Crowds clamor at the Slayer Pop-Up at the 2019 Boston SCA Expo. (Photo courtesy Slayer)
The Specialty Coffee Association‘s annual Expo is one of the largest coffee tradeshows in the world. With seven Sprudge folks on the floor, we covered a sampling of fine pop-ups, tech drops, and show floor surprises. All the while, our team covered World Barista Championship and Brewers Cup over on our sister site Sprudge Live. There’s just so much to cover—we’d need a team of 50 to really do it justice! While we were wrapping up Facebooking, Instagramming, Tweeting, and live-blogging, the SCA honored exhibitors of the festival with a set of gleaming awards.
15 awards were handed out for Best New Product in several categories and their Design Lab. The Best New Product Competition and Display are judged on their quality and value.
The 2019 Best New Product winners are:
Kruve Inc. EQ: Coffee Accessories
Bellwether Coffee: Commercial Coffee or Tea Preparation & Serving Equipment
Breville Barista Pro Model BES 878: Consumer Coffee or Tea Preparation & Serving Equipment – Electrical
Cafélat Robot Espresso Maker: Consumer Coffee or Tea Preparation & Serving Equipment – Non-Electrical
Cometeer Coffee Capsule: Open Class
Steeped Coffee S-101: Packaging
1883 Maison Routin elixirs d’ exception ~ truffle: Specialty Beverage Flavor Additive
Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Powder: Specialty Beverage Flavor Additive (Honorable Mention)
Dona Chai Spiced Soda Pink Peppercorn Lemon: Specialty Beverage Stand Alone
iFinca Coffee Chain: Technology
Tierra Nueva Nudge Coffee Butter: Food
The award-winning Kruve EQ Glassware Line. (Photo courtesy SCA)
Four awards were handed to winners of the Design Lab. “Great coffee is often given dissection via great design, and increasingly serves an important function in distinguishing specialty coffee,” explains the SCA. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
The 2019 Design Lab Winners are:
Rishi Tea. Design by Studio MPLS: Branding Category
Greater Goods Coffee Roasters. Design by Michael Hsu Office of Architecture: Spaces
Blue Bottle Coffee Can. Design by Elaine Fong and Neil Day: Packaging
KRUVE EQ Glassware Line by KRUVE Inc. Design by Michael Vecchiarelli: Vessels
Blue Bottle’s award-winning coffee cans. (Photo courtesy SCA)
Last, but certainly not least, three very special awards were given to the Best Booths and the Best Pop-up at the show. For the 10 years we’ve been covering the SCA tradeshow here in America, it feels as if the bar gets raised higher and higher each year when it comes to quality booth design. The SCA gave the awards for all-out best to these deserving three:
Bellwether Coffee: Inline Category
Anacafé/Guatemala: Island Category
Slayer Espresso: Pop-up Category
The award-winning Slayer pop-up cafe. (Photo courtesy Slayer)
It was indeed a year of innovation, high-stakes design, and thoughtful execution. The beauty of the curved Kruve EQ glassware. The simplicity of the Blue Bottle coffee can. The ultra-modern yet understated Slayer pop-up. The question on everyone’s lips is: who will it be next year? When the ribbon is cut at the Portland Convention Center, who will truly bring it? Only time will tell.
Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2019 SCA Expo Awards!
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