WBC 2011 Predictions

Looking forward to the WBC and fair.
Meeting people from Bunn, Daterra, La Marzocco, American Roasteries and so on.
All Barista's and local coffee heroes.

Although I'm not so into this competition anymore, I want to make again a prediction for this years finals - top 6.

Some country's you have to trust. 3 specialty country's are sure bets.
1) USA : Pete Licata. A veteran from Hawaï and without any accidents a man for the finals.
2) UK : John Gordon. Missed one point for the last 12 in London, but surely back on the track with this extra year of experience. Good luck John.
3) Australia : Matt Perger. Only 20 years old, but heard some good things about this man.

Then the rest. Canada sends a (for me) unknown Barista and the same with Ireland and the Skandinavian country's. Maybe we need to go elsewhere.
4) Stefanos Domatiotis from Greece. No real suprise last year when he was one of the best in competition and the only one from the top ready for a repeat.
He has been training with Tim Wendelboe, so top 3 seems to be a possible place for him.
5) Ryan Tan, Signapore. Not a typical country, but bit by bit the Asians are closing the gap. Almost certain they'll have one of two in the finals. My pick is Ryan because I heard he's very gifted, and trained by David Makin. We'll see.
6) Let's go crazy and pick our brother Yakup Aydin from The Netherlands. We met (I think) 3 years ago. He was training backstage in Veenendaal at the qualifications for the DBC. I gave him some extra tips and we became friends. I think he has a very good attitude for a competition like this one and trained very hard. Don't know about his coffee, but top 12 seems to be very possible, so why not top 6? Good luck Yakup.

For Belgium Kathleen Serdons was a worthy winner at last years National Championships. She got a very good stage presence and good technique. Her coffee is a secret. Don't know why, but they won't tell anyone.
Good luck Kathleen and hopefully we can get into the top 20 again after two dissapointing years.

SCAE Maastricht with Caffenation

Yes, we'll have a stand there. At the Coffee Village.

And our coffee on a grinder in town as part of the World Coffee Tour.

Later more....

Kenya AA Top Mwiria Peaberry

Mwiria Coffee Factory is located almost right on the Equator.
It produces almost 700 000 kgs of coffee per annum, or 11700 bags of coffee per year.
From this production, about 8500 bags are carefully selected by experts which forms the main grade.

Mwiria factory is named after an an incredible very huge indigenous tree which existed on the
factory grounds some 300 years ago. It had an average diameter of 13.79 metres
And a height of above 50 metres.
During the colonial times, the freedom fighters had dug a huge hole inside this tree which
served as both a shelter and a hideout from the colonialists.
During the grand opening of Mwiria factory which was done by the first president of this
country, who was also among the freedom fighters, he named the factory “MWIRIA”
meaning “huge”
It is some few kilometers from the tarmac and on the shores of the famous clean river
“Rupingazi”which is characterized by hard deep black volcanic rock flowing right from
mt.Kenya.
It is situated on the slopes of Mt. Kenya about 21 kilometers from the thick green Mt. Kenya
forests. It. offers a very clear view of the beautiful Mt. Kenya ice and snow.

Our Peaberry Mwiria is from Embu District. It's picked at a level of 1800 to 1900 metres above the sea level. The soil type is deep, red volcanic loams and the bourbon beans are sun dried.


This is a stunning coffee!
The sweet acidity sparkles on the palate. Crisp lemon, raspberry, and orange marmalade are featured. And thanks to the Peaberry type, it's well rounded with a soft finish.

We offer the Kenya as our Filter of the week from Thursday on at €6/250 grams. A steal!

Aeropress Recipe by the Dutch Champ

These 3 guys (Marc-Berringe, Jeff-Caffenation and Barend-Golden Coffee Box) picked Kees Kraakman his recipe above all other.
The reason? It just gave the Colombian a cleaner and sweeter taste.
Marc and Jeff thought it was the best by far, so time to post the recipe.

Reverse the Aeropress
- 10 grams of coarse (French Press) ground
- 180 grams of water at 85 Celsius
- pour hard in the beginning to wet all the coffee
- give it a 3 minute rest
- break the crust by stirring it 3 times
- rinse the filter with warm water
- crew on the filter cap and press relatively slow in a pre warmed cup
- stop pressing just before the 'hissing' sound

I couldn't believe this man was using only 10 grams of coffee.

So I took my bag of Coffee Collective Kenya AA Top Kieni Nyeri Direct Trade to try.

I surely missed some body and depth, but the fruity acidity came out wonderfully. Maybe not the best recipe for a morning cup, but perfect for an afternoon or evening brew.
Very well done Kees. Never used such a simple and cheap Aeropress method.

Shanti Beans Hasselt (Dutch)

Eindelijk kunnen we in Hasselt koffie op niveau drinken.

Oei, ik met opletten wat ik zeg, want er zijn wel heel veel horecazaken die in deze hoofdplaats van Limburg zorg besteden aan hun eten en drinken.
Maar ik bemerkte toch keer op keer dat, wat betreft koffiedrinken, in Hasselt de tijd is blijve stille staan.

En een zekere Jeroen Matthys wilde daar dringend iets aan veranderen.
Helemaal geïnspireerd door zijn reizen in 'down under' wilde hij een 'die hard espressobar' openen en vond hij in ons een goede partner.

In de Dorpsstraat, je kan er niet naastkijken, gaat vandaag of morgen zijn espressobar openen. Shanti Beans is de naam. De sfeer : no fuss, no gloss, maar gezellig, open, licht en down to earth. Beetje zoals Jeroen zelf dus. Een prima gastheer, die je vanachter zijn 3-groeps Faema E91 en Anfim molens het beste zal proberen bieden wat je uit onze House Blend kunt krijgen.

Ben benieuwd wat jullie er van denken.
Veel succes Jeroen met dit prachtig initiatief.