POST 500

For once I'm sitting down with pen and paper, Rocky's notebook. She won't mind. Like so often midweeks, she's in her bedroom dreaming the sweetest dreams, while I'm blogging.
And today I'm looking back at 16 months of caffenation dot blogspot dot com.

500 posts!! I still can't believe.
When I started the blog, I hardly knew what a blog was. And I was asking myself : An online diary? Why would I keep a diary? A coffee diary? What do I have to say? What could be interesting enough? What isn't on the web yet?

Then I thought about Jeroen Veldkamp and his Dutch Barista blog. Written in English but very instructive for the Dutch (and Belgian) coffee community.
Since there wasn't anything like that in Antwerp or Belgium I decided to call it Antwerp Barista.
It sounded nice, even though I'm not a full time Barista. But my job and wide intrests seemed to be an advantage to keep the blog divers. I do cupping, green beans outsourcing, roasting control, planting coffee, managing of espresso bars, Barista training, competition at championships, organisation of Barista jams, consulting starters in coffee or coffee related businesses, etc....
However I still wondered what exactly to write about?
I listed some idea's I wanted to write about and ended up with 18. That seemed to be enough.
And from 18 I went to 100 and James Hoffmann's world title. And quickly I had 200 articles - a Daterra info post. In those days half of them were more copy-paste articles then real (personal) articles, but I felt myself some kind of coffee reporter and I kept on going.
Today 500 posts, one way or another all about the, or should I say 'my', coffee world.

Since that first day in February 2007, I've visited plenty of coffee company's, traders, coffee farmers, Barista champs, home Barista's, espresso bars, big (coffee) city's, coffee fares and so on. Not every visit was that interesting, and for sure not all blog posts were interesting, but in one way or another it felt ok for me to write about it. And via that way, bit by bit, I helped to improve coffee knowledge and increase the coffee level in the Antwerp and Flanders area and even further. Yes, bit my bit, I also made myself known to the wide coffee world.

Today I'm still anxious and excited to attack new championships (Köln is waiting), new coffee's (the Daterra Sweet Collection just arrived), new brewing techniques (the new aero press is waiting to be tested), new coffee lovers (every day again) and so much more. All things to read about soon on Antwerp Barista.

Finally I hope that my Dutch speaking friends/readers are not too offended by the (poor) English writing. I hope they understand 50% of the readers not master my mother language. And I also hope they understand that one of the best things in this 3rd wave coffee world is the fact that it's all about coffee. One big coffee world without borders, with lots of fun, love and friendship and an ongoing open communication. We're all here to spread the word aren't we?

Y'all ready for another 500, or more?
I am.

Lots of love,
and good coffee,
Rob,
your Antwerp Barista.