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Food Librarian's 15 minutes! Los Angeles Times Food Section Photo

Los Angeles Times Food Section

As usual, I woke up this morning and grabbed the paper. It's Thursday so it's Los Angeles Times Food Section day!

And guess what's in it? A great piece on Los Angeles photographer, food blogger and author Matt Armendariz of MattBites. Love his blog and just got his book, On A Stick.

Los Angeles Times Food Section
And...my little photo! The Los Angeles Times asks readers to submit photos when they make something from LA Times Test Kitchen. I recently made the yummy Lemon Blueberry Buckle.

Thanks for featuring my photo Los Angeles Times and Rene Lynch!!! You should make the recipe too. Here is the original post with recipe!
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Japanese Cultural Institute Carnival in Gardena, CA

JCI Carnival Header
Japanese Cultural Institute (JCI) Carnival in Gardena, CA

My friend JustJenn and I were hanging out on Sunday and she looked at her iPhone. She said, "Oh, the JCI Carnival is this weekend."

Squeal.

That was my car and my scream. My car sprinted to Gardena to hit up the "carnival of my youth." I have so many childhood memories from this annual affair. The Japanese Cultural Institute (JCI) in Gardena (South Bay area of the Los Angeles region) has been going on forever. A few things have been added and changed, but so much of it remains exactly the same. And that's fantastic. The JCI offers Japanese language classes, senior activities, cultural classes and sport groups. 

JCI Carnival 4
Of course, I go for the festival foods. Chirashi sushi is my absolute favorite. It's sushi rice with a bunch of toppings. Somen salad is cold somen noodles with a dipping sauce, and the imagawayaki is a pancake filled with sweet red beans.

JCI collage 3
My peep's donut! The Okinawan Andagi or Dango is a festival favorite...just look for the long line. It is a big donut hole of goodness. I like to spend my summer visiting as many festivals as possible...all to get dangos! The Japanese American-founded Buddhist Churches in the area have annual Obon festivals and they always have dangos too. See this post for my tour of a Obon festival in 2009, and my mom's recipe for dango.

JCI carnival 2
Every JA festival has a plant and vegetable section. I believe every group has a member who owns or works at a nursery. Actually, there is a long history of Japanese American gardeners and farmers in California (check out this book). My grandfather worked in the sugar cane fields of Hawaii, farmed in Central California and then became a gardener in Los Angeles. Last year, I bought a house plant at an Obon festival at a Buddhist church...and it is still alive!! I don't know if the Buddhist priest blessed it, but now I'm buying all my house plants at these carnivals!

The youth break dancing class performed too! I'm sure one of these kids will be on my favorite show, ABDC someday!

JCI Carnival 1
Like I said, the JCI Carnival is filled with childhood memories. All these old school carnival games. They used to have a dime toss and gave away glass cups and dishes (holy smokes, I'm sure they were filled with lead and other hazards). Anyway, I loved this game and would break my piggy bank gathering dimes. One day, my folks were at my brother's soccer game in Orange County and I stayed at home. I was doing the dishes and one of these super thin glasses broke in my hand. My neighbor was a police officer so I went over to show him my cut. Remember, I'm 40 so when I was young we had rotary phones and cell phones were only on the Jetsons. My neighbor knew someone on the force in the OC and they SENT UNIFORMED POLICE OFFICERS TO THE SOCCER GAME. Yes, they walked around the field saying, "We are looking for the parents of Mary." Holy Smokes! My mom still tells me this story and how she nearly had a heart attack right there on the field. Anyway, I got 5 or 6 stitches and still have a small scar on my finger...and great memories of the JCI Carnival. And I didn't have to do the dishes for a whole month.

I hope you are enjoying your summer visiting carnivals and festivals (and of course, participating in your library's summer reading program!!). If you are in Los Angeles and want to eat some Japanese American festival food, check out the Obon schedule!
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Roskilde Festival 2011

The Roskilde Festival is about to start. The camping area is already full, beers are being drunk and music is being played. And again this year we're ready to serve some tasty coffee for the hungry masses together with Manfreds / Relæ. We've assembled a great group of baristas and is packing up the La Marzocco and Mazzer Robur as I'm typing this.

You can find us the same place as last year, next to the Gloria stage:


The menu will be very simple again this year; espresso, cappuccino, caffe latte and iced latte, but this year we'll be brewing up some delicious filter coffee in stead of americanos, for those in search of great tasting black coffee. We'll be shifting through Finca Vista Hermosa from Guatemala, Kieni from Kenya and Daterra from Brazil.

See you there!
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Foodbuzz 24 x 24: Lessons from a Pastry Chef

Rosie Title
Lessons from a Pastry Chef

My friend's daughter, Rosie is a recent graduate of the Baking and Pastry Arts program at the prestigious Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. Tyler Florence is an alum! She earned her Associates degree and is heading back for her Bachelor's degree. On Saturday, I threw a "learning" party where my friends and I baked with this newly minted pastry chef!

Rosie Her Bread
Instead of bringing her beautiful portfolio to the party to impress all the guests, Rosie brought this Totally Awesome bread she made! Rosie's got skills.

Chef Rosie completed a study abroad program in France during her studies. Every great chef needs to be able to teach others the craft, and Rosie did a great job at the party! We made two of her favorite items: entremets and breads!

Rosie Chocolate 1
Chocolate Mousse entremets. It is like eating delicious chocolate ice cream but it's not frozen! And we made it ourselves! Even better!

Rosie raspberry 1
Entremets can have a zillion layers and Rosie has made some amazing entremets. Since we were novices and pressed for time (it wasn't a slumber party), we decided to make ours simple...but no less delicious! Our entremets had a layer of yellow cake (we used Flour Bakery's yellow cake recipe), raspberry or chocolate mousse, and the raspberry one was topped with a raspberry mirror glaze.

Rosie Mousse
We made Raspberry and Chocolate Mousse Entremets (such a fancy word that I think I'll use it twenty times in this post). I've known Rosie since she was THREE years old when her mom and I worked together in Los Angeles!

Rosie Mousse 1
To make the mousse, we combined lots of yolks, sugar, milk. It was heated up, strained and softened gelatin sheets were added. This was my first use of gelatin sheets. They don't smell like powdered gelatin. I'm so moving over to these sheets (purchased at Surfas)! We split the batter and added sweetened fresh raspberry puree to one, and melted 60% chocolate to the other. After it cooled, lots and lots of whipped cream is folded in.

Rosie Mousse 2
Well, do you feel you were at the party?! We took a lot of photos for this step-by-step collage. All the guests had a lot of fun trying their hand making these cute desserts. The chocolate one had a secondary piece of cake (cut out smaller so the edges aren't shown), while the raspberry one had three fresh raspberries inside. Of course, Rosie was the best at leveling them off.

Lessons from Pastry Chef Rosie


Rosie Bread 3
We made ciabatta and focaccia bread with the same dough! Oh, so versatile. We made focaccia with fresh tomatoes, caramelized onions, and green and purple bell peppers.

Rosie Bread making
The making of the bread is two step: Poolish and Final Dough. Because the poolish or sponge needs 14 hours to ferment, Rosie made that the day before and brought it to the party. Then we scaled the rest of the dough ingredients and popped it all in the Kitchen Aid.

Rosie Bread 2
The ciabatta needs to get "folded" five times. I've never done this before but it was totally cool. After resting for 30 minutes in a covered container, our "dough baby" is pulled out and folded over. Five folds are needed. We kept track with blue tape and a sharpie - two must have items in the kitchen. During this process, Rosie answered all our baking questions...nothing like a private baking tutoring session!

Rosie Bread 4
Ahh...fresh bread! Since we were baking all day, we had a simple dinner party - chicken, salad, delicious fresh bread and, of course, awesome dessert made by US!

Rosie Thank you
Thank you so much Rosie! Love ya! I know one day you'll be even more famous than your fellow alum Tyler! And thanks to Foodbuzz for sponsoring this awesome party!

Recipes:
Ciabatta bread
Chocolate & Raspberry Mousse Entremets
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Morning of the Squirrel

Can Someone explain Kim Kardashian without laughing? Can I make a Baseball Bat from the log I found? How will Terry afford his Gazebo concerts? All these questions will be answered with human and fun.. On todays show, we will also have The News, What's My Crime? A silly joke, Our Photography contest, a songs by Deadlands and some live music by the Hoodoo Blues Band!

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Mozzarella, Tomato and Strawberry Salad - French Fridays with Dorie

Mozzarella, Tomato and Strawberry Salad
Mozzarella, Tomato and Strawberry Salad

This week, the French Fridays with Dorie group made Mozzarella, Tomato and Strawberry Salad from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Around my French Table.

I love food on a stick. Corn dogs, Okinawan dangos from Obon festivals (which are starting now!!), Mango with chili powder. Of course, Pocky is the edible stick food too. Nom nom. Dorie makes her salad on a plate...but I went for the portable salad.

Mozzarella, Tomato and Strawberry Salad
Unlike my dad, I don't have a very green thumb. I kill plants often with neglect (what? I have to water the plant?!). But I was at Trader Joe's this morning and saw that a box of basil was $3 and the basil plant was also $3. I decided to try my hand at "gardening" again and picked up the plant. Don't be expecting bushels of pesto from me, but I hope I can keep it alive during my dad's upcoming tomato season.

Mozzarella, Tomato and Strawberry Salad
This recipe is so simple... strawberries, tomatoes, mozzarella, salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Couldn't be easier and more tasty. The sweetness of the strawberries goes perfectly with the cheese and tomato.

Be sure to check out my fellow French Fridays with Dorie members and see their creations!

Please note: French Fridays with Dorie will not be posting recipes. Please support Dorie and purchase the book or find it at your library.

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Cherry Orange Muffins

Cherry Orange Muffins
Cherry Orange Muffins

Cherry season has a special place in my heart. I remember going cherry picking with my brother when we were kids. I don't remember picking any cherries (I think the grown ups were on the ladders) but I remember eating mounds of them. They are also one of the first summer fruits to arrive at my farmer's market...thereby signaling the start of my favorite stone fruit season.

I don't bake with cherries much...I'm too busy eating them raw! :) I prefer the hard, dark cherries over the rainier cherries. Sorry if I have some typos in the post...I'm busy eating cherries while typing!

Cherry Orange Muffins collage 1
I adapted a blueberry muffin with streusel. I think if you scatter some streusel on top of a shoe, it would be tasty. Forget pixie dust, Tinkerbell should sprinkle streusel on everything. That'll bring world peace - for sures.

Cherry Orange Muffins
One cup of pitted and quartered cherries along with the zest of one Golden Nuggest mandarin tangerine.

Cherry Orange Muffins
Bring these into a meeting and you won't have to take minutes. Guaranteed.

Cidney - May 2011
Here's a photo of Cidney the Girl Dog. She had absolutely nothing to do with the making of these cupcakes. I keep trying to teach her how to do the dishes, vacuum and laundry, but she mumbles something about "my lack of thumbs." Whatever. Anyway, she's in this blog post because she's cute. And that's always a good thing to read about, no?

Cherry Orange Muffins
Stop yourself from eating a cup of cherries and make these muffins!

Cherry Orange Muffins

Recipe:
Printable recipe here
Cherry Orange Muffins
Adapted from "Blueberry Muffins" from the beautiful Sarabeth's Bakery book

Streusel (page 62 of her lovely book)
6 T all-purpose flour
1 T superfine sugar
1 T light brown sugar
1/8 t ground cinnamon
2 1/2 T unsalted butter, melted
1/4 t vanilla extract

Mix together in a small bowl until crumbly. Set aside until ready to use.

Adapted from the Blueberry Crumb Muffins - makes 12 cherry muffins

1 large orange (I used a golden nugget mandarin)
2/3 cup corn oil (I used a light olive oil)
1/2 cup plus 1 T whole milk
2 large eggs, room tep
2 1/4 c bread flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 T baking powder
1/4 t fine sea salt (I used kosher salt)
1 cup cherries, pitted and quartered (the blueberry recipes calls for 1 C fresh or frozen blueberries)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I used paper liners in 12 muffin cups
2. Zest the orange. Set aside zest.
3. Juice the orange to get 1/3 cup juice.
4. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl (flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt).
5. Whisk together the wet ingredients in a medium bowl (oil, milk, OJ, zest, eggs).
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined. Don't overmix.
7. Fold in cherries.
8. Scoop into muffin cups. Sprinkle with streusel.
9. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce temp to 375 and bake until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean - 15 more minutes or so.
10. Cool in pan for a few minutes then remove to cool completely. Enjoy!

Sarabeth says you can also use raspberries (fresh or frozen) in this recipe. So adaptable! You should put her lovely cookbook on your wish list!

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Worlds Brewers Cup

A couple of months ago our barista Torfi won the first Danish Brewers Cup - the competition for black, filter-style coffee as opposed to the espresso-centered Barista Championships.

This week the World Brewers Cup takes place at the SCAE show in Maastricht. You can read more about that at SCAE-events.com. On Wednesday June 22nd Torfi will compete and represent Denmark, and of course we hope he'll make the finals on Thursday.

Danish Brewers Cup Champion 2011: Torfi

In any case he will be joined by Christian, who placed 2nd in the Danish Barista Championship. Together they'll be brewing up our fresh crop Kenyans, Gichathaini and Kieni, for the good people attending the SCAE show. This will happen at The Village - a new area focused on showing new trends in coffee and some of the new specialty coffee roasteries around Europe. So if you're at the SCAE look for Torfi and Christian and ask for some great fresh coffee.
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Date-Nut Loaf - Tuesdays with Dorie

Date-Nut Loaf - Tuesdays with Dorie
Date-Nut Loaf

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet picked Date-Nut Loaf of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.


My buddy Mary got to pick another Tuesdays with Dorie treat. (We made our way through all the bakers and some lucky bakers won a random drawing to pick again!)

Date-Nut Loaf - Tuesdays with Dorie
I made 1/4 the recipe and got three mini loaves. Aren't these cute?

Date-Nut Loaf - Tuesdays with Dorie
One of the perks of making 1/4th of the recipe? That you have a leftover bag of dates to snack on! Have you had a date shake? Deliciousness. 

Check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and see their creations!

Date-Nut Loaf - Tuesdays with Dorie
My loaves were filled with dates and walnuts...but you can use any dried fruits and nuts.

Recipe:
Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet blog,
or, Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (page 228)
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La Esmeralda 2011

As you might know we were fortunate to get a lot (#ES8-16) of this years La Esmeralda Special.

Tomorrow, Tuesday 21st, we're roasting the first batch for sale. If you place an order in our webshop before noon tomorrow we'll send it out the same day.

On Wednesday, June 22nd, from 14:00 to 16:00 we'll be giving out free samples of Aeropressed La Esmeralda Special in our coffee shop. Come by for a taste of one of the worlds most aromatic coffees.

As last year, we probably won't be roasting this coffee every week, but will post on our Facebook page when we plan to roast it. If you order several coffees together with Esmeralda in our webshop, please notice that the entire order will wait for next Esmeralda roast.

Cupping
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Lemon Blueberry Buckle - Los Angeles Times Food Section

Lemon Blueberry Buckle
Lemon Blueberry Buckle

Love the Los Angeles Times Food Section! Always yummy recipes, stories, reviews, spotlights on Southern Cal's farmers market and local produce.

This Lemon blueberry buckle appeared in the Los Angeles Times Food Section in May 2009. It is adapted from "Rustic Fruit Desserts" by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. This is a fruit cake, crumb topping and a lemon glaze on top. Oh yes, crumb topping with lemon glaze. Deliciousness.

Lemon Blueberry Buckle collage 1
The buckle is a simple cake with half the blueberries folded into the batter and the rest sprinkled on top. A crumb mixture tops the batter and then it's baked for 45-50 minutes.

Lemon Blueberry Buckle
After the cake is removed from the oven, a warm glaze of sugar and lemon juice is poured over the cake. I took the syrup a bit too far and it caramelized a bit so it was a little dark, but it didn't matter.

Lemon Blueberry Buckle
I brought this into the library and my co-worker did one of those smiling side-to-side sway thank yous. "Oh, it has everything I like. [sway hip to one side] Fruit and that crumbly topping! [sway hip to other side]." I wish I had video. So, make this cake and you'll get people dancing around the office.

Recipe:
Lemon blueberry buckle
Los Angeles Times, Originally published May 27, 2009
Adapted from "Rustic Fruit Desserts" by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson
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AnneStine's WBC 2011 afterthoughts

So my run for the WBC ended with a decent 15th place this time. Only 9,5 points separated me of being in the semi-finals. Overall the championship has been a great experience.

Sara and I came down Friday the 27th, doing some preparations for practice time on the machine the following days, finding milk and getting ourselves situated.
Klaus came down the following day with more coffee and his celebrity glamour, so we were ready and in shape for a two-hour training session the following day.
Anxious to see how the local milk would taste and appear in combination with my coffee, what the water would be like and of course there’s been a lot of talk around how the espresso will react to such high altitudes, we were an excited little group of people with many questions entering the training space at Amor Perfecto.
We tested some different roast dates and found the oldest date (17/05) to be the absolute best. Having this high an altitude makes the crema of the espresso expand more, making it very bubbly, so using beans that have de-gassed a lot work better. We practiced with local fresh milk, but found the milk we brought from Denmark to be better in what we were looking for in terms of flavor and texture. A big thanks to Leo Corleone for bringing some additional milk and coffee for us all the way from Denmark.

Team Denmark

The next day we were on our way to Armenia and a 2- day coffee trip sponsored by Café de Colombia. We visited coffee farms; saw the coffee research facility of Cenicafe, Juan Valdez funpark and much more. It was an amazing trip from start to finish. Also great to see that there are serious focus on bringing right information out to the farms themselves, giving them tools to produce good quality coffees.
Back in Bogota we had our official practice time, the day before the competition itself. It was a nerve-wrecking and intense few hours. As the Mazzer Robur grinder was stuck in customs and would be arriving as my practice time was done and over with, we had no grinder to practice on. At that point everything was looking a little black as we would only have 15 minutes the next morning to dial in the burr set that we brought with us from Denmark, also dialing in both roasts and test the very limited amount of Danish milk we had.

Lucky for us we were very fortunate. Unsure if it was because of my desperate look in my eyes or not, but the lovely Marcus Boni let me split my 1 hour practice time in two parts, and squeezed me in for 30 minutes very early the next morning to set my Robur.

The WBC back room
WBC Back Room

I used my first day practice time on milk steaming and the lighter espresso roast was set to perfection, all there was to do now was to go home, do some mental training and get lots of sleep.
That didn’t happen. After having a very nice relaxing massage the same night I was feeling a bit low, and very drowsy, and I couldn’t sleep at all, in the halfway between sleep and being awake I kept going over the different parts of my presentation. So waking up at 5am, with a fever that is, was more a relief if anything.

We arrived at Corferias where the competition took place and were quick to get our gear in shape due to the short amount of time we had. It went well, with expertise assistance from Sara and Klaus right next to me.
Still feeling lousy and building an even higher fever, I was not feeling fresh or ready to compete at all, so I stuffed myself with some painkillers, went had my mental training for a small hour and got myself amped for competing.

This was IT! Getting out on stage and setting up was the best part ever. I didn’t feel nervous, I was calm, and my hands didn’t shake as I was preparing the cupping, as they normally do when I’m nervous. The shots I pulled from both espressos also tasted incredible, so I felt very secure on my dial in and the roast dates we’ve had selected.

Tasting the espresso

My 15 minutes started, I was giving my introduction and went to prepare my first shots of espresso when something went very wrong. The grinder was acting really weird. The dose, which had been set perfectly with minimal amount of waste in my preparation time had suddenly changed, and a lot more coffee came out. I decided to go ahead and make both double shots, wasting a lot of coffee as a consequence of the higher dose. I quickly saw the shots weren’t running as they should, so in the heat of the moment, I bluntly stopped them without wasting more time. I could almost hear Klaus’ heart jump from the sideline. I remade the espresso and the second set was better, although not as good as I’d have liked.

Tech judge checking the machine while AnneStine talks to the sensory judges

The rest of the presentation went ok. I knew that I was very limited on time and had to do things very disciplined and pick up the pace to finish in time, which I did, with a finish time coming in on 14:51 minutes.

Judges

The next two days I was in bed with a fever. No energy and not eating anything much but watermelon, so I can’t say I was in my top form. Sara even had to stand in for me when announcing the semi-finalists.

Unfortunately for me there were 14 great baristas doing a better job on the score sheets, so there was no need for me to prepare myself for the next day, which I was very disappointed not to do. The semi-finalists were all excellent and well deserving semi-finalists, I only wish I could have gotten that second chance.

Semi-finalists announcement (with Sara standing in)
Great crowd at a great stage

Watching the finals on Sunday was amazing. The roof almost lifted when Alejandro Mendez from El Salvador was announced the winner. What a great performance, great concept and a truly great ambassador for specialty coffee this man will be. I’m very excited to follow him in the coming year. I wish him the best of luck!

WBC 2011 Finalists


I would like to thank a few people that have really stood behind me and beside me in this little adventure.

First I would like to thank The Coffee Collective for giving me loads and loads of support creating solid frames and great guidance all the way thru the process. It has been truly amazing to feel the engagement from your side.

Then my two key persons I could not have done anything without. Sara Sundby; my coach and right hand all the way from the Danish champs to the WBC. You have been such a star! And Mathias Skovmand Larsen; food chemist and the Man of mans when it comes to innovative thinking in gastronomic ways. You have spent more time on this then I ever could imagine, Thank you!

Then we have all the tasters, and judges throughout my training and practice presentations, for taking the time, giving great feed back and golden advice along the way.

I would like to give big thanks to Edwin Martinez and the whole Finca Vista Hermosa team, for the great help of getting the new crop Finca Vista Hermosa to the roastery in time for WBC. I know how hard you worked for the beans getting here fast enough.

To Eva Solo, for everything I needed in glassware, utensils, serving trays etc. - I got it pronto. Uh la la Julie for helping out with signature drink cups even though she gave birth a week before the WBC, Paco Jet for sponsoring the machine for WBC, to Roger Wittman and La Marzocco USA for amazing assistance on the Mazzer grinder to and from Bogota. The help from all of you has meant a great deal to me.

Thank you!
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Yes, it is my fault

No Show this week.

I've got so many things to do this week, I wouldn't have time to put together anything worth watching. Feel free to view any of the past shows from 2011 or even 2010. You can't view any shows from 2012, as that year has not happened yet and I have not perfected my time machine.

Also, if you want a good laugh, go to this site

It Is Good To Mock - Click Here
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Cupping Extravaganza

Prior to the World Barista Championship I had the opportunity to attend the Cupping Extravaganza held by Virmax and Hacienda El Roble. The extravagant part was that we were going to cup 31 varietals from one single farm. Actually we were about to cup both species and varieties. If you want to know more about this I can highly recommend this article.

Hacienda El Roble

Varieties are all the rage in the coffee world right now, as you probably also noticed in the WBC presentations. However, it's quite rare that we can confidently say we're tasting the varity. Different varieties take to different climates, soil conditions, altitude and so on, so linking a single variety from one farm doesn't mean you're necessarily going to like it from another. From the cupping I've done of different varieties in different countries I have become more and more convinced that general, broad characterizations of varieties' flavours are probably not possible at the moment. The terroir and processing plays too big a role. Even tasting several varieties from one farm can be misleading, because quite often the farm expands over a large area and the varieties might be exposed to different microclimates and terroir.

All this had me so much more intrigued by the idea of cupping these 31 varieties from one far, grown at the exact same area of the farm and processed the same way. And with all the controversy surrounding the new high-yielding Castillo I think it's even more important to support experimentation with varieties based on taste. Just think how successful Hacienda La Esmeralda have been due to great tasting varieties.

Varieties popping up at the El Roble nursery

I must admit I had little expectations to the event, as I didn't know who was going to attend and how serious it would be. It surpassed any expectations I could have had, though. Firstly, the group that attended was awesome. Mie from 49th Parallel, Jenny Howells from Terroir, Mark Dundon from Seven Seeds, Russell Beard from The Source, Tal and Zachery from Four Barrel, Bjørnar from Kaffa, Ryan Brown from Stumptown and many many more really great coffee people attended (we were up to 20, so sorry for not naming everyone here!). It was such a nice mixture of people I've known for a long time and new acquaintances. And definitely some very experienced cuppers. Mark and Russ came straight from the Honduras Cup of Excellence, so they were very calibrated.

Russ
Russell Beard from The Source in Australia

Mie & Ryan
Our favourite Mie and Ryan "Le Tigre" Brown

Next I was happy to see how professional Virmax was running the competition, following CoE procedures. It's just so nice when the organisation around a thing like this is running so smoothly that you can focus 100% on what's in the cup. A big applause to everyone at El Roble as well for being so timely and precise with coffee, water, timing etc. First day we cupped three tables (11, 10 and 10) with proper time between each table to relax pour taste buds. The next day we cupped the Top 10 from the previous day.

The 31 varieties we cupped were actually out of a total of 72 varieties and species that are being grown at El Roble's coffee garden. We took a tour of the garden and I think it's safe to say everyone was impressed. It's astonishing how different the plants look. I've seen a lot of the different species and varieties in other places (for example last year at the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas) but here were even more varieties in one place. The leafs range from tiny and narrow to big round ones, that remind you of rhubarb leaves. I took a bunch of pictures, but I'm too poor a photographer to really capture that sort of thing. Besides the look of the plant you can taste a huge difference in the cherry itself and especially when sucking on the mucilage.

Not all the varieties are producing enough cherry yet to process, roast and cup. I think Virmax had gone through something like 50-60 of them and after their initial cupping some could be sorted out and some there simply wasn't enough left off to roast and cup. But I also felt that 31 was quite enough for us to cup.

Me engaged in breaking the crust

So what were the results?

Well, overall the difference in flavours on those tables were astonishing! There were just as much variety in flavour on those tables as a lot of roasters have in their entire assortment. And that came from one little area of one farm. We had some that tasted like earthy Indonesians, others like nutty Brazils, but more excitingly we had flavours reminding of the great Kenyans coffees and one that I would have bet was a well grown Geisha (but it wasn't).

The top two coffees are mysteriously labeled "HR" for Hacienda el Roble. Until a few weeks ago the people at El Roble thought the HR61 was Coffea Liberica and the HR62 was Coffea Racemosa. Two other species of coffee, hence it was not Arabica. However, the chief scientist from the Colombian national coffee reasearch center Cenicafe was at El Roble to validate the different varieties. But he could not confirm it was those varieties, because of different characteristics (like a bronze-colored tip leaf). Unfortunately he couldn't confirm which varieties they then are. Coffee's genome has not yet been decoded, so it's not possible to confirm from the DNA. So for now those two will just be labeled "HR".

The HR61 was incredibly floral with loads of jasmine, coffee blossom and also citrus fruit, orange, bergamot. A very very good coffee that really excited me. The HR62 was my second favourite. Also extremely aromatic but more fruit-tones, like peach and pear turning into berries in the aftertaste.

The SL28 was a little wild and crazy and we suspected that the fermentation would need to be different for that variety. It didn't present the clarity that we're used to. Some scored it really high while some flunked it for being too fermented. Borderline coffee for sure.

One of my favourites, although apparently the scorekeeper read my sheets wrong (I wrote 89 but can see how it could look like 84) was the Moka/Mocca. Super sweet and creamy with a lovely vanilla aroma in the aftertaste. It was particularly when it cooled that you noticed it. It didn't scream out as the more wildly aromatic ones, but made of for it in sweetness and mouthfeel.

I'm not gonna get into detailed descriptions of all the varieties as this post is already long enough. But the Mibirizi on the last table was stunning as well. Very sweet and almost a perfumed scent of melos mixed with rosehips and lemons. Quite light mouthfeel but very delicate.

Overall I'm really looking forward to more of this kind of thing. We need to encourage farmers to try different varieties. If you go through Latin America the same 8 varieties are grown almost everywhere. Now of course Esmeralda became a bit of a game changer making the Geisha famous. But the Geisha only performs well in some areas at certain altitudes. And there might be 10, 20, 50 other varieties out there that would be just as good or even better if matched with the right conditions.

Farmers that I've spoken to would like to try other varieties, but their primary concern is making a living, and higher yielding plants will still give more money in the end. So if we want those better tasting varieties out there, we need to be ready to pay a lot more for them and make it financially interesting for farmers to produce them.

I'd like to thank Oswaldo Acevedo, the owner of El Roble, and his entire amazing staff for hosting us and engaging in this experiment. Also thanks to Giancarlo Ghiretti and Alejandro Cadena of Virmax. And finally to the others in the 'little' group. It was great fun to get to know everyone there.

The 2011 Cupping Extravaganza participants

Slideshow with all the pictures from the Slurparama:
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