Amsterdam

This week I went on a short trip to Amsterdam to do some espresso workshops and taste group discussions for Philips. I had a few hours to walk around town and I stumbled upon a small coffee shop ... wait, that means something different there ... well, a café then, with a three group Mirage. For those who don't know this machine, it's made by Kees van der Westen and is a work of art as well as one of the technically best machines around.
Although the Italian robusta-laden dark roasted espresso they made at De Koffie Salon, as the place is called, was not to my liking it was brewed pretty well and I had a great little chat with the baristas. It's always nice to find a good coffee place when you're out of town.

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Casper wins DM in Cup Tasting!!!

The first ever danish championship in Cup Tasting is just over. Our two competitors Klaus and Casper finished in respectively seventh and first place!!!!

We are very proud of Casper and Klaus but also congratulates Jakob Dupont (Peters brother) from Copenhagen Roaster who came in second and third place winner Karen Dysted (who right now is starting her own coffee shop here in Copenhagen - check out www.kaffekaren.dk))!

There were a lot of good cuppers at the competition which was both fun and very exciting allthough a bit stressing in the logistics behind the scenes!

We're out to celebrate!!!

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Pictures from the Collective

We have a Flickr account! So now you can see lots and lots of pictures from our new adventures into the world of coffee. Click here or on the fancy Flash link to the right.

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Coffee samples ready

Our first samples of roasted coffees are ready. This week it will be possible to get a visit from Casper and taste some of our coffees if you are interested.
So, what are these first new exciting coffees going to be? Well, first a superb Kenya AA Top from a wet mill named Kariaini (such a nice simple name, eh). It has the most wonderful honey-like sweetness and a lively acidity. Next it's the Daterra Sweet Collection for those who'd appreciate a very heavy bodied coffee with low acidity. There is also a Guatemalan while we wait for the Finca Vista Hermosa lot to arrive. And last but definitely not least: Our brand new espresso blend. Stay tuned for the name of that one! ;-)

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Danish Cupping Championship

The coming weekend I am one of the organizers of the first Danish Cup Tasting Championship at the Eat 07 exhibition. Linus has volunteered to help and Casper and Klaus are going to compete :-) The winner will represent Denmark in the World Cup Tasting Championship. It is going to be a fun event and we hope to see a lot of people there. Saturday the 25th at 12 o'clock.

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Barista Guild of Taiwan interviewing our Roast Master

Our Friend Joe Hsu from Orsir Coffee in Taiwan has send me a link to the website of their Barista Guild in Taiwan. They have put out an interview which I did with them - Its not often you see your own words written in Chinese (they also have the english version)!

http://www.baristaguildoftaiwan.org/index.php/topic,106.0.html

They also have an interview with another good friend of ours - Tim Wendelboe - he has been answering some of the same questions I was asked. I am glad to see that it seems like we share some common ideas. Tim and I also have a common background as we met in the norwegian championship in 1999 where we both participated in our first barista competition. At the competition back then I think both Tim and I and a bounch of other barsistas who wasn't good enough to get into the top three were all 'crownd' as number 4. I guess you can say that Tim cought up on this later!

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Espresso Blend v1.3

Our espresso blend is coming together. We've had a pretty good idea about what we wanted to create and how we would achieve it right from the beginning. But getting the roast profiles and blend percentages dialed in takes a lot of experimentation and patience. For us a blend is a living thing that changes year round as the green coffee looses some of it's freshness after harvest. Consequently you have to adjust the blend frequently if you want to maintain a similar taste profile. Consistency is the goal for a lot of roasters, but at the same time you have to accept that coffee is an agricultural product that changes a lot both from year to year but also in the time after harvest. Anyway, the espresso today was a little too fresh but still had what I look for in an espresso; heaps of body, sweetness, a delicate acidity and a lingering aftertaste. It's going to be interesting to see how much better it's going to get once we go full speed on production. We used my La Marzocco GS/3 and a Compak K-10 conical grinder to do the tasting - not the worst setup for a small espresso tasting :-)

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