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.
Monday, August 1, 2011
New Barista Courses
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Torvehallerne-more and more physical
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 RotheWe 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.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
New Store Opening: Torvehallerne
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
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.
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.
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