(Long Post, perhaps something for a long journey, or to bring to bed)
Today saw the first barista jam held on this island. Organised by Se Gorman and Hugh Gilmartin, it pulled in a crowd of around 24 coffee heads to South Belfast. I was there to run a class on developing sensory skills and my ever supportive girlfriend Jen came along to help out too. For those who thought Jen was the one who steadied me, and kept me away from absolute geekdom,…I’d be worried, as she’s really getting very into this whole coffee thing.
We drove up the day before, and went out to dinner with Se and his girlfriend Viola (spelling?) to a great fish place in Dundrum on the coast. It was the first time I tried oysters, and while yeah they were good, though a little slimey, I was happy when my cram claws and langoustines arrived, with their considerably more meaty textures. I’d would like to say too that Se Gorman is possibly one of the luckiest guys I know, if only for the fact that he wakes up to this view every morning.
The following morning, after a quick pit stop in Se’s Cafe, we made our way to Belfast, arriving at Hugh’s training centre, the location for the day around 9.45. It wasn’t long before everyone had turned up, and after a few introductions and a welcome to all in attendance, we got started.
The group was split in to 4 teams, with a rotational system working after each class. I think I was quite lucky with my workshop as unlike the other three, I had a room all to myself. After a brief chat about the importance in developing a palate and how it can be easily done behind the bar, I had the baristas attempt to identify 6 different aromas from phials. To make it easier, we told them what was on the table and just asked them to match each up with which ever colour phial. It was interesting how different people excelled at this and others didn’t. I saw no proof to the theory that women find this easier, however on a whole everyone found this rather easy. Personally I didn’t find the potatoe too pungent, and the coffee blossom was hard to pick out in a room full of ground coffee, but there was more than a few people who got them all right.
The next task with me was more difficult. The class had to differentiate 6 different filter offerings, and as most baristas over here wouldn’t be that familiar with filter coffee, I told them what was on the table, just not which was which. We has an instant, a 3 month old aerated stale coffee, an old brown java, an ethiopian mocha sidamo, a colombian,(not sure where from) and a blend of the ethiopian and a costa rica tres rios. What made this particularly difficult, was that somehow, the instant wasn’t that bad. I was hoping it would be foul beyond belief, but for whatever reason it didn’t stand out like I hoped. You could still tell clearly from the nose on it, and the particularly cheap nasty finish, but when it was hot, it was difficult for the baristas to pick it out straight away, in fact many didn’t at all.
I really enjoyed giving my class, one because I knew all the answers and got to feel clever all day, and two because it you don’t often get a chance to play with these sort of things in training sessions, and it was nice to spend time with everyone as new groups came through throughout the day.
Se Gorman had people doing barista poker; a game where depending on what cards they were dealt, it would stipulate an order that needed to be made in 5 minutes, while being observed wbc style by Se, an experienced and successful competitor himself. This wasn’t easy, as a barista could get an order for three espresso and two macchiato, or three mochas and two lattes, which obviously took more time.
Meanwhile, Philip Mills of Johnsons Coffee introduced the gangs to roasting using a new Probat sample roaster Hugh just got. After giving the guys info on the basics of roasting, he got them to design their own blend and roast it themselves, the blend would then be tasted against the other teams to decide a winner later on. The baristas were also given quizzes on some of the info Phil was throwing at them. Scores from this quiz, and the other classes going on were added up and revealed between each class, on a plasma screen showing the barista superstar table!
The other class the baristas got to do was an introduction to cupping with Hugh. On the table were wildly different coffees, from a robusta to a Brazil Cup of Excellence, which although a far removal from the baristas daily duties, I think they must have really found eye opening. This took a similar format to my class as the gang was asked to try identify the coffees, after being told what was on the table, just not what order. I dabbled at tasting a few later on, and despite them being quite cold, I was interested that the COE Brazil still stood out. I’m sorry I don’t know more about the other classes, but I was sorta doing mine at the time, so kinda busy.
Karl Purdy went on to gather the highest score of the day and recieved a crate of Hugh’s favourite wine, (didn’t catch the name sorry), with James Shepard coming second and David whose surname I don’t know coming third. Other prizes were handed out to people who showed exceptional skill and enthusiasm and I was happy, if a little reluctant to donate some coffee Klaus had given me the week before in Copenhagen. All in all though, I thought the day went really well, and honestly feel people had a good time. I’d like to think something similar can be organised down south soon, but as I’ll be leaving the country soon, I doubt I’ll be here to see it. Well done Se and Hugh for putting the whole thing together, and for getting me involved, it was a great, great weekend.
More pics here.
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I’m wondering what I can say about Copenhagen that perhaps James didn’t already cover.
It was my first time in a Nordic country and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I think it might be the first time I ever got on a plane and didn’t hear one person speaking english, a little bit of a culture shock if I’m honest. That said, it seems every single person, bar perhaps the taxi drivers, spoke flawless english, which along with the charming architecture, really made Copenhagen an appealing city.
I was staying in Bjorg Brend’s house for the weekend. Bjorg works for Cafe Europa and is one of the main organisers for the Nordic Barista Cup, as well as being just a lovely person. I spent that first evening eating a great dinner of fois gras and duck, chatting with Bjorg and her boyfriend Roni, who thankfully didn’t mind the constant topic of coffee at the table, in fact he ended up asking most of the questions.
Saturday would see the Copenhagen regional comp, with only 4 competitors, so before it got going I arranged to meet up with James for breakfast in Europa Cafe. As it wasn’t open till nine, and I was in town for 8.30, I went for a little stroll to take in the scenery, knowing I probably wouldn’t have much of a chance to do so later on. I knew which way James was coming from so I walked towards him, hoping I’d guessed the right street. I had.
After meeting James we had breakfast and coffee in Europa. I got a really nice cappuccino, with great latte art, although in a cup a bit too big for my understanding of a cappuccino. I had an espresso afterwards which was good too, although I think i was tasting my croissant with jam more at that stage. I’m sorry I didn’t take more pics of the cafe, but they were quiet when we went in and it would have felt a bit rude snapping away. Keep an eye on my cafe page, where I’ll give more details on Cafe Europa as well as Estate.
We tried one other cafe, but it wasn’t great and doesn’t really warrant a mention. The competition area was really well set up, with the competitors having great space to work off on dark wooden surfaces. So often its too small white, which just really annoys me. We watched the competitors then headed off to Estate with Klaus while the judges had lunch and the scores were added and checked.
Estate was a lot smaller than I imagined, and without being beautiful in any design category, still came across very charming. It was very busy when we arrived, so Klaus had to weasel his way behind the bar to brew us a few clovers and one or two espresso. If my memory serves me correctly, we tried their Kenya Kiri AA and their COE Colombian El Pedregal, which were both lovely.
After finding out who got through to the finals, a large bunch of us headed off to Kontra and the Copenhagen Coffee Academy. It was cool to see everything so open to the public and not hidden away and I was able to secure some complimentary coffee thanks to their lovely roaster Morten. After lunch next door, and another cafe stop, (where the machine was down) and finished the day off with a dinner with the judges and a party in Bjorg’s house.
As the party went quite late, I was an hour late for my coffee appointment with James the next morning, but he didn’t seem to mind too much. I’ve said it before, but its one of my favourite things, going to a cafe for breakfast, and knowing you’re going to get a decent coffee. Estate didn’t disappoint.
God this is a boring post. It feels more like a diary entry. But if you’ve read this far, I’ll presume you find my life interesting, so why stop now.
We were soon joined by Klaus and his girlfriend Siggadura (spelling?), and unsuprisingly, the conversation centred around coffee. It was exciting to talk about our hopes for the industry, both on a long term and short term basis.
James has already reported on the finals, and I don’t have much to add only that the standard was very high, and I particularly enjoyed Mikkel Otto’s performance. His singing along with the chessey 80’s music and Soggy Bottom Boys made everyone laugh, and at the end he asked everyone to raise their hand if they loved coffee, which drew many a whooping and cheers from the audience.
As the competition was held in a Women’s Visions conference, we were all treated to an erotic dance presentation while the judges tallied up the scores. This was wonderfully funny, and it took me a while to calm down from the laughing and the accelerated heartbeat rate.
You know now who won, and sadly I didn’t taste her drinks so can’t really offer much. I listened to her presentation and noticed it to be very well paced, relaxed and kind of interesting. Regrettably, I missed it as I was talking with James and the Norwegian Champion Einar, who has convinced me that a trip to Oslo should happen soon.
Still here? Wow. oK, So Copenhagen was lovely. I was surprised that so few high end cafes existed, sure its an issue for nearly every city, but this was the country that spawned 4 World Champions!, Was I wrong to have higher expectations?
Anyway, apologies for the terrifically boring post. I will write again very soon, and hopefully talk about the dalla corte sitting in my Kitchen, the great coffees I got from Hasbean, Kontra and Estate, or the barista jam in Belfast this weekend. Or perhaps I’ll just talk about what my plans are after I finish college in 4 weeks. Handed in my last essay last week, and it struck me that I’ll probably never write an essay again.
6 bloody years of college, nearly done.
Night.
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Things have been happening recently that are more than worthy of their own independent posts. Some I can’t yet speak publicly about and others I just haven’t gotten round too. Let me give you a quick summary, with a hope to elaborate in the future.
- I’m only a couple weeks away from finishing college which if any of you know me at all, you’ll know that its sort of a big deal for me. Sadly the ‘big deal’ label relates more to finally getting college out of the way as opposed to any pride in getting a degree.
- One of my closest friends and co-workers has left the country. Deaton the Pigot (ho ho), is currently making his way around north and central America and I highly recommend, if interested in what a traveling barista gets up to, that you take a peek at his blog, journaling his tales. He’s a great guy and will be in Long Beach if any of you wanna meet him.
- We have a new coffee guy in town by the name of Csar. Fresh from developing a passion for coffee in Vancouver, Robert and his charming girlfriend Amber are in Ireland for the year on a work visa. Robert was wisely hired by Bewleys almost immediately and is gearing up to take over my position as in house trainer for Bewleys Cafe on Grafton Street. Its been really interesting seeing Robert’s approach to training, and how he’s responded to the Irish Coffee scene. Read his clever mumbling here.
- So as the last post suggests, I will be leaving the country and my job again, except this time it will be for a much longer period than before. I’d like to give more details and I promise I will, but I’ll ask you to be patient for the time being.
- Coffee people are nearly always lovely. One person who always spreads this perception is Steve Leighton of Hasbean Coffee. I ordered a bag of his sidamo online recently only to have Steve throw in 5 more bags of coffee for my tasting. This will be the worthy subject of my next post which I’ll try get done by the end of the week.
- I’m off to Copehagen next weekend to hang out with Bjorg of Kontra and Klaus somebody or other. I’m really looking forward to checking out their cafe scene as well as watching their national finals on the Sunday. I’ll take lots and lots of photos.
- The weekend after that I’m heading up to Belfast for the first ever Barista Jam on this island. I’m still not exactly sure what the layout is but I have great trust in Se and Hugh who are organising it, so if you’re around you should check it out.
I find a post is always easier to take in when its got photos so to please your eyes, you’ll notice the unusual sight below me. I was working with 4th place in the IBC, Rachael Coss on Sunday and we were talking about co2 emission rates with fresh coffee and for some reason decided to see if it was visible in water. So we plonked some beans that were around 2 hours old into a glass of hot water, and the result is, as you can say, weird. I’ve told James he should take some shots with his far superior macro lens so keep an eye out for that.
Thats all for now, need to square off to the few more miles of college work that I have left.
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First of all, unless you read my drivel exclusively off a feed, you might have noticed my new blog template. I’m not sure if I only prefer it because its new, and I worry the font is too small but I’d like to hear some of your opinions if you have them. On another note, I think Jim’s latest post is one of his best and wish more bloggers out there did stuff like that. I’m working on doing something similar by the end of the week but will hold off on details till I actually do it.
The other interesting part of today was tasting the epic espresso blend sent to me by 49th. As instructed we pulled it in an up dosed double in a standard lm basket to just under 2 fl oz. It took a shot or two to dial it in but we had it pouring nice pretty quickly. The shots were really good, especially as I count myself as a non espresso guy. They had a really good fruit pointing out that somehow was still controlled while a buttery mouth feel made the whole shot quite round and toffee like. It didn’t have so much of a strong sweet finish but rather something very interesting that lingered and annoyingly I couldn’t place.
I was interested to see how it held up as a single shot and was surprised that I preferred the double instead. It wasn’t nasty or anything, but just lost its balance although I think I could have fooled around with the parameters a bit more had I not had some actual work to do. I gave shots to a few of the baristas on shift and all seemed very impressed, remarking largely how different it was to our own blend and how bright and yet not sharp it was.
I really do love coffee and the diversity in flavours it offers.
Big thanks again to the 49th crew for sending it over. Anyone else wants to be generous feel free,..
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After a morning of relentless studying, I went to check my mail on the laptop. After getting over the shock of seeing this months phone bill, I was distracted by the noise of an engine pulling up outside. The images below tell the story.
I’ve been hearing lots of good things about how well 49th have been doing, especially since the break from Cafe Artigiano occurred late last year. I hear their coffee can be found in many of the new cafes opening and is even being pulled in Cafe Grumpy in New York, a cafe I love if only for their bar design. So after expressing to the lovely Lindsay Parker how much I’d like to try some of their new stuff on MSN recently, I was very happy to receive this in the post today.
It’ll be interesting to see whether their double packing helped prevent too much damage from the flight and if the little air bags will make the shot any happier. As I don’t have an espresso machine at home, I’ll have to wait till tomorrow till I can get to a machine, but needless to say I’m quite excited about tasting it. Lindsay kindly threw in a brewing recipe as well so hopefully I can do a good job at recreating their best intentions with the blend. Will write up how it goes.
