Green beans for sale ... and more

From today all our green coffees are available to purchase on our webshop.



We have decided to let home roasting enthusiasts enjoy the coffees we have carefully sourced and imported. Go here to purchase the coffees.


So, what else have we been up to lately?

Well, I (Klaus) have gotten Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which have left me incapable of making espresso for a couple of weeks :-( But on the bright side this mean I have Casper pulling shots for me all the time. Gotta admit I like being serviced like that :-)

We also had a visit from San Fransisco. Ryan Brown from Ritual Coffee Roasters swung by our little roastery and went out for beers with us. He's a really nice guy and the company he works for are doing a really great job. We all hope to see you soon again Ryan!



We've also cupped some coffees brought back by a friend from New York. Some were good and some were not so good...
One bag said "medium roast" but it was darker than anything we'd ever roast - even a dark espresso. This is one of the problems specialty coffee still faces: the communication of roast degrees (not to mention styles and profiles). One roaster may call something light, Vienna or Full City + and it might not correspond to the next roaster's reference. I personally don't think Agtron or Colorette numbers are the answer. Hopefully in stead we can get people to simply recognize the differences. (An IPA from Bröckhouse doesn't taste the same as one from Brooklyn Breweries either...)



In case you havn't seen it yet (which means you're not an addicted internet-coffee-geek yet) James Hoffmann, the champ, has a very nice description of one of our coffees on his blog.

And last but certainly not least: Our good friends Sarah Allen and Ken Olson, editor and publisher of Barista Magazine got married last week. Congratulations from the whole collective!!!

Field Trip Ethiopia 2007

On the 3rd of November I will be going to Ethiopia to search for a good Direct Trade partner for us.

Ethiopia is high on our list of origins. Coffee from Ethiopia is very intriguing since the quality is extremely broad. Both the very different flavours of forinstance Harar vs. Yirgachefe and the difference in quality within coffee from each of these regions exemplifies a huge quality spectrum not to compare with any other country. Ethiopia also have an exceptional history as birthplace of both coffee and of mankind. Finding the jewels of Ethiopia is therefore a very challanging quest for every specialty coffee roaster.



I will be searching for farmers/millers who can supply us directly with both natural and washed coffee of the highest quality.

Since the harvest is just starting in Ethiopia these days my focus will be on visiting and talking about which qualities we could get prepared through this coming harvest.

I will try to post from the trip along the way.

Can't wait to meet the wonderful people of Ethiopia again!

A visit from Australia

David Makin, the 2006 Australian Barista Champion, visited Copenhagen during the weekend. He's on a world coffee tour to gather inspiration, see different roast styles, taste lots of espressos and meet a lot of people. He's been through Portland (Stumptown), Seattle (Zoka), Vancouver (49th and Mark Prince), Chicago (Intelligensia) and now Copenhagen where I had the pleasure of seeing him again.



I met Dave at the WBC in Bern and later on last summer on his home turf in Melbourne where he and Peter Wolff from Veneziano were excellent hosts and took me and Sigga Dora out for beer and milkshakes (Yes, that's an awesome combo!). Dave came in a very close second in the Australian championship this year after Scott Callaghan and rumor has it David might compete again ;-)

David was quick to jump on the machine at our roastery and pull some shots of our espresso. The Australians in general have a rather different dosing method than us Scandinavians. They tend to up-dose quite a but, limiting the space for the coffee to expand. So naturally it was quite interesting to have him make shots his way. Our espresso was quite fresh (one week old) and came out a bit bubbly, but still had great mouthfeel. David has great skills and after pulling a few shots he completely nailed it and presented a shot with heaps of sweetness and a deep wine-like acidity.



Next David is off to London to spend some days with James Hoffmann and then he goes to Milan for the big show down there. I'm so envious of everyone who's going. Especially since La Marzocco are having their 80th birthday party, which I'm sure is going to be awesome. Safe trip onwards Dave!

Farmers Marked cancelled!

We have just been informed that Farmers Marked sadly is cancelled for the rest of the year. This is due to bad wether conditions and too much working mess in Jægersborggade. We have had some good times there and look foreward to the Christmas Marked which is on the 7. of December.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by for coffee and smalltalks we look foreward to seeing You again.

Buy our coffee directly

Today we launch The Coffee Collective Webshop at www.coffeecollectiveshop.dk

This means you'll be able to purchase our selection of coffees through a secure online connection and pay with your credit card. The fresh roasted coffee will then be shipped immediately.

The site is for now only in Danish. However, we do send to anywhere in the world. We hope it's not too challenging for the non-Danish speaking to order, but drop us an email if you need help.

The shop accepts Mastercard, VISA, Dankort, eDankort and Eurocard. Alternatively you can order through the website and pick it up at the roastery, where you may also pay cash.

GeeBeeFive

Brand spanking new. Straight outta Italy. Finished less than a week ago.

Our La Marzocco GB/5 is here.



And man, did it feel good to unwrap it. I especially enjoy pulling off the film on the outside.

We had the good people at La Marzocco do a couple of special things on this machine: 0.6 mm flow restrictors (gigleurs) gives a much slower build up of pressure and when we tested this about a year and a half ago we felt it yielded much more body in the espresso. With a bottomless portafilter we noticed less channeling in general and the shots looked nicer.

However, we also noticed that we had to flush for quite a long time (4-6 sec.) to get the temperature stable. So on this machine we have also got the new hybrid / "Pierro" group caps. These eliminates the so-called banjo tube, where water had to pass on the outside of the group, thus achieving a much more stable temperature without the need to flush for as long.



Today we pulled the first shots off of the new machine, paired with a new Compak K-10 conical grinder and must admit it's awfully exciting to taste our blend like this. Lately a lot of people in the online community have seemed to be loosing faith in espresso, but stuff like this makes me feel very excited about the possibilities in this extraction method. Now we'll start dialing in the temp for our blend.

Casper on www.scae.com

Alf Kramer, founder of many coffee competitions, has written a small article on SCAE which features our Danish Cup Tasting Champion, monsieur Casper Engel.

Click here to read the whole thing

night at the roastery

It is actually not a roastery we have- it is a spaceship !

Koppi

We didnt tell you enough about Koppi- a recently started microroastery and cafe in Helsingborg. The doors will soon be open.

Many of you might already know about them, but lets be clear- Anne and Charles has something wild going on up in Helsingborg !

We just passed by for a short stop friday one week ago. We could have stayed a lot more time, but we had to arrive in Gbg before dawn. Charles was there and it was so fascinating to hear him tell us about their plans. Me, Casper and Mads first thought we would just pop by and say hi for 5 min- next time we bring our sleeping bags and use the Don Mayo bags as beds (we´re not asking, we will do it).

I wont talk forever about what they will do- visit their blog and see for yourself, the link is to the right on this page. Koppi.

They have a temple and I am really looking forward to spend some more time drinking their coffee. They have some wonderful ideas about coffee and we will surely be seeing them a lot.

Forza Helsingborg !

Farmers Market

As mentioned last week, last Saturday we were present for the first time at Farmers Market on Jægersborggade. It was a really great experience for us, although the weather wasn't really the best. When we set up in the morning it was beautiful sunshine, but as the day progressed the rain started pouring down.

Still, a lot of people visited out little tent, had an espresso or cappuccino and chatted away about coffee. It was really cozy and the smell of fresh roasted coffee was soon to be felt all around the little market.



We'll be back every saturday throughout October if weather permits.