Beans & Blends

What never gets tired is tasting coffee. Mostly we taste espresso's, but of course we also do a whole lot of cupping.
And the more we do so, the easier it is to see how we have to roast them and what would be the best brewing technique, or totaly not.

Lately I've been searching for a new Brasilian with a nice price tag. I'm happy with Daterra for example or some Minas Gerais, but it's not only our goal to offer the best coffee, but also at an affordable price. We want to bring the coffee to the people and a good price helps a lot.

What did we cup and what did we blend?

I found out a fantastic Washed Rwanda. Also in England you see this country is getting more and more popular and for good reason. Very interesting for both espresso and filter/press and a taste that's a little bit in between Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and stronger (robusta) African beans. Our bean had good body, nice acidity with bits of fruit, wood and nuts. And a very good clean finish. Top catch and even better than the Rwanda Gold we recently bought at Hasbean.

We were very enchanted the first time we were tasting the Papua New Guinea beans our Roaster Jean bought a couple of months ago. And the more we taste them the better they get.
On lighter roast fantastic for Eva Solo or Press. It has a bit of the earth taste of the neighbours from Indonesia, but less overpowering body, much much more fruit, good balance and a cleaner finish.
On medium/dark roast is goes as a single origin espresso or you can blend it in. And that's what I did.
Since long I was hoping for a good bean to replace the 20% Honduras share in our House Blend. Very fresh, the espresso quality of the Honduras was one of a kind, but never met a bean that looses so much taste over time. And nevertheless we deal very very fresh, it did of course a lot of harm to the stability of the blend.
So we trew out the Hond and took in the Pap. Only 10% ; that's a normal part for beans from this area, but even then most Java's or Sumatra's come through way to hard and give it a tangy touch. Not this Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately we do not know more about the origin of the bean. No specific origin and certainly no estate tracking. So I'm already afraid not to be able to catch the same bean next year. I tasted recently a neighbour version of this bean at Efico though ; maybe we can vary with this one.
At the same time we elarged our Brazil part, although I'm still thinking we can make some improvement here. And we kept our jewels Yirgacheffe (Ethiopia) and Everest SHG (El Salvador) at the same share.

I'm very very happy with the new blend. First reactions were super. Curious what my Copenhagen tasters will tell about this Blend that suits for both espresso and filter/press, lungo's, espresso's, americano's, cold coffee's and milk based preparations. Not easy, but I think once again we were able to push up the bar.
And hopefully by the end of the year available online.

To end I wish to share my cupping experience of some (Danish) Estate beans. I was very surprised to see Estate coffee at the local grocery shop around the corner in Copenhagen. I like the espresso bar a lot and know these guys are experts, but oh what a disappointment at the cupping table. The Kenya was very boring. Too sharp, no undertones. And the Mexico Chiapas had nothing to offer either. Pfff. And for 28 euros a kilo!!!! A shame.
I remember now that on my first trip to Copenhagen i liked more the coffee at Estate than at Europa, but at home i had way better results with the Kontra blend (also at Europa) than with the two bags of Estate. Isn't this strange?

Now time for a well deserved holiday. Ciao.

Casper Engel World Cupping Champ

Casper Engel: the cuppiest cupper
Originally uploaded by flippantfiasco

... and a very nice fella!
Congrats Casper.

Look mom ....

Jim
Originally uploaded by flyingthud

Who took the photo and who poured the shot? The old world champion and the new one with the most original Latte Art pour of the year.

Don't try this at home. ;-)

Stephen and His Hopper

Stephen and his hopper
Originally uploaded by King Seven

Stephen Morrisey from Ireland is the WBC 2008.

He's on a whole lot of photo's on coffee blogs around the world and he will be on a lot more from now on.
Was it the way the coffee was ground, the fantastic blend Square Mile roasted, the nice latte art, the 3 espresso's in one hand, the original signature drink, all his experience or his incredible cool?
When Steffen Schwartz (Coffee Consulate) and I were standing in front of Stephen Morrisey on Thursday, we saw him practicing new art patterns and Steffen was telling me he found out why Stephen was always that relaxed ..... 'It's because he's a musician'.
Was that his extra weapon?
Maybe.
But a very very nice Barista representative for the upcoming year for sure.
Congrats Stephen with your world crown and I hope to meet you (again) one day or another.
(for more info you can click here for an older Antwerp Barista article and funny photo of Stephen Morrisey or directly click his blog)

Belgium 19th

Congrats Detlev on finishing 19th with 605,5 points. A truly great performance it was, certainly for a first timer on this big stage with all camera's and press following.

While I'm eating my hat noticing Kyle G (8th) didn't make it to the finals - was he too cold or didn't his espresso's come out?- the finals are running right on this moment.
I'm proud remarking I had predicted 4 out of the 6 finalists. Peter's Mexico didn't come trough unfortunately. Yung was fantastic in the series and is a logical 5th. But then the big surprise ; Liesbeth Sleijster. I've seen her often but never talked to her and now I think that's a pity cause she had such a relaxed and natural style that I would like to know more about her. Gefeliciteerd in ieder geval Liesbeth en ik beloof dat ik in de zomer richting Nijmegen kar voor een espressootje! Yes, that was a Dutch intermezzo.

Now the finals : simul spro (simultanious shot processing or all 4 espresso's running at the same time) for Stephen M. using the Anfim Super Caimano Coffee Grinders - I think he's going to win.

Later on more.

Copenhagen WBC Day 2

The day started off with the Latte Art Competition.
Peter Hernout was fighting to do better than last year's 7th place.
And i expected him to do so, till...... he dropped his pitcher. Yes, it never happened before, and it will never happen again, but today .... 'BANG'. So, he had to redo his cappuccino's, confidence lost, one minute overtime and bye bye dreams. I don't know the final points yet, but with so many highly competitive Barista's in the field it looks like it's all lost. Bad luck.
Later on I saw Onno from the Netherlands doing great. No risks and no special show, but good points and probably in the final round.

This year you have every time 2 Barista's doing their show at the same time. And with a little help from host Manu Demets the show was guaranteed. Nice.

In between i saw the new Simonelli Aurelia running. Great soft infusion machine. And their Mythos grinder. Super fast and accurate. It looks like this company doing a great job to take their piece of the cake. And maybe next year as the official WBC machine.....??

Then Day two for the Barista Championship and my friend Detlev to kick off the show.
Brilliant! His best performance ever. You would never tell this was his first WBC appearance. Finals are probably a bridge too far, but definitely a whole of points.

A bit later we saw a good performance by David Makin from Australia.
And then by one o'clock it was time for the United States of America and Kyle Glanville. I was sipping this fantastic Santa Teresa at the Panama booth and talking with Maria Luisa Berard when she told me Kyle had these same beans in his blend. So we went together to enjoy the show. Once in I was flanked perfectly by Detlev on the left and Tim (Wendelboe) on the right.
15 minutes with no 'his' or 'uh' and a nice style and sig drinks all prepared individually at the judges table. I'll eat my hat if this man doesn't make the finals on Sunday.

Last stop this afternoon was not at the WBC but at the Estate shop. I remember really well the first time i was there drinking my first ever Clover coffee and that's what I did again today. La Minita on Clover with a brownie and cream on the side. Top!

Tonight i have this Kontra-Dalla Corte party down the street and tomorrow the first flight back home.
I hope you enjoyed my reports and don't forget to follow the live stream this Sunday for the finals. And for nice photo's 'Koffiegek.nl'.
Ciao.
(bedankt Jeroen voor de foto van Peter)

Detlev Battiau in Action at the WBC 2008

Live .TV show provided by Ustream