コーヒーを淹 Robot Barista

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Barista Jam June 21

This one again was a so-called non professional one, although 3 new Caffenation clients sent over some rookie Barista's. An evening like this feels like the best introduction into our wonderful wonderful world.

First part was the same as always. An overview on Arabica varietals and origins, to finish off with some cupping. Besides of three very different tasting beans we also had a market leader coffee from Sara Lee. Unfortunately for SL some people were angry at me to have them tasting this, not so pleasant, 'factory' coffee. And angry at Sara Lee since they feel like they've been fooled for ages. I understand.

Second part was Roeland experimenting with all different ingredients. Like making improvised signature drinks. Katrien and I couldn't believe our eyes how fluently he mixed up all ingredients (14 in total) with 3 different coffee bases. A remarkable performance for a try out!!

Then extraction and espresso theory, to finish with a Latte Art demonstration by Katrien, who's these days swinging her arms into all possible directions to end up with perfect rosetta's.

Q&A and time to go home after 2 and a half hours of 'coffee class'. New Jam in September. And an advanced Jam - also for pro's - in October after the champion ships. Promised!

(all photo's by Keefe C.)

WEHTMMM

WEHTMMM runs from 8th July to 30th September 2009 at Caffenation Hopland, and is a project by Keefe Cordeiro.

Poor Mans' Clover

Poor mans' Clover, or the AeroPress.
I don't really know what took me so long, but finally Has Bean Steve shipped over a AeroPress Coffee Brewer.

Probably the Tim Wendelboe post about the Aero Press world championships was the final push I needed. Before some of my most fanatic clients tried to get me into it, but I had still so many other brewing systems to discover and master...

Anyway, it all arrived on Tuesday and only by Saturday I did my first brew.
Directly my taste buds were attacked with a very full taste. The coffee had very good body and stronger then expected. That was just a Daterra (Sweet Collection) cup, which is, by the way, our Roast of the Week.
The second was with the same (basic) technique and an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Flabergasted. That's what Michael Phillips wanted the judges to be at the WBC in Atlanta. We were Saturday with our second AeroPress brew. Very rich, fruity and long lasting cup of coffee, best to be compared with a Clover cup, more than with an espresso machine.
Now I understand why Tim sold his Clover.

I noticed the system prefers lighter roasts, which is sometimes a problem since we do not roast that light.
Although I often read and heard the AeroPress is keeping the bitters low, I had more bitters in the cup with this system then with filter brews. It balanced more towards a +5 minutes press or Eva Solo. Even in the after taste I do notice good bitters. But the intensity and flavor harmony does remind me very strong at the Clovers I had before - 2 at Estate and 1 at Grumpy.

A big huray for the AeroPress. I think it's even time to organise a new Barista Jam soon in which this system can be highlighted.

To finish a quick link with brewing advise from the world masters Jensen, Kaminsky and Juras. The first two seem to be a bit more technical and complicated with Lukasz his system closest to mines. Unfortunately I can't find nothing but stupid video's online.

I hope I can post you soon the way we think it's easy and good to work with this 'machine'.

For those interested in buying one ; you can click here(GB) or here(NL). Maybe it's a good idea in the future to stock some at Caffenation. I'll keep you informed.

POST 500

For once I'm sitting down with pen and paper, Rocky's notebook. She won't mind. Like so often midweeks, she's in her bedroom dreaming the sweetest dreams, while I'm blogging.
And today I'm looking back at 16 months of caffenation dot blogspot dot com.

500 posts!! I still can't believe.
When I started the blog, I hardly knew what a blog was. And I was asking myself : An online diary? Why would I keep a diary? A coffee diary? What do I have to say? What could be interesting enough? What isn't on the web yet?

Then I thought about Jeroen Veldkamp and his Dutch Barista blog. Written in English but very instructive for the Dutch (and Belgian) coffee community.
Since there wasn't anything like that in Antwerp or Belgium I decided to call it Antwerp Barista.
It sounded nice, even though I'm not a full time Barista. But my job and wide intrests seemed to be an advantage to keep the blog divers. I do cupping, green beans outsourcing, roasting control, planting coffee, managing of espresso bars, Barista training, competition at championships, organisation of Barista jams, consulting starters in coffee or coffee related businesses, etc....
However I still wondered what exactly to write about?
I listed some idea's I wanted to write about and ended up with 18. That seemed to be enough.
And from 18 I went to 100 and James Hoffmann's world title. And quickly I had 200 articles - a Daterra info post. In those days half of them were more copy-paste articles then real (personal) articles, but I felt myself some kind of coffee reporter and I kept on going.
Today 500 posts, one way or another all about the, or should I say 'my', coffee world.

Since that first day in February 2007, I've visited plenty of coffee company's, traders, coffee farmers, Barista champs, home Barista's, espresso bars, big (coffee) city's, coffee fares and so on. Not every visit was that interesting, and for sure not all blog posts were interesting, but in one way or another it felt ok for me to write about it. And via that way, bit by bit, I helped to improve coffee knowledge and increase the coffee level in the Antwerp and Flanders area and even further. Yes, bit my bit, I also made myself known to the wide coffee world.

Today I'm still anxious and excited to attack new championships (Köln is waiting), new coffee's (the Daterra Sweet Collection just arrived), new brewing techniques (the new aero press is waiting to be tested), new coffee lovers (every day again) and so much more. All things to read about soon on Antwerp Barista.

Finally I hope that my Dutch speaking friends/readers are not too offended by the (poor) English writing. I hope they understand 50% of the readers not master my mother language. And I also hope they understand that one of the best things in this 3rd wave coffee world is the fact that it's all about coffee. One big coffee world without borders, with lots of fun, love and friendship and an ongoing open communication. We're all here to spread the word aren't we?

Y'all ready for another 500, or more?
I am.

Lots of love,
and good coffee,
Rob,
your Antwerp Barista.

The Mailman Always Delivers

With the NBA finals over and Kobe winning his fourth ring (and Didier his first), I have to think back at one of the greatest players ever without a championship ring ; Karl Malone, the man who always delivered.

In our profession we have our daily routines. And sometimes it's hard to keep on delivering. A couple hundreds of arty cappuccino's a day. Hundreds of great espresso's. Perfect etching and all the time make sure the client has a good time.

I was happy to see I was still able to deliver last week in a small latte art throw down against Bert and Dieter, although the last one was definitely under achieving, he normally is outstanding.