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Espresso Passione My journey to better coffee and home espresso... ...and as it turned out for me, a story of finding a passion bordering on obsession... Enjoy! I do. Personally, I also think we're now past the worst times and even though next year may still be tough for many, we're getting over it. I am starting to get optimistic. All this is really not coffee related (more on that leater), but I just just wanted to post and show that I'm still alive :) Good luck to you all... posted by Teme at Saturday, November 01, 2008 0 comments links to this post Compared to Copenhagen, it has been tough to find drinkable coffee. My first try after moving over was Paulig's "Espresso Originale" from a supermarket. Sounds really bad, and it really was quite sad. To make a long story short, even though the coffee was roasted fairly recently (3 weeks from the day I bought it and it was after all vacuum packed), I have to say that even after my best efforts at varioús grind, dose and temp settings, this coffee was undrinkable for me. The next step for me was trying Robert's Coffee. For those who do not know, Starbuck's is not present in Finland. I think Robert's is the closest equivalent although I guess they (Robert's) try and do better (than Starbuck's). I am not sure they achieve that and my personal experience has not been positive. I have tried two of their blends (Roberto and Habanero) from (probably) their busiest sales location (Stockmann's in Helsinki) and both of the blends have been a disappointment for me. While purchasing (on Monday this week), I enquired about the roast dates of the coffees, The responses were vague (as in I have no idea), but apparently the coffee was delivered on Friday (i.e. three days before purchase) and supposedly roasted on the day of delivery (or close to)... Regardless of all this vagueness, in my opinion the coffee was over-roasted on both blends and I am quite sure it was a lot older from the roast than I was lead to believe. To me the coffee was barely acceptable/drinkable on the day of purchase and the day after. As you may have gathered, I was not impressed and will most likely not be purchasing again unless I am in really dire straits. If I was pushed for further analysis, I'd rather go for the Habanero, but the priority would be on checking which one is the lighter and fresher roast of the blends available at the time of purchase (if you can get a clear answer on that). After these experiences it initially looked like I had explored all my options in Helsinki and this is almost true. But fortunately not quite. Of course you have the Illy etc pre-packed options available (at the supermakets and various other locations), but those have never convinced me before and I do not think they would do so now, either. So I might as well skip them to be honest. You also have the Andesa/Cafetoria coffees available in some of the supermarkets, but over the past four weeks, I am yet to find a bag that I feel would be fresh enough for me to purchase (although my guess is that it would be better and not as over-roasted as Robert's is - they do have more of the right approach and the cupping champ on their side to boot). Anyway, at this stage I was feeling desparate. Finns drink more coffee than any other nation in the world, but in my experience (during my stay in Copenhagen and even more so now that I live in Helsinki again), the quality of the coffee in the Finnish capital is bad. Really crappy. I am frustrated and I expect better (I admit this may be a bit selfish, but in my opinion Copenhagen was heaven compared to this). After all these disappointments, I thought the only way forward was to start roasting at home again, or start ordering online from Hasbean, The Coffee Collective, Risteriet or Mokkamestarit. These are all viable and respectable alternatives, but I would personally always prefer having a local speacialist (primarily - but I do like variety, comparison and challenges). So, after all of the above I have to say that I was extremely happy to finally experience and see a very dedicated, talented and professional setup in the capital region. Kaffa Roastery is starting up and it really looks like the guys have the right attitude to speciality coffee. I have had a brief encounter with Kaffa and based on that I would compare them with the Coffee Collective that I was familiar with in Denmark. I think this says a lot about the quality and ambition level of the roaster and so far this is the only source that has satisfied me in Finland. More on this experience soon! posted by Teme at Friday, May 30, 2008 9 comments links to this post One of the things that has gone less well is finishing our new home. The tiles we had on the floors for most of the downstairs were not available in stock anywhere and had to be ordered from the manufacturer in Italy. This we knew and were prepared for. We gave the specs (including the calibration and shade) of the batch that we already had on the floor and ordered the tiles. As I noted before, we are looking to have a small dedicated espresso bar in the kitchen. No direct plumbing for now, though. In terms of the electrics, we needed 16 apms for the plugs at the bar (to run the GS3, the Mahlkönig and a wine cooler) and doing this took a bit more effort than we initially expected. No biggie, though. But this is where things started going wrong. We have up until today been unable to unpack our stuff and more or less everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. I will not go into the details, but we have now been living out of our suitcases for almost a month now. Fortunately things are finally starting to look up and the floor and the kitched should be finished next week, finally... ...let's just hope that there will be no further setbacks. One of the few things we have managed tp unpack is the GS3 and the grinder (you can probably make these out in the above picture if you click it to see a slightly larger image). However, another struggle has been finding good coffee in Finland. I knew this would be one of my biggest challenges and I have to say that there is some really nasty stuff out there. Fortunately I think I have found a spot that will do the trick for me. More on that (and the hopefully finished kitchen/bar/floor) soon... posted by Teme at Friday, May 30, 2008 0 comments links to this post The book is clearly focused on espresso and to a lesser extent, filter coffee. French press and tea are also briefly covered. This suits me fine as I mainly enjoy espresso myself. What I really like about this book is that the most important aspects of the barista technique are explained in a fairly concise and easily understandable way. A big plus for covering various different methods and approaches to most topics. My personal favourite coffee related book is the usual suspect - Illy's "Espresso Coffee - The Science of Quality" - which is a really heavy read and while it contains a lot of very detailed and valuable fact, it is not much fun to read. The Illy book is a scientific exploration of coffee while Scott's book has a practical and "hands on" approach to the preparation techniques (which the Illy book really doesn't cover). I like this. The book does not cover the maintenance or recommended cleaning routines of the coffee equipment, which are in my opinion a crucial part of barista skills. However, these can be very specific to the equipment at the barista's disposal, so perhaps leaving this out is a good idea (as the book therefore does not restrict the audience or application of the book). Despite the title of the book, it also aimed at (or at least very useful for) the home baristi. In short, I find Scott's book a great addition to my bookshelf and for me, in addition to the Illy book it now ranks in the top two in its kind. I prefer it over the Schomer book (Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques), which I also happen to have. Highly recommended. posted by Teme at Monday, April 21, 2008 1 comments links to this post posted by Teme at Sunday, April 06, 2008 0 comments links to this post Both my wife and myself have moved to or are in the process of taking up new jobs. In both cases these are with the same companies respectively, but in a different country. We will be moving back to our home country, Finland, at the end of this month. I have effectively been working two jobs (but unfortunately only on one salary) for a while now and on top of this making the practical arrangements for moving home, country etc have taken their fair share of my time. In addition to the new jobs, we've managed to find a new home in Finland. We both look forward to our new challenges professionally as well as to being closer to our families. Having said this, we will both immensely miss Copenhagen, Denmark and the friend that we have both come to love over the time we have spent here. Fortunately, going forward, both of us will continue to have responsibilities in our respective jobs that will mean that we will have frequent opportunities to visit Copenhagen on a regular basis in the future. For me personally the time in Denmark has been an eye opener when it comes to coffee and one of my biggest challenges in Finland will be keeping up the quality of the coffee we are so accustomed to having at home here in Copenhagen. To be honest, I initially see only two alternatives, either ordering online from Denmark and/or the UK or roasting at home. I may and up relying on both. Time will tell... Moving on to "smaller" things, both myself and my wife both look forward to our new home in Finland. We will finally have a slightly larger kitchen with a space dedicated for my coffee passion. I attach a draft picture of the espresso bar that will be in place soon after we have moved in. It's nothing fancy, but I hope it will serve the purpose. I will report in more detail on this once we have completed the move... posted by Teme at Saturday, April 05, 2008 2 comments links to this post posted by Teme at Sunday, December 23, 2007 3 comments links to this post It took me a while to find the best brew temp for the coffee but around 91C seemed to work well for me. This was actually lower than what I expected, considering that the roast is fairly light. But I really do like the blend. I pulls a sweet tasting, smooth cup that has a lovely, creamy mouthfeel and crema. No bitterness. I tasted strong milk chocolates in the beginning. To my palate the coffee works really well also in small cappuccinos. Yummy. With the Coffee Collective up and running along with Risteriet, Kontra and the others, coffee lovers in Copenhagen are really spoiled for choice when it comes to good coffee! posted by Teme at Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2 comments links to this post EDIT (12.11.): The good news is that Kontra's roaster was not damaged by the fire and the damage to the premises doesn't appear to be extensive. EDIT (18.11.): The fire was in the exhaust ducting from the roaster. The beans that were being roasted at the time of the fire were dumped so that they did not have time to catch fire or harm the roaster. The insurance companies are currently assessing the damage and discussing to each other, but as soon as this has been done the repair work will begin. The current estimate is that Kontra will be roasting again in their own premises at the end of the week starting tomorrow. In the meantime, Kontra is able to continue supporting its customers uninterrupted with some help from another Danish roaster...
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