Coffee-industry people pour into town

At first, Josh del Sol thought he smelled rubber. Then he realized it was smoke.

He marked his ballot for the "Aroma Challenge" and became the front-runner in a smelling contest at this weekend's Coffee Fest, a trade show that travels around the country and arrives once a year at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in downtown Seattle.

Coffee Fest, which is not open to the public, thrives on competitions.

On the low-key end is the Aroma Challenge, a table that attendees can drop by all weekend to identify the distilled scents — good and bad — that are sometimes found in coffee, like apricot, pepper and maple syrup. Espresso Parts of Olympia will give the winner a kit of 36 scents that normally retails for $350.

"I loved the chance to capture the straight aroma of a defect," said del Sol, roastmaster for a Victoria, B.C., coffee importer and roaster called Level Ground Trading.

If he wins the kit, he said, "I'd put it in my [coffee] cupping lab and make everybody smell it."

Although del Sol's nose is well trained, sniffing vials is not as hair-raising — or rewarding — as the latte-art contest, where dozens of baristas from around the world create rosettes, hearts, tulips and wreaths using foamed milk and espresso. The winner receives $2,500.

At Saturday morning's latte-art qualifier, Philip Hong of Caffé Artigiano in Vancouver, B.C., poured a foamed-milk tulip surrounded by two rosettes while Billy Idol's "White Wedding" played over the loudspeakers.

Emcee Heather Perry of California, two-time winner of the prestigious U.S. Barista Championship, shared tidbits about contestants. As Hiroshi Sawada crammed five tiny rosettes into a single coffee cup, Perry said the Tokyo barista gave his first-place award last year to Coffee Kids, a nonprofit that helps coffee farmers.

While Perry spoke and baristas poured, Manuel Martinez Torres, who owns seven cafes called El Café de Todos in Mexico City, marveled at the Northwest's love of coffee.

"My country is a big producer of coffee, but we don't have this coffee culture," he said. "I want to open a coffee school in Mexico."

He was disappointed that the 265 exhibitors — including coffee importers, bakeries and smoothie makers — did not include more equipment companies.

Some of the country's biggest and most prestigious equipment makers, including Synesso, La Marzocco and Bunn, had booths, but it wasn't the array Torres had hoped for.

David Perritt, owner of Grab-a-Java coffeehouse and roaster in Mission, B.C., cruised the floor wearing a black shirt with "Bad Coffee Sucks" written on the back.

He considers an annual visit to Coffee Fest necessary for his company's research and development.

"You've got to keep your finger on the pulse, and Seattle and Portland are the way to find out what's going on in the industry," Perritt said.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com