For those who is still following my blogging, there haven't been many adventures in coffee recently, but a report from the San Francisco coffee scene should be on its way along with a discussion about climate changes and its affect on coffee production thanks to my new friend Juan Ramon, agronomist from Costa Rica and the Brumas del Zurquí micro mill. He has taught me lots of interesting things about tsunamis and axes.
For now, please join Rasmus from Kaffemisjonen in Bergen and a few responders (including yours sincerely) on how Cup of Excellence award winning farmers should spend their dineros here. Enjoy!
ps the picture is from the last time I visited Honduras, May 2009, and we are discussing sample roasting. From the Cup of Excellence auction in 2008 we were able to establish a very successful relationship there. see the CoE winner to the far right? we still get along great! <3
for those who occasionally looks through my flickr, you've probably seen that the entire roastery is moving. today i was the last one to put everything on my desk in a box - after they removed even the piping for the roaster. leaving was sad, but i am prepared for new adventures!
summer has been good, nice people visiting from panama, australia and the us (should i include sweden or not?) and lots of good talks about coffee. even fun times in parks and by the sea - we took us cup tasting champion ben kaminsky to swim in the oslo fjord after some serious nerding around for a few days.
our new roastery / wonderland is spacious, 35m from wall-to-wall, around 700m2 all in all. i am currently busy trying to have some control over all the coffees we've been holding back for a while in wait for the new space - all arriving over the next couple of weeks - these are of course the latino lovers and africans. around 8 lots from various micro mills in costa rica is arriving first together with the best of panama, various micro lots from boquete and esmeralda auction lots, so that we can be well prepared for francisco menna and exclusive coffee's visit in september.
I’m about to head out of Panama City for the third time in a week – this time for returning to Oslo. Robert came to Boquete to ”pick me up” last Saturday and cup some lots there before we headed to Honduras together for a few days. Yesterday was my birthday, and except from a few beloved ones that were not present, my day was amazing !
Spent the day cupping and visiting the Santa Marta farm (CoE winner with a Pacamara in 2007) where the coffee trees were blooming. So beautiful. Saw the farm, and even went bathing in their water source (true, i was allowed to since it was my bday!). Some cerveza on the way back to San Pedro Sula, some ceviche and then a very very nice present from Robert – a full mariachi band playing ”felicidaaaaades a miiiia” (that’s supposed to be me) and the biggest whitest cake I’ve ever seen. I have to head to the airport now. Friday back home Mr B has been roasting some more Ethiopia samples. Can't wait to taste them, I'll post cupping notes at kaffa.no immediately after.
i am pondering over espresso these days, and in particular a new espresso blend together with the brainy roasters @ KAFFA. we decided yesterday that friday should be our espresso day (as much as thursday is our sample roasting day) - and that rune, one of the roasters, is our best barista. so as from tomorrow, he'll be pulling all kind of deliciousness for brewing instructions and help for customers. and firstly, working on a new blend for the month of may, my bday and the norwegian constitution day. all at once.
i got a quick note from ecco saying that the coffee we were cupping, and that i wrote about here, should be pulled, not cupped. there is much to say about this issue, and frankly, i'm more in need for ice cream delights than espresso discussions right now. but as i've mentioned before, i choose to think about espresso as just one of many optional brew methods.
i hope to taste some espresso tomorrow, maybe even the wbc winning coffee pulled as espresso. we cupped it yesterday, but perhaps this coffee too needs to be tested with the espresso brewing method. i'll keep you posted.
a very short trip to atlanta is about to end, as i am in schipol airport amsterdam on my way back to oslo. kaffa's roast master and two of the managers of java and mocca were sent to atlanta by their respective employers, and for the first time i went there a bit on my own to teach cupping and hang out. turns out a lot of people did that, so i was in good company of other coffee friends sleeping on hotel room floors, housing with local friends ("civilians", as the wonderful liz clayton of twitchy said about hers) or in very cheap business hotels. so many faces to see and hands to shake, ref pic of me and sarah kluth of intelligentsia shaking hands after important meeting at their booth where we decided to only drink nice coffee forever and ever.
i had a hard time figuring out the city geographically, but i had some very delicious meals with various amazing people. i was excited to teach cupping to people and share my ideas about how to become a better cupper in the "advanced" class. walking around the fair is most often more like walking two steps, talking to someone, walking again, talking - i visited a few booths, like the slayer espresso machine that's been notoriously blogged about lately, intelligentsia, la marzocco and cup of excellence.
the world barista championship was won by gwilym davies from the uk - he did such an amazing performance! humble and all about coffee. the partying after was a lot of fun. in particular, i liked showing up wearing a button with his face on. in general, more people should button their faces. oda almighty, the best barista in norway right now placed 17th with our coffee in the grinder. we were hoping to do better, but the competition was tough. SCAA's "coffee of the year" was won by our exporter in colombia, virmax, that helped us with the competition lot, so all in all, it was good coffee and good times.
the first us cup tasting championship was also arranged. i received a text from ben kaminsky after the finals sunday afternoon: "won". congratulations, cupper ! but i still don't get it - why the americans are so crazy about dragging things out. i thought the three rounds of the usbc was a bit too much, but hey, also the cup tasting, with 6 competitors in the semi finals and 3 in the finals happened over three days. perhaps it was all about cupping with a fresh palate for every flight or some other reason. but it would have been more fun watching if it was a longer show. none of my bizniz, i know, but i kind of like being opinionated about these things.
back in oslo work is piling up. it's weird how much fun it is to travel in coffee, and so labour intensive it is to prepare for and then get back from it. even if it's just for a few days. well worth it, though. see you all next year in londres !!
spring seems to be on its way, waking me with sun and the sounds of a city where people have started walking the streets again. i'm alone. i have a sunday and no money. in the fridge i have eggs and ham and i'm going to make myself a feast, my favourite brunch - eggs benedict. there's something slightly intimidating about poaching eggs and making hollandaise. nothing i recommend for those sundays when your head is heavy, your feet smelly with noises coming from your belly. even though that might be when you need it.
who was this benedict dude? one version of the story, is that he was a stock broker in new york. one awfully hung over day in 1894, there was absolutely nothing of interest for him at waldorf astoria's extensive menu. so he ordered what his heavy head, smelly feet and rumbling belly desired: toast, bacon, poached eggs and what he called "a hooker of hollandaise". well. the chef was perhaps not a stranger himself to the culinary delights needed to cure a hangover - he was supposedly so impressed about this unusual composition that he put it on the menu with a few, but not unimportant modifications: he switched bacon for ham and toast for english muffin. this last modification brought the sweetness to the course that forever took it away from heavy hang over food to something else. more refined. and one very important offering on many, many brunch menus since then.
my self made brunch was very tasty, accompanied by the new yorker, which seemed like the only appropriate choice. for coffee, i didn't have a single bean in the house, and headed out for coffee at tim wendelboe - his espressoblend is smashing right now, and previous barista champ chris kolbu pulled some excellent shots. my day? perfect!
sunny oslo on a sunday morning. got up late, trying to open my eyes while brewing an aeropress. my love-hate relationship with the aeropress is slightly moving towards more loving, less hatred, but now, well, i just don't know any more.
i have been thinking about writing something about the aeropress for a long time, to show my appreciation to tim wendelboe who gave me the best present i've gotten in a really long time. my own little aeropress kit. tim rocks. i spent the first part of my relationship with the aeropress to figure out what to brew in. found out that the "i am not a papercup" ceramic cup was perfect. i can also bring it on the bus to the roastery every morning. ok. so looks cool. the snaggle is that it tastes so very close to perfect, but there are so many things to think about and refine. ah.
just when i thought i got it right, i hear some rumours about turning the whole thing upside down and of course, i had to try it. after two attempts of down-dosing and water temperature control, but forgetting to keep focus on the assembling of the damn thing, i finally got it right. but there must be something about my grind. oh well. i want the method to be solid and fool-proof, and potentially bring out the best of the coffee. considering all my brave attempts, i still don't have it. the punch. because i just come up with more and more parameters to control. for example, i now have to add some measurement of the water dosage, because it turns out differently depending on how the coffee grounds reacts. more accurate, if it's super fresh and bubbly vs old and flat. i'll tell you when i know more. check out these blogs about aeropress'ing : barismo, wundeltimmers and the always delightful jimseven. enjoy !
awake from the dead : gauperaa and his coffee happiness.
welcome back !
the united barista championship of the states of america has been eventful, great fun and all in all a learning experience. i got to see michael phillips of intelligentsia chicago take first place in the usbc today, congratulations and salutations !! i want to write more about the finals - i tasted all the beverages, i had the best cappuccino i've had in my l-i-f-e (it's true!), i could be referring to so many interesting talks...
but right now, i'm just ready to crawl under the covers and sleep for like, 24 hours. i will write more later, michael phillips rocks and so do all the finalists of the usbc 2009 !
i'm heading out of oslo for a while, or actually almost the entire month of march. it's my month off work, and i've dedicated it to coffee. no surprise. first, i'm quitting my job in managing java and mocca for now, it's been many fantastic years, but i am no longer managing the stores from day-to-day (actually, i haven't been for a while), and it's such a bliss to have two of my favorite baristas taking over the responsibilities from day to day.
to celebrate life and enjoy each other's company, the entire java / mocca / kaffa crew is closing the stores early on saturday and taking into the woods outside of oslo for a sleep over in a cabin we've rented. wildlife, here we come...robert, mr b, rune and myself are going there as soon as we can tomorrow after work to have some male bonding and family time with just the kaffa crew, and then, everyone is arriving at some point during saturday. it's about one hour skiing from the tram, so it'll be fun seeing everyone arrive...i'll post some photos, promise!
back from the woods, i'll be home for one night and early next morning i'm taking off to portland to enjoy the usbc. ten days of non-stop vacation, can't wait to have my morning coffee somewhere not java. the end of the month will be spent in el salvador with my friends at the consejo for the coe prenational jury and hopefully some cerveza and ceviche as well. sonia promised to take me to the beach. yay. we've started to cup ethiopians a while ago and i'm excited about a washed one in particular - thus waiting for someone to explain me the about the availability of coffees through the new system.
she's only 18 and often named on my flickr as "oda almighty" - yesterday she became the new norwegian barista champion! she started first of the six finalists saturday morning at 10am - after a very impressive performance, the next 12 hours was a long wait for the new champ. her espresso was the esmeralda geisha from panama, roasted by bjørnar at KAFFA - all the top four contestants used KAFFA coffee, which we are very excited about. both oda, håkon who placed second and rasmus placed as number four works at kaffemisjonen in bergen. number three was jannicke from MOCCA - congratulations to all! i also have to mention that håkon is 22, jannicke 19 - almost a new generation of baristas finding their way into the norwegian specialty coffee scene.
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