Championship practice

Today practice for the upcoming semi finals of the Belgian Barista Championships in Bocholt May 29.

Ingrid of Schuilenburg, the company delivering the awesome Dalla Corte Machine and Mahlkonig K30 grinder, planned a full day with Manu Demets, organizer of the BBC, and all 17 participants of this year's semi finals.

Unfortunately Jessie couldn't make it, so Bird and i were racing for an evening session.

As usual Manu was in a good shape, explaining all rules and techniques in detail and answering all questions immediately.
The most astonishing thing was how he could read the weaker elements in our blend just be seeing the crema.
It's true we got, due to price pressure and limited choice in beans, a couple weak elements in our House Blend, but never i expected them to come out that hard is it happened tonight at Schuilenburg on the Dalla Corte's.

After scoring weakly on tamping on last year's Championship finals i raised the question what's seen as a good tamping technique.
Oh my god, why didn't someone explain this a bit better before. After one year and a half of practicing and rumbling i finally saw a couple of extra do's and don't i can work in our way of tamping. What's the pressure? Where to knock? How to keep straight? Why polishing?

Thanks Manu for all extra advice. And thanks Ingrid for your helping hand all day long.

A very informative meeting and ideal moment for Bird to master the machine and training on typical championship details/techniques.

Let's get ready for action!