Espresso Martini

For years I'm telling cocktail bar owners and the local cocktail men/women to put an Espresso Martini on their menu.

I'm still surprised why they mostly refuse to do it.
I think it's a fantastic drink.
Of course you need to know how to make a decent espresso first. That's something we handled before. Underneath the link a nice recipe for an Espresso Martini. Shake it out!

Interview Michael Phillips

You want to know more about the new World Barista Champ? Click here.

Best Aeropress Method of the World

It took a while - I don't know why - to bring our World Championship Aeropress recipe to you. But finally here it comes.

Again a look at the preparations and the final in England.

Jeff and I were searching to get out the most of the Washed Yirgacheffe from Square Mile Roasters.
After hours and hours of experimenting and tasting we come up with the following :

Grind : One bit finer then filter. On Ditting : 4.

Water serving temperature : tough one. We trained at 80, but then competed in the finals at 82°C. Jeff thought the roast was very fresh and needed 85, but I thought that was dangerous. He went for something in the middle.

Volume of coffee : 20 grams. A classic cut for us; a lot for a 20cl drink maybe.

Then the brewing :
Before the actual brew we decided to make a blind press to heat up the plastic of the press, the cup and rinse the paper filter.

We first take the filter and filter holder off and reverse the press. 20 grams is ground in a stainless steel cup (this is non static, except for the lightest of ground!!) and we use a funnel to keep things clean.
As pouring device we went for the Buono Kettle. This allows you to pour slowly and, this way, control the blooming. We often see an uncontrolled blooming while pouring too much water too fast.
We pour the water very slow and keep on rotating the base to make sure all coffee grounds brews well. This takes about 30 seconds.

We screw on the filter and wait 60 seconds. By this time all coffee is well agitated and it's time to turn things into pressing position.

We go now for a very slow press.

After almost (another) 60 seconds we stop just before or just on the moment of the hissing sound. The last bit of water is very oily and bitter.

Get rid of the Aeropress and serve your cup.

From the 6 judges, 3 of them thought this cup was the best. 3 others pick Marie's cup. The head judge Tim V came in between to take a final decision. He thought Marie's press was a tad cleaner.
Surprise came later when I heard about her technique : 80° (served with the Buono), same semi fine grind, 16 grams of coffee and the same steeping time.
Seen the fact both recipes are very close and scored as high ; it may be seen, for this coffee, as the perfect way of getting a 'perfect' cup.

(photo by Tim Varney and also thank you Tim for the very good organisation)

Echte Columbiaanse Koffiehuizen (Dutch)

Standaard Video.
Dank u Pieter.

Caffenation House Blend Edition Summer 10

It's a while ago we said something about our main blend, the House Blend.

It's stable since a month and we're very happy about it.
For €14,00 we offer one kilo of coffee excitement.
Main component is the all mighty Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Add on equal parts of Guatemala Antigua Panchoy and a conventional Brazil. And finish off with 10% Indonesian Sulawesi Celebes Blue Toraja.

It's an espresso blend, but more then ever suitable for filter, press and iced coffee's, due to the higher percentage of Yirgacheffe.

Plenty of body (thank you Panchoy & Blue Toraja), a vibrant mid with acidity peaks and a very long finish.

The only problem we notice is in the blending.
When blended before roasting the espresso is bold, but very flat.
Blending after (individual) roasting gives the punch and details. Very big difference. We're playing with the idea of blending all bags of House Blend post roast, but this is going to weight seriously on the price.
Wait and see....

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.