World Barista Championships 2010 wrap up

"................I feel like i've starting to chase shadows I will never catch up with.............."

So, the WBC came and went last week, and huge congratulations to Mike Philips who deservedly won (and did an awesome job so I am told) and of course all the baristas. A special well done to Colin harmon and to John Gordon who I know did a good job, as they were the only two baristas I watched all week.

Much has been written since that competition, much will continue to be written, a very special week that will stay with me forever as one of the most fun, most stressful at times most frustrating, and other times most fulfilling. This is why competition is amazing, addictive and thoroughly engrossing.

One thing that I owe competition is the friends it has bought to me. The obvious Colin, and John but also David Walsh, Paul Stack, James Hoffmann to name just a very small amount of great people I have meet and have the pleasure of calling my friends. I don’t know if I would be even known by these great coffee folks were it not for the competition. Coming home from the barista party to find Reg Barber, Sammy Piccalo and Heather Perry in your living room is kind of weird but strangely funny at the same time, and being in the competition circle has meant I have got to know so many of the cool kids, who I don’t think would have given me the time of day before my involvement with Colin and John.

But I decided before this competition this was the last time I would be so involved and so invested in the process, and I left London even more determined that this was the right course of action.I have learnt so much from competition, I have become a far better roaster because of my involvement. I liken it to putting a man on the moon. Seems a crazy thing to do but so many good things that we use in everyday life came from the lunar missions. I know I have become a better roaster for competition and that the every day roasting has improved because of the feed back from the amazing baristas I have worked with and the drive to work harder and harder to create tailored challenging blends for each competitor we have worked with and trying to give them what they want when they often don’t know themselves.

Competition is expensive, its been said on many a blog, but its just as expensive (if not more) for the roaster. I can not begin to quantify the amount of coffee time energy and incidental costs (traveling accommodation, shipping the list goes on), but this is not just finically. I have woken up every morning since Atlanta last year and normally the first but at worst the second though in my head has been barista competition.

I see the role of a roaster like the team behind an F1 team. You have the driver (barista) team manager (baristas partner), tyre manufacture (glassware cups etc) you have the mechanics (set up team, coaches, customers) and the engine manufacture (roaster). I say engine manufacture as without the others in place then the team can not do anything (F1 fans will know what I mean when I say Force India and McLaren). But like F1 WBC is an expensive big boy game to be involved in.

Last year I came away from Atlanta with a very different feeling to what I have now. I left that competition that I had something to prove, that both Colin and I could do more, that he hadn’t proved the top top barista he was and I hadn’t proved what I was capable of as a roaster. I shouldered some of the negatives from Colin’s Score sheet last year, I think we both didn’t prove ourselves as well as we could have done.
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Roasting for brew method

"............What I couldn't live with is not present the coffee the best I believe it can be.........."

So I’ve been searching for inspiration for a while for a good blog post. Not just making noise for noise sake.

To be fair I have been incredibly busy of late, a quick jump to www.hasbean.co.uk you will see exactly why. A major revamp of the whole site, focusing on some of the lovely photos I’ve collected over the past few years, I hope you enjoy using is as much as I enjoy looking at it. Feedback always very very welcome

I had an email conversation last week that set my blogging mind off, and I was talking about roasting styles for certain brewing methods, and we got talking about the recent in my mugs being roasted more for espresso. I disagreed with this and thought the gayo was a great brewed coffee, and well, it set my mind a running.

I think that the roast style has nothing to do with the brew method of the coffee, nor do I believe that you should roast coffee differently for those different styles. I think I owe it to the coffee to let it be the very best that it can, if that means playing with a profile that may not suit the majority of peoples pre conceptions of a brew method then I can live with it. What I couldn’t live with is not present the coffee the best I believe it can be.

On saying this I don’t think a roast will suit all brew methods an omniroast, but it will be what it will be, it may be inclined towards brewed or espresso. I really enjoy some times a darker roasted coffee in the filter just as some times I’ll play with a lighter more delicate bean in espresso its all part of the fun, but what I want from each cup is delicious tasty coffee that is a wonderful expression from the farmer.

So thoughts, I’m guessing the camp I am in is not a popular one, and not for the cool kids, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, and arguments for and against. Opinions can be changed.

Salt on your food

".....should you add milk and sugar to your coffee?......."

So time to get boo’ing again an audio boo on should you add milk and sugar to your coffee?

I think this covers my thoughts but if I missed anything comments below please

Listen!

Love audioboo as a way of blogging, I don’t always add them to the main blog, so check the right hand side bar of the blog, but this one I felt was worthy

Times that changed my life…. or should I say coffees

".......it was full of caramel and full of chocolate and one of my most amazing coffees in my mind....."

I’ve spent the past 2 weeks thinking about blog posts. 5 years of blogging, and, the only thing I can say is, the well has run dry. I’ve lost my inspiration and I’ve lost who and why I’m blogging.

It happens to most people (and its not the first time its happened to me), But most people give up there blog and step away. But the times its happened before I think, I go into my inner place and try and come up with a topic. In the past they have come very easily, but this time it became much much harder.

So after much thinking I have decided to pull out the blog post thats been sitting inside me for a very long time. The whole reason I find myself in coffee today and the whole reason I want to be involved in coffee tomorrow. Some times in life there are coffees tastes and experiences that change the direction of your life. I’m going to in a series of posts talk about thew coffees that changed my life. So lets start at the beginning. Lets start where my coffee journey really began.

Brazil Fazenda Cachoeria
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World Roasting Championships.

".......I've always been competitive, thats why I love playing sports, thats why I love being involved in barista competition, I like to win at stuff (weird as I have a life of little awards and support Sunderland).........."

Ok sorry for an industry type of post on the blog, but I’ve been hit by an idea I want to share, and I know I have at least one industry person who reads this (or is he still alive),but anyway I’m going to share as thats whats blogging is about, so if the coffee industry is not your play ground , sorry.

Will anything come of it? Probably not, but its something I’ve thought about for a long time, and only now really thought of a way it could be be done. I wont be organizing it thats for sure (way too busy and I want tot compete), but I do want to start a debate / discussion about it. Sp please email please leave comments and please tell me if you think I’m a nut (about this topic in particular not general).

We are in the middle of Barista Competition. I love competition, I’ve always been competitive, thats why I love playing sports, thats why I love being involved in barista competition, I like to win at stuff (weird as I have a life of little awards and support Sunderland).

This year I participated in the nordic roasters cup which is the only real competition open to a roaster to pit himself against other coffee roasters, and has only just been opened up to non nordic countries.

But the Nordic competition left me wanting, it left me feeling like it wasn’t so fair (I feel knowing before what I know now would have meant we could have done better) but its one element of roasting that the buttons can be pressed easily. It also looks at one facet of roasting, a tiny element.
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Its the water inside the M25 that makes coffee taste better

"......don't moan or grown that there isn't a “scene” in your town but get off your backside and make that scene happen......"

I feel its time to rant a little on the blog, and I also feel its time for a little commentary on the industry I live and work in.

OK so maybe rant is a bit strong, but throw out opinion and thought.

A recent blog post (shout out to Alex Redgate http://awlred.wordpress.com/) questions the community outside of the London scene or lack of it, and its kind of made we want to post about the “London Scene”. This is in no way a dig at Alex, hes a top man, and we love him here.

There has been a hum of “isn’t the London scene wonderful” and I must admit I agree, to a point. Its great to see our capitol city picking itself up introducing competition and diversity from what was a one horse city. But the swipes at lack of community outside of London disappoints me. It disappoints me as I hear it a lot from people that have no idea whats happening in our city’s around the country.

I personally think there is plenty of community outside of London, I also know there are many many amazing outlets outside of London. but like everything from down south they believe they do it best because of the transport links and of course the much larger audience. But lets not forget a few short years ago, there was Monmouth, there was flat white selling Monmouth and there was Fernandez and Wells selling Monmouth and that was it. Coffee tour was over in a flash in one of the most cosmopolitan city’s in the world. At this time the hub of the UK was on the Halifax, Huddersfield area, one that that was way ahead of London (just look at the northern heats compared to the canceled London UKBC).

If you Go to Scarborough, or Leeds, or Liverpool, or even Manchester now (for years a black hole of coffee culture) or Derby, Burton, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, York (and there are many more) there is at least one place to go to get a great coffee experience. But you have to look for them and often these people are just tring to run there business and don’t have time (or inclination) to create a scene.

I get tired of the “only good place is London blah, blah” its as boring as the other international destinations I’ve heard the same of (Vancouver, Copenhagen, Portland etc). This is not the fault of people doing great things in these city’s, to the contrary its because of them they have these powerful emerging coffee shops and roasters. Its also that a press is very city centered, take a look at the independents 50 best coffee shops, they seem to agree that most of the best are in London.

I tip my hat to everyone that makes these places stand out on the coffee maps of the world, but they quite often either spread the word effectively or empower there customers to do so and build a strong tribe that spread the word for them. Armed with a press that listens (and is normally a tube ride away) and these powerful advocates you can see why it happens.

But I know I haven’t been to 1% of the coffee shops in London village, let alone the many outside, so I cant write off every coffee shop, on what is or isn’t being done in them. So often we judge a coffee shop by the coffee roaster they use, or the machine and grinder they make it on or the decor they have fitted out their store with. The barista doesn’t seem matter so much how much care attention and pride they put into their shots. I bet you in every town there is someone who wants to make better coffee, I bet you in every chain store there is some one with the passion for better coffee that just doesn’t know it exists.

Don’t moan or grown that there isn’t a “scene” in your town but get off your backside and make that scene happen, organise something go into the coffee shops in your local town and speak to the baristas and see if they would be interested. Post blogs that inspire people in your local area I don’t know anything to drum up support.

Of course you could just move to London.