HOW TO MAKE COFFEE

What's this?
Grace is teaching again. Hmmm.

LGB 2.2 with Guatemala Organico

1.  

A little change in our main blend.
The Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is a popular coffee and the mixture with our Direct Trade Colombian worked fine, but as it happened before there were small hick-ups in the shipment from origin and it takes a little while before new bags will hit the Antwerp Harbour. Therefor we needed a replacement.

It's May and so our attention was quickly going into the direction of Guatemala. We tested 3 or 4 that were available and in the price range and finally picked an Organic one. The Guatemala Finca Buenos Aires Los Marias Organico is a coffee with fine acidity - not so common upon Guatemala's - and good body - typical. As a SOE (single origin espresso) we think it has its limitations, but blended with the Colombia Tolima El Meridiano we have a taste that makes us dream. Full power, very good mouthfeel and body, chocolate and liquorice!
 Our 2.1 was totally to my liking as a double ristretto (3cl), but lacking something as doppio espresso (5cl). On this last department we made some progress I think.

A bit more about the bean :
ORIGIN : Guatemala , department Santa Rosa, mainly Barbarena. ( South of Guatemala City)
ICO COUNTRY CODE : 11
BOTANICAL VARIETY : Arabica , “ Bourbon “ & “ Typica”.
PRODUCTION AREA: production on 1600/1700 meters altitude.
SIZE : screen 16 up ( diameter in mm : +6.35)
CUP : good body, medium to good acidity.
TASTE : clean cup.
COLOUR : greenish/ blueish

The Federation Fedecocagua which has been shipping the coffee is relatively new to us, but not to the traders here in Antwerp as 25% of their export goes to Belgium.

FEDECOCAGUA is a second-level co-operative founded in 1969 to improve the position of small-scale coffee growers. It is the umbrella organisation for 19,354 coffee farmers belonging to 37 affiliated farmers’ organisations. FEDECOCAGUA provides a range of services including access to a credit scheme, technical support, transport, warehousing, and the purchase, processing and export of members’ coffee beans. This commercialisation of coffee production means the farmers receive higher prices than when they had to sell to middlemen. An organic conversion programme has also been established.

FEDECOCAGUA members, 70% of whom are indigenous people, are spread over different regions of Guatemala including Huehuetenango, Cobán, Verapaces, Retalhuleu, San Marcos, and Zacapa.. These rural areas are characterised by difficult economic conditions and poor infrastructure, particularly roads, electricity, communication, health, and education.

KeepCup Morning

Beautiful vid. These Keep Cups are now for sale at our Take Out Nation on Hopland. €10 for the 8oz and €12 for the 11oz, first drink for free.

Wifi

At Caffenation Hopland we had to stop the wireless internet because more and more people were occupying tables for hours and hours. On itself not the biggest of problems as long as the 'regular' and 'not-so-slow' clients still had a seat to sit on.
But once you end up in situations were your Barista's don't have a job while they want to serve someone a cup of coffee, but can't because there's no seating - the internet surfers are taking those, remember....?

Today at 'This is London' an interesting read on this subject.
Click this.

Today at our new bar - Nationale Bank - we have, again, more seats to sit on and the WIFI is on the to-do list. At least the internet company has this planned, but is very sloooooooow.

Pick Your Filter (Dutch)

Pick your Filter :
Al jaren droomde ik er van om mensen die Filter/Press koffie komen kopen of drinken, deze eerst te laten proeven alvorens ze tot een beslissing over gaan.
En in onze bar bij de Nationale bank hebben we dit nu voor mekaar gekregen.
De Bunn ICB is een schitterende machine die heel stabiel uiterst smakelijke koffie's brouwt.
Deze worden dan in super isolerende aftapcontainers gedaan en staan in de shop klaar om door u gebruikt te worden.
Vanzelfsprekend helpen wij graag een handje, maar voel je vrij om zelf een mok in de hand te nemen en de proef op de som te nemen.

















Caffenation filterkoffie - er is keuze uit 3 smaken - is een quality-time-drink waar je minstens een kwartier van kunt genieten.
Een kop van 25 cl kost €2,5 en een refill slechts €1,5!

Pakjes van 250 gram bonen kosten tussen de €4 en €6,5.

Federal Reserve Caffenation

Yes we moved. Well, not totally. The small room on the right hand side of the entrance at Hopland 46 is still ours. We call it Take Out Nation and it's the smallest espresso bar in town.
Opening hours : weekdays 8.30 till 17h. Saturday 9 till 17h.

The main bar is now located along the Federal Reserve on the Mechelsesteenweg number 16!
It's now our head quarters and the biggest specialty coffee bar in town.
Opening hours : weekday 8.30 till 18.30h. Saturday 9 till 19h. Closed on Sundays and bank holidays.

The first days were a blast. Very busy and lots of positive reactions.
We welcome you to test the latest filter roasts. All for free at the shop on the ground level.
Or see what our new espresso machine, the La Marzocco Mistral is brewing for you.