My first competition

As you know, for the past 2 months I was preparing for Cuptasters. That one is quite special to me. It was my first coffee competition ever.

Tea Tasting

If you're passionate about something, practice it in the most ridiculous way you can. My thing is sensory evaluation. Mostly taste and smell, but there's only so much you can do with coffee.

Black tea

Darjeeling 2nd flush - considered the champagne of teas. I really don't appreciate it that much. They say it's about the depth of flavour, floral aroma and muscatel character.

Whatever muscatel is, I probably would call it "Darjeeling flavour". Which raises a question about the definition of a flavour. For me, there's nothing worse than bringing down something to a "coffee flavour", as coffee itself has plenty of flavours. However, I might be as ignorant with that tea.

The truth is, even a flavour of blueberry can be deconstructed to smaller pieces. Which is shown in Sensory Lexicon:

The slightly dark, fruity, sweet, slightly sour, musty, dusty, floral aromatic associated with blueberry.

But as you can see, it comes down to association. In sensory science, flavour it's usually a matter of nothing but the association and common agreement.

Another highlight was the Chinese Yunnan. Region considered to be the birthplace of tea. Strong, smoky with a lingering aftertaste. Reminds me of Islay whisky. Way more smoky than any Yerba Mate I've ever had, even the famous Cruz De Malta.

Oolong

Typically a favourite one. Although I feel a bit tired of them. It's like drinking Geisha every week. There was one highlight though.

Eastern Beauty - dark oolong from Taiwan. Exceptional in a way no coffee professional would assume. Insects bite leaves before harvest, resulting in sweet-sour character. Natural process making it truly unique.

The acidity was actually perceivable. However, I still don't feel ok about the insects. How this could not be a nightmare?

Green and white

There's a lot to taste in green tea. Even though it's not in terms of particular flavours. Rather depth, the intensity of vegetal and savoury character.

But when it comes to white...

The Silver Needle is worth its price. Intensive aroma, big flavours, yet subtlety and sophistication. Geisha of teas.

Herbal teas

I've never thought it might be an interesting experience. Unfairly.

Chamomile has proven the flavour agreement. It's a mind-broadening experience to try something considered as "a flavour" and find another flavour in it. It was the first chamomile tea I truly enjoyed. Lots of apple and honey.

The same with Rooibos. Never before drank a good one, never before found cascara, rhubarb and honey characters in it. Wow.

Lemongrass was a big surprise. I didn't think about it as something to brew. However, you just can't help smiling while drinking it. Lemon intensity takes you to a place you've never been before.

The biggest takeaway for me is a flavour in flavour experience. The next time I taste chamomile in coffee, I'll think about its apple character.

Picture - A Girl With Tea, CC 2.0

Geisha

Geisha is giving hard times to the coffee industry. It's expensive, hardly anyone knows where it really comes from and it's a "standard competing coffee".

Especially when it comes to the last one, the conversations lightens up. Recently, James Hoffman wrote a wonderful piece about Geisha in competition. And it's remarkable how many people have published something about Geisha since then.

Competition

It seems easy to compete with a varietal like this. It gets high scores on a cupping table. Has distinct flavour notes. And for years it is the Geisha winning in competitions.

But at the end of the day, it's not entirely fair to compare Geisha to Bourbon or any other.

I would love to see other coffees win competitions. It was exciting to see Dan Fellows winning UKBC with Heirloom from Ethiopia.

Same thing with Jem Challender and his exotic Javanica for Brewers Cup. For Worlds though, he switched to Geisha. Which again, is absolutely understandable from competitor's view.

There comes the idea of having several competitions for different varieties. One for Geisha, one for Caturra, Bourbon and so on. But I can't imagine this in practice. That's an extreme fragmentation, we would end up with only several people entering "a variety competition".

Restricting rules

Then there was a thought of banning Geisha. But let's say it would pass (which I don't believe in). Imagine the decrease in demand for Geisha. Baristas who prepare for competition, use a lot of coffee. Some people even consider it "Waste". Across the world, all these baristas add to a pretty nice percentage of general demand for Geisha. Especially considering not so high popularity in cafes and retail sales. I don't have any numbers, but I assume farmers would be affected by the ban.

Also, banning anything in the competition is against the idea of competing in the first place. That's where people experiment, come up with new ideas, share their knowledge. I'm for making the rules less strict. I love the idea of freeing milk beverages. Flat white is way cooler than Cappuccino, isn't it? The next big thing I want to see is letting baristas adjust machines - temperature, pressure and maybe even water.

Those parameters have been fixed for years. However, it is changing across the industry. I believe that through adjusting these variables baristas would be able to bring new life to different varieties.

Maybe it's that we need to see another variety to win. To set a precedent. To encourage people to use different coffee and increase its chances.

Low pressure on Black Eagle

The most exciting thing in coffee at the moment is lowering pump pressure. The very act is no big science. But the research conducted by several professionals makes it science-backed.

Mat North, Michael Cameron, Matt Perger have inspired baristas all over the world. Including me. I wanted to give it a try.

But I work on Victoria Arduino Black Eagle. The machine with difficult access to its inside. The interactive menu allows you to change the pressure of the steam wand, but not the pump. Manual provides you with instruction to make a cappuccino, but there's nothing about the pump.

An insight

Black Eagle is the perfect choice for playing with variables. Pump pressure, temperature or extraction yield can be changed so easily it's a shame not to do it.

Benefits

Tastier espresso, higher consistency and respect from fellow baristas. And that's it.

Dialling in is about finding balance. You can find balance in uneven extraction. To exemplify, hitting 20% extraction with 9 bar pressure. But you will hate your espresso after a few times.

I got a coffee described as very sweet, with notes of lemon, peach, jasmine and caramel finish. The problem is, for 3 months of working with this coffee I never went past lemon and jasmine. I was dealing with an astringent, harsh, bitter and overwhelming aftertaste, doing my best to get the lemony one. "Has some sweetness" meant balanced extraction. The body was watery.

Until the day I lowered the pressure to 7 bars. Lemony start, followed by jasmine and sweet mango with a syrupy finish. The mouthfeel is round and creamy. The new espresso cuts through milk much better too.

In terms of consistency, I waste much fewer shots. Channelling still occurs but it's pretty rare. Making workflow on busy morning smoother.

Lower pressure helps especially with a guest coffee ground in EK43. No matter how tasty shots you can pull on EK, the grinder is not designed for espresso during busy times.


Photo - Niall Kennedy

Ethiopia Duromina

Today I cupped away from home. Nothing new. But the first time I'm going to write about that cupping. Reason for that being I was alone.

Duromina is a relatively new thing. A cooperative of over 100 farmers to make better coffee. Jimma Zone has perfect climate for growing coffee, but it's always been low quality.

Now, as they've switched to washed processing due to Technoserve financing, their coffee is easily scoring over 90. Complex, clean and with a depth of flavours, it gets the best prices in Africa. The mill investment was repaid in only a year, instead of planned 4.

Details:

Origin: Ethiopia, Jimma Zone, Oromia
Varietal: Heirloom
Process: Washed, dried on African beds
Altitude: 1900-2000 masl
Roaster: Taylor Street Baristas
Score: 90.75

Cupping:


Fragrance: floral, lily, unusual for Ethiopia (maybe that how washed Ethiopia should smell)
Aroma: Very floral, with a distinct note of rose, not entirely uniform in terms of aroma

Flavour is like another level of Yirgacheffe. More delicate, no big flavours, but definitely big coffee. The depth and complexity got me lost. I have no reference for violet, but it seems to play a big role. Floral over fruity, but more interesting than jasmine and hibiscus.
However still fruity. Apricot, wild rose fruit, orange. Or maybe orange blossom. 65/35 for floral.

Acidity is beautiful. Generous but delicate. Not overpowering flavours and sweetness. Though again, not uniform from cup to cup.

Balanced like greatest Panamas, full-bodied like buttery Brazilians. Round, pleasant, silky, smooth. Yummy!

This coffee was scored at 90.75. I scored 90.5. It lost points mainly in aftertaste and uniformity. Probably some of these delicate flavours would linger a bit in the filter. But it shows the risk of flat espresso.
As far as I'm concerned cooperatives are not a great source of uniformity. Keep in mind over 100 farmers.

As for that, I cannot praise roaster enough. It would be a shame to hit another lemon/ginger/jasmine Geisha-like flavour profile as many roast Duromina that way. Frankly, I would use this coffee in the Brewers Cup.

Why 9?

Lower pump pressure means 3 interesting things. More gentle water flow - less chance for channelling. More even saturation of the grounds. And less fines migration.

Considering the arguments above, how on earth everybody got stuck on 9 bars for so long?

History

The first coffee machines made "espresso" more like filter coffee. Successively the pressure was higher and higher. Which allowed for about 30s extraction of concentrated beverage known as espresso.

It's clear, that taste wasn't the critical factor. So, let's say the goal was to extract more. Understandable, but extraction percentage in relation to pump pressure is Gauss's graph. Therefore, as you increase pressure, you get higher extraction, but only to some point. After that, increasing pressure lowers extraction.

The reason for that is uneven extraction. The peak point of the graph depends on coffee used, grinder, baskets, distribution, tamping and hundreds other factors. The thing is, usually the peak point is around 8 bar with perfect technique (the one you do competing).

Café environment

Pulling 100 shots per hour, for 10 h on shift is a different case. You have to be consistent. And consistency derives from minimising unpredictability. Pump pressure is one of them.

Let's assume you have a decent tamp - firm, level and consistent. But everyone makes little mistakes from time to time. The tamp no. 793 of the day might be of lower quality. Lighter and not perfectly level. 9 bars would cruelly channel it into 22s shot (everyone is weighing shots, right?). Not acceptable. But 6 bars would gently go through the puck extracting servable coffee. The shot would not be perfect, but you wouldn't tell the difference by watching the shot.

The example above shows how lowering the pump pressure minimises an obstacle in achieving even extraction. Mitigating negative factors is a key to consistency. It also allows you to focus on different factors. Such as temperature or distribution.

Extraction

The ultimate factor is taste. Always. Taste is correlated more to evenness of extraction that extraction. The question is, can you taste uneven extraction?
Tasting this is like a reawakening. Once you get used to 6-7 bar pressure, pull a shot on 9-10 bar. Even if the shot doesn't seem to be channelled it's gonna be hell in your mouth.

Some critics may say, that getting used to 6 bars worsens your technique. Just like getting used to gravimetrics or volumetrics deteriorate to stop your shots manually. There's a hint of truth in that. However, stopping your shots manually has never been the best option (unless you really weigh the shot) - click here. Same with lower pressure. Getting ZERO chanelled shots is worth the game. We've gone far from tamping as hard as possible a while ago. Consistency is a major factor. And actually, you CAN tamp too hard - click here.

Chocolate like coffee

During my childhood, I believed all chocolate is the same. I knew milk chocolate is good, dark chocolate is awful and a white is even worse. And the best chocolate ever is with hazelnuts.

Opportunity

A special event in Prufrock. Cocoa Runners and James Hoffman giving a lecture and tasting session. I couldn't miss that.

The event involved theory and tasting. I was surprised from the very beginning. Swiss chocolate is bad, Belgium chocolate is even worse. White chocolate - 100% cocoa butter - is super tasty. Many similarities with coffee as well!

Multi-step processing, terroir, single plantation, flavour wheels, a chocolate tea made of cocoa shells (like cascara!).

Processing

1. Harvest - just like with coffee, cocoa beans are taken off the chocolate tree. The interesting thing is they grow out of the trunk. What's even more surprising, you can find many varieties on one tree!

2. Fermentation - assumed the most important step. Most flavours are developed.

3. Drying - the fermentation process leaves the cocoa beans with high moisture content. Sometimes it's sun-drying (like a natural process!). Sometimes with fire, which leaves a smoky taste (like yerba mate!).

4. Roasting - a coffee industry glorifies roasters, whereas in a chocolate industry it's almost neglected. Some people roast in 180 s, some in 35 min, some have no idea what the temperature roasting is. I expected a discussion about roasting profiles. Nowhere near enough.

Overroasted cocoa is bad. It's usually flavoured (Vanilla Latte from Starbucks, anyone?), think Lindt Orange or Chilli.

5. Winnowing - taking the shell off. I imagine this as if after roasting coffee, the beans were still covered in silverskin. Apparently, a cocoa shell is tougher to take off.

6. Grinding (conching) - the cocoa beans are ground. It takes hours and the longer conching, the smoother the chocolate. Usually about 50kg at a time. For milk chocolate, milk powder is added during this step.

7. Tempering and moulding - the chocolate is formed.

8. Wrapping - an important step. It's not processing, but a bar needs to be separated from oxygen. If done properly, shelf time is long. Safely a year, but consumable even after 10 years. So far, the best way to pack is by using bags like coffee roasters.

What is good chocolate?

It's easy to check. The high-quality chocolate has 3 ingredients. Only. Cocoa, cocoa butter and sugar. Milk chocolate can be considered a high-quality product. The difference is an addition of milk.

Sometimes you can find salt, especially in milk chocolate. Salt is known for amplifying other flavours. It makes your taste buds go crazy the first time you try.

Another flavour that comes into chocolate from outside is a coconut. Found in milk chocolate. Though still sticking to 4 ingredients. How? A coconut blossom sugar.

Flavours

Back to a sensory approach. I realise I might be a bit limited due to my coffee focus. Fortunately, many coffee professionals think alike.

There is no official flavour wheel. Thus you can find plenty of them on the Internet.

Generally, it's not as detailed as in coffee. Spicy, fruity, floral descriptors are perfectly ok. Jasmine, citrus or raspberries are perceptible, but not much beyond.

Out of 10 different chocolates, quite often I noted things like: Jasmine, Citrus, Fruity, Acidic, Dry, Balanced, Bland, Light, Sweet, Coconut.

But most of them had strong earthy, roasty flavours. Sometimes chemical. All considered severe defects in coffee. They are clearly unpleasant.

Chocolate people feel good about them as if they were natural. I'm not impressed with big flavours accompanied by big defects. Chocolate flavour wheels are full of earthy, chemical, roasted, medicinal descriptors. As if defects were expected. Or even not considered defects!

Coffee people have agreed chocolate involves some flavours considered defects in coffee. Nevertheless, I believe they can be decreased.

I can't help thinking about the old SCAA flavour wheel, the defect one in particular. It has taught us what we don't want to taste. I think chocolate needs the same.

The chocolate industry is about 30 years behind coffee. I hope research, a scientific approach and a bunch of enthusiasts can bring it to another level. Who knows, maybe one day it will be as exciting as coffee?

Title photo - Jan David Hanrath, CC 2.0

Middle photo - Miss_Yasmina, CC 2.0

How to become a barista

If you want to apply for any kind of a barista job - it's a matter of time getting it. Starbucks, Costa or Cafe Nero will take anyone on board. Without experience. But a Specialty Barista is much different.

I tried hard. I sent hundreds of resumes. I've been invited to interviews. Eventually, I settled down with a non-specialty cafe. Minimum wage, no standards at all. The interviewer was surprised to see I'm passionate about coffee.

6 months of applying later

I was still trying. There was one company I really wanted to work for. Fortunately, I was excited enough to fluently describe my experience, knowledge and passion when interviewed.

It was one of the best days of my life. It was better than winning a lottery. I've never been happier the day I could leave the job I hated and started doing something I love.

No experience?

It is possible to get a specialty barista job without experience. There are some key points:

1. Learn on your own
If you're passionate about something you can show it with theory. Alternative brewing methods, cultivars, WBC routines. Read a book about coffee. Attend a coffee event or training session. Cuppings! You can do it at home.

Invest your time and money to learn as much as you can. It will pay off.

2. The right company
In theory, a passionate cover letter would always get you a job. But without relevant experience, it will test your patience. Keep in mind that many cafes are small and have no training abilities. There are a few with a complete program and plenty of "we could possibly train you". Anyway, make sure the training investment will pay.

3. Master applying skills
Start here (but don't limit yourself). Take time to craft a cover letter and CV, it will come with experience - learn how to do it. Research the company (all social media, preferably 2 years back). Get a grab of speaking skills (Toastmasters!). And go and order their coffee yourself.

4. Don't give up
I've sent an application to one company 3 times and I tried even after the failed interview. Presume that if you were rejected on the interview, they wouldn't like to hear from you again.

Be aware that recruiters usually read only first 10-15 applications.

The specialty industry is small. If you're lucky to live in London - it's 200 companies. 80% of them look only for experienced people. But, if you're determined to work in the industry you can do it. Basic knowledge, passion and consequence will take you there. Maybe in a month, maybe in a year. Just keep on trying.

Photo - Ed Gregory, CC0

Decaf is ok

In a western culture coffee is all about caffeine. Except for some geeks who think mostly about flavour.

Whereas tasting whisky involves getting a bit drunk, cupping coffee puts you at risk of overcaffeination if you choose not to spit. Caffeine is a drug and it affects the human body in several ways.

That's why some people choose to drink decaf.

Which is absolutely ok. But not everyone thinks so.

Many baristas think decaf is not coffee. A popular belief among low-quality coffeeshops. Often times for a reason - the decaf is mediocre quality as a bean. And unless the business can afford extra grinder, it comes preground and predosed. Simply by tasting the difference, a negative opinion is created.

I understand their point of view. If you sell shit coffee (and even worse decaf) - there's no point having an awful drink without the stimulating effect.

But how many of them have cupped the same coffee in both regular and decaf version side by side?

I assume none of them.

Top coffee professionals, including Tracy Allen, realise coffee minus caffeine is still coffee. The best roasters in the world offer decaf. And yes, it's speciality decaf.

It goes without saying that decaf flavour experience is rather limited. But if you take speciality grade green beans, decaffeinate them and then roast and brew into a decent cup of coffee, what can be wrong with that?

I have to admit, that dialling in decaf is sometimes more pleasurable than a house blend. And the lack of caffeine has nothing to do with that.

Origin Roasters, CC 2.0

Caffeine keeps you awake - it binds to adenosine receptors. But unlike adenosine, caffeine does not slow down the cell's activity (causing drowsiness). Its activity implicates adrenaline and dopamine production. In result, both your muscles and brain are prepared to the elongated effort. You can even get rid of a headache due to blood vessels constriction.

On the other hand, caffeine is toxic and it takes a long time to remove it from the body. It's really personal and depends on your liver functioning, genes and caffeine tolerance. But 6h after a cup of coffee is not enough to have a high-quality deep sleep. The half-life of caffeine in the body is about 6h (6h after consumption of 200 mg you still have about 100 mg in your body).

What is difficult to find in decaf, is quality and diversity. You can get decent decaf coffee. But almost every roastery has only one decaf (if any at all). 

Decaf will never rule the world of coffee. Costly processing is absurd with micro-lots and realistically with everything above 90 points. Moreover, it is well known that decaffeination slightly affects bean. You can easily spot the difference - decaf on the right -  before roasting (photo above) and after the same roasting (below).

Caffeine is bitter and probably contributes to taste. Decaf bean looks different and roasts differently. No matter how similar the final product is, it will never be 100% the same.

Origin Roasters, CC 2.0

I used to believe decaf is worse. Primarily because freshly roasted and freshly ground speciality decaf seemed non-existent. Secondly, I thought decaffeination affects beans in a severe way. And I had not drunk quality decaf.

Well, lack of knowledge and experience is never a good friend.

All in all, it's worth to appreciate those who drink coffee for something beyond its stimulation. Whether it's coffee flavour (decaf espresso) or cafe experience.

Photo - John Lodder, CC 2.0