The Coffee Collective Blog

Kenya 2012 Part 2: Kieni, Gichathaini, Karatu and more...

2012-01-19T17:19:00.002+01:00

This second part will be a bit more about the trip we had. I had the pleasure of travelling with Mathias Peterson from Sigfreds Kaffebar in Aarhus, who we are proud to say is now solely using our coffee.

We began our trip with morning cupping sessions at Dormans in Nairobi, together with Bridget, Kennedy and Daniel. Lots of AAs and AB, which were going on the aution the following day. At first we were quite surprised how low the quality was on most of the coffees, but since this was the first auction of the season, everything was early crop. We were happy to hear that harvest this year is very big, more than double the year before and there’s a high percentage of AA.

After the cupping we became a bit concerned that maybe we had arrived too early. The early pickings just don’t taste as good as what come in later, in our experience. But two coffees stood out in that first cupping; Kieni and Karatu. However, we would see later that for our coffees the timing was perfect.

In the afternoon we drove up to Nyeri to the Central Kenya Coffee Mill, where one of my favourite cuppers is to be found; Ernest Njuguna. Not only is he a great cupper but also a very nice and laid back guy. We immediately started making a list of coffees to cup early the next morning. We selected 12 coffees based on Ernest’s recommendations, our previous experiences from cupping there and from the cupping at Dormans. It was hard to narrow it down to 12, but we managed. After several visits we have a pretty good idea about which facotries we like, and Ernest cups everything that come through the mill, so he knows which coffees are good. We had coffees from several societies, including Mugaga, Tekangu, Murue, and Gikanda.

We decided to blind cup the coffee the next morning, not to be biased towards certain factories. All the coffees except two were really good. So good I would be happy to buy and roast them. Four of them were exceptional. And three really stood out for us.

The first one was super sweet and clean and classic top Kenya, with black currant and blackberry notes. But it has an extra layer of a deep floral aroma, somewhat like Jasmine but even heavier (I’m not that strong on flowers, sorry). The second was intensely aromatic and with the best acidity I’ve tasted in a long time. Citrus, gooseberries, elderflower and a vibrant, mouth watering acidity. The last one was more full bodied, syrupy sweet with bergamot/orange peel aromas.

We pretty much went nuts over these coffees. So I couldn’t help smiling like an idiot when we turned the bags and the coffees were Kieni, Gichathaini and Karatu. The same two coffees we bought last year plus a new one. I was glad to have both Ernest and Mathias there who had agreed with me before, so I couldn’t just write it off as being used to the taste profiles of Kieni and Gichathaini.

We decided to do a second cupping, with the best ones and e few new, plus three different lots from Kieni - and also to find a coffee specifically for Sigfreds. The past three years, they’ve had coffee from the Murue Society in Embu. Another district about 100 km east of Nyeri. The factory Kianyangi, where they bought from last year, won the regional award for that area. But the Karatu really had caught his eye and just tasted amazing. Both Casper and I had loved that coffee the year before as well and know they deliver amazing quality.

In the second cupping it was again clear which coffees we wanted. And that the first picked lots didn’t cup nearly as well as the later ones. So our timing turned out to be great. Although there was only one or two lots in from the Tekangu society factories, all but the final picking was in from Kieni. And since we needed a lot more coffee than last year, we had to take two full week lots of AAs. Of course it would have been nice to cup all the coffees from the other societies as well, but we’re very happy that we’re able to continue to buy and support the Kieni and Gichathaini factories.

In the afternoon we got a tour of the demonstration plot that the agronomists, Philip Kamau and Philip Home, use to teach farmers about good growing practices. Philip & Philip are very kind and knowledgeable people and showed us a lot of stuff about how to germinate and grow coffee, insects, pests, fungi, keeping water at farm level and pruning. I could have written a whole blog post on that subject alone.

The rest of the days, after morning cupping sessions, we went to visit the different factories and societies.

Kieni
So as mentioned in my last post, Kieni is part of the Mugaga Farmers Cooperative Society Ltd. Kieni currently have around 900 active members, who elects the board and chairman. Total production this year (2011/2012) up to the week we visited was 561.740 kg cherry plus another 15.000 on the way from the very last picking, where the trees are cleaned. That will amount to around 1.500 bags green coffee for export total of all sizes and grades. They were getting close to 50% AA out of that though, which is really impressive.

Peter Macharia is the Factory Manager. In a lot of the societies the factory managers rotate on a two year basis between the factories. So Geofrey Wanjau, who was there the last two years we visited is now at one of the other mills (don’t know which one). The factory manager really is key to the success, and we heard good things about the very experienced Peter. It’s part of his job to help educate the members and he’ll determine which days the member should pick and deliver cherry to the mill. He oversees the depulping, fermentation, washing, drying and resting. So naturally we feel we should thank him for a large part of the quality we experience on the cupping table.

Charles Musai Ihatu is the Kieni Factory Chairman. He’s a very tall guy with a clear sense of the importance of continuously developing the quality of the coffee to make sure that Kieni can sell to buyers like us. We met him several times last year and also got to cup with him.

Map of the Kieni factory:

Last year we spent a lot of time at the mill, trying to understand fully what they do there. Something that had caused us a bit of confusion at that time, was how exactly the fermentation happens. We had heard numbers of fermentation up to 72 hours, which seemed like a very long time. What happens is this:

Depulping
First fermentation in first row of tanks, from afternoon/evening till next morning, approx 10 hours.
Intermediate washing. After the first fermentation the coffee is washed with clean water while it is moved into a second fermentation tank. According to one of the agronomists around 80-90% of the mucilage (that sticky sugar goo that surrounds the parchment bean) is removed in this process, but especially at that little line in the middle of the flat surface of the bean, there’s some left. Some mills only have one set of fermentation tank, which can be perfectly fine, but makes the intermediate washing somewhat more difficult.
Second fermentation, somewhere between another 10 and up to 48 hours. The last bit of mucilage will be easily removed by then, and of course it’s important that the coffee doesn’t over-ferment.
Final washing in washing channels, and grading. The grading done here is by weight of the beans. The lighter ones will flow on top and come out faster at the end of the channel. The coffee is here separated in Parchement 1 (better) and Parchment 2. Again, washing at this stage requires lots of water, and especially that all the water from fermentation and washing is cleaned before being let back into nature. Fortunately this is law in Kenya.
Soaking tanks. Here the coffee is left with clean water for 16-18 hours. Earlier I’ve heard up to 48 hours. The purpose of the soaking tanks remains somewhat a mystery to me. It acts as a holding place for the coffee if there isn’t space on the drying tables. But how it affects taste has not yet been clear to me.
Drying tables. The coffee is pumped from the soaking tanks up to the drying tables, where it dries for around 10 days to a humidity content of close to 11%.

So as you can see the whole process can take up to 72 hours. I’d like to point out straight away that all the above numbers are approximate. As any farmer or miller will tell you it all depends on when the coffee is done, which will vary a lot depending on temperature, humidity, and so on.

But actually, this year I was more interested in getting to know more about the work that the farmers do. So we went around to visit some of the member of the Kieni factory and talk to them.

John Githaga Murage

One of the farmers we visited was John Githaga Murage.
He is member no. 2016 of Kieni and his farm is right next to the mill. On it he grows beans, maize, banana, mango, avocado and of course coffee. He has around 800 coffee trees. Besides the crops he has a few cows and pigs that also provide manure for the trees.

When he bought the farm back in 1983 there were rocks everywhere. He had to move a ton of rocks (literally) to make the soil ready for growing anything. Walking around the farm you see that it’s still quite rocky compared to the deeper clay in other areas, but it’s hard to imagine there wasn’t coffee and banana trees growing there. Now he says the land is very fruitful, with good yields from all his plants.

From the 800 trees he got around 3000 kg cherry, which isn’t bad, but not as high a yield as some of the other farms. Usually agronomists and farmers are very keen to get a high yield as it signifies healthy trees and of course will give more money to the farmer, but we also speculate whether lower yielding trees might give better taste quality. In wine production you sometime remove grapes to allow more nutrients to the remaining. But of course you have to have a tree that is capable of providing enough nutrients before you would get a better taste quality.

Picking begin in October and ends December. This year it went a week into January though, because of rain in beginning of December, which delayed the harvest. In Kenya you have two harvest cycles and the other is called Fly Crop, which is harvested around May and usually is of a lower quality.

John was an amazing guy to meet and talk to, and I was glad he spoke English as my Swahili is… well… not quite there. He stressed that a few years ago he was planting more banana trees and considering uprooting his coffee trees. Prices had been so low that it was just not worth it. But the past couple of years, prices have gone up and he feels ready to produce great coffee again. ”Farmers want to make great coffee. We just have to get the right price for it!” as he said, several time. Couldn’t agree more.

We visited a few more farmers afterwards. At Peterson Muliuki’s farm we saw how the trees are cropped. His trees date back to 1956 but every 7 years they need to be cropped, or else it won’t produce enough cherry or the quality will drop. What really impressed me was the sixe of the old trunk at the bottom. The root system is from 1956 and gone very deep down into the soil. In theory it is capable of supplying a tree that could grow 10 meters high, but because of stumping and cropping, it can supply the remaining stems and ultimately cherries with nutriens and water from a much larger and deeper area. From his 760 trees he this year got between 4.600 and 5.000 kg cherry.

Gichathaini
The president of the Gikanda Society and their bookkeeper welcomed us to their beautiful office building, next to the Gichathaini mill. We talked for a while about the new projects they have going, Rainforest Alliance being one, and drank coffee. Unfortunately the coffee was a generic blend of Mount Kenya Coffee, but they had both a Skerton hand grinder and French press to brew it. We talked quite a long time about prices and Direct Trade and their bookkeeper showed us detailed accounts of the previous years’ harvest and the finances of the society. Gikanda is definitely amongst the most well run and organized society I’ve seen in Kenya.

After coffee we toured the Gichathaini mill with the factory manager Veronica Wambyi Muibiri. I first visited Gichathaini in 2007, before their impressive offices were build. Most of the mill itself hasn’t changed since then. They have however gotten a lot more drying tables since then and most of them in metal.

We also visited several other factories, Tegu, Gatina and took a day to drive to Embu to visit the Murue Society and their four mills: Kavutiri, Gituara, Kianyangi and Ngurueri. It’s a lot closer to mount Kenya with lots of tea growing in the higher regions. Generally coffee grows up to around 1.800 masl and tea above that. It was quite interesting to see the tea plants about which I feel I know very little.

Karatu
On our last day we wanted to visit Karatu, part of the Gitwe Socitey. It is in the Thika region, about 60 km north of Nairobi, close to the town Gatundu. The factory was started in 1963 under a much larger society. In 1995 the Gitwe society was formed and Karatu became part of it. The other factories are Karinga and the brand new Kifiru, which is delivering the first coffees this year. There’s 2.156 total society members and 636 members of Karatu factory.

Surprisingly to us, they had actually harvested less this year than anticipated after flowering. Frost and hail in October had destroyed some of the cherries, the manager of Gitwe society George Kib Njoroge told us. The harvest is still much better than last year though, so they weren’t worried. The Karatu factory manager is David Kanya, who this year has overseen 262.000 kg of cherry.

This coffee is for Sigfreds Kaffebar in Aarhus, who will soon open their third coffee shop. Thomas Sigfred is very devoted to developing quality and especially to Direct Trade. When you buy Direct Trade you of course have to pay for the full amount straight up, when you enter the contract. Thomas therefore has decided that he will pay for the green coffee himself, to be even further involved with the farm. For the same reason we’ll also want to keep this coffee exclusive for Sigfreds kaffebar, so we make sure there’s enough for his customers. We’re really looking forward to roast it though.

Back in Nairobi
On our last day in Kenya we took it pretty easy and enjoyed the warm weather before returning to sub-zero degrees in Denmark. But on the way to the airport we were chatting with the taxi driver, Patrick Nyagah, who we found out was a coffee farmer as well. It turned out to be a really interesting conversation, and a little bonus to the trip. He had taken over part of the farm with 300 coffee trees after his father’s death. Because of the low prices for coffee he had changed part of the farm to banana trees, but now that prices were good he wanted to return to more coffee. The problem of course is that it takes several years from planting a coffee tree till you get a good yield.

We also talked about the importance of picking only the ripest cherries. He actually didn’t pick the coffee himself, but hired pickers for it. He said, they are very poor people and he pays them as much as he can, which is 60 ksh for a container of 20 litres. This was pretty much in accordance with what we heard at Kieni, but it was a good reminder for us to keep paying good prices and make sure the money gets to the farmer. We heard over and over again how much farmers appreciate Direct Trade and that it means a lot more money to them, compared to when the coffee goes on the auction at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. I think both Mathias and I left Kenya with a feeling that we need to make more consumers as well as roasters aware of the possibilities with Direct Trade, so we can keep getting these amazing coffees from Kenya.

Kenya 2012

2012-01-17T21:19:00.000+01:00

Recentlyreturned from an 8 day trip to Kenya I will try to dot down a few thoughtswhile they are fresh in my memory. I’ve decided to split this into two blogposts. The first is a bit more general about how things work in Kenya, tryingto perhaps clear up some confusion that I’ve notice exict amongst bothconsumers and baristas. I also wanted to touch on prices this year.

Structureof farmers in Kenya

There’ssome confusing about the different names of coffees coming out of Kenya, soI’ll try to explain it briefly.

Society

You mighthave seen names like Mugaga, Tekangu and Gikanda on coffees. These are societynames. Each factory is a member of a society. In a lot of cases you can de-codethe society name. For example Gikanda is made up from Gichathaini, Kangocho andNdaroini. Tekangu is Tegu, Karogoto and Ngunguru. Mugaga is an exception tothis with Kieni, Gatina, Kiamambara and Kagumoini.

Factory

Factoriesare wet mills. They’re just called factories in Kenya. This is where themembers, or smallholders as they’re also called, deliver their freshly pickedcherries. The factory manager decides when the members should pick. At somefactories it’s every week, others every 10 days. Each member is paid 50 ksh prkilo of cherry upfront and can even get an advance on their expected deliveryof cherry, if they have bills to pay before the harvest. After the coffee hasbeen sold the factory know how much they’ve earned, the profits are paid out tothe members. By law at least 80% has to be paid out to the members, so runningthe factory can cost 20% at the most. New drying tables of repairs of machinerywill of course make it more expensive to run the factory, but a lot of thebetter factories are only taking 10-15% of the profits. Last year the membersof Kieni was paid a total of 138 ksh pr kilo cherry. Please note that this ischerry of all sizes and densities, and even though they are picked ripe therewill still be a lot to sort out. The price paid to farmers at Kieni was some ofthe highest in Kenya last year.

Members

Typicallythe factories we visited had between 600 and 1000 members. Each member istypically a farmer and his family and can have anything from 40 up to severalhundred trees. Some of the larger members hire work for picking, and othersmanage to pick their own trees themselves with help from the family.

It’s themembers that choose the board and chairman of the factory. In the Mugagasociety (and many other societies) the managers change between the factoriesevery two years.

We've decided to identify the coffees we buy with the factory name, as that's the most precise identification of where that particular coffee came from. Naturally, with 900 small farmers delivering cherry we can't identify further where it came from. If you would like to know more certain you can guess it's within an approximate 3 km radius of the factory.

Processing

The freshpicked cherry is delivered at the factory, where each member’s amount isweighed and they are given a receipt for final payment once the coffee is sold.The cherries are then depulped and put into fermentation tanks. The cherriesare delivered in the afternoon and depulping is finished in the early evening.The first fermentation goes on over night while it’s cooler and in the morningthe coffee is washed to remove most of the mucilage. It is then moved into asecond fermentation tank. Here it stays for 12 to 48 hours for the secondfermentation. After that the coffee is washed in channels with lots of cleanwater to remove the last mucilage and ensure it is clean. Then the coffee is putin soaking tanks for 10 to 18 hours before finally going to the drying tables.

At thispoint the beans are around 50% moisture and over the course of approximately 10days it is dried to around 11% moisture (10% if you count the parchement). It’simportant that the beans aren’t exposed to hard direct sun light, as they willthen crack from too fast drying. The rasied beds used in Kenya unsure goodairflow from underneath and turning the coffee often will help a uniformdrying.

Some millsuse a moisture meter to determine when the coffee has dried. But much like anun-calibrated Extract Mojo this can be dangerous to trust. Properly calibratedit can be a great tool though. Lots of millers will determine it by look andfeel, though, and can get it just as precise. After drying the coffee needs torest for about 2 weeks before it is delivered at the Dry Mill.

CentralKenya Coffee Mill

This is ourhub for quality coffee from the central region in Kenya, including of courseNyeri. The coffees we’ve cupped come through this mill and we like to do a lotof cupping here. It means we can evaluate the coffees close to the facotoriesand cup them as soon as they arrive.

At the drymill the coffee is hulled, sorted for size and density - AA, AB, C, PB, T, TTand UG (Un.Graded), and finally sorted for defects. We pay an extra premium foran additional hand sorting on top of the electronic sorting, as well as forvacuum packing in stead of jute bags. All these costs are on top of the pricewe pay directly to the farmers, on a separate contract to avoid any confusion.

Prices 2012

Last yearsprices were at an all time high, due both to very high global market price, butespecially because of the unusual low harvest last year. Low supply and highdemand simple drew prices up.

This wasgood news for farmers, who would otherwise (with a low harvest) have lost a lotof money. In stead it turned out to be invigorating news for many smallholders.Once again they could see that it can be profitable for them to produce coffee.

Manyfarmers we talked to on the trip have told us that a few years ago they wereuprooting coffee trees and changing to other crops, like banana or maize. Butwith last years high prices they feel that coffee can be a profitable crop andmore importantly young people can see a future in growing coffee. This ofcourse is significant for us as coffee roasters, and once again stresses whyroasters need to make sure that the farmers are paid well for their coffee.

This yearthe prices will probably go down quite a bit. The harvest is more than doubleof last year and there are lots of AAs (the largest size beans, which fetch ahigher price). I do hope prices won’t drop all the way back to what they usedto be a couple of years ago. Even though we paid a high price back then, it’llbe a blow to the feeling of economic rise that the farmers have seen in thehorizon. On the other hand the price for the top lots last year, were so highthat many roasters didn’t feel that was sustainable for them as well. I believethat we need to prepare our customers to pay that kind of prices for that kindof quality. We cannot expect farmers to produce quality if consumers are notwilling to pay for it.

Pictures

You can view pictures (with titles and description on some) on a little Flickr slideshow here:

New Espresso Blend and Fresh Daterra

2012-01-09T17:38:00.003+01:00

It seems we have forgotten to share a pretty important detail with you good folks that follow our blog and Facebook site: We have received and started roasting the new crop of Daterra Sweet Collection. As always a fresh coffee that has just arrived tastes better than the year-old crop and it gave us a chance to dial in the roast profile further. We hope you’ll enjoy it. We roast this coffee with espresso in mind. That’s where we think it tastes the best. But many of our customers enjoy it on french press or filter, where the low acidity and heavy mouthfeel also has its place.

See all the pictures from Linus’ visit to Daterra last summer in this Flickr set or in the slideshow below.

At the beginning of the new year we have also changed our espresso blend. We wanted to do try out something new and have decided to make it a blend of four coffees from two producers. Again it’s the Daterra Sweet Collection making up the majority of the blend. There’s just no way around how much we love that coffee for espresso. But we’ve added 15% of Daterra’s Organic Reserve which is a bit more fruitful. Then we have two different week lots from Kieni in very different roast profiles. One is roasted with the same profile as our old blend, which for espresso is relatively fast (relative to our Daterra roast profile anyway). This brings out the floral and light fruit notes in that coffee. The other lot is quite the opposite. A much slower roast with a different temperature curve that lowers the acidity quite a bit but keeps the darker berry notes of blackcurrant and cherries adding a very oily mouthfeel to the espresso.

The blend consists of:
55% Daterra Sweet Collection, Brasilien
15% Daterra Organic Reserve
15% Kieni Lot 15, Kenya
15% Kieni Lot 17, Kenya

Both coffees are available in our coffee shops and webshop.

Christmas Opening Hours

2011-12-19T15:25:00.001+01:00

Christmas is near and we'll be closed for a few holidays.

Torvehallerne

Closed December 24th, 25th and 26th

Open 9.00 - 20.00 from 27th till 30th.

Open 9.00 - 15.00 on the 31st.

Closed January 1st but back to normal from the 2nd.

Jægersborggade

Closed December 24th, 25th and 26th

Open 10.00 - 18.00 from 27th till 30th.

Open 10.00 - 14.00 on the 31st.

Closed January 1st but back to normal from the 2nd.

Webshop is closed between Christmas and New Year.

Last deliveries before Christmas will be sent out Tuesday December 20th and next delivery after that is January 3rd 2012.

We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas gifts

2011-12-06T12:03:00.001+01:00

As the merry season is upon us, we've gathered a few gift ideas for the coffee interested.

Both stores have the gift box with 3 Weeks From Kieni at just 250,-

You can also buy 6 small cappuccino cups + a bag of Espresso for 250,- (save 54,-)

We also have the Hario Skerton hand grinder. If you don't know it, it's an awesome little manual grinder with ceramic burrs. At 325,- it's an amazing product and great for travelleing too.

If you want to try more coffees we have our Taster Pakke for 260,with 4 different Direct Trade coffees.

In Torvehallerne we're now selling the Hario V60 and filters. You can get it as a package with a bag of coffee for just 175,- The perfect hostess gift. Includes our little V60 brew guide.

At Jægersborggade we've stocked up on Aeropress and they are only 238,- also including a brew guide.

We hope that leaves you with some options to put under the Christmas tree!

3 Weeks From Kieni

2011-11-28T10:39:00.001+01:00

To showcase the subtle nuances in coffee, that we as cuppers get to experience and come to love, this month we'll be roasting three different lots from Kieni and sell as a package.

The three lots are from three consecutive weeks, harvested the first three weeks of December last year. The lots are called Lot 15, 16 and 17 as that are the week numbers from beginning of the harvest in Nyeri, which is what the coffee millers in Kenya work with.

Kieni is a cooperative wet mill, or Factory as they prefer to call it in Kenya. There's around 300 members of the mill, where each member is usually a family, growing coffee as one of many crops on their land. The families grow and pick the coffee cherries and bring them to the wet mill. So a wet mill is usually the most defined "producer" of coffee you can find in Kenya beside the (usually very large) privately owned farms.

At Kieni the lots are separated by weeks. So for each week lots you will have different families bringing in cherries and the climate and conditions for the fermentation will change week from week. This leave subtle differences in the week lots, but overall the Kieni mill delivers a very high standard. For us some of the absolutely best coffees we've ever tasted from Kenya.

Our goal with this little package is to allow you as a consumer to taste those differences that all too often is limited to the cupper's table. It's essential that you brew this coffee using accurately filtered or bottled mineral water. Copenhagen tab water will ruin the nuances.

You can read the report from our visit to Kieni earlier this year by clicking here.

The Kieni Week Lots will be available only in our two coffee shops from Wednesday at 17.00, where Casper will be hosting an open cupping of the three lots at Torvehallerne.

Barista DM Info

2011-11-21T10:59:00.001+01:00

Barista i DM Infoaften

Kom og hør lidt om hvad Barista mesterskaberne egentlig går ud på, og hvordan du kan forberede dig på at stille op.

Barista Verdensmester 2006 Klaus Thomsen vil fortælle om konkurrencen og give tips og tricks til hvordan man kan skrue en præsentation sammen. Der vil være rig mulighed for at få besvare spørgsmål og få hjælpe til at finde på signature drink osv.

Arrangementet er åbent for alle baristaer, der kunne ha interesse i DM, og du er også meget velkommen selvom du ikke tænker på at stille op i år.

Det foregår nu på onsdag, d. 23. November 2011 kl. 19.00

The Coffee Collective
Jægersborggade 10
DK-2200 København N
T +45 60 15 15 25
www.coffeecollective.dk

Barista Jam at Torvehallerne

2011-11-03T15:56:00.000+01:00

Throwdown at Torvehallerne November 10th

It's time for the first Latte Art Throwdown in Torvehallerne. Come and challenge your colleagues on the infamous Spirit espresso machine. You don't need to be a master of the milk or a barista champion to be in on the fun.

Bring 10 Danish Kroner to enter and the winner takes the pot. Of course anyone is welcome to just come by and look on and cheer for your favourite barista. It's gonna be a cozy evening in any case.

Thursday November 10th 2011 at 20:00
The Coffee Collective Torvehallerne
Vendersgade 6D
1363 København K
Rasmus@coffeecollective.dk

The Dutch are funny !

2011-10-17T17:06:00.001+02:00

From The Village Coffee & Music in Utrecht.

Dutch Linus says: "DUDE", Dutch Casper says: "SWEET" this week's special:The Coffee Collective espresso! We couldn't be more excited!

New Bags

2011-09-07T10:30:00.001+02:00

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

2011-09-05T10:39:00.002+02:00

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

2011-09-05T02:40:00.000+02:00

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

2011-09-01T15:49:00.000+02:00

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!

New Espresso from Kieni

2011-08-12T09:07:00.000+02:00

Today we're lauching a new espresso from the Kieni wetmill in Kenya.

It's an aromatic bomb with loads of sweet fruit and berrylike acidity. Citrus, black currant and cherries stand out in the aroma. We think the aftertaste is amazing and in milk those aromas just pop out and you can feel a funny balance between the acidity from the coffee and the sweetness from the milk. On it's own the mouthfeel is oily and coating. It's probably not an espresso for everyone (read: people who's afraid of acidity) but for those seeking wild aromas and an intense espresso this should be interesting.

If you want to know more: Taste it.

It's in the grinder at the coffee shop right now and available on our webshop.

Copenhagen tips

2011-08-11T14:15:00.001+02:00

With the Nordic Barista Cup coming up and generally a lot of people visiting Copenhagen these days, we're getting a lot of emails, facebook and twitter messages asking for advice on where to go. So I thought I'd just sum up some recommendations for you all. This is by no means a ranking and there's lot of other good places around and I'm sure to forget about some. I'm also not gonna bother with writing long descriptions. Just click the links and check it out.

Restaurant Relæ - must visit!
Manfreds - will re-open September 2nd. Relæ's little brother.
Aamanns - Smørrebrød to perfection.
Fiskebaren - great seafood in the meat packing district.
noma - but really, you can forget about getting a table.
Geranium - some say they're equally good as noma.
Kiin Kiin - Michelin star thai restaurant. Awesome.
Oubæk - just really good food. (Boeuf Bearnaise FTW!)
Den Røde Cottage - a bit outside CPH but extremely good and beautiful.
Geist

Mikkeller Bar - probably the best beer bar in the world. You have to go there!
Meyers Bageri - one of the best bakeries in Denmark/Europe/The World
Sing Thehus - if you'd like some fantastic tea.
Ved Stranden 10 - when you get in mood for some fantastic wine.

Coffee crawl you'll have to figure out yourself, but we do have a map of places with our coffee here.

Vis The Coffee Collective på et større kort

New Barista Courses

2011-08-01T12:12:00.000+02:00

We have put up new barista courses for the next half year on our webshop:

www.coffeecollectiveshop.dk

There's is one course per month. If a month sells out we'll try to put an extra course up the same month.

This is our home-barista course aimed at enthusiasts with an espresso machine and grinder at home. We'll focus on espresso preparation, grinding, dosing, distributing, tamping, extraction and of course tasting lots of espresso shots. Milk steaming will also be covered with a focus on the cappuccino. Finally we'll go through cleaning procedures of the equipment. These classes are in Danish and with a maximum of 5 people, so everyone will have time on the machine.

Torvehallerne-more and more physical

2011-07-26T10:40:00.021+02:00

Our new store is starting to be built up. In the coming weeks it will more and more resemble our drawings.

As mentioned the idea is to have a good dialog over and aside the counter. Therefore you can still see it as a kitchen table where you gather to talk- a very big kitchen table. We have kept the level at a height where the customer feels comfortable and invited- and at the same time to have a height where the barista can work efficiently.

There will be a front table where we face the customers and prepare coffee and behind it a back table where there is room for zinks, dishwashers, storing etc and of course a big surface to work on.

Sample from previous works of GARDE HVALSØE.

To build this bar we have teamed up with GARDE HVALSØE, which is a carpentry firm that does pretty much anything. They are very good at kitchens and they have an eye for details in wood that is exeptional. They have some really good craftsmen throughout the firm and we have had a very intense and creative dialogue with them.
Elmwood will be used for the main structure and fronts. The tabletop will be made of a kind of granitestone- all black.

Detail GARDE HVALSØE

For lighting all this up we asked Møller og Rothe (specialists in light) to help us. There will be a lot of daylight in the bar, but we need a bit more artificial light to make the bar as transparent as possible for the customer and facilitate the work of the barista.
Møller og Rothe came up with a proposal that puts light right where we need it.

Illustrations from Møller og Rothe

All in all, the aim for this new store is to bring people together and taste coffee, and cupping sessions will be regular.

We have always wanted to do a lot more public cuppings than we could at Jægersborggade, and now this will finally be possible in an easy way.

New Store Opening: Torvehallerne

2011-07-05T15:00:00.012+02:00

After three and a half years on Jægersborggade we feel ready for the next step for the collective: Opening a second coffee shop!

At the end of the summer we are going to open at Copenhagens new food market Torvehallerne.

Torvehallerne is a project that has been a long time under way. We first heard about it and saw the initial architect drawings about 8 years ago. The idea for a new food market was originally promoted by architect Hans Peter Hagen in the place where Copenhagen's original market for vegetables, fruits and flowers had been. Israels Plads, as the square is called, is situated perfectly, right next to Nørreport Station - the busiest traffic point in Denmark, accessible by both metro, train, bus and of course by bike.

There will be two main buildings; one for fish, meats and dairy products, and one for groceries, bread, fruits, vegetables and of course coffee. We applied for a specific spot at the very end of the latter building facing south. The sunlight hits that area around 11 o'clock and is there until it sets over the park to the west (Ørstedsparken). It's a beautiful spot with a great atmosphere and lots of people around. We will have seating outside so you can enjoy the sunny days there or take your coffee with you.

When we opened the shop on Jægersborggade we had one goal in mind: We really wanted to show people what the barista is doing. Too often the customers can't see the craftsmanship of the barista, and with our reversed, open bar we have had great success in sharing brewing tips with customers on a daily basis. With the new shop we want to continue that idea of an open, transparent bar. But at the same time we felt the need to do a more efficient bar, that doesn't get as cramped as Jægersborggade on a Saturday. Both ends of the bar will be open, allowing folks to watch and at the same time be able to talk to the barista over the counter.

Coffee-wise we're keeping things relatively simple. You can expect the same quality coffee drinks as you're used to on the Jægersborggade shop, but we're also building a designated brew bar, which will focus on filter coffee. We both want this to be an opportunity for customers to taste each of our single coffees brewed by the cup and for them to engage in conversations about the coffee. At the same time we're working hard to ensure that it's efficient, and that the whole process can be fast.

However, we don't want to take focus away from espresso either. We love espresso. Most of us start our mornings with a delicious cappuccino. And that's something we want to share with our guest along with exploring the espresso possibilities even further. We're hoping to be the first to present a very exciting espresso machine in the new shop and we'll write more about that later. Finally we're also going to host public cuppings, that will be open to anyone who'd like to join.

There's a lot of ideas right now, and we'll try to keep you posted on the progress. We're very excited about it all and look forward to share some extraordinary coffee with a new crowd as well as those who's followed us for years.

Daterra, Cerrado, Brasil 2011

2011-07-05T11:36:00.000+02:00

As you have seen, the coffees from other farms and countries have been coming in to our roastery these last weeks. Here on the Daterra farm in Brazil the harvest has just started, or to be more exact, it started a month ago. And we will get our share of green beans from Daterra in November/ December.

We will talk a bit about the cyclus of this farm during

a year, but a also tell bit about some major development of equipment, and last but not least- what will the coffee of this year taste like ?

Klaus was here last year and he wrote

an excellent description of the coffee bean fr

om seed to green bean- ready to be shipped to the buyers around the world. I will take a slightly different approach and focus more on what is happening on the different stations of the farm each month of the year.

Actually I won´t. Carlinhos Borges will. He is quality manager, an outstanding cupper, roaster and follows the coffee around the farm. On the photo above he is watching the cherries together with Gabriel.

I asked Carlinhos to resume a year at Date

rra, month by month, in 5 minutes.

Carlinhos Borges, Daterra 28jun2011 by linustorsater

Here is the english summary:

January

---------

Rainy. Preparation of ground- fertilization and correcting the acididity in the soil with calcium.

February and March

------------------------

Removing weed, which can be very dense

April

------

Cleaning the ground around the plants to make it accessible for harvest machines.

May

-----

Very important and intense. Preparing and adjusting all the equipment: for example harvest machines, wetmill and drymill.

June July August start of September

-------------------------------------------

Harvest- all the cherries are picked and processed including those on the ground (which are of course a separate category).

September

-------------

The trees are stressed after harvest, lost many leaves and the flowering cyclus is starting.

Cleaning the paths and pruning.

October

----------

Rainy season starts. Fertilization

November

------------

November is the single most important month for shipping out coffee.

For many of the employees this is when they take holidays. Many parts of the farm goes into a slower pace.

December

------------

Fertilization

Holidays for many.

NB- there are of course single things missing in Carlinhos desription, it is a general impression of a typical year rather than a exact agenda.

About equipment and the taste (hint: deep and sweet)

For all farms the most important resource are the peo

ple working there. But all farms also need the proper equipment. Daterra is actually going beyond that and putting all lot of research into developing equipment what never existed before. We have written before about the sortingsystem for example.

The wetmill at the Boa Vista is now replaced by a rath

er impressing piece. It is not only newly built- it has some features never seen before. Simply put does it pulp cherries into 7 different qualities or categories. A normal wetmill would handle 3 categories- green, red cherries and overmature. This one has more depulpers set after eachother including a more soft and flexible adjustment that handle the beans more carefully.

I wont go more detail how it does that, but in the end makes it possible to get a certain taste to your coffee.

To top off, Daterra is also constructing a huge wa

terrecycling plant.

And the taste is sweet this year. A very profound sweetness. This is not so much because of the new equipment, but the beans have been maturing very well. Going around the fields, there was almost only red cherries on every branch, and they were deep red. When we cupped the samples you could taste the siropy berries back to the trees.

Daterra was struck by a hailstorm earlier this fall and lost about 10 % of all the berries. Of course that was a disaster for the farm, especially since the orderbook is since long and roasters around the world are expecting to buy. The upside is that harvest is of very high quality, we just have to bear that we can´t get as much as we want.

So expect deep red sweetness from Daterra.

Roskilde

2011-07-04T16:12:00.000+02:00

Thanks to everyone who came by our coffee shop at the Roskilde Festival. We had an amazing time and it was nice to see so many of our regulars drop by. We served around 6.000 cups of coffee in those three and a half days the music was playing, so we're pretty satisfied.

Our BMX rider Niels Thanild was one of the organizers of the BMX show out there and sent us a few pictures:

It's been a great festival for sure with many memorable concerts. We hope to see you all there next year!

Roskilde Festival 2011

2011-06-27T13:03:00.000+02:00

The Roskilde Festival is about to start. The camping area is already full, beers are being drunk and music is being played. And again this year we're ready to serve some tasty coffee for the hungry masses together with Manfreds / Relæ. We've assembled a great group of baristas and is packing up the La Marzocco and Mazzer Robur as I'm typing this.

You can find us the same place as last year, next to the Gloria stage:

The menu will be very simple again this year; espresso, cappuccino, caffe latte and iced latte, but this year we'll be brewing up some delicious filter coffee in stead of americanos, for those in search of great tasting black coffee. We'll be shifting through Finca Vista Hermosa from Guatemala, Kieni from Kenya and Daterra from Brazil.

See you there!

Worlds Brewers Cup

2011-06-21T22:13:00.001+02:00

A couple of months ago our barista Torfi won the first Danish Brewers Cup - the competition for black, filter-style coffee as opposed to the espresso-centered Barista Championships.

This week the World Brewers Cup takes place at the SCAE show in Maastricht. You can read more about that at SCAE-events.com. On Wednesday June 22nd Torfi will compete and represent Denmark, and of course we hope he'll make the finals on Thursday.

In any case he will be joined by Christian, who placed 2nd in the Danish Barista Championship. Together they'll be brewing up our fresh crop Kenyans, Gichathaini and Kieni, for the good people attending the SCAE show. This will happen at The Village - a new area focused on showing new trends in coffee and some of the new specialty coffee roasteries around Europe. So if you're at the SCAE look for Torfi and Christian and ask for some great fresh coffee.

La Esmeralda 2011

2011-06-20T11:53:00.000+02:00

As you might know we were fortunate to get a lot (#ES8-16) of this years La Esmeralda Special.

Tomorrow, Tuesday 21st, we're roasting the first batch for sale. If you place an order in our webshop before noon tomorrow we'll send it out the same day.

On Wednesday, June 22nd, from 14:00 to 16:00 we'll be giving out free samples of Aeropressed La Esmeralda Special in our coffee shop. Come by for a taste of one of the worlds most aromatic coffees.

As last year, we probably won't be roasting this coffee every week, but will post on our Facebook page when we plan to roast it. If you order several coffees together with Esmeralda in our webshop, please notice that the entire order will wait for next Esmeralda roast.

AnneStine's WBC 2011 afterthoughts

2011-06-17T15:48:00.000+02:00

So my run for the WBC ended with a decent 15th place this time. Only 9,5 points separated me of being in the semi-finals. Overall the championship has been a great experience.

Sara and I came down Friday the 27th, doing some preparations for practice time on the machine the following days, finding milk and getting ourselves situated.
Klaus came down the following day with more coffee and his celebrity glamour, so we were ready and in shape for a two-hour training session the following day.
Anxious to see how the local milk would taste and appear in combination with my coffee, what the water would be like and of course there’s been a lot of talk around how the espresso will react to such high altitudes, we were an excited little group of people with many questions entering the training space at Amor Perfecto.
We tested some different roast dates and found the oldest date (17/05) to be the absolute best. Having this high an altitude makes the crema of the espresso expand more, making it very bubbly, so using beans that have de-gassed a lot work better. We practiced with local fresh milk, but found the milk we brought from Denmark to be better in what we were looking for in terms of flavor and texture. A big thanks to Leo Corleone for bringing some additional milk and coffee for us all the way from Denmark.

The next day we were on our way to Armenia and a 2- day coffee trip sponsored by Café de Colombia. We visited coffee farms; saw the coffee research facility of Cenicafe, Juan Valdez funpark and much more. It was an amazing trip from start to finish. Also great to see that there are serious focus on bringing right information out to the farms themselves, giving them tools to produce good quality coffees.
Back in Bogota we had our official practice time, the day before the competition itself. It was a nerve-wrecking and intense few hours. As the Mazzer Robur grinder was stuck in customs and would be arriving as my practice time was done and over with, we had no grinder to practice on. At that point everything was looking a little black as we would only have 15 minutes the next morning to dial in the burr set that we brought with us from Denmark, also dialing in both roasts and test the very limited amount of Danish milk we had.

Lucky for us we were very fortunate. Unsure if it was because of my desperate look in my eyes or not, but the lovely Marcus Boni let me split my 1 hour practice time in two parts, and squeezed me in for 30 minutes very early the next morning to set my Robur.

The WBC back room

I used my first day practice time on milk steaming and the lighter espresso roast was set to perfection, all there was to do now was to go home, do some mental training and get lots of sleep.
That didn’t happen. After having a very nice relaxing massage the same night I was feeling a bit low, and very drowsy, and I couldn’t sleep at all, in the halfway between sleep and being awake I kept going over the different parts of my presentation. So waking up at 5am, with a fever that is, was more a relief if anything.

We arrived at Corferias where the competition took place and were quick to get our gear in shape due to the short amount of time we had. It went well, with expertise assistance from Sara and Klaus right next to me.
Still feeling lousy and building an even higher fever, I was not feeling fresh or ready to compete at all, so I stuffed myself with some painkillers, went had my mental training for a small hour and got myself amped for competing.

This was IT! Getting out on stage and setting up was the best part ever. I didn’t feel nervous, I was calm, and my hands didn’t shake as I was preparing the cupping, as they normally do when I’m nervous. The shots I pulled from both espressos also tasted incredible, so I felt very secure on my dial in and the roast dates we’ve had selected.

My 15 minutes started, I was giving my introduction and went to prepare my first shots of espresso when something went very wrong. The grinder was acting really weird. The dose, which had been set perfectly with minimal amount of waste in my preparation time had suddenly changed, and a lot more coffee came out. I decided to go ahead and make both double shots, wasting a lot of coffee as a consequence of the higher dose. I quickly saw the shots weren’t running as they should, so in the heat of the moment, I bluntly stopped them without wasting more time. I could almost hear Klaus’ heart jump from the sideline. I remade the espresso and the second set was better, although not as good as I’d have liked.

The rest of the presentation went ok. I knew that I was very limited on time and had to do things very disciplined and pick up the pace to finish in time, which I did, with a finish time coming in on 14:51 minutes.

The next two days I was in bed with a fever. No energy and not eating anything much but watermelon, so I can’t say I was in my top form. Sara even had to stand in for me when announcing the semi-finalists.

Unfortunately for me there were 14 great baristas doing a better job on the score sheets, so there was no need for me to prepare myself for the next day, which I was very disappointed not to do. The semi-finalists were all excellent and well deserving semi-finalists, I only wish I could have gotten that second chance.

Semi-finalists announcement (with Sara standing in)

Watching the finals on Sunday was amazing. The roof almost lifted when Alejandro Mendez from El Salvador was announced the winner. What a great performance, great concept and a truly great ambassador for specialty coffee this man will be. I’m very excited to follow him in the coming year. I wish him the best of luck!

I would like to thank a few people that have really stood behind me and beside me in this little adventure.

First I would like to thank The Coffee Collective for giving me loads and loads of support creating solid frames and great guidance all the way thru the process. It has been truly amazing to feel the engagement from your side.

Then my two key persons I could not have done anything without. Sara Sundby; my coach and right hand all the way from the Danish champs to the WBC. You have been such a star! And Mathias Skovmand Larsen; food chemist and the Man of mans when it comes to innovative thinking in gastronomic ways. You have spent more time on this then I ever could imagine, Thank you!

Then we have all the tasters, and judges throughout my training and practice presentations, for taking the time, giving great feed back and golden advice along the way.

I would like to give big thanks to Edwin Martinez and the whole Finca Vista Hermosa team, for the great help of getting the new crop Finca Vista Hermosa to the roastery in time for WBC. I know how hard you worked for the beans getting here fast enough.

To Eva Solo, for everything I needed in glassware, utensils, serving trays etc. - I got it pronto. Uh la la Julie for helping out with signature drink cups even though she gave birth a week before the WBC, Paco Jet for sponsoring the machine for WBC, to Roger Wittman and La Marzocco USA for amazing assistance on the Mazzer grinder to and from Bogota. The help from all of you has meant a great deal to me.

Thank you!

Cupping Extravaganza

2011-06-15T19:03:00.000+02:00

Prior to the World Barista Championship I had the opportunity to attend the Cupping Extravaganza held by Virmax and Hacienda El Roble. The extravagant part was that we were going to cup 31 varietals from one single farm. Actually we were about to cup both species and varieties. If you want to know more about this I can highly recommend this article.

Varieties are all the rage in the coffee world right now, as you probably also noticed in the WBC presentations. However, it's quite rare that we can confidently say we're tasting the varity. Different varieties take to different climates, soil conditions, altitude and so on, so linking a single variety from one farm doesn't mean you're necessarily going to like it from another. From the cupping I've done of different varieties in different countries I have become more and more convinced that general, broad characterizations of varieties' flavours are probably not possible at the moment. The terroir and processing plays too big a role. Even tasting several varieties from one farm can be misleading, because quite often the farm expands over a large area and the varieties might be exposed to different microclimates and terroir.

All this had me so much more intrigued by the idea of cupping these 31 varieties from one far, grown at the exact same area of the farm and processed the same way. And with all the controversy surrounding the new high-yielding Castillo I think it's even more important to support experimentation with varieties based on taste. Just think how successful Hacienda La Esmeralda have been due to great tasting varieties.

I must admit I had little expectations to the event, as I didn't know who was going to attend and how serious it would be. It surpassed any expectations I could have had, though. Firstly, the group that attended was awesome. Mie from 49th Parallel, Jenny Howells from Terroir, Mark Dundon from Seven Seeds, Russell Beard from The Source, Tal and Zachery from Four Barrel, Bjørnar from Kaffa, Ryan Brown from Stumptown and many many more really great coffee people attended (we were up to 20, so sorry for not naming everyone here!). It was such a nice mixture of people I've known for a long time and new acquaintances. And definitely some very experienced cuppers. Mark and Russ came straight from the Honduras Cup of Excellence, so they were very calibrated.

Russ

Mie & Ryan

Next I was happy to see how professional Virmax was running the competition, following CoE procedures. It's just so nice when the organisation around a thing like this is running so smoothly that you can focus 100% on what's in the cup. A big applause to everyone at El Roble as well for being so timely and precise with coffee, water, timing etc. First day we cupped three tables (11, 10 and 10) with proper time between each table to relax pour taste buds. The next day we cupped the Top 10 from the previous day.

The 31 varieties we cupped were actually out of a total of 72 varieties and species that are being grown at El Roble's coffee garden. We took a tour of the garden and I think it's safe to say everyone was impressed. It's astonishing how different the plants look. I've seen a lot of the different species and varieties in other places (for example last year at the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas) but here were even more varieties in one place. The leafs range from tiny and narrow to big round ones, that remind you of rhubarb leaves. I took a bunch of pictures, but I'm too poor a photographer to really capture that sort of thing. Besides the look of the plant you can taste a huge difference in the cherry itself and especially when sucking on the mucilage.

Not all the varieties are producing enough cherry yet to process, roast and cup. I think Virmax had gone through something like 50-60 of them and after their initial cupping some could be sorted out and some there simply wasn't enough left off to roast and cup. But I also felt that 31 was quite enough for us to cup.

So what were the results?

Well, overall the difference in flavours on those tables were astonishing! There were just as much variety in flavour on those tables as a lot of roasters have in their entire assortment. And that came from one little area of one farm. We had some that tasted like earthy Indonesians, others like nutty Brazils, but more excitingly we had flavours reminding of the great Kenyans coffees and one that I would have bet was a well grown Geisha (but it wasn't).

The top two coffees are mysteriously labeled "HR" for Hacienda el Roble. Until a few weeks ago the people at El Roble thought the HR61 was Coffea Liberica and the HR62 was Coffea Racemosa. Two other species of coffee, hence it was not Arabica. However, the chief scientist from the Colombian national coffee reasearch center Cenicafe was at El Roble to validate the different varieties. But he could not confirm it was those varieties, because of different characteristics (like a bronze-colored tip leaf). Unfortunately he couldn't confirm which varieties they then are. Coffee's genome has not yet been decoded, so it's not possible to confirm from the DNA. So for now those two will just be labeled "HR".

The HR61 was incredibly floral with loads of jasmine, coffee blossom and also citrus fruit, orange, bergamot. A very very good coffee that really excited me. The HR62 was my second favourite. Also extremely aromatic but more fruit-tones, like peach and pear turning into berries in the aftertaste.

The SL28 was a little wild and crazy and we suspected that the fermentation would need to be different for that variety. It didn't present the clarity that we're used to. Some scored it really high while some flunked it for being too fermented. Borderline coffee for sure.

One of my favourites, although apparently the scorekeeper read my sheets wrong (I wrote 89 but can see how it could look like 84) was the Moka/Mocca. Super sweet and creamy with a lovely vanilla aroma in the aftertaste. It was particularly when it cooled that you noticed it. It didn't scream out as the more wildly aromatic ones, but made of for it in sweetness and mouthfeel.

I'm not gonna get into detailed descriptions of all the varieties as this post is already long enough. But the Mibirizi on the last table was stunning as well. Very sweet and almost a perfumed scent of melos mixed with rosehips and lemons. Quite light mouthfeel but very delicate.

Overall I'm really looking forward to more of this kind of thing. We need to encourage farmers to try different varieties. If you go through Latin America the same 8 varieties are grown almost everywhere. Now of course Esmeralda became a bit of a game changer making the Geisha famous. But the Geisha only performs well in some areas at certain altitudes. And there might be 10, 20, 50 other varieties out there that would be just as good or even better if matched with the right conditions.

Farmers that I've spoken to would like to try other varieties, but their primary concern is making a living, and higher yielding plants will still give more money in the end. So if we want those better tasting varieties out there, we need to be ready to pay a lot more for them and make it financially interesting for farmers to produce them.

I'd like to thank Oswaldo Acevedo, the owner of El Roble, and his entire amazing staff for hosting us and engaging in this experiment. Also thanks to Giancarlo Ghiretti and Alejandro Cadena of Virmax. And finally to the others in the 'little' group. It was great fun to get to know everyone there.

Slideshow with all the pictures from the Slurparama:

Gichathaini our New coffee from Kenya

2011-06-06T12:27:00.000+02:00

When Casper and Klaus was in Kenya earlier they found an excellent new lot from Kieni. But they also tried coffees from other producers and they fell in love with this particular lot from a producer we have worked with earlier - Gichathaini.

It has these extreme floral notes that is only found in very few lots from Kenya each year. An to our experience these notes are also very fragile. Therefore we roast it very very light and with lots of heat applied both early and late in the roast profile.

You can tried it in the coffee shop from tomorrow (tuesday 7th of june). There will be free samples at 14.00 and 17.00 hours.

New Crop La Esmeralda Special - DELAYED

2011-06-03T09:36:00.002+02:00

After several month of empty shelves we are very happy to announce that we have been able to get hold of lot of the New Crop of Hacienda La Esmeralda!

Because of delay in shipment it will not be ready Tuesday 7th unfortunately as earlier annouced. It should be ready for sale on Tuesday 14th of June instead.

At 14.00 hours and 17.00 hours on Tuesday 14th it will be possible to taste free samples in the Coffee Shop!

World Barista Championship 2011

2011-05-30T15:40:00.001+02:00

Thursday 2nd of June untill Sunday 5th Bogotá, Columbia will host the World Barista Championship 2011. We are very proud to have Anne-Stine and her team (Sara and Klaus) representing Denmark at the Championship.

Training in Bogotá

We will celebrate the event by offering You to taste Anne-Stines espresso in the Coffee Shop - just ask for her espresso (its also great in cappuccino)!

From Thursday we will live stream from the Championships at the Coffee Shop. We will live stream all the competitors within our normal working hours!

If you are not able to come to the coffee shop you can watch the live stream here

Big Time !

2011-05-26T14:35:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow we leave for the 2011 World Barista Championship in Bogotá, Colombia !

We know we haven't been blogging much about AnneStine's presentation since the Danish Championship, but rest assured that she is well prepared and ready to go.

With the great support from Edwin Martinez of Finca Vista Hermosa we managed to get some boxes of this year's fresh crop flown in to Copenhagen a few weeks ago. We have been able this year to cup 14 different microlots from Edwin, from which we've decided to buy 3. The lot AnneStine will bring to the WBC is called Cypresal, and is actually the same microlot she had picked for the Danish Championship. We've been dialing in the roast, cupping like crazy and AnneStine has made us a LOT of espressos from it. It's turned out beautiful and now we're really excited to taste it on Bogotá water at 2.600 meters!

Edwin at Finca Vista Hermosa in February

AnneStine is right now packing all her stuff and checking her lists. It's always unbelievable to see how much stuff the baristas need to bring for this competition. It's taken AnneStine's faithful coach and helper, Sara (Bar Manager at our coffee shop) a lot of time to simply organize the logistics around this whole thing. Getting a Robur 110V version to Bogota isn't so easy, when you're in Europe. But we've gotten great support from a lot of people, both here in Denmark, in the US and locally in Colombia. So now things are all good to go.

Yesterday we had the (very last) Grand Rehearsal for AnneStine and were so lucky to have some really good people to come judge. Big thanks to Björg from Café Europa, Yara from Estate Coffee and Troels from Kontra for coming in and acting judges. We can't think of a better opportunity to test AnneStine's nerves and get some final feedback on the whole presentation.

Tomorrow we leave for Bogotá. We're very excited. "We" unfortunately is not the whole collective. As much as we wish we could all go, our travel budget is spent on visiting the farmers we buy from, and someone needs to make sure there's coffee available for our customers here in Copenhagen. So besides AnneStine will be Sara and Klaus. We hope others will support them in cheering loudly.

We look forward to see everyone at the WBC and for those of you stuck at home, you will be able to watch the Live Streaming of the WBC at The Coffee Collective! More details will follow.

AnneStine is set to compete on the first day of the WBC, June 2nd at 11:06 Bogotá time - that's 18:06 Danish time. We're sure we'll be able to hear the roaring crowd across the globe!

New Crop Kieni

2011-05-25T13:54:00.001+02:00

The fresh crop from Kenya has arrived!

We're very excited to be able to present coffee from the Kieni wet mill again this year. It's the first time we've bought coffee from the same wet mill two years in a row in Kenya, and we're very excited about it. Our wish is to build a relationship with the farmers we buy from, and shopping around every year for a new coffee isn't going to do that. So when Casper and Klaus were in Kenya in January and cupped many different coffees, they were glad to find that Kieni this year was the best on the tables for us.

We hope you would like to go back to January on our blog and (re-)read our post from the trip:

Nyeri: http://coffeecollective.blogspot.com/2011/01/nyeri-kenya.html http://coffeecollective.blogspot.com/2011/01/nyeri-kenya.html

Kieni: http://coffeecollective.blogspot.com/2011/02/kieni-2011.html

The latter one contains a lot of information on this particular coffee for those of you that want to know more.

The taste profile of this years lot is very similar to that of last year, as we also noted when we cupped it down there. But the fresh crop of course tastes... well... fresher! Much more pronounced acidity and sweeter. We're also getting a lot more gooseberry aromas on top of the blackcurrant, and the intensity of the aromas are spectacular.

The coffee is available from today in our coffee shop and online.

BREWDOWN Thursday 19th May 19-21hs

2011-05-13T20:49:00.001+02:00

This time we will focus entirely on brewing techniques. No milk.

Torfi Torfason (who recently won the danish Brewers Cup) will guide us through the some simple but often forgotten methods to do really good coffee.

There will also be a small competition for the brave ones.

...and a lot of chances to mingle with your barista collegues that we hope will come from all over town- everyone is welcome !

BREWDOWN Thursday 19th May 19-21hs
at The Coffee Collective
Jægersborggade 10

Baristaer søges

2011-04-15T10:54:00.000+02:00

Fra sommeren søger vi 1 fuldtids barista og 1 deltids (2-3 vagter/uge) barista. Vi får stadig mere travlt og har derfor brug for flere baristaer.

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 senest 1. maj 2011. Mærk ansøgningen med "deltid" eller "fuldtid" samt kontaktinfo incl. emailadresse.

Venlig hilsen,

The Coffee Collective

Jægersborggade 10, kld.

2200 København N

email: mail@coffeecollective.dk

2011 Danish Brewers Cup Champion: Torfi !

2011-04-12T13:52:00.000+02:00

This weekend the first Danish Brewers Cup was held. It's a competition focusing on black coffee. The past years we've seen an growing interest in different types of filtered coffee. From regular drip brewers, over Clover, to Siphon, Aeropress, V60, Woodneck, Chemex and on and on. Each of these can present interesting aspects of a given coffee, but it also seems like there are some clear favourite darlings in the specialty coffee world at the moment.

The Brewers Cup competition is a venue to explore all these brew methods. In the first round all baristas must use the same coffee, which they are handed a few hours before and allowed to experiment with to find it's optimal brew method or recipe. This is judged purely on taste. If they make it to the finals, they get to use their own coffee and present it to the judges. It's judges 70% on taste and 30% on presentation.

3 of the 4 competitors (3 people had signed up but didn't show up) in the Danish Championship had chosen the exact same coffee (although different roast dates): Our Kieni from Kenya ! They didn't realise this until the competition began. Hurrah we say!

In the end our barista Torfi took the victory. He's a chef by education and has worked at some of the best restaurants in Iceland and Denmark, including Ensemble and Umami. Last summer he decided his enthusiasm for coffee was bigger than his need to work in gourmet kitchens and he came to work for us. He's been cupping a lot lately and been experimenting a lot with dialing in the coffees. It paid off.

Huge congratulations to Torfi from the rest of the collective!

And good luck in Maastricht!

Meet the champs

2011-04-06T16:24:00.000+02:00

Friday April 8th from 15:00 - 20:00

Come taste samples of AnneStine's and Christian's signature drinks and get a free espresso of the Cypresal Espresso AnneStine used to win the Danish Barista Championship.

New Opening Hours

2011-03-28T09:52:00.000+02:00

The summer weather and long evenings are here! Sort of...
So, starting today we're expanding our opening hours:

Monday - Friday 7.00 - 21.00
Saturday 8.00 - 18.00
Sunday & Holidays 8.00 - 21.00

We hope this mean people can get an earlier start on their day and enjoy the coming summer evenings more.

AnneStine on TV

2011-03-22T15:23:00.000+01:00

Yesterday both DR1 and TV2/Lorry had segments with AnneStine.

Click here to see DR1 Aftenshowet on coffee

And click here to see the TV2/Lorry segment

(Sorry, embedding isn't possible so you have to follow the links)

We hope you enjoy it !

2011 Danish Barista Champion: AnneStine!

2011-03-14T14:04:00.000+01:00

This weekend the 2011 Danish Barista Championship took place at Dansk Kaffe Show in Århus.

The three finalists were:
AnneStine Bae, The Coffee Collective
Christian Ryberg, The Coffee Collective
Mathias Arguimbau, Café Norden / Estate Coffee

They were all using different coffees from The Coffee Collective.
AnneStine used the Cypresal microlot from Finca Vista Hermosa, that we featured a few months ago. Christian used a special roast of our Kenyan Kieni. And Mathias used our Espresso Blend and a Kenyan from Estate for his signature drink.

The finals this year looked really solid. It's great to see that the baristas have prepared themselves so well and are so focused on their presentation and the taste of the drinks they're serving.

After a gruesome wait the results were revealed.
1st place: AnneStine
2nd place: Christian
3rd place: Mathias

CONGRATULATIONS!

You can see a slideshow of our pictures here

Dansk Kaffe Show now on 10th-13th March 2011

2011-03-08T11:12:00.001+01:00

On Thursday it is time for THE danish coffee event again. In Århus. Everyone involved in specialty coffee gathers once a year to make a show where you can come in to see, try and discuss coffee. There will be many things happening that will be fun to follow- it is an open show where everyone can find something interesting. It doesn't even matter if you drink coffee in the first place.

There will be places where you can try coffee and watch competitions gathering the leading coffee people in Denmark.

This event is the Bocuse d'Or of coffee in Denmark. Those who do good here will represent Denmark in the international competitions this summer.

We wish everybody good luck in their aspirations and of course especially our competing collegues.

You can read more about Dansk Kaffe Show if you click on DKS or SCAE.

See you in Århus !

Kaffevand i Danmark

2011-02-23T15:33:00.003+01:00

This post will be in Danish since it specifically concerns water for coffee brewing in the danish context.

Hvis du bare vil have det hurtige svar på hvilket vand du bedst brygger kaffe på derhjemme så kommer det her:

Køb kildevand med (bi-)karbonat indhold under 50 ppm. Hvis ikke det står angivet som (bi-) karbonat kan det stå som HCO₃- eller måske endda bare HCO-. Om der står 50 ppm eller 50 mg/l gør ingen forskel.

Den lidt længere historie kommer så her:

Omkring 98,5% af din kop kaffe er vand. Ligesom Carl Jacobsen vidste hvor vigtig kvaliteten af vandet var for hans øl, er det vigtigt at man som barista ved, hvor vigtigt vandet er, for at få det fulde udbytte af ens kaffebønner.

Generelt er hanevandet i Danmark rent i den forstand, at det kan drikkes direkte fra hanen og sammenlignet med andre steder i verden er der sjældent nogen bismag (med undtagelse af lidt klor nogle steder). Problemet er bare at kalkindholdet er meget højt og at kalk neutraliserer mange af de smags- og aromabærende organiske syrer i fine lys- og mellem ristede kaffer.

For at få det optimale ud af dine bønner derhjemme, bør du derfor købe kildevand til at brygge på. Specielt hvis du brygger mellem- eller lysristede kaffer. I hanevandet er der mange steder i Danmark et karbonat-indhold på omkring 200 ppm (eller mg/l), mens der i kildevand typisk er fra ca. 100 ppm og ned. For smagen er det dog bedst at komme under 50 ppm. De kildevand som er under denne grænse vil typisk skrive det på deklarationen, mens du godt kan regne med, at hvis ikke der står noget, så er karbonat-indholdet mindst 100 ppm.

Hvad de forskellige vandtyper i grove træk betyder for smagen er skitseret i følgende tabel:

Vandtype	Indhold af karbonat-ioner (ofte anført på flasker som bikarbonat eller HCO₃-)	Gode vaskede kaffer smager
Hanevand	200 ppm	Fladt og bittert
Typisk kildevand	100 ppm	Medium livligt og aromatisk
Meget rent kildevand	under 50 ppm	klart, friskt og aromatisk

Alternativt til at bruge kildevand kan man filtrere vandet. Hertil anvendes forskellige typer vandfiltre. Generelt set er alle vandfiltre baseret på en af tre teknologier (eller en kombination af disse) - Kulfiltrering, Ionbytning eller Omvendt Osomose. Jeg vil ikke gå ind i en nærmere beskrivelse af de enkelte typer, men blot holde mig til det der er direkte relevant for kaffens smag. Hvis du overvejer at investere i et filter så find ud af hvilken af disse typer filtre der er tale om og lad dig ikke stoppe ved sælgerens forklaring om "at der er tale om en helt anden og ny type filter!"

Kulfitrering har den primære effekt at tilbageholde store og mindre smags- og aromabærende molekyler, heriblandt klor. Nedenstående princip-skitse illustrerer dette:

Men som det kan ses af skitsen ændrer kulfiltret ikke på indholdet af kalk i vandet! Så det beskytter hverken maskiner eller smag mod kalk!

De mest udbredte vandfiltre til kaffemaskiner er baseret på ionbytning. De fjerner den del af kalken, som kan give problemer i maskinerne. Desværre fjerner disse filtre ikke den del af kalken, som neutraliserer syrerne.

Når kalk opløses i vand, opløses det i kalcium-ioner (Ca²⁺) og karbonat-ioner (CO₃^2- og HCO₃-). Ionbytterfiltre tager som regel kalcium-ioner (Ca²⁺) ud af vandet og bytter dem med natrium-ioner (Na+). Ionbyttere fjerner altså kun en del af kalken, men ikke karbonat-ionerne. Desværre er det karbonat-ionerne, som neutralisrer syrer i kaffen og dermed dræber livlighed og fine aromaer. Og resultatet er en langt mere flad og bitter kaffe. Nedenstående princip-skitse illustrerer hvordan almidelige ionbytter filtre virker:

Der er udviklet enkelte ionbyttere som bytter Kalcium-ioner ud med H+ ioner. Disse H+ ioner kan "neutralisere" karbonat-ionerne. Som illustreret i følgende princip-skitse:

Da karbonat-ionerne er væk neutraliseres færre af de naturlige organiske syrer og syrlighed og aroma bliver derfor ikke ødelagt på samme måder som ved andre ionbyttere. Det farlige ved denne type ionbytter er at H+ ionerne gør vandet meget surt og det kan ødelægge kaffemaskiner. Specielt espressomaskiner hvor vandet er under tryk bliver hurtigt tærret op af ionbyttere som tilsætter H+ ioner til vandet! Desværre ved vi at disse filtre stadig sælges til espressomaskiner selvom den medfølgende manual eksplicit siger at de ikke må anvendes til espressomaskiner. Så læs manualen grundigt før du vælger dit espressomaskinefilter!

For professionelle baristaer eller mere ambitiøse hjemmebaristaer mener vi, at fremtiden ligger i filtersystemer, som fjerner karbonat-ioner uden at forsure vandet - som eksempelvis Omvendt Osmose baserede anlæg. Man skal dog passe på med hvilket system man bruger, da nogle af disse systemer potentielt kan være dårlige for ens maskine. Hvis vandet er for rent (har et meget lavt mineral indhold - ofte målt som Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)) kan korrosion forekomme specielt i espressomaskiner.

Hvordan omvendt osmose virker kan ses i følgende princip-skitse:

Da det danske vand er relativt rent kan man lave en blanding af omvendt osmose behandlet vand og rent hanevand for at få mineralindholdet lidt op. Hvis man får karbonathårdheden op på ca. 40-50 ppm, vil det beskytte maskinerne bedre mod korrosion. Eventuelt kan man sætte et kulfiter på overløbet så man får fjernet kloren i vandet.

Vil man være helt sikker på ikke at korrodere sin espressomaskine sætter man først et almindeligt ionbytter filter på sin vandtilførsel. Herefter sætter man et omvendt osmose filter med et overløb med kulfilter på.

Vi er igang med et større arbejde for at finde frem til et omvendt osmose baseret filtersystem som både optimerer smag og maskinbeskyttelse. Men vi skal have lavet flere eksperimenter færdige før vi kan præsentere arbejdet nærmere. Indtil videre kan jeg blot løfte sløret for nogle preliminære tests som måske kan være brugbare for dem som gerne vil videre med bedre vand for kaffen allerede nu:

Vi har lavet nogle test af blanding af rent hanevand med omvendt osmose behandlet vand. De har vist at vi finder den bedste smag for almindelig brygning (filter, stempel, aeropress m.m.) ved en blanding med 5-10% hanevand (fra København som har totalhårdhed på ca. 300 ppm og karbonathårdhed på ca. 200ppm, TDS ca. 500 ppm) med 95-90% omvendt osmose behandlet vand (med TDS på 30-35 ppm). TDS i dette optimale vand var: 70-100 ppm og total hårdhed på 30-50 ppm og karbonat hårhed på: 25-40 . Til espressobryging vil vi dog anbefale at man laver en blanding som kommer op på en karbonat hårdhed på ca. 40-50 ppm. Hvilket med vores vandtyper svarer til 10-15% hanevand og 90-85 % omvendt osmose behandlet vand.

The Coffee Collective celebrate 3 years!

2011-02-12T09:45:00.000+01:00

Tuesday February 15th

The Coffee Collective roastery and coffee shop on Jægersborggade turns 3 years.

We celebrate with free espressos the entire day and from 17:00 a special coffee drink on the La Esmeralda Special and Mikkeller's Beer Hop Breakfast with TCC coffee on tab.

Come celebrate with us!

The opening day on Jægersborggade. Yes, it's been 3 years now.

Last year's birthday party. Kid party style.

Kieni 2011

2011-02-08T21:21:00.001+01:00

Well back from our trip to Kenya it's due time to share a little more of our experiences.

First of all, yes we bought an amazing lot of coffee from the Kieni wet mill.

As we wrote in the last blog post we were really hoping that the quality of their coffee would match last years. For us as a roastery it's not very satisfying to be shopping around for coffees from different farms or coops every year. We know the farmers depend on a good income to be able to produce quality. In Kenya however we've had difficulties relying on one mill, though. Perhaps because the top quality there is so outrageously good that and cupping there is like the best Cup of Excellence. We have really been hoping to build a relationship with the farmers there and this year it's the first time we're buying from the same mill two years in a row.

Casper with Kieni Factory Chairman Charles Musai Ihatu on the left and Factory Manager Geofrey Wanjau in the middle

On this trip we cupped around 300 different lots of Kenyan coffee. Around 100 of them were AA lots. Of them probably 10-20 was something we'd consider buying. Not to say there weren't some great coffees in the rest, but just not what we're looking for.

The Kieni had it though. The taste profile was very similar to last year. Heaps of black currant and dark berries but also some lighter citrus and floral notes came through this year. It still has that huge velvety mouthfeel and deep lush acidity. But it seems even sweeter and just more intensely aromatic. It's gonna be so much fun to nail the roast profile and see what we can get out of this coffee.

Naturally it was very interesting for us to find out if Kieni does anything different than the other wet mills in the area. The mill is definitely very well run by Geofrey. He strike us as very serious about the production, keeping things organized and clean. The Kieni factory is not the most impressive or beautiful we've seen in Kenya, but it's situated really well. The area where the drying tables are placed is almost shaped like a bowl, with a small valley at the end. This means the lots of air is coming through the area. The air is also not too warm, allowing for a cooler bean temperature while drying, thus reducing the risk of mold and fermentation processes at that stage.

Drying Tables at Kieni

The factory also has two fermentation tanks. It's common in Kenya to ferment the coffee for 8-16 hours after depulping in the first tank and then do an intermediate washing before fermenting the coffee again for some hours. With two tanks the intermediate washing can be done more carefully and thoroughly. After the first fermentation around 90% of the mucilage is removed. The last 10% is mainly in the middle crack in the bean and is then broken down during the second fermentation part. After that the coffee is washed in the washing channels and then put in soaking tanks in clean water, where they can be left for usually 6-12 hours but as long as 48 hours.

The Wet Mill:
Recieving Station at the top, depulper in middle, the two rows of fermentation tanks under the bottom roof and finally the washing channels.

After the washing process the parchment coffee is pumped from the soaking tanks onto the first drying tables for skin drying. The first tables are slanting a lot to let the water run off and the coffee contains around 55% moisture. After skin drying the coffee is moved to the more flat drying tables, where it's dried to 10%. It's important that the drying doesn't happen too fast, and for that reason the coffee is covered to avoid direct sunlight. It's also turned over constantly to allow for even drying and the raised tables of course allow for air to pass underneath and up through the coffee. The drying at Kieni takes around 7 - 10 days.

After drying the coffee is rested for another 2 weeks in a warehouse to stabilise the humidity inside the individual bean and throughout the entire batch.

One 'lot' on Kieni is typically one week's total harvest. We cupped lots from other weeks as well and they were also extremely good. The best surprise came the day after we had visited the Kieni mill. We had just decided that we were definitely going to buy one particular lot from Kieni, which had really stood out. As we were trying to arrange calls to the farmers, their marketing agent and our colleagues in Denmark to sort it all out, the Chairman and Factory Manager plus one of the board members from Kieni arrived at the Central Kenya Coffee Mill, where we'd been cupping. They were delivering that weeks lot from the factory.

It was a great pleasure to make the agreement with them right there and then, but even better was that we were able to cup their coffee together with them and talk more about our relationship with them. They are extremely happy to make direct sales. First off it gives them more money in their hands. This is the most important thing. Secondly, they take great pride in knowing where their coffee goes to. We had brought them a couple of bags of our roast of the Kieni we bought last year, and they had been really happy to show the farmers that this is where their coffee was going. As the chairman, Charles, told me, a lot of the farmers don't realise that their coffee makes it further than the factory. So they were happy and proud to see the factory name on the bag. He encouraged us to bring more bags next year. Will do.

One last thing that really struck us when we visited some of the farmers around Mugaga, was the incredible biodiversity there. It looks nothing like you see at larger farms. The coffee trees are growing right in the middle of lots of other trees: Bananas, mango, tree tomato and many other fruits all in a big mixture.

This is what a "farm" looks like around Kieni:

We also visited a lot of other societies and wet mills around the Nyeri region. Some we have bought from previously and others are cupping great or interesting in another way. Unfortunately we can't buy it all. But everywhere we went people were extremely hospitable and eager to explain what they are doing. Everybody we talked with also spoke very highly about the direct trade system, and they confirmed that is more profitable for them than selling through the auction.

A big thank you to Kieni for showing us around and selling us an awesome lot of their delicious coffee. Thank you to Bridget Carrington from Dorman's for a good time in Nairobi. Also a big thank you to Philip Kamau from C.M.S. for explaining SO much about coffee growing and processing in Kenya to us. And especially thanks to Ernest Njuguna from C.K.C.M. for picking out some awesome coffees for us to cup. He's an amazing cupper and a guy we really respect.

Casper and Ernest

We are now waiting eagerly for the Kieni lot to go through an extra hand-sorting and then get vacuum packed. It will then be carefully packed and the shipped in a container to Copenhagen. Let's hope there's not too many pirates in the water... Meanwhile you can enjoy the full set of pictures on Flickr or drink some of last year's Kieni or Gatina.

As part of Direct Trade we visit the farmers we buy from each year. You can see pictures and descriptions from each trip in our Flickr Origin Trips Collection.

Nyeri – Kenya

2011-01-18T19:15:00.010+01:00

We (that’s Casper and Klaus) are back in Kenya. Casper was here last year, but it’s been four years since Klaus was last here. And it’s good to be back!

See the full set of pictures including descriptions on Flickr

Monday we spent all day at Dorman’s in Nairobi cupping somewhere between 100 and 150 different coffees. Most of it lots that were going on the auction the day after. We’re not buying coffees through the auction, but in stead we buy it directly from the farmer. The cupping was great, though, to get an overview of what’s available this year and in general to get in shape for cupping these high-acidic Kenyans. Dorman’s is probably the most quality-orientated exporter here in Kenya and we have a great relationship with them. They’ve helped us setting up our own Direct Trade relationships here and are paid separately for the work they do. Bridget, who’s our main contact, is always fun to be around and some of you might know her from her judging duties in the WBC. It was also nice to see Jeremy Brock again and Kennedy, who are both terrific cuppers.

Casper, Tim and Morten cupping at Dormans

This morning, Tuesday, we left Nairobi in the morning to drive up to Nyeri. First stop was the Central Kenya Coffee Mill where Ernest was ready to greet us with a cupping. The coffees here are even fresher and tasted amazing.

Central Kenya Coffee Mill

After the cupping we went to visit the Kieni factory - the wet mill or washing station, as it’s also called. We’ve been exceedingly satisfied with the lot we bought from Kieni last year and are hoping to buy from them again. However, “Taste Is King” and we’ll buy the coffee that stands out on the cupping table. On the other hand we’d also like to support the same factory and society year after year, like we do in other places. It comes down to a balance, but we think we’ve found a great society in Mugaga.

Kieni is part of the Mugaga society. To explain, a society is a coop of several factories. Mugaga has Kagumoini, Kiamabara, Gathuga, Gatina and Kieni under their umbrella. Last year we bought lots from the latter two. Other roasteries call their coffees by the society name, Mugaga in this instance, but we prefer to have the traceability of the wet mill as the primary name. The president of the Mugaga society welcomed us to their headquarters and we talked for a while about the challenges they face.

This year in Kenya, the harvest is extremely small. It was small last year too, but it’s even worse this year. With the C-market price being very high, and supply being low too, the coffees are getting historically high prices. However for the individual farmer it does not compensate enough for the very low yield they’ve had this year. We all need to pay a lot more for coffee, if we want quality coffee in the future. And we need to guarantee that the farmers and pickers receive the money. Fortunately all the farmers we talked to say that they benefit a lot from selling directly to roasters. They get a higher price, which is the most essential thing.

There’s some good news in here though. There’s more AA - that’s the largest size beans – this year, and the beans are huuuuge! That’s not necessarily an indication of quality, but from what we’ve hear and what we have cupped, the flavor quality of the coffee this year is better than last year.

At the Kieni Factory talking with the factory manager Geofrey Wanjau and Coffee Management System's Philip Kamau

At Kieni we saw a lot of interesting things. It’s amazing to see these more than 50-year-old trees growing side by side with banana, mango many other trees. The biodiversity is huge and there’s a lot of shade from the higher trees. We were guided though the way they process the coffee at the wet mill, which varies slightly from mill to mill. We want to share all the information we got with you, but the internet connection here is quite slow and it’s gonna be much better with pictures.

After Kieni we visited the Kagumoini factory, which is also part of the Mugaga society. It’s probably the most beautiful coffee mill we’ve ever seen. Pictures doesn’t do it justice. They were very nice and welcoming and we had a great time there. ~~Pictures will follow once we’re back.~~

In the afternoon we did another round of cupping and there were some really spectacular coffees on the tables. We could easily have bought some right there on the spot, but we’re doing another couple of rounds of cupping tomorrow, and really look forward to it.

~~Sorry for the lack of pictures. We’ll try to update again soon.~~ Many greetings from Kenya!
- Casper & Klaus

UPDATED: Now with pictures. Finally.

If you want to read more, click here and here for last years report

Last roast of the Cypresal Espresso

2011-01-14T09:09:00.000+01:00

The limited lot of Cypresal has almost run out. So the last batch of it will be roasted on Tuesday.

You can order it now on the webshop and we'll send it out Tuesday afternoon.

We've been extremely happy with how this espresso turned out. One of my personal best coffee moments of 2010 was tasting that espresso for the first time. Expect chocolate, roasted almonds, caramel, toffee and fully ripe orange.

For those not familiar with the coffee, it's a single microlot from the Finca Vista Hermosa farm in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. It's a different lot than the one we currently offer as a lighter roast for filter/french press. They grow three varieties at the farm: 70% Bourbon, 15% Caturra and 15% Catuai. It's depulped, fermented, washed (very thoroughly) and then sun dried. We've bought coffee directly from Edwin Martinez for the past four years now, and look forward to visiting again in late February.

Casper trying to help out on his visit in 2010

Printa Café, Budapest

2011-01-05T12:35:00.004+01:00

At the WBC in London back in June we met a young man from Budapest, Hungary. His name was Tibor Várady and he was looking for a coffee supplier for the coffee shop he was about to open. At first we were a little resistant about sending our coffee that far, but Tibor hadn't been able to find anything locally that he was really happy with. And when he said he was willing to travel to Denmark for training and to see our roastery and talk with us, we could tell he was very enthusiastic about the project.

So back in August Tibor came to Denmark for a week. We cupped a lot, had some great barista training and he got to hang out at the roastery and coffee shop and just talk coffee. We got to know him as a very friendly and passionate guy, who is really keen to learn more about coffee and share it with his guests in Budapest.

In September he opened his coffee shop. Inspired by WBC champ Gwilym Davies's coffee shop Prufrock inside Present, a clothing shop, Tibor had found a great location in the shop Printa. It meant that on his very limited budget he could invest in really good equipment (La Marzocco Linea and Mazzer Robur E) in stead of a huge down-payment on a location.

Tibor is serving Hario V60, Aeropress, Siphon, Filter and French Press depending on what people would like and what he feels up to with a given coffee. He's been great in giving us feedback on how the coffees are tasting on his equipment and water and we think the shop looks amazing.

Pictures by Anita Szeicz
See the full Flickr album here

Xmas Extras!

2010-12-20T14:39:00.000+01:00

The last two batches of La Esmeralda Special have sold out faster than anticipated.

So for those seeking a really special coffee experience over the holidays we'll be doing an extra roast of the Esmeralda tomorrow. Webshop orders will be sent out straight after roasting, but cannot be guaranteed to be delivered before Christmas. It will of course as usual also be available in our coffee shop.

The Esmeralda is now also included in our special offer the Taster Package containing 6 of our coffees.

The only coffee not included is the limited edition Cypresal Espresso, which we're also roasting again tomorrow. We've had amazing feedback on this espresso, and are happy to see how often we've been roasting it. Read more about it here.

Lastly, for those looking for last minute Christmas gifts, we've put up an extra Barista Course on the webshop. January and February are already sold out, but there's still room in March and April.

Opening hours Christmas/ New Year

2010-12-17T12:08:00.003+01:00

We are approaching Christmas, this is how we are open the nearest weeks:

Saturday 18 dec: 9-17
Sunday 19 dec: 10-18
Monday 20 dec: 7.30-20
Tuesday 21 dec: 7.30-20
Wednesday 22 dec: 7.30-20
Thursday 23 dec: 7.30-18
Friday 24 dec: Closed
Saturday 25 dec: Closed
Sunday 26 dec: Closed
Monday 27 dec: 10-18
Tuesday 28 dec: 10-18
Wednesday 29 dec: 10-18
Thursday 30 dec: 10-18
Friday 31 dec: Closed
Saturday 1 jan: Closed
Sunday 2 jan: 10-18

New Crop Daterra

2010-12-11T14:41:00.000+01:00

The 2010 harvest of Daterra is here!

The harvest at Daterra came a bit early this year and thus we've already received our container of this year's crop. Usually it takes a few months longer before the coffee is processed, dried, rested and shipped, but we're happy to have the new lot in before Christmas.

You can read about the visit to Daterra back in August here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I also finally got around to putting the video clips I took together into a small video. Sorry for my lack of editing skills, but I just wanted to show some of the stuff that's going on at the farm during harvest.

Daterra 2010 from Klaus Thomsen on Vimeo.

The new crop Daterra Sweet Collection will be on our second espresso grinder in the coffee shop for at least the next week. We hope you'll enjoy it!

Cypresal Espresso

2010-12-01T15:16:00.000+01:00

Available from today is our single microlot espresso from Finca Vista Hermosa:

Cypresal Espresso

Chocolate, roasted almonds, caramel, toffee and fully ripe oranges are some of the flavours that come to mind. It's totally right for Christmas. A beautifully balanced, sweet and delicious espresso.

This is a limited microlot and we're planning to roast this the year out.

It's available in our coffee shop and webshop from today.

Esmeralda Roasting

2010-11-29T12:53:00.000+01:00

For Christmas and due to high demand at the moment we've scheduled an extra roasting of Esmeralda the coming month.

So we'll be roasting a batch tomorrow November 30th and again on December 14th.

Orders through the webshop will be sent same day as roasting:

http://www.coffeecollectiveshop.dk/shop/la-esmeralda-special-210p.html

[KÅ] Kaffebar

2010-11-19T12:18:00.000+01:00

In Holbæk, about an hour west of Copenhagen, Henrik Roloff last year opened a small coffee shop with the intent to bring quality coffee to his home town. He's worked really hard on making the most of the small location, and did pretty much everything himself. The result is one of the nicest looking coffee shops I've ever seen in Denmark.

He's uploaded some pictures to his Flickr, that I just had to share with our readers.

You can see a few more here.

What you can't see (unfortunately) is his kick-ass Robur E and La Marzocco Linea. Good equipment for a coffee shop of that size. He's also serving french press and sells bags of whole beans. If you happen to be in Holbæk visit him at Smedelundsgade 2

Home Barista Courses

2010-11-10T08:24:00.001+01:00

More TCC Home Barista Courses are now available. And you know it's the perfect Christmas present for your coffee-loving loved ones.

Dates are:

All days from 17:30 till 20:30

You reserve your spot and pay via our webshop: http://www.coffeecollectiveshop.dk/shop/kurser-6c1.html

LatteArtThrowdown 17 nov kl. 19-21

2010-10-26T16:27:00.000+02:00

We will host another LAT very soon- a Latte Art Throwdown.

Wednesday 17th November kl. 19-21

Don´t miss out. If you never tried it before, it is now you have the chance to try. And if you already tried- well then you know how much more there is to this somewhat silly competition.

So pop in to have a chat and just meet people around coffee- we do know that you will be pouring milk no matter what.

La Marzocco Strada

2010-10-22T12:21:00.000+02:00

For the past two and a half months we've been so fortunate to do field testing of the new prototype La Marzocco espresso machine Strada MP.

There's two versions of the Strada coming out. The MP is the Manual and the EP is the Electronical programmable version. The other prototype has been installed at our good friend Tim Wendelboe's place in Oslo and he did a great write-up on his blog here: http://timwendelboe.no/2010/08/la-marzocco-strada-first-thoughts/

The big thing that everyone's been talking about with the Strada is Pressure Profiling. Not just the manual pre-infusion that you can do on other machines, but actual control over the pressure during the whole extraction. So, for instance, you can ramp the pressure slowly up to 9 bars over 8 seconds and then decrease the pressure again towards the end. Or anything you can imagine.

Many have asked us "Do we really need another variable when it comes to espresso??" and I'm sort of inclined to agree. If you are still struggling to get your shots consistent than perhaps this isn't the machine for you. But if you are looking to get the last few percentages out of that particular single mill Kenyan, then I think you'd want to consider the Strada. And boy can it make some tasty shots!

But I don't want to make this post all about pressure profiling. I actually think that even if this machine came without it, I'd still buy it!

We absolutely love the openness of the machine, especially the exposed groups. It’s a machine that really puts the barista back in touch with the espresso and makes you feel so much more engaged in the whole process.

There's a lot of nice details on this machine; like the hot water mixing valve being accessible from the front so you can adjust the temperature of the hot water very easily. And the botton for the hot water is cool just on it's own. It’s also a really cool feature that the pressure gauges on top of the group heads move up when you increase the pressure.

The large drip tray is really nice. It’s super easy to clean with a cloth and you have great working space. The drip tray can be put in two different heights, depending on how tall cups or glasses you use in your shop. I still dream of a system that's adjustable on-the-go with a small hydraulic lever, but I digress..

Each group has it's own boiler, so you can adjust them separatly to 0,1 degree Celcius accuracy. The water entering the boiler has already passed through a heat exchanger, so it's basically a the same accuracy as most older HX-type espresso machines, before the PID takes over. This way you can have one or two groups set for your espressoblend and leave one optimized for a single origin if you want.

The pressure is adjusted on the paddle on top of each group. The feel is really nice, although the adjustment is a bit tricky. Very little movement can be a big change in pressure. Sort of like adjusting the grind size on a Mazzer... But once you get the hang of it, it becomes really really fun and engages you in the brewing process more than any other espresso machine I've tried. Honestly I think for a coffee shop the EP version makes more sense, as you can then save your profiles and repeat them by the push of a button. And you can transfer them into a computer software where you can manipulate them further. We felt that on busy days, or when there is just one barista working it was impossible to do pressure profiling. You just can't be moving the paddle accurately while you are steaming milk for a cappuccino.

We've played around with different profiles, mostly for our espressoblend. In the beginning we settled on four basic profiles, that were quite different to see what the results were. I have to admit it's been very difficult to gather exact results. It seemed to vary from time to time, what we preferred. We quickly found out that different profiles requires different doses, and thus different grind adjustments to perform well. And then you need to be extremely consistent to get the profile right again and again.

What we did get was a very broad range of flavours from our blend, ranging from clear marzipan sweetness to wild berry juice. We found that too long (+10 seconds) build up of pressure in general didn't deliver very aromatic or sweet shots. We set the maximum pressure to 9 bars, where we usually set our machines to 8,5 bars. I had very varying results from ramping the pressure down towards the end. Sometimes it worked really well and other times it brought out more bitterness. Not sure what to think of it. On one hand it makes sense to have lower pressure towards the end so you extract less at that stage, but then again it also means you might have longer contact time between water and coffee at exactly that stage, so I dunno...

Now it's time for La Marzocco to get the machine back. First it will be going to an Out of the box event and later back to the factory so they can see what wear and tear we've put on the machine. As with any prototype there has been a few "children diseases" and we've sent the team at La Marzocco a 4 page summary of our experiences with the machine. We still don't know when the machine will be available for purchase, but contact your local La Marzocco distributor if you want to know more.

This afternoon we'll be tasting the last few shots from some different pressure profiles and then we'll just have to wait till La Marzocco are ready to roll them off the production line.

New Roaster

2010-10-15T15:18:00.000+02:00

The new roaster is up and running.

It's a Probatone 12 - the new version.

We decided to get a new roaster mainly because the old, Probat L12, cannot roast and cool at the same time. You have to take the air flow either through the roasting drum or the cooling bin. With the new one, even though it's the same size, we can roast more in the same time.

The new roaster also has a larger burner giving us more room to play with different roast profiles. There's also the opportunity to log roast electronically on a computer. Plus the cooling time is quicker. All in all it's a bunch of small improvements that together became significant enough that we thought now was a good time to change.

A few months back Peter tested 4 different roasters from Diedricht, Giesen and two from Probat. When we decided on this new Probatone, it's not to say the others weren't great roasters and for other roasteries and different styles of roasting those machines might be a better fit. But both in terms of taste (we blind cupped the roasts from the different roasters) and in terms of possibilities with roast profiles this was the right choice for us.

We've been doing tests all week on it now and been cupping the results. Today's cupping showed great results and we already have managed to dial in to the same taste profiles that we had before. Now we can - as we always do - try to optimize the roast profiles even more and see what can be improved further. We still need to get the roast log software to work but that should also be a big help.

Oh, and we also painted the whole shop and got some maintenance done while we were closed, so come on down to a sparkling clean coffee shop!

Intelligentsia Chicago, IL

2010-10-11T19:23:00.001+02:00

After spending 4 amazing days in Panama, we headed back up north to Chicago, where Intelligentsia Coffee has their HQ’s.

The 2010 World Champion Barista, the wonderful Michael Phillips who works at Intelligentsia, treated us with two amazing days filled with visits to the three different Intelli Coffee Shops around the city of Chicago as well as getting the big tour of the Roasting Works.

Day one started out with Peter and myself (AnneStine) biking up in beautiful sunshine to the Intelligentsia Shop on North Broadway, where the Original coffeeshop opened back in 1995. Back then the coffee shop also housed the Roastery, using a 12 kilo Probat roaster, which is the same brand and size we at the Coffee Collective currently are using.

Being the oldest bar out of the three shops, it has a very special atmosphere, where people from the neighborhood sit down with their laptops, and regulars pop in for their morning coffees.

Michael gave us a good tour of how the bar was set up, also with the change to a coffee menu that does not state the brewing method, Only presenting the selection of black brewed coffees of that day. This is to let the main focus stay on how a certain coffee is best tasting, rather then brewing method.

Next stop was the Monadnock coffee shop downtown Chicago. This building creates a great frame for the style of this particular coffee shop, with 6 feet thick exterior brick walls and nice, clean lines through out the space.

The look of the bar takes you back in time, thinking of old espresso bars in Italy, with marble tabletops, dark wood and tiled floors. Baristas in the bar also wore either vests and tie or suspenders, really underlining the atmosphere.

This shop is so different from the Broadway shop, adapting to its neighborhood, made out of business buildings and a more fast- paced environment.

Third but not least, we visited the Millennium Park location. This shop has a more open, streamlined and contemporary feel to it with high ceilings and big windows, really picking up the area with Millennium Park (filled with new architecture and art installations) just around the corner.

At Millennium Park You can either sit at the bar, getting a good chance to talk to the baristas working, or sit around the big wooden table, creating a space for people to interact more easily, an idea I personally really love. A great space indeed!

All three Locations really has its own thing going on, presenting how to make a coffee shop work in very different neighborhoods, without being over the top or a cliché.

The Roasting Works was our location on day 2, located just outside the city center.

We started with a cupping set up by Jesse Crouse, sample roaster at Intelligentsia. We got to taste a selection of Tanzanian Sample roasts, which to me was very interesting, as I never have tasted coffees from Tanzania.

We also did a cupping with a few of our own coffees; Kieni (Kenya), Gatina (Kenya) and Finca Vista Hermosa (Guatemala) on a table with some of their sample roasts, This time Doug Zell and Kyle Glanville joined in. Lets be honest guys- Sitting at a cupping with some of the biggest names in the industry… Well, it was intimidating.

Michael showed us the whole Roastery and training lab. The roastery itself stores 3 impressive roasters, varying in size up to 90 kg each. Great fun to see the same process from green beans to roasted beans, being produced in a mush bigger scale then what we are used to at the Coffee Collective.

Walking around with Mr. Phillips, you sensed that the main focus at Intelligentsia these days are really optimizing their own staff to the fullest, by taking a step back and having a good look on what can be done to becoming even more solid. Part of this was the new Barista Training program that Michael and Stephen Morrissey are implementing in all Intelligentsia Coffee shops these days.

Made up of different levels, the barista in training are guided thru a specific course, with tests and follow-ups from the barista trainer at the end of each level. When passed, the barista move on to a different level and can be ended with a big final exam, becoming a Certified Barista.

The program is basically designed to educate and giving the barista the best tools possible to present a truly great coffee experience, in this ever-changing industry. Staying ahead of the game and always being with it.

With all the different aspects of the speciality coffee industry, it can be difficult for new baristas to even know where to start.

To share that great cup of coffee, you as a barista need to have the knowledge understanding and of all the different aspects of the process- starting at the soil, to what ends up in the cup. A structured way of learning would absolutely be a great way of approaching all this information.

The Barista Program used at Intelligentsia is the closest thing I have seen resembling a so-called Barista Education to this extent, and I am really looking forward to follow its process.

As I am talking about becoming skilled baristas, I have to say, hands down- my impression of the baristas working at the Intelligentsia coffee shops, were excellent. Their knowledge and dedication of the craft really shined thru, all in their very own personal ways. Lovely!

Thank you, everyone at Intelligentsia, and an especially Thanks to Michael Phillips, you took more then good care of us. We hope to see you in Copenhagen sooner!

Closed from Sunday!

2010-10-08T17:36:00.000+02:00

We'll be closed from this Sunday until Wednesday morning to install our NEW ROASTER!

Yes, we're getting a new roaster. We'll get a blog post up on it later.

Meanwhile go visit our friends at Kaffebar (Elmegade) or Harbo Bar or Cafe N (both on Blågårdsgade) who are all just 5 minutes away for your coffee needs.

And we'll (if nothing goes wrong) be open again at 7:30 on Wednesday morning.

Hacienda La Esmeralda 2010

2010-10-01T23:25:00.056+02:00

The coffee from Hacienda La Esmeralda inspired the title for the recent coffee book "God in a Cup". For sure the coffee Hacienda La Esmeralda Special is extraodinary. Especially the intense elegant toparomas like bergamot in the coffee makes it very unique.

As great fans of this coffee Anne Stine and I had looked very much forward to visiting the Hacienda and try to get an idea of why their coffee is so fantastic.

Its not easy to find out why the coffee is that special but I will try to share some impressions I got during the visit.

This time of year is actually rainy season and the good coffees cherrys are still green not ready to be harvested yet.

On the picture is the long "Geisha" cherries. This variety is definetly part of the explanation of why the coffee from Hacienda La Esmeralda is so good, but alone it is not the explanation because it is possible to get "geisha" from other producers which does not have the same intense toparomas and some even doesn't have these toparomas at all.

Another interesting thing about the geisha is the lower yield it has. The ”geisha” tree would only produce around half the cherries of the Caturra. To me this is interesting because from my experience in general trees in Ethiopia and Kenya carry much less fruits than often seen in Central America. Would there be a relation between the sparser number of fruits on each tree and the more floral og berry-like aromas often found in Ethiopian and Kenyan coffees. From a biolgical perspective one could make the hypothesis that a lower number of fruits, everything else equal (which of course seldom is the case), would allow the tree to give more nutrients and energy to each individual cherry and in this way potentally making the aroma more complex in the direction of floral and berrynotes!?

In any case we had the chance to blind cup a ”Geisha” lot that the Petersons did not find good enough for the auction against their ”Diamond mountain” which consists of ”ordinary” varieties including caturra and catuaí. The Diamond Moutain is a really nice clean, sweet and balanced coffee grown at hights around 1400 msl. Which is the lower limit of where the Petersons grow their ”Geisha”. Actually the Colgá lot which we bought is situated at this height as well. Already in the dry fragrance there was no doubt which was the geisha and which was the Diamond. The diamond had a deep sweet pleasent aroma whereas the ”geisha” had a wonderfull bergamot like aroma (to me very typical for their unique ”geisha”). This of course is no proof of the hypothesis but merely showing the different chareteristics of the different varieties.

Thursday we got the chance to walk through the Colgá lot. It seemed alomst like walking through rainforest. There were a lot of indigeniuos shade trees, it was really humid and moss was growing on the trees. The soil was also rich, dark and very soft as in a good wet forest.

When we walked through the fields we were passing along the neibourghs field as well. It was striking to see how different the trees at Hacienda La Esmeralda (on the left) looked from the neibourghs trees (on the right below). The trees at La Esmeralda looked very healthy, green and fertile whereas the neibouring trees really looked like the were missing something – probably at least nutrients. The leafs were sparse and yellowish in color.

We had the pleasure of having lunch at Price and Susan Petersons residence. They served us a wonderfull and very tasty lunch and this was accompanied by some very interesting talks about coffee quality. Price shared with us how much he appreciated the work of the Gnobe Indians who came to the Hacienda in the harvest to pick. They were extremely carefull in their picking and as such were extremely skilled at only picking fully ripe cherries (the foundation of all good coffees but sometimes a struggle for the miller to achieve). Since we visited before real harvest time unfortunately we did not get to meet any of the Gnobe Indians this time.

Back at the mill the very first coffee was coming in. This was from some lower lots that also belongs to the Hacienda but has nothing to do with the Hacienda La Esmeralda Special. The cherries was picked not because they were fully ripe but because their skin was breaking up - maybe because of a overpressure of water in the pulp of the cherry.

This is the first time they go to the field to pick, what they call "the first cut" . It was not a Geisha lot they picked here but they will do the same thing with these lots later in the season. Actually they will do up to 10 cuts on each of the "geisha" lots. They will cup each of the cuts and decide if it will end up in the Special or not. Normally the first two cuts and the last one will not qualify.

After the reciving tanks the coffee cherries are transported to the depulper but on the way they had installed a cyclone. The Cyclon basically seperates out not fully ripe cherries, leafs and sticks since they all float on top. The fully ripe cherries will sink to the bottom and from there they continue to the depulper.

At the mill at Hacienda La Esmeralda they have a mechanical demucilator.
They have compared the coffee from the mechanical demucilator with the fermented and washed coffee. In their cuppings the aromas of the mechanically demucilated ”geisha” was as good as in a fermented and washed ”geisha”. Since the mechanical demucilator reduces the risks of poorly fermentation affecting taste they have choosen this method. I must admit that I am a bit suprised that it is possible to produce a coffee with such intense toparomas without the fermentation. In my mind this really is questioning some of what I thought was basic advantages of the washed method!

Another thing that stroke me was that at Hacienda La Esmeralda they have their own (small) dry mill. This gives them control over the entire quality developing process in the producing country.

It was clear that Hacienda La Esmeralda is driven by people who are both very good at their job and very curious to find out how they eventually could improve. They had their own little test field with different varities, they had ongoing test where they made comparative cuppings of how quality is effected by forinstance altitude or by the age of the tree. This ongoing research is very impressing and for sure must be part of the explanation why the coffee Hacienda La Esmeralda Special is so very special!

Its not easy to sum up what they are doing so well at Hacienda La Esmeralda, but if I should try to point out one thing to be crusial for the quality it must be the cupping of Rachel and Daniel Peterson. They seem to be very skilled cuppers who work very dedicated on developing and selecting the highest quality for Hacienda La Esmeralda Special. Actually the whole "geisha" story would never had been started if it wasn't for Daniel noticing that the coffee from some fields of the farm was tasting very different from others and afterwards breaking down lots to later discover that the very special taste came from a particular variety - the Geisha....

Photos by Anne-Stine

The Craft

2010-09-21T18:52:00.000+02:00

While Linus and I (Klaus) try to wrap up our thoughts and organize our pictures from this year's Nordic Barista Cup please enjoy what must have been the (comedic) highlight of the 2010 NBC: The Craft - How To Become World Barista Champion featuring Tim Varney.

The craft from Brendan Inkognito on Vimeo.

I think they would have had a hard time cramming any more total clichés in there (how many lattes did they pour for that?) and there's obviously a lost acting career in both of the Tims.

Many cheers from that total babe!

New Barista Courses

2010-09-14T09:48:00.001+02:00

Due to popular demand we've now put three more Home-Barista Courses up on the webshop now for the coming months:

Get your ticket here!

Dates are:
Wednesday October 6th. 17.30 - 20.30
Wednesday November 10th. 17.30 - 20.30
Wednesday December 8th. 17.30 - 20.30

Ekstreamely limitid BFF Cups will be sold in our shop starting friday at 07:30.

2010-09-10T00:59:00.003+02:00

The Bicycle Film Festival premiers for the first time in Copenhagen 17.-19.
September 2010.

We love bikes and we love coffee. Thus we have teamed up with the BFF on a very limited run of 6 espresso cups and 12 cappuccino cups designed by one of Copenhagen's finest ceramic artists Pi Bjørg.

Theese will only be sold in the shop so swing by and grap a piese while they last.

L.A. Times writes about the Gatronomy of Copenhagen

2010-09-07T20:21:00.002+02:00

And we are very proud to be mentioned along with danish gastronomical flagships as Noma, Claus Meyer, Bo Bech and Løgismose as well as our great friends at Relæ and Mikkeler.

You can read the full article here

or the danish newspaper politikens resumé here.

Google Map of The Coffee Collective

2010-08-30T20:53:00.000+02:00

We've made a Google Map of the places that serve and/or sell our coffees.
With this and the links in the right column of this blog it should make your search for some TCC coffee an easier task.

Vis The Coffee Collective på et større kort

Copenhagen Cooking

2010-08-27T10:39:00.000+02:00

This week the Nordic food festival Copenhagen Cooking is taking place here in our fair city.
We'll be part of it trying to expand people's horizon on what coffee can be.

At Taste The World 25 top restaurants will be showcasing their cuisine, amongst them Michelin star Vietnamese restaurant Kiin Kiin. We will be there serving single cup Hario V60 filter drip of three of our selected coffees.

You can find us on Nørrebrogade between Sortedams Dosseringen and Fælledvej. It's an outdoor event, so admittance is free.

We are also going to be present at the first Danish Food Blogger Symposium held at Nordatlantens Brygge. 84 of the country's most serious food bloggers will meet for a full day of lectures covering subject ranging from web journalism over photography to gastronomic trends. We're happy to sponsor the event and look forward to serve some great coffee. Claus Meyer, Anders Selmer and Katrine Klinken are some of the people, who will be there, so we look forward to some interesting talks.

Daterra 2010 visit part 3

2010-08-19T12:31:00.003+02:00

See part 1 here or 2 here

After harvest the coffee cherries arrives at the Wet Mill receiving station where it undergoes several sortings already.

The over-ripe Raisins are separated from the unripe green and fully ripe red or yellow cherries in a floater – the overripe stays on top of the water and the others fall to the bottom. From there they are each processed differently. The Naturals will go through a size sorting and then straight to the patio for sun-drying.

The green and ripe cherries go to a series of de-pulpers. Here’s an important selection already happening. The first machine only applies a very low pressure thus depulping only the ripest cherries. This coffee will go to a lot like the Sweet Collection. The next machines adds a little more pressure and that will be for another class of coffee. The last applies a lot of pressure depulping green cherries too, and that coffee will not even be sold as a Daterra coffee.

Freshly pulped coffee

The pulp is then removed and used for compost, which is a very rich fertilizer. The coffee goes through a series of water tanks (water is used in most of these machines for transporting the beans around) where very lightweight beans are sorted out. After that they are put to the drying patio.

In all this Daterra keeps strict control of each lot and can trace it back the whole way through the system, even when it’s been divided into several qualities. At each wet mill there’s a Lab where each lot is cupped and logged.

Drying is essential in getting the right quality. Daterra begins with sun drying on huge patios and then finish with a mechanical drying. This year however, the weather has been extremely dry and warm, so a lot of the Naturals have dried so quickly on the patio that no machine drying was needed. The drying machines are basically like big tumble driers, made to run on steam. But Daterra just use hot water and dries at a much lower temperature than most. They find that a faster drying damages the beans resulting in a duller, flatter flavour in the end.

Some Naturals drying

After drying to a moisture content of 11,5% the beans, still inside their parchment, needs to rest for at least 30 days for the moisture to settle throughout the bean and throughout the entire lot. I had some talks with Daterra about whether or not this is really necessary as the beans will rest in the month it almost takes for the container to make it from the farm to us in Copenhagen. But they stressed that they need to rest in the parchment to develop correctly and that without the resting you might see big variances within the same lot from bag to bag.

After the Reposo, as the resting period is called, the coffee goes to the Dry Mill. Usually a farm doesn’t have their own dry mill. Finca Vista Hermosa in Guatemala gets the dry milling done at whatever dry mill Edwin thinks is the best that year and in Kenya the wet mills are usually part of a coop that owns a dry mill. But since Daterra is not your usual farm, or your usual size, they have their own dry mill. And it is state-of-the-art.

First foreign material such as twigs and stones are removed. Then the parchment or husk is hulled and removed. Next is the screen sorting, where the coffee is sorted by bean size. Each bean size will be a different quality and now we again have several selections of the same lot. The each of those sizes are put through a density separator, so that a given sized bean also has a given weight.

The last part is perhaps where Daterra sets itself apart from others. Electronic sorting machines are seen in more and more dry mills. They work by “looking” at the color of the beans and rejecting beans that fall out of a set range. They are amazingly effective and can sort up between 5.000 and 10.000 beans pr second! That’s not a typo.

But Daterra found out some years ago that beans that are not fully ripe will reflect differently in Ultraviolet light. They have then developed an electronic sorting machine, based on a machine made for blueberries, that sort with this. It’s extremely funny to watch a portion of green coffee that looks completely uniform, and then watch it again under UV light.

After passing through three different electronic sorting machines the coffee is finally ready to be packed and shipped. Daterra has a special temperature- and humidity-controlled warehouse to store the coffee in before and after packaging.

And then of course there’s the Penta boxes. Daterra was the first farm in the world to start with nitrogen-flushing and vacuum packing their green coffee. By now lots of other farms are following suit and many of the best specialty roasters refuse to store coffee in jute sacks.

The last part is then cupping.
The most important part for me.

I had a tremendous time cupping with Carlinhos at the Daterra Coffee Quality Lab. They even had a 2-group La Marzocco FB80 there, so I could make espressos for everyone and feel a bit like home. We also cupped some of The Coffee Collective’s roasts, our Daterra Sweet Collection from last year and our two new Kenyans.

Andreza and Carlinhos discussing which they like better; Gatina or Kieni. But of course that yellow one in the front won.

On my last day at the farm I was joined by Luís, the owner of Daterra, and George Howell of Terroir Coffees in Boston MA. If you don’t know who he is then you probably don’t work in coffee. The man’s a legend. I was fortunate to spend a few days with him after the farm visit and it was truly inspiring. My colleague Mads from Estate Coffee also came with them and it was fun to be more visitors to the farm.

Luís introducing a cupping session

We also visited the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas with Leo. His friend and fellow agronomist and researcher Guerreiro showed us around. They do a lot of crossing of plants and research into varieties. There’s a lot just outside with many differenct species and varieties of coffee trees. It was very impressive! Some didn’t look like coffee trees at all but had fruit you could tell was coffee. Others had fruit that looked totally different, but sure enough, inside was coffee beans.

And then there's the Robusta which demonstrates why it's so much easier and cheaper to grow:

I must admit I didn’t know of other species besides Coffea Arabica, Canephora (Robusta) and Liberica, but I think they showed me 4 or 5 others. And then a whole bunch of arabica varieties and cultivars too. Very enlightening and I thank Guerreiro for the tour and for explaining me how crossing is done (I’ll save that for another time though).

George Howell and agronomist Guerreiro

On the last day with Daterra we held an event for Brazilian media and coffee people at Ateliê do Café. It was a very cozy yet professional event and I had great fun pulling shots for people. We also go to taste George’s Terroir North Italian roast of Daterra, next to Ateliê do Café’s and our Daterra Sweet Collection Espresso.

Now the coffee is still getting the final reposo at the farm. Then it’ll be dry milled and packaged. So it’s still several months till this coffee is good to be shipped to us. We’re looking forward already. The samples we got back home shows lots of promise and we’re already looking forward to going again next year. Probably it’s Linus’ turn to go then.

Thanks to everyone at Daterra for showing such amazing hospitality and sharing every aspect of your work. I am deeply impressed in the openness and honesty that everyone at the farm showed. We really appreciate buying directly from Daterra and being able to visit every year. See you soon again!

Daterra 2010 visit part 2

2010-08-18T20:08:00.000+02:00

Daterra 2010 visit part 2

See part 1 here

Daterra grows several varieties – or cultivars to be accurate: Mundo Novo, Bourbon, Catuaí, Icatú and Acaiá, and several of these in both red and yellow varieties. Besides those there’s also some experimental cultivars, amongst those the Aramosa, which is a low-caffeine crossing of the species Arabica and Racemosa that Daterra was part of developing.

The farm have its own nursery for planting and attending new coffee trees. The sprouting is called “Little Soldiers” from the look of the bean shooting out of the ground.

Gustavo showed me how extremely important it is that the root system grows straight down from the very beginning. Otherwise the roots won't bring the nutrients efficiently to the rest of the tree. The tree will then perform badly and eventually it might die. Here’s a good example of a very bad root.

In average Daterra plants 4.000 trees per hectar. Typically for Brazil the trees are planted in very long rows with sections in between for the harvesting machine to dump the cherries in a truck. I took this picture when we flew back from the farm.

The agronomists on each farm decide when and how to prune the trees; stumping, pruning the sides or simply the top. You loose two to three year’s harvest when you prune, so it’s a careful consideration. I visited a lot where the coffee trees have been allowed to grow wild since 1973 and the trees were now around 4 metres high. Potentially they could grow higher but these ones had started to slant to the sides and in stead increased in the size of the trunk. It was quite fun to see the the size of the trees though and to see the many young coffee trees growing wild underneath from the cherries that had fallen to the ground.

I also visited the lot where we’ll be getting this years Sweet Collection from; Boa Vista 22:

This year the harvesting began quite early due to a very strange flowering last year.
A coffee tree in most areas flower once a year following (heavy) rain fall. The green coffee then ripens for somewhere between 8 to 10 months.

Just a drop of rain and this tree will flower:

Green, unripe cherries:

Around week 30 after the flowering season (meaning flowering is week 0) Daterra collects samples from all the different fields/lots that are then processed, dried, hand sorted, roasted and finally cupped by Carlinhos. From that cupping they decide when the harvesting of each lots should begin. I’ve never before encountered a farm who had this approach to determining the harvest time. It’s very impressive! Most farms will go by the color of the cherries, when deciding when to harvest. I’ve also seen others measure the sugar content and Daterra has also tested this is in the past, but decided not to rely on it. It simply didn’t give results that matched when it was best to harvest from a taste-point-of-view.

Usually the harvest than begins around week 40 after flowering, but this year they had to start already week 31 – just a week after cupping the lots. As I mentioned earlier the flowering this year in Brazil was sort of strange, resulting in very different ripening stages on the same branch.

Harvesting in Brazil is done in most places with machines. The few who do hand picking, usually don’t do selective hand picking of only ripe cherry, but in stead stripping – which is removing everything from the branch. The machines Daterra uses are quite different than the other machines I’ve seen in Brazil. They look the same but functions differently.

The whole machine drives over a row of coffee trees, 2,5-3 metres height I’d guess. Inside there’s many small sticks made out of a bendy material. The sticks vibrate gently and shake off the cherries from the tree. In the past I’ve seen similar machines, but on those the sticks were rotating and thus stripping all cherrys and lots of leaves off the branches. Naturally it’s a bad idea to remove the leaves as you’ll have less photosynthesis happening. With Daterra’s machine I was impressed to see how few leaves were taken off and that no branches while I observed were damaged. The cherries, just like a ripe apple, will fall of quite easily compared to the unripe. So Daterra can actually harvest the same rows 2 or 3 times.

I came at the very end of the harvest season, though, so most of what was left were the Raisins – the over-ripe cherries that become natural processed coffee.

Straight after harvesting the coffee will go to the Wet Mill for processing.

Daterra 2010 visit part 1

2010-08-17T17:05:00.000+02:00

When we originally started planning The Coffee Collective, Daterra was the first farm we knew we’d buy from. Back in 2005 when Peter and I was training for the barista championship and developing the blend I was going to use, we visited Daterra and had a true Eureka! moment when we cupped the Daterrra Sweet Collection. It was extremely sweet and clean with a mouthfeel that felt perfect for espresso.

So I was very excited to visit Daterra again this year for the first time since then.

Daterra is located in the Cerrado region. A region you’ll have a hard time finding on a map, since it’s not a political but an ecological region. It’s a very dry area with lots of small Savannah-like vegetation. The farm itself is located around 1100-1200 meters above sea level and measures a whooping 6.000 hectars of land – half of that, though, is actually reservation area, where no coffee is grown. To say Daterra is one farm, is technically incorrect as it is actually made up of three farms: Boa Vista, where the office, the Dry Mill and Quality Control Center is located, Tabuões neighbouring Boa Vista, and finally São João, which is pretty far away in the Sao Paulo state.

There’s about 300 people employed full time year round at Daterra and an additional 150 during the harvest season. I didn’t get to meet them all. But I did get to see Luis Pascoal, the owner and visionary behind Daterra. Luis is an amazing guy whose commitment to sustainable practices and innovation is unsurpassed. He bought the farm 18 years ago and within a decade it was already renowned throughout the specialty coffee world – not the least for it’s research, much of it done together with Illy in Trieste, Italy, specifically on growing and processing coffee for espresso. They were the first farm in the world to vacuum pack coffees in stead of packing in jute sack. Their dry mill have machines that are state-of-the-art and some which Daterra even invented themselves. And to hear Luis speak about politics and environmental challenges almost makes me wish he was a political leader – but then again I’m sure he’s doing plenty good where he is now. Besides the farm Luis is the C.E.O. of Dpaschoal – the largest tire supplier in Brazil. And even in that business he’s committed to environmentally sustainable practices and is right now re-schooling all of his 4.000 employees. Besides that he finds time for a charity fond and even design coffee cups for his roastery Ateliê do Café. The man must never sleep.

Luis and agronomist/farm manager Leo

Daterra was the first coffee farm in Brazil to be Rainforest Alliance certified and today have numerous certifications.

The always lovely Andreza showed me around the farm and in general took great care of me. She’s also the one we talk to about all the logistics and purchases of the coffee. During harvest season and until the coffee has been shipped her calendar must be heavily packed. I’m very grateful for her hospitality!

Carlinhos (“Little Carlos”) is the Quality Control chief and cupper at the farm. He roasts and cups every single microlot before, during and after harvest, constantly monitoring the development. And also he’s a very nice guy! I really enjoyed cupping with him.

Carlinhos and Andreza cupping some TCC coffees

I also met Daterra’s three agonomists. Leopoldo Santana – or just Leo - is really the farm manager and in close cooperation with Carlinhos they’ll determine when to harvest and what to renew on the wet and dry mill. Gustavo is the agronomist responsible for the Boa Vista farm and one of the most knowledgeable and informative guys I’ve ever met. Talking to him about growing, nursing, pruning, maintaining and protecting coffee trees taught me more than any book I’ve read on the subject(s). Sidney was also kind enough to show me around the Tabuões farm and especially the very large wet mill they have there.

Gustavo showing a handful of the late harvest

I’m going to divide the account of this trip into three post of which this was the first. And instead of boring you with every little detail about what I did on my trip, I’m going to structure it around what happens on the farm.

Last cupping session with Jordan!

2010-08-03T13:55:00.003+02:00

Unfortunately Jordan Barber is heading back to the states soon, so tomorrow wednesday the 4th will be the last open summer cupping session. Please drop by at 16:00 hour. We have heaps of beautiful and fruity summercoffees fresh from the roaster and ready to hit the spots on Your tongue. (La Esmeralda Special, Kieni, Gatina)

Jordan you will be missed. We look forward to coming and visit You.

TCC at Roskilde Festival

2010-06-29T16:22:00.001+02:00

At this years Roskilde Festival - the largest music festival in Northern Europe - visitors will be able to have a delicious cup of TCC coffee. Together with our good friends at Manfred's, who will serve amazing and nutritious food, we'll be opening a coffee shop from Thursday when the music starts till Sunday when it stops.

You can find us at Manfreds in the Nordic area Hal B, booth number 09-09.

The menu will be simple; espresso, cappuccino, caffe latte, iced latte and americano at very reasonable prices too. We've got a great crew of experienced baristas behind the 2-group La Marzocco and Robur E grinder, so the quality should live up to our usual expectations.

Manfred's will be serving their infamous Coarse Pea Soup with cold-pressed rape seed oil, their thick Koldskål (look it up if you're from another country), fresh strawberries from Rokkedyssegård as well as some hearty sandwiches, buns and oat meal. Everything you need to come back to life after the concerts.

See you at Roskilde!

WBC 2010 London

2010-06-28T16:28:00.000+02:00

Another World Barista Championship is over.

First of all: Congratulations to Mike Phillips, the new World Barista Champion. We're really happy to see Mike claim the title as he's a wonderful ambassador for specialty coffee and all around a good guy.

The whole WBC and Caffe Culture show was most of all a great opportunity to catch up with old coffee friends and meet new. By now it's like a family reunion every time, and sort of sad when it's all over. We just wish there was more time to talk with everyone. We had great talks with so many people, Mike Phillips, James Hoffmann, Anette Moldvaer, Stephen Morrisey, Tim Wendelboe, Tim Varney, Tim Styles (all those Tims...), Geoff Watts, Doug Zell, Peter Giuliano, Liz Clayton, everyone from La Marzocco and on and on. I really shouldn't have started listing any names, cuz I could go on for hours and I'm sure to be forgetting too many.

We're also really thrilled to have been selected by La Marzocco to get one of the first two prototypes of the brand new La Marzocco espresso machine named Strada. Kent Bakke offically presented the Strada and that The Coffee Collective will have a machine for field testing very soon. You can check out more about the Strada on the LM blog. And we'll blog much more once the machine is here.

For us, at the Collective, it was also exciting to go as a whole group. Besides the four owners, Casper, Linus, Peter and Klaus, we had two of our baristas join us, AnneStine and Mathias. Besides that we had four girlfriends/wives and two children, plus our "intern" Jordan Barber. So we should really thank our two remaining baristas, Sara and Sofia, for running the coffee shop while we were away. They streamed the whole WBC live in the coffee shop too, so they really were there with us in spirit.

Our Espresso blend was also to be found at the WBC Espresso Bar. We brought 20 kilos to be served during day 1, and our friend Jordan Barber volunteered for the task of pulling shots and serving cappuccinos for the visitors.

Outside the Olympia exhibition center, where the whole event took place, we visited some of London's good coffee spots. Square Mile roastery, Penny University, Kaffeine, Prufrock @ Present, Taste of Bitter Love, Fernandez & Wells, Milk Bar and of course Flat White. It was really interesting to taste the different coffees and even the same espresso in different locations. Overall we were quite impressed with how much the level has improved and we had some really great coffees. London, for it's size, still has a lot of opportunity for growth in great coffee places and we're sure it will evolve immensely in the coming years.

So now we're back home feeling really inspired and eager to see everyone again.
Thanks to everyone for making it a really fantastic week!

Hacienda La Esmeralda Special 2010

2010-06-15T12:09:00.000+02:00

As if the two new Kenyan coffees weren't enough we are now also ready to present this year's lot of the famous La Esmeralda Special 2010.

Wednesday June 16th from 16:00 - 17:00 there will be an open public cupping, where you can taste this spectacular coffee.

So what makes the Esmeralda Special so special?
Well, first off it's the variety Geisha, that was imported from Ethiopia into Panama in the middle of the last century. This variety apparently took really well to the Panamanian micro-climate around the town of Boquete and the Peterson family have done a great job in cultivating it. The coffee is selectively hand picked and then mechanically demucilaged, washed and then dried with sun or a combination of sun a machine drying. All the Esmeralda Special lots on auction were (of course) vacuum packed.

The Esmeralda Special have been awarded many times and it's the first farm I know of to have an internet auction for their own coffee. We like how the usual Buyer/Seller power has shifted in this regard. Since the farm started entering the Best of Panama competition (Panama's equivalent to Cup of Excellence) they have achieved the highest ever price for a coffee paid to the farm. This year the winning lot from BoP reached an astounding $ 170,20 pr pound! (Compare that to the Fair Trade minimum price of about $ 1,26 pr pound and you get an idea about how high this price is).

Esmeralda Special have won:
· 1st Place “Best of Panama” (2010, 2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)
· 1st Place Specialty Coffee Association of America Roasters Guild Cupping Pavilion (2007, 2006, 2005)
· 1st Place Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality (2008, 2007, 2006, 2004)
· And actually many more competitions - we just can't be bothered to list more now...

New Harvest from Kenya on the streets

2010-06-14T21:45:00.004+02:00

Thanks to everybody who turned up to try our 2 new coffees from Kenya. Many turned up to just have a sip and the ones who could get seats saw a small presention where we talked about these 2 wetmills and why and how we choose to put some extra effort to get these specific coffees.

We have now put some of the pictures from Gatina and Kieni on Flickr.

Good questions from everybody- we love to discuss why a coffee have a specific taste.

A nice harvest indeed.

New Coffees from Kenya!

2010-06-07T15:05:00.000+02:00

On Wednesday June 9th at 16:00 o'clock we're proud to present two new Kenyan coffees!

The coffees are from two different Wet Mills - or factories as they like to call it in Kenya - both in the Nyeri region: Kieni and Gatina

Casper and Linus spent a week in Kenya in February visiting different mills and societies just as the harvest had been completed, but before any of these coffees were snatched up by others.

You can read about their trip here and here.

So join us on Wednesday at 16:00 when the two new coffees will hit the shelves and we'll be offering free samples brewed on French Press. Linus and Casper will show pictures and tell about their trip and how we source and buy coffees.

At 17:00 we'll be doing an open cupping session of these new coffees where we hope you will join in.

We'll be back with more info about these coffees and new labels for them in due time.

On the current situation in Guatamala

2010-06-02T08:47:00.004+02:00

The harvest is finished in Guatamala and we have visited and selected this years lots from Finca Vista Hermosa. While we are waiting for the coffee to be all ready for export, nature is demonstrating its power in Guatamala.

After an erupting volcano and a tropical depression, the president has declared the country in a state of "national calamity".

Edwin Martinez of Finca Vista Hermosa has made a post about the situation here.

Edwin finishes his post with the statement that if "you’re wondering how you can help. You can visit, sometime when the airport is not shut down, and drink good coffee. Tourism and coffee are the #1 and #2 sources of revenue for Guatemala.."

We can promise that we will follow up on his proposal!

Open Cupping at The Coffee Collective

2010-05-31T14:03:00.000+02:00

Starting Wednesday June 2nd we will start to host open cupping session for the public.

This is something we've been wanting to do for a long time and although many of our regulars have gotten to join in on our cupping sessions, we haven't managed to make it a weekly thing. But now we're ready.

Jordan Barber from New York's Cafe Grumpy and North East Regional Barista Competition bronze medalist is in Copenhagen for the next three months and will be hosting the cupping sessions.

For now, you don't need to sign up for the cupping sessions - just show up and we'll make room for you.

The cuppings will be every Wednesday from 16:00 - 17:00 at The Coffee Collective.

More LatteArt Thursday 3 june! 19-21

2010-05-28T14:49:00.006+02:00

Due to the success of the last throwdown, we throw another at you- and It will be the last one before autumn- so make sure you come. Everybody is more than welcome.
If you work with coffee and you live in Copenhagen (people have travelled even furher to attend before)- then this is for you.

Last time we had people who started as baristas just the week before who did fantastic and world champions who started shaking of nervousity.

It will be learning by competition by party.

There is also a big party all along Jægersborggade the same night (aka Late Night Hunting)

So there´s no reason to drop out next thursday.

Thursday 3 june, 19-21, Jægersborggade 10

Barista Courses

2010-05-26T12:36:00.000+02:00

Last Barista Course before we take a (long) summer break is June 16th. There's still two spots left on it:

http://www.coffeecollectiveshop.dk/shop/barista-kursus-16-219p.html

Next courses won't be until sometime in either August or September.

Esmeralda 2010 Auction

2010-05-19T08:52:00.000+02:00

We got one lot of the 2010 Esmeralda Special!

Last night the annual action of La Esmeralda Special took place and we succeeded in the bidding that lasted over 8 hours.

The samples arrived just in time for us to roast and cup them and again this year the Esmeralda farm and the Petersons prove why they are one of the leading farms in the world. The fragrance of this coffee is out of this world; Jasmine, citrus, honey, abricots, bergamot and an over-abundance of floral aromas. Top that off with a superbly clean cup and sweetness and you have an idea about just how special this coffee is.

Congratulations to Price, Daniel and Rachel Peterson and everyone at La Esmeralda for another ground-breaking auction. We look forward to get the coffee home and present it The Coffee Collective.

You can read about last year's crop here

Full auction result here

LAT 280410

2010-05-10T13:58:00.000+02:00

A bit late, but we can't forget to post the results from the Latte Art Throwdown on April 28th.

We had a great event and everybody enjoyed themselves. It was good to see that all the people who had said they didn't want to compete ended up pouring like crazy in the throwdown.

You can see all the pictures from the event on Flickr

Each entrant had one shot of espresso in a large cappuccino cup (220 ml) brewed by Linus. There were two against each other every time, so one steam wand from each. The three judges then got the cappuccinoes in front of them, counted down from three and pointed to the one they liked the best. Simple, fun and fast!

After several rounds the winner was found:
Asger Ladefoged from Kaffebar, Elmegade

Congratulations Asger!
And we look forward to seeing everyone again for the next Latte Art Throwdown, June 3rd!

Latte Art Throwdown

2010-04-27T20:24:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow evening we're hosting our first Latte Art Throwdown as part of our barista jams.

If you work with coffee and want to put your skills to the test, then show up at The Coffee Collective at 19:00.

There'll be plenty of coffee in the grinders, whole milk from Thise in the fridge and cold, tasty beers for those in need of that!

Pour Up or Shut Up!

Food & Wine Magazine

2010-04-23T08:22:00.000+02:00

Food & Wine Magazine has us - The Coffee Collective - as no. 19 on their list of 100 "Best New Food & Drink Experiences" in the May issue of the renowned magazine.

International figures such as Ferran Adriá (El Bullí, Spain) and Grant Achatz (Alinea, USA) contributes to Food & Wine Magazine's list of best new experiences. The list includes international gourmet destinations Paris, London, Milano and Tokoy and highlights special experiences at both El Bullí, The Fat Duck and Noma.

In total four Danish experiences are to be found on the list: Noma, Henrik Yde Andersen (Kiin Kiin and Dim Sum), Bo Beck and then The Coffee Collective.

You can see the whole list on: www.foodandwine.com

Danish Barista Championship 2010

2010-04-20T17:24:00.002+02:00

The Danish Barista Championship 2010 finished on Sunday.
Let's say it straight away: Søren Stiller won and AnneStine came in a close second.

It was a great competition to watch. AnneStine performed really well and the judges loved her coffee and especially her signature drink. She went 11 seconds overtime though and her shot times on the espresso were a bit long. Really, things just happen when you get on a stage that will throw off even the best baristas. But she didn't shake, she made some killer drinks and said everything she wanted to say. You can't ask for more.

She used our current espresso throughout the competition, where she served the four judges each an espresso, cappuccino and her signature drink. She talked about what coffee can be and not just what it is, showing this in her signature drink that played on contrast in both consistency and aromas. It's a two part drink with a coffee cream and a coffee lemonade. She kept her ingredients to a minimum and had developed the drink to show off the aromas already present in the coffee. The coffee cream consisted of espresso, lemon peel, a honey and corn starch mix and rapeseed oil. It really coats your mouth in a thick and intense way. Then the second part acts as a cleanser. It's made form a Chemex of our Kenyan Kiawamururu with a little bit of lemon juice "to really make it pop" and then infused with carbondioxide in a siphon. It's light and sparkling, really refreshing and highlights those wonderful floral aromas of the Kiawamururu. It's a really kick-ass signature drink, and we hope to sow it on the coffee shop before long.

A special thanks goes out to Eva Solo who were so kind to sponsor her with a whole lot of their awesome serving tools, including carafes, serving trays, pitchers and ice cube holders. As most competitors know these competitions can become quite expensive with all the things you need to bring. Read more about Eva Trio Gourmet Academy here.

In the end Søren Stiller - who has competed many times before achieving two second places in Denmark and 6th in the WBC - really showed how experienced he is. He was very calmed and composed and it was obvious he's prepared for this for a very long time.

The event itself was really good this year. The Danish SCAE chapter had worked hard on pulling the competition away from the usual trade shows, where it just drowns in all the other activity. The had found a great location in Århus, Auktionshuset. A charming old building that was just big enough that there was room for all. It was a cozy and intimate atmosphere there with a bar in one corner giving out free coffees from different Danish micro-roasters.

We want to complement the Danish SCAE chapter (Thorey, Rune, Mikkel, Samuli and whoever else we might be forgetting - sorry!) on this years championship. They have not had an easy time with a certain vulcano keeping their head judge away and such. But this year championship was a great success due to these people and all their voluntary work.

The judges came in place just at the end and were: Maríanna Jónsdóttir, Thomas Valentin, Mikkel Pilgaard and Peter Dupont as sensory. Rune N. Rasmussen and Georg Lauridsen as technical. And Thomas Sigfred stepped in as Head Judge.

There were only 5 baristas competing in total this year. (And we really have to do something about that). So there were just one round - the final round. The five baristas were: Søren Stiller Markussen, AnneStine Bae, Thor (didn't get his last name), August Crone and Adrian Kleist-Thomassen. We hope to see some of these compete again next year.

Congratulations to Søren and good luck for London!

All our pictures can be seen on Flickr

Byens Bedste

2010-04-19T16:30:00.000+02:00

Again this year, we're nominated in the prestigious Byens Bedste award for Best Coffee.

Please go vote on http://www.aok.dk/byensbedste
and hopefully this year a little place in Jægersborggade will beat the downtown players ;-)

Barista Competition time

2010-04-12T20:44:00.000+02:00

On Sunday it's the 2010 Danish Barista Championship.
For the first time The Coffee Collective will have a competitor: AnneStine Bae. We've had several baristas for the past few years using different coffees roasted by us in the competitions, and of course Morten won last year using our Idido. But this is the first barista who's working in our own coffee shop to compete. Hats off to AnneStine for that! She's been working with us since last summer and previously worked for such good places as Estate Coffee and Stockfleths in Olso.

Yesterday we had the grand rehearsal of AnneStine's presentation. For the past couple of months her training have become more and more intense. Fortunately she decided to compete already back in October and in November her signature drink began to take shape. She's worked on it together with Troels Trier, who some might remember as the chef that helped create Troels Poulsen's signature drink for his WBC win back in 2005. 'Troels the Chef' has a great understanding of the competition and is a friend of us, so it was very natural for him to help AnneStine make her ideas comes through in the drink.

Here's the two working on the drink back in November

One of our other baristas, Mathias, is helping her out too. He's her official coach - a title that requires numerous evenings spent doing the dishes after run-throughs. He's done a great job so far, and as everyone who's ever competed will tell you, it's a priceless help.

AnneStine and Mathias getting ready

The rest of us has been helping out giving advice from our experience in competing. Personally I've found it thrilling to be so closely involved in preparing for the competition once again. And I'm so glad to have someone as enthusiastic and talented as AnneStine to train. You wouldn't think it's her first time competing from looking at her, but that's probably because she's worked as a barista for over 5 years and currently works our bar almost every day.

So on Sunday we had a sort of Dress Rehearsal for her presentation. Copenhagen Roaster had graciously invited us to their training room where Fritz Storm has a Nuova Simonelli espresso machine set up specifically for training that he was more than happy to let us use. Nuova Simonelli is the official WBC sponsor so that's the machine that will be used in the competition, and it was a great opportunity for AnneStine to get a little more acquainted with this machine.

Furthermore we had some good judges lined up: From CPH Roaster both Mads (current Danish Cupping Champ) and Jakob Dupont. Troels the Chef was there. As technical we had Karen and Casper and finally as head judge past WBC-certified Judge Sigga Dóra Halldorsdottir. Add to that a few spectators and a screaming baby, it was a good setup to shake AnneStine's nerves.

Judges for the dress rehearsal

Her nerves didn't show up though. She kept her head cool, her shots flowing beautifully and did her presentation well within the timeframe.

Peter has been asked by the Danish chapter of SCAE to be a judge in the championship a few months back, which he agreed to. So that's why he's missing from all of this (and I suspect he's secretly sad for missing all the fun). Since he was asked to judge he hasn't seen or heard anything about the training out of his own wish to have fresh eyes for all the competitors.

We won't tell too much about AnneStine's routine now, but let these picture do the talking:

Now the last week of training and training and more training us upon her and us at the collective. We're really looking forward to this Sunday and know that no matter how it turns out we're really proud to have AnneStine up there!

Thanks to Fritz, Mads, Jakob and Copenhagen Roaster for the opportunity to train there. Also thanks to Eva Solo, who has been kind enough to sponsor a lot of things for AnneStine's presentation.

Home Barista write-up

2010-04-05T09:54:00.000+02:00

There's a nice write-up over on the forum Home-Barista.com by Anthony Steinbock, a philosophy professor and espresso aficionado, who recently had a guest lecture spot at the Copenhagen University that brought him and his family here for about a month.

Anthony brought us a kilo of Stumptown's Hairbender espresso when he came over and it was a great opportunity to talk about taste preferences and approaches of different roasters. I really enjoyed hearing his thoughts on the taste of our drinks; the espresso, aeropress, cortado and americano and the different coffees too. Anthony is definitely well travelled within the coffee world, so it was really nice to be able to show him some stuff he hadn't seen before. He says the Shakerato has become a hit at his home :-)

You can read Anthony's post here: http://www.home-barista.com/knockbox/copenhagen-coffee-collective-t13864.html and see some of his pictures.

Visit from down-under

2010-03-27T19:53:00.000+01:00

This week we had a visit from the current Australian barista champion, Scottie Callaghan.
Scottie is the 2006 World Latte Art Champion and also won the ABC (Australian Barista Championship) in 2007, representing Oz at the WBC in Tokyo. Back in 2006 I visited Australia and met Scottie who's personality and commitment to coffee instantly impressed me.

Scottie is on a world tour that will take him through Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, U.K. and several states in the US of A. What a trip! On the way he'll spend time with some stellar coffee people and taste lots and lots of coffee. The purpose of it all is to get a broad understanding of the taste preferences and approaches to roasting (and perhaps blending) from country to country.

We had a great time with Scottie and spend a whole day on cupping and training. I really look forward to follow his tour around the globe on his blog: scottiecallaghan.blogspot.com

To go straight to his blog post about his visit to Copenhagen, click here.

Scottie on his rented bike:

Finca Vista Hermosa, Guatemala, march 2010

2010-03-23T01:09:00.010+01:00

So this is the forth year we will be buying coffee direct from Finca Vista Hermosa.
Being my first time in Guatemala I was very excited.
Both Klaus and Linus have been to Finca Vista Hermosa before. You can read what they had to say about it here:

Linus' visit in 2009:
Part 1
Part 2

Klaus' visit in 2008:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I arrived in Huehuetenango just as this years harvest came to an end. The patio’s were full of washed coffees, laying drying in the sun. The patio crew, which contains 5 people, is constantly watching the coffee and making sure the coffee drys evenly by turning the coffees all the time.

We have been buying from FVH the past three years and it has always been one of my personal favourite coffees. I was very curious how this years crop would turn out. The harvest, as with so many other places around the world, has been really small due to bad weather. Around 30% less than last year, which was also a small harvest.

What we have experienced in the past, when the harvest is small, is the crop tends to have more complex aromas. This usually means that farms who are focused on quality can get a higher price for their top lots. This ensures their survival, even when the yield is low, like it was this year.

The first day I spent hiking the mountains where the farm is located. Edwin, who's family own the farm, took the time off to accompany me, along with Diego the farm manager. They showed me the farms micro lots and some of the many natural springs which flow from the mountains over several locations. The springs are a very favorable advantage for the FVH coffee farm. Huehuetenango has one of the lowest annual rain falls in Guatemala. The springs ensure FVH can prosess their signature clean and aromatic coffees.

We also walked past some of the houses, situated in the middle of the farm, surrounded by the mountains. Living in these houses are families who have been working with Finca Vista Hermosa for a long period of time. These families have now been offered land where they can live and farm themselves. Most have amimals, grow vegetables and coffee which they themselves sell to different buyers. Essentially living off the land.

Another contribution that Finca Vista Hermosa brings to the local community is the farms school. The school is used daily by more than 120 children, some living up to 25 mins walk from the farm.

On the second day I was acompagnied by Andy from Barefoot Coffee Works in San Jose California. They have also been buying from Finca Vista Hermosa for a long time. We brought a couple of bags of freshly roasted FVH coffee, Edwin brought a grinder and a Hario v60 dripper. We brewed fresh coffee, and the people of FVH tasted the coffee they put so much effort into growing.

In Guatemala people drink coffee the whole day. It is also normal for children to drink coffee day and night. But they brew it very weak, up to 10 times weaker than we are used to. They also add milk and loads of sugar. So we added extra water to suit the locals taste. The local people provided a lot of positive comments on our brew. It was such a relief that they liked what we had made out of their coffees.

Three years ago a new micro-lot was planted at FVH. This year will be the first time they can harvest this lot called El Mirador. This has produced about two export bags (120 kg) this year. This lot is located at the very top of the farm between 2000-2200 MASL. This is one of the highest altitudes coffee can grow in Guatemala. On this lot they have chosen to grew the Maragogype type of Arabica which produces huge cherrys and therefor huge coffee beans. This coffee should produce more aroma but less body. We for sure look forward to tasting this new lot and tell Edwin all about what we think.

During the evenings at the farm a lot of coffee discussion went on. One of the topics was Fair Trade. Why is Fair Trade not a good thing for a farm like Finca Vista Hermosa? Its simple; the cost to produce coffee in this region exceeds the fairtrade buying price! This is due to the rough and steep mountains where the farm is located and because the pickers are out picking cherrys in the same lots up to 7 times per havest for the cherrys to be perfectly ripe. So Fair Trade does not equal good coffee nor an actual fair price for farm like FVH.

After 3 days at the farm it was time to head back to Guatemala City. On the way there we stopped at one of the dry mills Fince Vista Hermosa uses, called Beneficio de Cafe Cofeco. This is where the last step of quality control is made before the coffee leaves Guatemala, ensuring only the best beans arrive at the roastery here in Copenhagen.

Back in Guatemala City we finally tasted this years lots. 11 in total. At Anacafé they were really helpfull. They roasted and arranged a cupping for us afterhours. This was the first time we were able to taste the coffees also for Edwin. The cupping blew our minds! The three of us were speechless! Everything tasted fantastic and all the lots cupped really clean. The difference was in the aromas. We found everything from thick sweet chocolate, to fresh tropical fruits. I’ll let all you people out there put your own words to the coffee once it arrives here at The Coffee Collective.

We really look forward to presenting some of the best of these FVH coffees to you.

Esmeralda Roast Tuesday March 23rd

2010-03-20T17:35:00.001+01:00

Limited roast of Esmeralda up for Tuesday March 23th.

You can pre-order it on the webshop here.

Please note that the coffee will ship same day as roasted and not before. To make sure you get yours on time, we need to have your order by 9 o'clock the same morning. If you order any additional coffees we'll wait with sending it all together to save you of the postal costs.

La Esmeralda Special
Boquete, Panama
Direct Trade

A sweet and clean cup. Fresh with a elegant aromas af abricot, bergamot, heather honey and jasmine.

At Hacienda La Esmeralda the Petersons grow a small lot of the Arabica variety Geisha. The Geisha originates from Ethiopia and is characterised by an astonishing fruity and floral aroma. The coffee is selectively hand picked and then mechanically demucilaged, washed and then dried with sun or a combination of sun a machine drying.
For the past couple of years the Esmeralda Special has only been sold on an auction held by the Petersons, where roasters from all over the world are bidding against each other. We are very happy that we got a lot and are able to present this coffee for the first time in Denmark. We have roasted this coffee quite light with a bit more heat towards the end, so the freshness and the natural aromas are brought out the most.

Chemical reactions vs. physical changes at 1st pop

2010-03-18T13:24:00.002+01:00

While roasting coffee at lot of different chemical reactions is going on in the bean. These reactions are very complex and are responsible for the development of coffees flavour. Some of the chemical reactions in roasting are endothermical (demanding energy to proceed) others are exothemical (producing energy while proceeding). I recall to have heard that proportion between endothermical and exothemical reactions are changing forth and back during roasting. Roughly speaking the Endothemical reactions are dominating the start of the roast. whereas the exo. reactions are dominating the end of the roast. But during the middle of the roast the proportions should change forth and back.

For a while we have noticed that when 1st pop is at is full speed (around 188-192C bean temp on our roaster) the bean temperature has been increasing slower than both before and after this point. I have believed that this was due to the exothermical reactions slowing down at this point. With the rather rough equipment we have to measure the proportions between the two types of chemical reactions (the bean termocouple), this particular point is in fact the only indication of what might be exothermical reactions slowing down while roasting that we can see.

Intuitatively it seems rahter straight forward if the exo. reactions would just increase contiuesly as more energy is put into the roast and not be slowing down. I know from what I have heard that this is not true, but could it be that what is slowing down the temperature development at 1st pop is not the slowing down of exo. reactions but rahter the energy needed for the physical expansion of the bean at this point? Might this be similar to the extra energy needed two vaporize a liquid? if you add a constant heat two a liquid the temperature would increase constantly also, but at the transition phase the enegry added would be used to changes phases from liquid to gas therefore you would not have a constant temperature increase at this point. Might it be a similar physical property that is responsible for the slower temperature development at 1st pop and not slowing down of the exothermical chemical reactions?

Mikkeller Beer Hop Breakfast

2010-03-16T15:59:00.000+01:00

We've just received two boxes of the Mikkeller beer brewed with our light roasted Idido that we posted about last week.

They are for sale in our coffee shop from today. Only 24 bottles for sale in our shop out of the limited 1.000 that Mikkel brewed. Price is kr 50,-

We drank a few bottles on Thursday before sending off Casper. It's an awesome beer with Simcoe and Colombus hops and nice coffee flavour from the very aromatic Idido.

Go get some now!

Café N nominated as Café of the Year by Politiken

2010-03-15T15:39:00.000+01:00

Café N on Blågårdsgade is nominated as Café of the Year in Politiken's annual iByen award.

Please go vote for Allan and his wonderful crew who's serving our coffee just a couple of blocks away from our roastery.

Go here to vote!

Guatemala trip 2010

2010-03-14T09:08:00.001+01:00

As part of our Direct Trade programme Casper is off to Guatemala, more specifically to the Huehuetenango region, to visit Finca Vista Hermosa with Edwin Martinez.

Huehuetenango is a city in the North West of Guatemala, but is also the name of one of the 8 coffee growing regions in Guatemala, marketed by the Guatamalan specialty coffee association Anacafe as Highland Huehue.

Vis stort kort

We visit each of our Direct Trade producers at least once a year, every year. This is our third visit to Finca Vista Hermosa and until Casper returns and write about his trip (there is no internet connection at the farm) you can read about the previous two trips here:

Linus' visit in 2009:
Part 1
Part 2

Klaus' visit in 2008:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

You can also take a look at Finca Vista Hermosa's website to learn more about this outstanding farm.

More coffee beer

2010-03-11T09:40:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago we drank about 30 litres of a certain Coffee Stout brewed with our Kiawamururu, Kenya AA Top, to celebrate our two year anniversary. It was brewed by guest-brewmaster Sean at Nørrebro Bryghus, and it was delightful.

Now there's a new coffee beer! Danish wünderkind Mikkel Borg Bjergsø of Mikkeller, who just might be the most respected microbrewer in Denmark, brewed a limited batch of his Beer Hop Breakfast - an Oatmeal stout - with our light roasted Idido, Aricha microlot #2.

We haven't tasted it yet, but Mikkel just brought in a case for us to sample. I'm pretty sure we'll open it up tomorrow and have a few before we send Casper off to Guatemala.

Idido Limited Roast

2010-03-01T11:41:00.000+01:00

As with the Esmeralda, we're also only roasting the light Idido on demand at the moment to keep it fresh.

We'll be roasting up a batch tomorrow, so place your orders on the webshop before noon tomorrow to get it sent out straight from the roaster. Webshop orders are sent out every Tuesday afternoon.

Danish Cuptasting Championships 2010

2010-02-20T21:51:00.003+01:00

Congratulations Mads Høgsted !

He won the final with 8 out of 8 correct cups. Mads works at Copenhagen Roaster/ Estate Coffee and is a hell of guy. We respect him so much and we wish him all the luck in London for the World Championships.

See you there Mads !

2 Year Anniversary

2010-02-12T10:01:00.000+01:00

On the 13th of February we're celebrating that it's now 2 years since we opened our Coffee Shop & Roastery.

We can't believe it's already been two years since we dug into the basement on Jægersborggade with the Probat and La Marzocco and started making coffee for the good people on Nørrebro - and eventually all over the country.Thanks to everyone who's been part of the journey so far!

We'd like to invite all our customers and friends to come by for some great coffees and beer and help us celebrate! We'll have one keg of a very special coffee beer on tap, featuring our very own Kiawamururu from Kenya.

Saturday Feb 13th from 20:00 - midnight at
The Coffee Collective Risteri & Kaffebar
Jægersborggade 10
2200 København N

You can also see the event on Facebook and add it to your calendar.

Esmeralda Roast Tuesday 16th February

2010-02-10T16:10:00.000+01:00

We are now roasting the Esmeralda Special only on a limited basis to keep it fresh.
Next roast will be Tuesday February 16th.

You can pre-order it on the webshop here.

Please note that the coffee will ship same day as roasted and not before. To make sure you get yours on time, we need to have your order by 9 o'clock the same morning. If you order any additional coffees we'll wait with sending it all together to save you of the postal costs.

La Esmeralda Special
Boquete, Panama
Direct Trade

A sweet and clean cup. Fresh with a elegant aromas af abricot, bergamot, heather honey and jasmine.

At Hacienda La Esmeralda the Petersons grow a small lot of the Arabica variety Geisha. The Geisha originates from Ethiopia and is characterised by an astonishing fruity and floral aroma. The coffee is selectively hand picked and then mechanically demucilaged, washed and then dried with sun or a combination of sun a machine drying.
For the past couple of years the Esmeralda Special has only been sold on an auction held by the Petersons, where roasters from all over the world are bidding against each other. We are very happy that we got a lot and are able to present this coffee for the first time in Denmark. We have roasted this coffee quite light with a bit more heat towards the end, so the freshness and the natural aromas are brought out the most.