flyingthud

I’m writing this from my hotel room in Sao Paulo with large jet planes flying by meters from my window. I flew in a few hours ago, and feel quite lucky to have slept most of the direct flight from Frankfurt. You may be wondering how I’m writing yet another post that doesn’t fit what I promised to deliver in the poll a few posts back, but please know that I am writing that one up and will post it soon.

The reason for this post is to congratulate Colin Harmon on becoming the new Irish Barista Champion the day before yesterday. Colin works for Karl Purdy of Coffee Angel, himself a past Irish Champion who placed 15th in Bern. I was fortunate to be the head judge for the finals; a first for me but a task I now treat with a lot more respect – bloody difficult. Colin did a great job especially when he realised his incredible strength and yanked the left pf in so tight that he couldn’t get the right one in on the two group machine. He went to call a technical time out but a second later said he’d just go on, and ended up finishing well under despite having to use just one portafilter for his entire routine. Seems obstacles are to be a theme for Irish Baristas in this competition.

You can read more about Colin’s build up to the competition and I’m sure his preparations for Atlanta here.

I will post either about something from the poll or Brazil soonish.

So I haven’t forgotten your demands, but I’m gonna just write this quick in between post.

I’m in LA at the moment helping Intelligentsia prepare for the Western Regional Barista Competition. With 5 of the 6 finalists in the USBC last year hailing from this region, the competition is due to be tight.

In addition, the good people who’ve been working towards this for months have got some really cool events planned and a little bit of innovation in the layout of the whole thing. The event will be uploaded live on ustream, and theres already a blog where you’ll find lots updates in the lead up and throughout the competition.

Theres talk of me emceeing, along with my good pal Kyle Glanville and I’m told they’re working on finding translators for my thick brogue for the poor LA locals.

I’ve been struggling to write anything for this in a while. The reason for this is not anything to do with my recent change of employment, but rather its got more to do with just not being quite sure what anyone’d be interested in hearing about. 

As you can no doubt quite easily believe, this is quite a quiet blog, both in output and readers. And while I’m aware this year I’m having is fairly unique and may be of some interest to someone, every post I start to write feels a little too familiar or samey.

I’m writing this on my first ever flight with Alaska Airlines, from Chicago to Seattle. Between this paragraph and the last I spent 25 minutes wondering what to write and trying to read what the person two rows ahead is typing on her laptop. I suspect, from her attire, its a fantasy novel, probably her first. I hoe it works out for her.

So heres what we’ll do. Seeing as I’m an indecisive, nosy individual, I’ll let you decide what you’re possibly interested in hearing about. I promise I will write a decent post on whatever you choose, and should numbers be very low, it will confirm my long held belief that no one really reads this or is bothered to hear what I’ve been doing anyway.

Which would you rather hear about? 1) Meeting Roberto Diaz, the farmer of El Bosque in Guatemala 2) Lets Talk Coffee in Armenia 3) A week with Geoff Watts in Cali. 4) The farms, consejos, cafes, baristas, personalities and varietal garden of El Salvador, some of them at least. 5) 10 days in Taiwan 6) My New GS3 7) The Canadian Barista Competition Where I now work. View Results Make your own poll

edit: I must apologise, the only new employer I have is myself. I had heard rumours lately of where my new place or work might be, and seeing as they were all news to me, I thought it’d be funny to throw it in as an option. So baring that in mind, the next highest post is my week in Cali with Geoff.

I’m currently in Tacoma Seattle, helping judge the NWRBC. I may even post about it, but I’ll leave it a few days to see if any other option other than ‘my new job’ gets requests.

Seemed like a funny idea at the time, sorry to cause confusion. Its like the ‘news to me’ thing all over again.

This week, I decided to step away from my role in Square Mile Coffee Roasters. It wasn’t a light decision and resulted only after long discussion with James who has already announced it here.

I have been involved in Square Mile from the beginning and stepping away now just as the business is really establishing itself in London and contributing heavily to the burgeoning coffee community does seem a little odd. I have learned much from James and Anette and still feel incredibly excited about what Square Mile will achieve over the next few months and in the future. It has been a great honour to work with both of them and consider them close friends.

However in the last few months, I have been traveling extensively and learning at a rate thats been both daunting and inspiring. As wonderful as this has been, it has resulted in a very diminished role in the company preventing me from contributing as much as I’d like.

Being the last champion, James was very keen to allow me to get the most out of this year and avail of every opportunity and very kindly gave me that freedom. Knowing I might never have a year like it again, I have been able to visit  four origin countries in the last three months alone and discover all over again just how little I know about coffee, certainly on the agronomy side at least. 

I have come to realise that I want to maintain this rate of learning, continue to travel and still make time to see my family and of course Jenny who is really far too patient and understanding to deserve a big lump like me. To have that and still play an effective role in Square Mile Coffee is just not possible, and it is for that reason I decided it was necessary to leave.

Questions?

I’m back in Ireland for a few days, and had to listen to my parents talk about their most recent trip abroad. Normally its a dreary experience, that i politely sit through, but I thought it’d be fun if Dad shared this one with you.

On a recent trip to Chicago , my wife Geraldine and I were strolling down West Randolph in the Loop when what should we see but an impressive coffee bar with the familiar Intelligentsia logo above the door. It was familiar because our son Stephen had already installed Intelligentsia mugs and coffee in our kitchen back home in Ireland some years previously, and very nice coffee it was too.

The place was busy but we reached the counter quickly. Geraldine ordered a cappuccino and a pastry and I asked for a ‘flat white’ only to be met with a blank look. I explained that it was a common coffee drink that i’d tasted in London and that, as far as I could tell, it was made from a double espresso topped up with warm milk in a smallish cup.

We picked up our order further down the bar. Geraldine’s cappuccino, dispensed by a serious looking big guy, looked great with perfect latte art. He handed me a very small glass containing  espresso with a perfect small heart poured on top. Not what I expected but I said nothing and we turned our attention to finding a seat; not easy. All tables, indoor and outdoor, were occupied, some with customers who, judging by the laptops, books and stationery looked like they were there for the day, perhaps for the week.

Not sure what to do, Geraldine approached the counter and asked if it would be OK to share a table with those already installed.  The barista behind the bar smiled and said, ’sure, get acquainted’. So we sat ourselves down. 

Geraldine thought her cappuccino was one of the best she had ever tasted, a comment Stephen doesn’t seem to appreciate. My coffee was fine but so small I had to resist the temptation to drink it all in one go and sip it instead to make it last. A gentleman at an adjoining table turned aside from his Mac and asked me the name of the coffee I was drinking. I explained that I had ordered a ‘flat white’ but had got what in Spain would be called a ‘cortado’. He digested this information without comment. I’m still not sure what a flat white is, or what exactly I got served.

When we were leaving, my wife Geraldine mentioned to the barista that our son, Stephen Morrissey said the coffee here would be excellent and that indeed it was. This didn’t seem to register with the barista, despite our son’s boasting about his far flung fame. We were gutted.

He seemed more interested in my comments about ‘flat whites’ and their origins in Australia. This was a drink, he said, that he’d already received several requests for so he guessed that he would have to do ‘further research’.

All in all, it was nice to experience one of the places that had made such an impression on Stephen in his coffee travels. 

Brendan Morrissey

Unlike Klaus, I only have a ten months where I can be obnoxious and elitist, but what I thought might be nice, is that for each one, I’d write a post about my activities as the current WBC. It’s now two months and a day since the finals in Copenhagen, and this as you may have guessed by now, will be the first post. I wouldn’t hold great hopes if I were you.

I’d heard of the lull that follows the win,both from Klaus and James but its been interesting to experience. I think people imagine its a roller coaster straight away, but in reality, although you’re on a constant high for a while, in many ways it back to work. That said, I’m in the lucky situation where work is very exciting right now. Our wholesale is up and going, our webshop came online just over a week ago, and we’re on track to open our own cafe before the end of the year.

My first ‘WBC’ trip was just last week, to Glasgow. It may not sound the most glamorous, but the chance to catch up with old friends and be taken out to dinner in some lovely non touristy areas was really quite a charming start to the year. Most of you can guess what I might be doing in that city, but I’ll let those who hired me choose when they’d like to announce it.

Next week sees a bunch of WBC people in town for one of their big fancy meetings. Personally I’m looking forward to finding out who’ll be the next machine sponsor, and whether or not the rumours of London being the host for the WBC after Atlanta is true or not. On the 30th, I fly back to Ireland with the lovely Cindy Chang for a day, for a whirlwind tourist trip of Dublin and its better coffee haunts.  The next day, will be a big first for me; I fly to Managua for this years Ramacafe event in Nicaragua. 

I first heard of this event two years ago, when Deaton got a chance to go while I was working in Vancouver. This was the first time he met Klaus and Ken from bmag, and I believe his first origin trip too. So my personal goals are clear then, meet a nice danish person, an interesting west coaster, and get to my first farm. Obviously, its going to be great to meet some of the baristas I met at Copenhagen who I believe will be there, and in addition, on the 7th I think, I fly to Guatemala for a couple of days too. I’m really hoping to get to visit El Bosque, whose coffee made up 50% of my competition blend.

I promise, promise, promise I’ll keep some sort of log of how I get on on the trip, though I’m sure many of you will be sick of people gushing about their first origin trips. Expect words likes humbling, charming, spectacular, hot, bites, rash and lots of photos of me beside plants.

Hrmmm, what else. I was lucky to get quite a lot of press attention in Ireland, something that was wonderful and bewildering at the same time. I suppose getting up at 4 am to do morning TV was just as bewildering an experience as standing onstage with that trophy. James had told me in advance that you’ll naturally be nervous beforehand, but once you’re in the room, you quickly realise that your mind can’t comprehend just how many people are watching and so it quickly turns to just you and three people in a room. This was certainly true, but I suspect the fact it was shot in a shed in a garden helped somewhat in keeping me grounded.

Just the other day I was visiting one of our wholesale clients, and a good friend Gwilym in Columbia Road Flower Market only to see Keara Knightly behind me in the que, ordering some cappuccinos. I know I didn’t make the coffees, but I love that she’s drank our stuff. I just know she appreciated that brown sugar sweetness that came through. For the record, she didn’t add any sugar either. Pro.

So I’m sorry I haven’t been more vocal about my goings on, but I will really try to keep you up to date.  I’m getting my site built, slowly (my fault) and am in the process of confirming lots of upcoming trips, with locations such as Canada, Brazil, Colombia and Malahide. I will update the post in the next few hours with some pics.

There you go Deets.

I’m sure you’re all glued to the USBC blog this week, but you may find this fun;

I’ve just moved into my new place, which has no internet, so I haven’t been able to stay on top of things in Minneapolis. But I just wanna say how delighted I am to see the LA crew do so well, particularly Nick and Kyle. 

You’re all winners, except for those of you who didn’t win, in which case, well you know what you are then.