This past April, with our homemade trade show booth in tow, we journeyed to Seattle for our first SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) event. Here’s our recap of Duo’s tradeshow debut, and the cool products we got to play with.
To give you an idea of the vibe at SCAA, picture 10,000 people all consuming an ungodly amount of caffeine over 4 days. You could breathe coffee vapor by the end of the event. Needless to say – over many coffees – we learned a ton and met some incredible folks. We also spent the next few days detoxing the caffeine out of our bodies.
Showing off Duo
As Duo’s tradeshow debut, we didn’t know what to expect. To be honest, we brought candy just in case we needed to bribe people to our booth. It turned out to be quite the opposite. The Fellow booth saw a constant flood of people. From coffee farmers to at home brewers, people repeatedly visited our booth to play with Duo. Duo to SCAA attendees was like Taylor Swift to 13 year old girls. Our only regret was we couldn’t send them home with our product right then and there (it’s against SCAA rules).
Apart from spreading the word about Duo, we met some incredible people and saw some beautiful coffee products. SCAA is one of the best places to learn about new coffee and tea products. While some have launched, it was also interesting to see others who are still working through production.
Here are our top 4:
Handground – exciting to see this product in person. had a great chat with the guys about their upcoming manufacturing adventures in Asia. We’re looking forward to hearing stories about their travels in their Kickstarter updates.
Ikawa Home Coffee Roaster – Also a successful Kickstarter project. We had the pleasure of sharing a booth wall with these guys at SCAA. Their beautiful roaster brought hoards of people over to our corner or the tradeshow. They’ve already hit their Kickstarter goal, but you can still pre-order a roaster at their site: ikawacoffee.com
Saint Anthony’s Industries – Incredible handmade tamps, brew columns, and brewing aprons in the US. We especially liked their booth, complete with a 700 lb lathe.
Alpha Dominche – If only we could afford these $20,000 Steampunk steepers in our office. If you’ve ever been to Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco, you’ve seen these babies in action. One of the most elegant designs for a coffee and tea steeper we’ve ever seen…of course you can get an equally elegant design for $19,915 less with Duo (;
As a bonus, here’s a shot of the team burning off some caffeine with DDR.
