Daniel's World of Coffee

The Sense of Smell

"Smell is of all senses by far the most evocative: perhaps because we have no vocabulary for it — nothing but a few poverty-stricken approximations to describe the whole vast complexity of odor — and therefore the scent, unnamed and unnameable, remains pure of association; it cannot be called upon again and again, and blunted, by the use of a words; and so it strikes afresh every time, bringing with it all the circumstances of its first perception. This is particularly true when a considerable period of time has elapsed."

-Maturin, in Patrick O'Brian's Post Captain

2009 SCAA Show Highlights

Back in New York City after a long weekend in Atlanta. SCAA was, as usual, lots of faces, lots of parties, lots of interesting new concepts and machines, and way way way too much caffeine. Good times

I'd like to share some highlights and lowlights from my experience:

Highlights

1. Gwilym Davies' signature beverage. Gwilym is your new World Barista Champion. Of course, as a non-judge, I didn't get to taste his espresso. From everything I heard, and judging on the fact that he beat out the 50 best baristas in the entire world, I'm assuming it was positively fantastic. Roasted by these guys.

But, although again I didn't get to taste it, Gwilym's signature beverage was a sight behold. At the beginning of his competition time, he gave the four sensory judges each an envelope and told them to open it and follow the instructions therein. It was a mystery to the general audience what was going on. Then he made his espressos and cappuccinos. When sig-drink time came, he collected the envelopes and announced what four flavors the judges had selected. You see, each card contained four different flavor components, divided into four categories, and Gwilym had the judges choose their "favorite flavor component." Then he went to his tray of 16 different ingredients and selected the four named by the judges for the drink, and prepared the drink. Ballsy, entertaining, and presumably delicious.

In the first round, the choices were butter, hazelnuts, honey, and cherry. I didn't catch the combo in the final round. But all 16 were components he claims are in the espresso, and it's easy to believe him based on the scores he got. Every time I think baristas couldn't possibly come up with new innovations, the best prove me wrong. I have no idea how next year's champ will top this — that's why they are champs and I am not — but I'm already intrigued. Bravo, Gwilym!

2. Chris and M'lissa's wedding reception. Good friends and great people (and great coffee people) Chris Owens and M'lissa Muckerman were married recently, and they saved their big reception for the SCAA show. M'lissa used to run the show at Octane coffee in Atlanta, and that's where about 400 drunken happy baristas and assorted coffee folks descended on Friday night to toast them and dance the night away. At the end of the night there wasn't a single drop of booze left in the place (seriously), though they had started with a mighty inventory. Chris wore a tux and M'lissa a pretty dress, and everyone was smiles all around, spilling out into the parking lot and the streets of Atlanta. So great to see so many old friends! It's a tribute to how much everyone loves those two that it was such a great party. Also a good thing that my primary job the next day was to drink coffee.

Thanks Chris'n'M'liss! Congratulations!

3. Devin's shot of Black Cat. You get a ton of coffee at these events, of course. Some of it is good, some of it is great, and some of it makes you wonder what people were thinking (in a room full of 1000s of coffee experts, better bring your A-game!). I went in hoping to get a real transformative experience from some unknown coffee, but the best shot I had all weekend was actually a shot of Black Cat espresso made for me at the Intelligentsia booth by master LA barista, Devin Pedde. Perfect chocolate and caramel, touch of rich fruit, velvety smooth mouthfeel that stayed with me for an hour.

The other fantastic shot I had was at the Barista Guild of America cafe, a shot of Terroir Coffee's Daterra Reserve (a famous Brazilian grower, roasted by a famous Massachusettes coffee expert), pulled by fellow New York Stater Chris Ganger of Ithaca Coffee Company. Very clear and light for a Brazil, but with lots of sweetness and great aromatics. Nice job, Devin and Chris.

4. First Annual Taster's Championship. Won by another northeasterner (detect a pattern?), Ben Kaminsky of Barismo. This has been a long time coming. For all the attention given to barista competition, it's about time we had a national competition for tasters. The format is simple differentiation of triangulated coffees (pick which of the three is different from the other two), in as short a time as possible. Geoff Watts of Intelly made the top three, but Kaminsky pulled out the championship in the end. Now it's on to world's for him. Major props. If I have the balls I will compete next year myself.

5. Hartmann Honey from Gimme! Gabe Boscano of Gimme! Coffee gave me a small bag of Panamanian coffee from his latest batch on their restored Probat drum roaster. Gimme! has air-roasted from the start, and the drum-roaster is a new venture for them; Gabe's helping to drive that bus. I didn't technically taste this at the show, but rather brewed myself two pots this morning. It's very rich and sweet for a Panama, due in part to being "honey-processed" coffee (pulp dried right on the parchment instead of fermented off). I know this is a risky way to process coffee, but the Hartmann family did it perfectly, and the Gimme! crew roasted it perfectly. I'm already looking forward to drinking some more later today. Thanks, Gabe!

Lowlights

Just one here: JFK airport almost completely shut down on Monday due to a little blustery weather and heavy rain. That place is so damn busy, the slightest glitch seems to send it into total disarray. People were getting canceled and redirected all up and down the East Coast. My colleague David left very early Monday, ended up in Cincinatti somehow and barely made it home. My colleague Steve had to spend the night in Raleigh, NC, and then was delayed again on his morning flight. As for me, I was delayed several hours out of Atlanta, then circled over New Jersey for an hour or so before they sent us to Boston where we refueled, took off again, circled over Long Island for a while and then, at the last moment, they let us land at JFK 7 hours late. Oof...

But I'm back now. And luckily, the highlights (of which these five are only a small selection) vastly overpower the lowlights.

Way to Go, Mike

Results are in from the WBC. Mike Phillips, US Champion, finished third. Fellow North American Sammy Piccolo of Canada was second, and the Gwilym Davies of the UK took home that country's second championship in three years.

Final results:

6th: Attila Molnar, Hungary
5th: Lee Jong Hoon, South Korea
4th: Colin Harmon, Ireland
3rd: Michael Phillips, USA
2nd: Sammy Piccolo, Canada
1st: Gwilym Davies, UK

Congrats to all competitors. It was an amazing competition.

The Final Six

We're down to six baristas left standing after a year of competition. USA Champion Michael Phillips is through to the final round! America, Puck Yeah!

Other final countries are Ireland, South Korea, Canada, UK, and Hungary. Finals are tomorrow afternoon and announcements will be made around 4 pm Eastern. Live streaming video and more details here.

Lots of interesting stuff at the show, but of course no time to post on it right now.

Cheese!

Don't forget! This Wednesday evening is my cheese and coffee class at Artisanal Premium Cheese. The bubbly will be flowing (and we might whip out the port at the end too), three fantastic coffees from around the world married with six unbelievable cheeses.

Here is my longer post about it.

Sign up at Artisanal here.

See you there!

New Harvest El Salvador Cupping

This week is the Specialty Coffee Association of America conference in Atlanta. I'll be there along with several hundred other coffee professionals.

So I wanted to get the word out sooner rather than later about an event that I will be hosting the week after the show, right here in New York City.

It's a tasting of top new coffees from El Salvador, from this year's (2008-09) harvest. These are coffees that you haven't tasted yet, unless you've been to El Salvador in the last couple of months.

In the winter, Ken Davids and Willem Boot did a blind evaluation of dozens of Salvadoran coffees. They sent me samples of the top scorers; and when I was in San Salvador last, in February, I was able to get 8 or 10 fresh-crop samples from the same farms that had done so well. Some of these farms are past Cup of Excellence winners, but many of them are getting special exposure like this for the first time. All of the coffees are top notch, all above 85, and several scoring well into the 90's.

It was a touch-and-go year in E.S. because of the weather, but the crop has really turned out well. Coffee professionals and the curious are invited to come taste them and learn a little about what to expect from this rich, beautiful coffee country in the next 12 months.

The wonderful people at Bodum have once again agreed to open up their lovely Chelsea showroom for our event. This is the same place where we held our Taste of Ethiopia event last year.

There is no charge, but RSVP is required.

Thursday, April 23rd

6:00 pm

Bodum USA Headquarters

601 West 26th St. Suite 1250 Between 11th and 12th Aves.

RSVP to [email protected]

Hope to see you there.