flyingthud

Yesterday was good. Admitedly I was always going to say that considering four of the five entrants from our cafe that entered, made it through to the finals. But as wella s this, the standard yesterday was considered by all judges to be an improvement on Tuesday. A lot of the competitors used the correct cups and for the most part, the shots looked and tasted a lot more WBC like. Its funny how quickly you can tell which competitors are familiar with the score sheets and who aren’t. Occasionally people aere adopting practices so weird we weren’t sure how to score them. One example was competitors dosing and packing a shot, then leaving it resting on the counter whilst preparing the next pf. I was doing tech on that incident and was suprised to find no where on the sheet that I could mark them down for it. We considered docking them marks for immeadiet insert and brewing but knew that only referred to the time locked into the group before brewing. Ultimately we figured it would be picked up in sensory and grumplily moved on.

The top score was 470, by our very own Rachael Coss. (Competitors only had to make 4 cappuccino and 4 espresso, hence the lower score.) Her precision got her tech scores of nearly all fours and her speed allowed her ample time to snatch points for clean bar at end. I was worried leading up the comp that Rachael’s nerves would get to her but on the day she just got on with it and as the results show, did great.

Next up was Victoria Fitz Henry from Butler’s Chocolate Cafe, who instead of bottling up her nerves, openly made fun of them as she prepared her drinks. Her cappuccinos stood out thanks to the strong latte art throughout despite the lack of familiarity with the Iberital machine.

Niamh Harrington of Cafe Krem in Northern Ireland, using a custom blend roasted by Copenhagen based Kontra Coffee, placed a close third. I think Niamh, as well as being the first to play music, was probably the most relaxed competitor, asking the judges how they were,and taking the most time to introduce herself and her coffee. Her set up area was also the most impressive, with long wooden serving trays, and a nice big ceramic white pouring jug.

Other competitors from the cafe to get through were Bela Zudor, Andrius Valiauga and Emily Gough. Each of these were let down in one area of their performance but excelled in another. I love seeing how bar baristas react when thrown into competition. I love how latte art really only amounts to around 24 points, leaving aside consistency and persistency of foam. The competition really is down to your coffee and how good you are at pulling good shots consistently.

On February 5th we’re having an inhouse competition in Grafton Street. We’re arranging barista magazine subscriptions, and custom reg barber tampers as prizes, as well as a €400 travel voucher. They won’t have to make signature drinks, but instead will have topresent 4 of any other coffe drink on the menu be it a mocha or even a macchiato. So if any of you are around Dublin early February, please drop in.

So well done to all competitors, it should be a fairly tight finals on February 28th.

pics are on flickr

Today was a long one.  Up at 6, a quick breakfast of poached eggs and rashers at work, and then a day of judging the first 15 of the 32 competitors entering the Irish Barista Championship. I did sensory for the morning and then switched over to Tech for the afternoon. I used to think I preferred sensory but I realise now that I like them both the same and that as blog topics go, its possibly one of the most dull ones I’ve ever decided to mention. Sorry for that.

The standards were definitely better than last year but unfortunately no one really stood out as a possible candidate for a good ambassador for the Irish coffee culture for Tokyo and for home.  For the most part everyone seemed familiar with scoresheets but ultimately failed to fully comprehend the reasoning behind a lot of the rules, and so when combined with nerves, a lot of the drinks tasted very average with 2.5’s being the score of the day, at least for me. Many people did not have the correct cups, and a lot of people clearly hadn’t invested time or effort into their presentations. This led to many judges feeling a little disgruntled as it should be said, judges at semi finals are nearly always doing the work for free, and like to feel they’re there to judge serious competitors. Sigh.

Four of the competitors tomorrow work with me and so I will have to step out when they compete, hopefully allowing me time to take pics for you ever keen readers.

more tomorrow

To carry on from the last post, Sarah picked us up at our hotel, (the charming Palmer House Hilton), and we shot up Lake Shore Drive, heading north to Metropolis Coffee Company, winners of Roast Magazine Micro Roaster of the Year.

Now , don’t be angry, but for some reason, once I walked in, I was overcome with a feeling of not wanting to stand out. I didn’t want to be that ‘coffee guy’, desperately trying not to show he’s counting the shots in his head or annoyingly taking photos of the drink once its handed to him, so yes, what I’m leading up to here, is that I took feck all photos of Metropolis, bar these 2, which yes I know, really aren’t great.

I’m truly sorry, but if you must know I had a lovely chat with AJ, Sarah and Doug (who met us there) about the virtues of a strong retail offer in cafes as well as the financial challenges facing any cafe, which I must say was fierce interesting.

Em,..I didn’t really give the place enough consideration which I sort of regret now. I had a decent espresso that was particularly to my taste, flavour wise put tasted like it was pulled well off thei new 3 group Mirage. There was a very strong community vibe despite the large laptop presence. I bought a bag of their Kenya (unfortunately, all the packet said was Kenya), but the polite assistant informed it was the coffee that won them the Roast Magazine awar mentioned previous. I tasted that coffee yesterday with Irish Barista Guild Chairman Deaton Pigot, however to make our rainy Sunday that bit more interesting, we brewed it through a melitta, a french press, an aero press and the brand new eva solo I was very kindly given by Mr.Zell. I’ll write a seperate post about that. Moving on….

We then headed down to the Intelligentsia Broadway store, which on first impressions had a much more bohemian feel than their newest store. It was a lot bigger and for the most part I think they used the space well, putting a large retail counter down the back. I had two very decent espresso’s here which were pulled really very well as I think the pics below, to a certain extent show.

The rest of the day was spent strolling around Chicago and finally bidding sad farewell to AJ and Lyndsey as they flew home to Vancouver.

The next morning, Jen and I taxied out to the Intelligentsia Roasterie again to hang out some more. We started off in the training lab where Doug, Matt Riddle and one of their roasters, Steve, were doing the daily testing of Black Cat. Steve and Matt were both very cool and the slightly tweaked Black Cat they gave me probably stands out as the best shot I had on the visit, if it was still a little too high a dose for my delicate palette.

Jenny then sat down for her first cupping ever. On the table were too different lots of the same Brazil, but with 25 cups of each. EJ Dawson, (who I really should have mentioned earlier, as he really knows an awful lot about roasting and origin, )had Sarah, Jen, Doug and I all go through the coffees looking for any duds or phenolics. I loved that my girlfriend’s first cupping wassn’t in my kitchen , but instead it was in the Intelligentsia Cupping Lab looking for phenolics.

We then headed off for a tea tasting with Doug Palas. I’ve never claimed to know anything about tea and I’m sorry to admit, drink an awful lot of the cheap black stuff likeso many other Irish folk. No excuse I know, but it was very educating to see the differences the teas on the table had, and I was suprised just how interested I was and I’m worried now that I possibly fired too many questions at Doug P.

(I will update this post when I wake up in the morning) its 2.15 am and the thud needs its beauty sleep.)

Yesterday was amazing.

AJ and I went to the Itelligentsia Roasterie a little outside the city centre around noon and when we got out of the taxi at the given address and were momentarily lost. I’m not sure what I had expected the Roasterie to look like, I hadn’t expected something overly loud but I didn’t anticiapte it being a large red brick building with no identification markings other than a small little sticker above the door and Doug Zell grinning outside. Sadly for you dear folks my priority was not taking photos on the visit but instead listening to wise folks like EJ, Doug and Sarah Kluth took my attention.

After a brief tour of inside the factory which was considerably more charming and interesting than the exterior, we sat down for a flight of the company’s latest filter offerings. Some of the coffees were past their best and then som, like their new batch of Tres Santos from Colombia just sung out.

It was a little nerve racking at first, for both AJ and I, as the people cupping with us moved quickly through the coffees, familiar enough with their palletts to be confident in their descriptors but as we gladly learned, never arrogant. When all the coffees had been slurped and spat, the silence was broken and we began to discuss the flight. Although what I had to offer was perhaps basic, they quickly made me feel my opinion was just as important and valid as theirs.

The cupping room we were in was beautifully kitted out. Two large kettles with independant hobs sat beside a gleaming, recently re-built Probatino, which in turn sat beside a very fancy batch roaster. Something I hadn’t seen before was the little lids they put on the cupping glasses in order to capture some of the dry aromas before the brewing. The rotating cupping table and comfy stools all contributed to the impression that this company appreciates and strongly depend on maintaining quality by constant cupping. In essence, you knew you were not in a room that was only used for ceremonial purposes, but instead a core facility as important as their training lab or even their roasting room.

We then went over to their training room and spent the afternoon fiddling around with a new blend Doug was toying with. The virtues of espresso were in debate for nearly the whole afternoon as I moaned my usual moan about how I rarely enjoy the stuff. It was nice to hear Doug inform me his business partner and Intelligentsia Green Buyer Geoff Watts also doesn’t really favour and fails to understand everyone’s fascination with espresso. Something I really want to do though and hope I can find to do before I leave is put Black Cat and maybe Kid O too through its paces at different doses. Will it only be good if brewed through a triple basket or is that when they feel it sings the most? Will Black Cat work at 7 grams? Should a roaster consider the dose when blending or roasting?

I’m off now to check out Metropolis Roasters with the rest of the gang as well as Doug and Sarah from Intelly.

I will update this post with pics later today.(edit FEW DAYS LATER)

I’ve just woken up on my third day here in Chicago. Oddly, the sun is splitting the sky and its not that cold out. I’ve only been to one coffee spot so far but I doubt any other cafe will beat it. We dropped into Intelligentsia’s newest store on Randolph St yesterday morning only to be met by Intelligentsia chief executive Doug Zell. We sat down and had coffee for around an hour and it was great to fire off so many questions I’ve had and get intelligent answers back. I wil be taking lots of photos of the cafe so will leave a more detailed report till then.

Heading to the Intelligentsia factory this afternon for a cupping, and some espresso tasting. All very exciting.

More soon