The World Aeropress Championships will be held in conjunction with the WBC this year in London. Follow the WAC blog for updates, details and how to enter!

http://worldaeropresschampionship.wordpress.com/

After a long flight over the Icelandic volcano and spending an unwanted day in Panama waiting for my flight to Honduras, I finally made it to San Pedro Sula, 36 hours behind schedule. Nevertheless, my plan to visit Cielito Lindo was not affected, and I have to admit that I was very excited but also a bit afraid that my expectations were too high before my visit to the farm we have bought coffee from twice at the Cup of Excellence auction. I guess that not being able to communicate directly with the farmer and also hoping that he would be the “perfect farmer” was making this visit extra exciting and nerve wrecking for me.

Afer a 2 hour drive from San Pedro Sula, I finally met with Mr. Extreberto’s son who kindly showed me around his farm and then his father’s farm. I have to say that not only is their coffee beautiful, but it is grown in one of the most beautiful farms I have ever been to. The landscape is breathtaking and really impressive. I spent over 4 hours walking from 1500 m.a.sl. to 1800 m.a.sl. struggeling to get both up and down because of the extremely steep hills. I can only imagine how hard it must be carrying a lot of coffee on your shoulders walking up and down these hills, and Mr. Extreberto does it every day at the age of 71.  To be honest, I was exhausted after the first 100 meters, but the beautiful scenery just made me want to see more.

Well, enough of the romantic rant. To my surprise they were still picking coffee on the farm. The climate has been changing in Honduras during the past years, and we are starting to see a similar situation to what Kenya and Colombia is having with 2 harvests per year. At Cielito Lindo they start picking coffee in november and they finish in may. That is a very long harvest and by the looks of it they are going to have a tiny harvest in late august as well, due to some rains that occured some months ago.

Another interesting thing is that they grow a lot of different varieties, and have competed in the Cup of Excellence with great results both with their Catuaí and their Catimor varietals. Up until now they have normally been blending these 2 varietals, but I suggested that they separate the varietals next year, so that we will be able to taste them side by side. They also grow some Bourbon and Pacas and are looking in to other varietals too. The biggest issue with separating these varietals from each other is not during the picking, but the lack of drying space makes it difficult not to mix them up. They need to invest in new solar dryers (raised drying beds) as they have very limited drying space. Hopefully we will be able to help them invest in this by purchasing some more of their coffee this year.

I have asked for some samples of their harvest, and apart from the coffee they have delivered for the Cup of Excellence it looks like they will have 20 more bags for us to buy if the quality is satisfying. So I am very happy that we have the opportunity to continue buying coffee from Mr. Extreberto and his son, and hopefully we will see more of their coffees in the future.

Well, that was a short report from a very interesting day. I am absolutely beat after a long day at the farm and a 5 hour drive from Cielito Lindo to Santa Rosa, Copan, where I will be staying for 2 days cupping coffee and visiting some other farmers. On monday th Cup of Excellence is on, and I can’t wait to taste all those coffees.

More pictures below.

Did we all see the Norwegian Barista Champion, Oda Misje Haug on NRK1 yesterday…

By the way, we are open on Thursday… perhaps a re-constructed Shakerato?

About 10 years ago, Mr. Willy Hansen who is barista trainer at Solberg & Hansen, showed me how to make a delicios iced coffee called Caffè al freddo Shakerato. He simply put some ice cubes in a shaker along with a double shot of espresso (at that time a double shot was a full 60 ml+ made on a blend with a lot of Monsooned Malabar, aged Brazilian coffee and robusta) with 2 teaspoons of sugar and shook the mixture for about 30 seconds. The result was a foamy iced espresso served in a wine glass. I was astonished by the refreshing flavours and also the looks and “wow” effect from the texture.

I have served a tremendous amount of Shakerato during my long barista career, but for the past 3 years I have been really disappointed by the taste of this once delicious drink. I don’t know what has gone wrong, as I truly believe coffees are getting better every year, my espresso is definately tasting better now than 10 years ago, but still  none of the shakerato’s  taste like the first one I ever tried.

I decided last week to start working on a better recipe. After some trials, I found that what I really disliked with my shakerato’s is the watery texture and the bitter foam on top. Therefore I decided to give the old drink a real makeover, and after 3 hours of intensive trial and error, I was finally happy with the result. The flavour profile of the TW Re-Constructed Shakerato is a lot cleaner and more defined shakerato, still with that kick that the old Shakerato once gave me.

Here is a general recipe for the “TW re-constructed Shakerato.” I recommend using a single origin coffee in order to get more flavour definition:

1. Make  0,5l filter style coffee of Cielito Lindo “espresso roast.” Add sugar to taste and 3-4 double espressos made on Cielito Lindo espresso. Add Gelatine or similar and stir. Strain liquid in to a espuma syphon and charge with nitrus oxide. Shake well. Leave to cool in the fridge.

2. Make 2 double espressos of Cielito Lindo. Pour it over some ice cubes in a stirring glass along with 1 teaspoon of sugar. Stir until cool (like you stir a dry martini)

3. Strain cooled espresso in to a martini glass

4. Layer about 1cm of  coffee foam on top and serve.

There you go.  A “Tim Wendelboe Re-Constructed Shakerato.” Stirred, not shaken…

Open as usual.

Just in case the lovely people of Oslo wanted to pop down for some coffee goodness…

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 have roasted the wonderful San Antonio from Guatemala as espresso, to replace the Finca La Milagrosa as our single origin espresso. The San Antonio is currently a small percentage of the Tim Wendelboe Espresso blend, but is now available all by itself.

As an espresso, it has deep flavours of forrest berries, orange zest and cocoa. Firm, red wine acidity with cocoa sweetness. A rich mouthfeel and delicate tannins in the finish. More information on the coffee can be found here. And it can be purchased from our webshop.

Oda from Kaffemisjonen in Bergen, used it for her 2010 back to back Norwegian Barista Championship win over the weekend.

I just started working on a coffee map over all the great coffee shops and espresso bars we have visited around the world that we can recommend to all our travelling readers. There might  be a couple of great food places that we recommend on the map as well, but this map is mainly for coffee places. We only recommend places we have been to, and also some places we haven’t been to yet but where we know that the owners or people who work there really knows their stuff. This map will be a constant work in progress, so hopefully it will be a nice guide for the coffee thirsty traveller.

Go here to see the map of recommendations.

The store and webshop will be closed from Thursday 1st April until Monday 5th April. Normal hours from Tuesday 6th April.

Have a great break everyone!

We are seeking a Part Time Barista, with experience and an interest in coffee. They will be required to work a few days during the week and weekends. Their focus will be serving great drinks, customer service and packing coffee.

Please send CV and cover letter to Tim Varney.