Tim and I will be going to London this afternoon to watch the 2010 World Barista Championship and the SCAE exhibition.

I will be holding a roasting seminar on thursday morning, while Tim V will be organizing the 2010 World Aeropress Championship.

We are also sponsoring the WBC brew bar with coffee as well as the La Marzocco stand with some Cielito Lindo Espresso.

If you are not able to attend and cheer for our 2010 Norwegian Barista Champion, Oda Misje Haug, make sure you watch it live on the WBC site on thursday at around 2pm.

2010 DAC Champion Marie Hagemeister

A huge congratulations to Marie Hagemeister of Europa in Copenhagen for winning the Danish Aeropress Championships over the weekend. She fought off eight other competitors through three rounds to quite convincingly take 1st place. Her brew was consistently the sweetest and cleanest cup during the competition. Taking second place was Jeppe Hasager from Behag Din Smag. Both Marie and Jeppe have automatic entrance into the WACs in London.

A big thank you to all the sponsors of the event, which included Kontra Coffee, Behag Din Smag, Sigfreds, SCAE Denmark, Marista and most especially Jens and Björg and all the sexy staff of Europa 1989.

Norwegian Barista Competition Finalists

Firstly, a massive congratulations to our Thomas Holme, placing 5th in the Norwegian Barista Championships over the weekend. Thomas has worked incredibly hard over the past few months, and intensified his training over the last few weeks. After winning the Oslo regionals, he worked on various coffees, various roasts, various signature drink components during which we fine tuned his presentation. It is a fantastic achievement, having only worked with coffee for around a year.

Thomas Holme

The young gun, Oda Misje Haug, achieved back to back victories with a confident and refined performance. She showed great composure in the semi finals after spilling an espresso, and being forced to re-do a shot for her signature drink. A chemex brew and 16 shots of espresso seemed a breeze in her 15 minutes. We are very proud and happy she used our roast of the wonderful San Antonio CoE from Guatemala. Look out London!

Oda Misje Haug

More congratulations for Rasmus from Kaffemisjonen in Bergen, who after finishing 21 seconds over time in the semis, pulled together a speedier, yet more concise presentation in the finals and finished in 3rd place. Steinar Svenning from Cuba Life, a wholesale customer of ours, placed 2nd, he roasted his own coffee and gave the judges a fantastic presentation, brimming with charm and refined confidence. Maria Andersson from United Bakeries, who worked with Tim in the run up to the regionals, didn’t show any nerves and delivered a smooth presentation with a delicious passionfruit inspired signature drink. She placed 6th. Taking 4th place was the 3rd of the Kaffemisjonen crew, Magnus Iversen. I missed both his presentations, as i was helping in Thomas’ preparations. What i do know is that he does a killer Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation.

Maria Andersson

We would like to congratulate our full time barista Thomas Holme on his victory in the Norwegian Barista Competition, Oslo qualification. Thomas gave us an excellent presentation and served some spectacular cappuccinos and espressos based on a coffee from Badnekhan Estate.

His delicious signature drink consisted of a milk and espresso foam infused with cinnamon and cloves, topped up with a refreshing lavender milk foam.

We would also like to congratulate Jannicke from Mocca and Maria from United Bakeries on their 2nd and 3rd place which gives them a ticket to the semi finals in the 2010 Norwegian barista championships in April. Well done!

More pictures here: