This is the Big One

Remember about a year ago when we were promised the Barista event of a life time, or of the decade, or the event to end all events? Remember how it never came together? There is a Barista Jam coming up in March 5-6-7 that I think embodies the spirit of what could have been, but wasn’t. The Mid Atlantic/Northeastern Barista Jam boasts a line up of coffee personalities and a workshop schedule that makes this a MUST-BE-THERE event. And you don’t have to be an “advanced” Barista to attend.

DISCLAIMER: I am employed by Counter Culture Coffee, the head line sponsor of the Jam. I just think that coffee people will be seriously enthusiastic about getting to this event, and I wanted to folks to know.

Here is the line up:

James Hoffmann…Square Mile Coffee, 2007 WBC Champ
Jon Lewis…Bumper Crop Coffee
Ellie Matuszak…Coffee Solutions
Rob Stephen…Coffee Solutions
Chris DeFerio…Carriage House Cafe
Jay Caragay…’Spro Coffee
Daryn Berlin…Counter Culture Coffee
Jamie Schoenhut…Royal Coffee New York
Kim Bullock…Counter Culture Coffee

Educational Sessions:

Sustainability
Process of Coffee
Cupping for Defects
Espresso Extraction
Milk Frothing/Latte Art
Cupping/Alternate Brewing Techniques
How to Compete in a Barista Competition

You can find some more details here.

Matt Milletto of the American Barista and Coffee School made this logo for the Jam.

Petty slick

My famous coffee hand

This gruesome close up of my thumb and index finger clutching a demitasse of delicious espresso was a quarter page photo in the Raleigh News and Observer for an article that was published just before my relocation to the Philadelphia area. This is my famous coffee hand, as it is the same hand that makes a brief appearance in the 1996 independent film “The Delicate Art Of The Rifle”. There is quick montage of short clips where the main character remembers some of the events that cause him to go nuts and start shooting people from the top of the university library building. My hand vigorously slams down a cappuccino (sporting a pompadour of mountainous white foam) onto a cafe table while a Grunge Girl scowls at the attached but unseen Barista; me. Any how, this same coffee hand now reappears in this bit about Dan Kehn (HB) and his engineering cronies as they abuse some very expensive equipment.

The coffee geeks started to arrive at around 7 am a the training center that day in Durham to get things set up in anticipation of the news reporter and her photographer. One guy even set up a popcorn popper to demonstrate the home style roasting technique. Once everyone was there they started pulling shots and boasting most egotistically. These guys were worse than shop Baristas when it came to smack down banter.

I came across the newspaper clippings while painting my kitchen this week end. The last couple of weeks before the move were poignantly sweet and sour days for me. I was leaving my adopted home, where my life had been centered since 1979. I was getting ready to embark on this coffee journey that has taken me away from everything familiar. The memory of the newspaper crew and coffee geeks is especially vivid to me now, and the pictures bolster my nostalgia with a particular heft.

Where does flavor come from?

I have often heard the question asked concerning the flavor characteristics of a coffee, “what is more important, the terroir, the variatel, or the process?” The question presupposes the concept that one of the factors is more important. Here we have an experiment by one producer, Aida Battle in El Salvador, that involves coffee all from one farm but processed differently. All Bourbon, grown in the same volcanic soil and in the same climate, these coffees each present a truly unique profile each unto their own. The fourth coffee, Grand Reserve, contains coffees from three of her farms blended together.

The Finca Mauritania coffee is typically washed and comes across with stone fruit sweetnes, warm brightness, silk on the palate, and impeccably clean aftertaste. The only washed coffee from F. M. in this group is the Peaberry, and is so savory with a mineral brightness that one professional roaster I cupped it with mistook it for something from Kenya.

The Pulp Natural, (the mucilage is dried on the seed instead of soaking in a fermentation tank) has muted brightness, deep sugar development, and a cocoa flavor. This coffee has single origin espresso written all over it.

The Pasa, or raisin, coffee is left to dry in the cherry. This is a risky undertaking in humid places. Everyone I cupped it with was certain that they had easily identified a Harrar or Yergicheffe natural. The acidity was a little less pronounced, however, and is the only give away. Deep cherry and blueberry and strawberry were all over this coffee on the cupping table.

The Grand Reserve has peaberries from three of Aida’s farms, each from carefully selected micro lots, to produce a sweet and savory, subtly bright, layered complexity of fruitiness with nuance and cleanliness.

Obviously process plays a huge role, but we must not discount the meticulously cultivated and harvested crop. The heirloom coffee pedigree has a place in the final product as does the perfectly suited ecosystem in which it grows. The expertise of the roasters, (Tim, John, and Kiran) brings it to a point of readiness. Of course, the Barista is the last person to touch it, and they can make it or break it.

I guess that answers the question. None of these factors if the most important. They must all be in harmony with each other to achieve a great cup of coffee.

Annual Evaluation

So the original intent of my bolg was to chronicle my return to the SERBC, and hopfully take a top three spot.  I live just outside of Philadelphia this year, so I am not in the Southeast area.  Now I am in the Mid Atlantic, which may possibly be in DC come February ‘08. 

 The topics of this blog have not really been about my future plans for competition, so I guess I have not really fulfilled my mission.  But in my own defense, I did not want to let the cat out of the bag as far as my sig bev goes.  One of the things I lost points on last year was the unique nature of my drink.  It would seem that it was not original enough.  I made it using an ingredient that I had never hear of untill a couple of months before the competion.  I assumed no one else had heard of it either.  Starbucks came out with a big ass latte using the flavor only about a month or two after the competition.  I can’t help but wonder where they got the idea.  But anyway, one of my judges had apparently hear of the drink before.  It was a shot of espresso with carmalized sweetened condensed milk; dulce de leche.  A Columbian neighbor’s mother told me about how they made it in South American countries and eat it in a variety of ways.  It did not score too well.

  The secrecy with which Baristas plan their signature drinks is instigated by the necessity for originality.  With hundreds of Baristas running through the course of competitions since the beggining of the format, it very difficult to come up with something new.  I thought I had come up with somthing truley original this year, so naturally I did not want to let any info get out there for someone else to beat me to the punch. 

    Anyway, yet another competition is getting ready for the near future.  If you have seen the latest Fresh Cup magazine you may have seen the paper doll Barista ad for the Nothwestern.  I thought it was clever and I cut it out for my daughter to glue on some paper.  But I also scanned it to the computer to have at it myself.  Please enjoy.

NYC, a short visit

I recently took the train up from Philly to NYC to spend the day with John Moorewhere we took measurements and photos with the idea of redesigning the coffee bar layout at the Spotted Pig.  I have a little bit of job history with drawing construction and engineering plans with Autocad, so I get called in whenever there is some design work to do.  I took the opportunity to stop in at some of the coffee hot spots while I was in town.

Ninth Street Espresso at Chelsea market: non-stop action with adoring fans who lavish the Baristas with compliments.

Everyman Espresso: tight and sweet shots, we spent a good while tasting experimental espresso blends.

Grumpy at Chelsea: I had a cup of Beloya, which was fantastic, like a juicy strawberry and sweet tart candy.

I hope to get a new digital camera  with in the next year, so until then, please enjoy the distorted perspective of the Treo phone camera.

Off to Center City

I took the train into Center City Philadelphia yesterday and walked around for several hours visiting coffee and waffle shops.  Some of the many interesting sights included a young blond “skanky” woman who was puking pink smoothie on to the street.  When she was done she hacked a little bit, sat down on a bench, then got back up to dry heave a bit.  There was also a homeless man with a red baseball hat onto which he had duct taped a rather large piece of card stock with a great deal of hand written text.  It may have been bible verses, I’m not sure, but he certainly intended it to be read by all.  He crossed the street with an umbrella used as a walking stick, approached the trash bin, and selected two clean sheets of copy paper which he folded in half and pocketed.  I thought to myself, “yes, good find”.

The city was bustling with movement, indifferent personal discomfort, friendly to strangers, warm and sunny, and saturated with brilliant architecture and history.  I loved it.

The Comcast Building is towering montrosity in glass and steel.  When you stand at the base of it, though, you don’t really notice it much.

A Visit to Chestnut Hill

I am sitting in the dining room of Chestnut Hill Coffee Co., and I am basking in the soft sun lit window looking out on a cobble stone street lined with trolley tracks and lackadaisical pedestrians in the upscale Germantown, Chestnut Hill district along Philadelphia’s Main Line. A parking spot opened up about a block up, and I could smell the familiar aroma of coffee roasting somewhere. I knew I was in the right place.

I ordered a double espresso, which barely filled a LaMarzocco brand demitasse half way. It was wonderful.

Sorry for the blurry picture with bad color. Ever since my camera was stolen I am reduced to the phone camera. Not visible in this photo is a great deal of dark “chestnut” brown flecking. I have not had a truly satisfying ristretto style shot since I left North Carolina, and it was damn refreshing.

I complemented the short drink with mug of “aged” Sumatra. Even through a paper filter it was full of the musty shroominess of distant lands, and hinting at the street market transactions of the Betel Nut chewing ladies of the bazaar. It comes with one free refill.

My experience was made complete with very good and friendly service. From start to finish, this is a great place to drink coffee and enjoy cafe life.

Bicycles, Bicycles, Bicycles

What is the connection between coffee roasters, or coffee people for that matter, and fixed gear bicycles? Anyway, if you want to help some Rwandan coffee cyclist upgrade from a wooden bike to a steel frame, you could get your gear together and head down to Durham NC and get into the scavenger hunt.

Recipe

Got a text message today from a co-worker that read: 48 grams, 16oz, 46 seconds, 202.  Someone had suggested that this would be good way to make some coffee.  The coffee maker came through, and the result was good.

Yes, it is Esmeralda again

      Roasters who bought Esmeralda at the now famous Best Of Panama auction a mounth or so ago paid $130 per pound.  The same coffee could also be aquired directly from the farm, when and if available, at it’s regular price, which I don’t know.  The retail cost to the consumer for the 12 oz bags from Counter Culture Coffee was $30.  Is this price worth it?  Ask yourself this, how much did you pay for your last hair cut?  How much did you pay for a glass of wine the last time you ate out?  How much did you pay for your cool shoes, boots, Abercrombie shirt?  Stop worrying about the cost of damn good coffee.

   I made a french press of the Esmeralda the other day, my first encounter with it, and I thought it came out a little under done.  It seemed tea-like, but with a perfectly clean and crisp acidity and beautiful finish.   The next day I had some as iced coffee and it was like the most fantasitc thing iced tea wished it could be, with a good coffee foundation to boot.  Then when I made another press pot I over shot the mark and it came out bitter and a bit flat.  Then I cupped it and it was the most delightful fruity chinese Lychee and pink fruit.   Then the next day I cupped it and the after taste was a displeasing tartness.  Later that afternoon it was a delicious plum.  I’m torn.  Do I like it or not?  The fragrance is always the most fantastic coffee aroma I have ever known.  The flavor changes on me from day to day depending on too many factors to grapple at once.

    All coffees have a sweet spot when it comes to time, temperature, turbulance, and throw weight.  It is never a simple mecanical excercise to hit the bulls eye.  What I have found difficult with Esmeralda is that it is a moving target.  This is simultaniously the best, and most fickle coffee I have known.

   Maybe my expectations are that it must always be great.  This hasn’t been my experience though.  This morning I felt kind of like a chump in a room with 20 people cupping Esmeralda, and I was the guy who didn’t like the after taste.  Every body else was like “I love the after taste, I wanna carry it around all day!”  I was like “um, does anybody have any gum?”  But after lunch, while giving samples to some wine experts, it was transending.

   It just goes to show you, a Jaguar may be a fine automobile, but it will be in the shop often, and it will cost a fortune to get it fixed.