Following on the wildly successful high heels of its inaugural year, Glitter Cat Bootcamp is gearing up to launch its 2020 season. Glitter Cat Bootcamp is an intensive training program offered to members of marginalized communities who are interested in participating in the US Coffee Championships. While last year’s program focused solely on the Barista Championship event, this year they are quadrupling down to offer training and mentorship in four US Coffee Champs events.
Mill City Roasters is proud to be hosting the Glitter Cat Roaster Bootcamp on October 25-26 here at our Education Center in Minneapolis. While Glitter Cat and its sponsors cover airfare and accommodations for each of their Glitter Kittens (the unofficial title for participants of the program) Mill City will provide our SCA Premier Training Campus and all the equipment needed for successful training. Mill City is also the Roaster Sponsors of the US Roaster Championships, so attendees of the Bootcamp will have the added benefit of practicing on the same type of 500g sample roasters and 3kg production roasters that they’ll use at the competitions. Daily Coffee News posted a story this week about the training program, including all dates and locations of this season’s Bootcamps.
From Daily Coffee News: 2014 US Barista Champion Laila Ghambari leading some instruction at the inaugural Glitter Cat Bootcamp last October in Philadelphia. File photo by Roosevelt Nguyen.
“The roaster community has long been a hard community to get into and feel part of. At Mill City Roasters we strive to open the roasting community’s doors as widely as we possibly can. Working with Glitter Cat is a huge opportunity for us to move the needle toward this goal. We are proud to open our doors and share our space and knowledge with these exceptional roasters” says Joe Marrocco, Director of Education here at Mill City. Joe will be helping to lead instruction on green coffee grading, roast curve development, and more, over the weekend. Joining him will be coffee roasting experts Jen Apodaca, the 2019 US Cup Tasters Champion and founder of Mother Tongue Coffee, and Shelby Williamson, who won the title of US Roasting Champion last year.
After four of last year’s ten Glitter Kittens qualified for the US Barista Championship, the program established itself as a force to be reckoned with. Committed to changing the face of Coffee Competitions and elevating the voices of people who have historically been underrepresented at Coffee Competitions, Glitter Cat is doing something truly innovative, important, and fabulous. Here at Mill City Roasters, we’re excited to be a part of it. In the words of T. Ben Fischer, US Barista Championship finalist, self-described Cat Dad, and the Founder of Glitter Cat Bootcamp, “less bitter, more glitter.”
For more information, or to apply for the 2020 Season Bootcamp, head to Glitter Cat’s website.
