Serious Coffee at Golden Belt This Weekend

This weekend The Cotton Room in Golden Belt is going to smell like heaven to coffee lovers. It's also going to seem like heaven since it is the location for a regional barista competition this weekend. 

As The Tastiest Town in the South and home to one of the nation's top 10 coffee roasters, Durham is home to a ready-made audience for an event like this. It's also centrally located so people from all around can attend.

“The Big Eastern,” a Regional Barista Competition presented by the Specialty Coffee Association of America and the Barista Guild of America takes place this weekend, January 17 – 19. Free and open to the public, the three day event features top baristas from the entire East Coast.

Competitors will battle it out for the regional titles in a competition format that tests the barista’s technical skill as well as knowledge and passion for coffee, in a viewer-friendly way. Spectators will get to sample the drinks prepared by baristas similar to those being prepared by competitors.

Carrboro Coffee Roasters will host a pop-up Café in the Lobby of Golden Belt which will also serve as a 'hands-on' environment for barista's to work with various pieces of equipment and where the barista community can interact and learn from one another. Many events are planned around the main competition to further increase awareness of coffee, and its inter-relationship with the culinary industry.

Learn more about Durham's Tastiest Town in the South title online.