A little over a month ago, on a Friday evening, nursing a bottle of wine, and feeling rather in love with the world, I made this blog post. The result was thirty people sending and receiving bags of coffee from all over the world; thirty people who put their faith in complete strangers to uphold their side of the bargain. It has broadly been very successful, with the only caveats being an inevitable couple of lost/delayed packages expected of these kind of international shipments.

The group of people involved include coffeegeeks, roasters, baristas, trainers, retailers and even a grower. Coffees sent (that I am aware of) have come from Supreme Roastworks, Square Mile, 49th Parallel, Catalina Coffee, Safehouse Coffee & Tea, Brown Coffee Co, Wolfredo, Ritual, Intelligentsia, Five Senses, Hasbean, Espresso Lab Mircoroasters, iKhofi, Coffee Prince, Market Lane Coffee, James Gourmet Coffee, Coffee Alchemy, and Monk Bodhi Dharma.

Phew.

Some reactions…

From Chris Capell, a coffeegeek turned coffee pro from Montreal on Square Mile’s Yirg – [sent by Paul Stack]:

…there was one clear taste note listed on the bag that completely shined through in every sip: sweet lime. It was so pronounced that as it spread across my tongue I was often afraid it would turn sharp and unpleasant, but at that exact moment it would soften and the sweet, chocolate base notes of a properly extracted coffee would then come through, balancing out the taste. The best word I could come up with to describe this taste experience is that the coffee *shimmered*.

Collin Moody (Catalina Coffee) on 49th Parallel’s Burundi Kibingo [sent by Chris Capell]:

It has intense floral sweetness with soft rounded stone fruit that overwhelms the palate in a wonderful way. I’ve been enjoying this coffee quite a bit and am surprised by how well the coffee has held up. This is my first experience of a coffee from 49th and i am happy to have found another stellar North American roaster i can order from every once in a while!

Jesse Raub, a barista with Intelligentsia in Chicago on Brown Coffee Co’s Karuya Estate [sent by Daniel Larsen]:

After running it on the V60, Chemex, and Cafe Solo at home and off shift at work, I was nicely surprised by the consistent flavor notes — red licorice, savory body, and anise seed in the finish. It was a bit darker of a roast than I’m used to, especially for a Kenya, so it was really great to get to try a coffee outside my normal spectrum. More than anything it’s expanded my viewpoint of coffee in this country, and put me in touch with more coffee people in Texas than I had been previously.

Paul Canavan from Ireland, on Coffee Prince’s Knockrow Naturals [sent by Cameron Prince]:

Om nyom nyom nyom

Joe Crawley, from Ireland, on Monk Bodhi Dharma’s Kenya Tinganga [sent by Emily Chang]:

The coffee arrived on Tuesday and I’ve been busily making my way through it. It’s a beautiful Kenyan altogether and the roasters certainly seem to know what they’re doing.

Chris Grant, from Orelia, near Perth, Square Mile’s Colonia San Juan Espresso [sent by Joe Crawley]:

It had a unique… lovely smokey taste to it with a bold yet powerful smell and a very subtle taste leaving a lovely aftertaste for me to hang there till i made myself another cup.
The colour it gave whilst being poured through the portafilter was a lovely golden caramel colour.

Mark Wilson, from London, on Five Senses Coffees [sent by Andrew Petrie]:

I received from Australia two bags of roasted coffee, one which was Rwandan Abakundakawa and the other was Ethiopian Sidamo, I am fairly new in the world of speciality coffee and have been trying to expand my palate so this was a real treat. The Sidamo very quickly became a firm favourite with me and was like drinking a bar of very dark bitter chocolate complete with the dry mouth feel – think Lindt 70% cocoa.

Matt Perger (via Twitter), from Melbourne, on Hasbean’s Colombian Narino Consaca [sent by Paul Canavan]:

My @otherblackstuff pass-it-on coffee by @hasbean is suuuuper sweet melony goodness!! http://twitpic.com/24uvrn

So thanks to everyone who took part. I’m going to close the comments on the original post now, as it’s been a few weeks since the last comment. To those still awaiting your coffee, it seems that South Africa has been slow due to the World Cup, followed it seems by Australia. I have had comments from participants who don’t know if their bag arrived at its desintation, and have offered to send out a second bag if necessary.

A couple of other blog mentions:

Kalle Freese

hermitudinous

If anyone has anything to add to the above, please feel free to drop comments below.

I’ll leave you with the map (definitely worth viewing large).

It was an odd few days, a very different WBC to last year’s. The atmosphere at the show was simultaneously wonderfully convivial and at times disconcertingly surreal. I found my mind switching between awe at the assembled talent and resources, and reeling against what I hope most will forgive me for calling the sometimes boderline absurdity of this subculture. It is a happy kind of absurdity I must add.

I first met Mike Phillips in Atlanta at WBC ‘09, and I thought he delivered then a performance worthy of winning a WBC, and another year may well have done so. It was inspirational and original. Mike, personally, is hugely skilled, excessively humble, without a trace of arrogance for which, given his expertise most would readily forgive, and I’m delighted that one of the few competitors who could compare to Gwilym Davies on those levels will carry on the mantle.

As for Colin’s performance, I am enormously proud to be able to claim him as a friend. His performance was not only original, and inspiring, but it was also staggeringly brave and important. I do expect it to spark a discussion on water, which is much overdue. Similar to Mike’s 09 performance, I also feel Colin’s performance was worthy of winning a WBC, and another year, probably would have done so.

I have for my part to thank Steve Leighton, Paul Stack, Shane Pender, and Colin Harmon for getting me focused for the cupping competition. Steve provided a slew of coffees to challenge my abilities, Paul and Shane setup the triangles, and Colin provided some stiff competition. Thanks guys. I am indebted.

I drank beautiful coffee from Intelligentsia, Da Matteo, Counter Culture, Hasbean, Coffee Angel, Square Mile and Tim Wendelboe at the Brew Bar. I had Gwilym Davies and Charles Babinski make me espresso and capps on the espresso bar. David Schomer even pulled me a shot on the La Marzocco stand on the new Strada. Every beautiful coffee reminded me of why we do this, why what might seem absurd and excessive to someone unfamiliar, can be justified by us without too much difficulty.

More than all this though, I left London I suppose with renewed inspiration, not only from Mike and Colin, from Steve and Paul, but from John and Oda, from Ben and Barrett, from Vince and Rasmus. These individuals along with dozens of others are changing the coffee world from their own corner. Knowing that fills me with ample optimism for coffee’s continued evolution, and for delights yet to come.

One of the great things I enjoy about coffee, is sharing a coffee I love with someone. Recently I’ve been running Saturday cupping sessions at 3FE, and seeing week after week people getting those new experiences has been really fulfilling. I also feel I spend far too much time on this blog being cantankerous, this I hope will be my penance for dozens of long winded blog posts.

I don’t know if this is going to work, in the cold light of the morning it may seem shockingly naive, but here goes. The first person to comment on this post gets a bag of coffee of my choosing from a roaster of my choosing (and an email explaining my choice). However, by commenting you are committing to do the same for the next person to comment (in a timely manner – you shall be held on your honour), and so on and so forth.

I don’t know who that person may be, where in the world they may be, but I do already have some candidate coffees in my mind. Cups I’d love to share. Their locale will probably influence my choice – eg probably wouldn’t send a bag of coffee from one of Hasbean / SqM / JGC to someone based in the UK as they could already be quite familiar with their offerings etc.

I will pass on/coordinate postal addresses if you forward them to me via the contact page (after commenting).

*edit* don’t forget to send me your address!

For the last 12-18 months, it seems there has been a steady succession of challenges and activities to occupy my focus: the 2009 Irish Barista Championship (judging and coaching), WBC Atlanta (coaching), getting the Uber Project blog off the ground, attending the Gold Cup course (while it only took a day, it maintained my interest for weeks), the Irish Cupping Competition, 3FE opening etc. Though I remain involved in a couple of ongoing coffee-related projects, there has been a recent absence of something meaty, challenging.

Despite a dearth of personal and professional free time, I find myself longing for something to obsess over, something to push me out of my comfort zone. That something I hope, is the 2010 Irish Barista Championships, this time, however, as a competitor.

Not being a professional barista, naturally puts me at somewhat of a disadvantage. My homespun, slow, inefficient, meticulous techniques are now nothing but bad habits to unlearn. My milk steaming honed on steaming tiny portions of milk with small aperture steam tips, equally now lacking in value. I have short time to attempt to carve a functional competition barista out of the remnants of years of relatively casual home brewing.

Among my hopes are that this process will not be too harrowing or economically draining. I plan, not to decorate my routine with fancy cups, jugs, linen or crockery, if for no other reason than I cannot afford the expense (who can these days?). I hope to gain new insight into the minutiae of espresso preparation, and perhaps to find a new appreciation for a beverage that ignited my interest in coffee, but in recent times has played second fiddle to filter coffee for my affections.

I know for certain that I can afford to work on my presentation skills. While I have ample experience presenting scientific material, it doesn’t require engaging your audience in the same manner.

Perhaps it will also give me opportunity to get around to some espresso experiments that I had been meaning to do for sometime, but kept putting off.

Probably, above all, I want to present some great coffee and have fun with it.

Already at this stage, I am greatly indebted to a number of people, coffee professionals, from these shores and abroad. They know who they are, and I am amazed and touched by their remarkable capacity for generosity. I shall save the thanks for a later date, but know that without their kindness this wouldn’t be possible.

For now though, there is so much to do, in such a short period of time.

Ok, so I got a gift of an aeropress at Christmas, something which I already own. I can no longer bear to see its boxed visage in the kitchen.

So to remedy this situation I am asking that people respond in the comments with suggested captions for the below image.

The best one (picked by me) gets the aeropress (and maybe a surprise).

About a year ago I went to London, primarily to attend a Square Mile “Taste of …” event, but I also used it to do a tour of some of the recommended coffee shops. I left impressed and jealous in equal measure. As the interim year passed, my envy increased with the reports, the pictures, the videos, the newspaper clippings. The London map, it seemed, was becoming increasingly speckled with exciting, new, quality-driven cafes. This year, my superficial reason at least was to attend an Ultimate Bartista Fighter event, a latte art throwdown with costumes, again at the Square Mile roastery.

In the time between landing in London and the evening’s festivities I made my way to Dose, The Espresso Room, Lantana, Kaffeine, Nude, and Present (that’s present as in “let me present something to you”, not present as in “let me give you a present”). Taylor St Baristas was too busy, and Taste of Bitter Love had closed by the time I darkened their door.

Four of the six I did get to served me Square Mile’s Autumn Espresso Blend, which I hadn’t had until the first of the day in Dose, and which by the end of the day, I felt I knew intimately. Lantana and Nude being the exceptions that served coffee from (I think) Monmouth. I gave everywhere a fair crack of the whip, ordering a single espresso and a short milk drink (cortado, gibraltar, flat white etc), and contrary to my mixed experiences of the previous year (most notably in Sacred), these were near universally excellent. If you blindfolded me, I don’t think I could tell the drinks from Dose and the Espresso Room apart, while Kaffeine maybe just eeked a fraction more body out of the espresso blend (which seemed to be quite light in nature). The shot from the Victoria Arduino lever machine in Present was perhaps my favourite, shorter, stickier, more intense.

Lantana, sandwiched between the Espresso Room and Kaffeine, served a much heavier (in terms of mouthfeel and body) shot, with a sweet orange note, perhaps lacking the clarity of the Square Mile blend, but was nonetheless very pleasing. Nude, served the least satisfying shot of the day, coming across as slightly bitter in comparison to some of the others. I am nitpicking though, as it was certainly drinkable, even enjoyable, and their milk in the accompanying Flat White was superb. If any of these cafes opened tomorrow in Dublin, they would raise the bar.

My Simpsons’ reference at the top, is not a snipe at the prevalence of the Square Mile blend, though the lack of a guest coffee at Dose on the day did magnify the scant variety. Rather it is an observation at the absence of any filter coffee on the menus. You have this group of cafes, and several others I could not visit, who are incredibly quality focused, passionate, inspiring, and they all, with the one exception (that I am aware of) of Monmouth, serve only espresso based coffee drinks. No french press, no chemex… nothing. You can forget your Kiamabara AA by hand poured filter cone, never mind Finca La Fany or Sidikalang in the press pot, don’t even think about Kilimanjaro Natural in the aeropress

I don’t know if it’s the much lauded Antipodean influence. I think that it’s a bit of a cliche and a also bit patronizing to suggest that Aussies and Kiwis don’t have palates that expand beyond espresso drinks. Maybe the customer needs to demand it, maybe it’s one of those “commercial reality” things that I don’t really get. What I do know is that next June, London becomes the centre of the coffee universe for Caffe Culture, the SCAE, the WBC and the other coffee competitions. The industry will decamp, luminaries will descend. London’s cafes will become the world’s cafes. How does London want to show the world what it considers to be the very best in coffee in 2010, what it considers the very best the UK has to offer in 2010?

I went to London. They have strange people there, with strange customs.

As always best to follow the link to Vimeo, watch in HD and fullscreen.

Special thanks to my wife, the lovely Marie, for the early birthday present of the lens used to shoot the video :)

Prime position plaque

I guess this isn’t going to be news to many, as it has already been tweeted, sprudged, and dublinbaristed. In case you missed it, the Irish Cup Tasting Championship took place on September 29th, and somehow, I managed to win it and take home the plaque. There are many people to thank*.

The competition involves choosing the odd ones out in eight sets of 3 coffees against a clock. Those 6 competitiors (there were 18 in total) who get the most right go through to the final, to do it all again (with a more difficult set of coffees). In the case of a tie, fastest wins.

I had planned to take my time, and did so in the first round, taking 6:59 out of the allowed 8 mins. That plan was scuppered when two of the first three finalists scored 8/8 in around 4:30 or so. I knew then I had to go as quickly as possible, and hope for an 8. All or nothing.

The standard was very high (there were two 8/8s and four 7/8s in the first round), any of the 6 finalists really would have been worthy winners, and would have represented Ireland well in London next June.

Nine months to go.

*Jackie, Damian, Julie & all the SCAE Ireland volunteers, who take the often thankless job of organising and running these events. Paul Stack, brewmaster for the event, and for being a continuing source  of knowledge on brewed coffee. Bewleys for their continuing support of SCAE events. W. Wright Silverware for the (free sample) cupping spoon. Colin Harmon and Fergus Moloney for helping me crap myself with my awful practice efforts. My wife, Marie, for graciously putting up with what can only be described as a form of madness for someone who doesn’t work in coffee.

I wouldn't consider this SCAE approved.

I was really lucky to be able to attend the SCAE Brewmaster course held at Marco HQ a couple of weeks ago. The course in a nutshell gives someone the tools to effectively take control of their brewed coffee. The aim it would appear, from the SCAE point of view is to raise the quality of brewed coffee across Europe by creating a nucleus of “Brewmasters” to spread the good word. The ultimate target isn’t really the super speciality people, rather the average cafe, who is likely to be using as little as 30g of coffee in per litre water, and extracting every last morsel of coffee from that 30g. Nonetheless the material is hugely relevant to anyone who cares about brewed coffee quality. It was was more than just interesting for me, however, it has crystallised some thoughts in my mind about brewed coffee, particularly in relation to grinders for brewed coffee, which has been a bugbear of mine for some time.

Brewmaster peeps. A great bunch of lads.

Firstly I will say that, in general, in my (good) coffee drinking lifetime I have been drinking updosed underdeveloped coffee as outlined by the SCAE (and most other bodies). For those unfamiliar with these concepts, it basically means I was extracting less than the ideal (18-22%) amount from my coffee, and perhaps compensating for the diminished strength of such an extraction by increasing the dose. To fall within “SCAE Ideal” you need to be using between about 50g /l and just under 70g/l. The Nordic standards permit a higher dose range, the SCAA standard a lower one. With drip and press, I have pretty much always favoured finding myself at the top or just above the SCAE standard (without knowing so at the time). For Vac Pot and Aeropress, however, I have found myself using doses well in excess of any known standards.

However, I am not alone. Examples of underextracted, updosed brews are abound. In the recent Aeropress Championship two of the top 3 methods (including the winner) used a dose of 100g / l. When I duplicated these results at home, I got tasty cups, that were underdeveloped by any standard (12-14%), but fell into the ideal range in terms of strength. Take note that the palates of the judges of the aeropress championship are not to be sniffed at.

So does this suggest a kind of mass hysteria among speciality coffee folks, a laziness in technique due to increasing bean quality, or perhaps that the 50+ year old standards are inadequate?

The answer is probably not 100% any of the above, though I will admit at times finding it difficult to brew a bad cup of certain stellar coffees (hint = Aricha).

An example grind profiles of the same grinder and beans at different settings. Note as the grind size gets smaller, more fines are produced.

The problem though, is the Gold Cup extraction percentages presume a relatively uniform grind, the kind you might get from industrial roller grinders, and to a lesser extent some commercial / bag grinders. The physics of bean grinding, however, says that the finer the grind, the more fines (dust-like tiny particles) will be created, regardless of grinder. Whether you have a Mahlkonig Guatemala or a Rancilio Rocky this holds true. Conversely coarser grinds produce fewer fines.

Over the course of a brew these fines will overextract in relation to the normal sized grinds, typically creating a bitter, muddy taste. I’ve heard it mentioned that the fines add complexity, I would argue brew a cup of 100% fines and see how complex you find it. A turd in a swimming pool probably makes the swimming pool more complex. It seems natural enough therefore that those of us sensitive to these types of flavours , identifying them as undesirable will perhaps instinctively move to coarser grinds that produce fewer fines. When we find the mouthfeel and body lacking we increase the dose.

I’d put 95% of the blame for this trend on the grinds we use.

The other 5% perhaps is that these types of brews actually can be excellent. Punchy, intense, BIG! They may not deliver a full picture of a coffee – but does a ristretto give you everything a bean can give to espresso? It is foolhardly to merely label anything short of 18% extraction “wrong”.

I've been using a tea strainer as a sieve, however, in Japan a device for this very purpose is available. The deviceSTYLE Brunopasso MPS-50. This is on my shopping list.

My message here is not to say that 18-22% extraction is not a meritorious standard. With a good grinder, or as I have been doing at home, sieving my grinds to remove the fines, extractions in this range really sing, beautifully sweet, rounded and complex. Without sieving the grinds there was a kind of muddy overlay to the flavour profile. I do believe this is the default level to which coffee should be brewed. But we don’t all have Mahlkonig Tanzanias or Ditting K804s (yet), and if we do, when were the burrs last changed? Sieving grinds is also a pretty tedious process.

It’s apt to point out that the SCAE Gold Cup is due to undergo a process of consultation to update the standards and aims of the concept. The timescale is in the half a decade kind of region so I suspect one won’t be able to accuse to them of not being thorough. I do hope, however, that in that time we are able to move on from lamenting fines, the grinders that produce them and being drawn inexorably coarser… always coarser.

I met Colin Harmon through this thread on Boards.ie. A group of us were buying some Intelligentsia coffee, combining shipping costs, and Colin offered to have it delivered to him. When I mentioned to him that Fergus and I were heading over to London for a Cafe Crawl and an espresso tasting at Square Mile, he asked to tag along. On the train from Stansted to London he told us that he was entering the Irish Barista Championships. At that point it seemed so distant, so improbable. Six months later, we have returned from the WBC in Atlanta, Colin achieving an amazing 4th place finish. It all seems slightly surreal.

Leaving for Atlanta, I actually didn’t feel we were as completely prepared as we had been for the IBC. The 6 weeks or so between the two competitions was eaten up by some delays, the most prominent of which were getting an Aurelia and finalising the beans. Getting the Aurelia was always going to be a brilliant, if very costly decision. All machines to a greater or lesser extent have their quirks, and it’s a big advantage being comfortable pulling shots and steaming on a machine. As it turned out, the steaming took some time to get used to, I still don’t think the steam tip and boiler pressure are in good balance on the WBC spec Aurelia. I suspect slightly smaller apertures on the 4-hole tip would increase the steam velocity with a small increase in steaming time.

The decision to change beans also made sense. We were happy with the blend for the IBC, but we wanted something seasonal, a new crop. Russell Bailie of Bailies coffee had provided our IBC blend, but the timing of his new crops arriving was going to be too late, so we had to find a new roaster. Our search began and ended with Steve Leighton of Hasbean. Colin and I, had both been customers of Hasbean for quite some time, and we knew he had access to some stellar coffee. Steve was hugely enthusiastic for the project, we visited him once, Colin alone a second time, and over the next couple of weeks we received kilos of coffee, twice, sometimes three times a week. Certain beans came in and out of consideration, Brazil Toca da Onca Inglattera was an early runner, but we found it got a little lost in milk. The Machacamarca was actually ruled out at one point, before Steve came back to us with a tweaked profile, that got us very excited. We were thrilled to be taking it to Atlanta.

Apart from the beans, Steve proved his worth in other ways. The night before Colin’s preliminary performance we were in our hotel, we ducked into an empty conference room and Colin started miming his performance for us. Even at this point there was something missing from his talking points, something to tie it all together. Credit has to go to Steve for his suggestions at that point, and to Colin for immediately absorbing them, so that when he performed them the following day, it appeared as though they were always part of the routine.

I suppose absorbing things quickly makes sense for someone in coffee a year, finishing 4th in the WBC. Indeed, I’m sure I referred to him as a sponge at some point during the week in Atlanta. Colin’s ability to take advice and info from multiple sources, and identify useful from useless quickly is one of the reasons he did so well.

His performances in Atlanta were the best I had seen. He peaked at exactly the right moment.

Despite his performances being excellent, watching them, and waiting for results were hugely nerve racking. Myself and Steve were apoplectic on the sidelines, as were the greater Team Ireland, Colin’s girlfriend and family, as well as Paul from Marco. We knew he had a shot at top 6 after his performance, but after 4 names had been called out, and we fully expected Carl Sara to be called, we had a momentary sinking feeling. In the ensuing fracas, as Colin’s name was called out 5th, there was shouting, man hugs, slapping, and general hysteria. It was USA 94 all over, Ray Houghton had just scored against Italy.

That moment was the highlight of Atlanta for me. In the end 4th place remains a remarkable achievement given the resources available.

The 4th place will fade though, I expect Colin to return, redoubling his efforts, he will finish higher. What won’t fade though was the week, we were a well oiled team for a while. It made little sense, a (relative) newbie barista, a home coffee nerd (me), and a slightly unhinged ( I say that with love Steve) roaster, but it worked. We gatecrashed the party. More than that though, we had the craic.

Requiem for Atlanta (VacPot of Glory) from The Other Black Stuff on Vimeo.