Oslo TV came to learn how to make coffee in 15 minutes the other day.
See the whole TV feature here:

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Exhausted from all the partying and socialising in Atlanta, we jumped on a plane to Bogota and from Bogota to Neiva the following day. Our main goal on this trip was to visit Finca la Lomita to help pick some coffee and experiment with some processing techniques in order to develope Mr. Alvaro Diaz’ coffee. It turns out Alvaro has left the farm and his wife for his wife’s sister. A huge disappointment for us as we have been trying to establish a relationship to this farm in order to develope the quality of coffee we want and improve the quality of life of Mr. Alvaro and his family. Sadly Alvaro was more committed to his lovelife than his coffee. As we do not want to be marriage counsellors we decided to look for another farm to work with, and typically when one door closes other doors open.

Day 1:

Going straight from the Airport in Neiva we visited the Almacafe mill located near by. A huge dry mill that removes parchment, sticks, stones, defects and sorts the coffee before it is shipped. The mill was quite large and a bit too noisy to hear what our translater was saying.

In the Afternoon we tasted some coffees that we brought from Norway together with the cuppers at Coocentral. This was very educational for both them and us and it helped the cuppers understand more what kind of coffees we are looking for in Colombia. We also tasted some coffees from Huila, Colombia and found a great coffee from a farm located not far away from Finca la Lomita. It seems that the Pital area has some great coffees that are right up our alley.

In the evening we visited a smaller dry mill in Garzon, where we met the crazy Mr. Gilberto which was the head of the mill. We discussed the possibility of them investing in a vacuum packing machine with nitrogen flushing in order to preserve the coffee that we buy from huila better. His immediate answer was: “we will do whatever you want us to do.”

After talking with the cooperative (Coocentral) about developing coffees on different farms and sending us samples from various experiments in order to give them feedback, it seems that their attitude towards what we are trying to accomplish is very positive. In general it seems that a lot of farmers and the people at the cooperative and mill is willing to do what ever it takes for us to find and develope the coffee that we want. This seems a bit odd since we are an extremely small customer, buying only 40-60 bags per year. Compared to Illy or Starbucks who buy thousands of bags from the same area it does not make sense. It turns out that one of the reasons for their new attitude (it was not like this on my first visit 2 years ago) is because we have been paying good prices, way above the market price for the Lomita coffee 2 years in a row. This has gotten a lot of attention in the area and a lot of farmers have been trying to improve their quality and looking at Finca La Lomita as a benchmark for quality in the area. It is very rewarding to see that the big co-operatives and many of the farmers are willing to listen to small customers and that we can go forward as a good example for what quality can do to improve the lives of the farmers as well as the taste of the coffee. This is one of the biggest reasons why we are focusing on Colombia as our first development project. (not to forget that the Huila area has great coffees. The winning coffee of the year award on the SCAA show in Atlanta only a week ago was from Huila.)

The day ended with lots of beer and a local game called Teju. (If the picture is a bit blurry it is because, so were we)

The crazy Mr. Gilberto:

Day 2

Early in the morning don Mario and our translator Sonia picked us up to go to Pital and to visit some farms in the mountains near Pital. As usual our first stop was at Grupo Renacer which is a group of a couple of farmers that we have visited on the previous colombia visits. It was good to see that they had been improving their pulping and washing station since my previous visit where I commented on the fermentation tanks being dirty and difficult to clean which will affect the coffee in a negative way during the washing and fermentation process.

Instead of going horse riding (like we normally do)  Jairo and his wife Amparo and their friend Ovideo (picture) insisted on going on the back of their truck in order to be able to visit more farms in shorter time. We covered over 6 farms and got to see some processing and had great discussions about how to raise the quality of their coffee. In fact Ovideo, the farmer at Finca la Porcellana, decided to run an experiment for us with different fermentation times. He will also be hiring a couple of extra workers that will select only the ripest cherries before they are pulped. Samples will be coming in by the end of may and we will for sure invite some of you to tatse the results.

Day 2 was indeed an exhausting day, but very educational and constructive, especially for Tim V as this was his first trip to a producing country and there was a lot of impressions to digest. (I have never ever seen him so quiet before. )

Again it is very nice to see that the farmers are open minded and are willing to work with us to improve the quality of their coffee.

Tim and I are currently in Colombia celebrating my 30th birthday in Bogota. Therefore a report from day 3 & 4 will follow later on. Some more pictures from our trip below:

Congratulations to Gwilym who won the 2009 world barista champion title. It was really exciting to see his performance. If you did not see his presentation on the live stream yesterday, rumours say that all the presentations will be available in high quality film on the web in 2 weeks.

I got the chance to play around with the new La Marzocco machine today. I brought a bag of Aricha #28 and the results were stunning. The machine is basically all you want in an espresso machine. Here is what is new:
1. One boiler per group. PID controlled. More accurate than ever.

2. Individually programmable or manually controlled pressure profiling on each group. The brew water pressure is either controlled by a pre- programmed computer (you can dial it in after your desire with a lap top) or you can adjust the pressure easily by pulling the paddle controller like a throttle up or down. The pressure will follow your movements on the paddle (throttle). This means you can brew at any desired pressure. You can monitor the pressure on the pressure gague over each group head.

3. One digitally controlled integrated pump per group. The pumps are serviceable and inside the machine this time instead of outside. (Saves space) You can also run them as you like without interfering the other groups’ pressure.

Everything beautifully wrapped inside a FB80 body.

I have to say that this is by far the best espresso machine I have ever tried. All other machines on the SCAA trade show became uninteresting after playing around with this today. It really opens up a whole new world in espresso brewing.

I got to taste 4 shots of the Aricha I brewed and I did different pressure profiling on all of them. (all the other shots were handed out) They were all very good but all very different in flavour, texture and balance. It was very interesting to monitor the pressure gagues as well, because the dosing and grind setting would directly influence the pressure as well as the throttle / paddle setting. You just can’t get away with inconsistent dosing with this machine. (Especially when you have 10 baristas watching you making shots)

I guess it is going to take years before we master this new technology. Imagine all the discussions on the various forums that will occur. (For instance: What pressure to do for pre infusion, what pressure do you flush the group at in order not to ruin the dispersion screens :-), etc.

(The white box to the right is controlling the pre programmed pressure profile for one of the groups on this machine)

The machine will probably be for sale in a year or so. I can’t wait to try one out for a longer period of time. Congratulations on a job well done to Jacob at La Marzocco who is the brain behind this new machine. The only thing missing now is technology to programme temperature profiling, and it will all fall in to place.
Who knows, we might have to invent a whole new brewing system after that happens…

The news is out allready.
The 6 finalists in 2009 is : USA, Korea, Ireland, Canada, UK and Hungary.
Congratulations to them all. It will indeed be an exciting final round.
Make sure you tune in to the WBC live stream and watch it tomorrow.

We will not be writing that much about it as it is allready covered on the official WBC blog.

Oda placed 17th and she did a great job. Her performance was very charming, smooth and she was a delight to watch. Hopefully she will continue to compete in the coming years. Congratulations on a job well done!

3xTim in one bed having nothing to blog about.

Tim V & and I (Tim W)  will be going to oversee the World Barista Championship in Atlanta tomorrow morning. We will also be visiting Finca la Lomita next week in order to harvest some coffee.

Stay tuned for more as we will be blogging the whole trip.

Also be sure to check out the live streaming at the WBC web page.

The Tim Wendelboe espresso, spring 2009 – blend,  consists of 3 newly arrived coffees:

50% Fazenda Barreiro, Brazil. Natural processed.
25% Sao Judas Tadeu, Brazil. Pulped natural.
25% Amor de Dios, Bolivia. Wet processed.

The blend tastes totally different from our last 3 blends that have been very fruity and acidic. This time we have taken a complete different direction towards chocolaty and caramelly flavours. You should really try it with milk as well. Especially if you like chocolate milk.

For more info and taste description, please visit our TW-espresso page filed under the resources menu button.

Along with the new espresso blend, we will also start roasting the newly arrived coffee from Brazil on Tuesday the the 14th of April. To read more about the coffee from Fazenda São Judas Tadeu, click here.

Here is a nice little article written by one of our hard core coffee drinking regulars. We would strongly recommend going to one of Ken Stringfellow’s gigs to see what high caffeine consumption can make a person do on (or most times off) stage.

Thank you Ken.