Obsessive passion turned into memories

Collecting various espresso cups has always been a passion of mine. Not long ago it has come to my attention that I have over 20 different styles of cups in my household. Most of the sets are stashed in cupboards but the individual cups I like to use and drink out when I make coffee at home. As you can see I have cups from almost every country I’ve been in.

Up until recently I have always liked the tulip shaped cups such as this “Café Grumpy” cup. Its all well and good as it makes the espresso visually more in quantity. I’ve always been brought up in the school of ristretto so I guess that is the reason why I have grown to like that specific shape.

After coming back to Australia I have started to appreciate the overall balance of espresso through longer extractions. These days I prefer a rounder bottom cups. If I had to pick my absolute favourite I would have to go with these 3 cups. Denesi, Mauro and Caffe D’Arte. Denesi make there own shape and use a generic cup manufacturer; the cup is very unique as it closes in on the top allowing you to swirl the espresso in the cup, a little like wine. It is also great as the fumes come up to the rim allowing you to enjoy the fine smells.

The other two designs are also “round bottom” cups but have really thick walls. I really love the thermal aspect as well as the feel on the lips. The MAURO cups are ACF, but from what I hear they have turned their production to a much cheaper chinese manufacturer, which in a way is a real shame as they are of much lesser quality and have various defect on almost every cup. Last but not least is Caffe D’Arte cup made by Nuova Point, I use this same cup for all my barista competitions, they make them in plain white as well as brown. I love this cup for a reason that it is extremely wide and you can really swirl the espresso around to get an overall balance throughout the cup, it feels heavy in the hand and is all so pleasant to drink out of.

I believe that the right cup is an essential for serious espresso drinking. I’ve been playing around with all these cups to see if the way coffee falls into the cup and the way it mixes in the bottom effects taste, but have yet to document my progress; at this stage it looks like the rounded bottom cups provide less obstruction and smoother fall for the first drips, opposed to cups that have a dimple in the bottom of the cup. I believe that first drops are the most important part of extraction and definitely worth further investigation.

Auckland Espresso Run

visited: march 2008

Having spent almost 2 days in Auckland I had a great deal of time to visit most of the coffee shops on my list and meet great people along the way. I got a really interesting impression about Auckland’s coffee culture. It seem to me that the majority of speciality coffee shops are one way or another are linked to Allpress Espresso company. The company supplies LaMarzocco and Synesso into the country, so even if you are not using their coffee you are forced to get a LaMarzocco or Synesso equipment from them. Here is my espresso run …

MOJO (205-209 Queen St) was my favourite out of a whole bunch of places. It is very central and is located on the lobby floor of National Bank building. They occupy a very spacious open area with a lot of natural sunlight. As they are in the lobby of a busy building it creates a very unique atmosphere. There are plenty of seats around, but I would imagine that they do a whole deal of take-aways. As they are in an office building all the customers are regulars and I really like that.

The coffee side of things were just flawless. They have a synesso running a double shot into the cup every time. They roast their own coffee in Wellington. The staff are very knowledgeable and are well trained. One of New Zealands best baristas Tafa works there, he has placed 4th in the country last year and is hoping to do better this year so I wish him all the very best.

You absolutely must visit MOJO it is a very special place with fantastic coffee.

An absolute gem of a find is a small espresso bar called Ben (57 Fort St). Ironically the owners name is Ben, he also happens to be a roster. He roasts in-house on a small diedrich roaster that is neatly place near the windows. They have a synesso machine and as well as MOJO pull a double shot. Ben’s coffee is much more different in flavours, more delicate and smooth. I thoroughly enjoyed the overall balance of the espresso. I was highly impressed by this espresso bar and would definitely recommend it.

I absolutely must credit Ben for his amazing creations, this ideal espresso bar has everything a good coffee shop should have. I also love the fact that he is an independent roaster and that gives him freedom to express his own skills and ideas in his coffee.





I don’t often stumble across a good coffee shop but this one was my first coffee of the day a place just around the corner from my hotel. Elliott Stables (Elliot street alley) I walked in to have a coffee there because I saw a LaMarzocco machine. They use allpress coffee. I never really liked the taste of commercial air roasted coffees but this was relatively good. Not sure which allpress blend they were using but it was very smooth and sweet, it did lack a lot of body though.

Centre of Gravity (11 Mayoral Dve) This coffee shop and training centre is located underground. A very interesting tunnel like corridor bar. There is absolutely no sunlight in there so it will be a nightmare place to work in. On top of things there is no air conditioning and it gets ridiculously hot in there. There was hardly anyone in there around lunchtime and I doubt that it ever gets busy, just because it is not very appealing to be relaxing in a bunker, however they stress that they are mostly a training facility rather than an espresso bar. They roast their coffee in wellington (I think). The coffee was pretty average but never the less drinkable. I recommend going there just to check out the space.

Caffetteria Allpress (Adelaide St, Freemans Bay) I was expecting great things out of this particular place. They are attached to the roastery and are absolutely pumped with the best equipment possible. Not to mention the interior or the shop, luscious space with long benches a real great environment to work in for any barista. It did lack a lot of natural sunlight and it feels really dusk and depressing inside. They also have a relatively big outside space and on a sunny day everyone was enjoying their coffee outside.

To my huge anticipation of an amazing cup of coffee I got an absolute abomination of an espresso shot. It was very long (40ml) over extracted and carried a lot of bitter and unpleasant sour notes. The texture was very dusty and almost grainy. I really didn’t enjoy it at all.
From a “showcase, display” espresso bar I was expecting to get the best of Allpress offerings instead my hopes were shattered.

I've included a picture from my rostery tour. Here is the Allpress air roaster.

Atomic Coffee Roasters (420C New North Road, Kingsland) These guys carry a lot of history behind them. They were the pioneer rosters a few years back. At the rostery they have an attached espresso bar, so you can actually see through the window and watch the roastmasted do his thing. Big glass windows separate the roastery and espresso bar. The whole place is really bright and has a great feel about it. They use an SM machine and a mazzer grinder. Despite their reputation and pioneer work in the past my espresso was very bad. Although the length of espresso was sufficient the coffee tasted very dusty and dirty. I think they haven’t cleaned the machine for a long time, on the picture you might be able to notice milk crust on the steamwand, and that for me is not a very good sign. I was not impressed at all. I am sorry to say, but you can save your time and effort catching a train to Kingsland because it was not worth it.

New Zealand scene is very advanced in its own right, far beyond anything we have here in Australia. A lot of coffee roasters that are doing the right thing and the specialty coffee market is very competitive. Still there is a dominant roaster Allpress that people know and trust the logo. As allpress are distributors of LM machines in New Zealand they sell them for a good price to all of their clients and as they hold a lot of business around town it is not rare to see these brand new LM machiens in many coffee shops. I went to few other cafes that use allpress coffee, naturally have amazing machinery and great potential to make a good coffee but the knowledge behind the machine simply wasn’t there. The coffee was bellow standard and those shops are not worth mentioning. As the saying goes … the coffee is only as good as the barista.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to visit Altura coffee and meet Chris White. As many of you know Carl Sara 3rd world barista in 2007 had his coffee roasted by Altura. I definitely recommend going there. It is a little out of town and not very easy to get to.

Christchurch and Wellington Espresso Run

visited: march 2008

I apologise for not keeping up to date with my blog, to be perfectly honest nothing exciting or thrilling is happening in my life at the moment, so my espresso runs are a very rare occasion these days, however over Easter I visited New Zealand and had an opportunity to drop past few coffee shops. Here is a quick rundown of places in Christchurch and Wellington.

Christchurch

There are few places that I’ve heard of, however all but one were closed due to Easter holidays.

I ended up going to C1 Espresso (150 High Street) , this unorthodox espresso bar offered a very rewarding experience. They pull a double ristretto into a funky heavy glass. The coffee itself was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sitting among Japanese cartoons that are pasted on walls was very interesting. They also have a small space for a DJ, yet another very interesting concept that they integrated into their space. They even have a bazaar sowing machine that will poor your water (you have to see it to believe it).

C1 is an absolute must to visit.

I would like to mention others that I didn’t get a chance to visit as they were closed, but feel that they are definitely worth visiting.

Vivace espresso bar (86 Hereford Street)
Underground Roastery (803 Colombo St)

Wellington

Same story as Christchurch, all the places are closed on public holidays apart from one.

Caffe Astoria (159 Lambton Quay) is located at the bottom of a big Vodafone building. A well established café with 2 WEGA machines. Inside the shop they have a small Italian made Vittoria roaster. They only do one blend and do a pretty solid job. I thought that the coffee was very good however I could sense few defects like chalkiness, might be due to long roast time or something to do with the roaster not very sure. Never the less I do recommend visiting them, you will get a decent shot of espresso.

Other places to look out for:

Lafare (27 College St)
Mojo (23 kent terrace)

Old vs New

After getting back home I made a discovery. In my kitchen cupboard I found a sealed bag of CIBO blend coffee that was roasted on the 24th of December 2006. This bag of coffee has been aging for approximately one year. So I decided to compare it to a freshly roasted CIBO blend. The aim here is to see how much of a difference there will be in the flavour profile between old and new bags.

I have put both coffees thought the plunger simultaneously. The visual appearance between the two wasn’t so noticeable. Perhaps the aged coffee didn’t bloom as much, but like I mentioned only a slight difference.
After 4 minutes I broke the crust and sensed the immediate difference. The aged coffee was much sharper in smell, at this stage very hard to pin point main aromas.
Here are my tasting notes:

Old:
Smell: Hints of rubber, wet cardboard
Taste: unpleasant overpowering stale feel and taste
Wet grounds smell: yeasty



New:
Smell: Caramel candy
Tate: Sweet, distinct dark chocolate
Wet grounds smell: Freshly sliced cucumber

Newly roasted coffee was very flavoursome in the cup where the aged coffee was overpowered by stale taste and aroma. No matter how well the coffee is sealed it will lose its character after a period of time ... someone please forward this post to illy.

I didn’t expect a different result, once again I have proven to myself that coffee is all about freshness.

Hong Kong Espresso Run

visited 1/12/07

Considering that population of Hong Kong is almost 7 million people compacted in 1,104 km² of space, a quality coffee shop is extremely hard to come by. Big chain companies such as sturbucks dominate the coffee market and is extremely popular among the locals. Despite this sad factor there are just a few coffee shops that are worthy of mentioning.

My favourite Zambra café (G/F., 239 Jaffe Road, Wanchai) it is located on Hong Kong island and is convenient to walk to from Wan Chai ferry or Wan Chai metro station. They have another location close to this shop, however I’ve been told that it is not as good as this one, so I never got a chance to go there, the address is: 13 O'Brien Road Wanchai

The owner of the shop is a New Zelander so you are guaranteed to find few surprises on the shelves. They have a large variety of pastries and healthy lunches. I had a meat pie for lunch, I must say that the quality of the pie was rubbish and I don’t recommend it to anyone. They occupy a large space – downstairs and a large upstairs area, clean cut interior. The best thing about this place is that it is on the courner so it gets a lot of sunlight coming in and believe me among all the monster buildings that is indeed a rare treat anywhere in Hong Kong.

On the bar you will find a LaMarzocco FB70 machine with a couple of Mazzer grinders. They pull a decent shot of espresso. The coffee is rosted in their own facility, I believe that they have a Probat roaster and roast for both of their stores. The baristas are knowledgeable and are very friendly. I made friends with a really cool guy El, he is really into his latte art and can do swans and all sorts …

I strongly recommend this shop as it is the only thing to good espresso in Hong Kong.

The only other espresso bar that is worth mentioning would be Crema Coffee (67 Mody Road, Shop G36 Peninsula Centre, Tsim Sha Shui East) A very tiny coffee shop in a relatively busy area. These guys have a LaMarzocco Linea with a mazzer grinder. They cook some lunch foods such as pastas and fresh sandwiches so it does get busy around lunch, I recommend going there before lunch or after.


They roast in house on a small microwave oven like roaster. I am pretty sure that it is an electric drum roaster and it is made in Korea. The roast itself is very dark so it is hardly impossible to taste any fine flavours. The coffee itself was overextracted, toasty and dusty in texture.

As the shop itself is not very big I felt like a lonely sardine in a can with vast amounts of people trying to cramp in for a take-away cup of coffee.

I think Hong Kong coffee market will keep progressing and there will be more and more specilised coffee shops in the nearest future. Paul Pratt is doing a great job with supplying Marzocco equipment and he has just started roasting so hopefully sooner or later there will be an overall higher standard of espresso in Hong Kong, until that day …

Visiting Paul Pratt in Hong Kong

visited 7/12/07

First and foremost I would like to apologies for long absence from my blog. I am back in Adelaide now after my fantastic Asian travels I have a few posts to catch up on so please keep checking back. In this particular blog I would love to share my Hong Kong experiences. Whilst in Hong Kong I had a chance to visit few espresso bars as well as Mr. Paul Pratt at Just Java.

As many of you know Paul is the man behind bumper tools, I personally used some bumper gear back in the days, especially the tamping stand. Paul has a very creative mind when it comes to coffee tools. Everything that they make gets assembled in their workshop they even polish and refine each and every tamper handle. I got a little insight on future products, one in particular caught my eye: bottomless knockbox that comes up above the counter. A very practical and clean idea as the waste goes straight into the bin.

Behind Paul’s creative mind is a serious mind of espresso machine collector. Paul is world known for restoring vintage espresso machines, he even keeps a webpage. Here is one of his recent projects the infamous Faema E61 a real eye-candy to say the least and I got to see it first hand. The amount of effort that went into restoring this machine really is unbelievable, you can read all about it in Paul’s two part documented posts on coffeegeek.

Paul is also a very big collector of LaMarzocco machines so he has a few restored vintage machines around the place. Some of the machines are plugged in and are in frequent use, I even got a chance to play around on the original GS1, we pulled some decent shots. Also got to play around with few LaMarzocco lever machines.

I must say that visiting Paul and seeing his collection was possibly the best thing I have done in Hong Kong.

On top of bumper and restoring machines, Paul also keeps busy with roasting coffee as a boutique coffee roaster on his Probat roaster with crazy indoor exhaust filtration system, it allows him to roast indoors without pipes running out of the window.

I would like to thank Paul for fantastic tour of his facility. It is amazing to see people like Paul pushing the coffee industry to another level, very inspiring!

Copenhagen Espresso Run

visited 29/11/07

I have spent the most amazing days in København. I’ve been treated to an incredible welcome by Klaus and Troels. They told me all the worthy places to visit in town so in my spare time I ran around doing my espresso runs. Here is my take …

The Coffee Collective (Jægersborggade 10) [edited 29/06/08] Is one of the leading and most progressive espresso bars in the world.


Without a question Estate Coffee (Gammel Kongevej 1) is the best espresso bar for quality coffee. They are the only bar in Copenhagen that has a clover. A vast selection of premium single origins is an outstanding way to try something different every day of the week. The clover is tuned nicely, giving maximum flavours into the cup. The espresso was outstanding also, very complex with light acidic and sweet notes and great mouthfeel.

There is much to love about this place especially the coffee, the atmosphere inside is not very welcoming, the staff have been a little distant on few occasions, but if you walk in on the right day you might find your overall experience complete. An absolute must to visit!

Café Europa (Amagertorv 1) stood out also, this café is more about the feel. Old rich heritage of this place really reflects in the interior. The food was fantastic, we had a massive antipasto breakfast with just about everything you could think of on the plate. The coffee was great also and really completed the overall picture. These guys have a very strict theme and are much more serious and professional than Estate. The location is very central so you can't miss it, highly recommend going here. These guys raised 3 out of 4 world barista champions. They are very proud of that fact and display all the trophies above the bar. If you end up going to Europa try their brunch it is outstanding!

Here is a place that deserves a lot of credit for its espresso … Kaffe & Vinyl (Skydebanegade 4) is a cool vintage record shop with a coffee machine. They use estate coffee and pull a double shot every time. The espresso was outstanding. You must make a trip over to them, trust me you will like it.




Risteriet (Studiestræde 36) is a well worthy bar also, they roast their own coffee. The espresso wasn’t all that great unfortunately. Inside the shop you will find the whole range of reg barber tampers so if you are in the market for one, this is the place to see them.





Riccos (Studiestræde 24) – just next door to Risteriet this underground espresso bar doesn’t really offer anything unique but a cool place to go and see, do not have a high expectation to get a decent espresso shot.

Copenhagen espresso run has bee a lot of fun, it is good to see a very high standard of coffee from some of the shops. This is the city that always moves forward and never moves back, it is outstanding to see coffee collective entering the scene, it’s the matter of time before they sign on experienced clients. Unfortunately at this stage there are not many cafes that offer their espresso blend, but like I said its just a matter of time.

Denmark - Country of Barista Champions

As many of you know Denmark has had 4 world barista champions, this factor alone immediately indicates a very high standard of coffee quality. I would like to talk about certain barista champions and what they are up to these days ..

It is really good to see that all past barista champions from Denmark are still involved in the coffee industry.

Martin Hildebrandt (Miami, 2001), I had the opportunity to meet one of the pioneers in barista competition world. He is currently busy managing Europa café, which is located in the heart of Copenhagen. An outstanding espresso bar that raised three World Barista Champions.

Fritz Storm (Oslo, 2002) – I didn’t have the opportunity to catch up with Fritz this time, as he doesn’t live in Copenhagen, he is very busy and involved with lots of trade shows and general barista education.







Troels Poulsen (Seattle, 2005) – Very much involved with Kontra coffee today, Troels is in charge of barista education at Kontra coffee. Troels gave me a very detailed tour of europa café, we got to catch up and talk a lot about coffee. I cannot express how genuinely nice he is. After our little europa experience we ended up at Kontra rostery. I must say that the space that they have is amazing. They occupy 2 levels of space. On the first level you will find anything from domestic single group espresso machines to the most professional toys in the coffee business. On that same level; a big probat roster with a nice cupping room at the back of the facility. Downstairs is mostly education with a nice room with a projector screen and seating as well as few different espresso machines (da la corte and la marzocco). Further down the hall you will find a spacious storage facility with spare parts and miscellaneous wares. This rostery is backed by the owners of europa, a very successful roastery. The roastmaster is Michael a very knowledgeable roaster, on top of things a great gentlemen.

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting kontra coffee rostery, it is good to see that Troels is heavily involved in the coffee industry and doing to great things in barista education and marketing for Kontra . Kontra it is also a shop; you can easily visit their roasting facility without booking an appointment.

Klaus Thomsen (Berne, 2006) – now part owner of coffee collective coffee rosting company. Him and 3 other guys have joined forces to open a pioneer rostery in copnhagen. They all came from estate coffee so have a very high standard in anything and everything. I can without a doubt say that they are one of leading rosters in the industry. These guys are perfectionists in just about everything that they do, very involved in research. I couldn’t help to compare their philosophies to what Tim Wendelboe’s doing in Oslo. The coffee is fantastic, they are not getting ahead of themselves, they only roast few different coffees and absolutely perfect each and every one! You can see their selection on the website. The other great thing is that they try to use direct trade. They are very active in traveling the world in search of best plantations and keep a blog about their ventures, you must check it out. I received very generous welcome from Klaus and the crew. If you are in town in the neat future, you must check this place out as it offers an unforgettable and rewarding experience. As you know we did water cupping at the rostery, feel free to check out my previous post…

This blog turned into my experiences at Coffee Collective and Kontra, unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to go to Estate Coffee rostery, but I do hear amazing things about it so if you have time I strongly recommend visiting them too.

Malmö – Sweden Espresso Run

visited 29/11/07

Having spent a lovely afternoon in Helsingborg I was on my way to Malmö which is way south of Sweden. It is roughly 40 minutes away from Copenhagen and the train is connected via a long bridge. Mr Dan Stenqvist was expecting my visit and had already planed out our espresso run for the evening. We went to all worthy espresso bars around town and finished off with a little coffee jam at Solde kaffebar where Dan works. So here is my take on Malmö.

Solde Kaffebar (Regementsgatan 2) was my favourite out of the bunch, we went there last. They employ a very fun, casual approach. Inside there is plenty of space to move around however they keep seating limited, a real traditional corner bar design with high stools. This café changes their house blend once a month. In a way that is a great way to keep regular customers coming back and giving them the opportunity to try different espresso blends and educate their palate. They are very open towards different coffee and do occasionally get traditional Italian blends with robusta portions. The coffee still needs to pass the owners quality examination, so they don’t end up serving complete rubbish for a whole month. I think that this system takes a lot away from the overall consistency of the shop throughout the year, but I will let you make your own mind up. At the end of they year the customers get to vote on which coffee they liked best. Last year David Haugaards blend was the winner, I think they even sent him a trophy.

Right now they are using J&N FTO espresso blend, I am very much familiar with this blend as I got to play around with it few times in Stockholm. I must saw that shots in Malmö tasted completely different; nowhere as good as Stockholm. They are aware of this fact and blame the water I think they need to look into few different filtration systems, perhaps “Water + More” filter would work well.

At the end of the day we had some time to have a little coffee jam and pull some shots, we tried the KOPPI espresso blend that I brought along from Helsingborg. Once again the shots were vastly different. The complex acidity that was very distinct in Helsingbord was hardly noticeable. Again, water is an easy target to blame here.

Lilla Kafferosteriet (Baltzarsgatan 24a) – a very interesting concept espresso bar with a micro-rostery. They are the only espresso bar with a 3 group synesso machine in the whole of Sweden. They also have a very dirty probat roaster, you could see that the cooling trey isn’t cleaned properly as well as various other unclean elements. I want to give theses guys credit for doing what they do as they offer a nice selection of premium single origins and 2 espresso blends. The shots that Dan and I got were extremely hot and burnt my tongue. That machine needs proper temperature tuning! There is absolutely no point having a synesso running at such high temperature. The shots were too hot so that might have been one of the main factors that took away from the overall taste. I found the espresso blend very boring without any striking features.

Te & kaffehuset ( Fersens väg 16) is a domestic equipment shop with a large selection of different coffees. Their primary market is in selling packed coffee. They also have a GB 5 machine that they use for their café part. A very experimental shop using different extraction methods with different coffee beans. Well worth visiting and having a chat with Mattias Sjöbäck , very enthusiastic and knowledgeable owner.

Nesta (Södergatan 22) – a very well designed espresso bar in a stellar location. This place has a very nice vibe about it. They have the best coffee equipment, however the coffee is very much lacking in just about everything. It has a very heavy dose of robusta. The coffee is imported from Italy so freshness could be an issue also. This is the kinda place where you go with your friends to just sit down and chill, not for the coffee unfortunately.

Malmö is a very interesting town with plenty of quality espresso bars that are very capable of pulling good coffee however at the end of the day espresso part of things didn’t really strike me. The main issue here would have to be the water, I think they have to start looking into water science a little further. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dan for his kind hospitality … thanks man!