He's not Loving It

Friday Pictures from Hopland

Grindz and Douwe Egberts waist after cleaning up the old Ditting.














Happy Willem in the umbrella bucket.
















Bird decorating the backyard.















Old Papua New Guinea Sigri.

Klaas and Friends on Holiday

Barista Jam Candidates....

Zondag de 19de oktober om 18u45 's avonds is er een nieuwe Barista Jam, voor zowel professionelen als liefhebbers in koffie.
Gezien ik nog maar sinds vandaag de Jam heb ingepland is er nog veel plaats vrij.
Geef je naam op te Caffenation of stuur me een mailtje : caffenationatgmaildotcom
Let op : er zijn al te veel Caffenation klanten die een stoeltje willen, dus wordt het niet mogelijk om anderen toe te laten.

Wat gaan we doen op die 2 uurtjes?
Ik was na een 15 tal Jams in anderhalf jaar een beetje uitgekeken op de vorige formule en ben op iets nieuws aan het broeden. Het zal dus hoogstwaarschijnlijk een beetje experimenteel worden, met wel zeker aandacht voor cupping, espresso shot processing en latte art. Wait and See.

Oh ja, deelname is gratis. Welkom.

Daterra Cupping at Efico

Bird, Jeff en me visiting Efico at their new offices.
Bart, our Belgian cupping champ and Laurent gave us this morning a warm welcome.
Their company is one of a kind. And with their offices now located at the Italiëlei they are even closer to Caffenation than before.

The old building is beautifully renovated and a perfect mixture of new and old architectural design.


But on to the coffee now. That's why we're here today.
Laurent and Bart prepared us a fantastic and unique table of Brazilian Daterra's :
1) Daterra Santos Sunrise RFA
2) Daterra Sweet Blue RFA
3) Daterra Sweet Yellow
4) Daterra Sweet Collection
5) Daterra Bourbon Collection
6) Daterra Bruzzi Espresso

We bought the Yellow Bourbon and Bourbon Collection before. The sweet yellow was by far our favourite, because of it's mellow sweet overall taste and smooth finish.
The Bourbon Collection had much more brightness and seems to be a winner for other than small espresso's.
Today at the table I was tasting a lot of similar characters, with the Santos Sunrise as a less balanced and sharper variant.
The Bruzzi Espresso got potential, although I don't know where they got this name from.
The Sweet Collection is the sort Coffee Collective is buying. Very nice and probably the most 'commercial' of all.
And finally I enjoyed the Sweet Blue. More acidity, but good body and clean finish to balance the cup.

Probably we're going to buy in 4 of them. Then test them thoroughly and continue with one or two for the online and shop sales.

Thanks Efico for this unique session and soon more about these coffee's on Antwerp Barista.

8 / 13

8 / 13
Originally uploaded by limeslimeslimes

I find this photo, of Intelligentsia roasted Cachoeira espresso only after writing my review and all our beans are shot processed.
38 seconds .... hm, maybe an idea for next time.
And what a portafilter ... Respect!

Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira 2007-2008

5 kilo of green Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira 2007/2008 from Hasbean came in.
Here you can find their review.

Now mine :
Because 5Kg is too much on a sampler and actually not enough for a proper roast on 'our' 40Kg Gothot we need to throw in the beans while the roaster is warming up for the normal roasts. 10 Kg is fine, but 5 is risky. And so it happens this Cachoeira roasting was a bit too fast/short/light.
In the cupping no problems ; for espresso the acidity was a tad too high to talk about perfect balance.

First our cupping impressions. Body is very nice and welcome. We directly detect good sweet and sour balance with accents of green pea's, butter and lots of nuts, mostly almond. The finish couldn't be cleaner. What an aftertaste!

Then we feeded it to our Anfim Caimano grinder. Espresso of the week was disappointing within the first week after roast, but then it all came together. This is a fantastic espresso bean. Very pleasant all round taste with plenty of details. The first omni present acidity is nicely mixed in with the warmer hints and sweetness and goes over in sublime aftertaste.
For our lungo's we take double portafilter, with a very low dosed espresso ground, approximately 13 grams. Then we brew a 15cl cup in 25 seconds.
Beautiful crema and plenty of detail and fruit.

All together better on larger coffee's, filter and press, but with some patience you can savour an excellent Brazilian espresso. Highly recommanded and again proof this Minas Gerais region is delivering more and more beans that are a blessing for our kind of business.

(Thanks Jeff for the sponsoring)

What a cup...

Mutterings of a not-so-tragic mulatta : Goldie :

I don't know what the WC stands for, but I ordered an extra hot grande soy white mocha with 4 shots.

I'm pretty wide awake. Kinda.

Writing almost looks like Chinese to me.

Why isn't the WC not written after the WM? It's an add on, no?
Anyhow ; Never tasted one before. Maybe it's the newest thing in town?

Inspire Coffee Company

When I first met Addie, I directly felt some professionalism and passion for the black gold.
15 months, 15 meetings and 150 coffee's later, the first Inspire Coffee Bar opened their doors in Breda, Netherlands.

The concept is comparable to the one I started up so many years ago. Bringing top class coffee's to the people in a friendly and warm environment. 3rd wave is the style and only the best quality is good enough.

A look at the equipment line up already tells enough. ESW delivered the 3 group La Marzocco Linea with build in Quooker water boiler and Portaflon Portafilters.
On the side the unbeatable Anfim Super Caimano Grinder on Demand for the House Blend espresso shots, a Compak K6 for Lungo's and a tuned Reneka for coffee's of the week. As Inspire is selling fresh coffee beans, Addie also placed a big Grindmaster Coffee Grinder.
With this big grinder he also does the French press ground. Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, El Salvador Everest, the Papua New Guinea or a top class Brazil? You should certainly taste one or another when visiting the bar.

Also the rest is top notch and as he did days and days of training behind our bar at Hopland, the Spro and Milk texturing shouldn't be a problem for this ambitious man and his staff.

The menu is impressive with lots of original coffee and milk drinks.

Is this the most specialised espresso bar of the country? Could be. Sure thing it's worth a visit or two, three, ....

Cheers Addie and good luck.

Adress : Veemarktstraat 4, 4811 ZE Breda, which is right in the city center.
Website : www.inspirecoffee.com

Anfim Grinder on Demand

This beast is called Anfim Super Caimano Grinder on Demand Titanium Black.

Mouth full. And so is my mouth full of superlatives. It produces very fine grind without clumbs and delivers it right in the middle of your basket. No leveling needed.

And this grinder is rock steady in shot quality and gives you with one push at the bottom the right amount of coffee time after time.

We saw a lot of build in timers on the regular Super Caimano - like the one Stephen M used at the WBC. Not bad at all, but what with Barista's who need to pull singles shots? Nowadays I see it's getting rare to have singles. We still need them and use them and therefor a grinder on demand is the perfect solution. Certainly with 6 or 7 Barista's in rotation behind the bar (on a weekly base). Since we have brackets to rest the porta filters ; the lower speed of the machine isn't an issue anymore.
A .25g variance for a double dose meets our standards.

The heating up of the burrs is minimum. 3 kilo's in one afternoon without overheating is perfectly possible. And that's probably 3 times better than the Mahlkonig K30 we had before. And for less money.

I don't think the perfect grinder exists, but if I have to name one it will be the Anfim Super Caimano Grinder on Demand Titanium Black for sure. I became a much happier Antwerp Barista thanks to this monster.

I do not stock these baby's, but for those in Belgium or the Netherlands who are interested in buying one, they can always contact me at caffenationatgmaildotcom.

Espresso on the Streets of Antwerp

One of the nicest things about espressobars is having all different kind of people mingling into one space, ... enjoying their cup ... and live in peace.

These men can't come in on Saturday, so they have their espresso on the sidewalk in front of the bar. While one man signs with his fingers the amount of espresso's needed, we prepare our tray. It's mostly 7 or 8.
And we serve them outside. Why not?

Yes it reminds some people at the Godfather movies. :-)

Spin Tulip

This one rocks.
Latte del arte, by nick.
And with such a big pitcher! How do you do this Nick?

New WBC Rules

As most people know, the rules for the Barista Championship have been changed. They change them every year, luckily, but not as drastic as they did this year.
By giving the sensory judges more power, the aspect of taste will increase in value.
Mainly I think that in the end there will be the same Barista's winning championships, but the main idea of Barista championships should be an improved cup of coffee in your favourite coffee house, and therefor it's good bit by bit you see the championships change from very classic and boring presentations towards innovative drinks and relaxed styled presentations. The fact Stephen Morrisey winning is the best example. No necktie's but sexy music, humour, risky moves and top class coffee, it was all in there.
In Belgium we saw at championship a lot of participants knowing the rules and they were scoring a lot of points on all 'meaningless' details that would not bring better coffee at the average coffee table. And that's what I see day in and out in the field. Company's like Kimbo and Rombouts are participating at championships, but do not trans pond this knowledge into the field, or at least not enough.
Of course we have to wait and see. And what do we see? That Mexico was the first country to compete with the new rules and it turned out to be great. Anette Moldvaer has this nice article about it.
The winner? Aleli Moreno Labastida, girlfriend of the former champion Chava. It all stays in the 'family'. Click the Barista Mag Blog link in the link list for more.

For a look at the new rules.
And a general overview at Kiril's Espresso Run blog, that also features a good post about the new Reg Barber tamper.

And now it's time to throw away my sugar pots.

SexxPresso Las Vegas

If you feel like visiting....
Here the adress : 680 E Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89119, United States
And website : sexxyespresso

They have a chocolate covered cherry latte, called Porn Star, on the menu... ????

Espresso Shots from a lever machine and naked portafilter

Good explanation.
And this big bubble ...... wow. Like a horror movie.

Simonelli Aurelia WBC Machine

Mahlkönig for grinders and Simonelli for espresso machines are the new sponsors for the next, three, World Barista Championships.
A bit surprised by the grinders, although it's almost of no significance since everyone brings their own grinder.
Simonelli was due to product quality and budgets the expected choice. I only once worked with the Aurelia. I was deeply impressed by the ergonomics and this soft infusion system. I never had the opportunity to texture milk with this beautiful machine, but are planning to meet the Belgian distributor CDS by the end of September for a thorough test. I'm really looking forward Tom.

Cup or a Glass?

Bird asks some clients if they prefer their lungo (cafe creme) in a glass or a cup (glas of een tas? - Dutch).

One day Patrick, from across the street, answered : "You can serve it in a don't care what, but add some milk"!
Bird made it in a tray, which resulted in this work of art.

Besides of this story : I prefer a cup. And you?