The Coffee Collective

visited: 21/06/08

I would like to make a very important addition to my previous “Copenhagen Espresso Run” blog post.

Since my last visit The Coffee Collective (Jægersborggade 10) have opened a new roastery/café in the suburbs. This espresso bar is an absolute asset and must be visited by everyone. Peter, Klaus, Casper and Linus do all the right things and they do them so damn well! They strive to achieve a lot of balance in their complex and well thought out espresso blend and nail the shots every time. During my Copenhagen stay their espresso was the best, hands down and experience was priceless.

This new sight has topped my Copenhagen Espresso Run chart.

Wonderful Coffee Pics

I finally have some time to post all the pictures from Wonderful Coffee 08 … much to write about in upcoming weeks, so keep reporting back .

Wonderful Coffee Copenhagen 08 sets:

Set 1
Set 2
Set 3
Grand Barista Party

I haven't had a chance to look for other photos on the internet so if you know of other galleries or are willing to share yours feel welcome to post a comment with the attached link.

It was great meeting everyone, hope to see you all again soon ... enjoy the photos!

Amsterdam Espresso Run

visited: 16/06/08

I am back in Europe to continue my coffee journeys, so expect few more espresso runs. My first journey has brought me to Amsterdam, a beautiful city full of rich history and amazing architecture. There are tons of “Coffee Shops” here, but do not be mislead as they sell weed rather than coffee. Good coffee is hard to come by, but never the less, after doing my homework I have found few gems around the city.

My favourite espresso was at a very small and intimate espresso bar called Coffee Connection (Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 33) not far from the central station in a great location. It’s a one-man governed shop, so the social interaction feel with the barista is great. David, the man behind the machine is always keen to talk coffee and takes pride in what he does. The coffee is roasted locally in Amsterdam by a lady, that use to own the coffee shop prior to David. It’s a full city roast of Arabica coffee. David has a La Marzocco Linea that he takes good care of and cleans regularly. He grinds his coffee on demand every time. Espresso was very rich with no complexity due to its roast profile but never the less had a great amount of crema and a lingering chocolaty aftertaste. The good thing about this espresso bar is the consistency as only David handles the coffee machine and on both occasions my coffee was exactly the same.
The place itself is not very big, but they have a cosy little upstairs sitting area with a great view over a busy street. A pet cat also resides in the building keeping the mice out. You might bump into her upstairs, as the wooden bench seem to be her favourite resting place.

The Coffee Salon is an amazing espresso bar with an absolute eye candy of a machine facing out onto a street. The main focus of the whole place is that Kees van der Westen design mistral. As you can see on the picture it is a piston machine giving it a very manual modern look.

I was thoroughly disappointed with the coffee. They use falombini coffee beans from Italy, which are simply not fresh. A dose of nasty robusta was very distinct, giving the coffee a rough edge that I wasn’t very fond of.

They occupy a very large space and have a great feel inside with very alternative art around the place. They also attract a much younger crowd. This espresso bar has a very good potential to make outstanding coffee, but at the moment they are lacking in many departments. I recommend going there just to see that amazing coffee machine, it will blow your socks off! I really wanted to get my hands on it.

Brandmeester (Van Baerkestraat 13) is a very interesting espresso bar with rostery as well as a big showroom full of espresso machines and interesting coffee gadgets. A very nice open space with different coffees on offer for purchase. In the far courner of the shop you have a very clean probat roaster. I didn’t get to meet the roastmaster but from the look of the roaster they take good care of the roasting side of things.
The coffee itself wasn’t all that great, very overextracted and pale. The barista had no knowledge of how to pull a decent espresso shot. The cup was very bitter and burnt, I don’t think that their faema machine is tuned well.

There is a chain of coffee shops called the coffee company, it is not worth your time and I recommend avoiding them if possible. I think they are best described as Dutch answer to starbucks. They do carry beautiful Kees van der Westen machines so feel free to have a look at them through the window.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Amsterdam and definitely hope that the coffee scene will improve over next few years. I was amazed at how many Kees van der Westen machines there are in small coffee shops around the city. I had an opportunity to meet up with one of the great coffee historians and collectors Robert Vriesendorp. He has an amazing collection of vac pots and various coffee brewers. I recommend checking out his website. He roasts his own coffee and to be perfectly honest the best espresso in Amsterdam that I had was at his house, it truly was spectacular. Next time you are in Amsterdam drop him an email and he will update you on the current scene. Robert has great knowledge about coffee and is a very inspiring individual.

Smoking coffee chaff

As the coffee roasts and expands in the roaster, it emits a particulate matter which is discarded thorough the ventilation. Of cause I am talking about the coffee chaff , roasters often collect it into a waste bucket or simply let it float out of the window. It seems like a waste but perhaps it isn’t?

On the weekend I have tried smoking the chaff (YES, SMOKING). This cigarette was rolled up exactly the same as a homemade cigarette with a filter. I myself never smoke, so not exactly sure what profiles I should be looking for but it wasn’t unpleasant, very flavoursome. If you enjoy a fine cigar than you might find this interesting. I found that the smoke carried out a light coffee note as well as dried straw and grassy taste. I didn’t feel any side effects, but I only took a couple of puffs. You might get a little dizzy if you smoke a whole one but don’t quote me on this. I am not exactly sure about any other side effects so if you decide to try it, you may do so at your own risk.

I don’t hope to spark some freaky phase here, wouldn’t want roasters rolling “Dat fine Columbian shit …” during roasts!
Care to feedback or even give it a shot yourself?

Esmeralda Special 2008 Ends

As expected the early harvest batches have sold for a very high price. Batch 2 got extra attention from the bidders selling for $105.25 USD per pound. The winner with the most ambitions was Stumptown. As a matter of fact they ended up buying first tree batches including 6 bags of peaberry. All together they spent $135,372 USD for 680 kg of coffee.

I question if this great coffee worth all this money, it probably isn’t! For Stumptown it is a gesture to show off in the market and flash their cash among the public and competitors. Is that doing any good in the speciality coffee industry? I certainly don’t think so. I am glad that Intelligentsia didn’t bid big, they certainly have the money and have no need to be buying reputation points. They only got 6 bags of Jaramillo and pulled out of the peaberry auction. I guess this coffee will be treated for pure pleasure, it is certainly not enough to go around Midwest.

Enhancing the spice

This week I’m concentrating on enhancing certain elements and aspects in the espresso. Apart from the most obvious characteristics such as sweetness and acidity which are found in many full-bodied coffees; I often get hints of spice that linger at the back of the throat. In many ways you could associate spice as aftertaste as it is a lingering sensation, so I wanted it to come through as more distinctive initial taste.

First thing that came to mind was pepper sauce, so without hesitation I dropped few drops of Tabasco in to the cup. NOT A GOOD IDEA! After drinking this combination my thought was on fire, the sauce itself is pure vinegar and this combo doesn’t work at all.

Using freshly ground pepper seemed to do a trick. You will find that black peppercorns are a little too overpowering, but white peppercorns are just right. The idea is to freshly grind a little dash of white peppercorn into the espresso cup and run the extraction over the top. The most important thing is to mix it really well to achieve the balance. I encourage you to try this and report back.

I will further continue with spice tests perhaps roasted garlic is the next big thing, I guess we just wait and see … :)

Best of Panama 2008 Ends

As expected Café Granja La Esperanza got the highest bid going for $47 USD per pound. That makes one bag worth $2,350 USD (which still is a pretty good price for what they get) ... making 5 bags worth $11,750 USD. The lucky winner was 49th parallel coffee roasters.

you can see the final results here

As you can remember last year Hacienda La Esmeralda sold for $130 per pound, that still remains to be the record.

Esmeralda Special 2008 auctions are on tomorrow, so all eyes peeled on that one. I am tipping Intelligentsia taking out most of the batches.

Best of Panama 2008 Auction

As the auction opens the bids are starting to slowly float in! This is one of the highly regarded auctions as previously green sold for a lot of green ... interesting to see who will flash the most cash this year ... wouldn't surprise me if we see bags sold at over $600

The eyes are on: Café Granja La Esperanza from Jaramillo Arriba which was voted the best geisha and scored 93.16 in the cupping.

Australian Barista Comps 2008

As many of you know, I competed in Open Heats for the Australian Barista Competition in Melbourne just past weekend. I placed 7th out of 18 people and am pretty pleased with my result.

The open heat was extremely competitive with big guns blazing for the title. In the end Con Haralambopoulos took the title, although few things went wrong and he ended up going a little over time. I am not going to cover the event in full detail as guys from cafe grindel blog have covered it in full detail but I will give some reference to the pics from the open heats.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020518&l=021e6&id=218800198

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020519&l=e7676&id=218800198

and great photography by Sydney Law http://www.thelows.org/syd/austbarcomp/

On Day 2 we had a new Australian Barista Champion, David Makin. His routine was something out of a move, simply flawless and amazing. I congratulate Dave on winning and will be cheering for him in Copenhagen. Here are some pictures from day 2.

Having seen Australia’s best in action makes you realize how much level of attention and attenuation goes into 15 minutes of competition time. I am not too sure when I will be completion next but I will be more confident and more aware of what to expect. Cant wait to watch worlds best baristas battle it out in Copenhagen.

Filtering the Crema

All this week I’ve been playing around with crema, lots of different experiments and a lot of failed results. I did however find something interesting and definitely worth mentioning. So in regards to my previous post I am still trying to eliminate crema without physically removing it with a spoon.

I’ve been trying to filter out the crema during the extraction using various filtration methods. All but one, have failed. I have found that filtering through filter paper will give a very unpleasant cardboard taste in the cup. The best filter turned out to be a single (9 gram) filter basket. Let me break it down a little bit. The espresso runs straight into the filter basket sifting through but the crema stays on top and filters out almost completely. The end result gives you the espresso liquid with slightly thin pale layer of crema (resemblant to that of aeropress). I guess the advantage of removing the crema this way is that it doesn’t mix in the cup during the initial stages of extraction.

After filtering out the crema I then compared both filtered and unfiltered espresso. This is what I found:

I am using a very sweet espresso blend rich and full of body with distinct dark chocolate notes.

Regular espresso (crema mixed in with a spoon thoroughly)
The smell carried out a subtle hint of berry and chocolate notes. The espresso was well balanced with smooth rich mouthfeel, slight bitterness and a distinct chocolate note.

Filtered Espresso
A very sharp oaky smell with hints of chocolate. Espresso was very sharp and clean with absolutely no body. Distinct taste of chocolate remained.

The conclusion that I have established indicated that the main characters of espresso (with crema) will carry out through filtration. In this instant the distinct chocolate note was very much present although the overall espresso lacked body. I personally prefer the espresso for what it is today a smooth, creamy, well balanced drink and all those aspects are tied in by ONE essential ingredient, crema. I also found that filtered espresso is good for picking out the main flavours and raw (bold) character out of the bean to more accurately describe its main taste.

Espresso without crema

Recently the coffee collective documented their experiments, they removed the crema from top of the espresso and found that the coffee is much smoother and cleaner in taste. I have been debating this issue for a long time but never had the courage to blog about it with fear of criticism. I guess this post is in eye opener for myself to push through with my controversial espresso experiments further and further. I have yet again proven to myself that there is no right or wrong when it comes to espresso, IT IS ALL ABOUT THE TASTE.

Imagine an espresso cup; a small tight space for espresso to fall into. Too often we see crema fill up more than half of the cup and hold for a long time? A perfect competition shot where crema seems to hold and hold. Now imagine this … a shallow and wide surface for espresso to fall into. The crema is now spread out along the surface and gradually starts to dissipate, a plate …

Today I have been extracting into a shallow plate, the results are staggering. I encourage you to try this. As the coffee falls onto a shallow surface the espresso evenly mixes and slowly spreads out on a plate. As a result you get a well-balanced, clean “plate” of coffee. This is definitely not a competition friendly way to serve coffee as the crema doesn’t hold at all but why would you want it to? I am proud to say that this was one of the better espresso shots I’ve had in a long while.

The way the coffee falls and mixes (especially in early stages of extraction) is absolutely vital, I will dedicate some time into exploring different surfaces for coffee to fall into and document my results.

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.