Syn City

blossom and decay

2011-10-15T06:05:00.000-07:00

Secret Dimensions, New Era of Life, Passed Away, Blossom and Decay*

Someone I consider a friend pointed out to me that he found this blog to have gone astray, lost its purpose and dropped in quality. Part of this is to blame for my involvement with one of Swedens most known micro roasters, Da Matteo in Gothenburg, making me biased in what I write.

You might agree or disagree with what my friend said (I partly both agree and disagree), but I find that my involvement in this blog has come to an end. First of all, what it means to be "gone astray" and "lost its purpose" to me is very vague and almost an abstract statement since only I know what my original path was, and its purpose is still unknown to me. Regarding the bias, it's far more complicated than that. When getting to know people behind the machine, you stop looking solely at the product they serve, and you realize that you are biased regardless of what you represent. You become afraid of being that asshole with an opinion. And still, that is what probably most people consider me to be in Stockholm, regardless what I write or who I work for.

My reason for creating a blog was solely to create a link between my old coffee self in Perth and my hopefully new coffee self in Sweden. I wanted to give my friends in Australia an insight in where coffee was at in Sweden, hence a lot of the standpoints in my first approaches and encounters with "Swedish coffee culture" vs. what I considered (and still consider) to be where coffee should be (the Australian/international way). There has been voices raised I have tried to use this blog as a platform to launch myself somehow (an argument I find amusing and ludicrous at the same time), when the only thing I really wanted to was to meet people and be part of what I was hoping would be a scene in Stockholm and/or Sweden.

What I found was a lot of coffee politics, Swedish mentality (fear of confrontation) and a very weird mix of hardly any knowledge at all (a forum where commodity coffee bought in the Supermarket is discussed) and world class knowledge that no one wants to share. I somehow got stuck in the middle, where I found myself beyond the former and had no access to the latter. Endless discussions on pointless topics such as "What is Speciality Coffee, really?" and "Nespresso, is that what we should be drinking, really?" has seen me regurgitating and recycling arguments rather than finding myself move forward.

To the point where I lost track of the path. In other words, gone astray, dropped in quality and maybe lost its purpose as well. I never considered myself being the pinnacle of coffee when I arrived here, but I had the hope that people had the mutual ambition to lift the game for coffee overall in Sweden, for the business and Speciality Coffee to grow. And in that I wanted to grow with it. I am standing still though, not doing what I should be doing; exploring coffee, learning more about what matters most to me - the produce we know as coffee.

As a barista, I wanted to know everything about the process from seed to cup. I am still at the very end of it - at the cup. And even there I only know so much and am still blown away by the amount of knowledge I encounter in my meetings with other people. And still I don't even know how to roast, or cup properly. I can find some flavor notes, I know a few things in theory what roasting does to coffee, but really I don't know jack shit. And that is what I want to focus on.

Syn City, it was the name that we at Ristretto gave the city Perth since it was so dense with Synesso machines. Perth and its coffee culture will always remain close at heart, but I think it's time to give back the name to its origin and move on. I want to thank everyone that I have met and been in touch with through this blog. There will be another blog, but slightly different, less frequent and hopefully slightly more mature! Stay tuned, and meanwhile read all the terrific bloggers I link to here on this site!

You can still follow me on Twitter and I'll let you know when the new blog is up and running!

NP: Monster Magnet The Right Stuff

*the lyrics from my good friends Leukemia seemed suitable, not only because their meaning, but because finally their third unreleased album Love will be released soon through Vic Records.

competition season

2011-10-10T00:40:00.000-07:00

Following the twitter feed, both the Colombian Barista Championships, as well as the Victorian Barista Comps in Australia were up this weekend.

In Colombia, 25 baristi fought it out, and among six finalists, five of them were trained by barista übertrainer Fritz Storm. Looks like Colombia is really aiming for a trophy this year. Colombian champion Eber Bernal used curuba, which is banana passionfruit, in his signature drink. Now, that actually excites me, to my very own surprise...

Victorian champion is Venezianos Craig Simon, with runner up coffee hipster extraordinaire Ron N.G.O! Big congratulations to both. Also Craig Simon took home the cupping competition, in fierce competition with the 5 Senses Coffee Rangers!

Swedish chapter of SCAE got off to a late start, but I hope that the Swedish community is up and practicing for the Barista Cup! I wonder how many here will try to go from good to great with the help of mr Storm? Is there any other way to the stars?

an inconvenient truth?

2011-10-05T00:08:00.000-07:00

The past 24 hours the internet has been full of postings regarding this video, and reposting links that leads to it. I'm not going to post it here, since I find it poorly executed and makes me cringe, but if you haven't seen it yet, click here to see it and read Aarons comment.

I wanted to comment on his blog, but then I thought it'd be too long, so I post a separate comment of my own. I still think his post deserves your input, so please comment on his blog!

The video, as pointed out by several, takes the Mickey out of not the passionate baristi wanting to know everything there is about coffee, but the people that think they reached their zenith of knowledge (the beyond-starbucks approach). I've seen these people, but not from the true passionate crowd, but the people who think they are the pinnacle of coffee. I used to know everything about coffee, like most people starting in the business, but then as the story goes you know less and less until you've humbled yourself enough in front of your peers to admit you're doing ok anyway.

The truth is that most baristi at top level knows a lot about extracting coffee (at least we like to give the impression we do), but my guess is a lot of roasters and other coffee professionals cringe when they hear their attempts at giving the customer the whole spiel about Farm Gate, how the 5% of this natural gives rise to sugarcane sweetness in the cup and that you can taste the different characteristics of these varietals as well as how they harmonize together. I am guilty of at least giving customers the impression of knowing what the hell I'm talking about when it comes to Farm Gate and how much better than Fair Trade it is. As if I knew shit about it!?

The truth is (lots of truth served here apparently), I want it to be better than Fair Trade. I want my tamper to be a better tamper, I want my blend to be a superior blend, I want my coffee to be the best coffee you've ever had. In fact, I am yet to be blown away literaly by a cup of coffee the way I am guilty of sometimes describing a very nice cup of joe.

Looking at twitter flows from various people in coffee, you'd assume that Superman roasts in some parts of the world, that some roasters/baristi/companies are flawless when in fact it's only a very hyped up way for people in the industry to show a fellow coffee person appreciation, and hopefully get them some traffic. Tasting it in real life, with expectancy from the twitterati hype, is often very disappointing. Who could live up to such a praise? Let me take an example from the music industry. When you have friends playing in a band, the likeliness of you thinking they do a much better job than most, increases a lot. If the bassplayer stole your girlfriend, the likeliness of you start thinking they are pretty average or even suck, increases even more. You are biased when you know the person behind the notes that are served, either on a shitty demo or on a bag of coffee.

Coffee has become a subculture, with its own markers of quality, status and belonging. If you have this brand of coffee machine, this brand of a tamper, this brand of grinder, the likeliness of me stepping into your shop and rate your coffee is higher than if you use generic brands that noone knows of. Instead of looking at your actual skill, I judge you from your awareness of the industry bench marks. Since when did a tamper of the right brand make up 50% of the espresso quality? Has coffee, grinding, dosing and distribution so little to do with it? Maybe I've watched too much Mad Men the past few days, but we're creating something out of nothing, but not for our customers, but for our own little subculture.

Because the truth is, I am a very very small percentage of your customer base. I might come to your town, rate your coffee and blog about it, based on what? One, two coffees? Your regulars that comes everyday rates your coffee from their needs; social interaction, consistency in product, maybe the health muffins, maybe it just happens to be the closest shop. But they show up every day, and pay your rent and makes it possible for you to do what you love most!

NP: Digitalism Idealism

TNT - like dynamite!

2011-10-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that the TNT (Thursday Night Throwdown) at Jups is on like Donkey Kong, this Thursday! Read all about it on the Facebook page here!

NP: Public Enemy Bring The Noise

up to my neck in coffee this weekend

2011-10-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

Cappuccinos are for grandmothers

Been home from work a week now, due to neck problems. No fun sports, no alcohol. Just quiet walks and pit stops at various coffee places, if they have ergonomic chairs to sit in. So I've spent most of my week in bed watching Mad Men and Sons of Anarchy. This Saturday brought a bit of a good vibe though! First I hooked up with coffee friends at Kura, for brunch, where I found an article in the latest issue of Kupé (the free magazine you get onboard the Swedish trains). Trés cool...

Ok, this is a flat white...

The reason for us getting together was to go to Drop Coffees new place on Tjärhovsgatan (opposite charming local haunt Carmen). Cymon served us espresso and Ab's special sauce sandwich with freshly picked mushrooms from Norrtälje was to die for.

Celebrating the international "Bring a Belgian Friend" day

Then off to hipster land. Already outside the new Drop Coffee you could tell what this is all about:

Monde Idéal = Folkligt in Swedish?

Barista hero Alexander Ruas was making the milky drinks, Erik took the orders and served us some delicious cup cakes from CupCakeSTHLM.

hipster fashion; match your hat with your v60

Really good to see Nico work his magic as well as experiencing Andreas V60 brewing on the new brass device designed for the shop (looks very familiar though, think Britain ;) ). I had the Shakiso, Régy had the Bourbon Sunrise, but as Barney the Dinosaur would say; sharing is caring.

Régy, Sofie and Nico

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, but it will be interesting to see what this develops into. The only thing missing really, was Simon. Thanks guys for a great opening day! Good luck with everything!

nice shirt man!

brewing infringement

impressive piccolo art, courtesy of Alexander Ruas

Organized Time

2011-09-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate at the annual SCAE Sweden meeting, where the new board was presented, and past events were reviewed. Yesterday I had a chat to both a former board member and two of the new ones. Things are definitely cooking in Sweden, and I'd say that most people in coffee now are ready to look at the work a bit differently than before.

First of all, SCAE is not its board - it is its members. We don't need a board to create events, but the board will help people interested in various events. For instance, this might see the chance of creating the first ever Coffee in Good Spirits competition in Sweden, or seeing us send people to the International Syphon Championships next year? Sky is the limit.

But it's not really this I wanted to write about. I wanted to write about Perth, and how we started thinking last year, a group of people wanting the organization of the Competition going down towards the grass root level. The idea was to get the managers and not the owners of all the roasters coming together, stepping up to take charge of creating something, showing their passion and interest, and also learn more along the way what it takes to create a competition, and also to learn more about AASCA. Since I was only part of it initially due to my move to Sweden, I can only review the initial part. The first event that took place at Elixir, was jam packed! Pizza, beer and coffee for $15 saw everyone from Perth showing up to see what was happening.

Then I left, and was not really in touch with what went on in the community building, but eventually what I understood was that the numbers of competitors were rather low (not so good), and the fundings of the barista jams sent the runner up to the National competition (very good), which eventually created a monster out of runner up Ron Ngo, that shortly left for Melbourne. And this year, it seems as if there will be no competition in Western Australia?!

The reason for this, is the same that I hear in Sweden: people are volonteers and invest their own time. So? Well, they simply have no time and drive to invest. Ok? That seems odd. Or maybe the competition itself haven't really proved itself to be what it could be for the participants?

The competition (any given competition really) should be about two things; education and community. What the benefit of education is, seems rather clear. Using the WBC format to train your baristi is an excellent way to make them understand the focus and value of consistency. But community seems as if it's just for fun and games? Not really, education among peers takes you a long way. Ask the participants at for instance the Coffee Common at TED Global. Not only a bigger network, but also new ideas are spread wider. Barista jams and LAT's (TNT's for instance) are a natural forum to share and evaluate these ideas, methods and techniques.

Someone said about corporate business that the pyramides should be turned upside down. This paves way for grass root action, but it also demands passion, dedication and investment of both time and energy from the baristi on the floor. What is their benefit? Well, if we have let's say the chains (in Sweden we got a couple of high quality focused coffee chains such as Espresso House and Barista Fair Trade) where students start to work to earn money. Out of those students some might get caught in the work environment spirit in general, some of those might actually get the coffee bug. The natural way for these baristi to evolve both as practitioners and financially, is either to climb the hierarchy within the chain (they like the culture of the company) or to change to an independent coffee house (they like the culture of coffee/community).

The next step for that barista is getting his own coffee shop in order to get to know coffee more, and to earn more money (and eventually you start roast coffee and so forth). In order to get the staff he needs, he is dependant on either other coffee shops, or chains to lift up already interested baristi. All this comes without saying, I'd say, but still people seems to think community building is unimportant, or building the own brand is more important than community.

I hope the businesses in Perth once more see the use of a competition, as a tool to train staff, getting the scene to grow and raise the standard of coffee even further. My suggestion is definitely throwing in the Brewers Cup format on the scene in order to get new energy in the gang!

And as for Sweden, I think it's great to see the possibilites now rising within the SCAE! I hope this gives way for a strong community, one that dares challenge its own quality and intentions to lift coffee as a whole to the next level!

The Artist Known As Gurra H

2011-09-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, G Hall, is currently working on a small exhibition in a very exciting new space. This sounded so interesting I suggested we'd do a collaboration with an art opening and coffee tasting. So stay tuned for more info about this!

G Hall is also offering cafés and other spaces to simply borrow his art, instead of buying or hosting an exhibition. So get in touch with him through his Facebook page (just search for G Hall) and get a painting to your space. There's plenty of more art than the picture above shows, in slightly varied styles (less needles in heads, so to speak).

NP: When Saints Go Machine Pick Up Your Tears And Run

hot or not?

2011-09-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

When in New York, I couldn't help but noticing how much effort went into cold brewing, and selling it as a regular brew. In Australia I experienced a lot of experimenting, the best I'd say was the cold brewing method in the picture above (from Hario) with a yirgecheffe served in a shot glass with some sparkling low salt mineral water to it. That was really refreshing. In Sweden, I've mostly had various versions of alcohol free Kahlua flavored cold brews (rather generic, and though not bad, really not my cup of tea).

I found the article above in the latest edition of Wallpaper* magazine, just wanted to share it if you hadn't seen it before. Maybe I will have to say like Patrick Bateman, when referring to Genesis; "I didn't like them before, but now that they're commercial, I like them a lot more". You can't take away the Zen of the cold drip. It's like the cold twin brother of the syphon; it's a bit of a spectacle to watch!

And apparently, the French just fill the Chemex with ice, and overdose their brewing for their iced coffee. That is something that I will have to try later on. It's just that Sweden has a very short period for drinking iced drinks like that...

NP: Foreigner Cold As Ice

Gothenburg Coffee is on like Donkey Kong!

2011-09-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

Having the opportunity to visit Gothenburg briefly, I also had the chance to hook up with two really cool guys in the Gothenburg coffee scene. Meet Reggie and Brian. This October 6th at 7pm, Reggie will host the first Gothenburg Edition of Thursday Night Throwdown, a really cool initiative much needed in a town that slowly but surely is building its rep as a Coffee Town beyond Da Matteo!

First we cupped some coffees at Da Matteo coffee lab; the Gatomboya from Da Matteo vs. Stumptown, a new Bolivian as well as Christians first test of the up and coming Autumn Blend. Then we strolled up to Proviant, where Axel works. Proviant is a very cool place, sort of multi-function space, with a bagshop and offices in connection with the café/restaurant. Axel made us a Shakiso Mormora roasted by Love Coffee, served with their Trifecta. This is my first try of Trifecta in action, after seeing it first at the Out of the Box event at Espresso Specialisten, was it last year? Really nice and juicy.

Then we went for another coffee at the City Library, which was pretty much undrinkable, so we headed to Passagen, that was unfortunately closing down. Well, unfortunate for others, but Brian and I forced Sita to brew us a V60 of the prototype Autumn blend, and at the same time giving us a sneak peak of the new ceramics. A very nice finish to the day!

So much happening in Gothenburg at the moment, so make sure you attend the Gothenburg TNT, hosted by Reggie at Jups, and be on the look out for the Nordic Roaster event later in October as well (more info later). Thanks to the Da Matteo crew, to Axel and Proviant and most of all Reggie and Brian for keeping me company and caffeine fueled!

some random pictures from NYC

2011-09-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

where the danger kids meet

They named a beer after me

Best Billboard Ever

Espresso at Grumpys

And blind people read signs?

RBC NYC has (a) Slayer in the house

Thin people in the front, fat people in the back

Cheese platter washed down with a Primitovo at Eataly

Claire and Aaron at Third Rail Coffee

Really good beer, straight out of Brooklyn

Öner Kulbay was there too

A whole shop dedicated to the Dude

The local deli had some beers we fancied

Invader spotted in Williamsburg

"And when you're in Brooklyn, you best watch your back..."

Back in the New York Brew

2011-09-05T09:57:00.001-07:00

The hurricane Irene made it seem as if we wouldn't make it over the pond, but eventually we did. This trip is one of the weirdest and most stressful I've done in my life, I think. Finally coming to the airport in Stockholm, I find out that my brother- and sister-in-law are both booked on the flight but I'm not. After 15 minutes of stress, I am rushed to the other side of the Terminal, and I had to go through Oslo and Heathrow in order to reach Newark.

Fast forward, I wake up early due to the time difference, and head out for the closest coffee shop provided on a Google map my friend Régy made me. Joe's, which is a chain, is ten blocks away from where I'm staying, so we walk down there and start the day with an espresso.

Love the office space at Joe's

The coffee at Joe's is roasted by Ecco Roasters, mostly in their facilities in Chicago and LA apparently. As it is a chain, I am a little bit skeptic, but this washes away immediately with the first sip. Wonderful! They also sell Chemex, V60 and filters etc. I also get to try an El Salvador coffee from their batch brewer. Again, very impressed.

the family showing off their Grumpy faces..

Since this is a family trip, and not primarily a coffee crawl on my own, the family ends up later that day for a coffee at legendary Café Grumpy in Chelsea. A bit of an invasion with about ten people ordering all different stuff. At Grumpy I am impressed with two things; first of all I have the overall best cold brew of my stay in NYC. And even though the espresso is really really good, what blows me away about it is the texture and mouthfeel of the coffee. Never before have I had such an interesting espresso. The only disappointment really, is the fact that I never made it back here.

On Thursday I hooked up with Aaron of FRSHGRND blog, and we started our little coffee crawl at RBC NYC. The layout of that place is really weird, as you sit and watch people getting in and out of a spa. It's hard to tell if it's an art installation or just a joke. Anyway, Aaron opted for a Guatemalan roasted by Handsome Roasters as an Aeropress, and I had a Honduras by Coava as a woodneck.

talk this way, crawl this way

The Honduras coffee as a Woodneck was by far the best brewed coffee I've had in a long time, and I bought a bag home to try and replicate it. The Guatemalan coffee Aaron had, in my opinion left some to desire. The guys at RBC NYC were really friendly and engaging, willing to share thoughts on brewing techniques and equipment. As I had the intention to come back, I wanted to save the espresso experience (they boast a Slayer in the house), unfortunately I ran out of time and didn't make it back. My loss!

I was told about this GQ blog post someone had made about Third Wave Coffee missing the point. It was apparently made by the owner of La Colombe. As we were walking up to Vandaag, we walked past one of their outlets, so we wanted to try one just for the hell of it.

Outside La Colombe was a line about 15 metres or less. Needless to say, expectations rises with such appearance. We had a single shot each, the barista did it the Italian way; no dry wiping the basket, two clicks of pre ground coffee, tamp-knock-tamp and off you go. Honestly, it's places like this that keeps Nespresso busy, cause this was among the worst rubbish I've ever had. I cannot believe that these people in the line do not go to RBC NYC about three blocks away instead. Shocking!

Alex is the man...

Next we hit Vandaag, home of Alex Bernson, a guy I've been in touch with through twitter a bit. He served us a straight up El Salvador roasted by Ecco. Unfortunately he was out of both Tim Wendelboe and Coffee Collective coffee, but if you ask nicely he might still have some grams left of the Da Matteo coffee I got him ;)

Vandaag is like a crossover between a classic American diner, and minimalistic Dutch/Scandinavian design, I mean even the bathrooms were spectacular. I had a great brunch meal here as well. In fact when we had gathered our spouses and were on the hunt for Abracas (which we sadly didn't make it to) in the neighbourhood (and walked past Porcell of Youth of Today/Shelter fame) we actually decided to pop in for a beer here the same afternoon. They have a little sample menu of three different cities that you can opt for, either Belgian, Dutch or Danish brews. Myself, I had a Carlsberg lager (side note, the waitress said it was a "darker style lager". At another place they called the Brooklyn lager darker as well. Darker than what?), the heathen I am.

We also made it to Stumptown at the ACE hotel. I have to say that even if the coffee wasn't the best of the trip (it was very good and interesting as it differs from a lot of others coffees whose main balance leans towards sweetness or acidity, Stumptowns espresso leaned towards bitterness, like a Sanbitter), it is still very hard to not be in awe of this place. The baristi are all characters showing off a good swag, and some of them almost come across as baristars. But there is a definite attraction to it as well, both as a phenomena and as good quality.

Stumptown swag deluxe

The coffee, like I said, was very very good, and just the ambience of the Hotel itself made it like a small haven for sore feet. They also made a wonderful little berry tart that I actually came back for last minute on my last hour in NYC. Regardless of how you feel about Stumptown, it is very hard to not be impressed.

Cappuccino a la Stumptown

Before I met up with Aaron, I had an espresso at Third Rail Coffee that was awesome (they use Intelligentsia). We both wanted to go back, but were too coffeed out to actually order anything. My wife ordered an Ice coffee though, that I tried but though good I wasn't amazed. To be honest, I haven't had an Ice Coffee I have been amazed by ever. Even the one I had at Grumpy's I had to ditch half way through cause it just wasn't possible to finish.

Just. Give. Me. Coffee. Now!

The space that is Third Rail Coffee is very nice. Perfect size location, and the ambience is both local, slick and coffee focused at the same time. I'd like to come back here and spend some more time for sure. I think the time we went back there the same afternoon, both the reigning Danish Barista Champion as well as a guy from a band high on name dropping were in there ("You guys from Scandinavia? Cool, we just did a gig with Justin Timberlake"). That's sort of the melting pot New York is!

Welcome to Long Island/Queens

If the ambience at Third Rail is sort of new school, the vibe at Sweet Leaf in LIC is very old school. A little bit hard to find at first, I managed to eventually get there. I had an espresso from Verve roasters (very good) and when ordering a pour over, they explained they had some trouble with their water at the moment. However a few minutes later I was actually handed a cup of coffee they had managed to do anway.

Very old school

If going to New York isn't exactly going to America (like going to Goa isn't exactly going to India), Sweet Leaf is what I imagine the "true" American experience to be; local focus, inhouse bakery and a strong coffee culture. It doesn't feel designed, it just is, if that makes any sense? Genuine and family orientated. They sell books by Scott Rao here, so as I purchased one I am told Mr Rao is actually showing up for a cupping later that day! Unfortunately I had no time to be back, which was really bad. I wish I had the opportunity to meet him in person.

Waiting for Godot

After getting lost in Brooklyn, we end up in Williamsburg on Bedford Ave. Starting to get hungry, we meet up with the rest of the family at a local café. I can't for my life remember the name of the place, but the Portobello Mushroom sandwich with grilled peppers and two cheeses is the best sandwich I have ever had. Period. True story. My wife had a cappuccino which I could tell was going to be disasterous even before she ordered it, but the sandwich... wow!

groovy place

A bit further up the road, I accidently find El Beit café. Here I have an espresso roasted by 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters and I buy some Organic Costa Rican for home, that I am sipping as I write this actually. El Beit is a Williamsburg favorite, and it feels really local and groovy. For brewed coffee, oddly, they offer French Press, which wasn't really tasty at all to be honest. Having the same coffee at home as V60, you can tell that the product they work with is great though.

And that is basically my New York coffee experience. To wrap it up, I'd like to say that I was overall very impressed with the city at the places I went. Delivering such good coffee at such high volume turn over places is indeed very impressive. There were a lot of places I had wished to visit but didn't make it to at all, and some places I really wanted to revisit but there was just no time. The main reason for me going back to Stumptown at the ACE for instance, was mostly convenience. Getting around in NYC was pretty hard work, and that was the most central coffee shop of them all.

If anything though, I think in general the coffee people in New York are either a bit too cool for school, or maybe just stressed out and tired of all coffee tourists coming to check them out. Regardless, I do think they do an outstanding job! Also, you should not forget that coming to a city like New York isn't just about the coffee. One of the best coffee experiences I had was waking up really early on Saturday morning, strolling down to Joe's and bump into a lady writing a book about Joe's, having a chat to her, then taking a Brazilian as a take away cup and walk into Central Park, watching a bike race, having a sit down at the water and basically watch the city come to life. Magic. And I'm sort of glad I forgot the camera that morning, cause you can't capture those little moments.

I hope to return shortly!

A sensory thing to do...

2011-08-29T02:09:00.000-07:00

... would be to get in touch with my good mate Josh, who is in Holland this semester, moving to Copenhagen for the next one. Read about his studies here! Since the main topic of the NBC was sensory, it seems as if his presence within the Nordic sphere is godsent.

Also, I'm very excited and happy to finally be on my way to New York. For a few days there, things looked as they weren't happening, but now it's on, like Donkey Kong! And instead of the hurricane, I'm prepared to be blown away by the awesomeness of the city!

Since time is brief, and there's a limit how much coffee one can drink when mostly accompanied by moderate or non coffee drinkers, I have to narrow down my must-visit list to about four:

- Vaandag
- Sweet Leaf in Long Island City
- RBC NYC
- Third Rail Coffee

Even though the whole thing with the hurricane has been very stressful, unexpected turns of positive (for me) is that FRSHGRND blogger Aaron is still in New York! Can't wait to catch up again! And hopefully Johan Morén of Drop Coffee (see picture in the FRSHGRND blog) is still lurking the streets!

NP: Dennis Parker Like An Eagle

dressed for soyxess

2011-08-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

Got word today from an old coworker (Jules at Spring) that she served Swedish super wankers Roxette coffee at Hush Espresso, my old local haunt in Freo, this morning.

What did they order? Soy caps. How could I ever have expected anything else?

Edit: for me not even thinking about the Soyride song is unforgivable...

an inspirational meeting

2011-08-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hook up with Kristian Norén, roaster at Lilla Kafferosteriet in Malmö. We met briefly at the Barista Cup in Stockholm earlier this year, and we've kept in touch over Twitter. With him, he had two recent coffees and an old favorite of mine, the Amaro Gayo.

An improvised cupping at Kura, using the choco bowls and soup spoons for cupping, we tried the Ethiopian Kenga co op, which is a washed heirloom varietal, and their El Salvador Finca San Fransisco, which is a mix of sundried, semisundried and washed coffee of the same varietal.

Kristian explained thoroughly their idea with the coffees, what they had achieved, what they were still working on and what their major obstacles were. For a non-roaster (so far) like myself, it's very interesting and inspiring to hear these things from someone willing to share his knowledge and passion.

The Kenga was very tealike, and the descriptors on the package (citrus, bergamot, caramel, peach and nectar) were all to be found in there. A very clean, subtile and interesting coffee. The Finca San Fransisco was more traditional chocolate, while still a nice elegant coffee, Kristian explained the obstacles they were experiencing with this lot, and promised to tweek out more fruit from it! And naturally the Amaro Gayo, well I don't need to say anything else...

Meetings like this is such an inspiration, and I really look forward to see Kristian in Malmö later on this fall, in his right element! Thanks for the coffees, mate! You can guess what I had this morning..

NP: Empire of the Sun Walking On A Dream

Team SWE FTW

2011-08-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

I posted this picture a week ago; Anne Lunell, Alexander Ruas, Pernilla Gard and Per Nordby. Four seasoned baristi with age, experience and rugged good looks on their side. It proved to be a winning formula, for the second year in a row, Team SWE wins the Nordic Barista Cup. Congratulations on an effort well done. Later on, I hope to get an in depth explanation from Per what the whole NBC is all about, really!?

When talking about competitions, I'd like to congratulate Kiril Shaginov on his effort in making it to the finals at the Australian Syphon Championships today. Kiril went over time in the Victorian heat, but came back in the opens and made it to the finals. Great effort! Also keen on learning how Alex Paull of White Horse roasters in Sydney is doing in the comp! Since I'm a big fan of the syphon, I'm a bit sad that there wasn't time to organize a competition this year.

NP: Yoga Nidra

Funniest. Thing. Ever.

2011-08-23T04:47:00.000-07:00

My old friend Lord K has now become a piece of Lego. Check this out! Lord Lego. Go get yours here! I think even the Bible needs to be re-written at this stage: "And Jesus asked him, saying, "What is thy name?" And he said, "Lego": because many devils were entered into him.^"

busy summer

2011-08-20T03:16:00.000-07:00

Is that the future you got in sight?

You relax for a few days, and all of a sudden things have happened in Stockholm. Kura Kafé, my second living room, has all of a sudden pursued the original plan to start roasting on their own. Available at the moment is a Brazilian single origin through espresso. I wish them all the luck in the world, and hope to see some really interesting things happening here!

Beats the Fremantle long blacks

Myself, I did a shift at Joels newly opened space Kafé Esaias, trying to become friends with the Strada. Esaias was busy as hell, and the old regulars haven't given up the Italian ghost yet, so in my five hours there I was pumping out more traditional macchiatos than I've done throughout my whole career.

Nora and Eskil trying out the lever machine

Johan & Nyström has not only opened up their Conceptstore 2.0, but also invited some guest baristi from Caffe Nation (Isa) in Antwerpen and The Barn (Nora) in Berlin. I had the opportunity to meet Nora at The Barn earlier this year when I was doing a guest appearance. She is a WBC judge, and is about to open up her own space in Berlin, with total coffee focus! Very exciting times in Berlin!

maybe the woodneck will save my stiff neck

Also I started to investigate for me two new brewing methods that I have wanted to indulge in for a long time. The V60 and the Woodneck. So far, much to my own surprise, I am actually falling in love with the V60 method, that I find brings out more acidity. However, these are early days for me still, and I have a strong feeling I will have some splendid results with the woodneck eventually.

Cupcake STHLM has opened up a second location in Stockholm, on Södermalm inside the small mall Skrapan, bringing Love Coffee to the attention of the SoFo hipsters hopefully. I am heading up there soon to get myself some Shakiso Mormora (yes, a fourth roaster in Sweden doing it, and it will be good fun to compare it to the other three).

Also finally the Nordic Coffee Culture site is launched. If you haven't looked yet, check it out here. Due to personal reasons I haven't had too much time to come up with good amounts of texts yet, but there will be shortly.

NP: Tom Petty Wildflowers

best coffee in Perth?

2011-08-19T15:18:00.001-07:00

Caught this off Esprezzos Facebook page. It almost moves me to tears to see Elixir and Mooba on telly. That's how much I miss Perth. I think a test like this is a bit random, since they didn't try all of them, so how could you really say Boucla is the best in Perth? But part from that, I think it's amazing that a test like this finds its way on TV!

in the mood for love

2011-08-14T03:39:00.000-07:00

In my newly awaken desire to slow down life and raise the quality of it, I have not only signed up for yoga classes and started looking around for a vinyl player; I've become a little bit interested in tea. All my life, I've been a tea drinker (well, as far back as I can remember really). My father used to make Earl Grey tea in the morning (Twinings), and I added a dash of milk and two sugars. From there, my tea evolution has basically seen me drop the two sugars. That's it.

In recent years, I've done some half hearted attempts. When going to Chaikhana in Gamla Stan years ago, I enjoyed the approach of having a tea sommelier serving me at the table, telling me what I am drinking. I also enjoyed pulling his leg when asking if it was ok to top a white tea up with milk and sugar. The look on his face surpassed most evil eyes I've seen baristi giving people when asking for soy or sweeteners with their expensive Single Origins.

And then Jono at Kura resurrected some of my tea interest, their white teas have been amazing and good value, and a lot fruitier than I thought I'd ever appreciate. But where I appreciate the down to earth approach to tea at Kura, walking into my newly found love In The Mood For Tea has been an eye opener. I've seen the name in designer magazines, but it wasn't until a week ago I stumbled in there and like Alice in Wonderland found myself lost in a world never seen before.

Jonas and Sofia, the owners of In The Mood For Tea, has an approach to tea that reminds me a lot of the Speciality Coffee scene. When talking to them, I understand how these robusta people must feel when they talk to Speciality Coffee baristi. "What, you're telling me there's more than Earl Grey?". When I first walked in, we actually talked about Earl Grey, and they recommended me to try their own blend with real bergamot in it. Pretty expensive stuff I thought, but Sofia said I could actually use the tea more than once. What? I never heard anyone say that about black tea. I've tried it, and it was true... Their Earl Grey is one of the best things I've had (mind you, like those annoying coffee drinkers who drinks everything through milk, I have to admit I did the same with this tea).

Another similarity I find interesting is the idea of small serves. In Speciality Coffee, a lot of us advocates smaller serves. For me, this is the argument with price. Instead of drinking ten cups or more a day of that vile office rotgut, why not take a small break and make yourself an Aeropress or V60 at work? In tea, these guys say it's the way to drink and control the brewing if I understand it correctly. When asking about various brewing methods, they say it's difference between tradition and brewing for flavor (that's how I interpreted it anyway, but maybe I was too busy in my mind making the analogy to Italian vs. 3d wave coffee brewing). Anyway, I always thought that certain teas required certain pots (like iron, clay etc. to bring out certain aspects), and this seems not to be the case. Instead, they showed me a way to brew and drink straight out of the cup. Simple, minimalistic and beautiful.

So, in this picture above, what you see is black tea. Yes, black tea. I've been to tea merchants in India, but even their champagne class black tea was rather black (and not as long). Smelling this stuff, it's like sweet hay, and really vibrant. To you people out there that have seen this a million times, be aware most of my tea experience comes from the supermarket. I'm the kind of tea person, that if it was coffee the barista would shake his head and say "Ok, we'll do this from scratch...".

But it's not just about the product, it's about the whole ambience of the place, the passion and knowledge that radiates from the people working here. The design. When in Perth, I went to the Japanese consulate for a tea ceremony, and I was taught it's really part of the Zen tradition. In The Mood For Tea really feels zen (or chan maybe would be the word they'd use) and relaxed intellectual. No snobbism, just pure passion.

Now, I'm off to brew me some South of the Clouds Earl Grey... it gets me in the mood for love...

NP: Bob Dorough Three Is A Magic Number

Swashbucklers FTW

2011-08-12T02:29:00.000-07:00

So you wondered what the Swedish National Barista Team looked like? Look no further, here they are. From left to right: Anne Lunell of Koppi in Helsingborg, former Swedish champ, barista at Coffee Common in TEDinburgh and judge at the upcoming World Aeropress Championships in Milan. Alexander Ruas of Drop Coffee in Stockholm, reigning Swedish Barista Champion and teamed up with Anne at the Coffee Common. Also a heck of a photographer and proud father of two. Pernilla Gard of da Matteo in Gothenburg, part of last years winning team in the Nordic Barista Cup in Oslo, and with a very impressive performance in this years Swedish Barista Championships she secured a Bronze place. Per Nordby, former da Matteo roaster/barista/trainer/buyer/whatever and now a man on his own feet, travelling the world in pursuit of good good coffee, and working on an Errol Flynn mo (and it's not even Movember).

The best of luck to these guys! You'll do great things, I'm sure of it!

Aeropress Bash in Stockholm?

2011-08-11T01:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday the 23d of October it is time for the World Aeropress Championships, this year held in Milan. Since there will be no Siphon-SM this year probably, and there will be some time until there will be a Brewers Cup, I think a valid reason for the community in Stockholm to get together, is to hold an Aeropress Bash where the best man can opt if he or she wants to pay for a ticket to Milan and represent ;)

Or maybe the bash can raise money enough for a Ryan Air ticket and a tent? Or even if we get no such thing as a representative out of this evening, we'll still have plenty of fun!

Where and when?

NP: Pump Up the Jam

rainy day in sofo

2011-08-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

...or close by anyway. I was going for a lunch at Jin & Peeters with my friend Régy, when an opportunity to try some new coffees from Da Matteo at Snickarbacken came up. Needless to say, we went there first.

Johan had the latest version of Vallgatan available, with some slight changes in the line up, the coffee still holds the fort as the "Fresh Espresso", but I'd say it's deepend its character a bit. It was chocolaty and salt licorice at the same time as refreshingly zingy. One of the most interesting espressos I've had in a long time! Looking forward to see this hit the streets!

I also had the chance to try the Panama Bambito (already brewed through the Bunn system when I arrived) which was a really nice and fresh cup, and me and Régy also got to make an Aeropress each of the Kenyan Gatamboya and the Shakiso Mormora. Since we did the cupping the other day at Esaias, trying the Has Bean and Da Matteo back to back, and the Da Matteo one felt a little bit mellow in comparison, I wanted to know weather it was the conditions I had stored them. And I'd say that was probably it. This Shakiso was still less bright than the Has Bean, but really really good. I have to admit though, that my favorite coffee right now is still the summer blend!

Then we went to Jin & Peeters for lunch. I hate to tell anyone, but not being a foodie or been out that much at restaurants lately, I have never tasted dumplings. Vegetarian dumplings were really nice and the place itself is beautiful, very cosy local. Also the Belgian waffles for dessert was a filler!

After a filling lunch, we headed over to Johan & Nyström where Isa from Caffe Nation is working at the moment. Also keen on seeing the new space they have refurbished. Downstairs there is a cupping table, which I think is a good idea to separate from the bustling shop upstairs. One of my favorite baristi in Stockholm, Eskil, was hosting a cupping of the J&N Shakiso (wow, this is really history repeating itself) brewed in three different ways; a regular cupping, a V60 and an Aeropress.

Since the Shakiso is really all around at the moment (not only Da Matteo and J&N but also Drop Coffee are roasting it), it's a good idea to actually cup them back to back (like they did yesterday but I missed out) but also to try them through different methods. And it's a bit funny, but trying it first as a regular cupping, then as the others, it becomes apparent that when cupping we see the coffee for what it is, and it's all downhill from there. Not that its anyones fault, but in the actual nature of the brewing, meaning that all brews requires different approaches, and also might highlight different things, while the cupping naturally makes us experience the "whole" of the coffee. If that makes any sense?

Anyway, a nice session to finish off a highly caffeinated day in Stockholm.

NP: Duran Duran Ordinary World

Very Quick Update

2011-08-09T03:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow night you can hook up with the National Barista Team (Pernilla Gard, Per Nordby, Alexander Ruas and Anne Lunell) at Da Matteo in Gothenburg. Don't miss this opportunity. They're preparing for the Nordic Barista Championships, an event I'll unfortunately miss due to a trip to NYC (sob, sob, poor me)..

It looks as if the Swedish Siphon Championships won't happen this year due to very tight schedule. Too bad, it would've been a tremendous experience to see the Stockholm Coffee Peeps rock their siphons! But instead I think it is time we do something radical, and host an Aeropress bash in order to send a winner to Milan for the World Aeropress Championships.

With the riots in London, I hope everyone over there is safe! Take care!

Oh, and also if you're on Facebook, search for "daMatteoSTHLM" and press Like!

NP: David Bowie This Is Not America

Belgian Brew

2011-08-08T04:39:00.000-07:00

Our friend Régy that lives in Stockholm, travels back to his native Belgium every now and then, this time bringing back coffee from three different roasters; Caffe Nation (the Flandern side of Belgium), Knopes (the French side) and Blanche Dael from Maastricht, Netherlands.

We had the opportunity to cup at the just opened Kafé Esaias in the heart of Stockholm, and attending was also Henrik and Daniel, who were just home from a trip down south and had some coffee from Solde (a Kenyan that was very nice) and Lilla Kafferosteriet (their latest Ethiopian) with them. Also we cupped the Has Bean and Da Matteo Shakiso Mormora back to back which was really interesting.

The stand out on the table was the Has Bean Shakiso for sure. Super vibrant and really really nice, clean and pleasant. One of the coffees from Maastricht actually tasted like a vacuum cleaner (I'd say that was the non-pleasant surprise element on the table). Maybe spoilt rotten with the Scandinavian coffee scene, I have to say even though I wasn't surprised, I wasn't blown away either by the Belgian coffees. Best in my opinion was the Knopes Gethumbwini.

Saying that, I am really keen on getting to know more about these roasters, and go and see them live. There is such potential in Europe at the moment, and I think we're all moving towards the same lift in quality and spirits! Thanks a lot to the roasters, as well as Régy for bringing the coffees and Joel for hosting it. Also thanks to the Coffee Crew that came out in some good numbers today! Good to see you guys!

Later this week, I hope to go see the J&N Koncept Store 2.0! There will be some guest appearance baristi there. Looking forward to see Nora again!

farm gate

2011-07-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

After soy- and latte art gate, it's time for Farm Gate, it seems...
Sweet Marias had recorded a video, which apparently raised a lot of emotions in the coffee industry. Some saw the irony, some didn't. Tom of Sweet Marias then responded to the criticism.
I will not bother to comment on neither video nor comments, but the respons, which is really worth your time reading, raises a lot of questions for me. Some of them I have touched before.

Recently, I "eavesdropped" on Twitter, where a micro roaster was upset with another micro roaster for interferring with the exclusive relation between farmer and roaster. Exclusive for whom? I understand that as a business, you'd like to deal with coffee that you are the sole trader of in your country (or area, depending on size of country naturally), and from that "exclusiveness" perspective I can understand this argument. But the relation you have with a farmer, is that "yours"? I mean, if I have a special relation with my collegue at work, does that mean he or she can't talk to someone else as intimate as I can? We're not married. I mean, I go see other "farmers" so to speak.

In the WBC this year, I think in my enthusiasm I exclaimed that this is the paradigm shift, this is what we'll expect from now on. But in retrospective, I'm thinking maybe it's been taken as far as it can go? What's next? Processing, roasting and preparing the coffee in those 15 minutes, from seed to cup? In regional competitions I've seen, and myself been guilty of, talking about the farmer as if it was a good ´ole mate. Actually, last time I did that, I used the text from Sweet Marias, because the coffee I competed on was bought from them. It told a story, one that was amusing and good entertainment about how the coffee came to be, but what did it add that I knew this strangers name? And why did I feel that I must mention his name?

Then again, you can hang out with someone in three days and become really good and close friends, for sure, but is that the case each and every time? And should our will to use our stays at the farm as marketing be disguised as coffee tourism? How much would we pay a model to stand next to her if she was well known, and dress her in our shirt? What if these people were better off with some new bikes or old computers, rather than putting our company logo t-shirt on them and shake their hand in front of the camera? Again, is the farmer really the one that it comes down to? What about his or her staff who owns nothing and are dependent on work. Any work. What if coffee would be the least profitable for the community that surrounds the farm? What good are our t-shirts on these people then? What good is us bringing "awareness" on their existance in a competition in Europe or elsewhere?

I guess the key question this raises, for me anyway, is: are we there for the farmers, or are the farmers there for us?

desperately seeking film

2011-07-28T00:03:00.000-07:00

The 80's was an era that gave us wonderful films like Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Breakfast Club, Beverly Hills Cop, The Goonies and so forth. The list goes on forever. The vision of Rob Lowe sitting on a roof playing the saxophone sends shivers down my spine (not in a good way though, that's a crime of fashion that one...). Anyway, there is one film that I feel has tragically been lost on me, and that is Making The Grade with Judd Nelson. It seems to be impossible to find! If anyone has a link to someone selling it, please drop me a line!

And hey, what happened to Shandi? This song in the opening credits has been on my mind since I saw it as a kid on a crappy VHS that I borrowed from a friend! Best. Song. Ever.

Stockholm-Grythyttan 0-1

2011-07-26T04:31:00.000-07:00

Good mate and fellow coffee enthusiast Daniel Schein is leaving Stockholm for a while, to start his sensory training at Swedish training center Grythyttan. This means tomorrow is his last day at Espressino for a while. So coffee enthusiasts in Stockholm, who all owe Daniel quite a bit of gratitude for his ongoing sharing of passion and coffee, should go down there tomorrow and see him off, since it might be a while until we see him serve coffee on a regular basis here again!

Thanks for all your great coffees, your efforts on making every drink justice, and for creating one of the best expressions of the Swedish language available in coffee context: U A K (under all kritik). I'm sure you'll bring back a lot of good stuff into coffee once your training is finished!

NP: Washed Out Within And Without

Ristretto Perth is worth the trip!

2011-07-25T23:22:00.000-07:00

Here is an article on syphon brewing at Ristretto Espresso Specialists in Perth! Looking good there guys! But hey, behind mr Broadfield, in the corner, is that Roxan sneak peaking behind the paper??

Only thing I don't like about this, is the usual focus on price. The coffee will be worth its price, trust me!

summer crawl

2011-07-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Since the weather was a bit uncertain, instead of the hipster sport frisbee golf, we opted for a traditional coffee crawl. Starting out at Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art), we tried the espresso bar at the entrance, serving a custom da Matteo blend as well as cava and spirits for the dare devils. I was satisfied with an espresso and a lovely manchego and tomato chutney sandwich.

I love the tradition in Stockholm, where museums tend to have great lunch options. Moderna is taking it one step further, and as an addition to the restaurant in the back, the espresso bar serves nibbles and great coffee.

And the talk is coffee, coffee and coffee.

Next we went to the latest edition of Coco Vaja, that has been open for a while now. In a rather traditional food court, it makes the perfect end for the lunch to have the coffee on the way out at the exit. Henrik rates this place as the best cappuccino and espresso in town.

Coco Vaja serves espresso Portland style with naked porta filter and rather tight extraction, using Haugaard as a roaster for both espresso and filter style coffee, which is a Panama Esmeralda. Tove made me a great naked espresso, one that is probably the most impressive one this central in town.

Don't forget to check up their app for iPhone.

Then we wanted to try the Shakiso Mormora at Drop Coffee that we've heard so much about. Even though I really like Erik and the other famous guys at Drop Coffee (well, Oscar and Alexander), I think the real value of Drop is their ground staff. Today Joanna and Nico was working hard, while Erik was celebrating a day off work at, well, work...

Thanks to all of the places serving us some great coffees, and thanks to my fellow coffee companions for company; Henrik, Daniel and Oscar! Now it's time to watch the Banksy film before I head off to Tech Noir for some serious hard core techno!

some thoughts on photography and coffee

2011-07-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

Today for the first time, I visited the Museum of Photography in Stockholm. To me, it's the first of its kind in Sweden, not only for photography, but for such commercial purpose. And it made me think a lot of what's been in the air the past few days regarding NBC-gate.

You might not have heard about it outside Sweden, but there has been some loud criticism regarding this years pick for the Swedish Barista Team, in the Nordic Barista Cup. I'm not going to go into detail on what has been the argument, let's just say there have been people with some sand in their pants going in public with it. Some of the criticism has been fair, some has been rather folly.

Back to the museum, I immediately saw the similarities of this museum, and Speciality Coffee. Why? Well, first of all photography is now something that everyone does. People regardless of skill or talent, takes photographs and post them online, or keep them as background wallpaper on their computers, or what ever. Since you don't have to develop film anymore, and you can instantly delete something you're not happy with, photography has indeed become the art of choice for Joe Public. Much more so than tattoos and graffiti.

And the testimony is that the museum was basically jam packed. The museum itself is stylish, the exhibitions are a wide range of classical art, an international installation, some pretentious suffering from an artist and some really state of the art technical approach to photography, as well as pretty basic fashion photography and political Chinese photography. It's a wide range, all fitting in under the same umbrella.

Compare this to Speciality Coffee. Everyone drinks coffee, right? Pretty much like photography. We have the average drinker, the Italian espresso drinker, the home barista and the professional. All of us can't fit in the showroom of this museum, but some of us are striving to be there. To be the best at what we do.

What this museum is, is the SCAE of Sweden really. Under its roof, there fits a range of qualities and targets, different political agendas, different approaches to segments of coffee drinkers etc. In this house of photography, there is an understanding that all of this is photography, or art, that is worth showing. Thought provocing, and inevitably inspiring photographers to become better at their own photography. They host seminars, they hold courses. And they socialize.

But most of all, they are very successful commercially. They are also very good at attracting volonteers and teachers. It holds status. What drives this museum is a constant curiousity to be at the frontier of a very new and never before explored field of art, that when it becomes everymans property, it still holds exclusivity.

This is what the SCAE should be in Sweden!

sustainability, food milage etc.

2011-07-20T02:17:00.000-07:00

A couple of nights ago, I was looking for Australian beer on the Systembolaget webpage (for non Swedes, that's the state run monopoly selling alcohol). Much to my excitement, I found that someone is importing Little Creatures beer (not cheap though), and nostalgia hit me. Imagine to experience 33cl worth of Fremantle and all that...

But then it hit me (and not for the first time, but hard enough to make me think again); the point with micro brewing, is to brew for a local crowd, so they don't have to drink the multinational brand beverages that are supposed to taste the same all over the world (they don't, drink Heineken licensed brewed in Thailand and compare it with one brewed in Europe, or even compare German Coca Cola to Swedish).

But naturally, I require that Little Creatures flavor, not just for nostalgia. Can't I drink it here then? And that made me think about coffee. Or any other produce really. How come Argentinian beef is less expensive than Swedish when you buy it in Sweden? Or apples? I remember at IGA in Perth there was local limes sold for $36/kg, when I could easily pick one off my neighbours tree. In Perth, I can understand why everything is more expensive, since food milage isn't optional really in most cases (well, except for lime then), but in Sweden?

Green coffee, to roast in Europe, inevitably must come from far away countries suitable for growing coffee (regardless of quality of the green). So does, sugar, salt, chocolate etc. How much of what we are paying for, is actually milage, and what is cost of green? Salt and sugar is dirt cheap, so cost of human life producing this must be really low. Poor green coffee too. So my guess is (I am merely speculating here, and would like help in getting the facts straight) that transport in many cases is subsidized?

My wife studies Human Geography at University. She tells me that a lot of the countries producing First World export goods, could be better off not starving if instead they were producing food that could be consumed within the country. Sure, the country wouldn't have the same kind of BNP, but the little man on the floor would be less likely to starve. And come to think of it, how many coffee exporting countries also drink coffee that would even match the quantity they are producing for the First World? And the pay for the goods, how is that distributed to the people? What does the farmers workers get in return, when it comes to infrastructure, medical health care and schooling?

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here, I understand that a lot of people have already asked themselves the same questions. I'm only interested in what answers they got? For me going to Origin (and I allow myself using that term so widely, since this question can be applied on basically all coffee producing countries except maybe Australia and Hawaii) will be a lot to try to find answers to these kind of questions. Understanding the bean and the process etc. is all very good and interesting for us as coffee people, but what if the people working with the product (and I'm not necessarily talking about the owners of the farms, but the actual workers who are hired) are better off producing something else?

Reading Swedish book Cocaina, made me realize that cocaine as an example, is the pure, unregulated price we pay for something we want. If I want cocaine, which is illegal in most countries, I have to pay a price that is the actual cost for that produce. Just think about it; all of the people touching the cocaine, from seed to street, are stake holders who might lose a lot on being in it, but might live a more prosperous life than growing bananas if they get away with it (it's like in the book Freakonomics, where they ask people in an American high-risk low-income area why they shouldn't sell drugs instead of working at McDonalds, if the likelyhood of getting killed at the same age is the same regardless of occupation and only comes down to the block of land you're living on). No subsidies, no regulations, just pure from hand to hand distribution with high risk involved.

And with this in mind, can Fairtrade etc. save the world? Or only buy us some clear conscious? I don't know. Do you? Please share with me if you do!

sporty wear and tear

2011-07-19T01:24:00.000-07:00

The mates over at the Five Senses camp have together with the espresso gods of Synesso made the coolest t-shirt this side of summer. Check it out here! Thanks to Redji for that one!

Speaking of Redji, we're hoping to be doing the Aerobie Hipster Golf tournament (or just a bunch of coffee geeks throwing discs in the forrest) this Saturday. The usual coffee suspects will be there, naturally. If you feel that you want to participate in some coffee geekiness/disc throwing in a forrest, get in touch on twitter. Unless the weather is shit.

Tim Varney of Tim Wendelboe fame has this morning created one of the most agreeable hashtags on twitter: #latteartisforbogans
I couldn't agree more. But not just for the flat white disguised as a cappuccino to create latte art. Also for the fact I suck at latte art. This revolution speaks to me. Where is the t-shirt?

I saw on the internet that someone has imported Little Creatures Pale Ale to Sweden for the price of 38.50 SEK/bottle. But you have to order a case. That's a whopping 900 SEK to drink a few beers. A lot of dough to feel like a bogan for a night. Here is a picture for Tim Varney; Bogan Up A Little?

Also saw this article on Coffee in NSW online. Speaking of NSW, the baristi in Sydney are heating up for the upcoming NSW Syphonist Championships on the 30th of July. This is an AASCA authorized event, and there will be a national competition in Melbourne.

Speaking of Syphon competitions, super blogger Oscar Nyman has finally scribbled down a new post on his blog. Is there some media criticism I detect in the beginning? Are we all twitter-twats? Anyway, his post really makes me want to visit Oslo!

Found this through Dan Stenqvist. Funniest descriptor ever. "A whirlpool of savoury tastes..."

Also the National Teams for Nordic Barista Cup are announced. For Sweden, this year Pernilla Gard, Per Nordby, Alexander Ruas and Anne Lunell are competing. Looks like a really good set up. Per trained Pernilla for this years Barista Cup (both working for Da Matteo), and Alexander and Anne worked together recently on the Coffee Common event in Edinburgh, Alexander being our reigning barista champ 2011, and Anne former barista champion and artisan roaster for Swedens worst kept secret Koppi. To me, that's the smell of napalm in the morning - victory!

2012 seems like interesting things are happening in Melbourne. The International Coffee Expo is held there 4-6/5 2012. More info coming shortly here!

Speaking of sporty, help Sprudge help Stephen Leighton of Has Bean to run away from things here. Funniest ever!!

NP: City And Color Little Hell

the soundtrack to this summer

2011-07-18T04:41:00.000-07:00

It's a typical Swedish Summer, mostly cloudy but enjoyable moments of sun every now and then.
This is my soundtrack, while sipping cheap Cava and eating some nice cheese.

- Magnetic Man S/T
- Miami Horror Illumination
- Doomriders Darkness Comes Alive
- Caribou Andorra
- Santogold S/T
- Sneaky Sound System 2
- Cut/Copy Zonoscope
- Van She S/T (EP)
- SBTRKT Step In Shadows (EP)
- Washed Out High Times

In a years time

2011-07-13T00:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a year now since I got to Sweden. Thought I'd see what has happened here and in the rest of the world since.

Admittedly when I got here, I was disappointed to say the least to be back in Sweden. Coming from Australia, getting to know and experience some good good coffee, both as a beverage and as a community, I found Sweden to offer little or nothing really. With a few exceptions.

Regarding Stockholm, not much has changed. Or has it? A few of the roasters has expanded their frontier by getting new accounts. Some of these accounts do the products justice, some don't. What I saw when coming here was that companies took little or no responsibility for how their product reached the end-customer (i e the one paying for the beverage they're drinking). That has not changed. If anything, I think some are turning their product into brand rather than have any fair substance. This needs to change. If Speciality Coffee as the coffee industry recognizes it within their own ranks (and much debate was about some time ago), I think all of us need to think quality before quantity until we can sure fire our product.

Somethings very strange happened, when a Speciality Coffee outlet bought one of the best machines on the market, to soon change their coffee into commodity grade from a cheaper provider. What happened there? At the same time, another company are sitting on the distribution on the best machine on the market, and do nothing to promote it. Instead they buy another gadget machine to put in their shop window. What's with that? To me this shows that there is no coherent view on where the coffee market is going in the rest of the world, no sense of belonging. Instead, some sit on a great machine serving crap coffee, and some just buy up machines and keep on pushing cheaper machines to their customers while selling them Speciality Grade coffee.

The answer here is price and posing. If you can't really play but want to be seen, you get in touch with a smart designer slash businessman like Malcolm McClaren, and all of a sudden you're Sex Pistols. Attitude in a can. Sure, they sold a lot of albums, but they still can't play, and they live off old merits. Creating the conception of what Punk is, does not put you in the front seat for ever. And people getting into the market need to think carefully; are we creating a band to start playing Punk and cash in, or are we simply putting together a band to make great music that might sound like something they describe as Punk?

By the time I got here, Kura Café had just opened. For me, they offered (and still offer) the ultimate café experience. It comes down to a few things: good machine park that allows you to create great coffee, fresh produce and the key ingredient - hospitality! All this takes hard work, but you'll never see them slip on the things that matters most. And by hospitality, I'm not only talking about what happens in shop during rush hour. I'm also very grateful to Cymon for always being willing to host events, always letting anyone interested in coffee coming down after hours and pull shots to practice or just talk.

And speaking of events, we've had some really nice and interesting nights with coffee. Henrik Sandén and Oscar Nyman has been doing hard work, as well as myself at times, but I think we're all, including the ones that shows up, tired of being the usual suspects. We had a great cupping session when the Nekisse arrived in Stockholm, we had a great and interesting espresso cupping later. Roasteries and people were willing to provide. Oscar put together a Latte Art throwdown at the J&N Koncept Store when the WBC was on, that was well attended. Henrik and I have put together a few cuppings, trying different coffees. Though the list on a Facebook Group created for these kind of events boasts with 50-60 members, only the usual 5-15 shows up. Every single time. Why?

I keep looking for explanations. Are we too geeky? Too arrogant? Too hopeful to see people working in coffee all day coming down and try even more coffee? Too unwilling to see what others are doing? Or too cool for school? Don't know, but I find it rather telling that without community and consesus on what Speciality Coffee and good brewing is, we as a coffee nation cannot grow in either numbers or volume. Some seem too lazy or spoilt, thinking that the roasters or cafés, or even SCAE should provide these events.

What cafés/employers should provide is a possibility for someone taking their task as barista seriously, to work on good and maintained equipment that matches the product they're selling. They should also treat staff in a way that they get to keep them, that the business thrives on the barista taking back knowledge from the community into the shop, as well as showing the community where good coffee is.

Roasters need to provide good training possibilites, and suitable machine park for their product. And follow up on any bad feedback they get. A single blogger with an attitude might put your name on the shitlist, and what's on internet stays on internet. This to me proves that marketing is completely empty if you can't back up your product with quality.

As for myself, one year in Stockholm has meant a lot of things. I've gotten to know some people within the community that I truly, dearly appreciate. They're all creative, curious coffee people that share a passion. Some are baristi, some are even customers/regulars at various hangouts. I've learnt that I know a lot less about coffee than I thought, and I've been fortunate to have people pointing this out to me, leading me in the right direction. I've also learnt that coffee lasts longer in this climate, and I've come to understand that brewing a cup that tastes wrong is probably my fault rather than the roasters. Simple things that may sound self evident.

So, keys to success

strong community with open door policy
encouraging staff at café to participate/host/learn from community/roasters
roasters need to educate and then communicate

Saying all this, I know some things are really moving in the right direction! And slowly I start appreciating living in Stockholm again.

Skepdicks

2011-07-10T00:05:00.000-07:00

This is a post on a non coffee related topic. Since 2004, I've been a fringe dweller in the Skeptic community, at first as a Pariah (you'd call it Troll today probably), but the more I listened to their arguments over mine and others, I realized they were the winning team. And I'm usually one going for the underdogs.

I've never been Christian, I've always considered myself a spiritual person, fascinated by the Hinduistic view on life, later seeking answers in Buddhism. Not that I've studied either of these thoroughly enough to say I know what goes on in their writings, but I have enough experience in going to their temples and cults, to know that what Skeptics say about them is mostly not true.

Religious cults "brain wash" you. They are institutionalized as misogynic. They cannot argue on real life topics, since their moral is built on books written thousands of years ago.
I have found that one of the things that pisses Skeptics off the most, is that in some circles Christians (it's always the Christians in these circles, probably cause Muslims and Jews are too controversial to talk to for, well cultural reasons, and Hindus and Buddhists they have no knowledge about whatsoever) consider Atheists having a lack of moral/ethics, cause they don't believe in God. I agree with the Skeptics here. It's a propostrous idea that man needs God to have moral.

But I do believe in these ancient scriptures to hold if not a truth, at least some common sense on what it's like to be Man, and some solutions to our problems. For instance the Bhagavad Gita offers that if Man does not fill any object or actions towards them with value, but gives everything the same value, he will prevail (however, they would disagree with the word prevail since life is not about winning, I just couldn't find a better word at the moment). That's 2500 year old cognitive behavior therapy for you.

We might have more knowledge today, but we certainly haven't become more wise. And this article shows it. For as long as I have lurked the Skeptic world, there has been a lot of "explanations" on why priests and monks in religious contexts have harmed children for instance. A lot of cultural practice, like female genital mutilation in parts of Africa, has been attributed Islamic practice, even though that is not common practice among Muslims in other parts of the geographical Muslim world.

In short, most Skeptics consider religions the root to all evil. Sam Harris in his book End of Faith goes so far as to label the liberal religious people (or even atheists who think there is nothing wrong with religious people) responsible for what religion does to people in its extremes. "If You are not with Us, You are against Us" his warcry seems to be. Sounds a lot like Jehovas Witnesses to me.

If Rebecca Watsons article is correct, and I'm not just talking about the Richard Dawkins comment, but male Skeptics vs. feminist Skeptics in general, I have to say that this is what I've seen in a long time regarding the Skeptic movement and its error that it's basically a sub-religious movement with the same kind of need to exclude people and use their own lack of moral fibre in a context where they can express some sort of power. Much what they accuse the religious movements for. It goes to show that the Bible and most other religious scriptures wisdom is correct: God is perfect, Man isn't.

The Man Machine

2011-07-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days has been coffee intense for me, meeting up with old friends and new acquaintances in coffee has lead to new thoughts through good and hearty discussions on different topics. Tonight I skimmed through an article that was posted by Roast Magazine on twitter. Then I retweeted it, cause I thought it was kind of thought provocing, and touched several topics I've discussed these past few days with people. Immediately someone wanted to debate the article, but I find I couldn't get my point through while doing my McJob with one hand, trying to summon things up in 140 characters at a time. So I write it here instead.

The article is about a coffee shop who basically are setting up with the, maybe created by the newspaper to cause a stir, attitude that they're not doing Third Wave Pour Over (or rather, "the pour over so popular with Third Wave cafés). Instead they do Clever. When skimming through the post, I honestly thought it read Clover, and it sort of semi-made sense in that context. Now, Clever, to me, is just another drip filter brewing method, with a steeping process as the only difference. Maybe I haven't fully understood the Clever yet, but that's the only thing really that separates the V60 and Clever in amount of steps for the barista to manage and be in control over (and then you add the dose and grind with the steeping time, and voilá! you got more parameters to be in control of).

I'm not a fan of the V60 really, as I am no fan of the French Press. Why? For two reasons; the first is selfish. I haven't really played around enough on them cause they haven't fascinated me enough. The French Press I have had, and made decent coffee on, out of pure necessity. Nothing cheaper was available to me at a time I was really on a Smurfs budget. The second reason is a pragmatic one. I haven't to this date had a V60 coffee shop made cup that amazed me. I've had decent ones, but I get enough of "decent coffee" at home. For shop, where I pay a third of a new bag of coffee for a single cup, I want the thing to be at least better than average. Especially if the shop boasts about their talent. And this is a global phenomena.

So, the argument that the shop owner who refused using the "trendy third wave choice" made sense to me in one way. Until I realized he was using a Clever and not a Clover (and I have too little experience on the latter to say if it actually is so automatized that there is minimum effort on the barista to make great consistency in the cup). To me, the more variables to make the perfect cup, the bigger effort on the maker to create that magic. Sure if you use alarm clocks for each brews steeping time, and you can do something else for those 45 seconds or whatever steeping time they'd use. But it will still demand scales and a 100% control while doing it.

And that brings me to the kind of thoughts that got me into the article and wanted to share it. We as coffee people, the idealist twitteratis who review coffee shops as if they were 3 star Guide Michelin restaurants, are rarely business owners. We're assholes with opinions on other peoples businesses. In other words, other peoples money and efforts. There are definitely roasters and cafés out there that stick to good routines for making coffee. Investing in machinery and gadgets to create positive work flow on the brewing side of things. They are the ones interested in the twitter flow, and often are they aware of their own strengths and weaknesses and are constantly trying to up their game to be at the frontier of Speciality Coffee. So far so good.

But give me the business owner, Speciality Coffee minded or not, that when expanding and selling the product (the roasted coffee) are not losing control of the quality of what actually reaches the customer? So me, the critic, say to them: either don't sell it to them unless they learn how to do your coffee justice, or take responsibility and train them. Well, that's easy for me to say, cause I don't have to miss out on a lot of coffee volume nor on endless time training people. Or as the business owner would call it - money.

Does that mean that only the really idealistic people should brew coffee, and the rest should use Bunn system brewing devices for consistency? The problem is that a lot of the self proclaimed Third Wave coffee shops have no self criticism what so ever. I've been to a few that say they sell a great product, and honestly would not even been considered average in other parts of the world. A friend of mine went to one of the most hyped up cafés in Europe, and had the worst coffee experience ever. The people knowing who's behind this store will say "teething problems", but I think the problem is bigger than that.

We want to deliver a consistently good product. Recently posting a small article in Swedish on Starbucks expanding in Sweden, I've come to the conclusion that what they do well, way better than a lot of the so called Third Wave cafés, is consistency. When having a coffee at Starbucks, you know what you get. In order to do so, they have minimized the effort of the human being, minimizing risk for error that is. Ironically, we try to minimize the human errors in Speciality Coffee as well, by using scales, ledging milk jugs (yes, on the Synesso you actually achieve more consistent foam if you ledge). As a craft we don't trust the visual appearance anymore. Some baristi are skeptic to this approach, meaning that once you weighed your cup and see what's there, you can replicate this easily. Let's in this context call them the traditionalist (not to be confused with the Italians, who are a hopeless breed altogether in tradition). Some of them will admit that they produce inconsistent shots. Others will say that their coffee is the same all the time.

Then you have the data geeks. Everything should be measured for accuracy. The human hand and eye cannot fully replicate the shot. Some will say that they can replicate exact shots, others will be more open minded and think they are only trying to get as close as possible. Either way, the disbelief in mans possibility to create consistent brewing results leads to the conclusion that the less man tampers with the product on his own (without the proper measure tools), the more accurate it will be. Fair enough, but hey, isn't that what Starbucks is doing? Do you see what I'm getting at here?

What I'm trying to say with this long post is, that being idealistic and a visionary when it comes to brewing methods in shop, will always compromise quality and be a slight risk. There is less risk with batch brewing, if you have the right equipment. And not all café owners are willing to take that risk. There are far worse inconsistency problems than just your own brewing technique differ from brew to brew. What if you hire a great barista, and then he quits. All your customers are raving about his coffee, and come to your shop for it, however you are not half as good as he is in your consistency. This happens daily in shops when there are substitutes hired for the summer. Quality drops. Again, my criticism is; how can you let this happen? Well, we all need to have a break, and as a sole trader you might not be able to afford to close the shop over the vacation.

Can man ever be as consistent as a machine? The customers wants consistency, that's what they're paying for. I can't remember exactly how many people in percentage orders the same drink every day as a regular, but I think it was closer to 85% according to David Schomer (correct me if I'm wrong). That really puts the pressure on replicating the drink each and every time. So the solution? Well, to me it actually is control and education. That might mean you are expanding slower, and sell less coffee per hour cause you have to invest in time to make consistency work. But you're still aiming to be accurate like a machine...

good and bad things about summer

2011-07-03T05:26:00.000-07:00

Good things about summer:

a lot of people are travelling. This summer some spectacular coffee people are coming through Stockholm, and I look forward to catch up with them!
having a take away cup I'm happy with, allows me to brew my coffee straight into it, and bring it to the jetty just by my house.
summer nights are spectacular, and I enjoy walking home late at night through a night bright Stockholm.
I eat less, but drink more...

Bad things about summer:

A lot of my favorite cafés close down due to the summer.
I work at my McJob throughout the whole thing.
I eat more ice cream, but move around less....

This summer will see Coffee Common hit Edinburgh and then London for the TED Global. Both Ralf Rueller of The Barn and Swedish barista champ 2011 Alexander Ruas are there to make coffee, and I would have loved the opportunity to hang out with them, as well as getting to know the rest of the creme de la crema of European baristi. Have a blast guys while I'm sweating away in my tunnel machine of steel... that means I'm also missing out on the Nordic Barista Cup, since the family planned the only vacation I get this summer, in NYC mind you, around that time....

Hey, if you are in Stockholm and want an experience out of the ordinary this summer, make sure to go to Gamla Stan and get some hand crafted lollies at Gamla Stans Polkagriskokeri. Have a great summer!

NP: Hellacopters Head Off

Maastricht thoughts

2011-06-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a short notice on the WCE event in Maastricht the past week. A few thoughts arises in me. First, the flow of information from this event has been very low, compared to the WBC in Bogota. To me this shows how important it is to merge the two events, something that, if I understand this correctly, will happen in Vienna next year!

Second of all, I want to congratulate Steve and Has Bean to his massive success this year, first roasting the coffee for the WBC winner, and then roasting the coffee for the Brewers Cup winner. That's a huge success and something to be very proud of!

Third, I'm amazed at the rising quality and passion from Greece, that seems to be the next interesting Speciality Coffee Nation to look out for! A semifinalist in the WBC, and both a Latte Art- and Cupping Champion in Maastricht. That is great stuff!! Big congratulations to Chris Loukakis and Kyriakos Ouzounidis (I have to say I'm surprised the latter didn't win the Coffee in Fine Spirits competition instead, with a surname like that ;) )!

Instead the Coffee in Fine Spirits was won by Russian Philip Leytes. Congratulations! And also congratulations to Bae Jin-Seol from Korea, being the Ibrik champion of 2011.

Fourth, I have to say that like the WBC, it is amazing to see that Ireland, England and Australia are still fighting for the top positions in the Brewers Cup, the most exciting competition form I've seen for a long time. Winner Keith O'Sullivan is apparently a home barista, something that was not a hit in the Swedish competition. I hope this means we'll see more try out in Sweden next year, not just professionals! Second was mr Hoffmann and third was Luca Costanzo so if there is anything we can learn is that top three are all bloggers! At least that's a sign that gives me some hope for next year...

Fifth, I'm thinking about how Sweden did in the competition. Henrik did a good job at landing 14th in the Cupping competition, being a non professional. I'm not sure how Sebastian and Emil actually went in their competitions respectively, but in Emils case I think we in Sweden didn't really enter with full knowledge of what the competition was about, since at the Swedish championships, we skipped straight to the final step; brewing your own coffee. Nevertheless, I think Emil is really keen on coming back, and with full insight in how the format is now, he will become a fierce competitor next year in Sweden!

In general, there has been some thoughts in the aftermath of the WBC. In Swedish, I've seen a couple of blogs doing comments. Alexander Ruas shares some thoughts here on Dan Stenqvists blog. I just want to say as a comment to Alexanders thoughts on the table set up of the top baristi of the world; I'm pretty confident that regardless of the impression of the table setting the baristi have accomplished, it's always been the last thing on the list for them. The competitors from the top nations comes from tradition where perfection is part of the competition, but first things first.

In Capoeira there is an expression I'd like to finish this blog post off with: "Buying the Game". When two competitors are playing, and a third one wants to enter, he or she needs to buy the game, which means they have to make a clear sign to the two that they are ready to enter the game. In this, you feel the vibe of the game, you have to feel at what level the players are at in order to create an equally great game once they take over. If you don't buy the game correctly, you might get hurt - a fist or a leg might kick you hard in the face.

In Sweden, we need to buy the game of the WBC format, as well as the other competitions naturally. If suit and tie is required, I think we'll lose points and face if we think of ourselves as the pinnacle of relaxed culture that should be norm. Swedish liberal writer Johan Norberg wrote the other day about the big riots in Gothenburg ten years ago. We still talk about the riots, who did what? The fact that there was a very important meeting on Global matters that happened in Sweden, is lost in our silly focus on ridiculously small issues that happens on our stamp-sized corner of the globe. Buy the game, Sweden, buy the game!

Edit:
Here is an in depth look at the Brewers Cup format by the winner himself, Keith O'Sullivan! Food for thought indeed!

And in Swedish, some notes from our Cupping champion Henrik Sandén, who finished 14th in the world. Not too shabby!

Inspiration for an article

2011-06-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

I'm part of a project that is run by Chris Kolbu on account for Wilfa. We are covering coffee bars that have coffee focus on brewing methods beyond espresso, and also writing about our coffee experiences in general. My first article is supposed to be about "the meeting in coffee", but funny enough, it's not really writing itself, regardless how much inspiration I get.

But I'll elaborate what I mean with "meeting in coffee". In the picture above is a good mate called Chris, once a regular at both Ristretto and Velvet in Perth. I got to know him from one of our other regulars, and it turned out Chris was moving to Norway for some odd reason (he likes snow, could you believe?). Chris wanted to work in coffee, and wondered if there was any good place to look for work. I had only one name in Oslo, so I gave it to him. Next time I hear from him, he is roasting coffee at Tim Wendelboe.

Cara in the picture, is someone Chris met in Stockholm. She's from Chicago. Yesterday she flew out to Berlin. This morning, I see on twitter that she is having breakfast at The Barn. In the picture, taken at Kura, Chris and Cara are drinking a Colombian nano lot espresso roasted by Five Senses, the roaster providing coffee at Velvet when Chris was a regular there.

This morning, me and Chris together with friends Owen and Veronica, went to Snickarbacken for breakfast. Johan made us a chemex of the Sumatran from Five Senses, again we are contemplating how odd it is for us to hook up in Stockholm and drink coffee roasted in Australia. Even odder it is to recieve tweets from Zac and Charles in Bali sending their best to Chris, and from Ron in Victoria (from the roastery the coffee has been roasted) by strange coincidence brewing up a Chemex simultaneously as we are on twitter while sipping the Chemex in Stockholm. And Cara is having her morning coffee in Berlin served by Chris Onton at the same time as this happens.

This is what I mean with "meeting in coffee". Now I just have to write it in a way that it makes sense...

NP: Gayngs Relayted

one year later

2011-06-16T01:52:00.000-07:00

This is the latest edition of Fresh Cup Magazine. Taken at the WBC in London last year, there are two dead serious mugs in the picture behind mr Hoffmann. If you spot and name both, I'll buy you a coffee at Kura!

Australian guest appearance at Snickarbacken

2011-06-15T23:54:00.000-07:00

After a really nice and interesting evening cupping at Snickarbacken 7 in Stockholm, where among others we cupped coffees from crowd pleasers such as Has Bean and 5 Senses, there was some left of the Sumatran coffee from the latter that can now be found at Snickarbacken, ready to be served as Chemex.

Over all, a great cupping. What blew us all away was the extremely high level of roasting, the fact that some of the coffees were up to a month old didn't do too much to the quality. If a few points be made, I'd say that the key ingredient in the Has Bean coffees were the mouthfeel, and the 5 Senses coffees sparked a conversation on sourcing interesting coffees that stand out (the Lintong mentioned above is a great example).

Thanks to Steve and Ben for sharing their coffees with the Stockholm Coffee Crew! Unfortunately most of the Has Bean coffee had been consumed prior to this cupping (what? who? me?), but 5 Senses coffee is now available to try as Chemex at Snickarbacken, and as espresso at Kura in limited amounts! Try it, you'll like it!

NP: Kasey Chambers Dust And Rattling Bones

Guest Appearance from Australia at Kura Café

2011-06-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

At Da Matteo we did a swap with a few coffee roasters, hence the cupping this afternoon with, amongst others, Has Bean and Five Senses. The latter sent two filter roasted coffees that we will cup, however two other ones that came were roasted for espresso. Since Kura Café now has a second grinder to offer exciting Single Origins from Da Matteo (I had a gobsmacking Shakiso this morning), I kindly asked to host these two coffees that were sent kindly by Ben Bicknell at Five Senses in Victoria so they wouldn't go to waste...

So from tomorrow you can sample a straight Colombian from Monseratte by Jose Naval (I suspect this to be a nanolot that Jen and Dean picked up some time back, but not sure... twitter will reveal the truth), and the Dark Horse that will always make me think of CNR's own bad boys Callum Morich and Steve Lomax!

Enjoy while it lasts!!

a few short notes

2011-06-15T01:14:00.000-07:00

The Age has an article on the Single Origin phenomena in Melbourne here.

Another Melbourne article here, on Axil this one!

This makes me wish I was in New York already.

Also a few congratulations due:
First of all, belated Happy 1st Birthday to my friends at The Barn! Free espresso were handed out yesterday! A great future ahead of them!

Then, belated Happy 2nd Birthday to Keep Cup. I think the XS-cup is out as well, check it out!

And third, belated congratulations to James Hoffmann for winning the UK Brewers Cup! I had my hopes up for Josh and Steve to put up a serious fight for it, but like all fans of The Highlander knows, there can be only one!

Today we'll cup some seriously good coffees at Snickarbacken 7 in Stockholm, on the table will be coffees from Has Bean, 5 Senses, Stumptown, Square Mile and Da Matteo. 6.30pm, be there if you can!

NP: Washed Out High Times

New York New York

2011-06-14T03:35:00.000-07:00

Booked the trip to New York, I arrive Monday 29th of August, and leave Sunday 4th of September. Staying in TriBeCa apparently, and I have a few must visits on my list (as you might have noticed, I'm filling up the list as I get recommendations. Not sure I will have time to visit all of these places, but it's good to know):

Sweet Leaf
Blue Bottle
Grumpy
Third Rail Coffee
Gimme! Coffee
Stumptown
Ninth Street Espresso
Gorilla Coffee
RBC NYC
Blue Bird Coffee Shop

these are all the ones that springs to mind first from the top of my head, but I'd love your help in filling my list, and if there are any events on any specific days, I'd appreciate your tip! Comment or drop me a line on Twitter!

NP: Groove Armada I See You Baby

the future and relevance of WBC

2011-06-13T01:50:00.000-07:00

Super blogger Oscar Nyman has made a post in the aftermath of the World Barista Championships, where he gives a few suggestions on getting it more interesting for the audience watching it at home. I could've just responded in his comment section, however I think it is a too interesting topic to not develop and question further.

First though, allow me to take a short stroll down a different path. This weekend, I went to a wedding. Present was a friend and the husband, both working high up in the hierarchy in a very large and famous Swedish company, one that for me holds a rather eco friendly, sustainable image. Very important, since he company does make an impact on the environment. We got talking about different certifications (naturally Fair Trade etc.) and their idea on the topic. They told me what they thought about it ("good for the people, good for the environment") as a consumer. Then I asked about their CSR-work. Clearly, the company is interested if 1. it gives the company a good image and 2. doesn't cost them a thing (or can be tax deductable within 5 years).

I'm not going to say I was shocked, but having just read a book on the topic, I had higher hopes for companies whose idea and trade actually is in the field of sustainability and impact on the eco system. Their response was actually very sober: the company cannot turn in its tracks and go backwards (you've created the monster, and it's only goal is to be bigger). If you are a company starting out with this philosophy it is much easier to have a slow growth and maintain your integrity.

Back to the WBC. I realize that the WBC was probably founded by idealists in their more youthful days, and now it has grown into an entity that both is becoming big and has the potential of becoming much bigger and greater. At what cost though? This year saw the WBC let Nestlé sponsor the competition, for instance. That, to me, is a step in a direction that either needs to be policed and never happen again, or accepted in a wish to reach out to the mainstream consumers. Growth, without integrity.

Oscar has found 6 points he believes would make the WBC more interesting for the average spectator (i e the non-competing barista/coffee enthusiast).
1. allow judges to give immediate feedback ("That's an awesome espresso" or "that's foul mate").
2. get rid of the amount of people on stage and simplify the competition.
3. turn the judges into TV-personality type of mediators of the competition
4. scores be made public without delay
5. blind tasting for the judges (separating performance bias from taste)
6. focus on customer/audience focus and not judging/comp focus

An overall impression I get from Oscars vision is to make it A. easier and B. accessible for the audience. More like a TV-program. Fair enough, I do see the point he is making, and I agree in many things. However, the TV-comparison is dangerous, cause not only will it simplify the competition and water out the meaning it has (to meet a demand rather than raising the bar) to a lot of competitors and people involved. A TV-program is a cutting room product, the WBC is a live event. There are a lot of bloopers to create those 45 minutes worth of a program, cut away in order to create the right type of drama. The competitor has 15 minutes.

A couple of years back, in WA we had a competition where an enthusiastic judge/MC not only was talking during a competitors presentation, the judge also made clear his bias in showing the audience clearly who his darling was. This was naturally frowned upon by the community, not only cause it one judge might have a bias that is not only relevant from the competitors performance, but connection to the judges themselves. But also, how do you feel as a competitor when presented with some boring remarks "Here is XX, he works as a barista at XX. Go for it mate" and you perform well, and then being presented with a "next up is a true champion, prodigal son and someone I'd let my daughters date"... Not saying that it would be a standard, but how spontaneous can you allow judges to be in a more open format?

Second of all, I find Oscars points being more towards the Latte Art competitions, where you get immediate scores, but where I've always found the first competitor being the one where they calibrate through, and being a lot more subjective. On the other hand, it's a competition where the audience could easier be part and give feedback not only to competitors but also judges results. I don't know...

Personally, I agree most with Oscars last point, the one on making it more audience focused rather than format focused. It has become a competition with very little relevance to everyday barista work in the bar. I am naturally thinking about the signature drink. The benefit for any barista entering at any level, is to understand the espresso and milk technique, something that the barista will have a lot of use for in the everyday work. But I'd rather see the Brewers Cup format integrated in the Barista Comp, and ditching the signature drink. In practice not a lot of people will never ever serve the signature drink after the competition in their shop. Why? Because it's a necessary evil of the format, not part of your customer focus.

When Miami Ink was aired, they noticed a lot of customers showing up wanting "very special tattoos with significant meaning" expecting the tattooists to meet that demand. It was a show, and those tattoos with significant meaning were produced in order to create drama for the audience. Tattooists don't give a shit. And I'd hate to see a demand for blueberry reductions in my coffee that I'm serving at the bar, cause some morons got interested in the competition. And everyone questioning this, raise a hand how many bottles of syrups you'd like to see on your shelf. That's right, so shut up.

We see enough trends through twitter that are fads I don't really care about (why iced coffee in a million different ways, when you can just let your filter brew cool down?)...

To wrap things up, I think there are ways to make the WBC a bit more fun for the competitor (why not have votes online for performance to at least give the competitor some feedback on what they looked like). To take away tech judges, would be to assume everyone is on the same level. We're not there yet. To make a judgement fair, I think not taking away judges is the right thing to do. The opposite would in my opinion give a more accurate judging.

But most of all, I think it is possible to just look at the competition and have a rather good idea who will finish top 12 and bottom 12. It's the suspense if you are right or not that is the great fun in watching. And I'd like to see improvement in the local competitions, rather than at WBC level. That is where the competition starts...

NP: Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See

dear coffee people, I love you

2011-06-08T01:55:00.000-07:00

At Kura there is a regular called Markus who travels around a bit. When he was visiting his brother in London, he "forgot" to get me some Has Bean coffee, but he wanted to "make it up to me" (how you make up forgetting to buy someone a gift?) so he got me some Suke Quto coffee from Stumptown when he was in New York!!

Markus, Redji and some other people I hardly know the name of, are regulars (in a coffee shop I rarely work in) and awesome people that aren't even in the business, who just likes coffee and likes sharing! I can't express (o) enough how grateful I am that these guys are around in my life. Markus, with all my heart, thank you! That made my day...

NP: Groove Armada Love Sweet Sound

nrj

2011-06-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

Of all weird flavors you can have energy drinks in these days, this has got to be the weirdest of the lot... coffee tasting soda. It tastes like non alcoholic Kahlua. At least it's vegetarian unlike Red Bull...

Barista of Excellence

2011-06-06T02:37:00.000-07:00

Two things happened this year in WBC. First of all, the competition itself was in Colombia, a producing country for the first time, which has given competitors from all over the world the chance to visit farms and see first hand what life is for the farmers producing their most important ingredient - coffee.

Second of all, a coffee producing nation won the WBC: Alejandro Mendez of El Salvador took home the title with a performance in coffee excellence!

This is the paradigm, the second one since James Hoffmann won 2007. There was a competition before and after Mr Hoffmann, and there will be a competition before and after Mr Mendez. And not only was Mr Mendez the winner, runner up was Pete Licata, also from a coffee producing background (Hawaii) competing with Hawaiian coffee he himself has been part of producing for the competition. To stretch things, though not present in his actual performance, third place Matt Perger comes from a coffee producing nation too; Australia.

In many ways, the results were not very surprising on paper (except the actual winner); both the US, Australia and the UK has a very very strong competitive barista culture that will continue to grow but also adapt the new paradigm. They are already on the threshold of linking themselves closer to coffee producers to understand more about coffee.

A nation like Japan has a lot of money and a strong Speciality Coffee focus, and also a mind set to win. I wouldn't be surprised to see them fight for the title again soon. In some ways, I'd say that the biggest challenge in the competition will be for the traditional hard core barista like Javier Garcia from Spain, and Stefanos Domatiotis from Greece, two great baristi that has fought almost against their own nations coffee culture standards and become top baristi of the world. Will the culture they come from though, allow them to come back and fight for it? I hope at the very least, their own nations will see what great things they have accomplished and see there is more coffee in the world than caffe con leche and Greek coffee...

As for Sweden, we have a lot of home work to do. I can honestly say that the only performer in this years national competition in Sweden who had an international set up was Pernilla Gard. The rest of us looked like a bunch of amateurs. Did I honestly think I'd make it to the top of the world with a Clever Drip and tonic water? No, I knew if I had won, I would have had to rethink my whole routine and set up. And I knew I would've needed help. A lot of help, from the whole coffee community of Sweden, and maybe international help that is paid for. A lot of national and international finalists all over the world has paid former world champions for training, and that has paid off in the results....

A big congratulations to Alejandro Mendez, World Barista Champion 2011!!!!

no coffee rain this time

2011-06-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

Trevor Green sent me this article from the Sunday Times in Perth. Jeremy Hulsdunk is at it again! If you click the picture, I think it's big enough to read! Looking good there mate! Thanks Trevor for the picture!

Meanwhile, another Australian publication announces that Australias Matt Perger, together with the Spanish, American, British, Japanese and El Salvador baristi are in the finals! I predicted a bit wrong then that we'd see Greece going home with the trophy. I would like to see Australia or Spain win, if my heart decides, but I think the truth will be another American win... We'll see tomorrow! Exciting indeed!

Just Married!

2011-06-04T03:13:00.000-07:00

My good friend Joakim finally married his bride Jessika, and was proud to be part of the whole ceremony! Thank you for a great day/night (disco dancing until 5.30am burnt more calories than any other thing I've done in a while) and may a thousand suns shine upon you! I love you!

My small part was to make coffee for the morning-after-brunch. To my help, I had a blade grinder, an IKEA French press and a blade grinder. Served some great Daterra Bourbon by Da Matteo, some Australian and some CoE coffee by Haugaard! Needless to say, the people were happy with their coffee and more than one dropped milk and sugar!

NP: Billy Idol White Wedding

Gusto, Växjö

2011-06-04T01:28:00.000-07:00

Went for a wedding in Växjö, and I simply had to squeeze in a visit to Gusto. When I used to study in Växjö, I'd always go to Palladium for a coffee on the way to the train back to Jönköping. I later heard that the guys that mattered there had moved on to create Gusto, and I've been wanting to check it out ever since.

They got a good selection of coffees for sale on the shelf, when I was there they had offers from Koppi, Solde and Haugaard. Haugaard is also the main coffee served at Gusto. The Dogville espresso was spectacular! Lots of complexity, good body but still sweetness and acidity to please!

Was really cool catching up with Mattias Gaunitz, the owner, who was one of the technical judges for me at the finals in Stockholm! A brief visit that keeps me wanting back for more! Gusto could compete with most of the top range places in Stockholm for sure, and I really want to go back this summer for some more coffee talk!

WBC results so far.

2011-06-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I haven't been following the Live Streaming of the WBC this year, basically cause I was travelling down south of Sweden. This Sunday there will be a live streaming at the J&N Concept Store, open for the public, at 7-10pm, and six of these baristi will be in that final:

Javier Garcia of Spain
Matt Perger of Australia
John Gordon of UK
Miki Suzuki of Japan
Lina Zea of hosting country Colombia
Yakup Aydin of Netherlands
Pete Licata of the US
Alejandro Mendez of El Salvador
Stefanos Domatiotis of Greece
HyunSun Choi of Korea
Ricardo A Mora of Costa Rica
Jose De La Pena of Guatemala

Very nice to see such good shape from producing countries. Not so nice to basically see all Scandinavian countries fail to enter the Semi finals. From his espresso I could taste that Håkon Kinn would do well, and he was very close to be in the finals (as was Denmark)... Sweden finished on 42nd place. Why?

I think instead of looking at why or what Alexander Ruas might have had problems with etc, I hope he comes home, and shares, the knowledge what made the top 6 the finalists. That's where our focus needs to be.

Best of luck to the semi finalists. I will make a bold statement and pick out my finalists, just based on the nations they compete for:

Australia, UK, Japan, USA, Greece, Korea and I actually smell the win from Greece with Australia or UK as runner up. We'll see how I do ;)

branded at the threshold of the damned

2011-06-01T03:48:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, Twitter was full of coffee professionals bashing this blog post. Kevin Knox, the blogger, says that there are narcissistic problems within the speciality coffee micro roaster community, where the coolest guys chase for the coolest "labels" at high prices, and when selling it to the customer, they don't only limit the flavor ranges for the buyers, they charge them for the over head cost of amusing themselves flying around the world taking pictures shaking hands with farmers...

I'm not going to be neither for nor against this post, since I'm neither a buyer, a roaster or an owner of anything. At best, I'm the guy at the very last stage before it reaches the customer in the café/store.

Today, this was posted online. If it's true what the blog post says, WBC is partly sponsored by Nestlé (through its Nespresso brand) this year.

Whatever the first blogger says, be it right or wrong, I'd rather have narcissistic super rock star roasters travelling around the world sourcing great coffees, shaking the hands of producers and put up pictures on their wordpress/blogger feeds, than being in a competition that has let the Devil himself over its threshold. I'd gladly pay a dollar extra on my bag for those guys to do their thing for a good cause, than inviting share holders wanting to see a profit, not caring about anything but themselves, sucking any credibility out of whatever event they stick their vampire teeth into.

The WBC is for the barista, for the speciality coffee and for the maintaining of suistainable relations on all levels. It's been pointed out before, but I'll say it again; Nestlé is the absolute opposite to all of this.
Nestlé has the same sort of connection with Speciality Coffee as Volvo or Nokia. I'd chose any one of those any given day.

NP: Bon Iver Perth

Feel the WBC vibe!

2011-05-31T15:37:00.000-07:00

Every twitter these days seems to be about Bogota. For all us in Stockholm who didn't make it this year over to the WBC, super blogger Oscar Nyman has created his first event at his employer (and WBC-competitor neighbor) J&N this Sunday at the Concept Store on Södermalm!

Between 7-10pm the WBC finals will be streamed, and there will be other things coffee happening. I hear rumours about a classic LAT. Open for anyone interested in coffee! This is an opportunity for the coffee community in Stockholm to come together and experience it as a group rather than home by ourselves at our computers (how sad is that?).

NP: Miami Horror Illumination

the record collectors confession

2011-05-28T02:46:00.000-07:00

When I heard this morning that Gil Scott-Heron had died, the first thing I thought about was illegal downloading. Weird, huh!? For people living in Örebro, the shut down of legendary record store Najs Prajz comes both as a shock but at the same time not as a surprise. Let me put two and two together here.

At one point, I was out of money (the move to Australia drained my budget and filled my computer) and surrendered to illegal downloading. My intention has always been to buy the records I like eventually, but not a full price. Before downloading, I simply had to wait until the records had hit a bracket I was willing to pay for it (usually through CDON or Ginza). Now, all I had to do was download it and listen if I really wanted to buy it. Some records I realized after one listen, that I would have wasted 99 SEK if I had bought and never listened to again (Metallica-, Oasis- and Ozzy Osbourne records of late). But there were also records and artists I never ever would've heard about without illegal downloading.

I have to admit, Gil Scott-Heron would've been one of them. I read an article about his latest album, and downloaded it. I'm still waiting for it to hit the right bracket, but saying that illegal downloading has killed the music industry is to me not entirely true. If a record costs you 149 SEK when it's new (I stick to online shopping, in a physical store, the price might be around 199 SEK probably) and then drops to 99 SEK and then to 69 SEK (that's when I buy it most of the time), by illegal downloading have I only delayed my purchase and just ignored the bigger margin for the retailer.

I don't know the margin of a record, and I can agree to buy a record at an expensive price if it's an independent producer that is "rare", but paying 149 SEK for the latest Norah Jones, when it will drop to 69 SEK in six months or so, seems like a rip off. I like Norah Jones, don't get me wrong, I think she deserves a fortune. And I think that CDON and the physical likes of record stores deserves survival and profit.

Downloading is a compromise, I don't download FLAC and I mostly listen to records in my cellphone through semi-crappy headphones. But to be honest, I still appreciate holding the physical product in my hand too much to stop buying them eventually. And I am looking to invest in a vinyl player to be able to purchase vinyl records, especially some rare electronica I've downloaded.

A decade ago I interviewed Cradle of Filth for the release of their album Midian. By then, they had already made in to somewhere between the mainstream and the obscure. To me, Midian is their best album together with their first album, and I have all the albums up until Midian in my collection (I especially loved how the album is a concept album loosely based on a childhood favorite read Cabal by Clive Barker, to be honest probably more based on the film than the book).
Dani Filth, commented on their success somewhere along the lines that "they rather tour the world and make money than work in a post office with a lot of credibility" (insert famous Black Metal personality here). I'm not going to take sides in that statement, but I think that Cradle of Filths music since then has become rather uninteresting, and even though the famous black metal musician pointed out in my ears is equally boring, he still walks away with some integrity and fuck-all attitude for real. If you live under a tree in the forrest, and not in a castle, you can never be dethroned ;)

When witnessing wonderful hardcore act Raised Fist in Perth, they actually wanted people to download their music, cause they were pissed off that the distributors in Australia actually would charge them about 20 AUD to sell to the kids at probably 30 AUD to even make it worthwhile. Gives you an insight how fucked the record industry can be for the artist producing the music.

Saying all this, I out myself as a hypocrite deluxe. 149 SEK is probably two boutique beers served at the local Bishops Arms in Sweden, two beers that I will consume within an hour and piss out the following hour after that...

NP: Gil Scott-Heron I'm New Here

London Calling

2011-05-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

Not less than two Australiasian places in London looking for skilled and experienced Baristi to work for them...

Kaffeine, one of my favorites in SoHo, are looking for staff. So are St Ali!! If I had been ten years younger, I would've moved to London tomorrow ;)

NP: Miami Horror Sometimes

Edit: Hahahaha.... funniest comment ever! Thanks Fabian, that made my day [can't comment at the moment]!

Bombay Dreams

2011-05-27T02:54:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of Wallpaper Magazine [June 2011], available globally, is dedicated to India.
In it I found out about this café, called Kala Ghoda. Things have happened since I last visited the Indian capital of cool, and I am having an urge to go back and explore the city I love.

The layout of Kala Ghoda somehow reminds me slightly of Zekka in Perth. Anyway, you can follow Kala Ghoda on their blog here.

NP: The Beloved Time After Time

Out For Lunch

2011-05-26T03:26:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks, the world has been spinning increasingly fast. I've felt a bit like I'm stuck in a Maelstrom sucking me into a dark place. My mind is racing, and I can't focus. Hitting the wall, and feeling it too. Lately I have also come to question why I am writing about coffee, when I really don't know anything about it.

For starters, this blog might for some been seen as a place for review and opinion. For me personally, I've always thought it was more of a diary, to keep track of where I've been, not only physically but also mentally. Some people might have had opinions about what I say (and they might be right or wrong in the same ways I am). Also text is not a place to be ironic or try to be funny, especially if you joke about real people.

Today, I sat down at my extended living room and read a bit from Haruki Murakamis book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. In it he describes how he became a writer almost by accident, when running a bar. When finally being able to take the chance of maybe living off his writing, he reinvented his lifestyle and started living for himself rather than others (mr Murakami describes in few words what it means to be in hospitality, not being able to chose your clientel). I had an epiphany.

I've always written about coffee from my own point of view, but what do I really know about coffee? I think it's time for me to stop pretending I know jack shit about this product that I really love, and start getting into some real action with it instead. Opinions are like assholes, and all that jive. I agree, I can talk the talk, but can I walk the walk?

I'm taking a bit of time out from this blog, to focus on what I love and want to learn more about, instead of just talking about it. I will still write for Da Matteo on their blog, as well as finish my long due chronicle for the Kulturdelen, but that will all be written in Swedish though.

If there are some interesting things going on in coffee that I just can't ignore, I'll probably make a post, so I won't declare this blog dead and buried, just out for lunch.

Meanwhile, I suggest you check out good mate Simon Westerlunds project Coffee At Home and apply for membership to post your own experiences with coffee. This is sharing and caring in its purest form I think!

Also I'll try with the help of Trevor Green to post something on the past Café Biz that happened last weekend in Melbourne. See what I did there... anyway, most of the time for the near future, I will just tend to my garden...

NP: Eddie Vedder Into The Wild

an inspiring weekend

2011-05-23T02:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend was really inspiring, got to work at Kura with Cymon while Jono was in London on a coffee crawl. As usual there was a lot of coffee, and a lot of fun! This week, Jesse Raub from Intelligentsia in Chicago happened to be in town, and we got a chance to get to hear what coffee is all about over there.

All dressed up for the Rapture, but no horsemen in sight... only a horseboy

In all honesty, I was quite amazed, and depressed almost, how far ahead they are over at Intelligentsia regarding coffee training and preparation. It's been almost a year since I was in Australia, and I wonder how fast things has developed back in Oz!? I mean, there are individual shops doing what Intelligentsia are doing, but being that big and still put such a high pressure on their staff, and empowering them with skill, is so great to hear...

So what else do you do when coffee people meet? Latte art throwdown? Check!

is that a cowboy latte?

my coffee looks a bit gutsy...

Jesse poured his coffee lying down, defying gravity...

The result? Well, since I worked 30 hours in two days (including my McJob in the equation) my result wasn't the best, however I don't want to put the others to shame with my awesomeness, so there won't be any pictures of that... Jokes aside, just getting feedback from someone who is not in your everyday environment is such a good thing, and I think it's time for Stockholm to start organizing regular Barista Jams to get us going to the next level, sharing our skill, knowledge and passion!

NP: Paul Simon So Beautiful or So What

purity

2011-05-23T01:58:00.000-07:00

In the aftermath of Soygate, this blog post is giving opinion on what goes on in Sydney. Here is the article that got the blogger thinking.

The blogger states the formula is one part coffee, one part barista and one part customer, and that these people are actually taking the customer out of the equation. IMHO the blogger is wrong. As in the Soygate topic (where Tim Wendelboe announced there was no more soy served at TW), the customer has a freedom of choice in drinking their coffee where ever they want it, and how ever they like it. But the proprietor has no obligations to add sugar to a perfect cup, as a chef would most likely refuse to add ketchup to the perfect steak.

Much like French fries comes lightly salted, you have the opportunity to add how much ketchup, salt and pepper as your own preference requires. Why is this hard to relate to sugar in coffee? I admire coffee shops that takes a radical stand against people enforcing narcissistic views on what "the perfect cup" consists of. I hestitate to call a 16oz take away cup of a weak latte with three sugars "coffee". The barista works hard dialing in a product they take pride in serving (as espresso or any other brewing method). They might fail at serving you a perfect espresso (over- or underextracted etc.), but if you add sugar without even trying the coffee, you're much more likely to be a sugar addict rather than "picky about your coffee".

In all honesty, Sweden is not big on sugar when it comes to coffee I have noticed. A lot less people add sugar here than in Australia. My guess is that here there is a health awareness as well as a cultural understanding that "coffee" is something brewed and involves water over coffee grounds. A coffee, my dear Australian friends, is not a cup of 3 parts espresso and 7 parts milk. The coffee is actually just 3 parts of what you call a coffee. Sometimes one part of that coffee is taken away, and sometimes another part of that is made up with sugar.

Back to the blog post. For efficiancy, I think the decision to let the customer add sugar themselves is wise. A lot of times, customers don't know how much 2 or 4 sugars are. They just say a figure, and I think once or twice in two years time, someone has actually asked how much 1 sugar is... There are plenty of places that serves a vile cup of coffee with milk that needs sugar added. The people craving sugar in their coffee are more than welcome to pick those spots instead, since they seem far more concerned about their right to add sugar, than the flavor of the coffee itself....

NP: Tom Petty I Won't Back Down

Keep Cup

2011-05-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

A box arrived, and happy was I. My Keep Cups had arrived. At Ristretto in Perth we used to sell the Keep Cups, they're brilliant, an Australian invention and design that is killer! This is the perfect solution for your take away coffee guilt trip!

I love the fact that they are sustainable, stylish and just plain cool! Bring your own, load it up at your favorite pit stop, and bring it to work. For my test ride today, I made a syphon of a daterra bourbon roasted by daMatteo, poured it over in a 12oz cup, and off I went. I might not be the most handsome bloke around, but on the train on my way into town, I sure was a bit more flash than the rest of the crowd....

Also another blogger in Swedish has found out about the Keep Cup as well! Very cool!

NP: Cut/Copy Zonoscope

Hanging out with the Champs of Elysium

2011-05-18T04:17:00.000-07:00

Went on a trip to Paris with my daughter for a bit of father/child bonding, a bit of tourism 1.0 and some serious coffee crawling. We first got to Kooka Boora in Montmartre and immediately felt that a piece of Australia was found in the heart of Paris. Hole in one, so to speak.

we found a piece of heaven at Kooka Boora

I say Australian, cause Luke that works there originates from Sydney. However the owner is French, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out he had spent some serious time in Australia, cause the feel was totally Antipodean. Super cool smoothies and juices (one of the guys had an apron matching the color on one of the juices, that's stylish Paris for you!), healthy salads and good good coffee.

Luke giving the machine a work out

The espresso was a short double, and had some brightness, some good body/mouthfeel and still a little bit of that traditional espresso 2.0 that I love. And it wasn't just a lucky shot. Luke told me they also do the chemex, something I wanted to try, however did not want to over caffeinate myself from scratch.

Breakfast for little girl champions

We had a hearty breakfast, and Embla loved her pancakes so much she returned here for three days in a row for breakfast. I'd say if you're somewhere near Montmartre, a stones throw from Pigalle, you have a great start to the day here.

Next stop was Le Bal. It's just two stops away from Pigalle to Place de Clichy, and the sign greets you when you exit the trainstation.

the best tourist attraction in Paris pointed out

Le Bal is an art gallery slash bookshop slash restaurant/café. In the centre of attention is young American David Flynn, an amazing barista with full control over the super busy bar. In between him pulling shots, pouring amazing latte art and getting the runners to deliver it pronto to the customers, we managed to chat coffee. And now comes the impressive part.

trés cool

David managed to pour me a chemex of a Café Lomi roasted El Salvador CoE coffee. And he explains his ratio and tells me about the coffee while doing a million other things. At a speed like that, I expect the coffee to come out pretty average or even below. But it's gobsmacking.

coffee brewed to perfection

Leaving Le Bal, I am beyond impressed with what Paris offers so far. Bumping into Café Lomi owner Aleaume Paturle at Le Bal, we decide to have a cupping of some coffees I've brought the following day, and he wants me to meet his Australian roaster Paul.

Meanwhile, I end up at Coutume, the latest addition to the Paris speciality coffee scene. Owner Antoine has spent serious time in Melbourne, and his focus is coffee. Coming in a bit late, there is not too many people there, but I see this place is bustling otherwise. Again, I meet expats here defining the new direction in coffee Paris is taking.

At Coutume they have the first Strada in Paris, and two syphon brewers available on super expensive heaters from Hario. Naturally, I opt for syphon, and what do they have? The Nekisse.... I can taste slight roast character in the cup, something they are aware of, but also wanting to roast the Nekisse slightly darker than the other ones they've had from other roasters. You could tell the actual brewing was good though, and I enjoyed it.

Owner Antoine is super friendly, passionate and keen on learning all there is about coffee. You can tell he's invested time and money in this place, roasting in house. While waiting for my syphon, we got talking with some expats wondering about the brewing method. This is the kind of vibe that Coutume sends out, engaging the customers in the process.

Expect great things to develop at Coutume within the following year! Can't wait to follow up on their progress. In short, these three places were all recommended to me by friends knowing Paris coffee. It seems as if the line to connect the dots is Café Lomi. When showing up there the following afternoon, David and Thomas as well as Luke are already there. David, from Le Bal, and Thomas, runner up barista champion in France started and hosts the Frog Fight in Paris, a friendly competition among peers in Paris that started up a year ago, and now actually attracts some whopping 75 people to come drink beer and pour latte art, as well as deepening their sensory skills.

David and Thomas shares their passion with us at the cupping, and we end up having a long and passionate discussion on where the direction of speciality coffee in Europe is heading, the rising of the grassroot movement in coffee willing to share and rise up to the challenges together. No boarders, no attitude, just great fun!

I feel really lifted in my spirits when met these people, so engaging and pushing coffee forward, building a community in a context that was virtually non existing two years ago. With this in mind, I feel great things can be achieved in Stockholm, and we can both learn from and help each other move forward! Thanks guys, it was a true pleasure getting to know you! Hope to catch a Frog Fight some time soon!

As you might have seen before, I had a list of places I wanted to see, and there was Le Cafeoteque to start with. My daughter and I went there for a coffee in the morning.

La Cafeoteque roasts coffee on sight from a 2-3 kilo Samiac. I ordered a Kenyan Gethumbwini (cafés choice of the day otherwise was a monsooned Malabar), but if I thought Coutume had some roast character, this coffee was all about that.

Beautiful place though, and well served, but the coffee left a lot to desire. I think the new wave of coffee goes to show you can't stay on top on old merits, but you have to move on with the flow. La Cafeoteque probably meant a lot to Paris in the beginning, but now I hate to say it, the times have moved on... Go for the ambience, but stick to chocolate.

Then a last minute decision found me going to Merce and the Muse for a quick espresso, before hitting the CDG. This is a place where young hipster expats go to be seen and heard. When I was there this young annoying American girl was talking loudly about her successful musical career (mostly in terms of using a hairstylist Madonna once used for a tour). The café itself is beautiful, and the coffee itself wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (roasted by La Cafeoteque). I'm actually glad I did go and see it for myself.

Back in Sweden, I feel inspired! Thanks to everyone in Paris that made our trip so great! Hope to catch you soon!

Master Chef deluxe

2011-05-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

This is the funniest video I've seen in a while! Sorry if I'm the last person on earth getting this, but too good to not post ;) Thanks to Linus Raudsepp for sending it to me!

Finland vs. Norway

2011-05-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Drop Coffee arranged the Norwegian, the Finnish and the Swedish Barista Champions to pull shots of their competition blends at Drop. I had to leave for Paris, so I was in just at opening in order to taste what was on offer.

Lauri concentrating on the shot

Unfortunately I had to leave before Alexander Ruas came in, but I had Lauris coffee, which had a slightly watery body but really nice flavor...

...and then Håkons espresso which for a milisecond tasted like it was defect, but then exploded into one of the most interesting aftertastes I've ever had. Think lychee. They also had the chance of presenting their coffees as cappuccino, and this in front of a Barista Championship judge...

as a judge you need to practice your listening face

I hope to have the opportunity to taste Alexanders espresso before he goes to Colombia, which is not far away now! The best of luck to all Scandi competitors, I think you all stand a good chance, so this will be a very exciting competition!

breakfast for champions

2011-05-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Went to see my wife off to London today. Funny enough, the transit buses to Arlanda Airport leaves just outside Kura, so that was a natural place to wave goodbye. What a strange coincidence then, that buses not only departures, but also arrives. Stockholm coffee celebrity Kalle Freese, a k a the Coffee Crusader, just got into town with the Finnish barista champion and his roaster from Kaffa in Helsinki for breakfast and good good coffee, Kura being the natural choice for these cool guys!

Tomorrow not only the Finnish, but the Norwegian and Swedish barista champions will be making espresso on the Nouva Simonelli parked at Drop Coffee this weekend, and Saturday will be a big international barista community party 'til you Drop. I'll be in quickly tomorrow morning to sample the coffees (hanging on the door literally ;) ), unfortunately missing out on the party. Have a great time guys, and a lovely initiative on all parts behalf!

think big - drop quality

2011-05-12T04:42:00.000-07:00

Ever since L'Oreal purchased Body Shop, I have been waiting for this. The moment of truth. The moment, when a brand with integrity gets bought up and watered out. I've been buying the mango flavored shower gel for a long time, since I bought it on Manly wharf at the Body Shop there, and a few days later using it while showering in Vrindavan, India. The scent is forever connected with those memories, and with the smell I can also hear the monkeys outside, or hear the rain hit the roof on that Manly warf in Sydney.

The other morning my wife asked me if I felt any difference in the product. When buying it before Christmas, it felt like the same old product. Then over Christmas, it disappeared on the shelves in the store. "Sold Out" they said. And now a month later, the product has changed. It feels cheap and watery. Same scent, but the texture is just not the same anymore. I'm still expecting my other Body Shop products to drop in quality any time...

Good mate Per Nordby writes on his blog about robusta (in Swedish still, sorry). He says, as a comment on the global market raising the price on quality arabica; check out the commercial roasters label "100% Arabica"... when it disappears, you know what's in there. And why.

Huey Lewis And The News Hip To Be Square

Hitting Paris like Victor Ward

2011-05-12T03:59:00.000-07:00

Leaving Stockholm on Saturday arvo for a short trip to Paris, this is my hit list of places I will have coffee:

Kooka Boora
Le Bal
Café Lomi
La Cafeoteque
Coutume Café
Merce and the Muse

Most likely in that order as well. It will be very interesting to see what Paris Speciality Coffee is all about. As for the rest of the world, I wish my wife a pleasant stay in London, Coffee Capital of Europe, the Stockholm Coffee Crowd a pleasant Saturday night at Drop Coffee where they celebrate the going to Colombia together with the other Nordic Barista Champions. However I most envy the people that will gather for Tamper Tantrum Live in Dublin! I mean, Emanuele Muratore of Ristretto Perth fame is even showing up for that one!!

But all those people will not spend four days with my daughter, and that is the best thing in the world they miss out on!

Soy Gate

2011-05-10T14:23:00.000-07:00

The commenting rant on Sprudge suggests some people are a bit daft (well, a certain Kevin is anyway). As you may know by now, soy as an option has been ditched at Tim Wendelboes in Oslo. It's a strong No! to a product that I think personally is a serious abomination and compromises the quality of your coffee taste.

Speciality Coffee is about tasting the characteristics of your coffee. Adding milk is a compromise with this (and to me a rather serious problem in Australia for instance, where people seem still to have a hard time drinking black coffee), adding sugar is another compromise. Both these compromises arises from the Italian tradition, and are sometime maintained by the "take-away-culture". Jancis Roberts pointed out in her book How To Taste Wine, that a lot of coffee drinkers drink their coffee in the wrong way; the don't splash it around their whole palate, and therefore misses out on the sweet sensory part at the tip of the tongue. If you look how the take away cup is designed, it pushes the coffee right back on your tongue before going down. Some people probably add sugar just because of this.

But Soy? Some serious Third Wave cafés in Australia took the fight with sugar, and made it hard for the customer to either find it, or even get it in their store. Now, the Kevins of the world would say that's discriminating, but to me it's the same reason you rarely find ketchup in an Indian restaurant. There is no need. Same with soy. If you are lactos intolerant, drink your coffee black. Or if you make your coffee at home using soy, go for it, but you can't demand that I should do that for you if I don't wish to ruin my idea of what my product should and should not taste like.

Big ups to the Tims of the world, making Speciality Coffee keep its integrity with class and style!

NP: Miami Horror Grand Illusion

Kura on Saturday

2011-05-09T04:10:00.000-07:00

Super Blogger Oscar played around with my camera, sporting my Christer Pettersson hair style. Thanks dude, you really but the "need" in "need a diet?" for me....

Lovely Lena came in with some beautiful and gobsmacking macaron's. Home made and awesome. Going to Paris next week will sure give me the opportunity to compare them, and see how they handle the competition..

And we hade some tripple P action: Practising Pouring Piccolos... Thanks to everyone who came in on the Saturday! Sorry for being a bit caught off guard as we had some grinder malfunctioning which put some stress on. Anyway, I can't wait to be back in a forthnight, doing a Friday and Saturday morning shift! Thanks Jono and Ab and all the customers for making my Saturday great!!

the luke warm glass

2011-05-09T03:25:00.000-07:00

My friend Oscar, the super blogger, has been quiet for a while. Now he re launches himself as Mr Positive.
Just to make things clear, and I think I can speak for both Henrik and Matts in this, I don't believe that my critique is aimed at the current market players, even though I do believe that they can and will do more!

I wrote it in a comment, but in Swedish, so I'll briefly comment in English as well; the Swedish media takes on one player at the time. Right now (and rightfully so) they focus on Drop Coffee. Before that, they focused on Haugaard. And before then Johan & Nyström. In Gothenburg, they focus on Da Matteo. What the problem is, for us and not the media, is that they don't connect the dots. Media wants people to believe that they are sitting on the source of information, and I honestly think that media in Sweden do not understand what Speciality Coffee is. They give the information as if there were some guys running a café that was rather picky with their coffee.

If you read this article, you'll see how far medias in Australia are when it comes to the understanding of coffee. And it's not the first article I read that takes for granted that people understand a lot of things already. In Sweden, we still have columns that read [barista=person that makes coffee at a coffee bar]. And maybe they still need to be taught this, so who is responsible?

The signature Brommabo writes on his blog about coffee from a consumers angle. Fredrik is not "part" of the coffee business, but shows an interest and understanding about the world of coffee in Sweden (and enthusiastically comes down for cuppings etc). Even he can see that there is a problem with and independant coordination and media strategy for Speciality Coffee.

Another mate, Simon Westerlund, is working on a platform that a few tweeters already now has used and inspired him to set off. If you use the tag #coffeeathome on twitter, there will soon happen amazing things. I'll let Simon explain this more thoroughly as things develop, but a grass root tool of great magnitude this is!!

Back to Fredrik and Oscar, they both understand that something needs to happen between Barista Cup and, well, the next Barista Cup. We have discussed a blog that should be an independant platform, but as Oscar wisely pointed out to me on Saturday, I agree with him that creating a blog for the purpose of creating events is a bit backwards thinking. We should focus on events, and from that a media platform will grow increasingly important.

Let me just finish by saying that Oscar is wrong in us being negative. I think we all show a lot of frustration, in the fact that we know and feel, so much more can be achieved! And yes, I don't care if the glass if half full or empty, but I do care if the beverage is luke warm or served at its ideal temperature...

NP: Millencolin Mr Clean

coffee porn

2011-05-06T01:11:00.000-07:00

the blow torch is doing a good job

some serious bumpin' and grindin' there...

got the coffee juices flowing

thrusting my stick gently into the softness of the bloom

hold on, it's cummin'...

steamy windows, from the heat of the action

when two becomes three

open up, pop it in the gob...

I will look forward to see the google action in my stats tonight ;)

sweden, oh sweden...

2011-05-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

When did we last see a magazine do a write up like this on a café? When did we last see a café present a menu like this? When did a café last take a stand against something like this? When did we last see an event like this?

I can't help but feel that we need to step up our game. C'mon Sweden!

To make things clear in this statement, I'm not just talking about the coffee community, but it comes down to us, to make magazines and papers understand the new wave of coffee culture that hits the city. The other day there was a review in a magazine on a restaurant. They said it was next door to a café serving boutique coffee. The café in questions serves a fucking 40% robusta blend roasted in Italy. That's not boutique. That's rubbish. When the big restaurant prize here in town was handed over for "Best Coffee Experience" it was a French pressed Single Origin. What origin? Not important apparently. It wasn't instant coffee, it wasn't burnt charcoal. It was just good coffee. A coffee most Speciality Coffee cafés dish out a lot of each and every day. The magazines seems stuck in the 90's when it comes to café and coffee culture in Stockholm. I'm embarrassed for them for their ignorance and lack of knowledge.

NP: Public Enemy Don't Believe The Hype

a new camera finally

2011-05-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

Finally got myself a proper camera. It's an Olympus PEN-1, so it's nothing flash, but it's good enough for me, and the difference of taking pictures with a camera instead of the bloody phone is a real delight! Tomorrow I'll stalk the streets with my camera and start taking some proper coffee pictures! You'll see...

Friends At Kura

2011-05-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Who knows, Matthew Perry might show up on Saturday again!

This Saturday I'll be working at Kura, from about 9.30 in the morning up until close (or there about). There will be some serious Reg Barber action, flat whites and gibraltars... I hope to see you guys down there for a coffee, brunch, tea or whatever... I can't wait! We hope the weather allows some outdoor seating and remember that the park across the road is great for pic nics, and we provide!!!

See you there!

NP: Jamie Woon Mirrorwriting

I'm a winner!

2011-05-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

Today this wonderful publication hit my floor through the mailbox! Articles on Matt Perger, Tamper King Reg Barber, the Speciality Coffee scene in Japan and plenty of more stuff!!! Bean Scene Magazine, you make me miss Australia incredibly. All those short strolls up from work at Ristretto on my break to see if the new issue had come out yet. That was actually my reason for not subscribing. Now, with actual bloody snow falling in May, I need the warmth of Oz and I got it through you guys! Thanks again!!

NP: Millencolin Pennybrigde Pioneers

this years most exciting event

2011-05-03T02:24:00.000-07:00

This is why I regret buying tickets to Paris, and not to Dublin... all the twitterati and coffee royalty of Europe will be there, and the talks will be incredible! I hope this will be repeated next year, I'll book my seat now if so!!!!

Had some more input on coffee in Paris though, which makes my trip there even more interesting! Kooka Boora sounds interesting, and through googling that I found this little blog post on coffee in Paris as well.
Thanks Jeremy for all input! I'll bring my tightest jeans and rent a fixie!

The more I read about this café, the more I get excited to go to NYC this summer!

There is a rumour in town that a very exciting café is opening up in Stockholm this side of New Years Eve! Wait and see, folks, wait and see...

Speaking of new cafés, the cool cats at Café CK in Berlin has apparently moved into a second location, if I understand it correctly. Nowhere less than über cool hang out Voo! Check it out!

And I am very excited to work the coffee at Kura on Saturday when Cymon is away for the weekend on a well deserved little trip! Meanwhile, head barista Jono and I will burn through some enormous amounts of milk in our never ending latte art throwdowns!! Can't wait, mate, can't wait!!!!

NP: Ane Brun The Changing Of Seasons

guerilla cupping at Kura

2011-04-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

Henrik had some coffees delivered from Lilla Kafferosteriet in Malmö, and was generous to share them with who ever was interested for a cupping session at Kura. Not that Kura knew what was going to happen, and not many turned up, but it was a great session nevertheless, one that deserved a bigger crowd!

On the table was a PNG coffee from Red Mountain, that funny enough tasted a lot like red berries. Then there was a Burundi coffee, that at first had some very interesting tea like notes of grapefruit/cat piss/cactus. When cooling down though, it was weird. Then there was a Costa Rican coffee, that was very good. And last but not least, the Amaro Gayo. I have to say though, that it offered less body than from memory, and it had a slight taint of paper in the aftertaste!? We were so surprised we re cupped it.

Problem was still there. Henrik was kind enough to offer me the Amaro Gayo to brew as syphon tomorrow morning, and I'm really looking forward to that. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more body through the cup! The Amaro Gayo holds a very special status in more than just my heart, and it's such a treat to be able to experience it!

This morning was very interesting, and it's so nice to be able to cup a range of what a single roaster is doing! Thanks a lot to Kristian at Lilla Kafferosteriet, Henrik at Kaffemaskinen and the guys at Kura for letting us surprise them with the use of their space...

NP: Burial Archangel

quick survey

2011-04-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Read Metro today, and in their WKD (weekend) folder, there is always an interview with someone "interesting". These "interesting people are without exception DJ's slash Journos, and they drink prohibition era drinks at the latest bar.

But what are Baristi today? Here is a list what a barista is slash:

photographer (professional or wanting to be)
journalist
dj
artist
student
bartender
web designer

what have I missed? please fill up the list with me... is the barista like a waiter/actress job in LA or what?

Also what the barista likes to do on his spare time, besides the things stated above is:

ride around on his fixie
ride around on his long board
drink craft beer, preferably IPA
listen to sad singer/songwriter music like Iron&Wine, City&Color, Bon Iver, Kings of Convenience etc.
make beer in the basement

what else does the barista do? I am very aware that I am stating obvious stereotypes here, but for real, they're true for a lot of people I know!

NP: Depeche Mode Violator

bad reputation

2011-04-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

I got a bad reputation these days because of a certain blog comment. So I decided to stock up this weekend, and prove that I am part of the barista community....

NP: Madonna some compilation I haven't listened to Madonna in ages... oops, there went my reputation again...

STHLM coffee community

2011-04-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, they called me from Frida & Jag and asked where they could possibly get filters on a Saturday for their Bunn brewer. From the top of my head, I said V Street. No problems, said Lilly and borrowed them the filters. Now I got the chance to return the filters to the guys (after having a absolutely stunning cup of the Vår blend from Da Matteo at Frida & Jag), and just go in and say hi and thanks for such a great community gesture!

When I came in there, the place was pumpin'! The three musketeers were crazy busy, but still had a chance to share a few spro's with me! On the second grinder right now, there is the Love Coffee espresso! A bit fresh, but still very good. It somewhat reminded me of the Vallgatan in it's structure. Brightness, but still with a body and some good "dark" notes as well (chocolate heaviness mixed with floral/citrus sweetness). I really liked the shot Johan made me!

In about two weeks they'll crack open the Solde bags they keep on the shelves. That'll be interesting!

I had mr Max with me for a walkie, so we walked all the way to Kura for a chat and a spro' as well! Awesome Vallgatan single! Coffeed out now! Can't wait until next Saturday when I'll do a shift at Kura when Cymon is away! Come on down and have a coffee will ya!

NP: Franz Ferdinand Tonight

Dedication

2011-04-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

This is dedicated to the following people blogged about below!

Tim Wendelboe went to Australia and held a few workshops/seminars. This is a post on the Melbourne seminar that 5 Senses did. I can't enough stress how impressed I am with mr Wendelboes work and integrity as both a roaster and a businessman. A great read! Here is another read tweeted by Tim Varney from the Tasmanian Ritual, on TW's seminar.

Speaking of Australia, there has bean (yes, I spelt that wrong with intention) some news on a new coffee species found in Australia. In fact it is not a new, but a reclassified species. Read about it here.

Still in Australia, here is a small pay of respect to Mark Dundon, written here. I can't wait to go to Melbourne... when? I don't know, but so much good stuff is going on there at the moment. 5 Senses just set up a new Barista Academy, Ron Ngo just started at their roastery, all the cafés... Melbourne is coffee heaven! Or at least parts of heaven are to be found there...

And here is a boyakasha going out to a trinity of respected people: Oliver Strand writes about Verve coffee founding its way to the shelves of New York at Sweet Leaf here. Boy, I can't wait to get to New York in August...

Speaking of New York, if there is anyone there with a contact for an apartment suitable for about 10 people, with a lounge room, to rent out between 27/8 to 5/9, please drop me a line! Either in the comments, on private mail (jbood1974 (at) gmail (dot) com)! Any help will be much appreciated!!

Just got this tweeted from my friend Elena. Gives the people of Perth an idea why their coffee is $3,70 (and it's about the same in Stockholm).

NP: Aretha Franklin RESPECT

SCAA symposium

2011-04-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

Eavesdropping on Nick Cho from the symposium has been really interesting. I especially enjoyed the quotes from James Hoffmanns talk. Mr Hoffmann seems to not believe in "educating the customer". Though not being a believer in the educating the customer, I still think customers needs some education.

"If customers walk in and consistently ask for things you're not offering, that's your fault", says one quote. I wonder if a extra large traditional long macc is one of those things that we then should offer? How do we do this, when we break the drink down to suit this customer, and then another customer walks in having a completely different perception of what an extra large traditional long macc is. If we tell them what our take on the traditional long macc is, someone will have to rethink their own perception. Part of me wants to say: that's educating the customer.

The quote I liked best though is this: "Great service comes down to one universal idea: Empathy!" How true! What I have been wanting for a long time is for people to step away from the menu, in order to hear how they like their coffee? How many times have you heard "Well, it's like a hrmf hrmf but only this much hfff and no ffffst in it"? And the barista goes "Oh, we call that a hrfmfh deluxe without hfff". Why not just say: I'll make that for you!

But what if the quality itself is a problem? That people don't understand why something that to us tastes great, is too far fetched for someone both taste wise, but also price wise? My mother for instance, had a coffee she thought tasted like yoghurt, so she spat it out. Is "educating" someone like that wrong? I don't expect her to start liking that specific coffee, but at least she now grasps the vast variety of coffee tastes, not just generic coffee taste.

In all, it's very exciting to eavesdrop on the twitter flow from the SCAA. The level where they are is amazing, and it makes you understand how far ahead they are over Europe in their understanding and connection to coffee itself.

je voudrais une caffé, si'l vous plait...

2011-04-27T03:08:00.000-07:00

Going to Paris in a few weeks, doing a father/daughter hang out while the wife is in London. She goes to the European capital of coffee, we're going to the land of the croissant... On the other hand, we get to visit Jim Morrissons grave ;)

With this as my only guideline so far on what to get in Paris, this will be an interesting trip. Café Lomi sounds interesting, and as a coincidence, we're staying pretty close to the 17th Arrondissement. Le Bal seems very cool too! And La Cafeotheque seems like a spot to hit!

We're leaving on Saturday 14 of May, which means I can still get a few good cups of coffee at Drop Coffee for this event before we head off to Arlanda!

If you happen to have any other info on sights (I hear they have a tower there?), stuff to do, places to go in Paris, please drop me a line in the comments section or by email!

NP: Charlotte Gainsbourg 5:55

A few interesting quick tweets

2011-04-27T01:44:00.000-07:00

A very good article on the Keep Cup in the latest issue of Bean Scene Magazine (did I tell you I won a subscription?? Rubbing it in...) here! It seems as if coffee in Australia is a true Forsyth saga ;)

Great article on the recently opened St Ali in London here! I'm sending my wife and sis-in-law there in a couple of weeks for breakfast!

Coffee + Ethiopia = true. Here.

Some news from the Coava Camp here.

Tim Wendelboe tweeted this one on a new filter for espresso. Interesting.

Right now, everyone and their mother is heading to Houston, TX, for the great SCAA event of the year. Pretty sure there will be some heavy tweeting going on for the next few days. I'm mostly curious what book James Hoffmann finally decided on taking with him on the plane?

Tweeted by Robsonbarista was this thing that will get the coffee bikie community go crazy! Consider it ordered for whatever location Zach Hyunh is setting up ;)

I know I'm late with everything, and when I like something I really don't let it go, do I? (I still listen to The Shamen, goddammit)... But re-visiting the Chuck Norris facts twitter, made me discover the beauty of the Mr T facts... these two are too good to not share:

Mr T does not get head aches. That's it... that's the whole joke. He just doesn't get them.

Mr T doesn't use a cell phone. He just crosses his arms and the whole world listens, fool!

Oh, and like Mr T, I pity da foo! Now, I'll quit this jibba jabba, and get on with life!

NP: Mr T Treat Your Mother Right

gadget overkill

2011-04-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

Barista Rob in Perth posted this thread on his Facebook today, which was an interesting read. The question raised is: do we scare customers by demanding they use scales for the perfect cup?

My 50 cents are: I think the customer is more willing to take on new things, than old school baristars who knows everything they need to know. In fact, I think those shop coffee makers are afraid of customers learning more about their own product, than they themselves are willing to commit to. Best Practice Baristi uses scale in shop, and educates their customers in coffee making. If coffee making demands scale, the customer will accept this fact, easily! If we can convince customers in buying grinders, why should a scale be far fetched.

In fact, I think there is a bigger problem in the barista culture, where new kids on the block think you have to like fixie bikes and skin tight pants to get accepted. I'd like to confess right here and right now, that I'd 9 times out of 10 rather drink Corona with a lime in it, than Mikkeller coffee IPA. There, I said it...

NP: Turbonegro Denim Demon

a lesson in cool

2011-04-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

Malls in Sweden are a joke when it comes to Air Conditioning, so naturally it was both a nice surprice, and very cool to see the AC challenged, when I saw a piece of PatZac art hanging in my local mall on display. Legally? Don't know, don't care...

I've been talking to PatZac a bit, and as soon as I get my shit sorted with a professional printer that won't rip me off, we're looking at launching some of the coolest coffee t-shirts around. Coffee meets the cream of street art! Beware! Stay tuned!

Now, I'm heading out in the sun with a cup of freshly syphoned Tekangon, reading the latest issue of Camino Magazine.

Oh, and if the Coca Cola rumours weren't enough, there is a new Coffee War going on in Chicago... Gotta love the tabloids ;)

NP: Therapy? Troublegum

CC Cowboys

2011-04-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

I was oblivious to the rumours that Coca Cola is looking into buying one of the bigger roasters in America, until I read this blog post. It's quite interesting that a rumour like this is so upsetting. Is it Intelligentsia? Is it Counter Culture? Is it Handsome Coffee Roasters? I've heard rumours before that Campos in Australia was to be bought by Coca Cola, and that didn't cause this much of a stirr.

In all companies interest is to grow and generate more money. That is part of the market economy. I may not like it, but it's a harsh reality we cannot escape. Being bought up by a huge company like Coca Cola is ethically questioned, naturally, and should be.

The other night I was in a heated discussion regarding the state of the world, and as much of a hypocrite I find Bono of U2 to be, living in Ireland to pay no tax as an artist, travelling the world in a private jet while making documentaries on himself playing and singing with starving children in Africa, he still does a lot more for the children of Africa than I will ever do in my life time. So who am I to throw the rock?

Let's face it, Coca Cola is a company that wants profit. But what if they get a chance to spread Speciality Coffee to a crowd that haven't seen and experienced it yet. Is that so bad? The difference between this case and for instance Nestlé, is that the latter is already in the coffee industry and not moving it forward.
Coca Cola is probably as evil as Nestlé in its ethics, but this is where the world is going.

NP: Millencolin Greener Grass

allowing time for reflection

2011-04-25T02:39:00.000-07:00

Easter is a holiday that allows time for reflection. My good friend Mark Edwards has blogged some on an issue that is a problem within the church here, but I thought I'd raise the question further. Mr Edwards says, wisely, that Christians should be known for what they are for, not what they are against.

Not being Christian myself, I can still relate to a lot of the thoughts and ideas that church people deal with. Basically, the church is a place where people like you and me go, only these people also have in common that they believe in Jesus Christ as their savior.

When working in Australia, someone once used an expression that has stuck with me. At one point someone within the Coffee Community said or did something (can't remember what, but it was not a positive) and I heard stated: "That's not very coffee, is it?". I immediately knew what the person meant by this, however I can't even now really explain exactly what it means. I just know. I thought it was a great expression, and going against the grain for what the Coffee Community is all about, deserved an expression like that.

But I've sort of used that expression between the lines, thinking that all people agree with me what it means (how could they, since I can't even define it here on demand?). That's where I relate to this specific church issue that Mark raises (about some Church leader raising issues on homosexuality), cause some people will definitely think this Church leader is right in his intolerant rants on homosexuality (since they themselves are probably intolerant) and he will get a following.

In my youth we used to joke about the fascists and the anti-fascists. At least the fascist were for something (fascism), but how could you build a whole lifestyle on being against something (anti-fascism), we laughed taking the words out of their context. Even in a postmodern context it's funny, cause the fascists are intolerant, but anti-fascists hates intolerance and are intolerant against those who are intolerant... go figure? "Why can't we just get along?"

My biggest sin, to use church language, is to be judgemental. I am judgemental in my thoughts, my writing and in my words in general. The Bhagavad Gita clearly states that one should approach all objects with a clear mind, not judging anything at all. Only then can we find true bliss. It's hard though, in a society that adds value to social differences (punks are cool/bad/smelly, preppy people are well behaved/boring/assholes etc) as a way of personal identification.

At the cupping table, the ritual allows a clear mind; cupping blindly and just approaching the cup for what I experience is a good practice. And I am trying hard to use that tabula rasa approach when hitting new cafés etc. but each and everytime I am guilty of taking in too much of my own expectations and demands. And that's not very coffee, is it? Or is it?

easter twitter eggs

2011-04-23T01:30:00.000-07:00

Through Keep Cup this is good news, and a good reason to invest in a Take Away mug of your own preference (even though personally I find Keep Cup to be superior).

Hanging out on twitter, retweeting some posts got me an annual subscription to awesome coffee magazine Bean Scene from Australia!

Also through Bean Scene comes this article. Had a brief discussion with Aaron yesterday on the reasons why building a strong coffee community on the web, and I think this article partly answers that, cause you can see clearly that ideas are floating from one person to another, eventually planting the seed with someone who before was oblivious to differences in coffee and brewing methods!

The SCAA are looking at the impact of coffee it seems. Here is a document they tweeted.

Handsome Coffee Roasters are giving George Clooney a serious fight! I think eventually they'll sell coffee as well.

Coffee lab porn by Barista Magazine here, tweeted by Counter Culture. They also posted some café porn here.

Found this, in Swedish, through DonMatteo. I'm honestly surprised to see that Magasingatan still stands after last weekend when the great warriors of Kura went down there!

Had completely missed this brilliant photo blog from Swedish Barista Champion Alexander Ruas. 55 seconds, that's inexcusable mate, I'll go down there and have a chat to them. (Cause I know exactly how much too long 45 seconds is even ;) )

Happy Easter!

NP: Ghost Opus Eponymous

Good Good Coffee Friday

2011-04-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

Watch this space - it's mine!

Ever since I got my eyes on his blog, I've been following FRSHGRND amazed by his quality and insight in the coffee scene. This weekend saw him coming to Stockholm for a coffee crawl. The Stockholm Coffee Crew, or at least a fraction of it, greeted him at Kura for brekkie!

post modern blog photography at work

After a nice Australasian style breakfast, we talked about all things coffee, and then we took it to the streets, hitting the bars that might be open. Too bad both Coco Vaja, Snickarbacken and J&N Concept Store were closed. Instead we started at Mellqvist:

Redji having a coffee that, according to Daniel Schein (there, but not in the picture) was U.A.K.

I wanted to experience a Portland, but the barista said they didn't have the naked portafilter around at the moment. So I had a short double, leaning towards a ristretto. It was nice, and to me it was what I think probably can be understood as the New Scandinavian Style. Redji ordered the same, but his came out all over extracted. Too bad.

Redji sporting a very masculine pastry...

Next stop was Cupcake STHLM, where we had a Carmen Estate coffee from Panama, by Love Coffee. At first it wasn't anything special, but then it cooled down and showed its colors! Someone, was it Åre Eva, said that the sign of a Speciality Coffee is that you can enjoy as much or even more when it has cooled down! True that!

Spit, boy, spit!

Then off to Kaffeverket, where we tried another take on Vallgatan. Completely different. Interesting enough, Aaron thought that was a typical Scandinavian style espresso! Oscar tried the Kebado Dara as filter coffee. A discussion on interior design came up, and you can tell coffee people are a different breed, since we were a bunch of guys, and sport wasn't mentioned once... interior design however... (come to think of it, Jono was redecorating when I first got to Kura this morning... hmmm).

Simon Says: no brown flowers on the bathroom wall please!

Last stop for me was Drop Coffee, where Simon gave me a cold brew of their Ethiopian. I swear to God, it taste like Kahlua. We poured mineral water on top, but personally I think that a lighter bodied coffee should be opted for in the cold brew. Had too much coffee already, so I decided to take off.
Very nice catching up with FRSHGRND with friend, and the rest of the coffee community that were available on a Good Friday for Good Good Coffee!

NP: Travis A Boy With No Name

easter break

2011-04-20T03:30:00.000-07:00

Some old news is that St Ali UK is launched in London with the help of none other than Tim Williams, a k a Tim Styles. Some new news are that current World Barista Champion Mike Phillips has gone from Intelligentsia to open up Handsome Coffee Roasters. Things are indeed moving in coffee land!

Found this interesting blog from Kalle Freese. Not only is it very interesting, it's clean cut beautiful too! Nice to follow someone on their way to the WBC in Bogota!

The Barn are currently looking for a barista to join them in their daily coffee making. I'm sure they already have a few applicants, but if you are eager on making coffee, good at it too, and have social as well as hospitality skills and happen to be in Berlin, you must look up Ralf and his crew!

Speaking of Germany, old but cool news are that Cory Andreen of Café CK was the runner up Cupping Champion of Germany held not too long ago! A belated congratulations! A video can be watched on their Facebook page.

Here is an interesting blog + article on Melbourne and Tim Wendelboes visit to the capital of cool. The two Tims are in Australia stirring up a brew or two.

Speaking of Melbourne, I can't really grasp how much I envy good mate Ron Ngo being the new roaster at 5 Senses in Melbourne! That is really cool!

Filter coffee has finally made it to New Zeeland, then so has the Matrix ;) Read about it here!(thanks Redji for link)

From 5 Senses comes some thoughts on the coffee price on the C market. Read here.

Here is food for thought. Actually, we had a heated discussion last night on feeding the world. Fact is, that crops like coffee (for export), is taking up space for potential crops that could feed and save domestic lives if used correctly. We tend to look at all things profitable for the farmer etc. What if the farmer earned less, but farmed the land so him and his neighbours could eat themselves full all year around?

With that in mind, I bid you a happy Easter, which is a bit of an oxymoron since it is the celebration of Jesus and his suffering on the cross, as well as his resurrection. I have to share a funny story;
An old mate of mine was working at an Asylum and they had one guy in there who thought he was Jesus. Not just Jesus like, but he actually thought he was the saviour himself. No doctors could cure him of his delusion. Until one of the nurses started playing along with his delusion and gained his confidence. "Jesus" finally had someone who believed in him, and also shared his knowledge about scripture. Then one day in April, the nurse started a lot of noise outside "Jesus" door. "Jesus" peeked out and was naturally curious to see what was going on. He then saw the nurse creating a life size cross, and said; "What's going on?". The nurse replied: "Easter is coming up this weekend, you know what happens now, don't you?"... and to semi quote Anthony Burgess: That cured him alright...

NP: Therapy? Hellbelly

Sunday Session

2011-04-18T00:18:00.000-07:00

hoodoo wanna voodoo want an apple pie

Sunday arvo saw us heading out to the Ethnographic Museum of Stockholm to see an exhibition on Vodou. Like many religions etc. there are stereotypical ideas regarding its practices. This was an eye opener for sure. I especially liked the mirror room! That is worth checking out, but the whole exhibition was rather magic! Interesting to find out that Haiti was a huge source of coffee production in the old Colonial days! Afterwards we had coffee/lunch at Matmekka. With a Synesso on the spot and a "portland" on the menu, I still opted for brewed coffee. Brazilian, which is really good, but I was after something more exciting of Haugaards stuff (like the Panama they have at Coco Vaja).

tools of the trade

Then rushing home and setting up a cupping at newly opened café Frida & Jag on Fridhemsgatan 3, on Fridhemsplan. We had all the single origins currently on offer from Da Matteo (Shakiso Welena and Kebado Dara from Ethiopia, Daterra Bourbon from Brazil, Goroka from Papua New Guinea, Tekangon from Sumatra, La Floresta from Colombia). But Daniel Schein had also brought some Brazilian coffee from Square Mile (the latest of their subscription coffee, but I didn't take down the name), and Simon also offered some Suke Quto from Square Mile. This was cupped together with Haugaards Honduran, which is a Cup of Excellence coffee that someone had brought in as well.

sir slurp-a-lot at the square table

As soon as people with an opinion and a genuine interest in coffee comes together, the room starts guessing. At this point, it was guessing for sure. We tried to get an idea around the coffees, and then we started finding out which coffee was which.

a shrine of coffee - no voodoo in sight, just coffee magic

There were a couple of cups I was really sure of, the Daterra Bourbon for instance. Andreas recognized the Goroka from his many visits to Snickarbacken and was shining a bit when it was revealed he was right. Surprising to find that both the CoE Honduras and Square Mile Brazilians were rather atypical for their origin (in our inexperienced opinion), but really interesting.

Hey, is that a female at the table?? Got to be a Da Matteo barista!

After the cupping we decided to make one coffee in three different ways, and again blind cup them back to back in order to see if we could make out which brewing method was used, and which one was our preference. We chose the Shakiso Welena and did it as a V60, Clever Drip and Syphon. While I got to focus on the Syphon, Henrik was left to do the V60 and Clever himself, and that might have effected the outcome.

The Syphon, we found had a softer body, more sweetness and very balanced, while the Clever offered more body. The V60 was faulty. Then the guys started brewing the other coffees while I was bringing out the beers and getting some espresso action going!

A great night with some serious coffee people eager to explore and talk coffee and all its wonders! Thanks to everyone that showed up, and I hope we can get together soon enough again!!

NP: Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson Rattlin Bones

STHLM Coffee Crew

2011-04-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

We have started a group called STHLM Coffee Crew on Facebook. See if the link works from here. If not, just search for the name of the group on Facebook.

The idea is to gather everyone into coffee in Stockholm, to be able to summon people when there is a cupping, latte art throwdown or other cool coffee related stuff happening in Stockholm, that you want people to experience. Naturally, you can promote your own business events, however spontaneous cool gatherings with enthusiastic people on a smurfs budget are usually more fun and welcoming!

And I don't think there is any need to say really, that if you are a non resident of Stockholm, you are still very welcome to join in on the group to stay tuned to what happens, and maybe you can give the group a hint when you're in town and you'll have some people to go coffee crawling with!

Much fun!

a coffee day in Stockholm

2011-04-13T04:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, slightly bigger than the Colombian bags...

Hooked up with an old mate of mine, Rickard Alriksson of The Accidents fame (he's the one handling the drums in this video!), who recently has discovered the beauty of cigars. Therefor it was only natural to move on to explain coffee to him. Where else to go for a black coffee experience but Snickarbacken, where Johan Ahlgren has been perfecting the brewing ratio. On offer was Johans absolute favorite, the PNG Goroka roasted by Da Matteo.

It was very interesting to see how someone who has understood the craft and flavors of cigars, immediately understood coffee, yet not just buying in, but actually question and evaluating from his own experience!

Henrik is MC:ing, grinding and cupping...

Then I went to Kaffemaskinen to hook up with the infamous STHLM Coffee Crew (all the usual suspects of bloggers, tweeters and other loose elements) for a serious cupping. Henrik was a great host, like always, and we had some really good coffee and some shocking ones (I had brought a Kona coffee that was passed on to me, and it tasted, well, charcoal....). Really nice to see some new faces, and always nice to see the old faces! Gathering a bunch of people for a short notice cupping like this, goes to show that the coffee community in Stockholm is not only alive, but growing rapidly!

On Sunday at 18.00 there will be a cupping again at Frida&Jag, Fridhemsgatan 3. We'll cup and the one standing out on the table will be brewed in three different ways to see if we can evaluate the odds and ends of different brewing methods. I think the Brewers Cup this year has made such a great impact on our little community, and next years competition will be fierce!

NP: Santogold You'll Find A Way

what's in a word?

2011-04-12T02:12:00.000-07:00

Another article on the topic "coffee is addictive"... I can't believe how a community so focused on the science behind a brew keeps mixing apples and pears in this discussion. The article, in the text, clearly states that it's a matter of habit. In the video the scientist talks about the different genetic ways to break down coffee ("some can drink coffee before bed without reacting to it").

Addiction is a word that is used very loosely these days. In the wikipedia article is a definition by the American Society of Addiction Medicin:

"Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in the individual pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors. The addiction is characterized by impairment in behavioral control, craving, inability to consistently abstain, and diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships. Like other chronic diseases, addiction can involve cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death."

We're talking heroin here, not sugar. If you know someone who is addicted, they will probably steel your TV in order to buy crack. Even alcohol is more often abused than addictive. If you ask the Alcoholics Anonymous, they separate between physical addiction and mental addiction. According to them, none of them can be cured (which to me doesn't ring true, but that's a different story), but saying that alcohol is addictive means that I cannot physically function without it. If you have the shakes on a Sunday morning, and your response is to have a beer in order to ease the pain, you might have a drinking problem, but you're not addicted to alcohol.

I don't think there is one single person out there who cannot keep up a conversation, because they didn't have a coffee that morning. Or get the shakes. If anything, I get the shakes of too much coffee. There are days when I don't crave coffee at all. How come as soon as I have a cold, I don't crave coffee at all? Is it the same for crack addicts? "I have the flu, crack just doesn't taste the same today".

People like to not take responsibility for their actions. If you crave something sweet but really shouldn't have it, it's easier to say you are a sugar addict, than actually admit that you were bored and didn't have character enough to resist. The former makes you a victim of sugar, the other just demands that you deal with it.

And how come I can drink only two or three cups a day? Surely if I'm addicted, I'd get used to it and steadily build up a tolerance that would allow me to drink more, and I'd get really really sick if I didn't get my fix? Or, am I just not in the club of addicted coffee heads?

Stop bullshitting about addiction. Coffee is habit forming, yes, but next time you take the word "addiction" in your mouth, think carefully if you'd actually could consider manipulating and hurting someone close to you, in order to get a cup of coffee?

raw like sushi

2011-04-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

I read an article on Sushi today, and it made me think about coffee. Weird, huh!

In the article I read that when Sushi became a fad, it was regarded to be a Japanese dish exclusively, that was more or less interpreted in the rest of the world. Therefor a ridiculous respect for what kind of fish was used in Japan, has lead to the waters being emptied on the 7 kind of traditional fish used in Japan, cause people around the world has been too ignorant to realize that you may use any fish close to home.

This is what respect for tradition does. You hear the critics of chefs trying to use local varietals of fish in the sushi; "Real sushi is made from.." (insert your own traditional fish, since real sushi refers to the rice).

Enter the Italian espresso bar menu.

Some time back, Gwylim Davies, again, did the one sane thing; got rid of it. Read about it here. But mr Davies attempt has not seen too many following in Sweden. It really bugs me. Why?
I do believe that a lot of energy goes into explaining or interpreting drinks, rather than both listening to the customers own preference and educate the customer in expressing this instead of chasing the "perfect long macc". Bloody hell, how many baristi are still under the impression that the cappuccino, a drink that was debunked very recently, is made up in three equal parts of espresso, foam and in between milk?

I can't believe how many third wave baristi that bash Fairtrade and talk about different tamping techniques, the ins and outs of over- and under extractions etc. still does not question the menu. In fact, still swear by it. Not only is it confusing that a cortado at two different places, are most likely not the same drink. The different price setting on drinks with different names but that are basically the same, is very confusing too. And what's with the idea that a latte should be drunk from a glass? And you hear the "friends of Italy" sneer at people ordering a cappuccino post lunch: "I drink my cappuccino for breakfast, like they do it in Italy". Since when did Italians become the pinnacle of proper manners? Leave the gun, have a cannoli? Why should there be rules? Or why drink milk based drinks at all?

Writing this, I am sipping an Earl Grey tea with milk in first. This is because the hot tea would break the fragile china if it didn't land into something cold in between. That I am drinking it out of a very thick mug is beside the point apparently....

NP: Santogold s/t

claim to fame

2011-04-08T05:40:00.000-07:00

SCAE Sweden has now put up all the finalists videos on their Facebook page. Haven't watched it yet, and I always cringe when watching my own performance, so I doubt I ever will ;) But this is the chance to see some very good Swedish baristi in action!

Sold My Soul For Coffee And A Scroll

2011-04-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

I guess it's no secret that I've had some connection to Da Matteo coffee roasters in Gothenburg for a while. When I arrived in Stockholm, I tried a lot of different espresso bars and cafés, trying to see what they were about. Coming back from Australia, and extensive coffee crawling through London during the WBC week, I soon realized that the coffee that was roasted by Da Matteo was the coffee that tasted like it did outside of Sweden, a taste that was clearly my preference from my previous experience and enjoyment.

When I decided I wanted to compete in Sweden, I hooked up with Christian of Da Matteo to discuss the possibilities of a cooperation. Christian liked the idea, and I soon realized that his core strength might not be just the roasting, but the art of blending. To say the least, I was very impressed, both with his quality, his will to listen to me as a "customer", but also the extremely welcoming ambience of Da Matteo as a culture. I realized then, that I wanted, no needed, to be part of Da Matteo somehow.

Endless conversations with Matts about different topics on coffee and coffee culture has now turned into a small project on my part with a group of people I both admire, respect and has grown to consider friends.
I guess this is my way showing my colors, and I hope that this cooperation will be as fun for Da Matteo as it will be for me! As for this blog, it will still live on, and it will not be a product catalogue for Da Matteo products (how many time have I written Da Matteo in this text? I get paid by the number of times I do so...). I will try to keep focus on what I find in the world of coffee (and beyond) to be interesting and worth discussing.

Currently there will be plenty of time to write, since this Tuesday will see the opportunity to get together with Henrik, Oscar and Daniel for some serious cupping hopefully! And hopefully others can join in, as soon as we know when and where ;)

NP: Groove Armada Love Sweet Sound

a sneak peak

2011-04-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day that Frida & Jag was open. The guys are related to me, and since they don't really have previous experience (or one that goes back to the cloudiato/foamocino) they asked me for some advice regarding coffee. I was happy to help out, and they now serve Da Matteo's Passagen as espresso and the Spring blend for filter brew.

For the filter brew coffee, you have an eclectic choice of cups to chose from. Pick a big one ;)

I have been making some coffee there in the morning for the fun of it (I can't really keep my hands off the grinder, and I drink way too much coffee these days). If you are on Fridhemsplan before lunch time, come on in for a cup and a chat!

The postponed cupping and drinks will most likely happen next Sunday (not this up coming one, but the one after), but I'll make sure to get the invites out in time!

porno for pyros

2011-04-05T15:47:00.000-07:00

Baby, I can light your fire...

Got a Syphon to play with. First time I did it, I had the El Borbollon from El Salvador, first as Clever Drip, and then Syphon, and the Syphon offered a whole new dimension. I couldn't stop smiling!

the brown stuff goes down that pipe..

...and into the bowl

Second time I did it, naturally I had to make it for my wife to impress. Any man needs to show his woman that he has tamed the fire. Cave man instinct. Did I screw up? Yes. Used more water this time, and the filter moved around when the water hit it too aggressively. Right there was where I stuffed it up.

Saying that, each morning now has me jumping out of bed, preparing the Syphon on the table in order to get my morning fix.

NP: Nortec Collective Tijuana Makes Me Happy