In the deepest darkest depths of Norway, lies a cafe owned by a half man half dragon.

No, it’s not Trogdor. He goes by the name of Wendelboe, Tim Wendelboe. I may have lied about the half dragon part as well… But he is the World Barista Champion of ‘04!

I had only had Tim Wendelboe’s coffee once at Seattle CoffeeFest ‘09. It was a Kenyan coffee (I can’t remember the farm) it was one of the best Kenyan’s I’ve had to date. Visiting Norway for the first time, I got the chance to visit the Tim Wendelboe cafe.

Meet Tim Varney, Wendelboe’s Head Roaster. He gave us a quick tour of the cafe, the 12k Probat, and the cupping lab.

The Probat is right in the middle of the cafe, where they roast 3 days per week.

The cupping lab has 2 single group espresso machines: a GS3 and a FB-70 (the only FB-70 single group ever made).

He gave us a taste of their new crop Esmeralda – need I say more?

It’s very low-key surrounded by some very interesting architecture.

Time for  Wendelspro.

One of the baristas at the TW cafe, Chris Kolbu (Norwegian Barista Champion of 2008) served up a delicious shot of a SOE Honduras and some weird drink I have never had. It was a double espresso and a double espresso blended with a tiny bit of cream, really nice texture.

…He had a little misfire…

The space was a lot smaller than I imagined with very comfortable, but limited seating.

Brent says it’s BA. You figure it out.

Introducing: brewmethods.com

The premise is simple:  To provide anyone and everyone with access to the best coffee brewing guides in the entire universe.

Home brewing is an interesting subject in the industry.  People have all this great coffee, they have the proper equipment, but how do they learn to brew it?  If you have never worked in coffee, where can you properly learn from?  I’m often asked by friends and customers all sorts of home brewing questions and this is a way to answer them.

So with those thoughts in mind, and while I’m sure baristas and cafes will get plenty of value out of the site, we have geared it towards customers and people who are not in the industry.  The idea is to make a place where you can send a customer or friend or family member to find proper brewing guides fast and easy.

Think online cook book.

A link can be added in literally 5 seconds, so our goal is to make it the most up to date and wide source of coffee brewing guides on the net.  There are only so many guides online right now, but the hope is that, in light of this website and more people brewing at home, more bloggers and coffee shops will post brewing guides of their own.  To all the roasters/cafes/and others who already have posted videos – you’re ahead of the game, thank you!  It’s a bit embarrassing at how little resources there are online, especially for some methods in particular.

Of course the site is just being launched, so expect it to adapt and evolve with time. If you are on the site and know of other links, there is a “suggest a brew method” button on the top right where you can do just that.

If a customer learns more about coffee and how to make it, not only will this lead to a greater appreciation for the art and the industry as a whole, but they will start to take a certain pride and joy in making coffee themselves, just like all of us do.  Oh, and their coffee will taste better, which is always a good.

It may seem obvious, but the only way this site will help people is if they know about it – so check it out, spread the word, and let’s get people excited to brew coffee the right way.

behold:  brewmethods.com

Tonight (July 2nd), 7pm, at Crema.

Guatemalan El Injerto CoE – Stumptown
Guatemalan La Maravilla* – Intelligentsia
Ethiopia Konga – Ecco Caffe
Ethiopia Sidamo Guji – Coava
Ethiopia Adado – Verve
Ethiopia Wondo Worka* – Verve
Ethiopia Beloya* – Ecco Caffe
Kenya Karindundu* – Coava
Kenya Kagumoini – Stumptown
Panama Carmen Estate* – Stumptown
Black Cat (Brazil/Bolivia)* – Intelligentsia

Coffees with an * can and will be brewed as espresso as well.

The event will be co-hosted by special out of town guest Brent Fortune and is a great opportunity to try some amazing coffees from 4 different roasters in America.

It costs 0 dollars, and is open to anyone who reads this.

Once again:  Tonight, July 2nd, 7pm, at crema.

Some coffee news from ’round the world.

Square Mile Coffee Roasters in London is hosting their “Taste of …”  espresso event June 24th and this time they will be tasting Canada!

Every so often they bring in beans from different countries and host a public espresso tasting event.  So far they’ve done Sweden, Australia, West Coast USA, and New Zealand, and Norway.  (Did I miss any?)

From Canada it should be as follows:

Vancouver:
JJ Bean
49th Parallel
Hines/Origin

Victoria:
Discovery

Calgary:
Phil & Sebastian

Edmonton:
Transcend Coffee

If you live in London, don’t miss it.  You can view more about the event on their blog by clicking here.

If don’t live in London, you’ll have to click here first, then click the link above.

Also please note that both of the graphics in the title picture are 100% Square Mile’s, not mine.

Cafe Myriade in Montreal has a new website, which Anthony says will be updated often.  Perhaps linking to it here will make him keep that promise.

They do lots of tasting events as well, which you can keep in the know by checking their site.

cafemyriade.com

Keeping in theme with “tasting events” (and this one’s for Vancouver) JJ Bean hosts public cuppings every Thursday at 1pm.  The location switches from cafe to cafe, but you can check the current week’s location by clicking here.

Spencer conducts them, and they are both free and educational – just like highschool!

Spencer Conducting.

And lastly, the dates for the Canadian Regional Barista Competitions are set, and are as follows:

Centrals: Toronto – July 19th
Easterns: Montreal, August 23rd
Westerns: Victoria, August 29th
Prairies: Calgary, September 12th.

Canadian Nationals: October 14th & 15th, in Vancouver.

With no particular flow or structure, here’s some of what we’ve been up to lately at and around crema..

As you can see in the title picture, we picked up a chemex.  I had never tried anything from it before buying it but I had heard good things about it.  I haven’t gotten that great cup I have heard about yet, but will keep trying.  Some problems I’ve had include over extraction, paper taste (from the filter of course), too thin, and lack of flavor.  On the pro side, it’s a pretty fun brewing method, and it provides some nice eye candy.

The funnest part of using the chemex so far has been spinning it really fast and creating a mini vortex.

My current thoughts?  It’s not bad, but why use a chemex when I have a press?

I plan to keep playing around with it none the less and see what I can make of it.  Obviously a week of experimenting is not nearly enough.

I finally found 3 minute sands of time/hour glasses for our french press.  Do you know how hard it is to find such an obscure time as 3 minutes?  I don’t even know why the store had them in the first place – the cashier suggested that it might be for an egg…

The stands they came with are pretty cheap looking, so we plan to paint them or just change them completely, but it’s cool to have them for now.  So long digital beepers.  Out with the new, in with the old.

The siphon has been a lot of fun to play with, and we had one of the most memorable cups of coffee on it the other day using the Colombia Huile La Plata.  I haven’t had the time to use it much this week but we’re definitely getting the hang of it.

The color of the coffee it produces is worth the work alone.

In November John went to Japan and brought back some beans from a local roaster which were awesome.  The packaging was cool and the coffee was really really good.

The beans were also super human size.  On the right hand we have the Japanese Godzilla Bean, and on the left a bean from our espresso blend.

John took some pictures of the roaster as well, which we’ll be uploading soon.  It’s super clean and understated, and they use a Probat.

If someone orders a solo espresso/macchiato/trad cap, we switch the double basket with a single one.  This is one of the advantages of using the Mahlkonig Grinder – it has 2 customizable grind times for this very reason.

Pulling shots from a single basket is a completely different animal than pulling doubles, with the most notable difference being in a much lower extraction time (usually around 20 seconds).

John and I are heading to Portland on March 5th for the United States Barista Championships, which is sure to be a riot.

Lastly, we designed our own packaging labels for when people buy beans but I don’t have any pictures of them at the moment.  Will post them soon enough.

I leave you with Sayaka.

Not to sound too redundant, but we’re offering individual press at crema now.  We have JJ’s 3 reserves right now (all tasting better than ever) as well as a bit of Aricha No.34, and of course our usual varietals and blends are also good to go – not to mention any random coffees we may have lying around or brought in.

Over-priced and over-sized ‘drip brewers’ that fill up valuable space on kitchen counters ’round the globe need be gone.  We’re on a mission – and it’s starting over in West Vancouver.

Why isn’t french press more popular than it is at the current?  I think for a few possible reasons.

Maybe the general public think it’s too old and not fancy enough compared to their home brewers?  Maybe it seems too simple to possibly make a good cup?  Too much work?  Do their beakers keep shattering?  Maybe they straight up just don’t know how to use it?

Personally I’m leaning towards a mix of not knowing how to actually use a french press (future post foreshadowing), and simply not realizing how good it actually is.  (yes, it’s better than your home machine, and yes, you’ll be able to taste the difference.)

Whatever the actual reason(s) is(are), it’s time to fix it(them) – for the coffee’s sake and our own.

Hopefully we can get some non-believers to see the light by trying a press at crema and going from there.

For those of you who already drink press and know of it’s glory, don’t read the post above this and just get excited you can have press at crema.

My not-so-secret dream is that in a time not so far from from the current I can walk into crema on any given day and see our tables exploding with bodums and conversation.

An update in regards to the french press shirt, I am still looking at what I can do, so hang on tight!

In addition, incase you don’t already know, everyone’s favorite barista Anthony has a new blog.

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!

Another reason to love Montreal.  (As if you needed one.)

Anthony Benda and Scott Rao’s cafe opened today in Downtown Montreal, on 1432 Mackay St.  That’s right by Concordia University, or the Guy-Concordia metro stop.  It’s called Cafe Myriade.  

For those who have no idea who I’m talking about, Anthony was a finalist at the Canadian National Barista Championship last week, and Scott Rao wrote a book earlier this year called, “The Professional Barista’s Handbook.”  

Trust me, you’ll be in good hands.

Pop Quiz:  At Myriade you’ll You’ll be able to get a coffee prepared by which of the following methods?

a)  Pour Over
b)  Eva Solo
c)  French Press
d)  Siphon

Answer:  Wrong.  All of the above.  

How sweet is that?  You’re lucky to find even one of those methods used in a cafe, all four is just straight up unheard of.

49th Parallel will be used.  Goes without saying that the espresso will be fantastic.  They also have drinking chocolate and lots of teas, among others.

I got to check it out Friday morning before I left town and there is no doubt in my mind it will be a complete success.  

My only complaint is that they didn’t open 3 years earlier when I was living there.

Also, a recap of the nationals is coming up, don’t worry I haven’t forgot!  

Best of success to Myriade and Co.

A Robert Csar production.

Last Friday I met up at Main St. JJ to join in on Robert Csar’s self coined “critical mass cafe crawl”.  And crawl we did.The goal was to hit 5 cafes, take lots of pictures, and enjoy some of the best that Vancouver has to offer.

We went 3 for 3 baby.

When I arrived I joined in with 3 other JJ’ers – Robert, Jesse, and Manuel – and so it began.  Grady and Mike were behind the bar and started us on great notes (pun intended, as usual.), serving up some beautiful espresso jj.  The jj has been quite exceptional recently, and almost ‘on’.  Thank you Spencer.

We hit wicked on West 7th next, and had a beautiful shot of black cat from Adam.  Ristretto’d and uber thick.  You can tell just how thick it was from the line up the side of the cup from the pull.

We sat on the patio for a bit outside and another crawler was added to the mix, Sam, also from JJ.  By the way, it was 5 Nikons to 1 Canon, once again making Nikon the barista camera of choice.  Overall there were 2 D90’s, a D80, and D60, and a D50, and an almost-SLR-but-not-quite Canon.  I’m sure to the general public we just looked like a bunch of aspiring paparazzi rather than baristas.

While we were paying for our drinks, there was a sign on the cash that said the new wicked was opening up and free coffee was being offered.  Add another cafe to the crawl – obviously we had to go there too now.  But first:  Elysian.

Elysian was as good as always.  We all got espressos, which were written down as ’spros on the yellow sticky pad they write all the orders down on.  (Notice they have no bills/chits at Elysian?)  The reason I bother to mention this is that calling espresso ’spro’ right now is becoming pretty hip, incase you haven’t noticed.  

Things got pretty wild after we finished our ’spro.

As we were heading out one of the new guys behind the counter introduced himself as Troy, and I recognized that as a name that has commented on cleanhotdry before. Turns out it’s the same one, and he just moved up from Edmonton to workwith Elysian.  Welcome Troy.  

While we stood outside about to leave, John showed up, making us a party of 6.  

Next up was 49th, only a few blocks over.  Colter was pulling the shots, which for anyone who knows him means we inevitably had a great handful of drinks.  Always consistent and calm, he’s the ‘Cool Hand Luke’ of baristas.  And I haven’t even seen that movie.

New Wicked was next, and the sign on the front window confirmed the statement we had read earlier.

It’s on Hornby and Smithe, just a few blocks away from the bustling Hornby Artigiano across from the Art Gallery.  There is lots of wood and warm tones throughout – and a side wall full of Intelligentsia coffee and tea.
  

One of the first things that you see is this colossal sized graffiti-esque intelligentsia logo in the back corner.

Brad, who owns Wicked, was on sight and happened to be talking to my dad as we walked in.  I met him for the first time and he told us all a bit about the place.  As he pointed out, this Wicked has 2 of everything.  2 espresso machines, 2 sets of 2 grinders (Mazzer E doserless grinders for caffeinated), and 2 clovers.

The black cat was looking mighty fine here as well.

mouse tails.

Arthur was pulling us shots on one machine, while Kylie (spelling?) was training someone on the other.

The area between the 2 machines is designated for drink pick up.  It’s very inviting.

I give it a month or two before it has people lining up out the door, and you can count on me being one of them.  If you’re downtown, or even if you aren’t, I’d highly recommend checking it out.  I actually went back the very next day with Spencer and Tyler (buzz coffee, nanaimo) and took a couple more shots, from both the camera and Arthur.

After Wicked we walked a block or two down to the final stop, Hornby Artigiano.  The line up reach the door’s entrance as usual, and the place was packed.  We somehow nabbed a 6 seat empty table at the back and sat there in a daze, recapping our day.  The effects of the espresso were kicking in fast, and hangover like symptoms were being felt by everyone.  

The worst part of it was that Jesse and I had to head straight out from Artigiano to work a shift, him back at Main St. and me at crema.  I could barley even look at or smell the espresso without getting ill effects while on bar the rest of the day.  

Probably the best part of all this is that Chris and I ended up joining Spencer and Tyler the very next day for another coffee crawl, clearly not having learnt my lesson from the preceding day. 

But you know what?  Just like the day before, it was totally worth it.

Other points of view:  Robert, Jesse, Chris.

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.