VANCOUVER, CANADA – 6:41 a.m. -

Baristas around the nation are in mourning as yet another espresso has been buried alive in a paper cup by roughly 10 ounces of steaming hot milk, bringing the “uncountable death toll well into the millions for 2009″, officials said early Tuesday morning.

Eye witnesses claim the espresso was extracted directly into a paper cup (which would later become its casket) and was then swirled around aggressively for a few seconds before being ultimately suffocated by a proportion of milk far too great to possibly come through in.

No memorial was held, but as is tradition, a single white rosetta was placed on top of the espresso by the barista before a lid was brought to cover it any longer from public viewing.

Blue Bottle.  66 Mint St.

Blue Bottle. Ferry Building.

Ritual Coffee Roasters. 1026 Valencia St.

Four Barrel Coffee. 375 Valencia St.

Tartine. 600 Guerrero St.

The Bus. Mission & 7th.

Donut World.

Vega. 1246 Folsom St.

Sightglass.  270 7th St.

Farm Table. 754 Post St.

A few photos from The After Party™ last night.

We said there would be good eats and yummies, and I think the picture above explains itself. Mother Giannakos delivered the K.O. with Meats, Cheeses, and tender tender tenderloin sandwiches. It was glorious.

The party also rocked a keg of a beer, wine, an obnoxious amount of poured over coffees, and at one point I even saw the Clover going. If you stuck around long enough, some delicious mini chocolate cakes courtesy of Crema made their reveal as well, delicious.

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Chris and Brent manned the pour over station all night while Matty G made runs back and forth with hot water. The guys got totally rocked with the 80+ guests that made it out last night. Chris was saying he must have done about 75+ pour overs through the course of  yesterday, I believe it.

Every coffee you got, came with a number. We had a separate room setup with 9 sheets of paper tacked to the wall, everyone was encouraged to write or draw tasting notes.

Latte Art. We had a lot going on last night so the last thing we wanted was to have the smackdown dominate the whole party. Here’s what we came up with. When a person signs up they are given a random number that corresponds to a sheet of paper. Anybody can pour at anytime they want, they just bring their paper up, place it in the designated area, pour their drink, and photograph it themselves. After everyone had poured, judges pick the top 8 pours, and the competition is finished Smackdown style: 1 vs. 1. Last man standing wins.

Despite the fact that the camera only took about half of the competitors photos, the format was perfect. Highly recommended.

Some more photos posted at flickr. It was a killer party, thanks to everyone who came out, and helped out. See you all soon!

Tasting…123…

I’m not going to recap the night as a linear event, but there are a few things we did that I think are worth noting, some merely out of interest, others in the case you ever find yourself hosting a similar event.

We rented one hundred 2 oz espresso cups from a local party supply store.

With 11 different coffees on the table throughout the chorus of the night, they worked perfectly.  Had the cups been bigger, people might have OD’ed.

We went through 2 flights, resulting in 11 different coffees.  Each flight consisted of 5 coffees brewed by a press and then transferred into an air pot, and a single origin espresso.  The air pots were marked only with a letter, as the tasting was done completely blind.  Having 5 different coffees and an espresso all at once kept a great flow as people could pick and choose whichever coffee they wanted to taste without being rushed.

Over at the espresso bar, I pulled all the shots as either a straight espresso, or if they wanted milk, a Gibraltar. Most people had both.  (correct choice.)  Ecco’s Beloya was fantastic (especially in a little milk) and really wowed a lot of unsuspecting people.

Everyone got their own little pieces of paper to write down their own tasting notes as they went along, but for me the funnest part was having a giant white board in the middle of the cafe, on which anyone could write whatever they were tasting in the coffee.  What started as a blank thought cloud turned into a full flavor profile shortly only moments after the tasting began.  What’s best to me is that the board allowed people to share their thoughts anonymously (more or less.) and I feel a lot of times, especially when you are new to cupping/tasting, it is easy to become very quiet or doubt yourself if someone before you says something in contradiction to what you tasted.  The white board eliminated that problem, and as such, both the newbie’s and the experienced opinions were discussed without any bias.  The idea came from seeing a white board in pictures of James Hoffman’s “Taste of Canada”.  I can only imagine they did the same sort of thing.

After everyone had gone through each coffee in the flight, we all gathered round and Brent Fortune talked about each of the coffees – where it’s from, the processing method used, the roaster, flavor profile info, and whatever else seemed relevant at the time.

We didn’t stop tasting coffee until about 9:30pm, which a lot of us paid for dearly early that night and the next morning.  I know I did at least – totally worth it though.  To all those who lasted until the end, we had a bunch of cured meats and a mini beer tasting as well.

Thanks to everyone who came and tasted and to those who helped out.  And of course, Brent Fortune, for supplying all the coffee.

Navid said the mess at the end of the night was like the morning after a house party.  I concur.

A healthy gathering of the city’s baristas in one of the not-so-healthy neighborhoods.

Man was it hot.  It felt more like downtown Athens than Vancouver – but hey I’m not complaining – it just made the air pot of sangria the guys provided taste that much better.  (It was really good.)

Jeremy and Kyle MC’d and DJ’d and kept everything rolling.  Jeremy is heading off to Japan in a couple weeks, and Kyle is off to Victoria, so I guess this was sort of a goodbye party too.  Go down this week and say goodbye.  Big high fives all around to everyone from Radio Station for hosting this.

Despite the sign clearly posted on the door, a few people showed up who certainly meant business.

It was nice to see an assorted mix of people from different spots around the city show up.  Mark Prince, Moja, JJ, Blenz, Crema, and of course Radio Station were all in tact.  There were a few faces I didn’t know before the day started, but most were familiar.

John saw this on the cafe’s community imac.  It’s pretty faint, but can anyone tell me where the desktop background is from?  +2!

With the coffee folk came the barrage of D-SLRs and plaid, but plaid was heavily out numbered by regular t-shirts about 10:1 this time.  There were, however, 2 pairs of suspenders.  New trend?

Robert Csar and Mark Prince judged the first round of the ’spro down, in which you had to serve the judges each a solo espresso.  The points were on appearance, taste, and style/flair in serving them.

The prize?  Being crowned (belted) East Van Shot Champion of the world, with a double-shot-skull-belt-buckle and belt to prove it.

John said his espresso’s would have a strawberry wafer finish.  Then he handed Mark and Robert two of these.

I attempted to film my shot delivery from a first person view.

(this photo was stolen from Yawei’s facebook photos… click her name to see some really cool art on her site.)

When I watched the video later that day the entire thing was out of focus.

After the first round, 3 advanced on to the finals, but before the names were announced, we had a quick and very formal cupping.

Our finalists:

Spencer and Brandy from JJ Bean, and David from Moja.

Fast forward about 15 minutes later, and we have our newly crowned, East Van Shot Champion of the world:  *Spoiler Alert*

Spencer!

And wouldn’t you know it – he wasn’t even wearing a belt that day!

After it was all over most of us headed a few blocks down into Gastown and hung out at the Irish Heather together at the long communal table.

And in the end, that’s what these things are all about – Getting together with a bunch of people in the industry and enjoying each other’s company.  And that’s precisely what we did.

Some pictures from last week’s ’stove top throw down’ at Spencer’s house.

espresso machine

steam wand

Enjoy.

Where do I even begin, from the light up tamp, to the awesome people, I knew this trip was going to be one to remember.

First off, I just want to thank Blenz for giving me the opportunity to go to the obviously incredible Japan.  I didn’t know what to expect from such an amazing and incredible culture. What I noticed about most of the cafes I went to was the dreaded “Automatic” espresso machines. La Cimbali and La Marzocco seemed to be Tokyo’s weapon of choice, though for the most part, the espresso was not that great…We at least know they’re doing the milk right, because every drink had latte art.

The first cafe we went to was Le Cafe Doutor which had some pretty sweet equipment, they had two, 2 group Marzocco’s (looks like linea semi auto’s). All the cafes did single shots and on the drink I ordered, they used cocoa powder. One of the things that impressed me was how late the cafes stayed open and how big some of them were. I went to Doutor at 11 pm one night and all 2 floors of it were PACKED!

Friend and fellow barista Arthur Wynne told me of a few places he’d been when he was in Tokyo, judging the WBC finals. He said I had to check out Paul Bassett’s cafe who if you do not know already: is the WBC champion of 2003, unfortunately his cafe was closed down which was a drag. Read more about paul here Another place he told me to check out was Cafe Paulista, though I never had time to order a drink there it looked pretty vintage.

SCAJ Coffee Show

The Coffee Show was very much like Coffee Fest Seattle, in easier words, its about the people. The show was great, I got to see the JBC (Japanese Barista Championship) and I have to say, these guys/girls were a pleasure to watch, they just seemed so calm and precise up there. I got the chance to work with other latte art champions at a small booth, including the 2008 Seattle Millrock winner: Hiroshi Sawada and 2 time winner 2007 Seattle and Atlanta Millrock winner: Layla Osberg.

I was so impressed at the latte art these barista’s were pouring with such ease and perfectly poised, I learned a quite a bit from watching them!

This is Asuka, I believe she won the Blenz latte art comp in Japan!

Me, being the eager barista I am, decided that serving drinks in togo cups just wasn’t quite good enough! I found a Marzocco booth showing of the new linea with paddles, My favorite Japanese barista, Junko Hata was serving specialty drinks (in stay cups). Junko was trained by David Schomer and has her own shop –which I didn’t get to go to unfortunately, called Do Cafe. The cafe is right outside of Tokyo in Okoyama, they use Espresso Vivace. I got the chance to work with her behind the ‘zocco which dispite my thoughts about the machine before, was quite enjoyable.

Can you spot the Schomer influence?

One word: Syphon. Syphon coffee is so popular in Japan and for a good reason, it looks cool, its traditional, and it produces great tasting coffee. It actually reminds me alot of the Clover, its brewing method is ingenious. First the hot water rises into the top chamber where the coffee grinds are, after its done brewing the heat lamp is removed and the “now” coffee is dropped back into the first chamber, the top chamber is then taken out with the coffee grinds remaining in it, the bottom chamber is yours to enjoy.

Getting the chance to learn, enjoy, and experience coffee on the other-side of the earth is one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever gotten to do.  I have learned alot from this trip and feel I am a better barista because of it. I cant wait to go back, I thank Blenz again for the amazing opportunity.

VIVA BARISTA!

Ladies and gentlemen, please place your bets.

John Chris and I arrived at the Vancouver Library around 12:45pm, 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the final round of the Blenz hosted Latte Art Competition.  We grabbed some pizza from the flying wedge while Blenz and co were organizing the showdown. 

While we were eating I recognized Hiroshi Sawada mingling around amongst the crowd.  I had only ever seen him in photographs on other blogs, but I was pretty sure it was him.  We went over and said our Kanitchiwa’s while introducing ourselves, and then sat back down.  Hiroshi just won the Milrock Latte Art Competition at coffee fest a few weeks earlier in Seattle – so you could say the competition had just been upped.  As far as I know he actually came down from Japan just to compete in these latte art contests.

 Hiroshi was as nice and enjoyable a fellow as his pours were, I might add.

The contest brought with it a new judge in Danny from ECM, replacing Arthur from Wicked Cafe, but for the most part the main characters stayed the same.  Same rules as well – 5 minutes of practice, and 5 minutes of latte art’ing – only this time the winner gets to go to a place called Japan.

I was the first to go of the crema trio, and at the time the highest score was 113.  ’I can beat that’, I said to myself – and away I poured. 

Ha – Okay – so maybe I can’t beat that… I walked away with a 94, and no ticket to Japan.  I had an idea to split the shots into 2 different cups and then steam enough milk to pour both at the same time.  This would technically allow me to pour more drinks in the same amount of time – Not bad right?  Right.  

I tried this out only for my last pour, but unfortunately in my haste to finish on time I dosed way too little coffee into the portafilter and the espresso hit 2 oz in about 7 seconds – leaving me with the task of pouring into a liquid equivalent to a french press.  If you’ve ever tried pouring into something more watery than an espresso, you’ll know that it just doesn’t work.  I barely even got art on the first pour, and ran out of time on the second.  It doesn’t really matter though, I wouldn’t have won against the pours that followed anyway.

Next up:  John

As you can see, this is pretty much perfection.  (this was actually one of his practice pours, but I assure you the submitted one looked virtually the same.)  Symmetry, definition, balance, and framing – all in one.  John’s pour lunged him into first place, with a monster score of 120.

Even after a few more competitors, John’s score kept him at the top.  Then Hiroshi came up to bat.

His concentration and movements while competing were so precise – keeping his poise the whole way through both the practice and competition time.  His hands were steady, and his tamps perfect right angles.

After he poured we didn’t know what was going to happen.  He poured 3 rosetta’s, one larger one in the middle, with 2 smaller ones on either side of it.  It’s also the pour that won him the Milrock Championship, so we knew it was going to be close.

You don’t find out the score for a pour for a few minutes after, so we all stood there waiting, eyes on the scoreboard.  

It finally appeared:  Hiroshi – 118.

John was still in the lead, with only 3 people left.

Next up was the one person you don’t want to face in a latte art competition, and he goes by the name of Chris.

The shirt he was wearing at the time removes all doubt from the non-believers, if there still are any.

it's true.

For those who don’t really understand this shirt (don’t be shy.) click here.

Chris, as he seems to do always with ease, walked on up and poured rosetta after rosetta of goodness, through both his practice and official time.  Even before his score was put up, we knew he had nailed it.

124 points.  With only 2 more people left, Chris was the new leader.  Incidentally, similar to the case of John’s latte art picture, that cup above was not the actual one that scored 124.  Layla drank that one.

After the next competitor failed to take the lead with his pour, the last pourer took the stage, and it was none other than Maheep – the one and only – representing Steamrollers.  (Yes, you read that right.  He used to work with Blenz though.)  

To be honest, Maheep was a wildcard from the beginning.  Between the headband, and being one of the few who didn’t pour a rosetta either in the preliminary tournament, or this one, we didn’t know what was going to happen.  I have to add before we go on that I actually really like Steamrollers ever since being shown it a few years back, and if you haven’t been before, click here for directions and go to the Robson location.

Oh and be sure to congratulate Maheep when you see him on coming 2nd place.

Maheep poured a pretty original design, and it was perfectly symmetrical.  It’s on the bottom right there, and it scored a 121 – beating out Johnny for second place by 1 point – but leaving Chris untouched.  

The fans rushed onto the court, suffocating Chris with hugs and cheers.  (deja vu, anyone?)

And so it stood as follows:

Chris:  124 (crema)
Maheep:  121 (steamrollers)
John:  120 (crema)
Hiroshi:  118 (japan)

Just as the first time, Blenz did a great job of keeping everything running smoothly, all while managing to keep everyone’s interest throughout.  And incase anyone forgot – this means that Chris gets an all paid trip to Japan courtesy of Blenz, and I believe Maheep and John get a cash prize as well.  

Chris pwns n00bs – and for those of you counting he is now 3 for 3.  If this was NBA Jam he’d be on fire, too. 

You can read more about it here, here, and here.