New Bags

On top of the new store opening we've also changed to new bags. White stand-up pouches with a zip lock.

As a little gimmick we've made the bottom of the bag transparent. We've always thought it's a pity that you can't see the product it self - the coffee - when you buy a bag. But since light destroy the flavour of the coffee, completely clear bags should be avoided. So we've had this idea for a long time to just make the bottom transparent, so you can see the coffee but without light getting into it.

But more importantly we wanted to get more environmentally friendly bags. In Denmark most of the trash is burned and any metal becomes a waste product that can't be re-used. So we wanted to get rid of the metal (foil) in the bags completely. Metal in coffee bags are used as a barrier for air, primarily developed for ground coffee with an expiration 2 years after the roast date (where the flavour will be gone anyway). With fresh roasted coffee and shorter shelf life there's an overpressure in the bag for the first many weeks, so the extra barrier from the metal doesn't even matter.

We have also been able to add some text about our roastery and green coffee sourcing on the back. The label has also gotten a little bigger and more reader-friendly and all in all we think the bag looks more simple and presentable.

Barista Job Opportunity

We're seeking baristas!
Following is the job description in Danish:
 Update: Thanks for all the applications we've recieved. We have now filled all positions!


Baristaer søges

Arbejdet vil primært bestå af betjening af kunder og brygning af kaffe. Men der er også en del arbejde i forbindelse med vores risteri som vore baristaer hjælper med. Det er ikke en forudsætning, at du allerede har vundet verdensmesterskaberne i baristakunst, så længe du er interesseret i at lære mere om kaffe. Vi har et omfangsrigt oplæringsprogram, hvor du både vil lære om kaffens smag og hvordan man kan brygge en exceptionelt god kaffe og arbejde effektivt i baren.

Barista erfaring er selvfølgelig en fordel, men ikke en nødvendig forudsætning.

Hvis det har din interesse, så send din ansøgning med CV til os hurtigst muligt på mail@coffeecollective.dk. Mærk ansøgningen med "deltid" eller "fuldtid" samt kontaktinfo inkl. Email-adresse.

Torvehallerne part deux

So. We had sort of promised to write a lot of blog posts about the progress of opening our new store. We intended to. However, once things started really rolling our focus shifted toward just getting the place ready and not so much on sharing what we were doing.

And now it's open.

But we would like to share a few of the thing we have had going on.

We're extremely proud to have the world premier of the new Kees Van De Westen espresso machine Spirit in a coffee shop. Some of you might have seen this machine at some specialty coffee trade shows.



Kees is widely known in the specialty coffee circles for designing and producing awesome espresso machines. He designed the widely known Mistral espresso machine from mainly La Marzocco parts. A design that La Marzocco later bought and put into their own production. The original Kees machines are still a collectors item and I remember vividly working on those awesome machines back in 2005 at Stumptown.



The Spirit is his newest invention and features a lot of cool ideas. And overall it's such a well made machine that just feels awesome to work at. Personally I love how much work Kees has put into the detailing on this machine and I think it looks amazing.



These pictures are from the WBC show in London last summer, but this same machine is now the one you'll find in our new shop. We definitely put it to the test over this opening weekend with over 1000 cups a day going through it. And it held up beautifully. The temperature, which you can set and read for each group, was extremely stable. In typical Kees-style he also send us teflon-coated portafilters and VST baskets as standard. On top of that he sent three extra steam tips, so we could choose which hole size we liked best. What a guy!





There's some interesting stuff going on 'under the hood'. When looking into the group heads you'll notice that there's no screw, but the shower screen covers the whole area. Theoretically this should give a more even dispersion of the water over the coffee bed. There's also a build in mechanical pre-infusion plus a nice slow flow that secures an even wetting of the coffee before the full pressure is applied.

 

All in all there's a great number of things going on, and Kees is working on even more for the final production models. What we can already say is that it's capable of making some amazingly great tasting espressos. And that's what matters in the end.




(We'll try to upload some pictures to Flickr from our own shop when ever we remember to bring the camera...)

Opening of The Coffee Collective Torvehallerne

Tomorrow, Friday, we open our new shop at Torvehallerne.

We are ready and we're very excited!

Torvehallerne doesn't officially open till 10 o'clock, but we're going to open as a usual Friday, which means we'll be there three good hours before. You can read the opening programme here.

Our opening hours will be:
Mon - Fri 7.00 - 21.00
Sat - Sun 8.00- 18.00

On Tuesday we did a test run for two hours and the bar was slammed. As with an new store opening it'll take a little while before everything is running as smoothly as you want it to, but we feel much better after the test run. All machines are now working and we're ready to deliver some very tasty coffees.

A couple of (bad iPhone) pictures from the Test Run

Torvehallerne is located at Israels Plads next to Nørreport Station.
Our shop is at the south end at Vendersgade. It should be pretty easy to spot throught the glass windows.

Vis The Coffee Collective på et større kort

Looking forward to see you in Torvehallerne!