Congratulations to John Muli Makau for taking home his 3rd Kenyan Barista Championship title in a row.

It was a really close race between the top 3 baristas who all work as barista trainers for Dormans in Kenya.

We wish John good luck in his pursuit of the world champion title.
Since my last visit to Kenya in 2006, where I also judged the Kenyan Barista Competition, I was pleased to see the level was much higher and that the standards of all the 6 finalists were really good.

Being a bit confused by the time difference, I woke up quite early  because of some annoying birds outside my hotel window. Although it made me a bit grumpy the beautiful view of flowers from my bedside inspired me to make some of last years Gatundu coffee on my travelmate, the Aeropress, and to read some e-mails.

Although the coffee was delicious I got a real bitter aftertaste in my nouth after reading the newsletter from George Howell and Terroir coffee company. I have copied the essentials from his newsletter below:

“In that vein, the Ethiopian government determined a few months ago that all availability and traceability of individual coffee lots be scrapped. Regional coffee lots were to be graded by the government’s designated authorities and then lump-blended into large trademarked lots. You could buy Yirgacheffe Grade X and know nothing more. This adds value? After strenuous protests from shocked exporters the government relented somewhat: cooperatives could operate independently and retain traceability but not so with any private mills – who often paid farmers for their cherry more than many coops! So this means, as things stand now, that the organic superb Ademe Bedane we currently have will not be available as new crop this year. Even if they produce a lot as refined and flavorful as the one we currently have, tough – it will be dropped into the leveling sea of other lots all ideally from the same region, but in no way required to be. This is commodity thinking at its worst, the very way to guarantee there are no “Ah-hah!” moments that really determine why certain regions become stars commanding higher prices. We pray Ethiopia will relent even at this late time in the current season. Specialty coffee exporters, when recently protesting, were told they were irrelevant because specialty represented 1% of Ethiopia’s sales. That’s vision!”

For our customers it means there probably will be no more Aricha coffee from Ethiopia until the Ethiopian goverment change the new legislation (which may take a while if it ever gets changed).

We still have about 60 kilos left of the Aricha #32, but expect it o vanish from our shelves in 1-2 weeks. So if you want a last sweet taste of this intense coffee, then run down to our store and get your hands on some of the last bags..

Tim W

I am sitting in my hotel room exhausted after 17 hours of traveling from Oslo to Nairobi. Kenya is my first destination for this 2 week- long trip and the reason for going is to source coffee of course.

I am also travelling with my friend and colleague from Denmark, Mr. Peter Dupont, who will arrive tomorrow. Peter is the roaster and also manager at the Coffeecollective and we are trying to establish a cooperation together so that we can start a direct trade model with a cooperative or farm in Kenya. There are many reasons why we want to do this, but first and foremost working towards better quality of coffee and better quality of life for the farmers.

I will be visiting the Gatundu co- op where we bought coffee from last year (the best Kenyan coffee I have ever had) and hopefully the coffee is as good this year.

Pictures and reports will be posted hopefylly every day, but that all depends on wi-fi connections, etc.

Tomorrow morning  I  will be judging in the Kenyan Barista Competition. It has been 3 years since I was here last time and trained and judged baristas, so it will be exciting to see how the barista craft has developed in Kenya.

My second destination for this trip is a round trip in Ethiopia together with Joseph Brodsky from Ninetyplus coffee.

More about Ethiopia next week.

Tim W

On Thursday we hosted a cupping of Central & South American coffees from roasters throughout the world, as part of the Kaffefestivities. A huge thank you to the people who made the effort to send their coffees to us.

Norwegian Coffee Folk

We received over 30 coffees from all over the place, and on Wednesday night the staff at TW’s picked out the best 10 – at least one coffee from each of the roasters would be showcased. The top 10 coffees were, in no particular order -

Finca Vista Hermosa, Guatemala – Coffee Collective, Denmark

Cielito Lindo, Honduras CoE – Tim Wendelboe, Norway

Finca La Lomita, Colombia - Tim Wendelboe, Norway

Gonzalo Rojas, Panama – David Haugaard, Sweden

Los Lejones, Panama – Supreme Roastworks, Norway

La Aurora, Colombia - Supreme Roastworks, Norway

Finca Kilimanjaro, El Salvador – Solberg & Hansen, Norway

Cruz Del Sur, Peru – Intelligentsia, US

Las Mingas, Narino Lot 45, Colombia – Kaffa, Norway

Hacienda Esmerelda Geisha, Panama – Kaffa, Norway

The selection was Scandinavian heavy, this is all thanks to the hopeless Terminal 5 at Heathrow, who left my luggage containing coffees from Melbourne.

Razzamatazzmus getting stuck in

Both the Kaffa coffees stood out, especially the delightful Esmerelda. It was interesting to note the varied roasting techniques from country to country and even between the Norwegian roasters. There was a fantastic atmosphere with around 20 guests – some roasters, some baristas, some customers, all keen to share opinions and thoughts on each of the coffees presented.

We will be sure to host another cupping of this type again in the future, hopefully with a broader spectrum of roasters. Perhaps a trip across the Atlantic to an African country…

Aftermath

Although we always try to push things forward and plan ahead, it is sometimes nice to walk down memory lane. Therefore we have published a media archive with old newspaper interviews, articles, commercial work, etc. on our web page. A lot has changed since  the first interview with Tim in 2000, but only for the better we believe. (If you don’t believe so, just check out the size of the espresso in the picture to the right. Yes, that was a single shot in the year 2000.)

To check out the archive go here.

We have now published a date for the coffee and home brewing course.

For more information go here.

We have now published the new dates for barista courses in March and April.
Unfortunately, due to 2 coffee trips to Colombia, Kenya and Ethiopia, we are not able to do more than one course per month.

For more information about the courses go here.

Here is a recent article about how to improve your coffee brewing skills, written by Tim Wendelboe for www.mamizeit.com.

We have started to sell the first 2 Las Mingas coffees.

For more information, click here.

Kaffefest is coming up. Kaffefest is a long weekend of coffee related seminars, cuppings and the finals of the Norwegian Barista Championships. As part of the festivities we are hosting a cupping of Central and South American coffees (except Brasil) from different roasteries from around the globe. The theme is very broad, we know, but it will be a good chance for enthusiasts to sample some of the styles of roasting and what coffees people are buying and are excited about.  The format is quite casual in order to create a comfortable environment where everyone is welcome to discuss the coffees.

The tasting takes place at our store in Grünersgate 1 on Thursday the 19th of February at 18.00h.

We have 2 open spots for our blog readers, so if you are interested in attending the taste evening, then leave a comment on this post. The 2 first to comment will get their ticket to the taste evening.