taking place in Switzerland, Japan, and Denmark, us Americans are lucky enough to be bringing the 2009 event back home to Atlanta, GA. 

Competitors representing countries across the globe will be competing for the coveted position of World Champion.  A full list is available on the WBC website. 

Several members of the Gimme! staff will be attending to cheer on our favorites.  Will you be there? 

For baristas around the world there is no event more important than the World Barista Competition.  In order to qualify for entry into the WBC you must first win your national title.  Here in the States we go through a series of regional competitions (like this one) to determine who will compete on a national level at the USBC. 

The 10th and final regional competition kicks off today in Chicago, Illinois.  Hosted by Coffee Masters, the Great Lakes Regional Barista Competition (GLRBC) is taking place in conjunction with CoffeeFest.  Also happening this weekend in Chicago is the Millrock Latte Art Competition.  If this particular event sounds familiar, it may be because you read about the 2008 Millrock champion here, on our blog.

Chicago is definitely the place to be this weekend.  To all the competitors, we wish you the very best.  Hopefully we'll see you all at the USBC in March.

Gimme! Brooklyn welcomed the launch of our Brazilian São João today with a free public tasting.  This exclusive harvest is available only for a very short time. 

Freshly pressed samples were lovingly prepared by our Baristas and distributed en masse to our coffee friends.  We've done this before in Brooklyn and are always encouraged by the positive response we receive from the local community.  Though not widely publicized,  this event was primarily announced through our burgeoning presence on the social network Twitter (you can follow us here). 

If you'd like more information on either hosting our attending our next event, let us know. 

We hosted a free tasting at Boneshakers in Greenpoint, Brooklyn today.  Our NYC Training Specialist Jeremy Gauger brought samples of the Brazilian Daterra Bourbon Collection, Brazilian Sao Joao, Costa Rican La Union, and Colombian Las Mingas.

As proud sponsors of "A Murray Little Christmas", four lucky Gimme! Baristas were invited to witness the miracle show created by the "hardest working middle-aged man in show business". 

Tonight the Rainforest Alliance threw their annual Holiday Party.  Although not quite all of the 33,000 members attended, there was a large turnout.  Luckily for us, their headquarters are located just a few blocks from our Nolita location.

We had the pleasure of hosting Andy Schecter and his infinite bag of tricks recently.  In this episode Andy showed us how to use this state of the art Refractometer (AKA ExtractMojo) in conjuction with computer software, to evaluate total dissolved solids and soluble yields in a cup of brewed coffee.  What does this mean, exactly?  It means you can quickly compare your brewing parameters with an objective standard, and make adjustments accordingly.  Andy writes about this more here, but for an in-depth look, check out George Howell.