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...)
Monday, September 5, 2011
Torvehallerne part deux
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Opening of The Coffee Collective Torvehallerne
Tomorrow, Friday, we open our new shop at Torvehallerne.
We are ready and we're very excited!
Torvehallerne doesn't officially open till 10 o'clock, but we're going to open as a usual Friday, which means we'll be there three good hours before. You can read the opening programme here.
Our opening hours will be:
Mon - Fri 7.00 - 21.00
Sat - Sun 8.00- 18.00
On Tuesday we did a test run for two hours and the bar was slammed. As with an new store opening it'll take a little while before everything is running as smoothly as you want it to, but we feel much better after the test run. All machines are now working and we're ready to deliver some very tasty coffees.
A couple of (bad iPhone) pictures from the Test Run
Torvehallerne is located at Israels Plads next to Nørreport Station.
Our shop is at the south end at Vendersgade. It should be pretty easy to spot throught the glass windows.
Looking forward to see you in Torvehallerne!
Friday, August 12, 2011
New Espresso from Kieni
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.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Copenhagen tips
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