BBC 2014 : Best Barista is Charlene De Buysere

Quick word on the Belgian Barista Championships this year.
Finally we have a winner that's doing this for a living : Charlène De Buysere.
Working behind the bar at Or, she is almost a veteran and a girl that's going to be capable of finishing within the first 20 at the WBC, why not semi finals?

With a Belgian Aeropress and Brewers Cup title and a World Aeropress title already in the pocket, she adds a 4th title on her sleeve.
Well done and good luck in Rimini Charlene.

Those who never saw her : here's a action vid from her, winning the Belgian title at the first BAC. Click it.

Oh yes Marriane (also Or) was 2nd and Jade 3rd. Congrats to all.

Vincent 2nd at Belgian Barista Championship 2013

5 years ago i posted every week something about Barista Championships.
Because of a couple of unpleasant experiences and other hobbies I'm not so fanatic anymore, but we're still hanging in there with Caffenation and we try to send our rookie Barista's every year to the Belgian version of the biggest coffee competition on earth.
Very simply because i want them to become a better Barista. To understand how complex it all is, but also how fun it can be. They learn to tame a grinder, to improve on consistency, start tasting better and improve self confidence.

This year it was Vincent's turn to get his ass on stage.
His trainer was good old, warrior at many battle fields, Simon.

In the qualifications he ended 4th which was just good enough for the finals.

But yesterday at the finals he was blistering and took a well deserves 2nd spot!!!, behind Louis, owner of Donko's. 3rd was Jelle (Drop coffee) and 4th Valentine (Café Labath).

A little bit extra info from behind the curtains:

Vincent his coffee : Papua New Guinea Kimel Peaberry.
When this coffee came in 2,5 months ago i didn't like the first batch of espresso roast. It didn't feel balanced and I shared the opinion of Sander, who sourced this one for us, that it was more a filter coffee.
Simon thought different, pushed on and after some experiments on both Roaster side- Jeff is unstoppable - and on espresso machine at Broer Bretel - Toon is a prime Barista - i noticed this bean DID have a lot of potential on espresso.

That was 2 months ago and we ordered a whole more of Kimel.
Toon kept on pushing the coffee in his bar and we used it for the Aeropress Championship because of its polyvalent character.
By the time the Aeropress championship, the First of April, came closer we sensed some difficulties. It showed some woodyness left and right and the Baristas that day had a tough time taming it.

Last week it did drop some more, Toon threw it off the grinder and at the last rehearsals I wasn't happy anymore, but it was too late to change.
Changing your coffee the last week before a championship is the stupidest thing to do.

The cappuccino didn't suffer and neither did the signature drink, although we knew this part of the presentation wasn't our strongest one.

When we look back a the scoring sheet it showed.
It was more because of Vincents brilliance on scene, and Simons guidance, that he finished 2nd.

Picking the right bean for a championship always sounds easy, but once you get closer to the championship it all seems to change.
Most beans are just not clean and strong and complex enough to use for 3 different preparations. A solution can be to use more than 1 bean, but this puts a whole lot more pressure on the Barista and roaster.

Most important reason to struggle this years championship was the period (end of April) and the fact the WBC comes only 1 month after the Belgian heat.
Valentine, who also works with our coffee, had - with reason - big ambitions for this finals and picked a coffee that gave the opportunity to continue working with till the eventual finals in Melbourne in 4 weeks.
The Good central coffees only arrive around these weeks. The same for Ethiopia. And for Kenya and Costa Rica it even takes longer.
Most Brazils are in but mostly not the most impressive competition coffees and so we ended up with fresh Burundi and PNG....

Louis used a Mexico. Mexico always has a later pick then the coffees from Central America and his coffee was still fresh enough to give it a go.
I remember this cupping we did together and I also remembered there were a couple of nice clean Mexicans on that table that day, but you can't buy them all. But credit who deserves it ; he ordered the bean, tested it and decided to use it. And the result : numero uno!
Last year I couldn't believe there was such a big gap in points between his coffee and this one of Roeland, but this year I truly believe he smashed the competition and took the title in a glorious way.

Hopefully he finds enough time and a good supporting cast to prep himself for Melbourne and make all Belgians proud. Good luck out there Louis.

Barista Championship Thoughts

My first remembrance were the World Barista Championships (WBC) of 2006 in Bern, when Klaus Thompson became champion, with also Picollo, Hoffman and Lunell in the finals. Those were the days.
It was a total new show for me with unknown Baristas battling in an arena somewhere in a galaxy far away from home.
And maybe this 'intergallectic' feel was what attracted me about it.

In 2005 the Belgian Barista Championships (BBC) were at the Hilton in Antwerp. Jessie and Bert (2 of my Barista's) went over watching the comp and came back to the bar telling me that these people were no competition for us, professional Baristas. Later on I learned it was a bit more complicated then we thought that day, but I guess in those days there were only 5 professional Baristas in Belgium from which 4 of them worked at Hopland 46.

In 2006, right after Bern, I was trying to motivate Bert to participate, but he didn't dare to expose and so I thought it was up to me to experience what these championships were all about.
It took me 10 phone calls and emails before I managed to get myself a ticket to ride; the organisation in those days was not very professional, but nevertheless 15 people showed up in Brussel that day in October, to fight for 8 tickets for the finals.

I remembered myself arriving with what must have been a blend of Dominican Republic and Ethiopian Harrar.
The organisation had some brand new Della Cortes installed and I never forget how Holger (DC's big man) was playing with my coffee backstage and enjoying a couple of very nice shots. Unfortunately my espresso's on stage didn't taste that well and my lack of experience and knowledge of the rules costed my a lot of points.
With the 6th or 7th place i earned a place in the finals in Gent, and a big motivation to do better.

All alone, even without a runner, I practised my ass off and did a very satisfying run in Gent. The nerves (I didn't sleep at all the last night) and the fact I forgot to yell 'stop' at 14'59" - yes, my timing was immaculate- made me lose so many points Jeroen and Peter finished just ahead of me.

From that day on the BBC and WBC became a passion and I tried to help as many people as possible.

My trainees mixed good with medium results, but since the day (september 2009) Roeland was treated totaly unfair - to my opinion - I became frustrated and I withdrew as a trainer.

While Caffenation espresso's in Belgium and Holland come day by day closer to the International type of specialty shots, the BBC stood still and also this year there's no Barista on top of the podium, and most probably Belgium will end again somewhere in between the 30th and 40th place at the WBC in Vienna.

What's the reason we have world class Belgian cup tasters, Latte Art champs, Good spirit champs and Aeropress champs, while our number 1 'Barista' is very far away from the finals, stood away first 3?
The Della Corte can be a darn fine machine for traditional Italian espresso and a good piece of equipment for the lovers of the full city roast, but the difference in flavor in comparison to La Marzocco and Simonelli is remarkable.
We made a lot of progress at Caffenation the last couple of years and since we started roasting ourselve we gained a lot of National and International praise for our type of (lighter) roasted specialty beans, but we notice these kind of beans don't work well on the D.C.
An example was the El Salvador Miralvalle. A top rated Cup of Excellence coffee and my #1 coffee last year (out of +30 single estate and +20 'blended' specialty coffees!). At the semis Emiel his shots had the right extraction and color and we only scored a 2 out of 6. That's very poor, but on the same line of all our coffees the last 2 years and less good as our 'cheaper' and darker roasted coffees 3 or 4 years ago.

Yes we can roast darker for the BBC and yes we can select beans with less acidity, something most Belgian and Dutch people aren't used to, or use a more conservative blend like our House Blend, but then we should ask us the question if we still belong in this circus.

When one of my Barista's is willing to compete I'm still ready to sponsor with beans and pay for the participation, but there it all ends. This year I invested over 2000 euros and the results were 4th and 5th out of ..... 5!
Yes I feel stupid now.
After winning the World Aeropress Championships (with Jeff) by beating Square Mile, Coffee Collective, Tim Wendelboe and Koppiane coffees, without discussion, it's very frustrating to end last at the BBC.

Besides all this, do I think there's still a future for the BBC and WBC?

For Belgium I'm afraid it won't last.
And for the WBC i'm not so positive either. With Nespresso as the main sponsor and the lack of attractivity on stage it's not looking very promising. Also, it's every year again the same inner circle and bit by bit the press is loosing all interest.

What to do?
We have to make it cheaper to participate, simplify the rules and make it a lot more attractive to the audiance.

If they keep the WAC, Brewers Cup and the Cup Tasting on the side, I will maybe stay fan of coffee championships, and not only have to travel to a WBC for the social program and classes.

BBC 2012

Wat een mooie koffie's en strakke presentatie legden onze jongens gisteren op de mat.
Om de een of andere reden hadden de juryleden dit niet zo goed begrepen ; of was de tegenstand te sterk ; of haperde de machine net toen Roeland en Emiel op de knop duwden? ;-)
Alle gekheid op een stokje : een heel mooie finale 5de (Emiel) en 4de (Roeland) plaats voor onze Barista's.

Einde week nog de Fortaleza van Roeland en Isidro Pereira van Emiel te verkrijgen te Hopland.

Labath Barista Valentine behaalde zilver (way to go girl!).

En Louis Donk is de nieuwste champ. Good luck in Vienna!

Belgian Barista Champ 2010 : Kathleen Serdons

Back home from another Championship and again we have a cup.
Isabelle gave a fantastic show and came in 2nd after Kathleen.

For months I've been expecting Kathleen to win this year's title. And Isabelle to finish second.
I can't say who's the best Barista in general, but Kathleen has just a little bit more experience and with the Rombouts team on the side I knew she was the one to beat.
So, no surprise she's going to defend our country in Colombia next year.

A bit more suprising was her coffee : a Puerto Rico. Most blog enthousiasts know I'm a big Puerto Rico fan and when tasting 'our' Dominican Republic coffee last week I remarked big resemblance with this typical 'Puerto Rico flavor'. A nice clean coffee with moderate acidity and a clean chocolate aftertaste.

We had this year just one big problem, and that was our championship roast. Young roasters we are, and the final roasts from last week were a tad too short. So forget body and sweetness. I don't say Isabelle would have won with a better roast, but sure thing is that we came short on this part.

Congrats anyhow to Isabelle. Technically maybe the best performance ever on a Belgian stage. And congratulations Kathleen ; what a classy performance, proud we'll have someone like you to defend our colors.

3rd place for Louis Donk. This man is a roaster! He was 2nd at the cuptasting championship two years ago and is a real self made man.
His Panama Carmen Estate is a great cup and Louis a very nice chap.

Remarkable that 4th spot was a typical island coffee (Galapagos) as well. Seems to be a new trend.


Cuptasting : Not Caffenation in the finals. Bert, Jeff and Roeland underachieved unfortunately. Roel from Java coffee won the cup. Very nice fella and coffee fanatic this man. Congrats.
Bart was second and Tom and Katrien from Or 3rd and 4th. Wow, that's amazing.

Last round of applause for Jeanne Gennar who was organizing this event. And all sponsors. Very well done.

Agenda October 10

October is our bussiest month of the year.
Halfway now and things are rolling smoothly.

Other years I have a lot to say about the upcoming Barista Championships, but minor news this year.
I had the honour of sitting through one of Isabelle's run, on the side of Joost Leopold. Oh dear, this guy knows ten times more about this kind of stuff. Lots of experience, good tastebuds and a fresh look - as an outsider. Hopefully this training was a good push in the back to perform well next week Tuesday at the San Marco Village in Aartselaar.

3 other Caffenation participants that day. All 3 at the cupping table. Bert is going to defend his title and Jeff and Roeland are going to prevent him doing so. Wish them all the luck.

After reblending our House Blend twice a week we hope to have a more consistent recipe from next week on.
The newest Brazils are afloat and very promising.

Almost ready to launch our newest top blend : Little Green Bag. Ambition was to have all beans organic, although this seems to be harder then forseen. Wait and see, probably something for half November and then changing every quarter.

The same for this online coffee sales. This is a project pending 3 years now. Pfff, hopefully we'll have something ready by the end of the year. Don't expect a full shop ; I'm playing more with the idea of postbox memberships. 1 for filter, 1 for espresso. Also for our neighbours from the North. Exciting.

Fanny meanwhile had her debut performance yesterday eve. She bought a caravan and rebuilded this one into a mobile espresso bar. Stunning. Sexy. Mean. (the Caravan). Soon some pics.

And we're also planning to launch Take Out Nation next doors of the main bar in Hopland. A coffee display, education, cupping and take away bar, all in one.

And, and, once this one is on the roll we have some space for the Bunn Trifecta. (November?)

So, enough stuff for the rest of the year.
I'll keep you posted.
Have a good cup,
Rob

Testing Some Championship Beans

Espresso of the Week : Columbia Consaca, from the Narino area, not far away from Pasto (in between the city of Cali and Ecuador).

The average temperature in the area ranges between 18 to 24 Celsius. The soils in the Consaca municipality are rocky and volcanic, and they provide the coffee plantations with excellent basic nutrients. The production area at the farms is on average 0.9 Ha.

Towards the championships, we're experimenting with some beans. This one is the first from a impressive line up of greens we have stocked now, or on their way towards us.

It's a washed Caturra-Castilla-Colombia variental.
Expect sweet ripe stone fruit, a touch of strawberry and chocolate finish.
€ 6,00 a 250grams bag.

Barista CC Semi Finals Today

Today is preselection for the Belgian Barista Championships 2010, which will be held in October in Aartselaar.

Caffenation has one woman on the floor : Isabelle Verschraegen.

She's competing with the one and only Rwanda Musasa (Roasted by Knopes).

Go Isa Go!

(And Go Yvan Go Wednesday when this La Cita man is competing at the Latte Art competition with our coffee and equipment)

FOLLOW UP 6 HOURS LATER :
Give her a warm hand :
Isa through to the finals. High scores for all competitors. And October 19 on stage with Kathleen, Louis, Sonny and Kenny. Be there!

Our Bird is Cuptasting Champ!!!!

Huray! We have our title!
Bird is a 5 year Caffenation Barista on October 2nd. And the new Belgian Cuptasting champ.

I participated two years ago and Bird and I did a lot of training those days.

Last year we both were challenging the Efico boys. It showed that Bird was the better championship cupper from the two of us, but Bart was too good, which displayed at the World Championships where he became 2nd.

This year we did not practice on triangle cupping.
Bird originally was selected to defend our colors at the Latte Art competition, but after Roeland's bad results at the selections 4 weeks ago I resigned as a trainer and Bird cancelled his latte art participation.
Last week he called up Jeanne he wanted to come over for the cuptasting again.

Every day we taste a lot of coffee and with the experience from the past and his talents this seemed to be enough to become cuptasting champion.
London here we come.

Fun thing is that my resignation has fantastic results.
In the first place there's Bird his title.
Secondly I was willing to help Jeroen with the coffee in good spirits. I didn't, and ..... he became champion today. Congrats Jeroen and good luck in London.

Then I delivered coffee to Isabelle, who was on stage for the Belgian Barista Championships. We decided to go with the Guatemala El Bosque Red Bourbon. A complex, spicy and unique bean that Hasbean Steve shipped over. Thanks for that Steve.
The reactions were very very positive, but unfortunately she just didn't make it to the last 3.

Those who want to drink her championship coffee can come to Hopland this week and enjoy a cup of the fantastic El Bosque.

Last 3, that means finals.
Francois Knopes finished third after receiving the cup for best Latte Art expert. Very well done Francois. I'm so happy you finally won a title and good luck in London.

2nd was last year's champion Melanie. She also won the price for best sig drink.

And the new Belgian Barista Champ is Kenny Burssens. He is actually a sommelier, but gave it a try and did it very well.
Great show Kenny. Good luck at the WBC.

I remember I was backstage at the selection in Mechelen with Kenny and we had a great talk. I saw this guy had a cool style and good tastebuds, but becoming the new champ is a phenomenal performance for a non-Barista. Congrats also to you and Rombouts with the 'best espresso' price!

(Birds cupping picture is from Jeanne's son and was the Belgian photo for the coffee photo of the year championship. Nice, isn't it?)

BBC '09 : The Sequel

I hope to end all the talking and gossip with this (hopefully) final post about this years Belgian Championship.

It's just hard for us to loose after the endless hours of hard work.
We just didn't make it.
There are reasons for that of course.
I made judgemental and tactical mistakes in the preparation and Roeland made mistakes on stage. Of course this happens, certainly with a rookie at the wheel.

For me it's a very bitter pil to swallow that our (Caffenation and all our professional and non professional clients) taste buds do not correspond with those of the jury last Monday.

I hope people stop shooting at me for this opinion.
I never told we are the best ; it was just my feeling that we were worth to be in the finals.

I'm only human and as I told before ; I took my conclusions and decided to withdraw from competition as an active trainer/competitor.
Afraid to loose again in the future? Probably, but most of all tired of fighting.

It were very heavy but learnable years. Lot's of ups and downs.
I made some wonderful friends and learned a lot.
I can recommend participation to everyone and hope future Championships are going to be as successful as the past ones.

Good luck to everybody in the finals. Good luck to Jeanne and her team, and may the 'best' Barista(team) win.

No More Championships

Caffenation is out.
We're out.
I'm out. Knock out.

What's going on in this crazy coffee world?

Last year I've been traveling around the world to taste the best possible espresso's and see the best Barista's at work.
Every year we taste (and mostly offer at the bar) the WBC winning espresso.
And in between I tasted supreme espresso's from Intelligentsia (a lot actually), Stumptown, Ritual, Blue Bottle, Coffee Collective, Johan & Nystrom, FourBarrell, 49th PR, Kontra, Bocca, Square Mile, Vivace, Hasbean, George Howell, Barismo, Knopes and so on (5 of them were top 6 this year at the World Championships). This is my list for 2009 till today.

Our goal at the Belgian Championships this year was to get ourselves up to this world class level.
For that I was willing to find some aid abroad and order the best of the best (reviewed and tasted) beans.
But it's still a Belgian Championship and in the Antwerp Harbour we found goodies that seemed to match the level of the above tasted beans/coffee's.

Our 'Little Green Bag' was the most popular blend we ever launched and tested by dozens of coffee enthusiasts, both professional or amateur. I was so delighted we finally were able to close the gap with the International Roastery's.

Last year we won the prize for 'best espresso' - so you can't call us a bunch of dreamers without experience on championships - and this year it would be a whole lot better...
First of all : I have to admit we won last years 'best espresso' trophy with an espresso I wasn't so crazy about. We just won because the rest was even 'less'. You know we're still selling a comparable blend as last years for €12,50 a kilo. I guess it is the cheapest on the market. And for the sure the best value for money.
This year it would be a totally different ball game. Our 'Little Green Bag' has much more depth, intensity and taste and is a perfect match for milk and chocolate.

Yesterday eve Jeff (the man with the highest Visa 'Coffee Bill' in Belgium), Katrien (Last year's number 5, pretty fanatic and maybe the best Barista I know in this country) and Pauli (German coffee addict) all agreed this year's espresso and cappuccino were our best ever and way better than the one from last year.

Today backstage we encountered a lot of happy faces drinking our clean shots and caps.
And onstage I couldn't spot mistakes in the extraction or bad shot coloring. Every day I go to work I see a couple hundred espresso shots running out of the spouts. After a while you can see how a good shot looks like, trust me on this.
Milk frothing on stage looked good. Nice micro foam and 1 cm in the cup.
Style was good, the atmosphere right.
But then the results on the scoring sheets : awful!

Was the cup too strong? Grow up. I totally do not agree with this!!!! (and some of the most advanced Dutch pro's who've recently been drinking some of our shots probably will back me up on this).
And what happened with the calibration? They took some Illy beans?

Of course I feel like an idiot. Are we nuts? Do we fooled ourselves?
We never trained harder. We never invested more time and money in this. We were never so satisfied and confident. And still, today we're not with the first 9 to advance to the BBC October 1st.
Of course I feel like an amateur without taste buds and knowledge. And Roeland is a bad Barista (he did 35 run throughs with in total 8 professional Barista's judging him on some of the runs. And he's a pro Barista who's grinding plus minus 15 kilo of specialty coffee a week!!!!)

Or are we too advanced into 3rd wave and isn't a Belgian judge these days not informed how an espresso or cap in 'our' world tastes like?
Tell me what to think...

85% of the points go for taste and today they say Caffenation is running (far) behind the other Barista's in Belgium.

I guess I won't sleep tonight.
Bye bye Barista Championships. This is not our cup of tea (no more).

ps : The other Barista I helped, Isabelle, did not do a very good run. The blend was not a real championship blend and the techniques limited, which is normal for a 4 month old Barista.
On stage there were of lot of problems, but she had a very good presence.
We were a bit afraid for the result, but look .... she passed though.
Congrats Isa and good luck at the Village.

Getting Ready for BBC 09

Every year we visit Schuilenburg - the Belgian Della Corte/Mahlkonig distributor - for a better feel with the machine and testing the blend.
As at all previous visits we were welcomed very warm by Ingrid. Thank you very much.

In the past we were used to Faema and the switch to a multi boiler machine was not the easiest. In competition it mostly showed in the Cappuccino's. In 7 performances by Caffenation Barista's we were never able to deliver anything better than average quality.
But that's going to change it looks like. Our daily La Marzocco handlings copy perfect on the DC. The shots are running smoothly and timing does not seem to bother us.

It took years of training and talking with International Barista's to see how to pull competition shots. In previous championships they often lacked (dark) crema and intensity. Not this year.

If we find a way to keep the nerves under control Monday, the future could be bright.

Wish us all the luck and see you back in blogland or Caffenation Monday night or Tuesday. Ciao.

ps : for those curious how our blend tastes : it's now on offer as Espresso of the Week at Hopland, Oever and Minderbroedersrui.

Agenda Update

Very quiet in blog land. It's been awhile I read an article online that was worth mentioning.

Meanwhile we're standing at the doors of September and a lot of activity.

Monday September 7th we go to Mechelen for some good old 'regional' Barista Championships. Roeland has to defend our colours and this is going to be a huge task I you see also Melanie, Stefaan and François are there.
In between Louis Donck. Very interested how this coffee roaster/cupping champ is going to perform in such a specialised discipline as a Barista CC.

And special attention for Isabelle Verschraegen of Or Gent. She's been training with us and that was very promising.

1. Stefaan Behaege
2. Melanie Nunens
3. Louis Donck
4. Kathleen Serdons
5. Isabelle Verschraegen
6. François Knopes
7. 
   
8. Irma Sinagic
9. Hanna Kaulalenco
10. Fred Cristinelli
11. Kenny Burssens
12. Chakamol Supho
13. Renoto Bogglière
14. Roeland Lenaerts
15. 2 or 3 Natural Barista's

Best of this list are going for the title October 1st at the San Marco Village, Boomsesteenweg A12.

And best 3 of the best perform that evening for the title.
It's going to be busy and more expensive than last year, but this way our National Rep will has some more experience for the world championships. Last year Melanie only had 15 minutes of experience and that's not enough of course.

September 15 we see Bird participating at the Semis of the Latte Art Championships. 8 minutes for 2 machiato's, 2 cappuccino and 2 creative drinks.
The best 3 Latte artists also go to the San Marco Village October 1. Exciting.

One of our Barista's at Caffenation gave birth to a baby!!
Congrats Fanny and hopefully a good recovery and soon back to pull some good old shots at Hopland. We miss you.

Today I'm going to Bodum to see their newest stuff.

Tomorrow I'm going to order my first Aeropress delivery. After a disappointing performance Friday we had some very sweet and flowery Yirgacheffe yesterday at Hopland. And as always : super duper clean!
I want to start doing home brewing classes with these beauties in October or the latest November.

Hungry For Competition

All people who follow the Barista Championships in Belgium know that Caffenation is a big fan of most of the Coffee competitions.
After participating by myself three years ago, we had Bird two years ago and last year Jessie and Katrien.
This year rookie Roeland is our man for the Barista Championships. Bird is going to show his skills at the Latte Art contest.

Very often I think by myself these competitions are consuming too much energy and time. And sometimes I'm even thinking of retiring.
But then, when a couple of months without any competition are passing by, the hunger comes back.

And so I was very anxious to move over to Hopland last Sunday for a session with Roeland.

The man is used to train by himself, and does all the hard work (prep, dishwashing, ...), but I am his trainer and when you train somebody new there's a lot of work to be done.

Before - two months ago - we went over the tactics. Simul Spro of not? One or two grinders? Music? Cappuccino's 2 by 2 or all 4 together? Theme? Sig drink tactics and so on and so on.
Then I did a 15 minute to give an example of how it works and then it's up to the Barista to exercise.

Last month Roeland did a couple of trainings by himself and one with me.

Now, we're 4 weeks away from semi finals and a lot of issues have been tackled.
Now it's time to train it dry. The theme is fixed. We have a blend. We have the lines. We have the milk. We have most of the music. We have Roeland working his way through the hundreds of rules. It's a lot of sweat with a drill instructor like me on the side line.

Biggest challenge and training labour for Roeland is to bring the lines like a veteran. Then a good quarter hour at the semis and working towards perfection for the finals October 1st.

This week Pauli from Germany is joining the team as a runner.
And Isabelle (Or) hopefully next Sunday for her first training at Hopland. Exciting.

After a couple of run throughs it's time for a Horse Ale at Kassa 4. Well deserved.

First Practice Session for BBC 2009

I wasn't very productive indeed. But fun it was.

Also been testing this Intelligentsia Zirikana Estate.
Not the one Michael Phillips was using at the WBC, but close to it. As a way of learning from the champs.
Yes, this type of bean would be something to compete with. Strong sharp attack, going over in very fruity accents to finish with a long lasting shiny and clean after taste. At Intelligenstia they say : 'it lingers pleasantly on the tongue'. Yeah! Sure thing you need to drink it not too large. 25 ml max. Hmmm!

Belgian Barista Championship 2009

Watch out for these guys. ;-)
2 Caffenation girls last year. 2 boys this year.

Cupping Championship in Belgium

Friday May 8th we'll have our 3rd Cupping championship in Belgium.

At the offices of Lion Products, Gestelhoflei 6, 2820 Bonheiden.
Start 10.30 am
Judge and Host is John Sherwood. Brewmaster Keith Collins and the Bunn equipment delivered by Limarc.

Caffenation is going to be represent by two Antwerp Barista's.

We did some practicing last two weeks already and hopefully soon some more at our bar and maybe one day at Efico, who delivered the beans and champs the last two years.
Hopefully our new Coffee Consulate cupping spoon is going to be a big help.
First I couldn't believe there were tasting differences with cupping spoons, till I tasted with this one...... Oh my!

Foto's Jessie en Katrien

Er was nogal wat belangstelling op de zaak voor de foto's van Jessie en Katrien. Vandaar enkele van hun topshots en hun signature drink. Njam njam.

BBC Finals Evaluation and Comments

It's the day after and we know the total points. Melanie's 570 is a lot. It's always hard to compare with other country's with other judges, but it's very high. At a WBC this could be a final. But from what I saw there's still some work to be done.
I'm still missing some information, but it looks like Detlev and Peter trained Melanie very well. Out of nothing going back home with 570 points and 3 out of 4 prices! Congrats again. And to all those others as well ; the level has never been so high.

Now my thoughts on yesterday.
The performances of Jessie and Katrien I followed of course very careful. No big mistakes made. At first look it was all minor stuff.
After a quick stroll through the point sheets, two serious things I can come up with though.
1, the cups heater was so heavy all our cups were way too hot. On our Faema and on the Della Corte at Schuilenburg we had problems heating the cups. Yesterday though, we burned our hands. Judges were complaining about too much bitterness and lacks of sweetness. First I couldn't believe this. A medium roasted blend, blended after roast, with 40% washed Yirgacheffe, 40% Pulped Natural Cerrado and a modest 20% of Sigri to finish things off. Doesn't this sound smooth, flowery and mild to you? The extractions were all between 25 and 27 seconds if I'm right, but the cups ..... they were too hot ; certainly for Katrien. What else could be the reason that the same blend, grinder, machine - the middle one - technique and extraction time would give big differences in taste between Katrien and Jessie?

And 2, Katrien lost big points in her signature drink because she touched some ingredients with her hands!!!! I'm sorry, but what is this all about??? She took 4 vanilla stick as a stirrer and that wouldn't be hygienic? So if I understand well ; you may touch spoons with your hand but not another stirrer? Are bacteria running over vanilla and not over an Ikea spoon maybe? And then they took points of because she was decorating the drink with some chili chocolate crumbles with her fingers. Yes, it looks a bit tricky, but aren't all chefs touching their ingredients with their hands? Stefaan lost points because he touched the carrots he juiced? I think it's not honest. Katrien's sig drink was one out of thousand. Very wide, detailed taste with sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and creamy accents, it was well explained and beautifully presented.....

Then the new rules : points on taste. The first time I heard about the fact taste would be counting heavier than before I was a happy man, but now I'm not so sure anymore. And this has nothing to do with winning more or less points, cause I think at the end positions would have been almost the same, certainly for Jessie and Katrien. I think more about the point of view of the spectator. We knew Barista championships were not always a pleasure for the eye. Even for pro Barista's it's almost unbearable to watch a full championship. For this reason they changed the system for Latte Art, which resulted in a must see show.
With the new rules giving much more points for taste, people really get lost. In the past I was mostly right who was going to win, but not now anymore.
François Knopes his show was a joy to watch. Simul spro, one blend (very very close to ours and now as espresso of the week at Caffenation Hopland - everybody's happy François ; top class!) for espresso's and one single for caps and sigs, fantastic latte art, original and spectacular looking signature drink, great timings, great style, ... Although I couldn't see all the other competitors and also because I tasted his backroom shots and caps the winner was known to me. The best by far. His standing at the end : 4th place. What went wrong? A lot, but mostly in the taste. Nevertheless he worked simul spro, his shots were not close to one another and sometimes too short. The capps tasted not strong enough and the signature drink was kinda boring (in taste) ; mostly things you can't see as a spectator. So, tell me why I should go to see a Barista competition?
Melanie won the title and price for the best cappuccino. I think we should be happy to have her represent us in Atlanta, but how could she win a price for best cappuccino? Yes, she did nice latte art and yes she had contrast and yes they were good tasting, but what were all those bubbles in the crema??? I'm sorry, but cappuccino's like this mostly go through the sink at Caffenation. I don't know what happened and Detlev didn't understand it either, but it looked awful.
Isn't it thanks to latte art our product became so popular and can't we all, espresso bar owners, earn our money thanks to latte art? Yes there are dozens of other reasons (3rd wave) espresso bars do well, but out of all these reasons I guess latte art is the main one. Last year we already saw latte art fading ; well, these new rules are going to be the death of latte art at Barista comps. And wasn't this our most spectacular part in the 15 minutes show with a lot of cheering and 'wows' from the audience? Yes it was.
And if the taste is so important, why do we keep on wining on and on about the contrast and ring of crema at the sides of the cup? Does contrast taste better? I don't think so. Does contrast looks better? It's doubtful. We, at Caffenation, are constantly competing against one another and ask clients what latte art (design) they like the most. And what we see is that a nice leaf or apple or heart or tulip is way more convincing than contrast and a dark outer ring. So dear judges, if the taste is soooo important, why do you keep on giving so many more points for contrast? Or do I see this wrong?
To conclude this part I would suggest to continue awarding espresso's much more on their taste in stead of the looks, but keep the old point routine for cappuccino's, with eventually again the opportunity to the tech judges to check and reward crema quality in the cappuccino cup.

Final words to Simon (Turner) and his looks : I liked a lot your style and show in general. This was great promotion to you, your business and the Belgian coffee scene in general. If I see were you lost your point I agree with the fact that you forgot to put napkins, were too rushed and making to much mess, but I do not agree regarding your style. If I count right you lost 12 points for not wearing an apron and I think it's not honest. For Barista's and assistant Barista's I'm even totally against aprons or branded shirts. I'm sure it kills personality and creates a gap between client and Barista. For me you had the best looks, but for the judges the worst and I think that's a pity. They think it's not appropriate to wear sandals or not wearing an apron. 5 years ago all competition Barista's looked like Stephen Hendry at his snooker table ; I hope in 5 years they will all look like you. Keep up the good work and I guess it would even be possible you win next year, without apron, with a 12 points loss for this, but with splendid coffee's.

Melanie ; ik zal er in Atlanta zijn om voor je te supporteren. Tenminste als je die laarzen aanhoudt.
Oh ja, nog een laatste vraagje? Is het echt waar dat je je tamper overal meezeult in dat handtasje van je? :-)

Ranking Belgian Barista Championship

Championship
WBC 2009 ATLANTA

5 december 2008 Kokerello

1. Melanie NUNES 570.50 punten
2. Stefaan BEHAEGHE 540.50
3. Jessie BERVOETS 526.00

4. François KNOPES 513.50
5. Katrien SEGERS 485.50
6. Kathleen SERDONS 481.50
7. Simon TURNER 480.50
8. Patrick HANSENS 474.50
9. Chloë VAN BAEL 446.00
10. Gino DEWINTER 435.00
11. Emilio VENZI 383.00
12. François DELAHAUT 342.50