WAC and WBC 2014 : Jeff finishing 3rd.

4 times our head roaster Jeff Verellen was able to defend the colors of our country at the World Aeropress Championships and 4 times he's going home with a medal.

After bronze in London and gold in Milan and Melbourne he became 3rd again in this years finals.

A fine result after a fine day.

Report :

While Bert and I were still on our way from Bologna to our apartment in Riccione, Rimini, our 2 roasters Jeff and Simon were moving towards the fiera to see Charlene De Buysere doing her thing at the Barista World Championships.
First WBC ever for Charlene. Never easy and no semi finals for her.
Curious to know the final results I went surfing on the World Wide Web, but can't find any info, except for the finals. Unbelievable.

I have the feeling all these competitions are losing interest. A pity, but a bit understandable cause it's a bit boring to watch if you are not competing yourself or a fan of one of the champs.
The rules get more complicated by the year and there's still no chance to taste what the Barista's are prepping on stage.
If one of my Barista's want to compete next year I'll be more than happy - it's a great stage to show your skills and a lot learn - but if nobody's in, we won't be sad about it.

Luckily there's still the Aeropress Championships!! More popular every year thanks to the relaxed settings and easy rules.
This year the setting of the WAC was the best ever ; on the Rimini beach.

La Marzocco organized this event together with Tim Varney. What a splendid job. The Barista's were performing barefoot in the sand of Rimini while the sun was omni present and even showing a fantastic sun set around the finals. Brilliant!!

Simon Boone represented The Netherlands and Jeff Verellen Belgium. Both were favorites in their series. Lots of expectations on Simon's shoulders when his recipe works wonderfully at the rehearsals a couple of hours prior to the comp.
Jeff was, because of the heat in Rimini, still struggling with temperatures and the (relatively dark) coffee; a splendid Ecuador by Cafe Imports. 

Mélodie from France was another side favorite, just as Lara from Spain and Dylan from Australia.

27 competitors. That means 9 rounds of 3.
While Mélodie, Jeff and Lara advance, Simon falls off with a lightly under extracted cup. Ooooh.

The comp goes on and on and judges Tim Styles, James Hoffmann and Tim Wendelboe keep on cupping. Finally we see the Japanese Presser Shuichi Sasaki wins the finals, after uber Judge Tim Varney had to cup through all 3 cups because the judges were undecided on what the best cup was.

More info, photo's and recipes here.

Every year we see more and more country's organizing an Aeropress Championship. Mostly in a bar with the crowd side by side with the competing Barista's. Beer, coffee and friendship go hand in hand and people can taste the recipes after the judges decide on the heats' winner.
The design of the posters and T-shirts are becoming an event on itself and we expect this competition to grow every year.
Is this the future of coffee championships? Partly, yes!

Oh yes, Japan also won the Barista Title this year.
My friend Coen van Sprang 7th! Respect!

Raul Rodas is the new Champ

For those who have been to London 2 years ago, knew Raul was top class and this years win is not a surprise at all.

I didn't see 1 espresso or cappuccino, certainly not a signature drink on stage this year. Compared to last year the fair and other competitions were so exciting that I didn't see any of the competitors of the Barista Comp.

Here's a link with a review of his performance. 

More of this years comp at Sprudge.com.http://sprudge.com/

The cuptasting competition was as thrilling as ever, with an Antwerp fella in the last round. Kim Ossenblok by accident stumbled into Caffenation on a Saturday morning (i think) 7 years ago. I had my doubts by this man, who seemed to come straight from a café, but a couple of months later he does a few Barista assistant shifts in the bar.
The love for coffee was obvious and one year later he becomes Spains number 1 Barista Trainer.

Living in Barcelona he starts competing at the Spanish Championships and with the win in the cup tasting competition this meant he was here in Vienna to find the 'strange' cup in the triangle cupping competition.
Here a link with the rules.

The German competitor didn't eat for 3 days and this seemed to be the way to go. 8 out of 8 in the finals!!!
Greece became second and Kim captured the 3rd spot, out of 40 or something competitors. Truly amazing and well deserved!!

Our Kenia Chomo coffee was in hands of Brew Master Robert Gruber. He is owner of POC, a fantastic coffee hang out place at Schlosselgasse in Vienna.
He won the Austrian title with our Kenia Kirea Ini at the end of last year.

This years Kenia Chomo was a different coffee all together, but really pleased the jugdes with beautiful Tropical Topsoil aroma's and citrus/pineapple flavors, so he made it to the finals, together with the UK, USA, Greece (again), Australia and Canada. All big powerful country's with ton loads of competition experience. For new commer Robert (a rookie Barista, since last year September) an impossible task to win the comp, but a very well deserved 6th place is a great way to enter a competition that seems to have a wonderful future ahead.
Wouldn't surprise me if this competition is going to have more competitors world wide as the Barista competition. In Poland for example there were 20 competitors in this years clash. In Belgium unfortunately we didn't have it. Was it a lack of sponsors or interest? Hopefully it's going to be on the 2013 list. I promise to have at least one Caffenation brewer at the starting line.

The fair was the best ever and the work shops endless and with many enthousiastic participants.

I gave 2 classes.
In the first 'How to open a Specialty Coffee Bar' there were more English speaking 'students'.

In the 'How to open a Specialty Coffee Roastery' there were more people from the surrounding area's present.
The picking of Vienna for this happening was a very wise one. The location, right in the middle of the new Europe, made us all come together.
And the city on itself seemed to be the perfect ground for all coffee lovers around the world to come together and share.

Next year we have a European part in Nice and the WBC in Melbourne.
I think i'm going to take a sabbatical in 2013, but hopefully there will be plenty of other bloggers at the line.

No more Predictions

I have been doing predictions for the Barista competition as long i'm blogging, but i won't do so this year. I lost interest in this kind of competitions. I don't want to say any negative things and i do definitely support some competitors, but the fun for me is over. When Jeff told me yesterday who this years American champ is, i realized i simply forgot to follow the USBC, which is worlds strongest competition. Yes, even higher then the WBC. I hope she is performing well, cause i met her once in Atlanta and i really like her. Also like the Belgian and Dutch champs. I witnessed those finals and i will go to Vienna to some competition as well, but it's with a changed mentality. So good luck to all of them, but no predictions from my side anymore. If someone else wants to comment with his or her favourits; they're welcome.
Maybe see you in Vienna. Still anxious to visit the fair and meet all people.
Best of luck to friends Kim and Lex and Frans and Coen and Louis and all the others. And for those visiting Vienna : go have a Caffenation shot at POC, Schlosselgasse 3, or with Strietman at the village.

New Zealand Barista Champ Aymon McQuade

The first person I met last year at the WBC brew bar in Colombia was Aymon McQuade.

It was the most interesting and inspiring talk we had there. Well, basically it was him doing the talking, introducing the coffee he brought along.
He just got back from El Salvador where he sourced his own greens. Then he managed to find a roaster to do some test roasts with it. And from this roast he offered me a bag to test and maybe blog about it.

I felt ashamed for quiet a while that I didn't do this, but the truth is I didn't really like the coffee.
When I now hear about his fabulous results at the NZBC with some of these beans I'm wondering how much different the roasts of these beans have been. Back at home, on top class equipment, and with some extra Colombians mixed in I'm sure it's a whole different story.
Who knows he can still bring some with him to Vienna where we surely meet up again.

Aymon impressed me with his story in Bogota and I'm happy he did the same last weekend in Wellington.
So, big congrats Aymon, good luck with the upcoming training and really looking forward meeting up in Austria next June.


This text is written by 5 senses reporter Brydon :
NZBC 2012 Champion Aymon McQuade presented a winning performance built around coffees he had found himself in El Salvador and Colombia on an origin trip taken around last year’s WBC. His staged signature drink utilised a mechanical pump contraption which filtered shortbread into an extract which was later mixed into the final drink.

A big thank you and congratulations to all who were involved in this year’s New Zealand Barista Championships — brave competitors, fellow judges, volunteer organisers and supporters alike. It was a great event. Bring on Vienna, 2012!

NZBC 2012 Top 6
1st Aymon McQuade, Bell Tea & Coffee, Wellington
2nd Chloe Zhou, Crafted Coffee Company, Christchurch
3rd Nick Clark, Flight Coffee, Wellington
4th Brendon Neilson, Espresso Workshop, Auckland
5th Hideyuki Kono, Crafted Coffee Company, Christchurch
6th Claris Jones White, Pomeroys Coffee, Nelson

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.

WBC 2011

Although jet lag seems to be over I can't sleep tonight.
So a good time to write a post about the World Barista Championships I attented last week in Bogota Colombia.


First I give you some links from posts written about important players and top experts.
Theotherblackstuff : David Walsh his view on things. He works for Marco and helped to build and run the brew bar. This time lapse tells it all, and watch the funny tall man in working gear behind the bar in the afternoon of day 3 - it's Bert and the only one to recognize ;-)
At least David has the best photo's!

Jimseven : world's most popular coffee blogger, and co MC, again writes a nice one. And he has all the right to speak as he delivered, again, a coffee for the finals. 6th place. Believe me, that's very good. And a good post from James.

Hasbean : a long, emotional and very well fonded post by Steven Leighton. After having a couple of coffee's in a couple of finals he shot the main bird this year with delivering the right one for Alejandro - why nobody writes his surname? - Mendez from El Salvador.
Now we know again why we asked this man several times to deliver us the right coffee for the Belgian Championships. Unfortunately he didn't find us the right one last year and we sourced somewhere else - probably the main reason Isabelle didn't win. :-(
Congrats with this stunning result Steve.

Was this the best WBC ever?
First of all it was the first at origin.
And that was a fantastic idea.
There were 200 persons going on a WBC sponsored Trip to origin, but also a lot of other coffee professionals and amateurs combined coffee fields with the championship.
Because Colombia has fantastic coffee's, very sweet and friendly inhabitants and beautiful farms. Bert and I attented this great cupping - slurpurama - event at the El Roble Hacienda. As you read before.

The coffee fare at the Corferia in Bogota was totally different from what we were used to. With over 500000 (!) farms in this country we saw a lot of farmers here. Most stands displayed wet mills in stead of espresso machines.
A bit boring for most European coffee people, but seeing this you start respecting the farmers more then ever.

This trip was a good way to learn and appreciate Colombian coffee a whole lot more. All Colombian coffee's in the Antwerp harbour is 2nd grade at its best, but mostly less than that. From the 30+ coffee's I cupped last week, at least 25 of them were better than the best Colombia presented by the traders we work with.
Time to get them to Caffenation of course. I think we met the right coffee people to buy some of these beauty's and display the soon at our bars.

The championship was as predicted a competition between the UK, USA and Aussie champ on one side and the Asians and Coffee Origin Champs at the other side. This last side I didn't mention up front, but luckily there was Peter Deprez in the comments to remember us the coffee producing country's are getting better by the year. 6 producing country's with the last 12!!!! And no Scandinavia, Canada or Belgium.
A pity the Belgium team didn't find the right bean to stun the jury. Who picked this Nepal? Not the best of idea's and a disappointing 36th place for Kathleen.

I saw half of the semi finals performances - missed Alejandro M - and tipped Japan to win. She performed less good in the finals and fell back from 2nd to the 5th place.
The winner used 100% coffee in his performance and served the espresso's without crema - wow!. Who wants to see how can click this link. And with commentary this year - great idea!

Was this the best WBC ever?
Uhm, This one was my 4th trip to the WBC and I would fully answer with a 'Yes'. For a lot of things mentioned above, but also this comp was far away from home for most of the people and therefor I saw a better bonding. I'm very proud and happy I was one of them. The coffee world is such a fantastic world to live in. In Colombia we saw all coffee people sharing and enjoying all this coffee info and that's how it should be.


Colombia and the WBC thanks.

WBC Colombia : The Prequel

Very happy being here in Colombia.

It's my 4th WBC and it feels like, far away from most peoples homes, the friendship and bond with one another is stronger then it ever was before.

I think it was a right decision to be represent with a Caffenation team. And for more then one reason.

For Bird and me the first days were awesome.
Medellin was the first stop. Never visited a city with 2 faces that were so opposite, but at the same time interesting. It's a vivid city with a big future I think.

Then we moved on to Bucaramanga. A city as funky as its name.
Not so much to see here, but within an hour of the Hacienda El Roble.


Probably Huila has the most smashing coffee's, but the region of Santander has El Roble.

With 18 other coffee professionals we tasted 31 different varientals! I could wander on and on about it, but never this man is going to inform you as good as Zachary Carlson did with this post.

Besides of coffee this estate displayed great hospitality, food, the most beautiful birds and flowers I ever witnessed and great coffee of course.
Thank you Oswaldo (owner) and Giancarlo from Viramax, who invited us on this great venue.


Meanwhile we arrived after a shaky bus ride at San Gil, capital of the adventure sports.

Friday we should be back in Bogota and ready to meet more coffee lovers at the WBC. Very looking forward...

(photo's will be added after my return)
(follow our and other tweets meanwhile for more info)
(and specialtycoffee.nl for some funny Maarten articles) - click ESW in the link list.

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.

WBC Fun & News

The comp in London was interesting, but mostly I went for fun and info.

From all the stand holders, my three favourites ones were :


Kees Van Der Westen and his new Spirit machine. So beautifull and easy.

La Marzocco and their new Strada. Actually is was already in Atlanta and Milan, but finished now and ready for production. Maybe interesting for us as well.


Bunn with the Trifecta. A revolutionarry coffee maker. Also called the new Clover. Best coffee on the fair.


The best cuppings I had were at Trabocca and the El Salvador HiQ coffee's from Willem.
And a great Peru Tunki from WE.

The fun mostly came from the people.



So much fun with Melissa, Thomas, Valentine, Lennart, Angelo, Addie, Jochem, Simon, my Barista's of course, Patrick, Henk, Yakup, Koen, Karel, Friso, Joost, Steve, Gwilym, James, Cameron, Francois, Esther, Hamma and all the other I forgot or don't have their names. Lots of kisses.

Bert in London

I picked this photo cause it's symbolic for Bert's performance at the Cuptasting Championships.

We go back in time. The Belgian Barista CC in 2007 with Bert on stage. He was all stressed for this event and started choking for the first minute on. He didn't even finish his performance which is very very exceptional.
Exceptional is the best way to describe Bert, on and off stage. Exceptional in positive and negative sense.

At the Belgian Cuptasting Championship he was really relaxed and still enjoying a beer and a sig minutes before the cupping started.

In London he was at the starting line at 8 o'clock, but only performing at 1 in the afternoon. Tension building up all the way and that was noticable.
First set of 3 cups and Bert looks totally confused, shaking and not finding the 'different' cup.
Second set of 3 cups we see disbelief in his eyes. He can't taste any difference in between them.
Normally he's a man that picks 6, 7 or 8 out of 8 in a minute and a half.
In London he picks 1 out of 8 in 3 minutes, beating statistics! Unbelievable.

It's all or nothing with this man. This time it was nothing. I feel so sorry, but there's nothing we can do. Or shall we go back to the relaxed style? Sometimes being less serious may help - for him.

Michael Phillips

Finally.
Finally Mike.
And finally Intelligentsia.
Everybody's happy now? I hope so.
I am.
And how could Peter Deprez know Guatemala was that good?
I scored 3 out of 6. That's very average. You can notice I'm not so fanatic anymore as I was before. Most of the competition go up in level, but decrease in interest of the spectators. I suppose it's all a bit too complicated and since the points for taste went up it's harder to judge the presentations of the Barista's.
Probably we have to look into the rules again with special attention towards the public. When Phillips started his presentation the music was pumping through the speakers and people were shaking. Yeah! Can't we bring the music and words louder so everyone can enjoy what they are doing and not only the judges? Now 7 people enjoy the words and coffee and the other 70 or 700 are nothing more but wallpaper.

Final Results:

Michael Phillips (USA) 706 points
Raul Rodas (Guatemala) 691 points
Scottie Callaghan (Australia) 672.5 points
Colin Harmon (Ireland) 659.5 points
Soren Stiller Markussen (Denmark) 644.5 points
Stefanos Domatiotis (Greece) 632 points

Semi-Finalists:

Soren Stiller Markussen, DENMARK
Raul Rodas, GUATEMALA
Fabrizio Sencion, MEXICO
Kyle Straw, CANADA
Ana Lucia Hawit, HONDURAS
Michael Phillips, USA
Scottie Callaghan, AUSTRALIA
Yara Castanho, BRAZIL
Thomas Schweiger, GERMANY
Colin Harmon, IRELAND
Alejandro Mendez, EL SALVADOR
Stefanos Domatiotis, GREECE

(photo by confusebee - thanks)

WBC 2010

This one is my last post before heading to the Capital of Coffee.

Besides the all important World Barista Championships, we still have a lot of other things going on in London City.

Starting with their blog. Very funny and informative. A must read.

The competitions :


World Cuptasting Championship : Representing Belgium (and Caffenation) : Bert 'Bird' Van Wassenhoven. Fast as lightening and pin point accurate at the Belgian Heat, this 5 year Barista is trying to keep Belgium on the coffee map of the world. Good luck Friday Bert.

Coffee in Good Spirits : Jeroen De Corte (who comes from the same village/town as your blog host) is the perfect man for the job this year. Good luck Jeroen.

At the Latte Art Championships : Francois Knopes has the (almost) impossible task to do as good as Peter Hernou last year ; winning. Be we have all trust in this young gifted Barista.

The Ibrik Championship : Here we spot other Caffenation Barista, Roeland Lenaerts. I've been tasting some of Roeland's creations and never expected Turkish coffee to taste so good. Good luck.

And not on the official program : The WAC, World Aeropress Championship.
It's funny to see on the internet how this comp gaining more interest than the 'real' stuff.
(Jazzy) Jeff Verellen is Caffenation Barista/Roaster and ready to take up the job for Belgium. To know more about this competition you can read this earlier post.
This competition will run over 2 days - wednesday and thursday - at the Brew Bar. Finals forseen at Thursday 4 PM. Hopefully with Jeff at the press. Good luck boy.

For those not in England and curious about the event : go here, for live streaming.

WCB 2010 Predictions

Third year in a row I'm posting my predictions for the upcoming World Barista Championship.

In 08 and 09 I scored a surprising 4 out of 6 on both occasions. Tough to do better, certainly now I follow it less than before, but I'll give it (a long) shot.

1) No doubt about American Michael Philips. Maybe the strongest last year, but killed by nerves and a super duper Square Mile coffee.

2) Colin Harmon is another back to back national champ that made the finals last year. Logical bet I think. Good luck Colin.

3) Home crowd favourite John Gordon. Just as Colin competing with Hasbean beans. Steve may start getting nervous.

I suppose 99 out of 100 people would pick these three as well. Now time for specialised betting and gambling.

4) Scottie Callaghan was Latte Art champ in Tokyo 3 years ago. He has lots of experience and darn fine coffee. Count him in for a top 6.

5) Kyle Straw! for Canada. This man has experience, coffee, a Super Caimano and his mother language in his favor. Can't go wrong.

6) Ishan Natalie represents South Africa. These days this country is on tv screens world wide. Very well known for football, less for coffee. Last two years Ishan had some great Origin beans and fluent performances. So lots of experience and time to harvest. You think his fans will bring vuvuzela's?

Of course there's serious competition from Norway, Denmark, Hungary and Finland with strong Barista's. To be expected in the Semis.

Belgium rep is Kenny Burssens. I never expected him to become Belgian champ the day I met him backstage in Mechelen last year September. He was still very uncertain about himself and his coffee, but grew bit by bit and delivered a stunning performance in October at the Finals.
Never a Belgian Barista prepared himself so profesionally for the WBC. He's a cool cat on stage and a top 12 performance wouldn't surprise nobody. Good luck Kenny.

Dutch Barista Sander Schat is ready for this second WBC. Last year in Atlanta he was deeply disappointing. Time for revenge. And why not top 12. To complete the circle.

Who do you think is going to take the crown?

Jeff Goes To London

In London at the WBC slow bar there's a side event that's going to attract a lot of coffee lovers.

THE II WORLD AEROPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP.

And we keep all eyes on our own Jazzy Jeff (on the photo sniffing a Panama Geisha).

We were lucky that the organisation picked Jeff for one of the last tickets for the tournament.

This afternoon we already started to train with our light roast Yirgacheffe. A coffee probably very closeby the one SMCR is going to deliver us one of the days.
Very exciting!!!!

Good luck Jeff.
And a thorough follow up on this blog and our Twitter page.

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.

WBC 2010 London Announcement

Click it.
And same place and date : the Caffè Culture event.

Cuptasting Bart and Ben. Belgium 3rd Nation!

In preparation for my second cuptasting competition a couple of months ago I went to Efico for some training.
On that occasion Bart VanSanden was showing his skills. He was champion the year before and looking stronger then ever.
On the championships I had the honour to compete with him at the same table for the first round. Unfortunately he over classed me and took his second ring later on. (on this photo you can see bart, me and in the back Peter Hernou - memorable picture actually).

This Sunday he was in the arena for the world title.
I have to admit that there was only one other competitor I knew and that was Ben Kaminsky. Repeatedly reading his articles on the Barismo blog he came into the press as the first US cuptasting champion in Atlanta and a couple of weeks ago he became second in the Oslo at the Aero Press championships.

I was happy to meet him Saturday eve after my award winning when Stephen Morrisey presented me to him.
A good looking gifted youngster with coffee knowledge and buds to be jealous after.

At the finals Bart ended 2nd and Ben 4th. A big congrats to both of them.
Next links gives you photo's and the name of the winner :
http://www.scae.com/news/466/thrilling-contest-sees-russias-valentina-kazachkova-take-world-cup-tasters-championship/

Meanwhile we(Belgium) became 3rd in the overall Nation ranking. Unbelievable how such a small country can become big in such a short notice.

When I was on stage speeching after winning the award, I told the audience my believe was we all have to keep on fighting for better coffee and a better atmosphere in espresso bars.
And I think this should be the message after all these prices and top results at championships and SCAE shows. We do participate at championchips not for the prices, but for bringing specialty coffee at the surface and under the nose of everyone in our country. The photo coupled in the press articles (seen at one of the comments of the past post) this week in Flemish news papers of a stupid cup of coffee with whipped cream next to title of Peter winning the Latte Art championship tells enough - ridiculous. There's still a lot of work to be done, with or without new titles or top results at championships.

That's it for this years championships. En avant marche pour Londres 2010! Santé!

The New World Barista Champion is Gwilym Davies

They did it again.
Who's 'they'?
James and Annette.
James Hoffmann and Anette Moldvaer. 3 years in a row James won or trained the winner. 3 years in a row Anette selected and roasted the beans. Unbelievable but true.

I think coffee was even a bigger winner today. The top 3 really highlighted the coffee, the holy bean, what you can do with it ; what tastes you may get out of it.

They finished very very close to one another and were a joy to watch.

3rd finisher Michael Phillips made endless combinations with his Rwanda Maraba. He changed doses for every drink, extraction times and even grinder settings!!!
I think he didn't win because he was a little bit too undefined (we couldn't hear what he was saying) and a big bit too nervous. Never seen such an experienced competitor shaking this way. It can't be he didn't make a couple of small mistakes because of that.

2nd finisher Sammy Piccolo did a fantastic, transparent and well balanced show. The Costa Rica-Ethiopia shots looked great and he's a brilliant talker and performer.
This is the 3rd time he's the runner up - once he was 3rd! Lot's of people wanted him to win, but again .... he didn't.
Well, I compared him up front with snooker player Jimmy White. He was always second, but year after year his popularity increased.
Plus, the champ won't be back next year. The vice champ can always come back. I hope so. Please Sammy.

1st place for Gwilym Davies. One pair of shots was running a too slowly and he had to redo them. Therefor he ran short in time. He could have done it in time, but instead of raising his hand he continued his story. It's about coffee, not winning. Respect! And he won anyhow. Never seen before.
I spoke with a judge afterwards and asked what was so special about it. And it was the taste! This Colombian Huila was a big fruit bomb and by far the best shot of all.
Congratulations England ; this is something!!!!
And if I see his age ; I could start dreaming about a come back.

NOT. :-)

Thanks for the photo WBC blog photographer.
For more info about the finals, click this link.

Day 3 at the WBC Atlanta

A group photo of the 2009 finalists.
From left to Right :
Sammy Piccolo for Canada.
Michael Phillips for USA
Gwilym Davis for UK
Attila Mornar for Hungary
Colin Harmon for Ireland
Lee Jong Hoon for Korea.

Melanie Nunes for Belgium 27th.
Sander Schat for The Netherlands 34th.

What did we notice :
6 out of 6 : Men (a shame)
5 out of 6 : Made the cappuccino's 2 by 2 (I think)
4 out of 6 : Predicted by Antwerp Barista (not bad, not bad at all)
3 out of 6 : Anfim Super Caimano grinder (every year one more and 6 by 2012)
2 out of 6 : Ethiopian coffee beans from Bagersh (proof is in the pudding)
1 out of 6 : Asia (is on the rise)
0 out of 6 : Scandinavia (remarkable after their dominance over those first 10 years)

Ireland suprized me, but when I heard later on he used these fantastic Bolivia Machacamarca ; Stephen's favourite coffee I wasn't so shocked anymore. But it wasn't him who picked this bean. Colin picked it blind out of 14 beans presented to him. I was willing to buy in some of these greens the other week ; now it think it was a mistake I didn't do it. I hope there will be some left after this championship. I'll ask him tomorrow if he can put some on the side for Caffenation.

And so Vince Piccolo promised me to give a bag of Sammy's coffee tomorrow. It's a blend of Costa Rica's Herbazu and the very popular Yirgacheffe Aricha. Good pick. Is he the main favourite for the finals? No, it's still the next guy :

Michael Phillips used a Rwanda I tasted at the Intelligentsia booth. They made me a double ristretto I found a tad too strong and overwhelming ; why aren't those American's serving any single/normal shots anymore? I regret!
I missed his performance by accident, but it must have been overwhelming. Curious for Sunday.

Lee John Hoon from Korea came out of nowhere. Afterwards I heard from Liesbeth (last year's number 3 - so she knows something about this competition) he had excellent technique. Must be if you're able to handle the 2 portafilters at the same time for dosing, distributing and tamping!!!! Way to go Lee.

Gwilym Davis had a terrific signature drink. It was very interactive and spontaneous. He ran almost out of time, he was very nervous and his espresso's seemed to be kinda small (25 mil said James although they looked smaller - must have been the type of cups...), but it's a worthy finalist and in the mood for a top 3.

Attila Mornar was my outsider for the finals and he did it. Congrats Attila, this should boost the specialty scene in Hungary.

Melanie finished in the middle of the pack for Belgium. She lost a lot on inconsistency. His first shots always ran too long. Strange. I know some people do not like simul spro, but it's a sure thing it keeps the extractions a lot closer to one another.
Also bad points for coffee taste in the signature drinks, but very high scores in techniques and presentation. Good job Melanie and well deserved.

Sander was disappointing for Holland. He lost a lot of points on almost every aspect, but mostly on his very complex signature drink. Nice chap who deserves way better. Maybe next year Sander ; 'kop op'!

So now we're of to the Counter Culture evening for a good beer and chat with Barista friends from all over the world.
Tomorrow report from the finals.
After tomorrow a brief overview from my most interesting encounters at the Fare.
Cu.
Rob

Atlanta arrival

Atlanta we made it
Originally uploaded by reggietamper

Stole this photo from the 'reggietamper' flickr account.
Noticed I forgot my small cable to transfer photo's onto my laptop. Maybe a good thing..... Inside (competition) photo's is not my specialty.

Just arrived after a long flight.

I'm lucky my hotel is a couple of blocks away from the world center.

Went quickly to the Coffee Kids event. Known that I'm the biggest Belgian contributor (also the smallest actually, since nobody else is donating, ..... a shame!) I thought it was up to me to represent the country.

Met Melanie and Peter. They had great reactions on the show yesterday. Thumbs up for a place in the finals. You never know.

Now a shower and on my way to Octane for some coffee and coffee people.