BALTIMORE — A new group hopes to give Baltimore's coffee community a much-needed boost by bringing together independent coffee workers.
The Baltimore Coffee Collective will start by hosting latte art throwdowns, described as a "March Madness bracket, but for coffee." They'll be held every first Friday, with the first one starting at 6 p.m. June 2 at OneDo Coffee Roasters in Canton.
The organizers were inspired after Baltimore hosted the East Coast qualifiers for the U.S. Coffee Championships in January.
Jeremy Bennett, with Bennett's Coffee Co., said the Collective is about "lifting up the entire city and not just paying attention to one shop or another."
"Even though the city is full of incredible people doing incredible things, nobody is really talking to each other," he said. "We have so many incredible producers and cafes in the city, just like many other cities, but we just don't have this community."
Besides Bennett, the group includes Emma Leibman with Keffa Coffee, David "Shep" Bentley with The Bentley Brand, Candy Schibeli with Southeastern Roastery, and Art Grayson, who oversees a yet-unnamed tech startup.
Bennett said many members are still involved in the Washington, D.C., coffee community, which has "a really great community called DMV Coffee."
He said the Collective realized "we need to make Baltimore Coffee Collective distinctly Baltimore," not like New York City, Berlin, or any other coffee community.
Emma Leibman noted her employer, who runs the High Street-based Keffa Coffee, spent his career in Ethiopia before bringing African coffee to Baltimore, "because he loves the heart of this city."
"There's a really homegrown pride that exists in Baltimore, whether you're from here, whether you choose it," Leibman said. "It's visible in the greater food scene here as well... What makes Baltimore's food and beverage scene special has to do with the pride, the passion and the recognition that we're sitting on something really special."
The organizers are expecting about 100 people for the first throwdown, at 913 South Lakewood Avenue, with proceeds going to nearby Hampstead Hill Academy. The collective is also planning educational events for baristas, meet-ups, and other ways to unite the community.
