The 2° Argentinean Barista Championship will be held at the Colon Hotel (Carlos Pellegrini 507, Buenos Aires) between the 19th and the 22nd of May (from 14 to 19:30hrs).If anyone is visiting Buenos Aires, it will be a pleasure to meet you there!Best regards,Federico
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After years of development of Coffee and Espresso Theorey and their brewing skills, Kaffa Cafe is ready to go for its commercial business.Where can we go? Many!Trianing of baristas, cafes, supply of machines and distribution of coffee beans, and so on, as usual. And, we also have something else to do, which are mainly related to coffee.While it is organized, we have time left, at least for myself to do something else.What can I do for this time? First, I am writing my book of "Kaffa Handbook for Baristas", and mainly concentrated in the contents of psirits & cocktails, and other soft drinks.What else? Today, I have got an idea. I remember that someone told me that the Fusion of cuisine is not really defined yet, till now. I do not know whether it is true or not. If anyone have any idea, please let me know and have some further information about it.While the world is getting smaller and smaller, people have chances to learn and to try different cuisines around the world. Like Chinese people about Sichuan cuisine, it is loved by some people, but avoided by others. It is too hot, or spicy. Someone is trying to make a new version of it, but not quite succeed yet. It is something we can do for many others, I suppose.First step, I have to know more about it.
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Looks like the change by Starbucks to revisit their old logo is making some waves, I remember this same issue being a big part of why they changed in the first place. Crazy to me that anyone would find the logo offensive. Link to article on Motherjones ...
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I just returned from the SCAA meeting in Minneapolis and learned that most of the Europeans have resigned from the WBC Committee and there have been multiple, key resignations from the USBC Committee...what's happening?Any help here folks?best,Chuck
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It's Friday, it's nice out and there is lots of art to experience.Stop by anytime from 2pm to 7pm and cup various coffees, play with the espresso machine or just look around. The cafe will be open until 9pm as well.On the table:Rwanda (bourbon),Ethiopia (Harrar G4),Yemen Sana'ani,Brazil (HA, Carmo De Cambara),Mexico (Chiapas),Guatemala (Primavera),El Salvador,India (Malabar Coast)
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Reg Barber, photo maniac and trophy designer, has posted his set of over 1000 photos from this past weekend on his Flickr. Thank you Reg for covering this event in such detail!
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In chapter 2, we talked about the coffee market in Guangzhou. Let's see it again and maybe in a deeper way.Many cafes are closing and/or transfered, and the market is going down. What do we expect for the future of this market?Is it going down and down? No, I do not think so.When people noticed that some or even many cafes are closing, and they would surely stop to invest for more cafes. Some of the capitals will moved to other industries, like real estates, share markets, and so on. But, not all. There will also other people to see the coffee market again, and join those people who are waiting for another chance of entering. One day, some of them may start to invest for any reason, and if it can be felt by others, more people may be brought to the coffee market automatically.Sometimes, the reason can be none, but even if few, there could be possibilities to have a better key to solve the old problems. If it happens, the new investment wind may bring a number of successful cafes. That is what we are planning. I met some people who are interested in investing new cafes and also some of our trainees may consider it.If the wind is coming, it would not be a few, but could be a big one, after a period of time of silence.
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All,I have some tragic news.The owner of RedRock foods and a cafe in queen creek arizona died in a very tragic way just a few days ago.I worked as a barista at the cafe and roasted for another company in scottsdale not related.All the Baristas are stunned and are very sad for the loss.We could not believe it.The Cafe was a very third wave concept.We where excited to have a gb5 and fetco in a shop that has only been open 2 and half months.I am letting you know hoping you can help us baristas find jobs.This job was were most of my hours came from and I was barley getting by at that supporting my wife and my 3 year old boy.But I love coffee and stick with it because I am very passionate about helping others develop there skills and inspiring them about coffee.If anyone has any jobs for us here in Arizona or elsewhere I would appreciate it if you let me know so I can pass the information on to the manager and other baristas.You can email me at jason_casale@fastmail.fm
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Drove to Chicago a couple weekends ago. Got lost in the confusion of construction detouring.. but made it none-the-less. The trip presented itself by way of business. I went to train some of the lovely folks at Jesus People U.S.A. on how to properly use their newly acquired espresso machine. J.P.U.S.A. is a wild place... full of characters and crazies. JPUSA is a Christian commune that was founded by some Jesus Hippies back in the day. The own two small towers, now commune residences, and the also run numerous businesses and ministries, including three or four homeless shelters. Everyone that lives at JPUSA lives expense free.. but they are expected to put in their work with one of the businesses or ministries to earn their room and board. It's quite a beautiful working... like a ginormous family running their 13 story household.. making sure that all are fed and taken care of.Anyway... to the topic of the post. I'm taking advantage of the business trip by visiting the Chicago-locally-owned Coffee Studio. The Coffee Studio serves fresh roasted Intelligentsia coffee... never more than a week old. They serve this coffee in the traditional drip brew method with a very nice looking Fetco brewer. They also serve the Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso using the very beautiful three-group Syneso.
I started my experience with a small mug of Intelli's Finca Matalapa El Salvador. The cup was very pleasing... carrying a caramel sweetness and a wonderful lime citrus acidity with a very clean finish... a more-than-amazing early morning coffee. However, this was not enough. I had to take advantage of the Syneso that I've heard only great things about. I ordered a cappuccino, which the Coffee Studio serves solely in 7 oz. cups with two shots of Black Cat... I was smiling upon hearing the good news. The barista dosed the Black Cat into her portafilter and leveled with some sort of disigner-looking leveling tool. Before fully leveling, the barista did a cross-hatch chopping motion across the top of the portafilter with the tool, then leveled off the rest of the coffee in compass directions. She locked the portafilter into the grouphead and let it flow. Next she poured the organic whole milk into a small pitcher and threw the cool-touch steam wand into the pitcher and began stretching. The sound of her stretching and rolling didn't seem exactly on-point, and I was even more surprised to see that she let the milk settle and then proceeded to pour some of the milk on the bottom of the pitcher into the sink... ah-hah.. a corner cut to make a simple cappuccino. She then freely poured out the milk into the cup with no attempt at art. I was slightly disappointed with the technical skills, but the cappuccino was delicious none-the-less. All together, I thought the shop was very impressively designed and put-together, the barista's were quite friendly, and you can't really go wrong with Intelligentsia coffee.
From time to time, we heard about the topics of "customer education".Now, let me say something about it.Are we able to educate the customers? To know this, I would compare coffee with hamburgers. That is the symble of success of Mc Donald (hope the spelling is correct). Is it good? I do not know. But for me, it is not good, simply because I had the better one, much better. But finally, it was replaced by Mac (may I call it like this? Sorry, apple).We have got another one, Subway. It is better. Maybe not much better, but better; maybe also safer. Can it be better than Mac in business? Not yet, at least not now.In Beijing, both of them have a lot clients, and number of chops of Subway is much less. There are full of Chinese clients in Subway, as in Mac. While in Guangzhou, local people enojoy Mac's hamburgers, but not Subway, where you can see almost only foreign clients.Is that for the reason of culture? Or convenience, or pricing? I do not know. Feel it. I do not believe that we can understand it, but we can feel it.For good coffee, how to educate clients? Your coffee, your really good coffee. Apart from good coffee, I do not think you can have any way to do it. Serve your good coffee, and let the clients to compare by themselves.If the clients do not have choice, that is not many cafes can seve good coffee, the situation will be the same as it is now in Beijing and China, people can only go to *$s.When I was in HK, I did not like their food, so I have to find somehting else. Considering the price, food and convenient location, I chosed Mac. Of course, I won't be there quite often, but only very few in that period of time.Hope we all have platform to play our good coffee, all the time.
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Brazil Carmo de CamberaAttributes: (1-10 scale)Acid: 8,Body: 7Texture: vanilla and honey syrupFlavor: Sweetly citrus like lemonade with a hint of cherry- mostly aromatic similar to cherry pipe tobacco. Malty carmelized ginger root, almost brown sugar molasses. Surprisingly thick in body with a mix of hazelnut and vanilla in a honeylike syrup. The high acid stays perfectly in balance with the sweetness throughout without turning sour.Special note: Carmo de Cambara is located in the Minas Gerais region of brazil. They separate their crops and process them separately according to elevation and plant type. This particular coffee is grown at the highest elevation of their farms at an elevation of 4,900 feet and above. The result is a highly sweet, fragrant and balanced coffee. The farmer often submits these coffees to competitions such as Cup of Excellence, the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA) and the Minas Gerais Agricultural Extension Services (EMATER). They routinely place highly and the small yield lots are sold well above market prices as a result. This coffee is a departure from most people’s norm but should definitely be suggested as something not to be missed
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Sumatra Mandheling Takegnon, AcehAttributes: (1-10 scale)Acid- mild (3)Body- full (8)Texture- juicy, softly gritty.Flavor- Earthen peat, smoky and scotch-like. Aromatic foliage underbrush, like the forest floor. Bittersweet chocolate wrapped in a juicy, mouthwatering cup. Vanilla extract(light hint of alcohol) on the finish.
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Can't tell you how happy I am for Kyle Glanville, the new USBC Champion! Kyle is such a great representative and ambassador for the barista community and the US coffee industry. Big congrats to all six finalists, this comp must go down as the most competitive in US history. Here is the video from the live video blog coverage, thanks to the SCAA blog team!
Has been a great competition and conference, and I will be posting more later.
- Matt
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For years after I joining the website and forums abroard where we can meet the baristas, home-baristasm, and coffee professionals, we had been still alone for the good coffee and espresso drinks.In Chinese phrases, we say that it is the coldest when you are at the high level of development. It is what we have to be, and let us be there.I cannot conclude that the effects for the trainees from other training of baristas, while for us, it is so nice to have more and more trainess to have their own cafes opened aorund different cities in China. And for those who follow our suggestions, their cafes must have the high quality espresso drinks from the first day of their openning. No more time needed.After two opened in Hainan by one of our trainees, now one is going to open in Shenzhen, and another one is in Harbin, again, following another which was opened a couple of years ago.In Guangzhou, the coffee market is going down, and one can see only the cafe closed, not opened. The next wave will come after the new cafes opened by our trainees in near future.A couple of years ago, I and our colleagues were worried about this, due to those cafes with rather poor coffee drinks are opened fast, to decades of cafes in a year. But now, the market is down and everybody is quiet, and looking at the coffee market without investing any. In this case, our trainees' cafes are going to open one by one, steadily.Go, go, go, Kaffa Cafe is going, without any respects and worries from those who used to drink coffee and may know more about coffee, and good in business in this free market. We are practicing a new, or maybe in fact, the oldest business spirit for success.While everybody say NO, some people are copying from us but in terms of many different sources like taiwan and abroad. Our standards are also going to the people, the baristas, and the cafes finally. The world is changing, and the earthquake may occor some day.Recalling to the posts in the beginning of 2006, we knew only that we are learning. But, one day, we were surprisingly to find that we are just in front. Why the world is going so slowly?Wait, and see. What will happened, in near future.
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Just watched the finalists announcement, here they are:
Nick Griffith, Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea
Pete Licata, PT’s Coffee Roasting Company
Chris Baca, Ritual Coffee Roasters
Heather Perry, Coffee Klatch
Kyle Glanville, Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea
Drew Catlin, Ritual Coffee Roasters
Congratulations to all of the competitors, what an unbelievably tough competition. Best of luck to all the finalists tomorrow, and now off to the BGA party.
- Matt
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Hey guys, I guess you haven't heard from me before or know a lot about me, I'm not a barista but a coffee grower and promotor from Guatemala. I had been in this business since I was 18 or so. My family has been in the coffee business for more than 2 generations and I guess the passion goes generation after generation. I had always wanted to share the passion and art of coffee, not as a beverage ONLY but as our culture. We grow in the culture of coffee since we are kids, no wonder why 70% of the population one way or another are involved. Please bear with my english if I messed up.
As I have shared with some of you guys before, I represent several plantations in Antigua and we are trying to get more regions involved. That is why I founded Kafes Guatemala in the United States, to simply represent the best coffees from my country and believe me it has been rough, between the coffee crisis and hurricanes, unless you love the business and YOU ARE NOT HERE for money you will stick around, and honestly it is not easy. I respect the fact that you guys create art with your hands and I love the fact that you love to work only with the best coffees and make awesome expresso beverages. NOT like the big coffee shop chains and their weird names. I'm glad is out of my chest hahahahaha.Anyway...........focusing on my topic. We are ready to provide coffee tours at affordable prices, and actually live the REAL EXPERIENCE, many of you guys contacted me regarding this before and as I share with you one of the plantations I represent and work with, has their own hotel, actually a really fancy one, but yet I wasn't able to understand why you were not interested, until I got it............................pricy hotel in a plantation is not the real experience. It will be if I go to a wine plantation in CA and perhaps stayed in a Marriot hotel right? I want to thank you, for the soooooo many advises you gave me and that helped me to understand your perspective, what is it that an American is looking as a coffee REAL experience.Now we are ready to offer you to stay in a house in Antigua coffee region, a real town house that can hold up to 12 people with all the included services in a really nice and safe area at really affordable prices indeed. You will eat the real Guatemalan food, cook by a real guatemalan cook (not profesionally) , interact with Guatemalans and if you want even practice your ESPAÑOL, you will visit the plantations, learn about the entire harvesting process, you can do the coffee tour even riding a horse, we have zipline tours in the plantation as well all the way from 200 to 720 feet (6 rides all together). Also tour Antigua and simply enjoy living as if you were from Guatemala. That means you better like beans and tortillas. Also we would like you to visit the educational and nutritional program for children that we support as Kafes Guatemala, YES! I believe as a Guatemalan I need to support and help my country change and get better. For more specific information please contact us at www.kafesguatemala.com or simply contact me at my page.muchas gracias.Pablo
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Coffee Kids was delighted to be able to present at the keynote address at the Specialty Coffee Association of America's (SCAA) Conference and Exhibition.We'd like to thank all of our members, partners and sponsors throughout the world who have helped make it possible. We recently put together this video with the help of Machine Hero, a Providence, R.I.-based firm. It features images from our partners in Latin America and interviews with a number of our long term supporters and friends. The video explores Coffee Kids' effect in the global coffee community and how support for Coffee Kids and other non-profits at origin translates to support for the long term future of the specialty coffee trade.Thanks for making our first two decades rewarding and fruitful!If you are attending the SCAA Conference in Minneapolis, be sure to visit us at our booth #1241 and learn how your contributions are making a difference and if you can't make the conference, check out our Web site to learn more about our work.
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So I like wandering around Craigslist late at night. You never know when you might stumble upon that sofa that just screams "you". Not that I've found that sofa, or anything else, but I've always wanted to window shop yard sales in my underwear...So I'm on Craigslist and I'm noticing more and more grave plots up for sale. Some people have foresight... That late night commercial about sparing loved ones your final costs really make an impression on them. They drop a couple of grand for the piece of mind that comes from owning a hole in the ground. So it makes me wonder why...Did they suddenly decide dying wasn't for them?Maybe they found a different hole with a better view?Or maybe they thought, "Fuck the kids, I want a new flatscreen!"Then I think, "Maybe I shouldn't drink espresso when I work a close shift."
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