We will now host public cuppings in the Cupping Room every Saturday from 11am.
It’ll be your chance to taste our coffees side by side and perhaps to taste some pre-release coffees or coffee from other roasters around the globe. It’s open to everyone of all levels.
There are 6 available spaces, and the cuppings are free for the first 2 weeks.
To secure your place, please ‘purchase’ via our webshop or simply sign up in store.
The line-up for the 2012 Nordic Barista Cup has been announced and our very own Tim Wendelboe will be speaking again this year – he will speak on his experiments to improve green quality at origin. The Nordic Barista Cup is one of the premier coffee events of the year and this year there are some exciting changes to the competition.
He’ll be amongst impressive company – Rene Redzepi from Noma, Oliver Strand from the New York Times & James Hoffmann from Square Mile Roasters – to name just a few.
The full line-up of speakers and their profiles are available on the NBC website : www.nordicbaristacup.com
After the fantastic success of the last event we’ve decided to once again help host an evening of totally awesome espresso blends and totally awesome baristas together with the crew at Solberg & Hansen!
Only seconds after announcing the event on twitter the first Australian roastery signed up to send some of their awesome coffee, and within minutes one by one other roasters eagerly offered their coffees for us to taste!
A truly amazing sign of generosity and twitter presence!
Now we need our totally awesome Norwegian baristas (5) and judges.
The idea explained breifly:
1 barista makes shots of 1 espresso blend from 1 Australian roastery
x 5
50 or so “judges” taste the shots and pick their favorite barista/roastery (blend) combo. We then count the scores and pick a winner. All in a good spirit. Unpretentious, good fun and inspiring!
Please send a mail to one of the e-mail adresses on the picture above or comment on this post to sign up.
Date: Thursday 10th of March
Time: 6pm
Place: Solberg & Hansen @ Enebakkveien 125
The roasters:
http://www.axilcoffee.com.au/
No site for Proud Mary… but this is good…
http://espressomelbourne.com/cafes-that-matter/collingwood/proud-mary/
We have decided to move our public cuppings from Friday afternoons to Saturdays at 12 midday.
Hopefully, those of you who missed out on being able to cup with us on the Friday, due to work, will be able to join on Saturdays and taste a selection of coffees.
If you would like to join, please email us or use the sign up list on the bar. There is a limit of 6 spaces and it is free!
As promised here are some more notes from our trip to Kenya last week.
After spending a whole day at the Tekangu coop, filming their processing techniques (to be launched in video soon) and handing over the drying tables we funded through our Drying table project, we went to visit some smallholder farmers to document the picking of the cherries. We visited one shamba (smallholder farm) which was by far the best one I have ever seen.
The trees looked super healthy and the farmer Mr. Eliud Kimotho delivers his coffee to the Karogoto factory. (No wonder their coffee is so tasty.)
He produces an average of 30 kg of coffee cherries per tree and had a total of 180 trees only.
Eliud started farming 10 years ago when he retired from his old work and he also grew corn, potatoes, bananas, grass for his cattle, all mainly for domestic consumption.
We were promised a bag of Mr. Eliud’s coffee to be dried on on the new drying tables at Karogoto and hopefully they will keep their word so I can taste that coffee in February.
On another Shamba we visited in Kirinyaga, the trees looked a lot more stressed, had more leaf rust and were carrying very little cherries.
This was because the farmer did not have money to buy fertilizer and copper spray as the cooperative he was a part of were not able to pre-finance his farm input. The problem with this is that in Kenya most farmers get pre-financing for farm input (fertilizer, etc) based upon the last crop yields. Since the crop yield is very low this year, the farmers will not be able to buy enough fertilizer, etc for the 2011/12 crop -the prognosis is that it will be very high in volume. That means the farmers will not be able to produce to the full potential in 2011. It is easy to forget what long term effects a bad crop can have on a farmer. As a coffee buyer we are only affected by the fluctuations in the prices and that is why I believe it is important to support the farmers also when the prices or yields are low by paying more for their best qualities.
Thursday morning we also cupped different grades.
This means we took samples from the same lot but sorted the beans in the different sizes as they are sold on auction. (AA / AB / PB / C / T / TT and UG). The results were fairly obvious, the AA was the best (biggest beans) The PB (Peaberry) and AB were fairly similar and C, T, and TT were bitter and flat and some had sour and fermenty taste. The UG (Ungraded) was by far the worst coffee I have ever tasted. It tasted like manure and rotten fruit. The aromas was similar to the ones you get when you are standing in a barn full of cows and sheep. What is shocking about these coffees is that they are actually sold.
On friday morning we drove from Nyeri to Ruiru to visit the Coffee Research Foundation.
We had just heard that they had released a new coffee varietal, called Batian (The name of the peak of Mt. Kenya,) that they spent 12 years developing. Batian is a new alternative to the not so tasty Ruiru 11 that the Research Foundation had developed in the 80′s. Both varietals are more resistant to Coffee Berry Disiease and Leaf Rust than the traditional varietals grown in Kenya, SL 28 and SL 34. The problem is that the best coffees from Kenya are normally coming from the SL varietals, so we were interested to taste the new Batian variety next to the Ruiru 11 and the SL 28 and SL 34.
When we arrived we got a tour of the CRF and also a presentation of what work they are doing there. Basically, it is a resource center for coffee in Kenya where they train farmers, analyze soil and fertilizers, develop new varietals and research and develop new agricultural practices.
The greatest part of the tour was their varietal museum. Here we got to see some amazing coffee trees, and their Coffea Ecxelsa and Liberica trees were the biggest coffee trees I have ever seen.(See biggest trees in pictures below)
They also had a lot of other varietals in their museum plot, but you can see more of them in the slide show on the bottom of this page.
After the tour we headed in to the CRF cupping lab to taste coffee. We were presented with 4 unnamed samples that we cupped before the coffees were revealed as Batian, SL 28, Ruiru 11 and a cup with a blend of Ruiru 11 and SL 28.
It turned out that I actually liket the Batian varietal the best. It was by far the sweetest and most floral and fruity. My second favourite was the blend and my 3rd favourite was the SL28. This was an unusual result but not too surprising as we were already were sceptical of the setup of the cupping. To be honest, all the coffees were very dark roasted and roasted on the same day as the cupping. The SL28 was not a good SL 28; it was both baggy and from the west part of Kenya which traditionally does not grow the best coffees. In fact all the coffees were grown in different parts of the country, so we suspected the CFR guys to set up a cupping to favour the Batian varietal as they have spent 12 years developing it. The only thing that did not surprise me with the cuping was that the Ruiru 11 was the worst coffee. This was flat and woody and very bitter.
I asked to get some samples of the Batian coffee to take home so I could cup it next to our SL28/34 from Tekangu and Mugaga, but our tour guide at CRF would not let me have it.
Regardless of that, I am very much looking forward to tasting the Batian varietal in the future as it seemed that a lot of farmers were already implementing the new plant in their fields. Hopefully it will not compromise the quality of Kenyan coffee in the future.
I will be going back to Kenya in February to buy and taste the coffees that is picked right now. More on that next year.
The tasting will cover all the Tim Wendelboe single origin coffees, and perhaps a reference cup of supermarket quality coffee to demonstrate the contrasts in coffee quality.
There is a limit of 6 places per session, and the times and dates will usually be the same each week.
The next session will be held this Friday 20th of October at 2pm. There are 6 places remaining.
Please let us know if you would like to join, by leaving your name in the comments section or contacting us via email or phone. The cupping is free of charge.
On thursday september 10th we will arrange cup tastings throughout the day.
Most of our 2009 /2010 coffees have arrived and therefore we wish to invite everyone to participate to taste these coffees originating from Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, India, Kenya and Colombia.
We do have 3 tasting sessions that are still available. Maximum amount of spaces per group is 6 persons.
The available times are:
All tastings will take approximately 1 hour. To sign up please leave a comment in the comment field.
First come firs serve.
We had a very successful first cupping session this past Friday, a great mix of coffee beginners and baristas from Oslo were there to taste, before anyone else, the new Colombian coffee, which is now on sale in the store and the soon to be released Cielito Lindo from Honduras, which was cupping beautifully.
The tastings will cover all the Tim Wendelboe single origin coffees, and perhaps a reference cup of supermarket quality coffee to demonstrate the contrasts in coffee quality.
There is a limit of 6 places per session, and the times and dates will change each week.
The second session will be held this Friday 4th of September at 2pm, and there are now no more places remaining.
Please let us know if you would like to join, by leaving your name in the comments section or contacting us via email or phone.
Come and help celebrate Tim Wendelboe’s 2nd Birthday, from 11am on Saturday 27th June.
We will be serving the Tim Wendelboe Espresso Blend and the wonderful Aricha #28 Espresso, as espresso, macchiato and cappuccino.
We will also have Tekango from Kenya as a slushie, Clovered Aricha #28 served ice cold, and the Cappuccino al Freddo using the TW Espresso Blend.
All our single estate black coffees will be served from the Clover.
And to thank our customers, all drinks will be just 2kr!!
From 1pm, Tim will host a afternoon long ‘extra special’ coffee tasting, with some of the best coffees from around the globe brewed using various techniques. So, all are welcome to pop their head in and have a taste of what is on offer – and hopefully learn something along the way.
I will arrange a cup tasting on Saturday the 21st of may at 13.00. We will taste samples that I collected on my trip to Ethiopia and there might be some other surprise coffees on the table as well…
The cupping is free and is open for all who would like to taste, but we have a limit of 8 people in the cupping room. First come first serve basis.
Here are some pictures from my Ethiopia trip:
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