Coffee Fest And The Great American Dessert ExpoDebut Together With Success In Las Vegas

Las Vegas, NV - Gourmet coffee and desserts really are a natural combination as evidenced this past weekend in Las Vegas. Combined, the shows floored 250 exhibit booths at the Sands Expo Center, sampling the latest in specialty coffee, tea, desserts and related products. Educationally, more than 55 classes covered the gamut of retailing desserts, coffee and everything in between.

Attendance was up 22% percent over 2003’s Las Vegas show and exhibitor participation was up 55% percent over last year.

“Joining with the Dessert Expo was a tremendous risk for us, however preliminarily we are glad we did,“ said David Heilbrunn, Coffee Fest Show Manager. “It seems as though our attendees and exhibitors were pleased with the combined experience in Las Vegas.”

Awards were given for the best new products on display and Porter Products took home the first place prize with their innovative “Double Shot.” Second place went to Caffe D’Amore, for their “Dulce De Leche”, and PetPuccino (a first time exhibitor at Coffee Fest) received the third place prize for their new “PupPuccino Dog Treats.”

The second annual Las Vegas Millrock Latte Art Competition was a success and featured many of the top baristi from throughout the southwest. Twenty-two barista competed in preliminaries on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday the stage was set for the Millrock Free Pour Latte Art Championships with ten finalists.

Daniel Wayne from Lux Coffee Bar Phoenix, AZ was crowned champion and awarded the $1,000 to prize. While others came close, Daniel displayed a clear advantage over all other competitors in both the preliminary rounds and then again in the finals. Second place went to second time competitor, Jared Mockli representing the Seattle Barista Academy, Seattle, WA. Third place was taken by James Kellum - Coffee Klatch Roasting, San Dimas, CA. James showed the most creativity by successfully pouring an elephant’s head in the final round but chose a rosetta as his judging submission. While we will never know if the elephant would have taken top honors, it was great to see the creativity begin to emerge in the competition.

Coffee Fest Las Vegas 2005 is scheduled for June 3 – 5, 2005 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.