Workshop Description: While coffee will always be the centerpiece of your cafe menu, let's demystify the many options there are for those "supporting players" and celebrate all they have to offer when it comes to curating your menu!
Join us to learn about how to taste, evaluate, prepare, and promote offerings in the chocolate, tea, and CPG categories, with the same care and attention you give your coffee.
Ideal for the cafe owner or manager, lead barista, the curious coffee sensory enthusiast, this will be a sensory-focused class anchored in practical business application.
Objectives:
⁃ Understand how to taste/evaluate chocolate, tea, and CPG products from a sensory perspective.
⁃ Understand and apply evaluation approaches to chocolate, tea, and CPG products from a COGS and value-added perspective.
⁃ Understand different approaches to the preparation of tea, chocolate, and CPG in busy cafe settings.
⁃ Understand and apply how to promote non-coffee items in your cafe and across different promotional channels (social media, newsletters, etc.)
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Room Number: 360DEF
Category: Business
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructors
Julie Housh (she/her)
Julie leverages extensive experience in education, program development, and stakeholder engagement to create connections between people and ideas in the coffee value chain.
Throughout her career, she has designed and delivered educational programs across the coffee industry, from barista training with Intelligentsia Coffee to sustainability initiatives at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Julie excels at building partnerships, managing complex projects, and fostering communication among diverse stakeholders and across global cultures and time zones. Notably, she spearheaded coffee championship events and certification programs for World Coffee Events. When not thinking about coffee, Julie is probably thinking about snacks.
Tarra Samuelson (she/her)
Sales Manager, Rishi Tea
Tarra Samuelson has been in the specialty coffee industry for 14 years, having taken on many roles in both retail and wholesale, such as barista, manager, trainer, sales, director, and owner. She has worked for some incredible companies (Klatch, Verve, Equator), and is currently the SoPac Sales Manager for Rishi Tea. Tarra is also the owner of Curated Coffee Consulting and is on the ownership team for Provision Coffee in Phoenix, AZ. Tarra loves education in coffee, and continues to instruct SCA classes and other coffee courses both in person and online. She lives in Phoenix Arizona with her husband, Dan, and her dog Kumi.