trendspotting the nordic barista cup
September 24, 2007 – 10:39 ampotentially revelatory nuggets (to this blog) spotted at the nordic barista cup through the fuzzy lens of these interwebs:
* first there were no nords in this year’s world barista championship final round. then we come to understand that copenhagen’s heavily decorated europa isn’t even spro-centric any more. and now team iceland’s cafe concept of the future goes with clover brewers instead of la marzoccos.
are those trend-setting nords abandoning espresso?
* here’s what the reigning champion of the world’s biggest individual barista competition has to say about team competitions:
“They’re harder to complain about, in a way, you know? You can’t argue that they’re a bad thing.”
that’s telling!
in summary: the future of competitive coffee is team aerobie press-offs! clover stirring technique-a-thons! zen-like circle-sips of strangely good drip coffee!
UPDATE: commenter “true” notes similar, coffee-is-simple-again observations by some other guy. a baseless guess: the broad approach is ultimately driven by consumer tastes. by all accounts, those scandinavians have been swilling the good stuff for much longer. for consumers to savor drip brew as a non-commodity in the u.s. demands truly breakthrough taste — perceptible to an american burger palate, no less. the clover can deliver this, but at what cost? we hereby call for a fold-out pocket version!
7 Responses to “trendspotting the nordic barista cup”
Mentioning the Clover and the Aeropress in the same sentence can get a man shot in the PNW….
By James Hoffmann on Sep 24, 2007
or, for that matter, subtly impugning the supremacy of those hallowed barista competitions.
By bz on Sep 24, 2007
Aeropress? Swing and a miss… but the other commentary is interesting.
That stirring thread is a beaut. I think it really makes a statement about the industry.
By Jaime on Sep 24, 2007
what statement, jaime?
also, when has this blog ever been known for swinging and hitting?
By bz on Sep 24, 2007
If you treat the Clover like a vac pot….
but then most in NA were raised on Fetco and Marzocco never touching the manual methods except as a hobby. We are at a disadvantage because we are missing some of the basics. Vac pot stirring methodology is complicated and I’m no expert, but here’s what I learned on vac pot and it should apply to Clover as well since the brews are similar in physics…
Stirring method is to A: initially immerse the grounds and B: break the crust pre-draw down.
Whisking in a circle will cause fines to migrate to the middle which is bad no matter how you look at it. Too much agitation will cause over extraction so stirring for more than 3 sec is out.
The initial stir is often more of a left turn draw an M right turn deal but it varies. Everything else from temp to dose to dwelltime is roast dependent.
If the temp were as flat line in clover as a well done vac pot, the cups could be similar with the exception of the filtration problem and that would be my goal in using a clover.
Anyway, when Owens gets back in town, you might beg him to let you play with his TCA3. BTW Props to Alistair in that thread.
By Jaime on Sep 25, 2007
Nice exercise in trend spotting. From Doug Zell’s blog:
“In what is becoming an increasingly espresso-centric, technical and gadget-driven world, I see the pendulum swinging back to pure expressions of marvelous single origin coffees prepared without fuss and complication. Wouldn’t that be great? Getting back to where we started, and this time getting it right.”
By true on Sep 25, 2007
you mean i need to subscribe to another blog?!
By bz on Sep 25, 2007