The Square Mile Coffee Sample Roaster is alive and kicking, and so today, the day after Anette roasted seemingly hundreds of samples, we tasted whats out there. It feels so good to get cupping again, though as we set up our 5th flight( I say we, James and Anette are doing it as I’m clearly typing this), I’m quickly learning about the fatigue from trying to concentrate. This may lead you to think that I rarely concentrate and you’d be right. If anything you should interpret this as a sign of how seriously I take coffee.

I’m working on a brand new signature drink right now, which obviously I’ll tell you nothing about. I don’t think any fellow competitors will steal any ideas, nor do I think they’d want to, but it’ll be more impressive if I reveal it in Copenhagen. (Translated, its nowhere near finished yet)

I do however know what espresso cups I’l be using, what shirt I’ll be wearing, what level of trimmed beard and what milk (after relying on last year’s WBC country’s milk, I’ve decided to go with the more trustworthy and quite tasty Irish Brand of Avonmore).

I’m delighted at Kyle’s success in the US, and look forward to kicking his prep table over backstage. 

I’m working on a new latte art design that I think hasn’t been done before, but then I’m not sure how well this particular person’s face is known.

Its quite challenging to think up new ideas, and I know I definitely don’t wanna etch. I think etching is clever, but I like latte art thats quick and doesn’t interfere with the drink once the cup’s filled up.

Here are my macchiato practice so far;

Also, you may find this video fun. I really like Garrison Keillor, and Prairie Home Companion. 

But yeah, practice sucks.

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.

Things have been a bit up in the air recently which has served as a distraction from beginning my preparation for Copenhagen. I won’t bore you with what the things were, but I’ll ask you a quick question instead.  

I saw some pics recently of David Makin (a lovely chap) winning a competition in Australia and was very impressed with the art he managed in his capps.  I was bothered by my drop in quality on the day for the irish and think now that my capps are my weakest area.  

This is a picture of a rosetta poured recently in the 5 oz cappuccino cups I used in the Irish and will be using in the Worlds. Theres things I like and don’t like about the pour, but I’d love some feedback from any competitors and judges out there. 

I think I’ll do this now and again. I was temped to start a seperate blog, but I wouldn’t have enough content for it, so instead I’ll subject you lot to it now and again.

Though it wasn’t till three years into my music degree that I realised coffee promised more, I do still get a lot from music. I like to think my taste is quite varied, so heres a clip of something I think is just great great great. My mother put me onto Norma Waterson and my father loves Martin Carthy. Who doesn’t love richard thompson so I threw another one just of him in. 

The sound quality isn’t bad for youtube but could be better.  The next time I do this it will be a different style of music. Oh, and those of you in NY, my brother will be in town on wednesday for a week, and has a list of cafes, so watch out. As my childhood alias given to me by my dad was the flyingthud, my brother’s was the human mess. Please call him so should you see him.

In the airport again. Today I fly to London on what I think is my first ever flight were I only booked one way. Though I still haven’t found an apartment, my soon to be flat mate and I are working to sort that out quickly.

Square Mile is beginning to take shape rapidly and the need for me to be full time in London has come. I’m so excited about the kind of work we’re gonna do. With respect to my former employers, I’ve never worked in a job so in line with my attitude to coffee and just knowing how much we’ll learn every day is, to coin the americans, awesome. Or is it killer? I’m never sure. Oh to be street.

Nick Brown of Manic Coffee and of dwelltime fame is in London too on a college trip so I’m hoping to catch up with him and give him shit for killing seals while we taste the best London has to offer.

Regarding preparing for competition, I’m re working my whole routine. Everything will be new bar perhaps a few table setting things and maybe my tamper which I just found out I left in LA. Luckily its set to only work with my hand, and will self destruct should another fool try. There was a gun in Judge Dredd that did that, anyone wanna remind me of the name?

I’m sure you were all watching the Western Regionals in Berkley last weekend, thrilling stuff. Big Congrats to Baca and my pals at intelly for doing so well. 798 is such a big score, it’ll be interesting to see if anything in the US final gets that high. I’m hoping to go to the SCAA so hopefully I’ll catch up with some of you there. 

Sorry theres no pics in this post.

Interesting to see an article like this in the Guardian. It wasn’t nearly as ill informed as I expected and though I’m not too chirpy about his conclusion, I liked how much he covered without, I hope, becoming too tricky to assimilate for non coffee folk.  

I hate quick posts so I guess I should say something else while I’m here.  LA was great. I loved catching up with everyone and seeing how Intelligentsia Silverlake is progressing.  We wondered if it was the busiest quality focused cafe in the World, certainly I’ve never visited one as busy, even Ritual in San Francisco. The interior and exterior are just beautiful and I’m not sure if it’d work as well in any other neighborhood. I know they’ve plans to open thirty four more cafes in LA and it will be interesting to see how they adapt their image to each neighborhood, a luxury bigger chains don’t really get to practice.  But back to silverlake,I loved the visibility of the baristas at work and it was a pleasure to watch each of them employ the same solid technique yet each with their own style. 

It was nice too to taste Black Cat made by those more familiar with it. We were lucky enough to taste it when Intelligentsia sponsored our Barista Party during this years UKBC, and I remember James and I enjoying its new, cleaner profile. I like how they’ve managed to make it that bit more articulate without losing that soft, deep, chocolate its known so well for. To be completely honest I suppose, the trip had no stand out coffee moments, but rather everything was really good. Does that make sense? Probably the best thing I tasted was Kyle Glanville’s signature drink. I won’t give anything away so close to the WRBC, but all I’ll say is feathers. 

I spent my last morning sitting on the back bar of the cafe, possibly for the best part of 4 hours. This time was spent drinking coffee, watching the baristas, and spotting celebrities ( nearly spluttered my zirikana all over my macbook when Sylar from Heroes walked in). The last hour or so consisted of learning about various company takeovers in the industry from a well informed, if a little infected at the time blogger called Tony.  Regarding clover, I’ll keep my opinions to myself, which I know is a little mean, especially considering how amazing they are, but I’m horrible, and you should know that by now.

The only other cafes I got to visit on the trip were Choke- the moterbike/funky espresso bar, and La Mill, the super trendy, super plush, lovely staff, poor in the cup newcomer to Silverlake. Choke was so different to anything I’ve ever seen before, I’m not really sure what to say. There are photos, just take a look.

La Mill was an odd one, very not silverlake. I drove by it first of all and hated it. I went in wanting to hate it, but kinda liked it. I especially kinda liked the two red clovers they had. The equipment on display in general was stunning; hario vac-pots, eva solos, fb80s, afore mentioned clovers, roburs, chemexes, hario water glass, and so so many staff. The menu is sufficiently wordy for the prices of the coffees, and our waitress was excellent at explaining how the vac pot worked. There was an awkward moment when I inquired how long they’ve been adding jelly to the coffee and donut drink they serve and the waitress asked when I’d last had it,- the last time being when James made it for the 2007 UKBC, and who was never asked if he minded them using it. I just said a friend made it for me.

Sadly, none of the drinks I tasted at La Mill were good. They all seemed more or less well brewed, but they just didn’t work in the cup. This was the experience of two trips, so please don’t think I just wanna be a hater, I’m just not street enough. In total, I tasted a Kenya they carried off a vac pot, an espresso, two cappuccinos, and their coffee & donut & jelly. None were great but I have to say, the people there, bar 1 guy, were so friendly, capable, and well informed, I’ll be sure to visit them again when I’m back in town.

OK, this wasn’t meant to be a long post. So just one last thing, I was joking about intelly wanting to open 34 new cafes in LA, but I would imagine more are in the pipeline.

(This is a very very long post, and seems to be all about me, so I apologise in advance) First of all, I’d like to say thanks for all the kind words people have left in the comments, texts and voice-mails from Vancouver.  It was lovely to wake up this morning and read through them as I assimilated the events of the last few days and indeed weeks.  It seems so long ago now when I decided I’d enter this year, and though I did say it here in November, I remember making the decision back in Tokyo.

Working with James and Anette in preparation for the UKBC and subsequently Tokyo gave me a sense of what competition could be; something different to the template performances often seen.  I never felt there was enough room for variety in the comp format and whilst always believing it was a great thing for promoting quality coffee, I had more or less figured it wasn’t something I needed to get into. Needless to say Tokyo changed that perception.  

Watching how James managed innovation in unlikely areas and managed to tick the boxes without conforming, made me take a second look at the whole thing and find new enjoyment in it.  To clarify, the standard of the competitors in Tokyo was outstanding, and it was clear just how much work and effort went into so many of the performances. I’d never suggest otherwise. My point is more that before working with James and seeing him perform, I didn’t think it was possibly to bring something new or truly fresh to such a rigid format.

So following Tokyo, I had the opportunity to judges the Canadian Finals in Toronto.  This kind of terrified and further inspired me at the same time.  Watching Mike Yung deliver such a polished, controlled and indeed tasty performance made me realise again how much work competing would require. Yet at the same time, I remember loving the simplicity of some drinks, especially Nick Brown’s cookie macchiato. But more importantly, judging gave great insight on what sort of things judges respond to in a competitor, both in a positive and negative sense.

Around this same time I was helping a friend develop a routine for competition that due to work commitments and an untimely cold, he never got to see through. This was the first time I heard about the idea of malt being used in a signature drink. I won’t give too much details about it, but it involved an infusion of crystal malt, an incredibly aromatic and caramel like grain that worked wonderfully with coffee. It appealed to me immediately as I’ve never liked the idea of using flavours too crazy for signature drinks, and malt was a character I’ve often found in cupping.  By this time I was also involved in Square Mile and hoped to use our coffee in the Irish but with travel commitments and the roastery location proving a little elusive in those early days, I looked to other avenues for some great coffee; I looked north in a sort of nordic way.  

The second I thought of using Coffee Collective’s coffee, the more obvious an idea it seemed. I knew the guys already, particularly Klaus, and James had great things to say about their espresso blend, so without even tasting the stuff, I rang Klaus and asked would he help me out. At first he swore loudly and hung up the phone, but when I rang back a few moments later, he seemed keen and what followed was a giddy 20 minutes of how we’d discuss the logistics of getting it to me and providing me with green samples, and separate bags of the blend.  It was a few weeks later when I finally got to taste the coffee off our synesso in the roastery, and was thrilled to find it so tasty. If you recall, I’m a little bit of a sceptic when it comes to espresso, as usually its rubbish. I had said that I’d only truly enjoyed around 7 shots. Well since playing around extensively with Coffee Collective’s House Blend, I can honestly say I’ve had around 15 more beautiful shots. I never thought so much acidity could be articulated in an espresso without ever being sour or too snappy. It was clean, it was round, and practice became less tormenting every time I’d grind a shot and smell the tropical fruit from the adado. I don’t think any other coffee would have worked so well for me or helped win it for me.

I was working on a few different ideas for the signature drink over Christmas, one I won’t mention yet as I’m hoping to go back to it for the Worlds and another with oats which just wasn’t working. I remembered the malt idea and approached my friend to see if it was ok to use it. He had no problem with it, but when I finally found someone who could provide me with the stuff, (seems there are feck all breweries in Dublin that answer the phone, and despite one of the biggest malt suppliers in the World, none of the big companies seemed keen on sending a couple of hundred grams of malt to some guy in a coffee competition), I ended up using a different type of grain, chocolate malt.  I forget where, but I read this was used in making Guinness and when I started playing with it, we found it infused faster than the crystal malt and gave good body and aromatics which enhanced the warmer, toastier notes in the coffee and complimented the fruit from the yirgacheffe.Further inspiration came from a tiny cafe in New York called Abraco. Some of you will already know of this place, as a certain Dan Griffin used to work there before he got all big and famous with el beit. Well, besides the tasty bites, and charming interior, the thing that stuck with me at Abraco was the almond milk cortado. Jenny ordered one as Dan explained what it was. It was nice to see Jamie the owner pour art with it, and the taste and texture sorta stuck in my mind.

So by the end of January, I had a number of things sorted, I knew what coffee I was using, had two interesting ingredients to design a signature drink around, had sourced cups and stuff, and despite a few small bits, had decided to use most of James’ WBC table settings (more out a money saving motive than an attempt to standardise Square Mile Competition gear). I spent many hours looking at what grinder would work best, but two weeks before the competition, I realised I’d gotten very used to James’ WBC Spec Compak k 10, and really couldn’t fault it. I really enjoy it, its fast and the dosing action is lovely, though perhaps not as clean as the anfims if I remember correctly.February was a busy month with some work in Spain and then a busy week at Hotelympia where I gave some talks and we hosted a party for the competitors for the UKBC at our roastery. Immeaditely after that, I got stuck into full time practice for the competition. It was around this time that I asked Tim Styles to come on board and be my coach for the competition. This would turn out to be a master stroke as I have doubt that without his help I would have not been successful. It was interesting too as Tim had very little experience in competition, so James and I were able to tell him how he should criticise me, what he should look for, and every trick we knew about competition. James and Anette’s schedule was such that they couldn’t help me prepare as much as we’d have liked but the few hours I did spend with them proved priceless, especially one day in particular with me getting defensive and snappy with James about the very same things I gave him crap for in training for Tokyo.  

Tim has become a great friend, his tireless support and quick understanding of what I needed from him were a key part in my good fortune in the competition. The other rock in all this was of course Jenny. I’m not sure if I can ever repay her for all the weekends and mornings abroad shes given up for coffee, or more importantly my romance with it. She is selflessness defined and I’d be lost without her. Thank you hun, for letting me do what I want to do and always supporting me.

I’ve already posted about the semis, so I guess I’ll just tell you how I made the sig drink and how the finals went. I start off the performance by making the almond milk on the judges table,  basically hot water and almonds, left to steep in an ibrik (ibrik not essential just a nice touch I thought). After serving the capps, I brewed 4 espressos which went into a cream whipper. Next step was straining the almond milk; I did this through some muslin into a chemex, but not before adding 7 grams of the chocolate malt, and 6 grams of soft brown sugar. Once strained, I removed the muslin, and poured the infusion in with the espressos and charged her up. The more I think about it the more I feel a foam was a boring idea, but it did fuse the flavours together and it did taste good, which I’ve always felt should rate higher. I have no problem with accusations of simplicity if it was tasty and balanced. That said, I hope to use elements of this drink for the WBC and accept it needs to be ‘more’ in lots of ways. OK, still with me? The finals went a lot better for me, I felt more relaxed, and felt my prep went a lot better than the day before. I didn’t get to see to much of the other competitors as James said it was a bad idea, and I was more concerned with double checking my equipment off three different lists for the third time.

So again, I apologise if this seems a little self centered but I didn’t see enough of anyone else to really comment. Oh but again, Fan from Insomnia was so lovely and charming,(from what I could hear on the intercom at least) and clearly competition savvy that it was no surprise he came such a close 2nd place.My performance started off well till about 40 seconds in when the lid of the eva solo I was pouring water from fell into the first judges water glass. Now not only did I not have a glass for the head judge, I also didn’t have any spares. Panic set in for a moment, I thought of the points I’d lose for each drink I’d serve her without accompanying water so i just grabbed the glass, served the other judges, told her I’d look after her in a moment, poured it into the drip tray, and brought it back clean with the espressos and topped it up. I didn’t like how I disposed of the water but I hadn’t much choice and I think the judges liked how my routine wasn’t thrown wayward by the accident.My shots were a little fast all day, but I think the blend handles that ok. I knew it didn’t like being pulled anyway tight which was what happened in the finals so I was quite happy to have an average shot time of 23, but not happy that I cut my second capp shots at 19. I found it very difficult adjusting to the fb70s after weeks of training off the synesso with the slower flow rate. I hated that moment where I’d engage the pump and rush to get the cups under in time, as opposed to the relaxed wipe of the drip tray I’d rehearsed.The delay with the water glass seemed to stick with me right till the end where I was pouring the last sig drink on the table with 10 seconds to go.I remember feeling good about it afterwards but at the same time I was convinced the tech judges noticed how the strength of my settling knock of the pf changed throughout.

Silly suspicions like that plagued my mind right up until they announced the winner.I am honored to have the opportunity to represent my country in three different competitions. It wasn’t the goal to win all three, and I’m slightly daunted by the prospect especially as I hear some will be on the same day. Again, and I’m sorry to labour this point, but if it wasn’t for the coffee, the ideas I picked up from friends and cafes, the training with and from James and Anette, the support of friends and family, the experience of Tokyo, watching so many great baristas, Tim Styles and my girlfriend Jen, I wouldn’t even have competed never mind win. Thank you so much.

Em, yeah…. I’m not really sure what to say. I found out a few hours ago that I won the Irish Barista Competition, and following the immediate elation on hearing the news, the time since was spent getting great feedback from judges, packing everything up, driving back across the city, unpacking, grabbing food and then braving a severe storm to get home. Sorry to waffle, I guess I’m just saying I haven’t made sense of it yet. What I will say quickly though, is that this years competition was so well run in comparison to previous years. It was great to perform in a format similar to the world’s and know reliable people were running the show. The standard of the competition was so high and I’m not sure exactly but I believe the top three were very close. I thought Fan of Insomnia and Andrius of Bewleys were great competitors, and great examples of quality bar baristas currently working in Ireland. I met a lot of new baristas, and couldn’t help but feel frustrated at how theres no facility to let baristas hang out and play around on machines. Valid attempts at starting a guild in Ireland seem to have fallen to the wayside and I think its a real shame for the clearly booming sub culture. Damn, I feel all negative now. I’ll probably edit this in the morning, so please don’t take offense or think ill of me. I will write a detailed post about my performance tomorrow as well as the challenges endured in training. I will thank more people then too, but for right now, I need you all to know that if it wasn’t for Jenny and Tim giving up so much of their time and energy, I would never even have gotten the whiff of success. Thank you so so much. I’m delighted, and incredibly tired.

So I’m through to the final 8. I’m so delighted to go through to the finals, but annoyingly can’t relax yet as the challenges of retooling the performance for tomorrow become clear in my head. A number of things went wrong in my prep and in my performance; stupid things like forgetting milk and not having the grinder switched on. The result was a more nervous thud, who possibly used old milk giving me horribly bubbly milk for the capps. In addition, the bar wasn’t lighted as much as I’d have liked, so I didn’t actually see the poor quality milk till I started pouring the capps. I don’t normally use the milk provided but the sponsor this year was the milk I was going to use anyway so I didn’t really consider I may end up grabbing an old one or how the light of the last few days might mess it up.  Tomorrow I won’t make the same mistake. I regretted also not bringing my grinder of choice, the WBC spec Compak into the latte art comp yesterday as after 15 minutes practice and the shots in my prep, I didn’t feel as comfortable or in control as I did in practice last weekend.  Tomorrow I only have 15 minutes practice on the machine, (which is a daft idea seeing as today there were 27 competitors and tomorrow only 8 ) and will spend most of this time dialing in the grind, and familiarising my self with the speed of the compak as opposed to the super jolly I used for the latte art comp yesterday. I wasn’t as nervous as I feared I may be, but I did sweat a lot (samples given on request), and I perhaps didn’t smile as much as I’d have liked to. That said, I finished in time, and the sig drink turned out well. I’ll give a more detailed post on my performance tomorrow, but to give you the jist; Coffee Collective Coffee (which has honestly brought my number of great wholly tasty espressos up to around 15), and a sig drink using almond milk, chocolate malt and espresso. I’ll write how I developed the performance and some of the challenges we faced, but for the moment, I just wanna give my thanks to Jen, Tim, Karl, James, Anette, Family, son, and the good aul boys at Coffee Collective, I really am just beard and belly without you.