Two New Espresso Blends

If you've been to our coffee shops in the past month you've probably noticed that we now have two new espresso blends - a big change for us, since we've always only had one blend. But for a while now, we've been feeling like we tried to do too many things in one blend. We struggled to have the aromatics we desire and still keeping it balanced. So we decided to split the one blend into two.

We're simply calling them Espresso 1 and Espresso 2. Sorry for the lack of rock-n-roll beer label attitude, but we're simple people here at TCC.


Espresso 1 is where we're going nuts in aromatic and juicy coffees. It's going to be wild and experimental, pushing the boundaries for espresso with emphasis on aromas. It won't be the most forgiving espresso to pull, but it's mind blowing when done right (if we may say so ourselves).

Right now this blend is composed of:
50 % El Desarollo , Colombia
25 % Yukro Natural, Etiopien
25% Kieni, Kenya

The Natural processed coffee from Yukro is a small-ish lot of 40 bags, that we had made on demand specifically for us. It lends an incredibly creamy mouthfeel to the blend as well as intense strawberry and apple aromas. It combines really well with the sharper acidity and dark berries from the Kieni and the base of washed El Desarollo.

Espresso 2 is all about the balance and mouthfeel. We'll explore sweetness and development of body a lot more in this blend. It's probably a more approachable flavour and one that taste great in milk drinks, without sacrificing our usual high standards. We do love a syrupy, creamy mouthfeel and a more balanced espresso as a contrast to the palate-challenging Espresso 1.

This blend is currently composed of three coffees from two farms:
60% Daterra, Brasilien - where 50% is a natural processed lot and 50% is the Pulped-Natural Sweet Collection.
40 % Yukro Washed, Etiopien

Our long-time espresso favourite Daterra makes up the majority of the blend, with it's sweet, clean and heavy mouthfeel. The washed Yukro makes it a little more balanced and gives it a touch of citrus, spice and nougat in the finish.

For the past many weeks we've been testing the two blends, finding the right compositions and roast profiles. We've also used extractions yields to dial in the two blends and are very happy with the results. We feel there is now room for exploring these two different paths much better.

Both blends are available in our webshop and coffee shops.

We've changed our recipe a little for these two new blends and recommend the following:

Dose: 19 g.
Brew weight: 37 g.
Time: 27-29 sec.

VST 18 g. ridgeless basket.
Machine temp at 93° C in the group.
Pressure at 9 bars with a 4-5 sec preinfusion.
Water at 100 ppm with 50 ppm bicarbonate hardness.

EBF: 51.4%
TDS: 9.8%
%EXT: 19.1%

But hey... feel free to do whatever you need to make it taste great !

We hope you enjoy these two new blends and have fun with them.

Christmas Opening Hours

The merry season is upon us!

We'll be open as much as possible, so you can satisfy your coffee needs. We will be closed on the actual holidays, though, and on January 1st you're gonna have to do your hangover brew yourself. 

Here are our special opening hours for the holidays:

Torvehallerne

20/12: 7-21

21/12:8-21

22/12:8-19

23/12: 7-20

24/12: Lukket

25/12: Lukket

26/12: Lukket

27/12: 8-20

28/12: 8-19

29/12: 8-19

30/12: 8-20

31/12: 8-15

1/1: Lukket

Jægersborggade 

23/12: 8-19

24/12: Lukket

25/12: Lukket

26/12: Lukket

27/12: 9-19

28/12: 9-19

29/12: 9-19

30/12: 9-19

31/12: 9-15

1/1: Lukket

Godthåbsvej 

23/12: 7.30-19

24/12: Lukket

25/12: Lukket

26/12: Lukket

27/12: 7.30-19

28/12: 9-18

29/12: 10-18

30/12: 7.30-19

31/12: 7.30-15

1/1: Lukket

From January 2nd 2014 we'll continue our normal opening hours.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Coffee Collective Subscriptions

From the new year we'll start our new coffee subscription service.

Every month for six months we'll send you two bags of 250 g coffee directly to your home, and we'll pay the freight!

We can only offer this in Denmark so far, but hope to have an international subscription ready soon.

We'll have two options to begin with. A filter subscription and an espresso subsription.

The content will change every month. It will be a mix of coffees from our regular assortment and special one-off roasts not available in stores. Coffees will be sent out every first Tuesday of the month, beginning January 7th.

If you wish to gift this to someone, just write the receiver's address in the field Alternativ Leveringsadresse.

 

Close to 40% less CO2 emissions from a cup of coffee in our shops!

Windmills at Middelgrunden. Photo by Kim Hansen, sourced from Wikimedia Commons

Since 2010 we have been buying shares in Middelgrundens Vindmøllelaug (www.middelgrunden.dk) who owns the mills standing in the waters just outside of Copenhagen. Now we have supplemented this with buying electricity from the supplier Vindstød, that delivers electricity which is 100% wind mill based (vindstoed.dk). We are therefore very proud to say that now all the electricity we use at the The Coffee Collective will be produced on wind mills. In life cycle assesments of the coffee production, the part of the production with the highest energy consumption på mL of finihed coffee brew is often found to be the actual brewing. See the following table for details in terms of CO2 equivalents.

Source: http://www.appropedia.org/LCA_of_coffee 

The primary consumption of energy in the brewing process is the heating of water which normally will be done by using electricity. Therefore by switching our electricity source to wind mills we have reduced the total CO2 emissions pr. cup of coffee by almost 40%!

Dairy Farm Visit to Øllingegaard

For the past few years we've been using milk from a dairy called Øllingegaard just 40 km out of Copenhagen. We've been doing blind tastings of different milk for the past 12 years in Denmark now, tasting the milk both cold, warm and in cappuccinos, and Øllingegaard won our last tasting. On top of that it's now the only dairy farm on Sjælland and the nearest to Copenhagen which means much shorter transportation than from Jutland.


Vis stort kort
We use quite a lot of milk in our coffee shops and we love a good cappuccino. Now we thought it was time to go visit our milk supplier and learn more about what they do. So eight of us got in a rental and drove up to visit them.

Øllingegaard is a small dairy owner by Solhvervfonden - a foundation committed to spread organic practices for the past 20 years. It's a for-profit foundation that use the money gathered for projects in third world countries. The dairy is situated in beautiful, old, yellow farm buildings from 1925 and have been a dairy since 1995. Of course 100% organic.

As a side note, there used to be one other privately owned dairy in Sjælland called Osted Mejeri. Unfortunately they went bankrupt this summer. A great loss for the milk diversity in Denmark which is dominated by milk giant Arla. Now there's pretty much only Øllingegaard, Naturmælk and Thise left.


Dairy supervisor Michael Christensen took us around the dairy production.
The milk is delivered from 11 farms on Sjælland within hours of milking. It used to be just 8 farms delivering milk, but since the closure of Osted three of the farms that used to deliver there have signed on to Øllingegaard. Which is good, as they really needed more milk.

The farmers milk the cows twice a day, early in the morning around 5 and in the afternoon around 3 o'clock. The milk is tested for bacteria and antibiotics upon arrival at the dairy. It gets filtered at the farm and again at the dairy, but in general Øllingegaard is careful about not moving or pumping the milk around excessively. Too much movement and disturbance of the milk damages the taste. Where other large dairy's move their milk several kilometres through pipes the milk at Øllingegaard doesn't travel more than a few metres. The milk is also not homogenised for the same reason, which means the fat particles collect at the top of the milk - sometimes a bit of a problem for us though.

Beside fresh milk Øllingegaard does amazing butter, which have won numerous awards. It's the one we use at Godthåbsvej too. Talking to Michael about butter really reminded us about ourselves - complete geeks in a certain field. Yoghurt was another topic, and it amazing to see how much knowledge and work is behind these products. Øllingegaard churns their butter in the old-fashioned way on a huge machine and packs it while it's the consistency of mayonnaise. All products go out to stores immediately and Øllingegaard have been a leader in terms of milk freshness. Any products that are in excess is donated to the homeless shelters in Copenhagen.

We also went to visit one of the farms that deliver the milk. Hans Peter Kamp and his wife welcomed us to their beautiful farm with a view over Isefjorden. Here they have 75 hectares of land with 100 milk cows of the Jersey breed. They bought the farm together with another family around 20 years ago, when it was in a very poor state. It hadn't been used for years and the buildings were almost falling together. They've renovated it a lot since and build a new stable for the cows.

Clearly they work hard, from early morning till late evening. But as they said, it's more a way of life and there's plenty of short cuts you could take - that's just not what they wanted to do. They've chosen to be organic and not expand with too many cows, so they can keep everything running in the right way. They are self-supplying with corn and fodder/feed for the cows. It requires 500 tonnes of hay each year for the cows, so there's lots of work to do in the summer time to prepare for winter.


We got to taste the raw milk from the same morning. Completely yellow and rich, with a fat content up around 6,1% (Jersey cows produce more fat and protein than the regular Danish Black & White Milk Cow breed). It tasted really fresh and aromatic and wasn't just heavy and fat. You could clearly sense the brighter herbal and floral aromas in the milk, which probably stems from the grass, weed and herb feed that the cows munch on all summer. They are still outside this time of year and aren't brought in until it starts to rain heavily. You'd think that was how all farms are, but fact is only a fourth of all milk cows in Denmark are ever on grass! An astonishing fact, but it's only a requirement within the organic certification that the cows are brought to pasture for 6 months. Most (3/4) of all conventional milk cows never see grass, but are kept in stables throughout the year.

All in all it was great to see where our milk come from and meet some of the people - and cows - behind it. We're very proud to be working with like-minded people on this other important product in our shops, and already look forward to visiting them again.


You can see all pictures from our field trip here

The new crop Yukro is on the shelves

In our busy busy work week we've neglected to inform you all that we now have the fresh crop of Yukro on the shelves. We had hoped to receive the Yukro earlier, but it got delayed at the dry mill for quite some time. Partly because we had some special wishes for the separation and sorting. But we're happy to have the fresh lot available.



This would also be a good time to read up on our visit to Yukro at the beginning of the harvest. Check out our travel report here.

The fresh lot is really aromatic, reminding of citrus-infused teas, peach, apples and lavender. We've roasted it very light and really pushed those aromatics.



Besides 250 g whole beans to bring home Yukro is available per cup brewed on Aeropress at Jægersborggade and Godthåbsvej and Kalita Wave at Torvehallerne. You can also purchase it through our webshop.

Torvehallerne Anniversary Sunday 1st September

This Sunday the marketplace Torvehallerne will celebrate 2 years.

We have prepared a special table for all of you who wants to learn more about how to brew your own coffee at home. We will have the most common brewing equipment at your disposal and will brew the coffee together with you.

You will do the work and we will help and answer any questions you might have.

The table will be placed outdoors just in front of our coffee bar in Torvehallerne between 11hs-16hs.

There will be many other things going on as well and we expect a lot of people to feast in these culinary temples.

See you on Sunday !

Ben Kaminsky Advanced Brewing Workshop

On September 2nd we're proud to host Ben Kaminsky's Advanced Brewing Techniques workshop at our roastery on Godthåbsvej. If you're a professional barista this is one to attend!

You can purchase tickets for the event here: http://coffeebrews.eventbrite.com/
Ben will be presenting some of his research and new insights on coffee and espresso brewing, grinding, and roasting, that are sure to answer some long standing questions and likely raise many more (e.g. Is espresso brewing inherently flawed? What actually constitutes an espresso roast?).

He will be focusing heavily on techniques surrounding the EK43 grinder, including how to produce a "coffee shot", a new way for brewing filter coffee that he thinks will likely replace the industry's best and fastest brewers to date. This course covers practical ways to improve quality while decreasing costs, as well as new possibilities for coffee and espresso service.

Half the course will be spent in practical tasting of the theory covered in the lecture.

Ben recommends you understand the basic elements of extraction, including practical use of an Extract Mojo if you want to get the most out of the class, though beginners are also welcomed.


September 2nd 2013. 15:00-18:00 (approx). Lecture and tasting.


Sign up on http://coffeebrews.eventbrite.com/

————

Ben Kaminsky is the 2009, 2010, and 2011 United States Cup Tasters Champion, a founding member and partner in Barismo Coffee in the states, and former director of quality control, espresso and innovation at Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco. Since leaving Ritual eight months ago, he has been consulting full time on equipment design, training, roasting and sourcing.  He also coached Matt Perger using many of the techniques covered in this class to a second place finish at this year's World Barista Championships.

Food and coffee at Godthåbsvej

One of the most important and basic elements of our coffee shops is that the coffee is the focal point. We don't serve avocado sandwiches, hot chilli for cold winter days or even little squares of chocolate on the saucer only croissants in the morning and small, delicate pastries like a granola bar - nothing that has enough potency to take the focus away from the the cup. We want to share unique coffee experiences without too many distractions.

A lot of good restaurants have begun to work on their coffee profile to make it as much a part of the experience as the food and wine. This is a great development that gives us, as a specialty coffee community, a much broader audience to share great coffee experiences with. It also brings coffee into the light, makes it more than just that black stuff we drink when cake is on the table, which gave rise to the idea we are now testing at our coffee shop on Godthåbsvej. We wanted to look into serving more food with the coffees without turning into a cafe.     

The idea was to keep it as simple as possible. Three small dishes, each paired with a specific coffee as a combined experience. The dishes change along with our coffee menu, so new flavour combinations can be tested.



Every dish consists of a couple of slices of sour doe bread and some butter served with different jams and purées consisting of a single ingredient pressure cooked with just a little bit of sugar, to preserve it, and maybe a small squeeze of lemon. This is topped with some kind of ingredient, could be a type of nut, to give it some texture and flavour balance. Other sides could be different cured meats or cheese all depending on which coffee we want pair it with.

This is the menu as it looks at the moment:


Very simple and small. It's not a full meal, more a supplement to highlight the flavours in the cup - nothing more, nothing less.

If you'd like to read more (in Danish) the news paper Politiken did a great article on food and coffee recently: http://politiken.dk/ibyen/nyheder/cafeer/ECE2002967/tendens-nu-skal-vi-have-mad-til-kaffen/

Guatemala 2013 pt 2 - Finca Vista Hermosa

Today we're launching the fresh crop Guatemalan coffees from Finca Vista Hermosa and El Diamante. Both will be available in our webshop and our coffee shops. In March our director Peter Dupont and bar manager and 2013 Danish Barista Champion Rasmus Gamrath visited the farms in the region of Huehuetanango. Here are their reports from the trip in two parts. Click here for part one.
 

In March, I (Rasmus Gamrath) was lucky to get to go to Origin for the first time. Its something I've been dreaming about doing for a long time. I have been excited to get to smell, touch and see everything that goes on at the farm. Getting to go to Huehuetenango was just an extra bonus since we are buying from two different farms in the area. Peter has written about our visit to El Diamante, so I will focus on our visit to Finca Vista Hermosa.

The first thing that stroke me on the drive up to Finca Vista Hermosa was all the people in the area, that are involved in producing coffee. It really confirmed the amount of labour going into producing coffee. It’s something we are all aware of in our daily work in the bar, but it somehow still managed to surprise me. And it really showed me how much respect we should have for the effort people working at the farms put into producing quality coffee.

Drying coffee at FVH


We were staying at the farm for two days, so we got to experience first hand what goes on at farm. Peter had arranged for us to come with Diego one of the farm workers and try to pick berries for a few hours. It was interesting to see how difficult it actually is to only pick the fully ripe cherries, and how long time it takes. Due to the slow progress we didn’t get to pick a lot, but at least the other pickers got some good laughs looking at our rookie picking style.

Later in the day we cupped 9 different lots from this years harvest at Finca Vista Hermosa. It was a good experience to get to cup together with Edwin and Eliseo (the farm manager at Finca Vista Hermosa) and hear their descriptions of their coffee.   



The next day Edwin showed us around on Finca Vista Hermosa. We talked about the Roya (leaf rust) that is so challenging for a lot of farmers at the moment. Luckily it’s not something they have had problems with at Finca Vista Hermosa. We also had a look at the nursery were they grow plants to plant on new lots. They normally grow all new plants themselves, unless they need new varieties. The way they reproduce plants is by taking a coffee bean still in its mucilage and leaving it in a sand-like soil. At a point the bean will sprout and is then put in a plastic back with earth and is watered intensely. After about two years the plant is ready to be planted outside the nursery.

Nursery at FVH


When walking around on the farm Edwin told us about different projects they are doing. They are looking at different drying methods, at the moment they are drying on patios but for this year they have done some tests on raised beds. They are also doing tests on different pruning methods. It was all very interesting to see.   

-Rasmus Gamrath

FOB Price on Label

We are now launching an idea we have had since we started The Coffee Collective. We feel that its time to make it transparent for the consumers what is actually paid for the green beans.

When we started buying green beans in The Coffee Collective in 2007 we had the same idea, but we understood from some of the producers we were buying from that they would feel a bit uncomfortable if we revealed what we were paying them. Therefore we didn't do it back then.

Now a lot of things has happened since 2007.

Firstly, back then it was in the aftermath of the coffee crisis, when the market price was extremely low in the period from 1999 to 2005. In 2007 prices had increased since 2005. The market price is now falling again to levels that seems unsustainable. At the same time a rust outbreak is creating huge problems in many producing countries (mainly in Latin America) without the market reacting.

Secondly, within the specialty coffee industry other roasters and traders are now revealing their green prices on their websites, so we do not feel that we are breaking a bond of trust between us and the producers.

Thirdly, on the suggestion of one of the producers we work with, we have added to the transparent price how long we have been working together as a way of showing our relationship.

We believe that it is important to be transparent towards the consumers. We know from our dialogue with our costumers regarding Direct Trade that a lot of people actually are interested in knowing that when they pay a high price for a bag of quality coffee the producer who has created the initial potential for this quality is also getting their share.
Therefore we have chosen to add the following info on each of our bags as we get coffees in from now on:

• The FOB price in $/lb
• The percentage this price is above the market price
• For how many years we have visited the producer and/or
• For how many years we have been buying from the producer

We have debated back and forth about which "level" of price we should put on as well as in which units.
In the end we have choosen to put on the price we have paid as a percentage above the market price to have an easier understandable price for people who might not feel entirely comfortable with FOB (Free On Board) prices or the like. For the calculation of this percentage we use the ICO stats for the New York prices of the relevant quality category in the month of our contract (this is not entirely exact base to use as it underestimates the calculated percentage a bit, but we find it to be the most transparent method we could come up with. Since it underestimates the percentage and we also publish the exact price we still believe it is a decent way to present it. We are though open for better suggestions).

To have an exact number as well, we have chosen to put on the FOB price in $/lb to have a price that is easy to compare between markets, countries as well as with Fair Trade.

We of course think that it is very important what the actual producers receive and not just what is paid on the FOB level. It is though very different from place to place, producers to producer and country to country how the "farm gate" - or "producer" - price is structured. In some places the producer will cover all export costs themselves in others their will be several levels taking care of several functions in the beans way from cherry to FOB. Since we believe that it is important to have comparable prices we have chosen to focus for now on the FOB price.

In most of our cases the price paid to the producer will be the FOB price minus 0,6 - 1,0 $/lb.

We still want to work with our Direct Trade model as an accountable way of communicating how we buy our greens and here we will still document to our clients what the actual producer has been paid. And we will still keep the promise that if it states Direct Trade on one of our bags the producer has gotten at least 25% above the Fair Trade price.

As a last thing we feel that its imperative for us to say that we do not believe that we by doing this have found a golden solution on transparency or anything else in regards to coffee ethics. But by putting the price we have paid for our greens on the bags we hope that we can contribute to at least two things:

First is to develop the understanding the consumers have of coffee and how it is traded.

Second is spurring a debate amongst consumers on these issues. We hope by doing this, more and more people will think about coffee prices and start talking about how unsustainable a lot of the market is.

The first bags with this info is actually already out, since we just got new crop home from Kieni, Gichathaini and Esmeralda that was released Friday 14th of June. This Friday two more coffees, Finca Vista Hermosa and El Diamante will also feature the price info.

Guatemala 2013 pt 1 - El Diamante

This Friday we're launching the fresh crop Guatemalan coffees from Finca Vista Hermosa and El Diamante. Both will be available in our webshop and our coffee shops. In March our director Peter Dupont and bar manager and 2013 Danish Barista Champion Rasmus Gamrath visited the farms in the region of Huehuetanango. Here are their reports from the trip in two parts.

The first week of March 2013 I (Peter Dupont) travelled with our good friend and wholesale costumer Martin Herlak from Aroma from the city of Herning as well as Danish barista champion Rasmus Gamrath to Guatemala. We left Denmark early Saturday morning. Arrived in Guatemala City at night and met with Edwin Martinez from Finca Vista Hermosa. With him was Drew from Onyx, Wille from Heart Roasters in Portland, USA and his friend Shelby.

Sunday we drove to Huehuetenango and Monday to El Diamante to visit Patricía Perez who we bought a very speciel Guatemalan coffee from last year.

It was a great pleasure returning to visit her. She’s very hospitable and immediately invited us in for freshly baked bread and their coffee "Essencia". It’s such a nice little mill, patio and house they have. Rather simple but kept very charming and very clean.

Coffee Essencia




Work at the mill and patio at El Diamante



I had a few bags of our roast of El Diamante with me to give Patricía and show how we roast and present her coffee. Our label text is in Danish so I translated it to her. It was great to show her this and tell her that we very much liked her coffee and that we had many costumers who also value it very highly. When I told her that we had no more of her coffee in stock she laughed and said that then we had come to the right place.



The coffee we had last time from El Diamante had a flavour profile and especially an acidity that reminded me a bit of a gentle top Kenyan coffee. When visiting the mill again I was curious to see how much of this flavour might stem from their way of fermenting. So I tried to understand this in to more details. It turned out that they ferment up to 40 hours and after washing they do an overnight soaking around 12 hours (and even longer at sometimes) where the washed parchment is well covered with water. This seems not unlike what they do in Kenya and is at least not very typical for what I have seen in Guatemala.

I wonder about the fermentation processes during this soaking. I guess the temperature will still be around 15-20 C (at El Diamante they have a pond lying few meters above the mill from where they get their water. It is my impression that the water will be sitting here long enough to be at least 15-20 C). At this temperature fermentation will still be going on. The anaerobe environment when the parchment is covered with water also shouldn't stop fermentation. It would be interesting to know more about soaking influence on the flavour profile. 

The next day we went to Finca Vista Hermosa. Here Drew was doing a great job on test roasting lots of samples for us to cup. We had the chance Wednesday to cup the samples we brought from El Diamante and to be honest - we where a bit disappointed. The beautiful fruitiness was tipped over towards over-fermentation. This was really sad to cup since we really enjoyed the coffee last year and even more we enjoy working with Patricia.

Drew agreed to do a re-roast of the samples and we cupped it again the day after. Luckily the different roast seemed to have tipped the coffee back on the right track but the experience from the first cupping still stuck a bit with me. Therefore we got more samples sent home and later when we where back in Denmark we roasted these samples again and here we had no trace of over-fermentation. The new crop El Diamante was again a beautiful fruity cup but entirely on the clean side.

I must admit that I havn't been fully aware of how much the roast can do in tipping a fruity coffee like this from one side to another on the border between fruitiness and over-fermentation. It’s of course a bit scary but on the other hand I feel comfortable that we in our production roasts can find the profiles that will bring out the best fruitiness in this coffee without any over-fermented tones.

- Peter Dupont

You can see all our pictures from the trip in this Flickr set. 

Black Coffee Brew Down Recap

Just a quick update here from us on the Black Coffee Brew Down we hosted last Friday.

First off, GREAT coverage by Danish newspaper Politiken on the event:

http://politiken.dk/ibyen/nyheder/cafeer/ECE2001808/kaffenoerder-dyster-i-intens-boennekonkurrence/

Politiken's iByen had been to the last Brew Down and really captured the feel of the event and why we (baristas) feel it's important. 

"When you drink coffee black, you have it in its purest form. And if it has been treated carefully on it's journey from soil to table, you can have a nuanced and aromatic taste experience" [my poor translation] says Omar Maagaard in the article.

With these Brew Downs we hope to achieve the same feeling and excitement as we've experienced with the Latte Art Throwdowns. Admittedly, this is a slower pace, less entertaining to watch and quite possibly more geeky. But we're happy to see so many other shops turn up to these events. I'm sure it's not long before other will start hosting them too.

The winner of the evening (who took home the pot and a Kalita Wave Glass Brewer) was Mr Nobuaki Matsui from Democratic Coffee. Big congratulations to him and a huge thank you to everyone who participated for a fun evening!

Go to Flickr to see a few more pictures

Black Coffee Brew Down

This Friday we're hosting the ultimate black coffee brew down at Godthåbsvej!

Aeropress, Kalita Wava, Hario V60, French Press, Espro Press, Siphon, Woodneck, whatever black coffee brewer you want - you choose and compete with the best you got.

The event is free and open to anyone. We start at 19.00 and the competition itself at 20.00. Come early to have more practice time.

The rules: Choose your own brewer and rock it with the mystery coffee provided. One coffee - any brew method. 4 minute competition time and then hands off! 2 baristas up against each other at a time. 3 judges will choose their favourite. Entry fee: kr 20,- Winner takes the pot - And also get to bring home a brand new Kalita Wave Glass Brewer!

We'll have our Uber Boiler and hot water tower ready, as well as scales, timers, grinders and loads of brewing equipment. You're of course also welcome to bring your own.

Come brew some black deliciousness or cheer for your local baristas!

Fresh crops are in!

Today we're releasing the fresh crop Kieni, Gichathaini and Esmeralda !

We're going into our fourth year with Kieni now and thrilled to see the quality grow. This year's harvest is the best we've had from them. Incredible structure and mouthfeel, intense and deep, juicy acidity, black currant, rose flowers and brown sugar. Last year Kieni was the mill in all of Kenya that paid out the most money to it's members, and it's great to see the farmers being rewarded for producing this extraordinary quality. You can read much more about Kieni in Peter's blog post from his visit during the harvest in December.

This year we've also bought a small lot from Gichathaini - one of the mills under the Gikanda society. We last bought from Gichathaini two years ago and are happy to feature this coffee again, as it's a very different taste profile than the Kieni. Refreshing acidity and citrus fruits, apple and rhubarb.

Last but definitely not least...
Esmeralda Special 2013 - the infamous auction coffee.
We secured a small lot from the Mario Carneval parcel, which was out favourite. And the price this year was lower than last, so we'll be able to keep it at 99,- for 125 g. We've decided to do smaller bags of the Esmeralda again this year (half of our usual size) to make this accessible to more people and to make sure you can enjoy the whole bag while it's still fresh.

All three will be in the shops from today - both as bags and brewed options. So come on by and make sure to taste these delicious fresh crops!

You can also order them online and we'll send them out next Tuesday:
Kieni
Kieni Espresso
Gichathaini
Esmeralda Special

 

Coffee & Cocktails Night

So it went down! The first - but sure as h#ll not the last - coffee and cocktail night went down at Jægersborgade last Saturday. The ambition was to gather a great bunch of people and have fun. This was done by setting up a cocktail competition. There were some basic rules for the drinks: They had to contain either rum or tequila Had to contain coffee (obviously) Had to be served cold - but as one judge said, "you ain't tryin' hard enough if you don't cheat....".



The 5 competitors where Rasmus Elm, Morten Vestenaa, Benjamin Hunner, Rasmus Wibæk and Samuli Marila. The level of creativity was high. Both Rasmusses had prepared stuff from home. Rasmus W had made a wonderful sorbet of donut peaches (the fruit, not flavoured donuts....) which he placed in the middle of his Yukro Shakerato. His skills continues to amaze us, he even flairs.... The judging was conducted by Kasey and Solfinn and different volunteers from the crowd for each round. The bar was packed, hot and humid, almost creating a caribbean feel (or at least hot and wet....). Luckily there was no malibu to emphasize that vibe.


There were served white russians with a twist, the mentioned Yukro peach Shakerato, G&T with coffee, a Shakerato thing more (not remembering precisely right now...) and a Sweet 'n' crisp (wierd combo of tequila, tonic, sugar syrup and extreme brewed Yukro). At the end it was a battle between Rasmus W and Samuli. Wether it was the quality of the drink or the unorthodox presentation by a slightly tipsy Samuli, rambling about love, women and Africa while grooving to Maxwell, that made him the winner of the night stays a mystery but surely we promise you a wonderful evening next time it's Coffee & Cocktails at Jægersborggade! Cheers!!!



Finally, a big up to Finnbogi for making it happen and MC O-to-the-MAR!

God Luck Ramsus !

On Friday the 17th our very own Rasmus Gamrath, this year’s danish barista champion, left for Melbourne to participate in the world barista championship – WBC.
He will be competing with our new crop Kenyan coffee from Kieni in a very personal and less is more´ set, which really showcases his daily work and service abilities. Hopefully this will set him apart from the other competitors and give him a chance to go far in the competition – We are all cheering for him.
In connection with the WBC, from 22nd to the 26th of May, we will be streaming the competition in our bars. So, come down for a cup and get to know more about the competitive side of  coffee. 

Pentecost and summer opening hours

This monday 20th May coming up is a holiday, so we follow Sunday and holiday hours like this:

Godthåbsvej 10.00 – 19.00

Jægersborggade 8.00 – 19.00


Torvehallerne 8.00 - 18.00



And we have already adjusted our general opening hours according to the brighter evenings:

Godthåbsvej

Weekdays 7.30 - 21.00

Saturday 9.00 – 19.00

Sunday 10.00 – 19.00


Jægersborggade

Weekdays 7.00 - 21.00

Weekend 8.00 – 19.00



Torvehallerne

Weekdays 7.00 - 20.00

Saturday 8.00 - 19.00

Sunday 8.00 - 18.00

Store Bededag tomorrow

Tomorrow friday is a national holiday, so here below are our opening hours:

Torvehallerne  8-18


Godthåbsvej 10-18

Jægersborggade: 8-18

Easter

This is how we anticipate Easter

We are open all easter at all locations, find out exactly below:

GODTHÅBSVEJ:


Wednesday 27/3    7.30-19
Thursday 28/3          10-18
Friday 29/3              10-18
Saturday 30/3           9-18
Sunday 31/3            10-18
Monday 1/4             10-18


From Tuesday 2/4 regular hours again



JÆGERBORGGADE:

Wednesday 27/3    7-19
Thursday 28/3       8-18
Friday 29/3           8-18
Saturday 30/3       8-18
Sunday 31/3          8-18
Monday 1/4           8-18

From Tuesday 2/4 regular hours again



TORVEHALLERNE:

Wednesday 27/3    7-20
Thursday 28/3       8-18
Friday 29/3           8-18
Saturday 30/3        8-19
Sunday 31/3          8-18
Monday 1/4           8-18

From Tuesday 2/4 regular hours again

We are hiring!

From mid-April we have a couple of open barista positions coming up - both full time (37 hrs/week) and part time (16 hrs/week - min. two shifts per week).

The job primarily consists of brewing, serving and presenting delicious coffee as well as handling money and cleaning dutires. Previous work experience as a barista is preferred, but a keen interest in learning and tasting coffee is even more essential.

We provide a full training course and many opportunities to learn and explore what coffee can be. In return we're looking for people who are committed to quality, dependable, enjoy to work efficiently and provide extraordinary service to our guests.

So if you're into coffee and service and think you could be a great addition to our staff please send in your résumé and job application to: job@coffeecollective.dk

Please make sure to write if you are interested in full time or part time work. Minimum age 18 years. Danish preferred but if you're highly skilled in coffee we can live with fluent English. For job seekers from abroad you must be a EU citizen or have a valid work VISA to apply.

Meet the Champ

A couple of weeks ago our barista and bar manager in Torvehallerne Rasmus Gamrath won the 2013 Danish Barista Championship. The week after the competition he left for a week to go with Peter Dupont to Guatemala, and visit Finca Vista Hermosa and El Diamante.

Now Rasmus is back behind the bar and on Friday he'd like to invite you all for a taste of what he served at the competition.

From 15:00 on Friday March 22nd at Godthåbsvej - our roastery and coffee shop - Rasmus will be presenting his signature drink and Kieni espresso and cappuccino. All for free!




So come by and taste some delicious coffee, brewed by the champ himself, before he going into deep-training-mode for the World Barista Championship in Melbourne, Australia at the end of May.

Colombia Micro Lot Series

Last november we launched our first ever Colombian coffee from the El Desarollo association of farmers. We've now bought four micro lots from four of the individual farmers that are members of El Desarollo. In total there's around 150 members in El Desarollo, where the larger lot we have been roasting since November is from 27 farmers. Getting these even smaller lots separated and taken through the entire dry mill processing is a real treat.


Colombia Micro lots series from Huila, Colombia. 
All four coffees are picked between august and september 2012. They're washed processed and dried on raised, shaded tables. We'll be roasting these coffees quite light - close to a cupping roast - to allow the freshness, sweetness and aromatics to shine. All of these have been processed and sorted extremely well and it's the cleanest Colombian coffees we've tasted. So we're naturally really excited to share these with you.

We'll be roasting and selling one lot at a time. Notice that the lot sizes are very different, with the smallest lot being only 16 kilos!


Helenita, Belmer Rojas Quintero
Huila, Colombia
Caramel, vanilla, redcurrant. Very sweet and clean.
Caturra og Typica.
55 kg totalt


La Esperanza, Edilfonso Yara
Huila, Colombia
Cinnamon, sweet licorice, juicy cherries. Fresh acidity.
Caturra og Colombia.
16 kgs


Buena Vista, Carlos Imbachi
Huila, Colombia
Extremely balanced with notes of orange, goose berries and simcoe hops.
Caturra, Bourbon og Colombia.
110 kgs


Resina, Pablo Emilio Rendon
Huila, Colombia
Very full bodied and syrupy. Hazelnuts, heather and lightly spicy aftertaste. Caturra, Castillo og Typica.
220 kgs


You can read about Peter Dupont's visit to El Desarollo in this blog post: http://coffeecollective.blogspot.dk/2012/11/columbia-2012.html
(I particularly enjoyed reading about the cupping with Edilfonso Yara).


On Friday March 1st at 16:00 we'll be hosting an open cupping in all three coffee shops of all four lots. The first lot from Belmer Rojas Quintero will be for sale (DKK 95,-) from then on and until it sells out.


Helenita, Belmer Rojas Quintero


La Esperanza, Edilfonso Yara


Buena Vista, Carlos Imbachi


Resina, Pablo Emilio Rendon

Danish Barista Champion: Rasmus Gamrath

We're very happy and proud to say that yesterday Rasmus Gamrath, manager of our coffee shop in Torvehallerne, won the Danish Barista Championship!

The presentation was centered around Rasmus' experiences of engaging customers in atypical setting of a Food Market (Torvehallerne), where people come for gastronomic experiences and not necessarily just coffee. In the past year and a half Rasmus has done an outstanding job in engaging people who never experienced really great quality coffee before. He used those experiences as a basis for his presentation.

The four sensory judges were served a single origin espresso from the Kieni coop in Nyeri, Kenya. This is an amazingly aromatic and lively cup with clear black currant aromas. Those aromas also shined through in his cappuccinos, which becomes almost candy-like. His signature drink included a filter brew of a lighter roast of the Kieni (brewed on Kalita Wave), tonic water and the Kieni espresso - showcasing how the flavour is altered through different impressions beforehand.



Rasmus has been with us since the opening of Torvehallerne and have worked in coffee previous to that too. He's a very well known face on the Danish coffee scene and have been instrumental in organizing the popular Latte Art Throwdowns in Copenhagen. Next week Rasmus is going with Peter Dupont to Guatemala to visit Finca Vista Hermosa and El Diamante. This is his first trip to origin and comes at a very convenient time as he's about to embark on the training for the World Barista Championship in Melbourne in late May.

Second place went to Søren Stiller, who have placed both 5th and 6th in the World Barista Championship in previous years. To be up against such a qualified competitor was quite thrilling. Søren was using two natural processed coffees roasted by himself at Great Coffee in Århus, and his signature drink had little droplets of green tomato and blood orange juice frozen in liquid nitrogen.

Also a big congratulations to our other collectivist competitor and finalist: Omar Maagaard Houssein, who placed third. His stunning presentation focused on Textures in coffee. Using a special espresso roast of our El Desarollo from Colombia, he created a 'Coffee Oyster' by a gelification process of grape juice, floating in espresso and a foam. Drunk just like an oyster it was a funny and thought-provoking experience in textures.  

The three finalist:  

All seven competitors. From left to right: Allan Juhl, Maria Hagstrup, Sarah Lindqvist, Søren Stiller, Omar Maagaard Houssein, Katrine Deleuran Petersen and Rasmus Gamrath

5 years on Jægersborggade !

On February 15th 2008 after been roasting coffee in a warehouse near the airport and doing wholesale to a few places around Denmark, we finally opened our own coffee shop on Jægersborggade. It was a big step for us back then and it was the realization of our original dream for this company: To have an open roastery and coffee shop combined.

This is what it looked like a few days before opening:


Next week it's 5 years since we opened and we're gonna celebrate that. Jægersborggade has been a second home to us and it's been amazing to see the transformation the street has undergone. From dope dealers to michelin stars.

So we'd like to welcome all our friends and followers to The Coffee Collective Jægersborggade's 5 Year Birthday Party on Friday February 15th! 

All day we'll be giving out free espressos and from 15:00 we'll have open cuppings with Peter, Casper and Klaus will reclaim the bar (and probably play some awful outdated 2008 electro-clash music) while Linus will be taking good care of everyone with lots of cake and coffee. As a special brithday treat you'll get a free bag of our first Direct Trade coffee, Finca Vista Hermosa, when purchasing our book 'God Kaffe'.

We hope to see a lot of you there for a very special day!