Here’s two great coffee schools for those who live in DC or Virginia:
Peregrine Espresso:
Peregrine Espresso is a coffee establishment opened by Ryan Jensen, a man who’s done quite well in competitions for some time, after which he switched careers and, with the help of his wife, set up shop right in the White House’s neighborhood in 2008. The success of this café was such that it spawned two more in 2011 and 2012!
Having been honored on the covers of respected coffee publications as well, he’s considered a great role model for those in the specialty coffee trade. His company is focused on quality, all the way from their experienced and personable baristas to the standard of the products they serve.
It isn’t a big surprise, then, that this same company has expanded into coffee education:
Peregrine Espresso announced the introduction of two new classes which are meant to educate customers about the more subtle points of making coffee. The classes are called Espresso Fundamentals, and Better Brewing at Home, and they are taught at the company’s Union Market coffee bar at the northeast side of DC. The instructors include Peregrine Espresso’s well experienced staff and barista trainers, among them several local and national award winning baristas.
According to Ryan Jensen, with so many of their staff members being talented teachers, and lots of experience to share, they’ve been waiting for years to give their customers a chance to learn coffee making techniques in a formal environment.
In the Espresso Fundamentals barista course Washington DC, the students are taught the basics of espresso making and milk technique as they gain experience on top-of-the-line equipment. The class is restricted to 4 students in a 2:1 student-teacher ratio for an optimum learning experience.
Better Brewing at Home is about manual brewing in the kitchen of your home, preparing students to perform techniques necessary for making amazing pourover coffee.
The class explores the principles of extraction of coffee and how brewing variables can be controlled to yield excellent and consistent results.
Counter Culture Coffee
This regional training barista school Virginia hosts, describes itself as a three dimensional space committed to state of the art coffee training and community engagement. Each training center doesn’t just serve as a regional point of focus for professional coffee training and industry development, but also as a nexus for cultural exchange and taste exploration.
Provided with the most modern equipment and staffed by the institute’s world renowned coffee experts, the training centers form a tightly knit network of classrooms all over the country for the institute’s Counter Intelligence coffee education curriculum, which comprises of many different focused labs, seminars and classes.
The Counter Culture Coffee training centers also provide the ideal settings for the company’s ongoing series of community events and public Friday Coffee Cuppings.
Rest assured that Virginia isn’t the only place where you can find Counter Culture’s Coffee classrooms, as is evidenced by the information provided on the company’s website.