mie

the first time i visited nyc back in 2002 nothing much was going on in coffee in the city. i mean, we spent a lot of time trying to find the mud truck - a nyc classic. found it, and didn't care so much for it. really, doing coffee out of a truck you need to be on your toes as a barista. java was for three months just a cart out in the park back in 2004 when java was rebuilt and doubled in size, so we've tried the cart life. since 2002 i've been able to come back to nyc a few times, and it's such a different (coffee) world now.

i met lots of coffee friends and had nice coffee times. it seems a bit extreme for me to squeeze in as much as 21 grams of espresso in a filter and serve it as a "triple ristretto" - but then again, what is espresso really?

from the hard core coffee nerds at gimme! coffee, cafe grumpy and 9th street espresso a few newcomers has also made their way into nyc and are doing a very good job with coffee. i especially liked the el beit in williamsburg. we also did a training at fika - a swedish espresso bar just about to open its 2nd location at park av and 28th after running its first for a few years already. that's more like what i think about coffee in nyc in general - fika is using coffee roasted by löfberg's back in sweden and it's shipped there about once or twice a month. so, it's swedish all right. remember, löfberg is the coffee you can bring home from ikea, so you are welcome to check it out. robert always insists on doing cupping sessions with trainings, which makes a lot of sense. on the table was their "brewing coffee" (a löfberg designed blend of guatemala, brasil and kenya), stumptown roasted sumastra mandheling and kaffa roasted panama hacienda esmeralda 'special' lot # 8. it's always very interesting to cup with people who's never cupped before. they liked the löfberg blend best. ooops.

nyc in general was serving me a lot of really nice shots, with milk and without milk. a lot of people seems to be thinking about roasting there in the near future. yes, you've heard it before. stumptown is setting up a roastery in red hook to serve their accounts as well as their café in the ace hotel - soon to be opened. grumpy will roast their own coffee. i bumped into andrew barnett of ecco a few times and he's definitely looking for a retail / roasting space. etc. etc. thinking about it, gimme! is actually the only place roasting their own coffees right now.