Creative Lithuania: Coffee Enthusiasm

Sometimes, living in Lithuania can be a challenge, so I wanted to focus on forgetting about the challenges and enjoying the positives. I've decided to start a monthly post (the second Friday of each month) on the more creative side of Lithuania. In previous posts I've written about Uzupis, which is truly a creative mecca. For this series I wanted to focus on creative events, unique aspects of the culture or language, and cool places that I find around Lithuania. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

If you would like to participate in sharing creative things about where you live, tag your photos on Instagram or tweets on Twitter with #CreativeLithuania or #CreativeLocale. I'd love to see the creative side of every country! I'll share my favorites via retweets and on the blog each month.

Growing up, there were only Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks Coffee near where I lived. There weren't any local cafes where you could just sit, enjoy an amazing cup of coffee, and do a bit of work or people watch. Something that you might not know about me is that I love to drink coffee, especially in a nice cafe where I can read or do a bit of work. The cafes in Vilnius are the idea place for this. Vilnius even takes their coffee-obsession to the next level by offering coffee tastings, coffee conferences, and even barista contests!

Before moving to Vilnius I never even know that coffee tastings, conferences, and barista contests were a thing. Thank you Lithuania for expanding my coffee horizons and fueling my caffeine addiction! So, for this month's Creative Lithuania post I'm going to write about the coffee conference and the barista contest (I've already posted about coffee tastings - as awesome as it sounds).

The Coffee Conference is an annual event in Vilnius that draws presenters from all over the world to discuss coffee roasting, coffee culture worldwide, coffee packaging, and everything else coffee. You could also enjoy unlimited free coffee(!) and watch different methods of coffee preparation. J and I attended this (ticketed) event and enjoyed learning about all things coffee - when the talks were in English. Not all talks were given in English, and I wish that the schedule specified which talks were in English and which were not so we could have planned accordingly. There was a very nice coffee enthusiast who translated a few of the talks for us though!

The Barista Competition was a free even that took place at Panorama Mall two weekends ago. The winner of this barista competition would be flown to Seattle, Washington for a chance to compete against other top baristas. How cool! J and I visited the barista competition during the cappuccino art section and I found it really interesting to watch the contestants show their ability to consistently create specific designs with milk. This event was also not in English, but you don't need English to watch the contest, although I would have liked to be able to read the schedule and the learn more about the contestants.

For more #CreativeLithuania check out these previous posts:

October: Open Kitchen
November: Beer Marathon
December: Cat Cafe
January: Lithuanian Design Block
February: Pottery Class

I'm linking up with #SundayTraveler!

What creative things are going on in your area? Do you like coffee? Would you go to any of these events?