Filter/Press Roast of the Week : Tanzania AAA

The Tanzania coffee character belongs to the Central/East African family of washed coffees, bright (acidic), and almost aggressively flavorful. Kenya is certainly the dominant coffee, but Tanzania has also pushed ahead and shows many of the same positive qualities of Kenya. (dixit Sweet Maria's - also the map is taken from their site)

In the cup it is an aggressively flavorful cup.
We took a lighter roast to bring out all the fruiteness, with dominant grapefruit.
We think this triple A comes from the Ruvuma district, but we're not a 100% sure. It's a pity we do not have more information about this.

For those who like a light (almost no body) and fruity and clean cup of coffee, this one is recommanded. € 4,50 for 250 grams at the Hopland shop.

Mast Brothers Chocolate with Stumptown Coffee

Mast Brothers Chocolate with Stumptown Coffee
Originally uploaded by ahemler

What a combo between two beloved company's delivers.
Check the Mast Brothers at their Chocolate Factory. Unbelievable.

Hario vs Melitta

We did a small comparison between a Hario and Melitta filter brew.
For Hario we took the V60 1 filter and Melitta the 1X2. You can see which one this is on the photo.

We tested it with 20 grams of the same coffee (have to admit I forgot which one it was, probably a washed Yirgacheffe). The water was the same. The brewing was equal; a 3 minute extraction for 30 cl of coffee.

The Melitta was good. Even better than expected.

The Hario V60 was more tasteful though.

More detailed, sweeter and cleaner.
You could already notice differences on the top of the coffee itself. With the Melitta we had some oil segments. With the Hario it was dead clean and shiny - as always.

Of course I was a bit pre programmed, being a big Hario fan, but we also did a blind taste and gave the cups to a couple of clients and every time the Hario came out first.

Espresso & Roast of the Week. Indonesia Blue Toraja

Grown at high altitudes on the island of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) in the middle of the Malay archipelago in Indonesia. Kalossi is the small town in central Sulawesi which serves as the collection point for the coffee and Toraja is the mountainous area in which the coffee is grown. Sulawesi exhibits a rich, full body, well-balanced acidity (slightly more than Sumatra) and is multi-dimensional in character. It has dark chocolate and ripe fruit undertones. (dixit Wikipedia).

I think it's an Indonesian with more of everything (body, acidity, fruit and cleanliness) then any other conventional Indonesian I tasted the last couple of years.
Mostly this one is roasted a bit (or more) into second crack, but we proof that a tad lighter is much more tasteful. And suitable for press or filter.

Come on over for a bag. Price € 4,00/250 grams. A steal!

Ben & Mike Repeating

Ben Kaminsky
Originally uploaded by Fresh Ground

Last year Ben Kaminsky (Barismo) and Michael Phillips (Intelligentsia) were the most remarkable US performers on the World Championships.
Ben finished 4th in Cologne at the Cuptasting. (and 2nd in Oslo at the Aeropress CC)
Mike 3rd in Atlanta at the WBC.

Last weekend they went for a repeat at the National championships. And with great succes.
Congrats fellas.

In June they will be 2 of the main attractions at the championships in London.

Antwerp Barista will keep an eye on them. Stay tuned.

Efico Seabridge Coffee Terminal

Drove my Volvo to the new Efico Warehouse last Friday.


It's not totaly finished yet, but since a while Efico is shipping their coffees to this new building in Zeebrugge. The site is called Seabridge and located on this new street, koffiestraat.

One of the biggest green coffee traders in the world is an Antwerp company. Efico's offices and cupping room is one kilometer away from our bar. The former warehouse was in the Antwerp harbour, but now they decided to move all this liquid gold to this North Sea harbour.
I don't really mind. It's a 1 hour drive for me and I only go like once a year to pick up a couple of sample bags. Maybe the word 'sample bag' is not best world for 50 to 70 kilo bags of greens. Every week, 5 weeks long, we roast a full 35K drum to see what the beans are saying. If they are really pleasing, we order more and have them delivered.


Here you see the inside of the delivery house. At this platform they sort the bags ready for shipping.
Everything spic and span here. And spacious and light. What a difference with the old storage building.


A car full of coffee's. Now I know why I bought this break.
Enough Indonesia, Guatemala, Cameroon, India and Tanzania in the house for next 5 roasts of the week I guess.

Has the Slayer made any Difference?

Very interesting article here from the coffee shot ratings in SF where they compare Slayer and La Marzocco espresso's.
We feel confident about our LM Linea.

For those who want to know more about the 'best' multiple boiler machines on the market I have this interesting link from the NBC New York website. (unfortunately no Dalla Corte mentioning)
Again, we feel confident about our LM Linea.

Spring is in the Air

Still a bit of work to finish our garden for the 2010 summer season.

But come along already and enjoy our first flowers of the year.

(photo by Rocky B.)

Latte Art Exposé

Luca Siermann made some wonderful Latte Art photo's that are shown on his website via a automatic slide show. This way u can c how certain designs are done.
Have a look here. And click all the 6 different creations on the left. Very helpful for those who want to learn the movements and patterns.

(thanks Luca for the effort)

Cupping Event April 2010

6 Yirgacheffe's, 1 Kenia, 2 Brazil, 1 Malawi were cupped. Most from Espresso lab Cape Town.
No fancy or professional cupping sheets at hand. But this doesn't mean you guys have to stain them. ;-)

Funny Ad

Sweet Maria's Aeropress Video

Click it

1 Year La Marzocco Linea

linea_front La Marzocco
Originally uploaded by La Marzocco Bayern

And very happy indeed!
This machine is a very good soldier. It does everything we ask, without hesitating.
Without any doubt; our best buy ever!

Kenya Tinganga

For me, the best filter/press coffee of the year so far is the Kenya Tinganga.

This single estate Kenyan is UTZ certified beans from the Sasini Group, traded by Mercanta and roasted by Knopes.
What does this all mean and how is the coffee tasting?

1) UTZ certified : The UTZ CERTIFIED program provides the assurance of responsible coffee production and sourcing that coffee drinkers expect. It answers two crucial questions for the global coffee chain: Where does the coffee come from? And How was it produced?

2) The Sasini Group : Tinganga Estate farm is part of the Sasini Group. Sasini has a holistic view on producing quality products; we take a healthy community and environment very serious. We have put this policy into practice by working according the UTZ CERTIFIED standard. All the farms in the Sasini group are UTZ CERTIFIED since March 2005.

3) Mercanta

4) Knopes

5) Tinganga Estate : The Tinganga farm is located on the scenic cool highlands of Central Kenya in the Kiambu District north-west of Nairobi city. 182 Hectares of land are used for coffee growing, the coffee fields lie approximately at an altitude range of 1630-1900 meters above sea level. The annual average rainfall is 1000 – 1500mm.

6) The cupping notes : Vibrant grape acidity, light mouth feel, sugar cane sweetness, notes of tropical fruit, pineapple, grapefruit and very clean.

We still have a couple kilo's left at Hopland and probably a whole lot more next week.

Recycled Can

I'm not very sure about the safety.
I'm not very sure about the quality.
I am sure about creativity.

More about this invention.