Espresso Passione

Kaffa moves

2010-01-16T20:26:00.011+01:00

Kaffa Roastery has moved from their previous quite isolated and out of town location in an industrial estate to a much more central location in Helsinki (you can enter from Pursimiehenkatu 29 or through Mokomarket at Perämiehenkatu 10). I popped in today to pick up some coffee and check out the new place. I think it is great to finally have a roaster and a nice espresso/coffee bar in a location that is accessible!

Next to the espresso bar is a cute Piaggio trike. I had to ask, but apparently there are no plans to make a mobile espresso bar out of it for the summer.

The roasters themselves are behind a glass wall next to the espresso bar. On duty are two Toper roasters that were hauled over from the previous location - a 2.5kg one and a 15kg one (as well as a four barrel sample roaster).

Current selection of goodies available for purchase consists of coffee roaster on site (this is done mostly on Mondays and Tuesdays), Zero Japan drippers and Bodum presspots.

Reg Barber tampers, Motta milk jugs and other stuff is to follow soon. I look forward to seeing what that may be - Cona vacuum brewers? Clever Coffee Drippers? Let's see...

But there was also something interesting lurking in a back room. An old Probat UG-22 roaster! It is in need of some cleaning but is otherwise in very good shape. May be we will soon see it in action?

One more thing to note for those visiting Helsinki - Kaffecentralen, another must visit coffee place in Helsinki, is located only about a 100 meters from Kaffa's new location. Very convenient.

You can follow the latest news and developments regarding the new products becoming available etc from Kaffa Roastery's blog.

At the time of writing this, Kaffa's actual website is not yet up to date.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-24T13:26:00.001+01:00

I hope that everyone has a peaceful and relaxing festive season. Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year 2010!

Balance Brewer

2009-12-13T09:55:00.006+01:00

Out of curiosity I purchased this little new toy. If you are not familiar with these, it is a Balance Brewer. It is basically a Vacuum Brewer that just looks a bit fancier than you "average" vac pot.

So far I have only tried this baby a couple of times, but it is actually surprisingly easy to use (although fairly difficult to clean). So far I have found that the grind needs to be suprisingly fine and that for ideal results - at least with this unit - one will want to use pre-boiled water and also extend the brew time slightly by holding the vessel on the right down (by lifting up the counterweight on the left) for an extra 30 secs or so. This way you will get stronger coffee - both due to the longer brew time, but also due to getting more of the water from the pot on the right to shift to the glass on the right.

The temperatures seem to be good as I have not detected bitterness in the cup, i.e. it appears to cool down sufficiently from the boil while making its way through the siphon tube.

What I have detected is a clear and clean cup of very tasty coffee. Better than I have ever managed with a French Press. And the Balance Brewer certainly looks the part - and I suspect it will be a nice conversation piece over a good after dinner coffee.

Any downsides? It's early days, but I've already mentioned cleaning. It takes a bit of time but is manageable (although I would not use this on a daily basis). The bigger gripe for me is the little faucet used for dispensing the brewed coffee. It is fairly small and it takes a while (too long in my opinion) to serve the coffee. The maximum capacity of this unit is around 400ml and there is a bit less of the finished product. So no this cannot be used to entertain larger groups (although larger units are available).

La Torrefazione

2009-09-15T23:17:00.004+02:00

I'm really happy to see that a new speciality coffee shop / roastery, La Torrefazione will be opening its doors in Helsinki in the near future. The location is as central as can be and there will be roasting on site. I have very high hopes for this venture - the concept seems great and the people behind it have the track record. They include e.g. Benjamin and Svante from Kaffa Roastery and Roman Kolpaktsi (leading barista from Café Ursula). The gents also have a blog - check it out here. The grinders look familiar for some reason :)

Robur-E in da house!

2009-07-29T20:52:00.002+02:00

Talk about taking a break from blogging.

A few things have happened, more of them in future posts. This is just a quick one on my new grinder, the Mazzer Robur-E and my previous one, the Mahlkönig K30 Vario.

The Mahlkönig was a very good grinder. The looks, the finish (especially of the customized version I had) and the ergonomics were excellent - way better than those of the Robur. The stepless adjustment is probably the best design I have seen in a grinder. Overall, I was really pleased with the K30 but there were two things that in the end drove me to the latest change - the lack of conical burrs and the clumping (although I think this could at least partially be fixed with a change of burrs).

Having now spent a few days with the Robur-E, does it live up to my expectations? Too early to say as I am still in the process of running the beast in. Kindly enough Kaffa Roastery had some test batches, old samples etc of coffee that were of no use to them and I managed to source 25 kilos of coffee for running in the Robur. I am halfway through this coffee and I am happy to already see that there is no clumping or static issues with the big Mazzer and the ground coffee is really fluffy and has an almost perfect initial distribution. The shots I have pulled and drunk using quality coffee also shows promise. But too early to draw any conclusions...

Below pic shows my espresso bar, but also gives an idea of the size of the Robur. It is huge compared to even the K30 :)

Greed

2008-11-01T23:05:00.003+01:00

It has been a long time since I last posted. The financial turmoil that I am sure everyone is aware of has kept me busy - more so than I'd like. After all, I do work for a bank in an international capacity. Nevertheless, I am happy to see that my employer is amongst the ones that has emerged on top amongst its peers in the financial sector. Personally, I also think we're now past the worst times and even though next year may still be tough for many, we're getting over it. I am starting to get optimistic. All this is really not coffee related (more on that leater), but I just just wanted to post and show that I'm still alive and kicking :) I hope to start posting again soon...

Consumer coffee in Finland

2008-05-30T21:47:00.018+02:00

I have now spent about a month trying to settle down in Finland. This has mostly gone well, but there have been two exceptions. The first one I already posted on - the difficulties with getting things done in our new home. The second one is coffee related.

Compared to Copenhagen, it has been tough to find drinkable coffee. My first try after moving over was Paulig's "Espresso Originale" from a supermarket. Sounds really bad, and it really was quite sad. To make a long story short, even though the coffee was roasted fairly recently (3 weeks from the day I bought it and it was after all vacuum packed), I have to say that even after my best efforts at varioús grind, dose and temp settings, this coffee was undrinkable for me.

The next step for me was trying Robert's Coffee. For those who do not know, Starbuck's is not present in Finland. I think Robert's is the closest equivalent although I guess they (Robert's) try and do better (than Starbuck's). I am not sure they achieve that and my personal experience has not been positive. I have tried two of their blends (Roberto and Habanero) from (probably) their busiest sales location (Stockmann's in Helsinki) and both of the blends have been a disappointment for me.

While purchasing (on Monday this week), I enquired about the roast dates of the coffees, The responses were vague (as in I have no idea), but apparently the coffee was delivered on Friday (i.e. three days before purchase) and supposedly roasted on the day of delivery (or close to)...

Regardless of all this vagueness, in my opinion the coffee was over-roasted on both blends and I am quite sure it was a lot older from the roast than I was lead to believe. To me the coffee was barely acceptable/drinkable on the day of purchase and the day after. As you may have gathered, I was not impressed and will most likely not be purchasing again unless I am in really dire straits. If I was pushed for further analysis, I'd rather go for the Habanero, but the priority would be on checking which one is the lighter and fresher roast of the blends available at the time of purchase (if you can get a clear answer on that).

After these experiences it initially looked like I had explored all my options in Helsinki and this is almost true. But fortunately not quite. Of course you have the Illy etc pre-packed options available (at the supermakets and various other locations), but those have never convinced me before and I do not think they would do so now, either. So I might as well skip them to be honest.

You also have the Andesa/Cafetoria coffees available in some of the supermarkets, but over the past four weeks, I am yet to find a bag that I feel would be fresh enough for me to purchase (although my guess is that it would be better and not as over-roasted as Robert's is - they do have more of the right approach and the cupping champ on their side to boot).

Anyway, at this stage I was feeling desparate. Finns drink more coffee than any other nation in the world, but in my experience (during my stay in Copenhagen and even more so now that I live in Helsinki again), the quality of the coffee in the Finnish capital is bad. Really crappy. I am frustrated and I expect better (I admit this may be a bit selfish, but in my opinion Copenhagen was heaven compared to this).

After all these disappointments, I thought the only way forward was to start roasting at home again, or start ordering online from Hasbean, The Coffee Collective, Risteriet or Mokkamestarit. These are all viable and respectable alternatives, but I would personally always prefer having a local speacialist (primarily - but I do like variety, comparison and challenges).

So, after all of the above I have to say that I was extremely happy to finally experience and see a very dedicated, talented and professional setup in the capital region. Kaffa Roastery is starting up and it really looks like the guys have the right attitude to speciality coffee. I have had a brief encounter with Kaffa and based on that I would compare them with the Coffee Collective that I was familiar with in Denmark. I think this says a lot about the quality and ambition level of the roaster and so far this is the only source that has satisfied me in Finland. More on this experience soon!

A mess

2008-05-30T21:47:00.006+02:00

It has now been almost a month since we moved to Finland. Things have mostly gone smoothly and we are happy, especially professionally.

One of the things that has gone less well is finishing our new home. The tiles we had on the floors for most of the downstairs were not available in stock anywhere and had to be ordered from the manufacturer in Italy. This we knew and were prepared for. We gave the specs (including the calibration and shade) of the batch that we already had on the floor and ordered the tiles.

As I noted before, we are looking to have a small dedicated espresso bar in the kitchen. No direct plumbing for now, though. In terms of the electrics, we needed 16 apms for the plugs at the bar (to run the GS3, the Mahlkönig and a wine cooler) and doing this took a bit more effort than we initially expected. No biggie, though.

But this is where things started going wrong. We have up until today been unable to unpack our stuff and more or less everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. I will not go into the details, but we have now been living out of our suitcases for almost a month now. Fortunately things are finally starting to look up and the floor and the kitched should be finished next week, finally... ...let's just hope that there will be no further setbacks.

One of the few things we have managed tp unpack is the GS3 and the grinder (you can probably make these out in the above picture if you click it to see a slightly larger image). However, another struggle has been finding good coffee in Finland. I knew this would be one of my biggest challenges and I have to say that there is some really nasty stuff out there. Fortunately I think I have found a spot that will do the trick for me. More on that (and the hopefully finished kitchen/bar/floor) soon...

The Professional Barista's Handbook

2008-04-21T00:14:00.007+02:00

A bit over a week ago I received Scott Rao's new book titled "The Professional Barista's Handbook". I know the book has received a fair bit of attention already, but I thought I'd post my thoughts as well.

The book is clearly focused on espresso and to a lesser extent, filter coffee. French press and tea are also briefly covered. This suits me fine as I mainly enjoy espresso myself. What I really like about this book is that the most important aspects of the barista technique are explained in a fairly concise and easily understandable way. A big plus for covering various different methods and approaches to most topics.

My personal favourite coffee related book is the usual suspect - Illy's "Espresso Coffee - The Science of Quality" - which is a really heavy read and while it contains a lot of very detailed and valuable fact, it is not much fun to read. The Illy book is a scientific exploration of coffee while Scott's book has a practical and "hands on" approach to the preparation techniques (which the Illy book really doesn't cover). I like this.

The book does not cover the maintenance or recommended cleaning routines of the coffee equipment, which are in my opinion a crucial part of barista skills. However, these can be very specific to the equipment at the barista's disposal, so perhaps leaving this out is a good idea (as the book therefore does not restrict the audience or application of the book). Despite the title of the book, it also aimed at (or at least very useful for) the home baristi.

In short, I find Scott's book a great addition to my bookshelf and for me, in addition to the Illy book it now ranks in the top two in its kind. I prefer it over the Schomer book (Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques), which I also happen to have. Highly recommended.

Ristretto.fi gets an update

2008-04-06T16:32:00.003+02:00

The Finnish discussion forums have been up and running for a bit over a year now. We initially went for the JForum software and I think was a wrong call. The software was buggy and slow and almost impossible to update to a newer version of the same software. Things may have improved, but we decided to mirgate to another software altogether. This proved to be a lot more difficult than we thought, but we have finally managed it. The Ristretto.fi discussion forums are now running on Simple Machines software and things are a lot better now with added functionality, flexibility, faster operation and a lot less bugs. I am happy. This would not have been possible without the wizardy of Janne and support from Esa. Thanks a million guys!

Changes

2008-04-05T03:49:00.003+02:00

It has been a very long time since I last posted on my blog. My apologies to the readers and thank you for your patience. Since my previous post there have been numerous developments. I'll try and make this short.

Both my wife and myself have moved to or are in the process of taking up new jobs. In both cases these are with the same companies respectively, but in a different country. We will be moving back to our home country, Finland, at the end of this month. I have effectively been working two jobs (but unfortunately only on one salary) for a while now and on top of this making the practical arrangements for moving home, country etc have taken their fair share of my time.

In addition to the new jobs, we've managed to find a new home in Finland. We both look forward to our new challenges professionally as well as to being closer to our families. Having said this, we will both immensely miss Copenhagen, Denmark and the friend that we have both come to love over the time we have spent here. Fortunately, going forward, both of us will continue to have responsibilities in our respective jobs that will mean that we will have frequent opportunities to visit Copenhagen on a regular basis in the future.

For me personally the time in Denmark has been an eye opener when it comes to coffee and one of my biggest challenges in Finland will be keeping up the quality of the coffee we are so accustomed to having at home here in Copenhagen. To be honest, I initially see only two alternatives, either ordering online from Denmark and/or the UK or roasting at home. I may and up relying on both. Time will tell...

Moving on to "smaller" things, both myself and my wife both look forward to our new home in Finland. We will finally have a slightly larger kitchen with a space dedicated for my coffee passion. I attach a draft picture of the espresso bar that will be in place soon after we have moved in. It's nothing fancy, but I hope it will serve the purpose. I will report in more detail on this once we have completed the move...

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-23T15:19:00.000+01:00

I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008!

Coffee Collective espresso blend

2007-11-13T18:45:00.000+01:00

Since I have still not managed to visit Coffee Collective's premises, I decided to go ahead and order some of their espresso blend online from the webshop. I was quite surprised to receive a bit more coffee than I ordered as well as a kind note from Klaus. Thank you! I went through the entire kilo in five days, but to be honest we had my wife's parents over for the weekend so no, I do not drink over 10 doubles a day :)

It took me a while to find the best brew temp for the coffee but around 91C seemed to work well for me. This was actually lower than what I expected, considering that the roast is fairly light. But I really do like the blend. I pulls a sweet tasting, smooth cup that has a lovely, creamy mouthfeel and crema. No bitterness. I tasted strong milk chocolates in the beginning. To my palate the coffee works really well also in small cappuccinos. Yummy.

With the Coffee Collective up and running along with Risteriet, Kontra and the others, coffee lovers in Copenhagen are really spoiled for choice when it comes to good coffee!

Fire at Kontra

2007-11-12T11:47:00.000+01:00

It appears that there has been a fire at Kontra Coffee, the coffee roaster around the corner from where I live. This morning I noticed an unusually large amount of smoke coming from Kontra's rooftop exhaust. Then I saw that there was also smoke coming our from the front door that was open and soon after the fire engines (quite a few of them) started arriving. I did not get closer to see what was happening as I was rushing to the office (and I am sure that the guys at Kontra had better things to do than have a chat), but I hope it isn't anything serious. I am sure we will learn more soon...

EDIT (12.11.): The good news is that Kontra's roaster was not damaged by the fire and the damage to the premises doesn't appear to be extensive.

EDIT (18.11.): The fire was in the exhaust ducting from the roaster. The beans that were being roasted at the time of the fire were dumped so that they did not have time to catch fire or harm the roaster. The insurance companies are currently assessing the damage and discussing to each other, but as soon as this has been done the repair work will begin. The current estimate is that Kontra will be roasting again in their own premises at the end of the week starting tomorrow. In the meantime, Kontra is able to continue supporting its customers uninterrupted with some help from another Danish roaster...

The Compak is now sold

2007-11-10T18:24:00.000+01:00

My Compak K10 WBC has found a new owner. Thanks for everyone who expressed their interest.

Mahlkönig K30 has arrived

2007-11-09T20:42:00.000+01:00

After a fairly long wait, my new grinder (I know, a new grinder again) has arrived. It is the Mahlkönig K30 Vario with a custom finish.

The Vario -bit in the name of the grinder means that it has stepless adjustment and I have to say that the Mahlkönig's adjustment mechanism is great. The custom finish on mine is polished steel and gloss black, which I think make the grinder look pretty cool.

I have only had the grinder for about 24 hours now, so I only have some initial impressions for now. These impressions are very positive. The grinder is fast, quiet and very practical/easy to use. There is very little mess. And so far the shots taste great.

There is some clumping at finer grind settings, but I knew to expect this from my previous experience with the K30. The clumps are softer than e.g. my previous Mazzer Mini-E and there is none of the particle size sorting that I experienced with the Mini-E.

The K30 is of course a flat burr grinder and it is not as forgiving as the conical burr Compak that I still also have. Nevertheless, I am thrilled to bits about the K30. It is early days but I think this may be a keeper. I will post further experiences in due course...

GS3 Titanium

2007-10-22T22:05:00.000+02:00

Check this out. One word. Cool! But would you like it in your kitchen (over the "regular" GS3 that is)?

24/7 vs timer?

2007-10-19T19:10:00.000+02:00

I have always been running my espresso machines from a timer, not 24/7. Why? To be honest, it just seemed to be the right things to do for me. I did experiment with the electricity consumption in both of these operating modes. Logic says that a machine that is running 24 hours a day will consume more electricity. So tried this over the course of a few days. My usual daily routine (which I followed through these days) is two have two cappas in the morning and a minimum of two straight doubles in the evening.

The graph shows the cumulative electricity consumption over 24 hours with both methods. My first observation is that the GS3 uses less electricity than I thought it would. The second is that the difference between the two is bigger than I expected. We are not talking big money here, but according to my calculations I save around 75-85 euros (over 100 usd with the current exchange rate) when running the GS3 from the timer vs 24/7 operation.

I know that there are arguments both ways - electrical components and gaskets don't like constant heat while scale buildup is increased in timer use. 24/7 operation is naturally convenient in the sense that if you feel like having a cup, the machine is always ready. On the other hand, there is also comfort in being home when the machine is on just in case something did go wrong. Is there a clear benefit from choosing one or the other? I have not seen or heard anything conclusive on this, so I will probably stick with my current MO.

My Compak is now up for sale

2007-10-19T19:07:00.000+02:00

My Mahlkönig should be arriving any day now and I will therefore be selling the Compak K10 WBC and the Keiser digital timer. If you are interested, drop me an email.

Sweden wins the Nordic Barista Cup!

2007-09-23T19:18:00.000+02:00

Sweden has won this year's NBC. I think congratulations are in order for all teams, especially Sweden!

I am bit curious about the scoring, and the "investments" that the teams received, but then again this is not a "serious" competition. I was quite disappointed I did not make it to the NBC this year, but next year's event will be held in Finland and I will most definitely be there...

Coffee Collective update

2007-09-21T06:28:00.000+02:00

The Coffee Collective are now live. They have found new premises in Copenhagen and although the location is slightly inconvenient for me personally, I will certainly drop by at some stage in the near future. Their website is also up and running.

NBC 2007 now at full swing

2007-09-21T06:13:00.001+02:00

The Nordic Barista Cup is now at full swing in Gothenburg. As usual, you can read the progress of the event on Barista Magazine's blog (and on the NBC website). I am happy to see that Team Finland started off well by having their business plan for "The Future Coffee Shop". The real-time scores as well as a few videos are also available online. Great stuff.

Now that I mentioned the Barista Magazine, I realised yesterday that my subscription has expired and I have not received the latest issue. Bugger. Need to renew it immediately...

A couple of new toys

2007-09-11T19:45:00.000+02:00

My old Digiweigh DW-500BZ has served me well, but I wanted something with a larger capacity as well as larger weighing platform. I decided to go for the MyWeigh i1200 that does up 1,2 kilos with a precision of 0,1 grams. The platform is (just) large enough to weigh a whole PF. The capacity and the size should also turn out handy when measuring other stuff like green coffee for roasting or any of the stuff one weighs in the kitchen for cooking. The MyWeigh wasn't expensive nor is it particularly well made, but the really good precision scales cost a fortune.

In the first picture you can also see one of the tampers that I acquired fairly recently - a Cafe-Kultur Torr XS. It is very nice in terms of the materials, finish and looks. A bit small for my hands, but my wife likes it (which is the reason I bought it in the first place).

I also thought that I'd post a picture of a little trinket that I got from Risteriet. A portafilter key-ring. Cool!

NBC 2007

2007-09-09T16:53:00.001+02:00

This year the Nordic Barista Cup will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden from September 20th to 22nd. You can find the preliminary program on the NBC website: here. As usual, the price for entrance to the full event is a bit steep, but since Gothenburg is not that far from Copenhagen, I'll see if my schedule allows me to go and check out the public day on the Saturday...

Compak update

2007-09-09T14:09:00.000+02:00

Quite a while back Marcus kindly sent me a new power switch to replace the original defective one that was on my K10. The switch was easy to swap and the new one not only looks better but is of significantly better quality. The Compak has now been serving duty as my main grinder for a couple of months and the external timer does a great job in helping dose consistency when grinding per shot.

I think the Compak is fabulous grinder and the shots are great. However, the flak I am getting from the wife continues - she just hates the doser. She could even live with the size of the grinder, but not the doser.

To be honest, I am not too keen on the doser either, even though the one on the Compak is a very good one. Having owned quite a few grinders and tried numerous other ones in addition to those, I am starting to face the fact that I just prefer doserless grinders.

The Mahlkönig K30 has attracted me before and my wife thinks we can't get one soon enough. It certainly does have its own issues and it does not have conical burrs, but it still is a great grinder in my opinion. So, I have put in the order for a new, slightly customised Mahlkönig K30 Vario that should be arriving in about a months time... ...this means that the Compak is coming up for sale...

The Casadio is sold

2007-09-09T13:49:00.000+02:00

It was actually some time ago that my Casadio found its new owner, but I just haven't been updating the blog recently. Anyway, I thought I'd mention it here anyway...

The Casadio is up for sale

2007-08-04T22:25:00.000+02:00

After having two grinders in my kitchen for a while I have decided to keep the Compak K10 and subsequently the Casadio Instantaneo is now up for sale. I have ground approximately 5-6 kg of coffee with it, so it is for all intents and purposes almost unused. I have two hoppers for it - the regular as well as a short one (the one that you see in the images on this blog). If you are interested, you are welcome to come over too see and try it for yourself. Offers over DKK 3000 / EUR 400, please (it costs EUR 600 new). I would prefer if you could pick the grinder up yourself, but I can also consider shipping it (buyer pays for insured shipping). I wrote my thoughts on the grinder earlier, here and here.

Risteriet updates their website

2007-08-04T11:36:00.000+02:00

Risteriet (one of the local roasters) has updated their website and they now also have a fully functional webshop. Some interesting new machines and accessories have also become available...

La Marzocco Club

2007-08-04T11:33:00.000+02:00

La Marzocco has updated their web pages and GS3 owners can now register their machines and join the La Marzocco Club.

Jimseven is the 2007 WBC Champ!!!

2007-08-02T08:31:00.000+02:00

Great news. James Hoffmann (the UK champ) has won the 2007 World Barista Championship! Congratulations Jim. The runners up:

2nd place: Heather Perry, United States
3rd place: Carl Sara, New Zealand
4th place: Miyuki Miyamae, Japan
5th place: Anna Kaeppeli, Switzerland
6th place: Sylvia Magalhaes, Brazil

WBC 2007

2007-07-31T08:28:00.001+02:00

The 2007 World Barista Championship is at full swing in Tokyo. I hear that the Finnish champ, Jon Niemimaa had some problems with his microphone, but also that the judges appeared to like the drinks. I hope he does well. I am also keeping my thumbs up for the Danish champion, Lene Hyldahl. My gut says that this year it will be interesting and I am not as confident as I was last year on the WBC champ being from the Nordic countries...

Check out Barista Magazine's blog, Zachary Carlsen's Blog and as usual, James Hoffmann's blog for further info and frequent updates...

The Coffee Collective

2007-07-31T08:12:00.000+02:00

Klaus Thomsen has a new project. A new speciality coffee roaster is taking shape here in Copenhagen. I hear that it will initially focus on wholesale, but they will also sell to retail customers, i.e. geeks like me. Interesting news. The website (www.coffeecollective.dk) is under construction, but in the meantime you can check out the project's blog.

Off to Italy

2007-07-13T14:15:00.000+02:00

I have again been busy cleaning up my desk at the office, doing a couple more business trips and making the final preparations for our vacation during which we will also have our wedding in Tuscany. I will be offline for about two weeks, but will report back upon my return. There is some cool stuff (in addition to getting married)...

By the way, the Compak is back up and running. The problem was a faulty power switch. More on that later... Ciao!

Grinder analysis - part III

2007-06-19T20:47:00.000+02:00

Before going to the point, I'd like to note that I have edited the post on part II of the grinder analysis as I had mixed up the data from the Casadio and the Compak. Realising this and looking at the profiles again, they now make a lot more sense to me (although I still do not want to draw any conclusions).

Ok. To the point. I managed to get the data from the previous grind analysis (part I) in electronic form and I thought it would be interesting to compare the particle distribution profiles of these grinders side-by-side. In the first image we have the profiles from three flat burr grinders.

One can see that the more expensive the grinder is the more uniform the size of the coarser particles. Assuming that uniformity in coarse particles is desirable for the results in the cup (and that the finer particles just control the flow of the extraction), it appears that one does get a superior grind in return for a larger investment. The differences in the graphs are small, but still noticeable.

The are also differences in the shots that these grinders produce, and these differences are in my experience larger than the above profiles suggest. There must therefore be something else to the quality of the grinder than the particle distribution profile?

In the second image we have three conical burr grinders and here the variance in the particle distribution profiles is a lot more apparent than with the flat burr grinders. The argument that you get a superior grind with an additional investment seems to hold even more true here (with the same assumptions I made with the flat burr grinders).

However, the profile from the conical Innova appears to contradict the common opinion that it actually produces a good grind and a great cup (on par with Mazzer Mini). The unit did not appear to defective in any way and it was also almost new, so I am a bit baffled as to what the explanation here could be...

Ok. Enough rambling since I cannot draw conclusions from all this. I will follow the discussions on Home-Barista.com with interest to see if the more scientific and thorough analysis will yield credible conclusions...

Last, but most definitely not least, I would like thank "isojp", a member from the ristretto.fi forums for running the tests on all these samples!

Grinder analysis - part II

2007-06-18T20:21:00.000+02:00

A while back I took part in an interesting experiment where the particle size distribution for various grinders was measured with a laser diffractometer (link to the post). I had an opportunity for a quick second round of a similar experiment and now that I have two new grinders, I was naturally curious to see how they would stack up. The Compak is currently out of action, but I managed to run the samples for these experiments before the problems.

The idea was to set the grinders in a way that with an exact 16 gram dose, 9 bar brew pressure, 92 degree (real, not indicated) brew temperature, identical tamping force and 25 second brew we would get shots of identical volumes. Three grinders took part in this round, namely the Compak K10 WBC, the Casadio Instantaneo and the Mahlkönig K30 ES. The grind as well as the shot samples were taken. The K30 I did not have at home, so the shots were pulled with a La Marzocco FB80 residing at Risteriet and I admit that the shot was a tad more voluminous than the ones I pulled at home (but I have been advised that this should not have a significant impact as regards the results). The same blend from the same roast batch was used for all the samples.

The first image (click it for a larger size image) shows the particle size distribution of the grinders. This was somewhat a surprise to me, especially the profile from the Compak. This was explained once I realised that I got the data between the Compak and the Casadio mixed up! The image now shows the right profiles. I was expeting the K10 produce more fines than the Mahlkönig, but there really isn't much of a difference. The Casadio produces the least fines out of these three grinders.

The kink in the Casadio's profile leading from the coarse particles towards the fines is interesting and to my palate it produces the most bitter cup of the three (at least with this blend). Perhaps there aren't enough fines to slow down the flow rate and one therefore needs to grind finer than is desirable (and subsequently the coarse particles are overextracted)?

I will have to experiment with a larger dose and a slightly coarser grind to see if this improves the taste from the Casadio. The Compak has a very "clean" particle size distribution profile compared to the other two and it also produces a sweeter cup that is more to my liking...

It was also interesting to see what ends up in the cup from each grinder. The second image shows a particle size analysis of the actual brewed espresso shots for which the dose was ground with the respective grinders (note: this image and graphs I did get right the first time).

The hump in the slightly larger particle sizes with the Mahlkönig makes me wonder if there was some coffee grinds on the portafilter spouts when this sample was taken (even though we tried to avoid it)? Here we also see that the Casadio appears to produce most fines into the cup - could this be another or the reason for the slightly more bitter taste?

Another thought that occurred to me is also that the larger number of fines in the cup (despite the least fines in the particle distribution) could be an indication of dust being produced by the Casadio due to the combination of high rpm and small conical burrs? Or it could just be the burr design? Or a sign of over-extraction caused by the lack of fines? I cannot quite figure this out...

I may have the opportunity to get the data on the earlier grinder comparison in electronic form, which would enable me to plot the graphs of the particle size distribution from those grinders onto the same diagram to make further comparisons and analysis easier. To be continued (hopefully)...

Aagain I will draw no conclusions here as I do not feel qualified to do so. For a more scientific read on the same issues I refer you to the ongoing discussions at Home-Barista.com, especially these two threads: Titan Grinder Project and Titan Grinder Project: Particle size distribution of ground coffee

Das Compak ist Kaputt

2007-06-18T19:30:00.000+02:00

Ok. The honeymoon with the Compak is over. The other day it just stopped grinding, i.e. the motor will not turn. This appears to be an electrical problem, probably just the power switch (at least that is my optimistic hope). A new switch should soon be on its way. In the meantime, the Casadio has taken over the duty of my daily grind...

Sweep mod for the K10

2007-06-03T12:57:00.001+02:00

As I noted in my first post regarding the Compak K10, I already chopped the hopper to make the grinder shorter and added an external timer to help in grind-per-shot use. To further improve the K10 for this type of use at home, I took the doser apart to implement the "electrical tape mod" or "sweep mod".
The sweep of doser on the K10 was not too bad before, but with this modification it is clearly better. There is virtually no coffee left behind in the doser. The only part where a few stray grinds are left behind is the top of the dosing star, where some of the coffee exiting the chute does spray on. To be honest, this is minimal, but being a neatnik, the "inverted cup mod" is something that I have in my sights in the near future...

By the way, when putting the doser back together, I intentionally left our the dosing sector (highlighted in the first picture with the red arrow) as it just promotes grinds retention on top of it. Without it in place the doser is also even easier to clean.

Titan Grinder Project

2007-06-03T12:54:00.000+02:00

Home-Barista.com are running a side-by-side review of a few conical burr grinders (with a flat burr Mazzer thrown in for comparative purposes). This will be interesting. Check it out here.

Coffee Fiesta!

2007-05-28T00:34:00.000+02:00

The Speciality Coffee Association's annual event (the "Coffee Fiesta") took place in Antwerp, Belgium from May 18th to 20th. Baristi and other coffee professionals from 19 countries participated and several awards were presented over the weekend to recognize the work of professionals in several fields of the industry. Unfotunately I could not be present even though I would have liked to (perhaps next year?). In addition to the awards there were a few interesting competitions. The Coffee in Good Spirits was won by Helger Aava from Estonia and the World Cupping Championship was taken by Anette Moldvaer.

Most interesting for me was the World Latter Art Championship, which I really would have liked to have seen. In the competition the baristi had to prepare 2 identical cappuccinos, 2 identical macchiatos and 2 identical "designer" drinks / signature pours in 8 minutes. A fairly tight clip, right? The resulting drinks were evaluated by the five judges based on appearance, taste and presentation.

The title went to Jack Hanna from Australia, who I hear put on a great show. Very close behind was Søren Stiller from Kontra Coffee (just a meager 2 points behind!). Russia's Alice Shchichko came third. Søren's special was art in the shape of a swan, which fits well considering the amount of these beautiful birds on the lakes here in Copenhagen (on the shores of which I live and Kontra is just next to my apartment). Fitting. Anyway, congrats to Jack, Søren and Alice!

The SCAE Photography Competition is something that I would actually have been interested in participating myself and the coordinator of the Finnish chapter of the SCAE also encouraged me to participate. I just haven't yet managed to actually register as an SCAE member! Must do that soon...

Macap MC4 Electronic

2007-05-27T13:07:00.000+02:00

Macap has introduced an interesting new grinder, an electronic version of the MC4. Check out the details and images at Home-Barista.com (click here). This is a clear competitor to the Mazzer Mini-E and appears to solve the usability issues which the regular MC4 had i.e. the new grinder has a microswitch for portafilter actuation of the grind and a portafilter fork. The dose timer setup appears to be clearly superior to that on the Mazzer, making this a really interesting alternative to the Mini-E. However, the clumping issues that the regular MC4 had still appear to be there and in a bad way!

2007 Danish Blending Championships

2007-05-27T12:15:00.000+02:00

Last weekend it was again time for the annual espresso blending championship arranged by Risteriet. This year 13 blends in all were entered and instead of four judges, there were six this year. I had the honor of being one of them. The entrants had roasted the blends themselves, so roasting skills were also something that inevitably played a role.

As before, the evaluation of the blends was by blind tasting and the judges had to separately score the aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, aftertaste and the overall impression on each blend. Flavor/taste is naturally the most important element and it alone carried 40% weight in the final scores.

Jesper was the barista on duty while Rune handled the logistics during the evening. The settings on the La Marzocco FB80 were the same for all blends and the Mahlkönig K30 did its duty as the grinder. Due to time constraints it was not possible to fine-tune the grind for each blend to achieve exactly the same shot volume (other variables were held constant instead).

This year's winning blend was by Lars Apel (congrats Lars!):

25% Brasilien Daterra Bourbon Yellow
25% Etiopien wild grown
25% Australsk Skybury Plantation Extra Fancy
25% Costa Rica Tarrazu

Number two blend (by David K):

40% Brasilien Fancy Santos
25% Mexico Altura Ismam
20% Guatemala Huehuetenango - Tres Marias
15% Etiopien Sidamo

And the one that became third (Michael Lundgaard):

35% Brasilien Rainha
35% Guatemala La Ceiba
15% Etiopien Harrar
15% Costa Rica Tarrazu

I guess fully dialing in for each blend could have proved useful, but I think the method that was used worked out well. This was another interesting experience but the 13 blends was a bit too much - at least for me - and towards the end I was completely numb and in hindsight I definitely over-scored the last blend. Tasting and cleaning one's palate is a skill on its own - and an area where I need to hone my skills further...

Finnish Barista Championships 2007

2007-05-26T19:48:00.000+02:00

The 2007 Finnish Barista Championships were held at Café Carusel in Helsinki on May 24th and this year the title went to Jon Niemimaa from Cafe Art in Turku (last year's champ, Juhani Haahti was also from the same café!). Congrats to Jon and good luck to the WBC in Tokyo! Jarkko Ruotsalainen, a fellow Finnish home-barista is very handy with a camera and he has posted a pretty impressive set of images from the event. Check them out here.

Compak K10 WBC

2007-05-26T18:42:00.000+02:00

So, my Compak finally arrived earlier this week. I remain curious as to how it can take a week to deliver a package in the Copenhagen area while it only takes one day to deliver from Germany to Denmark? The same happened with the Casadio and this time around the delivery company even blatantly lied about supposedly having tried to deliver the Compak earlier. That particular company surely has no idea of what the word service means. Ok. Rant over.

I knew that the K10 would not be a small grinder, but the size was still a bit of a shock especially to my better half. Her immediate reaction was that the Compak is too large and will not stay in our kitchen. There is no way this beast will fir under regular kitchen cabinets (it stands 64 cm / 25 inches) tall with the stock hopper.

So I had a challenge in convincing her to agree on having it stay. To make this easier (as well as generally more practical), I decided to shop the bean hopper to that the grinder would fit under the cabinets and indeed with 11.5 cm / 4.5 inches taken off the height it actually does. Great. The hopper lid is naturally no longer a good fit, but I don't think I'll really need it (I do not keep beans in the hopper for long periods of time anyway).

The cutline of the chopped hopper turned out surprisingly well. I marked the spot where I wanted to cut the hopper, put masking tape over and around the line to both protect the plastic as well as to prevent cracks in it. I used a Dremel to make the first cut (attached to a ball-jointed vice, which in turn was attached to the cupboard wall - I admit that the setup looked a bit funny).

Anyway, the Dremel generates a lot of heat when cutting so I only used it to make the initial cut accurately around the hopper and finished the job off with a hacksaw. I then used sandpaper to get rid of any sharp edges (I will need some finer grit sandpaper to make it really nice).

The grinder now fits where it is supposed to in our kitchen. To help in the usability, I also added a digital darkroom timer that can be adjusted to the accuracy of one tenth of a second. The red button is used for the timed grind, the top two buttons for adjusting the time and the lower left button is for continuous grind (press for on and press again to stop the grind). A handy little gadget, this.

In terms of the grinder itself, the major attractions for me were the large (68mm), slowly turning (300 rpm) conical burrs. My initial impression is that they do produce a grind that is superior in taste to the Casadio (or the Mazzer Mini-E for tha matter). The bitter notes I experienced with the Casadio are just not there, but instead I get a smoother, sweeter shot that still has lovely complexity to the taste. Lovely.

Two doubts that I had regarding the Compak were the potentially troubling amount of ground coffee retained in the chute and grinding chamber and whether or not I can learn to live with the doser. Well, it appears that the K10 retains less than 10 grams of coffee and this is pretty easy to clear out. There will be a bit more waste than with a Mini-E or the Casadio, but I think I can live with that to get the superior grind.

The doser action is nice and it sweeps pretty clean (about the same as the Mazzer Mini I had in the past). I will probably modify the doser a bit in the near future by attaching electrical tape to the doser vanes for an even cleaner sweep and I am also on the lookout for a suitable part that I can use for a nice-looking inverted cup mod. The doser does throw slightly to the right but less so than the Mazzer Mini.

Also, while grinds distribution is miles better than a Mini-E (no clumping, static or particle size distribution issues here), I have to say that the Casadio actually does provide a superior initial distribution. This is quite a feat for a doserless grinder. Nevertheless, a quick Stockfleth's move and you will get a perfect extraction from the Compak as well.

The grind is adjusted steplessly by moving the adjustment collar in a manner similar to the Mazzer adjustment. The collar itself is beautiful but it could use a more pronounced adjustment pin (although you can use the hopper attachment screw). The difference between the adjustment in the Compak and the Mazzer is that in the Compak you are moving the bottom burr (in the Mazzer you move the top burr that is spring-loaded).

Overall I am very pleased with the Compak and I think this is the grinder that will stay in the kitchen. The Casadio will be up for sale soon. The build of the K10 is far superior to the Casadio's and while it may not be quite as well built as the Mazzer's, it is not far behind and it is also clearly superior to the Rancilio (Rocky) and Cunill grinders. Some aspects I actually like more than those on the Mazzer - for example the doser lever and the adjustment collar (even though it could use the pin I mentioned earlier). Less convincing is the plastic portafilter fork that actually collects some coffee on top as well as the doser "hood" that could fit a bit better.

There is one more thing that I should mention. Most grinders of this caliber have useless auto-grinding functions, finger guards and interlocks that prevent you from running the grinder hopperless. None of these are an issue with the Compak K10 WBC.

3rd Copenhagen Home-Barista Jam

2007-05-26T18:41:00.001+02:00

Something that I have both overlooked and kind of forgotten to write about - my apologies for that - is the 3rd Copenhagen Home-Barista Jam. It has been a while since this took place, but I thought that I'd write a few words anyway. Better late than never, right?

This time around we had an even bigger turnout of people and gear than in the earlier events. We had an ECM Technika III, a PID'd Silvia, a Maver Marte, an Andreja Premium, a Valentina, a Vibiemme Replica 2-group (courtesy of Risteriet) as well as a Pavoni. I decided not to bring in my GS3 as it is not exactly a portable machine. I did take along my Scace and my Omega thermometer to take some temp measurements. As for grinders, a Macap M4, a Rocky doserless, an Isomac GranMacinino and Demoka were present. All this and two dozen people meant that we had a pretty busy evening.

The first part of the evening was to warm up the machines and for those who were interested, we had the Scace as well as a portafilter mounted pressure gauge to make measurements on their machines and dial them in. It turned out that there were two problems for doing this properly (in addition to having limited time available).

Firstly, the ambient temperature in the premises was a lot lower than a usual home environment and this put some doubt into the accuracy of the temperature measurements (although the Scace was kept warm in a grouphead at all times) and secondly, because the brew pressure gauge turned out to lack damping and the pressure readings fluctuated pretty wildly during measurements.

Nevertheless, we did manage to measure, adjust and approximate the settings on most of the machines. I hope those settings resulted in a better cup of coffee at home for the owners!

We then proceeded to the part(s) focusing on barista technique. We divided into four groups and the idea was that everyone contribute with their experiences and techniques to generate a lively discussion and hopefully have everyone learn something new.

We first looked into dosing, distribution and tamping and what made this part especially interesting as that the reigning World Barista Champion, Klaus Thomsen joined us for the evening to give us tips and hints, mingling with us and rotating between the groups. This was great and another sign of Klaus' down to earth attitude and sociable personality.

From here it was natural to move on to examining the extraction and have a go at pulling a few shots. Handily there were quite a few bottomless portafilters around...

It was then time to move on to milk. Frothing and pouring some art worked out very well and we had great bunch of latte-artists amongst us. Again Klaus made it look so easy, but I trust that everyone picked up something useful here as well.

To finish off the evening we had arranged various ingredients and each of the four previous groups chose one ingredient at a time, four ingredients in all (coffee, milk and sugar was available to all) and then had some time plan how to combine those ingredients into a signature drink and prepare it as a team.

The scoring was based on taste, presentation and teamwork. Klaus and myself acted as the "judges" that the teams presented. I have to say that the drinks turned out to be pretty amazing and imaginative especially considering the short amount of time everyone had for planning and preparation!

The winner turned out to be drink where the shot of espresso was pulled over a strawberry that had been dipped in melted dark chocolate and the finished off with a whisker of acacia honey and a dollop of cream (if I recall correctly). The winning team (pictured ehere with the "judges") went with home with a smile and 1kg of freshly roasted coffee (a blend specifically made for the evening).

It was another fun evening (at least for me), but the pretty extreme cold temperature took its toll and everyone was more or less out of puff after the competition. I certainly started feeling off a lot earlier and actually ended up developing a pretty bad cold that took me out of commission (and the office) for more than a week. Nevertheless, I'd like to thank the guys at Risteriet for making the premises, the coffee and some of the equipment available and of course for everyone else for their participation and input. I hope everyone had a good time! I will probably see many of you around, but if not - until the next Jam!

We also had a photographer present during the evening. Claus Kunckel did great work with his Canon 5D and some pretty impressive L-glass. All the pictures on this post were taken by him and posted with his permission (if you have thoughts on some of the post processing, blame me as I did touch them up a bit). Check out the rest of the pictures from the evening here and Claus' other work here.

Mazzer vs Casadio

2007-05-19T20:17:00.000+02:00

Now that I have had a bit more time with the Casadio, I have found some interesting things about this grinder. The initial thought that it produces more bitter flavors in the cup may after all not be entirely accurate. For example, a blend that contains Robusta that yielded a fairly rough cup with the Mazzer Mini-E worked surprisingly well with the Casadio. I really did not like to drink this blend straight up with the Mazzer (although it worked well in a cappa) but with the Casadio the taste is a lot smoother and I actually like it also as a straight shot. Furthermore, the Arabica blend that I was using previously appears to be working better with the Casadio than I initially thought now that I have tried a slightly larger dose. Hmm...

I mentioned earlier that it is a lot easier to achieve an even extraction with the Casadio. To demonstrate, I'll start by showing an image of a shot from a Mini-E where no action has been taken with regards to overcoming the grind particle size distribution issues. I should note that the burrs on the Mazzer have seen about 50 kg of coffee and should therefore still be perfectly ok (and the Casadio is obviously new).

For this shot the portafilter just sat in the fork and I only performed a Stockfleth's distribution and tamped (no knocking, tapping or other measures at any stage of the process). The picture is at around 15 seconds into the shot and the pour developed better from here, but nevertheless you can see the extraction favoring one side of the basket. I admit that this is a rather extreme example, but it does show the issue that the Mini-E has.

This is another shot from the Mazzer at around 20 sec into the pour. I rotated the portafilter 180 degrees during the grind to overcome the particle size distribution issues of the Mini-E. Now the shot is more centered and the extraction more even. This is better but still not the best shot I have pulled with the Mazzer. For an image of a better pour from the Mazzer, click here (for that shot I took additional measures to overcome the Mazzer's shortcomings).

Now we can take a look at the Casadio. This picture is at around 20 seconds into the shot. Again, the extraction is a lot more even than in the first picture, but what is interesting is that the shots from the Casadio go blonde later into the pour. Most importantly, achieving this type of pours is also a lot easier with the Casadio that they are with the Mini-E. No gimmicks like the Weiss distribution are required to get a perfect pour every time.

My initial conclusions are that the Casadio is a clear improvement over the Mini-E in terms of the initial grinds distribution, grinding speed, the ridiculous easy way in which one can achieve an even extraction as well as the lack of grinds retention. I am slowly warming up to the Casadio, but I am still not entirely convinced that the taste in the cup is superior. Sometimes it appears to be so while at others, it just doesn't. Having said this, it always takes time to learn the finer nuances of a new grinder and I can already say that this grinder is most definitely no slouch.

The looks and the build still annoy me. With regards to the taste, I just hope to receive the Compak soon so that I conduct some further comparisons (it has been in the country since Tuesday but the local delivery company just doesn't have its act together - hence the delay, again). The thought of a doser is somewhat daunting to me, but let's see...

By the way, I previously forgot to mention the huge thanks to Marcus Bätz who sourced and sold the Casadio (and the Compak) for/to me. He has been quite a gentleman through the process as well as great help in terms of some practical questions I have had on the Casadio...

Parasites

2007-05-17T12:48:00.000+02:00

I have been following a couple of blogs that are blatantly just copying the material produced by others (including me) without any permission. Let's see if this post is also reflected on mycoffeeblog.com and bestcoffeeblogs.com. I have approached the owner of these blogs asking him to remove the copied content, but since he doesn't appear to be taking any action, I guess I will have to approach his ISP(s).

EDIT: The material copied from my blog has now been erased from the other sites, so I am ok. However, I wonder how others who have been subjected to this plagiarism feel...

Is 2007 the Year of the Grinder?

2007-05-17T10:42:00.000+02:00

It appears that there are some very interesting developments taking place with coffee grinders. Take a look at the new doserless grinder that Elektra has in the pipeline. Compak also has an interesting new product, the K-6 Automatic. Mazzer is apparently planning on making timer and even doserless versions of their bigger grinders (e.g. the conical Kony or Robur will be interesting). La Marzocco is coming up with the "S" that is still in the prototype stage but will eventually become available (a huge beast of a grinder, but interesting nevertheless). Add to this Versalab's improvements on the M3 and the rumours about Mahlkönig's conical burr version of the K30 and it looks like things are getting better. However, with the exception of La Marzocco S and perhaps the Mahlkönig (if the rumour is true) these grinders appear to be variations of current models and perhaps not huge leaps forward, but still a positive sign that the manufacturers may finally be listening to the demands of the baristi?

Casadio Instantaneo

2007-05-12T23:18:00.000+02:00

My Casadio Instantaneo has finally arrived (after some troubles with the local delivery company). Anyway, this grinder is not very well known internationally, Germany being the notable exception where it is considered superior to the Mahlkönig K30 (for half the price). So what's up with this? Here are my first thoughts on the Casadio...

First off, I have to say that the Casadio is ugly as hell. I initially did not even consider purchasing this grinder because of the looks, but good looks do not good coffee make, right? So I decided to go ahead with getting one of these to see what all the hubbub is about.

The Casadio is slightly beefier than a Mazzer Mini-E. The body of the grinder is almost exactly the same height as that of the Mini-E but a tad wider and deeper. However, depth is not so much an issue as an espresso machine usually requires more space in this dimension. In terms of the width, the Casadio does actually not require more space here, either because its power cord exits from the back instead of the side as in the Mazzer.

The standard hopper of the Casadio is fairly tall, though (making it around 4 inches taller than a Mini with a short hopper). However, I have a shorter hopper that is fairly easy to cut down further if need be. This hopper does not look particularly good, though and I am looking to receive an alternative that is a tad wider and look better when chopped down to the appropriate height.

The fit, finish and quality of materials on the Casadio are really bad. When I mean bad is that especially after the beautifully built Mazzer the build quality of the Casadio is bordering on unacceptable to me. It really is that bad with the cheap, thin and bendy plastic, poorly fitting components etc. Perhaps I will learn to live with this.

Ok. Now that I have vented most of the bad stuff about this grinder, let’s get into the good stuff.

The Casadio is significantly quieter than the Mazzer when grinding. One of the special features is the floating design of the motor and the burr assembly. They sit on rubber bushings that separate them from the grinder body. However, as with all quality grinders, the burrs are rigidly mounted on metal carriers to ensure even grind quality. There is a side effect to this floating design, though. The motor is rated at 450W versus the 250W of the Mazzer Mini-E and when one starts it up, the torque of motor actually rocks the whole grinder making it step slightly to the right unless held in place. This reminds me of an old American muscle car - you know, a huge powerful V8 in a small body and not much in the way of proper suspension. Perhaps the rubber bushings are a tad too soft?

The burrs on the Casadio are 48mm conical. Pretty small, huh? They turn at a pretty high rpm (1350), though and this gives a very fast grind - it is almost as fast as a Mahlkönig K30 and more than twice the speed of the Mini-E. Nice. Considering that the mass of the burrs is small compared to the amount of coffee that goes through them, it is not surprising that after grinding a few shots you notice some heat issues. This means that the Casadio will not be able to cope in a busy cafe but grinding four consecutive doubles in a home environment is not an issue.

One outstanding quality of the Casadio is that when grinding there is no horizontal path from burrs to the filter basket. The chute from the burrs is at a 45 degree angle and there is zero coffee retained in the chute after grinding! Now I have tried quite a few grinders and I have never seen anything this good. Having said this, as with all grinders, you will have some partly ground beans in the burr chamber after a session and at the start of the next session you will still want to throw away the first few grams of coffee out of the chute to ensure that you are using fresh coffee only. Regardless, this is one of the impressive qualities of the Casadio.

There is no portafilter fork or a tray to catch stray grinds. Sounds bad, right? Not a huge problem to be honest as the grind is so fast it doesn't pain me to stand next to the grinder for the 5 seconds it takes to grind the 17 grams for my double. There is also even less static and stray grinds than with the Mazzer and the Casadio actually makes even less of a mess than a Mini-E if used right.

Compared to the Mini-E (or the Mahlkönig K30), there is less clumping and less static. This is pretty impressive for a doserless grinder considering that the Mini-E is pretty good in this aspect compared to other doserless grinders (again including the Mahlkönig). Another problem of the Mini-E, the uneven distribution of the different sized ground coffee particles appears to be completely absent in the Casadio.

The Mini-E's issues combined require the use of techniques to overcome the grinder's shortcomings and you will still pretty easily end up with an extraction that favours one side of the coffee puck (the one closer to the machine's body - and I have experienced this with two machines that were both level). The first picture of the ground coffee above is from the Mini-E. Not bad, but if you look at the Casadio (below), it is visibly better.

The grind from the Casadio (the second pic) is also fluffier - the same amount of coffee measured by weight takes up a larger volume than the equivalent dose from the Mazzer (both pictures are a double of around 17 grams that yielded a 27 sec shot of the same volume at the same machine settings). It is a lot easier to achieve even extraction with the grind from the Casadio and the shots appear to turn blond later into the shot. Again good news!

The grind is activated by pressing the buttons on the panel. There is a button for a single dose and another for a double. Press both for continuous grind. There is no portafilter activation for grinding nor is there a separate button for continuous grind. This is an inconvenience as it is pretty tricky to press the two buttons simultaneously while holding the portafilter. The dose adjustments are not that intuitive, but they are accurate (much more so than in the Mini-E). You can adjust the grind time to 1/100th of a second and if you max out the setting, you can access a sub-menu where you can add full tenths (and still retain the possibility to fine-tune to the 1/100th). No upper limit as there is in the Mini-E (although I have not tried a triple). This is great. When idle, the display shows the number of shots ground with the grinder - already a fairly large number on mine since it took a good while to dial things in (my grinder was way off from an espresso grind setting). Now this brings me conveniently to the grind adjustment. It is by the way of a worm drive that allows for extremely fine adjustments. This is clearly an espresso only grinder as it is just too much trouble to move from espresso to French press and back (the adjustment scale is also very poor indeed, although there is one).

All in all, the important things with the Casadio appear to be in very fine form. The clearly is room for improvement in the choice of materials as well as the fit and finish. The manufacturer could also consider adding another button for continuous grinding or even a micro switch for portafilter activation of the grind. This would make the grinder so much more convenient to use - I just love the Mahlkönig K30 in this respect (also for its perfect build quality), but then again it is in a different price class and the actual grind quality might be inferior. In other words, although there are clear weaknesses in the Casadio, it is great value for money - it costs roughly the same as a Mini-E but offers superior grind speed, better extractions, more accurate dose setting, easier fine-tuning of the grind and less mess on the counter.

One and obviously the most important measure of a grinder is the quality of the coffee in the cup. How does the Casadio fare in this respect? Well, it is too early to draw conclusions. The better extractions are naturally a clear plus. I also note more bright notes in the shots, but also more bitter flavours. Could this be due to the high rpm generating more fines/dust than is desirable and this bring an unwanted dimension to the coffee? As I said, it is too early to draw conclusions but will revert after further experimenting....

Danish Barista Championship 2007

2007-05-06T14:14:00.000+02:00

The Danish Barista Championships were held on Sunday, April 22nd. For me as a spectator the event was more entertaining than last year's competition although the crowd that had gathered to watch was slightly smaller. A lot of familiar faces were there, though. As last year, the top two were easy to spot and it was very close between Søren Stiller (last year's number 2) and Lene Hylddahl.

I had the pleasure of tasting the sig drink from both and actually slightly preferred the aroma and taste of Søren's drink. But it was a very complex drink to prep - perhaps too much so? Lene's performance was very sharp and she was the Danish championship with a margin of 50 points (695 vs 644). Her latte art was also very impressive.

I noted that 5 of the six finalists used coffee roaster by Estate Coffee. Lene had her own blend while the four others used the 4 estates blend. Søren had a special blend from Kontra Coffee in which the beans were roasted separately and then hand picked to ensure that there were no defects. Anyways, my congrats to the champ, Lene Hylddahl and good luck to the WBC in Tokyo!

There were quite a few spectators with cameras this year and Edward Lee has a very impressive set of images online. I recommend you check his pictures out here.

Pavoni gasket replacement

2007-05-06T13:59:00.000+02:00

Now that the GS3 has taken its place in the kitchen I have sold off both the Andreja and the Pavoni. Prior to handing over the Pavoni, I did give it a good cleanup and swapped the gaskets / seals to ensure that the new owner gets trouble free service from the machine. To be honest, the Pavoni never saw much use and it was in great shape. Nevertheless, I documented the seal replacement with pictures and while the text is in Finnish, the images are pretty self explanatory. You can find them on this thread on ristretto.fi.

There are also several resources in English that will walk you through the process. I found the ones on Home-Barista.com and Pavoni Express the best.

Three weeks with the GS3

2007-03-06T16:10:00.000+01:00

I have had the GS3 for almost four weeks now. Time really has gone quickly. So how are things? How is the GS3?

I have to say that I am impressed. My coffee has gotten and keeps on getting better. The feedback given by the machine is certainly a large part of this. For example, the combination of the Chronos -function (essentially an elapsed shot time display) and the brew pressure gauge immediately gives me an indication on how close my parameters are to the ideal.

The shot was too slow? Ok, adjust the grind. Shot time, volume and brew pressure were spot on and the shot also looked nice, but tasted bitter? Ok, just dial down the brew temp a notch or two. This is just so easy to do with the GS3 and it also turned out to be a very useful feature over the last couple of weeks when I have been trying seven different blends of varying roast degrees. Great!

However, I have noted that at least with the current pre-infusion settings I have, the GS3 is a tad less forgiving of sloppy distribution technique than my Andreja. I will keep on trying different settings here, but I think that this machine also reveals the small distribution issues that the Mazzer Mini-E grinder has (the particles of different sizes are not spread equally into the filter basket). So, one just has to take a bit more care in his/her barista technique, which is not a bad thing. Having said this, I have been researching grinder upgrades for quite some time now and I am closing in on a decision. It's not that the Mazzer Mini is a bad grinder, but I want something that is of the same caliber as the GS3...

I reported earlier that I have had some problems in steaming milk. I hear that La Marzocco is addressing this issue and I am keenly awaiting news on this front. My latte art still isn't as good as it was with the Andreja, but I am not yet sure if it is a wet steam issue or just down to me needing more practice (it took me a good few months to get it right with the Andreja).

In the meantime, Kaffecentralen in Finland kindly sent me a selection of steam tips that I could try and it turns out that a couple of them actually do a very good job. Of the tips pictured the three and five holes ones in the bottom row are the ones that currently work best for me. I like the five hole tip because it is easier to keep clean, but the three hole tip produces slightly better microfoam. I'm hoping to get one of the LM three hole steam tips soon.

So in short, I am already very happy with the GS3. I hear that the last minor niggles are in the process of being sorted out in the near future, in which case I believe the GS3 will live up with the very high expectations that people have put upon it. Thank you La Marzocco for building the GS3 and thank you Risteriet for getting me my machine!

By the way, La Marzocco has updated the GS3 product pages, which now look pretty impressive. Also added is a Q&A section that will help other thick amateurs like me to setup their machine : )

Tema 2007

2007-02-26T19:09:00.000+01:00

TEMA is a horeca exhibition that is held in Copenhagen every second year. This year it is again at the Bella Center in Copenhagen. I popped in on Sunday out of curiosity. The exhibition/fair is not really geared towards the coffee industry per se, but I was happy to see it reasonably represented. But for me there were only two highlights.

I was most happy to see Estate Coffee with a very nice stand with Klaus and Casper pulling shots with a La Marzocco GB5. The shot of Klaus' Daterra & Minita blend, ground with the conical Compak K-10 and pulled by the champ was exquisite. In addition to the Compak there was also an interesting new Mahlkoenig grinder. Small twin hoppers and a cooling fan on a grinder that looked like two K30 grinders merged together.

There were a few brands of espresso machines represented as well, for example Caffarex, San Remo, La San Marco and La Cimbali among others. La Cimbali had a couple of interesting grinders on display (the Conik as well as the Max with its hybrid burrs).

However, the second thing that sparked my interest was the Specialty Coffee Denmark stand where I had a good chat with Poul Skarra. In addition to importing the QuickMill machines to Denmark (including the Andreja Premium), he also has the Visacrem machines. This may be a less recognised brand, but it's roots come from Gaggia and Faema who both had factories in Spain that were purchased by the Quality Espresso Group who are behind Visacrem.

Anyway, on diplay was the new Visacrem V6 Grouptronic model that is a heat exchanger machine, but with a twist. Each group has its own heat-exchanger and the grouphead is actively heated. This heating can be individually adjusted for a desired brew temperature (e.g. each group for a different blend or one for for singles and another for doubles). Temperature stability is claimed to rival that of the new La Marzoccos.

What is even more interesting is that the boiler water can be dumped and refreshed with a press of a button! Furthermore, the machine has an automatic grouphead cleaning function - you just put in the blind filter and some Urnex Cafiza, press a button and the machine will take care of the rest. To top it all, the machine is very reasonably priced and looks very good in the metal, too. This all certainly sounded interesting to me...

A distinguished guest

2007-02-25T20:57:00.000+01:00

Monday this week I had the pleasure of having Klaus and Casper from Estate Coffee come over to my place. We spent the evening playing with the GS3, pulling shots and trying on a few different steam tips. The stock didn't really do it for any of us. The two-hole "new" Isomac tip did produce nice microfoam, but is way too restrictive. However, the three hole tip brought by Klaus worked pretty well, although it still wasn't perfect (the tip is pictured on the right below).

An interesting piece (or actually pieces, some of which are pictured here) of kit was a set of plastic leveling tools. Each piece in the set has a straight side and a curved side. The curved side has a different curvature in each piece. The straight side can be used to level the coffee in the filter basket and the curved side for chipping a small amount of coffee off. The curvature can be varied to match the ageing of the coffee used.

I think this is a good idea and tool for high volume commercial use, but I am slightly sceptic of its usability for a home-barista. Anyway, the man behind the idea is Scott Callaghan, the 2006 World Latte Art Champion.

Another, quite impressive set of tools was the tamper and etching kit which Klaus had received from Henk at Espresso Service West (the same friendly gentleman I bough my Mazzer from). The tamper comes with six bases of different sizes and shapes - you should one to fit more or less any machine from this kit! Nice.

Klaus also kindly brought over some coffee - the blend he used to win his WBC title (Daterra and Minita) in addition to the his expertise and all the interesting gear. This was the first time I actually tried Klaus' blend and I have to say that it was really good. Different from what I am used to, but very good. A shot from this coffee produces a really sweet cup with an unbelievable amount of fruitiness.

I also learned something very useful during the evening. I have previously had trouble getting great shots or solid pucks from the regular LM double filter and after the evening I am happy to say that I no longer have that problem. It was just a matter of dosing more, although I still find this basket a tad harder to dose than most other baskets...

I'll finish off with a pic of the champ with my GS3.

Thanks for the useful tips and the fun evening Klaus and Casper!

Programmable Hottop

2007-02-24T21:50:00.000+01:00

I have been very unhappy with the iRoast2 (more on that later). Hence, the new programmable Hottop (KN-8828P) is a very interesting roaster indeed. Randy Glass has posted a good review of the new marvel. Check it out here.

GS3 brew temperature

2007-02-24T11:18:00.000+01:00

I have been on the road for a few days without access to my GS3. It's great to be back and now I also finally had an opportunity to try out my Scace device and new thermometer (an Omega HH506RA).

Before proceeding with any temperature measurements on the machine, I checked the calibration of the thermometer. I put crushed ice and distilled water (in 50/50 proportions) into an insulated wine cooler and let it stabilise for a few minutes. I then submerged the Scace device into this solution and connected it to the thermometer and again let things stabilise. This method should provide a temperature of 0 C with a minimum accuracy of +/- 0.1 C and I was happy to see the Omega give me a reading of 0.1 C. In other words, the calibration appears to be spot on.

Once I had established that the thermometer calibration is correct, I inserted the Scace into a bottomless PF and locked it into the GS3's grouphead and let it stay there for an hour before taking any measurements (the machine had already been on for a couple of hours). I did no datalogging of the brew temperature profile at this stage (I still have to learn to make use of all the features on the Omega). The main goal for me was to ascertain what the actual brew temperature is vs the brew boiler temperature setting on the machine. Knowing the difference between the two will enable me to dial in the brew temperature offset in the GS3's settings so that I can set the actual brew temperature that I want be using at any given time (or at least one close to it). I am yet to verify if the temperature offset is constant across different temperatures and I may measure this later, but at least for now I assume it to be fairly constant.

Having made the first measurements, it seems that the offset between the machine's setting and the actual measurement is around 2.9 C, which is a tad larger than I expected. Anyway, the thermometer should be accurate and well calibrated, the machine fully warmed up and I made the measurement several times. The result was the same: the brew starting off a little cooler despite a small flush (like I understand that La Marzoccos tend to be), then quickly rising and soon stabilising at 91.5-91.7 C degrees (which is a tad low even for the fairly light roast I prefer).The brew boiler temp was set at 94.6 C during the measurements, but curiously the temperature on the GS3's display creeps up quite a bit over the temp setting (96.2 C showing in the picture).

I'll be repeating the measurements later, including actually datalogging the brew temp profiles and calculating some averages as well as firing up the Andreja and do a comparison between the two. For now, I will key in the temp offset at 2.9 C, dial the temp up a tad (to see if it improves the coffee even further), enjoy the espresso and keep trying on different steam tips (I now have 12 of them on the counter). More to come, soon...

Steaming with the GS3

2007-02-15T20:02:00.000+01:00

The drip tray / refill tank -issue solved itself when I realised that the drip tray is a tight fit and I just hadn't had it fully in place.

The coffee has been great and I am in the process of fine-tuning the dose settings on the keypad. I also readjusted the brew pressure because the original adjustment done with the Scace device appeared to be just very slightly too high at 9.5 bar. As promised, attached is also a picture showing the pump pressure adjustment nuts in a bit more detail than before.

Another thing I will probably adjust is the temperature of the water coming from the hot water tap. Unlike with heat-exchanger machines where this water is sourced from the boiler and the water is therefore too hot, in the GS3 the steam boiler water is mixed with fresh water in desired proportions to get an approprtiate temperature for the water. La Marzoccos tend to be adjusted a tad low and I will tweak it up a bit once I receive my temperature measurement gear.

To the topic. Steaming, how is it? Well, it has been quite an adjustment from the Andreja as there is so much more steaming power. Also, I have found the original four hole steaming tip (pictured on the right) to have a dispersion pattern that is too wide for me. Also, the holes may be a tad too large. I find it is very difficult to get the whirlpool going in the pitcher and the entire steaming process for 2 dl of milk takes approximately 5 seconds.

Fortunately I managed to get my hands on another La Marzocco tip (pictured in the middle). This one also has four holes, but they appear to be slightly smaller and more importantly, the dispersion pattern is not as wide. I did manage slightly better results with this tip and I believe that with practice, this could work well. I need to experiment more.

I did also dig out the alternative steaming tips that I had tried on the Andreja previously to see if they would fit and it appears that they do. While I found most of them too restrictive already on the Andreja, I doubted if they would work on the GS3, but i decided to give it a try. I lowered the steam boiler temperature / pressure by 5 C / 0.35 bar.

I took the "New" Isomac two hole tip, which was the "fastest" of the ones I had for the Andreja and even though it is too restrictive on the GS3, it does easily give me nice microfoam (but the wand gets hot and I am afraid of milk getting to places where it shouldn't go). The attached picture is my first attempt at latte art with the GS3. There is still some way to go, but this gives me confidence in things that are yet to come : )

Some of the GS3 prototypes apparently had three hole tips that looked very similar to the stock four hole one (and I hear it gave better results than either of the four hole tips). I am in the process of trying to get my hands on one of these as it sounds like a potential permanent solution...

Setting up the GS3 - Part II

2007-02-11T19:17:00.000+01:00

With the kind help of Michael from Kontra the GS3 is now up and running! Thank you Michael! It turned out that there were a couple of things that needed to be adjusted.

Firstly, the expansion valve was set at around 6.5 bar (should be around 11 or 12 bar). The valve is located in the lower right front corner of the machine. We removed the upper front panel, the top panels and the left side panel to have better access for the adjustments. The lower front panel, behind which the expansion valve is located is very difficuly to remove, but we nevertheless managed to do the adjustment to the appropriate setting.

Secondly, as I previously observed, the pump pressure setting was also too low. To adjust it, one only has to remove the left side panel. One loosens the locking nut, then adjusts the brew pressure from the adjustment nut and once you have desired setting, you re-tighten the locking nut (thanks for the tip Mark!). These are both to the right of the Fluidotech pump in the spot shown by the red arrow (sorry about the pic, I'll try and take a better one later).

The brew pressure is now set at 9 bar. We used Michael's scace device in the group during the adjustment (the pump running while making the adjustment).

With both the expansion valve and the pump set appropriately, we put the panels back on and the GS3 was ready for brewing the first shots!

I had upped the brew temp up a bit to 95C on the display (with the brew boiler temperature offset still at 0C). The first shot I threw out and the second was horribly bitter. I tweaked the temperature down to 94C and things were markedly better. I'll have to experiment a bit more, including measuring the actual temperature offset once I get my own scace device and meter.

This is not yet a perfect shot (or perfect pictures of it), but not too shabby in my opinion for one of the first experiments with a new machine. There was some nice tiger flecking on the crema as well.

The shot was pulled in the continuous dose / semiauto mode, where the pre-infusion is not available. I'll be experimenting with those settings in due course.

I also figured out the display issues and everything is now really coming together...

Setting up the GS3 - Part I

2007-02-10T18:43:00.000+01:00

Ok. The machine is out of the box and I have consulted the manuals. At 31kg (dry weight) the GS3 is slightly lighter than I remember the prototypes being, but still heavy enough to stay put. Lifting it onto the counter can be done by one person, just. Here's a photo showing the GS3 next to my Andreja just to give an idea of the size difference, which is surprisingly small considering that the GS3 has the (largish) dual boilers and the rotary pump inside.

I guess the weight difference between the production and the prototype GS3s is mainly due to the plastic side panels vs. the aluminium ones on the prototypes. The drip tray is also made of plastic with the exception of the outside finish and the cover (vs. all stainless on the prototypes).

As I mentioned earlier, the water reservoir is now in the base of the machine instead of being an integral part of the machine's chassis (as it was in the prototypes). To get access to the reservoir, one has to remove the drip tray, which is easy, and slide it out. You then pop open the fill cover and pour in the water. The reservoir takes 3 liters of water while the drip tray actually takes a bit more than this (I think).

The downside of the GS3's reservoir setup is that you cannot completely remove it for cleaning and you have no visual clue as to how much water you have left. The machine does remind you on its display of the need to refill, though. Also, the machine appears to be very sensitive as to how one re-inserts the reservoir (it doesn't necessarily recognise that it is in and continues displaying the "refill tank" reminder).

After filling the reservoir, I plugged the GS3 in and hit the main power switch (located at the back of the machine). One can then switch the machine on from the keypad and the autofill kicks in to fill both boilers. This happened surprisingly quickly and the machine started heating up.

As the saturated grouphead is an integral part of the brew boiler and also the highest point in it, this is where air ends up. One therefore has to bleed the air out much like one does with the radiators in the house. I opened the valve shown in the picture and ran the pump until water appeared from the valve. Then close the valve and replace the cap on the grouphead and you are more or less good to go.

I say more or less, because there are almost endless opportunities for tweaking the settings. I chose not to touch those initially apart from trying to change the "name" of the machine shown on the display. However, I noted that this didn't really work too well. I tried setting the name to "Teme's GS3", but the machine did not want to display this correctly. When trying to change the name back to the original "La Marzocco GS/3", the display does not show this correctly, either. A bug in the software?

Anyway, once the GS3 is fully heated up, the keypad lights up in a nice blue backlighting. The steam boiler settled to a max of 2 bar as specified in the manual. The steaming power is not on par with e.g. the FB80, but I am happy for this as I found the full blown commercial machines too strong for small quantities of milk (i.e. for home use). However, there is significantly more power than on my Andreja. The steaming tip is a four hole affair.

I then put in the blind filter to check what the brew pressure setting was. It topped off at just over 5 bar. No good. I assume that this setting is for when one direct connects the machine to a water line and the line pressure combined with the pump setting provides the appropriate brew pressure. I may be wrong. Nevertheless, I need to find a way to tweak the setting and the manual gives no clue on how to do this (and there aren't too many people around who can help me during the weekend). I tried removing the side panels to have peek inside (and to take a pic to see if anyone on the forums could help figure this out), but couldn't get them off. It looks like I will have to wait at least until tomorrow before I can brew a shot...

The GS3 arrives!

2007-02-09T19:40:00.000+01:00

Today was a good day. I just had to cut my day at the office short when I received the news that my GS3 had arrived. I couldn't wait. In the box are two PF's like with most machines, a plastic tamper (better than any plastic one I've seen before, but disposable nonetheless), two single and three double filters plus the plumbing in kit. No double boxing, though (or handles to make carrying a bit more convenient).

The machine itself looks like the prototypes. No paddle group as you can see. Also, the side panels are of the kind found in the latter prototypes. For my eyes, they have the functional beauty of the rest of the machine. Unlike with the prototypes, in the production version the water reservoir is in the base of the machine. The good news that it is now more easily removable for cleaning (I can't comment on day to day usability yet).

The keypad and the wider drip tray we have seen in the later prototypes. The steam and hot water wands now have free movement and the drip tray cover looks slightly different. Overall, I much prefer these to the early prototypes.

The back of the machine is also of polished stainless steel with a GS3 logo that again is tastefully in line with the design of the rest of the machine (and reflection of the original GS logo).

Also in the box is the European CE certificate, an installation guide and a software programming guide! The latter is a 29 page document. My machine is number 13 off the line. A lucky number? No 12 went to Klaus Thomsen (the current WBC champ) and the first 11 were prototypes so as far as I know, my machine is the second production machine off the production line!

It looks this is going to be a busy weekend...

www.ristretto.fi forums go live!

2007-01-29T00:08:00.000+01:00

One of my projects has been to get the new Finnish coffee forums online and I am happy to say that we finally decided that we are ready to do exactly that. The new forum is now live at www.ristretto.fi/foorumi!

The latest GS3 news

2007-01-25T20:21:00.000+01:00

I hear that the GS3 production has finally started - sort of. The first production machine off the line is currently undergoing final testing before delivery to the current WBC champ Klaus Thomsen. This will be closely followed by the first customer deliveries in Europe and the estimate (from LM) is that these machine (including mine) will leave the factory at the very end of this month or in the beginning of February. Let's hope so...

A good start for the New Year (2007)

2007-01-21T13:26:00.000+01:00

First of all, I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season. I also hope that the start for the New Year has been a positive one. For me personally it has been an exceptionally good start on both the personal and professional (non coffee related) front. This, as before, is also partly the reason why the blog has been fairly quiet recently.

To kick off the new year, I have to say that I am happy to see one of my pet projects closing in on realisation. The Finnish speciality coffee scene has previously been supported by a discussion forum that has unfortunately been riddled by spam at www.kahvilasi.net. However, I decided to go ahead with establishing a new forum and with the help of someone who actually knows about IT, a new moderated and spam free forum will be launched in the very near future. The launch is to be followed by articles on the most relevant topics (e.g. buying guides, machine cleaning etc) as well. The website will be available at www.ristretto.fi when live.

In addition to this, the "Santa" was very kind and I am now the happy owner of an i-Roast2. While I do not feel that roasting my own is a must since I am in the fortunate position of having a couple of high quality micro-roasters close by, I do feel that it is a good way of learning more about coffee. In addition to augmenting my further coffee learning curve, home-roasting also serves as a means of a back-up source for freshly roasted coffee (i.e. access to freshly coffee regardless of my travel schedules or any public holidays). Funnily enough, my receipt of the iRoast coincides with the launch of the new and improved Hottop roaster that also has a programmable roast profile. While I had previously learned (also during the 2nd Copenhagen Home-Barista Jam) that the Hottop really appears to be the best domestic roaster on the market, I had also found it to be too large physically as well as potentially generating too much smoke to be used in-house. The new version of the Hottop seems very attractive nevertheless...

Regardless, today I finally had the time and the pleasure of fumbling around and spoiling my first roast (I wonder if anyone gets it 100% right the first time). I went for the Miscela Bruzzi, a blend of just two coffees from the Daterra farm in Brazil (kindly supplied by Risteriet) and roasted by using Sweet Maria's tip sheet for a suggested profile for a Brazilian coffee / espresso roast. This was:

* 176 C for 3 min.
* 237 C for 3 min.
* 244 C for 4 min.

As it turned out, this was too much for the coffee. I don't know if was due to the difference in voltages between Europe and Northern America (i.e. roast profiles that work with lower voltages don't do so with the higher European voltages?), but with this profile I had to cut the roast at 9 minutes. At this stage as I was already well beyond the second crack (which was fairly easy to recognise during the process by the way). The roast was quite a bit darker than I prefer and my next roast will be at lower temperatures for the 2nd and 3rd stages. I know, it is too early to say anything conclusive as this was a first try, but I have to say I am surprised by how easy roasting actually is.

The second roast (pictured) worked out a lot better with the following profile (with the roast terminated at around (8:30 minutes):

* 162C 3:00 min
* 182C 2:00 min
* 200C 3:00 min
* 214C 2:00 min

I was still unable to get past 6 minutes for the first crack, though. Further judgement, including comments on the results will have to wait, though.

Apart from home roasting, what else is new? Well, the Pavoni is on its way out to make room for the GS3 when it eventually arrives (nothing new to report on that front I am afraid). The Andreja received another full cleanup, including descaling and it will continue its reliable service until the new machine arrives (at which poiny the Andreja will also be for sale).

There are some additions to the coffee related literature on my shelves, though. I did add the "Espresso Coffee: The Chemistry of Quality"(2nd edition by Andrea Illy and Rinantonio Viani) to my limited collection. I have skimmed the book through and read only some chapters in detail, but I already have to say that while it is extremely interesting, this book is not light reading. Regardless, I think this is compulsory reading for anyone reading this post. Also in the shelves and often admired is La Marzocco's "From Bean to Cup", which is a description and a visual feast on the various stages of coffee from its plant at its origin to the perfect cup. Nice. This was a nice present from the Finnish Barista team (thank you Ulrika!).

Also, there is another new tamper in the cupboard. The Bumper tamper with a 58mm steel piston and a rounded aluminium handle certainly is nice. I do very much like the fit of the piston with my favourite double basket (the "LM" ridgeless double), but I do find the handle a bit short for my hands. Unfortunately I did not find the time to contribute to the excellent HB Tamper Roadshow, but since I own or have had the pleasure of trying most of the tampers that took part on the roadshow (an a couple that were not on as well), I will post my comments and thoughts on those tampers on this blog later on.

Finally, the third Copenhagen Home-Barista Jam is in the works. From the response so far, I am happy to say that it looks like we will have another good event with even more people attending on the previous events...

All of the above and my forthcoming GS3 alone lead me to believe that this will be an interesting year. I look forward to it and hope that I will have the opportunity and the time to share it as many people as I can.

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-23T23:52:00.000+01:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a warm and Merry Christmas with family and friends as well all the best for the New Year 2007!

New look

2006-12-23T14:05:00.000+01:00

There have recently been some changes at Risteriet. The logo (shown here in reverse) is updated. Nice - perhaps a hint of Starbucks in there? I'm only joking, as the coffee is nothing of the kind. Other interesting news are that the lovely Cafe-Kultur tampers are now available and Risteriet is now also the official Danish importer for Reg Barber tampers.

The old machine has also been replaced by a beautiful new black two group La Marzocco FB80 that is paired with a Mahlkoenig K30-ES grinder. I have had the pleasure of playing around with the combo a couple of times and what can one do but to like it. It is very different from the previous three group Vibiemme.

Steaming is naturally in a different league compared to consumer machines and I am yet to fully master it, but it feels that there's also more power than in the Vibiemme. Not that the coffee from the Vibiemme was bad, but I feel that the shots out of the FB80 are better, smoother. Lovely.

Pittsburgh

2006-12-23T13:56:00.000+01:00

During my recent business trip I had the pleasure of meeting with a fellow CoffeeGeek, Len Sabo (aka Worldman). There's a related thread on CoffeeGeek. Check it out.

Hands on with the GS3

2006-12-07T22:45:00.000+01:00

Today I had the pleasure of a little hands on time with the GS3 thanks to the hospitality of the guys at Kontra. This was not a late prototype, but rather very much like the one that Chris Tacy put through its paces on Home-Barista.com. No new style keypad, drip tray, steam tip etc. Nevertheless, what matters is still pretty close to what one can expect to see in production and the fit and finish is already superior to my current machines. For the price, so it should be.

One of the things that continues to amaze me is the size of this machine. It is small especially considering everything that has been squeezed inside - the dual boilers, the internal rotary pump, etc. The GS3 certainly weighs a ton, but is still so compact that in some dimensions it is actually smaller than my current Andreja! The rotary pump is significantly quieter than the vibe on my Andreja (but not whisper quiet like the external pumps on larger LM machines). Certainly good enough for me, though.

I also like the drain plugs below the boilers that enable easy dumping of the boiler content e.g. when descaling. Similarly, the shower screen design is so much nicer for easy cleaning than that of the E61 machines (I do not have experience yet to comment on its other benefits). There are some design features that I still hope to see corrected in the production version. I mentioned the drip tray and the steam tip earlier (and they are also well documented elsewhere), but I also hope that the lack of heat or water insulation on the electronics behind the keypad as well as the difficult to remove and clean water reservoir will also receive due attention. Oh, and how about that paddle group for the manual pre-infusion...

I had the opportunity to pull a few shots with the machine. While I have to be honest and say that I did not manage to pull a "god shot" during the hour or so I spent with the machine, I did manage a good one and was already impressed. Promising, considering that it always takes time to master a new machine. However, it was apparent that the machine is less forgiving than my Andreja - most likely due to the Andreja's slower pressure ramp up and longer pre-infusion.

The caveat to these comments is that I was not familiar with the La Marzocco grinder that I had the pleasure of using and the fact that the coffee used was a bit too fresh from the roast. All in all, it was great to have a go with the machine and I can hardly wait until I get mine. Thanks a million Michael for your time! For those who are interested, the Danish importer for La Marzocco will be presenting the GS3 from 3 to 5 pm tomorrow (Friday the 8th) at Kontra.

By the way, in addition to the images here (and including them), I posted a couple more pics on pbase (click here). Also, on a related note, I have also observed that La Marzocco has updated their website and now show the GS3 in the products sections instead of new & events... ...this is the direct link to the GS3 page.

The GS3 is coming to town!

2006-11-27T19:27:00.000+01:00

Amidst the rumoured delays in getting the US approvals and starting the production of the GS3, I hear that La Marzocco will be bringing the GS3 to Copenhagen in a couple of weeks' time. Kontra Coffee will be taking off the wraps on December 8th at 3 p.m. local time. While the machine is not the final production version, I understand it will be the very latest prototype and I would be surprised if there will be significant differences between this and the final version. I for one will surely be popping in to have peek ;)

Random thoughts

2006-11-06T20:29:00.000+01:00

It has again been a while. Busy at work, working on a coffee related project (that is proceeding a bit slower than I hoped), battling with my ageing laptop and supporting my SO while she gets to grips with her new job position. I.e. not as much time recently for posting as I would have liked.

Having said that, it hasn't been all quiet on the coffee front (in addition the project - more on that later). I put down the deposit on my GS3 but it appears that production of the machines still hasn't started. I guess La Marzocco wants to get the relevant US appovals and the final design changes potentially resuting from those sorted before production commences. I am starting to get a feeling that the estimated shipping date of December 22nd is not going to hold. I'm sure that the machine will be worth the wait, though and I'd rather have the final product than a prototype. In the meantime, I'm sure the Andreja will continue to keep me happy.

Interestingly, La Marzocco have put up the brochure and a videoclip of Bill Crossland discussing the GS3 on their website (click here). The paddle group does look ugly to my eyes (at least on the GS3), but the manual pre-infusion sounds desirable. My understanding is that at least the first machines will not come with the paddle group. Time will tell... ...by the way, the NBC picures below the GS3 info on the LM site were taken by me :)

And while we are talking La Marzocco, I hear that they are working on a new grinder. This should be something pretty radical with a straight through grind path (like the Versalab grinder). Apparently a prototype is currently being tested by David Schomer. Interesting to say the least, but I don't think we can expect anything in production anytime soon.

A couple more odds and ends. I cracked a thousand posts on CoffeeGeek the other day! Also, I picked up an Alessi steaming pitcher during my recent trip to Finland - lovely design and finish, but I am still undecided on whether it is actually superior for pouring art. Finally, I will be putting my Pavoni up for sale as it has seen very little use. Gotta go now, but I will try and be back soon...

Great articles on CoffeeGeek

2006-10-15T00:36:00.000+02:00

I am happy to see a couple of new articles on Coffeegeek. I think both Mark Prince's take on tamping (part one of three) and James Hoffman's article on crema are must reads . I look forward to more of this level of write-ups. Check them out!

More NBC thoughts

2006-10-01T21:51:00.000+02:00

The NBC public event was great fun and I have to say that my head was spinning seeing who was around. The cream of the Danish coffee crop was there as well as most of that from the other Nordic countries. This I expected, but Kent Bakke and Guido Bernardinelli from La Marzocco were also there as were so many others well known in the inustry. Just to name a few, I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Sarah Allen and Ken Olson of the Barista Magazine and it was also great to meet Enrico from La Marzocco who gave us the wonderful factory tour back in June!

I think the latte art competition was the highlight where each team had to pour and serve as many lattes (with art) as possible in two rounds of five minutes each. As a Finn I was happy to see the Finnish team do well and actually win this event with 28 drinks served in a total of 10 minutes...

Each team roasted a batch of coffee with a Probatino (Probat's 1 kg sample roaster), targeting a predetermined roast degree and later on in the day competed against each other in brewing a good cup with the Clover from that coffee. Throughout the day the teams were also selling coffee to the public with all of the proceeds going towards a public health project in El Salvador (from where the coffee for the event originated from).

The Noma challenge, create a signature drink from the (what could be described as) unusual ingredients such as birch tree sap, stout beer, apples, woodruff, dried berries, milk, mustard and dried ham. I did not get the opportunity to taste all the drinks but the one from the Finnish team (pictured) actually tasted good!

At the end of the day, all the equipment - apart from the La Marzocco machines and the Mahlkoenig grinders (as well as the Clovers and the Probatino) were auctioned off and the money donated to charity. I snapped up a little bit of something for my home-barista kit, too. In addition to this, one of the sponsors, Arla, had brought an ample supply of their “Barista Milk” and the public was free to take home some with them.

The public event was followed by a gala dinner where the overall winner of the NBC was announced. This year the win went to Norway and I congratulate them! What also gave me great pleasure was that the Finnish team became second with the Danish team - both having the same final score. This was a huge success and the best performance to date from the Finnish team.

Something that the home-baristas may find interesting is that Lars Wallin from xpressivo had the production version of the clicking tamping mat ready. I was impressed by the quality of the product. This should be available for purchase fairly soon at an expected price of 40 euros or so - cheaper than one of those clicking tampers...

All in all, I had a good day and I think the public day is a great idea. It enables enthusiasts like me to see the action and meet the people, but more importantly, it is a good way of promoting speciality coffee to the general public! I have now posted all of the pictures (around 40 of them) on pbase and you can see them by clicking here.

NBC public event

2006-09-30T21:10:00.000+02:00

The public event of the Nordic Barista Cup took place today in Copenhagen and I was happy that I could make it. I saw many familiar faces and quite a few that I knew by reputation but had not seen or met before. I have posted a few of the images on pbase (click here). More pictures and comments will follow in due course. I am clearly not as efficient as Sarah Allen and Ken Olson who have been blogging and posting images thoughout the event on the NBC website. I recommend that you check it out.

GS3 delivery

2006-09-22T06:06:00.000+02:00

I have received confirmation that the first batch of GS3's (eight of them) heading to Denmark will be shipped on December 22nd. It also looks like I may be lucky enough to get one of the first machines, i.e. the wait would be a lot shorter for me than I expected. I'm 100% on this yeat, but things are looking better than I expected. With good luck, I'll start the New Year with the GS3...

Final specs are still not available but production starts in a couple weeks' time and the price is 4.000 euros (US$5.000) flat before taxes at least in Denmark. Of course we have the pleasure of a 25% VAT here :(

Grinder analysis

2006-09-20T21:05:00.000+02:00

I had an opportunity to be a part of an experiment where the the grind of four coffee grinders was analysed. We used the same blend from the same roasting batch of coffee ground on the same day with four different grinders at roughly the same fineness (espresso). First 20 grams out of each grinder was discarded and the sample was taken from the ground coffee thereafter. The ground coffee was then run through an industrial particle analyser to see the coffee particle size distribution in each sample.

I do not know how conclusive the results are scientifically, but nevertheless, I found this quite interesting. One caveat, though. The machine used for the analysis was only able to analyse particles smaller than 0.6 mm, therefore cutting out the larger sizes. However, I still think that the results give an idea of the differences. To the results, then:

Ascaso (Innova) i1 flat burr

Ascaso (Innova) i2 conical burr

Mazzer Mini E

Mahlkoenig K30

Looking at the graphs, the first thing I notice is that the flat burr grinders have similar particle size distribution while the conical burr grinder does really stand out. Taking a closer look and comparing the flat burr grinders, one can see that the Ascaso i1 has more fines as well as a wider distribution in the size of the larger particles. The Mazzer and Mahlkoenig have a more uniform grind, the Mahlkoenig very slightly more so, but on the other hand it aso has more fines than the Mazzer. As fas as I understand, you do need some fines to hold the puck together and achieve a balanced cup, so is this a good or a bad thing? I guess this is something that the graphs won't tell us and we will need to evert to our tastebuds :)

The graph from the Ascaso i2 conical burr grinder is a surprise. The grind is a lot less uniform than that of any of the flat burr grinders. Logic would tell me that this is a bad thing and hitting the targeted optimal grind would be more difficult. On the other hand, you might get in the ballpark more easily - i.e. the grinder would be more forgiving? This is just speculation and I may be off in my analysis. After all, aren't conical burrs supposed to be better due to the longer cutting surface of the burrs etc? Perhaps the wider particle size distribution would bring more complexity to the taste in the cup?. I hope to have an opportunity to try and actually taste the difference in the near future... ...it would also have been interesting to see the graph from a higher quality conical burr grinder for comparison...

Like I said, this was all in good fun and interesting, not a serious scientific experiment. I'd be interested in hearing any comments you may have, though. Oh, I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Jesper, Michael and especially JP for making this happen.

Andreja Premium vs Andreja Top

2006-09-14T22:03:00.000+02:00

After my recent post on the developments at Kontra Coffee, I got a kind note from the Danish importer of the QuickMill machines regarding the confusion between the Andreja Premium and the Andreja Top. To make a long story short, the machines are identical technically. The manufacturer's (QuickMill) original idea was to differentiate between the European and the US model with the name, but since this seemed to cause confusion, the same name (Andreja Premium) will continue to be used for both (/all) markets.

On a related note, QuickMill has added the Andreja Premium, the Anita and the Vetrano to their website. I already knew that the Vetrano (and the Andreja Premium naturally) was also available in Europe, but so is the Anita these days. More choice is a good thing.

Just thought that I'd share these tidbits.

London

2006-09-12T07:27:00.000+02:00

I have been over to London quite a few times before but as is usually the case with business travel, you have little or no opportunity to actually explore and experience the city you are visiting. While the trip turned out well in terms of business, I did manage to catch a cold just prior to my trip and to be honest, I was feeling like c**p throughout the trip with a sore throat and fever.

Nevertheless, my hotel was surprisingly conveniently located in relation to a couple of points of interest (to a coffee nut like me) and I did manage a stroll over to Flat White in Soho (17 Berwick Street). It's a rather small place with dual LM two group Lineas paired with a Mazzer Robur and a Super Jolly. Flat White doesn't roast their own coffee but rather source it from Monmouth Coffee.

I was not too impressed with the straight double I had. Plentiful crema, good body but the taste was sour. Now I think this may have been due to the extreme updosing routine used at the shop rather than too low a brew temp. In other words, the shot was probably underextracted. Having said this, the baristas were happy to have a chat and offered to pull another shot if I was not happy with mine. Unfortunately I had to rush off to a meeting.

Prior to the chat I did however have time for a cappa that had some very nice art on it. I have to say I was quite impressed. Pictured here is a flat white, not the cappa I cad, but this was about the finest latte art I have seen in any coffee shop and I have visited quite a few. Overall, I definitely liked the attitude of the shop and Flat White is one of the shops I am sure to visit again when I am around...

Later on in the day I just managed the energy to drop by Monmouth Coffee (at their Monmouth Street location close to ovent Garden). By this time I was running a fever of close to 39 degrees (found that out when I got back to the hotel) and not surprisingly couldn't really taste much. I can say that the straight shot I had was more a regular espresso than the ristretto at Flat White but more notably, it wasn't sour (both shops use the same blend a.f.a.i.k.).

I also had a cappuccino that was pretty nice, but no art here. Also, it was a dry cappa as opposed to the wet one at Flat White. By the way I have no particular preference between a dry and wet cappa as long as they are well prepared, so this is just an observation.

A variety of single origins and a couple of blends are available for purchase. The roast dates are displayed, which is a huge plus in my book. I bought a couple of 250g bags of the organic blend to take home since it was the one most recently roasted (you probably know that I don't drink anything that's more than ten days from roast). I've gone through 250 grams and I have to say that it worked pretty well for me considering it only consists of two beans.

The shop is very small as are the stalls where you can sit, but like that the machine (a two group LM Linea) is placed so that you can clearly see what the barista is doing. The character and patina of the place are quite admirable and one of the things that you just has to love is the looks of the counter pictured here. I wonder how many tamps it takes to get that look :)

Generally, both places were very nice and I just wish that I had been feeling a little bit better and that I had had a bit more time. It wouldn't have hurt if my taste buds had been working better, either. Perhaps I'll have better luck next time around...

It's official

2006-09-11T08:38:00.000+02:00

Those who read regularly know that I have been keenly following the developments around the new La Marzocco GS3. Well, I have finally put my name on "the list". However, as I reported before that list is long and it might take quite a while before I can expect delivery. I am quietly hoping to get the GS3 by my birthday in March. Let's see.

Having said this, I hear reports of first confirmed delivery dates in Europe being at the end of December. It also appears that the GS3 still does not have NSF approval and therefore cannot be sold in the US for the time being. Perhaps this means that European deliveries will have priority pending that approval? Who knows...

Upping the ante

2006-09-11T08:36:00.000+02:00

Kontra Coffee is upping the ante in terms of the sale of espresso machines and accessories to coffee aficionados in Copenhagen. Kontra have a new "try before you buy" approach where one can spend some time hands on with the machines, pulling shots before making the final decision. Buying a machine is a difficult decision and a significant investment so I think this is great news.

Currently set-up at the shop were a Silvia, a Giotto and what do you know - an Andreja! Funnily enough this Andreja was labelled "Andreja Top" instead of "Andreja Premium" like my machine, but I think they may be technically identical despite the different names. You should also note that the grinder sitting next to the machines is nothing less than a Mahlkoenig! Very nice.

By the way, the cardboard boxes barely visible in the left corner of the picture are three new La Marzocco Lineas that had just arrived from the factory...

It was also interesting to hear that new machines are being tested and I understand that the selection will grow further over time. Shown here are a couple of dual boiler machines, of which the Dalla Corte Super Mini is the interesting one. I have to say it is a bit larger than I had imagined. A selection of Macap grinders will be added in the very near future as well...

Suffice to say that the local coffee nuts (like me) have never had it so good...

2nd Copenhagen Home-Barista Jam

2006-09-03T15:19:00.000+02:00

A fair amount of time has elapsed since I last posted a longer write-up. Things have been hectic - an excuse I have used before, I know, but what can one do... Anyway, here we go:

On July 21st 16 keen home-baristas got together at Risteriet's new roasting premises in Copenhagen. Some of the participants were "veterans" of the first Copenhagen Home-Barista Jam (CHBJ) but I was happy to see new faces as well.

The location was a perfect setting for such an event with the two large roasters (a 5 kilo Probat and a 15 kilo Ozcaffe), the sacks of green coffee, the smell and the general atmosphere of the old industrial building. Most importantly we had more than enough space (my place was quite packed even with the smaller crowd at the first CHBJ). We had planned a few items for the agenda but as before, we didn't have time to go through them all.

Well, better to have more than not enough things to do :) As it turned out, we focused on two main themes for the evening - the first being coffee roasting and the second a playful competition where everyone had to prepare a signature drink.

Rune from Risteriet fired up the 15kg OzCaffe and once warm, roasted a batch while talking us through the process. Home roasting in surprisingly popular here in Copenhagen and since I have been considering it myself, I was happy to see that also present at the jam were a Hearthware I-Roast2, Café Gene and Hottop. René had previously demonstrated his I-Roast2 to me and the results were good enough to convince me.

Gert roasted a couple of batches with his Café Gene and Kim followed suit with his Hottop. I was surprised by how quiet the Café Gene and the Hottop are. When comparing the home roasters, the consensus was that the Hottop produces the best roast with the Café Gene as a close second and the I-Roast trailing but still producing very respectable results. The Café Gene's main weakness appears to be the cooling cycle or the timing thereof - one cannot just quickly dump the beans. However, I do like the fact that the progress of the roast is so easy to see in the Cafe Gené and the design of the chaff collector is good. The price isn't bad, either (especially compared to the Hottop). The I-Roast's main benefits are naturally its compact size and low price. I'm afraid that due to the fact that my kitchen is already cluttered with all sorts of coffee related stuff, the I-Roast would be the only realistic alternative to me for the time being. Anyway, it was great to see all three roasters in action.

The second highlight of the evening was the signature drink competition. We had an ECM Giotto Premium, a Vibiemme Domobar Super, a Rancilio Silvia, a La Pavoni Pro and a Victoria Arduino Venus machine at our disposal. The was also a good choice of portafilters, filter baskets and tampers as well as a couple of blends of coffee. As for grinders, there were two doserless Rancilio Rockys and a doserless Innova grinder.

Suffice to say, one had a variety of options. My weapon of choice was the Giotto and an LM portafilter with a triple basket. Eight signature drinks were entered into the competition and each one was evaluated by six judges on their appearance, taste and character / originality. Unlike in the "real" barista competitions, one was allowed to use alcohol (and all with the exception of one did).

As it turned out, my sig drink was scored the highest with Rune a very close second. The title of my drink was perhaps a bit corny "sweet velvet". Anyway, here's how I did it:

* liquidize fresh blueberries and run them through a sieve to make sure you only have the liquid
* mix with acacia honey (I chose this one for its delicate taste)
* add a dash of vodka if you like
* pour vanilla cream into a cocktail shaker and shake until you have a nice thick consistency
* pull a shot of espresso into a suitable glass, add the vanilla cream and finally pour in the blueberry mix

What you end up with is a drink where the blueberry is on the bottom, the espresso in the middle and the cream on the top. Tastes ok, too. You can experiment with different proportions of each ingredient but I had it roughly at 20% of the blueberry mix, 40% espresso and 40% cream.

Rune's drink, the "Sweet Canadian Aussie Delight" was - from bottom to top -

* a layer/plateau of Canadian maple syrup for the espresso
* cookie crossbar half in drink and half above (preferably an Australian TimTam)
* a single shot of espresso
* small pieces of pineapple

Time really flies when having fun and part from chatting and playing with the machines (and taking photos), this was all we could squeeze into a single evening (well, we did have a few beers at a local brewer afterwards). Next time around (yes, there will be another CHBJ), we may have to divide into one or two groups, especially if we have even more people taking part going forward. I'd like to thank everyone who participated (and brought their equipment in) this time around and the guys at Risteriet for making their place available. I have put up a few more pictures from the Jam on pbase (click here). See you all soon!

Nordic Barista Cup

2006-09-02T14:52:00.000+02:00

If you din't already know, save this date: September 30th. The Nordic Barista Cup is in Copenhagen. The event spans from Thursday the 28th to Saturday the 30th. The preliminary program has been published some time ago and it looks interesting. However, the tickets are fairly expensive (and there's not too many of them left) and it is extremely hectic at work. I will therefore only be checking out the public event on the Saturday. Let's hope that the weather holds up :)

Tamper choices

2006-09-02T14:46:00.000+02:00

For those who are having trouble choosing a tamper, I recommend taking a look and reading through the reviews on the Home-Barista.com Tamper Roadshow. Some very well written reviews are already up and I believe more is to follow in due course...

Stockfleth's Move

2006-08-27T19:35:00.000+02:00

A friend emailed me a link ot this clip on a barista doing the Stockfleth's Move in one of the Stockfleth's locations in Oslo. There's also the original clip showing Tim Wendelboe do his stuff.

La Marzocco factory visit

2006-07-24T08:47:00.000+02:00

The definite highlight of our trip to Italy was the visit to the La Marzocco factory, which is located on the outskirts of Florence (Firenze). We had a bit of trouble finding our way there - our GPS didn't quite agree on our destination - but we got there in the end :)

Anyway, won't go into much detail because I'd rather let the pictures speak for themselves. But I will say that I was very impressed by the quality of the craftmanship as well as the friendliness and openness of all the staff. You can see the pictures as a slideshow by clicking here. You may also want to look at the individual images as I have added some commentary on each image...

One of the things that I was naturally keen to see was the up and coming G3. My dream machine. Well, one of the prototypes was there. This one had the old style keypad, drip tray and wands but had the paddle group. I know it has been said before, but I was still surprised to see how compact the GS3 actually is! Production is scheduled to start in October this year.

Apparently quite a few orders are already in (250 or so) and since I don't have my name on "the list" yet it would take at least a year before I could get one (if I put my name down today).

The tour ended at the factory's coffee bar where we had an opportunity to pull some shots for ourselves. The bar was equipped with a three group FB80, a Swift grinder as well as one of the new conical burr dosered grinders. Oh boy. The grinder was perfectly dialled in and we managed some very good shots indeed - the others in our group thought that this is where we had our best espressi of our entire trip.

One of the ladies in our group had never pulled a shot in her life (although she very much likes her espresso). I helped her pull her first one and it turned out great. What a way to get initiated... By the way, the coffee at the bar was a blend from a local roaster, Oke Caffe'.

Overall, this was a great experience and I would like to send special thanks to Enrico, Clare and Ulrika for their hospitality and for making this happen for us! In addition to the pleasant experience, this visit also resulted in a green light from the SO towards the GS3 (provided that I sell both the Andreja and the Pavoni). Since there is a bit of a wait anyway, I have time to line up my pennies...

Three weeks in Tuscany

2006-07-23T16:13:00.000+02:00

So, the wonderful vacation is over. It was a great trip. The house we rented was even better than we expected, the food and coffee were good (no surprises there) as was the scenery. I'd go back any day (and I probably will it the not too distant future), but perhaps next time I'd go for a place slightly further south - possibly south of Siena for the best scenery in Toscana.

As I noted before, I did not take my Pavoni along. Cramming the luggage of four people for a three week trip into one car meant that we were fairly tight on space. So the Pavoni stayed home but my friend's Zass grinder came along. Upon arrival, we noted that the house had a couple of aluminium Bialettis. I don't particularly like aluminium moka-pots and the ones at the house were not in great shape, either. I wanted to go with a moka-pot since that's what most Italians use at home and I ended up with the Stella after some thought. The shop from which I purchased it had about a hundred different kinds of pots, but the Stella appealed to me the most. I now know that it brews good coffee and is easier to keep clean than any other moka-pot I have seen before. So, the Stella and Zass was the hardware for the morning and evening coffees at the house. We still needed the "software", though. The coffee...

Picking up he local phone book (of the Lucca region) listed 12 roasters in the near vicinity alone and we found that were quite a few more that were not listed. In other words, finding a roaster was not a problem and I was happy not to be forced to use the likes of Illy, Lavazza, etc (although we did try some). We didn't have the time to visit all of them - one could spend several weeks just exploring coffee. We did check a few of them out when it fitted our others plans conveniently.

Ninci were the first roasters (torrefazione) we bumped into during a daytrip to Lucca. The people were friendly and even though it is in a somewhat "touristy" area of the city, a lot of locals also seemed to come and go... ...a good sign. There were several blends on offer (six in all) and I think I made a mistake by going for the most expensive blend they had instead of what was the most popular.

Even though Ninci apparently roast twice a week, the turnover on the less popular blends must be pretty low. At least the coffee I purchased was not that fresh although the shot I had at their coffee bar was quite good. Ninci are located on Piazza Napoleone in Lucca.

Very close to where our house was, we found Trinci. They are what appears to be a recently established place located on via Sarzanese di Buti in Cascine di Buti. To date, this is the only place in Italy where I have seen a La Marzocco machine (although the one group Linea was not in use at the time for some reason). Trinci was also the only place that didn't package the coffee into simple paper bags, but rather sealed it nicely into a lined bag with a one way valve.

I think the main problem that Trinci have is that they are located in such a small village that the turnover of the coffee that is on sale is too low. As a result, the coffee isn't too fresh. At least that is my impression. I did buy some coffee the day before heading home and pulled a few shots on my machine upon arrival, but as I had suspected, it wasn't fresh enough to pull a good shot. Having said this, I hope Trinci succeeds because I liked their attitude.

Back in Lucca I noted Di Simo on Via Fillungo. A charming place in terms of appearance and they roast their own coffee, too. The shop has a nice three group Faema E61 to complete the charm, but unfortunately the coffee wasn't very good.

I did try some of their roast but I saw a familiar pattern forming. The coffee was not fresh - it must have been well over a week from the roast date, probably more like two weeks.

Nannini on Via Banchi di Sopra is probably the most famous café in Siena. I also understand that they roast their own coffee. The place certainly looks nice and the coffee was ok, but not great. Also the whole bean coffee that is for sale is pre-packed in the same manner as the big brands and this (plus the cup I had) discouraged me from trying it out.

The reason I mention Nannini is that walking down the street from Nannini, I bumped into Fiorella, a small roaster located on Via di Città in Siena. Now this was a nice place. Lots of locals hanging around in the small shop, a vintage Faema E61 getting a good workout and a generally nice atmosphere. The shot I had at the bar was good, not great, but quite good. What impressed me most about this place was that the coffee I bought was actually freshly roasted. The smell alone confirmed this but the brew from the moka pot sealed it: This was the best coffee we had during our trip.

During the three weeks we visited too many café's to list, but suffice to say that on average the coffee was very good. I'll specifically mention just one place, who had the prettiest machine of all the places we visited. The lovely old Vittoria Arduino machine pictured here was at one of the better restaurants that we dined in - Osteria Vecchio Noce in Vicopisano. The food was good but the coffee was not spectacular - better than in most restaurants, though. The place also had a three group Elektra Belle Epoque on display. Nice. I'd go back for the food and atmosphere but not for the coffee...

I think I may sound a bit negative in what I have written above regarding the roasters and perhaps I am. The coffee during our trip was good but I was slightly disappointed by the lack of freshness of the coffee offered by the small roasters in general. I would think this to be their livelihood. Having said this, I readily admit that I only visited a few establishments and that there are exceptions. I also think I am a bit spoiled with the wonderful small establishments right here in Copenhagen...

Holiday is over

2006-07-02T01:51:00.000+02:00

I'm back from the thee week trip to Tuscany. It was a great vacation and although it wasn't all about coffee, there were some memorable related moments. I'll be composing a few comments once I have had the time to settle down - I have just spent the day driving back from Tuscany to Copenhagen in one day - all 1700 kilometers of it (that's over a thousand miles). One has to love the German Autobahns :)

We had no room in the car for my Pavoni, but during our stay, we still wanted to have a good cup of coffee in the house. So a basic kit with a good Moka pot (a stainless Stella I picked up from a local store - no aluminium Bialettis for me, thanks), a Zass, some LM cups from the factory visit (thanks Enrico!) and coffee from various local roasters served us well. We also had an Aerolatte to help with the pseudo cappuccinos. More to come, soon...

I'm off...

2006-06-08T20:02:00.000+02:00

I will be on vacation for the next three weeks enjoying the good food, wine and espresso (among other things) in Tuscany, Italy. I do not expect to be posting much during this vacation as I will only have limited access to the web (and more importantly, I'll probably be busy doing other fun stuff).

One of the things on the agenda is a visit to the La Marzocco factory in Florence. I really look forward to the visit and I'm sure I'll also have some other good stuff to share upon my return...

In the meantime, as I noted before, Risteriet has their new roasters (as well as the old Probat) up and running and I thought that I'd post a picture of the new small 2 kg Ozcaffe. Looks nice doesn't it?

Alternative steaming tips - Part II

2006-06-08T08:35:00.000+02:00

It has been almost 6 months since I first posted on the alternative steaming tips (Part I) that I tried on the Andreja. Well, a friend, Thomas, who also happens to own an Andreja Premium had recently purchased a few more tips for his Andreja from www.espressoxxl.com and was kind to bring them when he came by.

Juts to recap my experiences with the steaming tips that I already have, i.e. (from the left) the New Isomac, the EPNW two-hole and the Gold Pro: I have tried these a few times and of these I like the Gold Pro the best. However, I keep on going back to the stock tip because I get results just as good with it (unless the milk quantity is very small, in these cases the Gold Pro excels), but more importantly the stock tip does not get nearly as hot and is so much easier to keep clean.

The three tips above are all from espressoxxl and all have 4 holes - these are not for steaming small quantities of milk, but for steaming larger than usual volumes. The one first from the left looks very much like a stock Valentina tip - but with four holes and meant for a commercial machine. The problem is that in this tip the holes are too big for my Andreja to keep up with - and the steam velocity out of the tip was pathetic. It didn't work at all with the Andreja. The second tip from the left was not a huge success either. The holes are slightly smaller and there was more steam velocity out of the tip. However, the dispersion pattern was very wide indeed and I did not get good reusults (this was a very quick try, though).

The third tip from espressoxxl looked and felt remarkably like the stock tip - the key difference being the 4 hole vs the stock tip's 2 holes. I liked this one - very similar to the stock item to work with. But it was too fast at least for me. I usually steam 0.2 to 0.3 L of milk and with this tip the stretching takes around 2 seconds! With larger volumes, this would be a great tip, if it wasn't for the other difference between this and the stock tip: there is no groove and no O-ring gasket to seal the tip from the wand (or the tube inside it). This means that steam can creep up the wand and you lose the benefit of the no-burn wand.

Going back to my original conclusions back in December, those conclusions remain the same. I will stick to the stock tip - it is the best fit to the machine as well as the easiest to keep clean.

The Macap MC4

2006-05-30T09:13:00.000+02:00

When Mads came over during the weekend for the grider cleaning session, I had the opportunity to briefly try out the Macap MC4 doserless grinder. For a while (especially before the purchase of my Mini E), I had been thinking that this is an interesting alternative when considering quality doserless grinders. This particular sample is with the stepped adjustments whereas it is currently also available with stepless adjustment - i.e. you can choose (personally, I prefer stepless adjustment).

I was actually surprised by the size of the Macap. For some reason I expected it to be slightly smaller than the Mazzer but it actually appears larger (see image). No problem there, but my main reservation regarding the doserless Macap has been that it really is not designed for per-shot use at home despite the fact that it is doserless. It is more a shop grinder intended for grinding into a bag - hence the bag retainer on top of the spout, no portafiler rest and no portafilter activation for the grinding (just the relatively stiff on-off switch on the right side). The power cord is more smartly done than the one in the Mazzer.

You need both hands for operating the Macap - one for holding the PF close to the spout (to avoid spillage) and waiting through the duration of the grind (with the Mini E you can leave the PF on the rest and do other stuff - with the Macap you can't). The Macap is therefore a bit inconvenient to use and this is accentuated by the fact that it is also slightly slower to grind than the Mini E (58mm vs 64 burrs). I also noted that the Macap clearly has more clumping of the grinds, making even distribution of the coffee (critical for even extraction) slightly more difficult. There is also significantly more grinds retained in the chute area and more mess on the countertop.

I sound all negative don't I? Well, I'm not. I think that the Macap is great value at only 60% of the price of the Mini-E and I honestly think that in terms of the results in the cup, these grinders are equal (at least if one can overcome the Macap's clumping with proper distribution technique). The build quality of the Macap is on par with the Mazzer and I like the looks, too.

Heart in the cup

2006-05-28T16:06:00.001+02:00

I have aready managed to pour a decent rosetta, but as I noted before, pouring a nice heart has proved more difficult. With some more practice, the results are improving and this is my best effort so far. This heart is for Ulrika and Kristian at Kaffecentralen in Helsinki, who were extremely kind with regards to getting myself some of the La Marzocco branded cappuccino cups shown in the picture. Thank you!

The shape of the cups is perfect for latte art - a bit taller than my latte cups. As the LM demitasses that I also have, these are manufactured by ACF.

Stuff

2006-05-28T16:06:00.000+02:00

I posted on the Danish Barista Championships. One of the companies displaying their goods at the event was xpressivo. Most of the competing baristas were using the updated Presso 58mm tamper and I decided to purchase one with a bubinga handle. The height is just right for me with the handle extension (included), the balance is good and I like its heft (490 grams). The mirror-finish piston has a slight curve. Lovely.

My cup collection is also growing. Not too long ago I got my hands on a set of unused Illy Nude crystal demitasses. I just love these cups so I thought I'd post another picture just to show off their beauty... ...the shot pictured has had some time to settle, but still had decent crema after a couple of minutes when this image was taken.

From my trip to Rome, I brought back the golden espresso cup from the similarly named famous coffee shop (Tazza d'Oro). The cups are manufactured by PTA, of whom I had not heard of before. They have relatively thick walls but the gold finish seems quite delicate. This cup is just for show, then. By the way, if you want one and happen to be in Rome, do make sure you check it for scratches before buying :)

GS3 price confirmed

2006-05-27T21:53:00.000+02:00

I hear that the retail price of the La Marzocco GS3 has been confirmed: Just over €3.700 or around US$ 4.700 plus the relevant sales tax or VAT in your country f residence. Unfortunately the sales tax here in Denmark is an extortionist 25% adding hefty lump to the actual price. I expect the pre-tax price to be pretty much in line across the globe - at least initially. The GS3 is a tad more expensive than I expected but only a tad. I am seriously tempted, but will wait before seriously considering pulling the trigger.

First deliveries of the GS3 in Europe, or at least Denmark will be taking place in the beginning of 2007. In other words it appears that US will be getting this wonderful machine before Europe.

By the way, as it happens, I personally know three espresso aficionados who have their names on "the list" for the first machines... ...and I if the reactions on the various related online forums is anything to go by on, the GS3 looks to be a success even before it officially hits the market...

Cleaning the Mazzer Mini E

2006-05-27T21:49:00.000+02:00

I've owned my Mini E just over 7 months now. How many times have I actually given it a thorough clean? I have to admit that to date I have never taken the upper burr off and my grinder cleaning routines with the Mazzer have so far been limited to the bi-weekly vacuuming the burr area and swiping the hopper clean with a paper towel. A month ago I purchased some Urnex Grindz grinder cleaner but so far I have only run it through the Mazzer once. I guess the main reason for not partially disassembling the grinder before are the horror stories claiming that cleaning the Mazzer is difficult.

A friend, Mads, had had the same concerns with his Macap and he suggested that we get together and do ourselves (and our grinders) a favour a give them a thorough cleaning. The dirty upper burr wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - the burrs apparently pretty much clean themselves (although the fact that I did run some Grindz through a few weeks ago might also play a part).

The lower burr itself wasn't too bad, either, but the need for cleaning is more apparent here. Below are the pictures showing both burrs after a quick clean with a couple of brushes, some toothpicks and a chopstick. Having now taken the grinder apart and cleaned it, I have to say that taking the upper burr off the Mazzer is almost as simple as it was on the Rocky.

Here's the how-to:

1) Unplug the grinder
2) Take off the hopper and wipe it clean
3) Remove the stop screw on the grinder adjustment collar (observe the grind setting you have at this time)
4) Turn the collar clockwise until it comes off

5) Once the collar is removed, just lift out the upper burr out
6) Clean the both burrs and vacuum (take out the three tension springs to help in cleaning and to ensure that hey do not end up in the vacuum cleaner)
7) Make sure the threads are clean, put the tension springs back into their slots and put the top burr back on
8) Put collar back on and turn it clockwise while pressing it down slightly

9) When you feel / hear the collar nudge into the position where the first thread engages, start turning the collar counter-clockwise. Keep doing this until the burrs touch and then come back until you are at the same grinder setting you had before taking the upper burr off. Make sure that you do not cross-thread (if you feel resistance, back off and try again).
10) Reattach stop screw to collar, reattach the hopper and voilá, you are done!

This was so much easier than I thought it would be and there is no need for two people to do this. Oh why had I put this off for so long?

While I was working on the grinder I noted that the area that probably benefited most from the cleaning was the chute leading from the burrs into the funnel. In the Mini E this only a short ledge (compared to other grinders I have seen), but I noted that coffee tends to collect there and to some extent clog the chute. The wire mesh that is placed there to break coffee clumps and prevent static accentuates the clogging.

Since I had had the finger guard in place in the fear that its removal would cause static problems, the chute area really is not accessible for cleaning. I decided to take the finger guard off to allow for easier access to the chute. My impression is that the removal of the finger guard does not cause any problems.

Risteriet is back!

2006-05-22T19:06:00.000+02:00

Good news! Risteriet is back! I posted earlier regarding a fire at the local roaster. I am extremely happy to hear that they will be reopening on Monday, My 29th and they will be back even stonger than before. The Probat is still undergoing repairs, but should be back soon. In the meantime, two new Ozcaffe roasters have come in. I will post with further details, including pics upon the reopening...

WBC 2006 results

2006-05-21T17:49:00.000+02:00

The WBC final is over and the results are in. It seems that Danish reign continues:

Klaus Thomsen - Denmark - 809.5 points
Sammy Piccolo - Canada - 746.0 points
Matt Riddle - USA - 727.0 points
Anne Lunell - Sweden - 676.5 points
James Hoffmann - UK - 669.0 points
Imma-Ingibjörg Jóna Sigurðardóttir - Iceland - 658.5 points

The above also shows a correction to my previous post regarding the finalists - I had gotten the name of the Swedish champ incorrectly for some reason, but I was happy to see that as per my prediction, Klaus and Sammy were in the top two! Congrats to all competitors and especially the top three!

Rome

2006-05-21T12:16:00.000+02:00

I've been out traveling for over two weeks - hence the break in my postings recently. But I am back at least for a short while. Anyway, I recently spent a weekend in Rome visiting my mother for mothers' day. It had been a while since I last was there and although most of the weekend was spent on non coffee related things, I did have some time to explore the "coffee scene".

Tazza D'Oro right next to the Pantheon is probably the highest regarded spot in Rome when it comes to coffee. It was also the busiest of all the coffee shops I visited. They roast their own with the largish Probat in the side room. The espresso was good, in my opinion the best I had in Rome this time around...

As in the other spots, you first go to the cashier, pay for your coffee and then go to the barista with your slip to get your cup, which is served very quickly - you have your cup and move on (the turnover at especially this shop is pretty amazing).

Gran Caffe on Piazza Di Pietri was quite impressive. The old, beautiful buildings and surroundings add to the atmosphere. I also like the way this picture turned out with the "Don" standing in front of the shop, eyes into the sun and looking all serious...

They have a four group lever machine (the only lever machine that I noted during the weekend) that added flair to the establishment. The espresso was good - relatively light in colour but good. They also had the only female barista I ran into. Another thing - common with other shops - was the formal clothing of the baristi...

Antico Caffe Greco also had a very good cup. They are on Via Condotti (or was it Via Di Carrozze - anyway,it was on the same street as the top designer shops like Dior, Bvlgari, Gucci etc etc).

Not pictured here, but Nuovo Caffe Eliseo at 188 Via Nazionale was a humble looking small shop but the cappa I had there was a pleasant surprise - it even had a hint of latte art that one does not often see in Italian establishments.

Sant Eustachio il Caffe is another one of the most famous coffee shops in Rome. They are on Piazza Sant Eustachio. The place was also busy as one could expect. They have the machines set up in a way that you cannot see what the barista is doing. They've even added shields to make sure that you don't.

Having had a cup, I wonder what the baristas do, since the espresso was not to my liking (others may disagree). The crema was a foamy, bubbly and relatively light affair. I suspect that they put sugar into the PF prior to brewing. Anyway, of the shops I have listed here I rate Sant Eustachio the worst - not worth the trouble in my honest opinion...

Another thing I noted in Rome was that coffee in restaurants was generally pretty good (at least in the ones I went to). A positive thing and very different from most other parts of the world. Overall, this was a lovely trip and I very much look forward to our three week stay in Tuscany in June...

WBC 2006 finalists

2006-05-20T19:11:00.000+02:00

The WBC 2006 finalists are:

Imma-Ingibjörg Jóna Sigurðardóttir - Iceland
Hasse Axelsson - Sweden -> EDIT: The Swedish champ is Anne Lunell, not Hasse Axelsson
Sammy Piccolo - Canada
Klaus Thomsen - Denmark
James Hoffmann - UK
Matt Riddle - USA

Unfortunately the Finnish champion, Juhani Haahti did not make it but I am happy to see that both of my favourites did. The finals will take place tomorrow.

I also hear that the "Coffee in good spirit" winner was using coffee by Kontra right here in Copenhagen...

Judging a book by its cover

2006-05-20T13:03:00.000+02:00

I have walked past this café in my neighbourhood several times and for some reason I am always amused. Can you guess why? Well, one would think (at least I would) that a shop doing espresso based drinks and advertising it quite visibly would take the time to at least get the spelling of those drinks correctly. I mean come on: Expresso? Café Latte? Cappucino? Wrong on all three counts!

This is enough indication for me on the quality of the coffee and the reason why I have walked past so many times. However, curiosity got the better of me and I went in the other day to try the coffee, you know, give the place a chance. I tried a cappuccino. The milk was literally boiled and the taste was so foul I could not finish the cup even after it had cooled down some. I did not feel like trying a straight shot and I'm quite sure I never will at this shop. Sorry.

To be honest, the place is more a delicatessen than a coffee shop and the spelling is mostly correct in the price list inside, but...

Fire at Risteriet

2006-05-10T23:43:00.000+02:00

I returned from another business trip a couple of days ago and had some bad news waiting for me. I just feel plain bad for my favourite roaster, Risteriet, who have had a fire at their premises. Apparently an electrical short-circuit (this is to be confirmed) caused the fire and the fire in turn caused some (but hopefully limited) damage to the heart of the establishment - the Probat roaster.

Very unfortunate news indeed for the coffee enthusiasts in Copenhagen but especially for the folks at Risteriet. The pictures tell a part of the story... The full extent of the damage is yet to be revealed but fortunately Risteriet were well covered insurance-wise. The current prognosis is that they will be up and running again within a week.

Tomorrow I'll be heading off to Rome for a few days of well deserved vacation, which will immediately be followed by a few more days of business travel.

I look forward to more freshly roasted stuff from Risteriet upon my return and if work is still underway, I'll be the first to offer a helping hand...

2006 Danish Barista Championships

2006-04-25T17:50:00.000+02:00

On April 23rd the Danish Barista Champion for 2006 was crowned. The competition was held at the coffee, tea and chocolate festival held at Axelborg in the heart of Copenhagen.

The competitors had 2-group La Marzocco FB80 machines (in an unusual electric blue finish) and Mahlkoenig K30 grinders at their disposal. Only one competitor (Klaus Thomsen) chose to use an alternative grinder - a La Cimbali Conik.

Katrine Christiansen was the first competitor in the line of fire. Even though this event was the first competition at this level that I have seen live, I think that Katrine's performance was very good and it was a pleasure to watch her. She definitely had well honed barista skills in addition to her good looks :) and she was rewarded with the third place in the final scores - a results she seemed extremely pleased with...

Café Europa has an unsurpassed track record at the WBC - half of the championships to date have gone to this singe coffee shop. This year Søren Stiller was representing the baristas from this famous café in the Danish finals

Sørens performance was solid, very calm and professional. His signature drink (which he is building in the picture) was visually very attractive. I am curious as to how it actually tasted since he combined the flavours of coffee and tea in the drink - an unusual combination to say the least. Søren was the runner up...

...and Klaus Thomsen from Estate Coffee stole the show with a deserved and clear vistory. He was composed, relaxed and informative throughout his performance. Klaus won the Danish Championship also back in 2004 and ended up third at WBC the same year - this experience shone through in his performance.

Klaus' unique signature drink combined the aromas of espresso coffee, french press coffee and whole coffee beans. The coffee compote did not look fabulous, but it must have tasted great - it certainly seemed to go down very well with the judges. This is one drink I'd really like to taste...

The score totals speak for themselves. I think that in terms of the performance, Soren wasn't as far off as the scores suggest, but perhaps the signature drink didn't work as well as its appearance suggested....

Klaus Thomsen...............840
Søren Stiller..................761,5
Katrine H. Christiansen.....688,5
Rasmus Korsaa...............608
Robert Collin Jensen.........598
Silla Arngrímsdóttir..........534,5

Let's see if Klaus can improve on his 2004 success at this year's WBC in Bern, Switzerland in May.

Sammy Piccolo, the Canadian Barista Champ, was also present and he commended Klaus' performance. In a healhy competitive spirit and a twist of humour he added that Klaus is good, but everyone is beatable. Apparently Sammy and Klaus are good friends. From what I have read, I'm assuming Sammy and Klaus are very strong candidates to make it into the top three, possibly the top two. I am also hoping that the Finnish Champ, Juhani Haahti, will improve on the previous performances of my countrymen...

Danish Espresso Blending Championships

2006-04-17T16:46:00.000+02:00

The Danish Espresso Blending Chamionships are a traditional event hosted annually by Risteriet. I had the honor of being one of the four judges to evaluate and score the blends in the event. This year 10 blends were submitted. As before, one of these blends was a "dark horse" that this time around just happened to be David Schomer's / Espresso Vivace's Dolce blend - one would expect it do well, yes?

As for the practicalities, the evaluation of the blends was by blind tasting and the judges had to separately score the aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, aftertaste and the overall impression on each blend (no discussion between judges prior to finalising their scoring on the blend). Flavor/taste is naturally the most important element and it alone carried 40% weight. The coffees were roughly equal in terms of freshness from roast.

In addition to the judges, one person was coordinating (Rune from Risteriet) the event and another (Jonas, pictured on the left) was the barista for the evening. All shots were pulled by him with the 3-group Vibiemme at Risteriet and a Mazzer Mini E was used for grinding the coffee. The grinder was naturally properly dialed in for each blend and thoroughly cleaned every time when switching from one blend to another to avoid any "contamination".

The judges were surprisingly unanimous, especially on the top and bottom 2 blends. Curiosly, the judges were also unanimous on the Vivace's Dolce being ranked fourth - and this was blind tasting...

The winning blend by Rune from Risteriet:

50% Costa Rica Dota Tarrazu
20% Nicaragua Monte Libano
15% Brazilian Daterra Sweet Yellow
15% Ethiopian Wild Grown Bonga Forest

Generally very smooth, low acidity and some nice spices but a tad "dry" or perhaps even slightly bitter. I actually scored this to the second best...

The runner-up blend consisted of:

40% Brazilian Daterra Sweet Yellow
20% Guatemala Antigua Los Volcanos
20% Ethiopian Harrar Longberry
20% Nicaraguan Monte Libano

This was very similar to the winning blend, but had slightly more acidity and notably more fruitiness. I scored this as the best blend, but it was a close call. I later found out that this blend was actually by Peter, who also came second in the Copenhagen Home-Barista Championship!

The third place blend contained some very unusual coffee and it worked fairly well (well, it beat the Schomer blend):

50% Brazilian Daterra Sweet Yellow
10% Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
20% Chinese Jiedusuo Grade 1
20% Costan Rican Dota Tarrazu

Could the tasting have been conducted more scientifically? I guess, one could have tried seeking the absolute best brewing temperature and dose size for each blend separately, but I think the method that we used worked out well - all blends had the same parameters applied to them (the only difference was the grind fineness that was adjusted to suit the blend in question). This was a fun evening and great learning experience for me. And I think fun is the key word here. Thanks for giving me the possibility for this experience!

After the tasting (of 10 espressos each), it was nice to have a sip of something else. The Blue Mountain Stout worked well for me... ...very tasty! The evening continued with a couple more beers at the close by micro-brewer (Apollo)...

Naked in more ways than one...

2006-04-17T12:44:00.000+02:00

I have just managed to get a hold of an unused set of Illy Nude espresso cups. I had been lusting after these for quite some time, but they are hard to find and tend to be very expensive when you do. Well, now I have them and they are my new favourites (and I do have quite a selection of cups).

I haven't posted pictures of shots pulled with the bottomless portafilter for a while, but I think this worked out well both in terms of appearance as well as the taste of the shot.

A naked portafilter and the Illy Nude cups - how much more nudity can you have with espresso? By the way, no point in trying to see my reflection in the grouphead - I was wearing clothes :)