<![CDATA[Coffee Blog and Specialty Coffee Roasters]]>

<![CDATA[Coffee Blog and Specialty Coffee Roasters]]> https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/ IT Fri, 09 Jul 2021 11:47:00 +0000 Incomedia WebSite X5 Evo <![CDATA[Nicole Battefeld-Montgomery: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #13]]> imblog

1- Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s

your job.

My name is Nicole Battefeld-Montgomery, I live in Berlin, work at Roeststaette Berlin and I make coffee. At work I am trying to be the creative and motivating part of the company that connects all aspects of coffee. From customer service to roasting, profiling, teaching and also selling equipment and coffee machines.

2- When and why did coffee become important to you?

I can’t really put a date on it, I guess it is just something that I was naturally good and comfortable with and over the years I realized how much this job changed my life. I would say that I am obsessed with knowing as much as possible about the field of coffee for maybe 5-6 years and over the years I constantly pushed my boundaries. It’s like a really intense hobby. First you buy an espresso machine, then heaps of filter machines, then all the equipment that you can get your hands on until now when I just bought a home roaster. And this is just my free time! At work I am obviously involved in the topic all the time. It basically became my life and I am still not even close to knowing anything about coffee. I feel like it is a never ending search and so much information on it all the time and coffee evolves so quickly that it will not get boring.

3- Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

No, there are thousands of moments and each moment is relevant. Nowadays I get my hands on coffees that are so new and experimental that I have this feeling quite a lot. But my taste also had to develop. What I thought was amazing 5 years ago is probably not anywhere near as intense and exciting as the coffees I have tried in the past 3 weeks. And I still learn so much about tasting that some coffees amaze me differently every single day. The first time I smelled a coffee that was incredibly different, that’s a moment that I will not forget. It was a coffee from Colombia, El Paraiso, natural, smelled like Hubba Bubba bubblegum. I used it in my 2018 Barista Championship and won.

4- What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

Seeing my regulars everyday, having the power to make someone's day beautiful simply by serving coffee and having a quick chat, dialling in and drinking the tasters to see where the coffee is at which day after roast, being able to work in my dream job.

5- What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

I think I am very comfortable with the V60 because it’s the technique I know the longest and have brewed with the most. I find it very easy to control my flowrate and I get the cleanest results with it.

6- Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

Finca Deborah/ Jamison Savage, Panama, Gesha-Interstellar And Hugh Kelly’s Barista competition coffee, yeast fermentation

7- Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

I am drawn to Ethiopian coffees. I don’t know why but I just absolutely love the coffees from there. I have experienced a new level of flavour with the Project Origin CM coffees from Guji/ Koke and their different fermentation profiles. Since then I am fangirl number one, I am just obsessed with these coffees.

8- Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

It’s definitely worth ordering from overseas at ONA in Canberra, Australia. Otherwise: One day coffee, MAME, Brewdogs, Friedhats.

9- What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

Self Motivation is one of the hardest things to keep up. I really had to learn good customer service and how important it is to not just serve coffee but to create an experience. It is super important to train your staff constantly.

10- How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new

challenges for hospitality?

It is hard to say for the coffee industry because some roasteries are selling more coffee beans than ever. And machine sellers are also quite happy about last year's development. But I certainly think it is a huge crisis for coffee producing countries, as the demand from cafes and coffee shops, restaurants and hotels has dropped to the lowest since ever.

The most challenging part was to be able to stay in business and to build up good working websites for the coffee shops to be able to still sell online. In Germany the Lockdown started at the start of November 2020 and will now slowly be lifted for outdoor setting with appointments and testing at the end of May. That is a long time to stay positive and to avoid depression for business owners! I feel that mental health is equally as important and challenging as fighting the extremely low green coffee prizes, due to less demand last year.

11- How do you see the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

I hope that the world will realise that coffee is a valuable good, that should cost a minimum of 6 to 8 dollars/pound. I also hope that specialty coffee can secure more of the global market as at the moment specialty coffee only makes 5% of the world market. And I hope that one day coffee will be as appreciated as wine.

12- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

As an educator and ambassador for coffee.

13- Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to

start this path?

If you want to open a cafe, please don’t just do it because it’s romantic and alternative and because you are sick of your old job. If you want to open a shop, don’t just open another coffee shop. Make a difference. Care about your product and not just about your furniture. Educate yourself on sourcing your products and communicate this to your customers. Be a gateway between specialty coffee and end consumer. Never talk down to your customers. Take them by the hand and show them other ways of how to choose, brew, drink coffee. Whatever you do, if you work in coffee, be passionate about it and be the difference. We need people that fascinate others to communicate how amazing the world of coffee is. It isn’t just a product. Coffee is art, live, culture, communication and so much more.

]]> Fri, 09 Jul 2021 11:47:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?nicole-battefeld-montgomery-coffee-insurrection-hero-13 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000026 <![CDATA[Davide Cobelli: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #12]]> imblog

1_ Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

Hi, I'm Davide and I live in Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet), I've been in the world of coffee for a decade as a consultant and trainer; in 2016 I opened the Coffee Training Academy and in 2019 the Artisan Roasting Garage Coffee Bros. In 2020 I became Italian Roasting Champion.

2_When and why did coffee become important to you?

From an early age I saw my father tinkering with a coffee machine (Baby Gaggia) at home: I was less than 10 years old and I already felt that the scent of coffee attracted me. For me, coffee is a memory of home and family.

3_ Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

Yes, it was at Stumptown in NYC; a cup of coffee from Ethiopia, a washed one. Coming back from that trip, I tried to make an Espresso at home and I realized that the coffee could be much more than only burnt and bitter. It all started from there.

4_ What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

I think that what I love most is waking up happy to go to work. I think it's a privilege that everyone should feel. Do what you like and make it profitable and sustainable.

5_ What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

I would say percolating paper extractions. The cleanliness and sensory transparency that allow coffee to express undoubtedly make me love these methods.

6_ Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

The next one I drink! It will certainly be different from the previous one and the thing is exciting and never predictable.

7_ Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

I love Ethiopia for the incredible variety and quality of coffee it gives us; I love Honduras for the people I met there, whom I call stepbrothers.

8_ Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

I think it would be right to taste them all (or as many as possible), it is the only way to compare and be able to choose your favorite.

9_ What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

This sector has given me a lot, first of all the opportunity to travel all over the world, something that I would never have dreamed of until 10 years ago. Meeting people, sharing experiences, absorbing and discovering new cultures.

10_ How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new

challenges for hospitality?

It is a difficult period but we will get out of it by continuing to persevere in the pursuit of quality, there are no great compromises and I believe that being true to yourself is the winning weapon for the future.

11_How do you the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

If I look back, I can see that we have come a long way in a few years. I hope that the future will always be centered on the quality and sustainability of the supply chain. On the right value, of things and people.

12_ Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I don't make such long-term predictions :)

13_ Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

Believe in yourself and never give up.

]]> Mon, 28 Jun 2021 11:47:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?davide-cobelli-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-12 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000025 <![CDATA[Orkun Üstel: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #11]]> imblog

1_ Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

Hey, everyone! I’m Orkun. I’m Brewers Cup Champion of Turkey 2017 and 2020. Also, I have two other achievements in Brewers Cup of Turkey. I got the 2nd place at 2018 and I got the 3rd place at 2019. Currently, I am working at Kronotrop and I’m in charge of Q.C. of coffee bars and Barista Training. Also, I worked as a barista and production roaster in the past years at the same company.

2_ When and why did coffee become important to you?

I’ve lefted the college because of my health issues. In that year (2013) I’ve met with Mokapot and French Press. =) I’ve started to make coffee to myself as a hobby. And then I was really impressed about the coffee scene because it has lots of equipment and techniques. In that time coffee was my only hobby and it helped me to overcome my health problems. So just in one year, coffee took a great part in my life.

3_ Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

I don’t remember the first coffee I drank. But I remember the first specialty coffee that I drank the first time. Which is Indonesia Java Blavan. It tastes like brown sugar. It was the sweetest cup of coffee that I remember having.

4_ What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

Listening to New Wave of British Heavy Metal! It wakes me up and encourage me to start the new day. =)

5_ What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

Classic V60. =) because it helps me control the flow rate. It is very useful to get a tasty cup of coffee.

6_ Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

I drank a lot of coffees, including my own competition coffee, which tasted very good. That's why there isn't any single best coffee for me.

Brewers Cup Champion of Turkey 2017 and 2020

7_ Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

There are a few origins that I tend to favor coffee from. Those are Colombia, Honduras, Kenya and Ethiopia. I really love complex, fruity coffees. And most of Specialty Coffees from Kenya and Ethiopia has higher acidity and complexity. Usually Colombia and Honduras’ coffees are well known for their sweet tastes and bodies, but also both origins produce lots of varieties and those coffees are quite complex. Because of that, I really love the coffees produced by those four countries.

8_ Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

I am suggesting Tim Wendelboe, Coffee Collective, Kaffa, April Coffee and Drop Coffee.

9_ What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

I’ve learned that is not important to work in a coffee company, but it is important to be in the coffee community and to share your experiences and knowledge with that community. You exist as much as you share in the coffee world, and this is the most important thing.

10_ How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

It’s not going well. Lots of baristas lost their jobs because of the unpaid vacations. Lots of cafes shut down. But the industry has lots of new home baristas now. And it’s helpful for the roasting business.

11_ How do you see the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

Today, usually everyone cares about to get funky experimental coffees but in ten years, I think most producers, importers and roasters will care about organic and biological coffee farming.

12_ Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope that I will be working as a coffee hunter in some coffee origin. Hopefully in Colombia. =)

13_ Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

Always be open minded. There are no strict boundaries in coffee, only recommendations. Being open minded will help you to make new discoveries and get better tastes in a cup of coffee.

]]> Fri, 21 May 2021 11:47:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?orkun-ustel-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-11 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000024 <![CDATA[Jens Crabbé: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #10]]> imblog

1. Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

My Name is Jens Crabbé (30), I’m from Belgium and I’m the founder of MOK Specialty Coffee.

2. When and why did coffee become important to you?

In December 2012 I started MOK in the city centre of Leuven, as a 22y old guy, I had opened my own shop and roastery, this is when coffee really became important to me..

3. Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

Hard to say actually, it was definitely in the Barista course I was following in 2011. Probably some Ethiopian coffee that was eye-opening.

4. What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

Knowing that I can actually have good coffee at work.

5. What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

V60 02 with Sibarist filter, because these filter create a much faster flow, the V60 works more like an actual dripper and less like an immersion brewer, drip times are around 30% faster and create really vibrant cups with lots of clarity.

6. Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

This years Geisha from Felipe Contreras, Finca Gascon, Guatemala. Hard to say it’s actually the best but definitely in my top 5 and can’t wait to get it back in a couple of months.

7. Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

For the moment that is Colombia, partly because I went there on origin trip already. The plan for this year was Ethiopia but then Covid came. Maybe that planned trip might change my mind.

8. Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

I really should try more other roasters myself, I’m actually really focused on our product and quality that I sometimes forget to enjoy other peoples quality. In Belgium I get along very well with the people from Caffenation, so let’s recommend those guys!

9. What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

Hospitality is everything.

10.How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

We are doing pretty good to be honest, it’s weird to say but 2020 was a good year for coffee sales, online orders went up a lot and people keep queueing for a good cup of coffee both at our shop and at our B2B customers.

11.How do you see the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

More automation, more single dose espresso grindes, too much added hoest and flavours to the coffee fermentation/processing. Sometimes I feel coffee is heading in the opposite direction of where wine is going.

12.Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Definitely not much bigger as a company than we are now, I still want to grow but quality and integrity are key. Maybe owning a small coffee farm to farm our own product?

13.Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

It’s fairly easy to become a good professional Barista, and the advantage you have is that not many people take the job serious enough to truly call themselves a professional. Grab this opportunity and remember that your own interest and motivation is the best teacher, don’t wait for other people to teach you. Trust and develop your own taste, dare to break away from rusted recipes and prejudices.

]]> Sun, 02 May 2021 10:49:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?jens-crabbe-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-10 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000023 <![CDATA[Federico Lucas Pezzetta (Coffee and Lucas): Coffee Insurrection Hero Chapter #9]]> imblog

1- Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

I’m Federico Lucas Pezzetta, but on social media I’m Coffee and Lucas! I’m from Roma but I work (Covid permitting) often away from home. I’m a photographer, social media consultant, content creator and filmaker.

2- When and why did coffee become important to you?

Coffee was always important to me: I don’t drink beer, and just lately I started to appreciate the world of wine, especially those wines that, on a gustatory level, remind me a lot the world of filter coffee. So, coffee is always been at my side.

3- Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

Gedeb Asada, natural Ethiopia roasted by Gardelli. I remember the coffee, the place where I drank it, the barista. And I remember thinking “Wow, what am I drinking?”

4- What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

As a freelancer, my time management is very variable. And this is not always a good thing! Sometimes I work until late night and I get up late in the morning (if I’ve got no appointments or special jobs that require my presence). Other times my day begins really early and it end sooner.

5- What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

I love filter coffee in any form, but if I have to choose I’ll go for sure with Chemex, V60 and Kalita.

6- Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

It’s hard to say. For sure, on an emotional level, I’m connected with Gedeb Asada (natural Ethiopia) for the reason I said before. And for sure I’m fond of the two editions of the project I did in collaboration with NeroScuro, “CoffeeAndJesse”, where we selected a carbonic macerated maragogype from Panama (Finca Hartmann) and lately an anaerobic fermented Ethiopia. Two amazing coffees. I was also lucky enough to taste so many astonishing coffees, some of them world famous, but also so many, let’s say “underdog” coffees that, in my humble opinion, have nothing to envy to coffees much more expensive.

7- Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

I love coffees from Kenya for their consistency in time, and for their being so juicy. I really like natural Ethiopia and obviously a big portion of coffees that come from Panama are exceptional (even in the price…)

8- Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

I appreciate so many roasters and I’m sorry I cannot list all of them. So, to avoid making a ranking, I can tell you that I really appreciate the work done by NeroScuro (with whom I developed the project “CoffeeAndJesse”) and from abroad Hard Beans from Poland (we’re friends). But I’ve got a long list of roasters both from italy and from the rest of the world.

9- What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

That I’m not willing to do everything.

10- How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

For sure a lot of people finally understood the potential of the online world. Someone already followed this path before, but Covid helped (or forced) people to open their eyes even just to avoid losing contact with their customers (even the potential ones) and tell them “Hey, I exist, I’m still here.” There’s still a lot of improvisation, but I think big steps have been made, and I think they won’t be undone after the end of these dark times.

11- How do you the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

Talking about Italy, I hope much better than today. Three or four years ago, I was expecting a faster growth but then a number of different factors have meant that, between cafes opening and closing, the specialty coffee scene in Italy grew much less than it should have, I think. For sure Covid didn’t help, and not just in the coffee scene.

12- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

After this year and a half of trouble in the pandemic world, I can difficulty see myself in 5 months, imagine in ten years! For sure I’ve got goals in my mind, but I’m always ready to be surprised by life. What I hope, is to still be able to do what I like even in ten years, and to still have by my side people I can count on.

13- Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

My suggestion is to learn a lot, study a lot, without “closing too much in self-referential contexts”, but to develop working (but not only) relationships healthy and sincere, proving yourself to be reliable. The world of photography and communication is very interesting and full of facets. Constantly evolving. You need to be open to evolutions, with a critical eye, but always open.

]]> Thu, 22 Apr 2021 08:38:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?coffee-and-lucas-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-9 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000022 <![CDATA[Where Are We Going]]> imblog

Three months into our Coffee Insurrection project.

What’s new?

Winter has given way to a chill spring, and Covid-19 still strikes around the world, but things are hopefully starting to go better.

Coffee shops are slowly reopening; paper take-away cups will soon be just a bad dream and we’re finally gonna go back to drink coffee in its proper vessel.

A nice ceramic cup, maybe a trendy glass so similar to the one used for wine, or an old school rock glass.

But it doesn’t matter. What really matter is that, pretty soon, we’re gonna sit in our favorite café, or maybe in our next-new-favorite café, enjoying a flavorsome pour-over, a refreshing iced latte or a classic – but never, never burned – double espresso.

And we’re slowly gonna start travel again, visiting new places and new exciting coffee shops… and maybe even move somewhere else, who knows!

Life is full of opportunities and dreams, and you know what?

Baristas (and roasters, owners, and so on) never give up… the world is ours, and we’re gonna take it.

But what about Coffee Insurrection?

Where are we going?

The support and appreciation from people from kinda everywhere is huge, and we’re so grateful to everyone; so happy to be part of this “special” Specialty Coffee Community.

Yep, because for us our community is the key to everything, we are so many different individuals and everyone of us is special, and we all can do so much for the community.

That’s what’s behind our “Coffee Insurrection Heroes” series.

The same 13 questions to everyone, not only baristas and roasters but also founders, bloggers, small and big champions and everyone involved – even a little bit – in the Specialty Coffee world.

We love to ask the same questions to everyone because we love the idea of showing all the similarities and all the differences in our community.

We’re interviewing amazing human beings from around the world and – no spoiler here – you’ll find people from Canada, Belgium, Sweden… even from a place so far and so cool as Hawai’i.

But obviously there will be much more in our blog.

While listing places, we found so many cool realities we wanna talked about!

Like 1951 Coffee, a non-profit specialty coffee organization that promotes the well-being of the refugee community in the United States.

Or The Artery Community Roasters, a social enterprise where people living with disabilities are paid a living wage to roast and package specialty coffee.

And there are producers to talk about, and new projects, and coffees…

For instance, did you know that Kona coffee – the Hawaiian coffee so often overpriced and counterfeit – is today treat as a specialty coffee from a steadily growing number of farms and roasters?

And we’ll also continue with “Our Caffeinated Road Trip” series. We’ve got Intelligentsia Coffee (Venice Beach), Blue Bottle (Kyoto), Seniman Coffee (Ubud), Idobata Coffee Stand (Kamakura), and many more stops to talk about.

And then, there’s our database.

We’re gonna of course continue listing café and roaster from around the world.

Wellington, Amsterdam, Cape Town and Edinburgh are on the way, and many more are gonna come soon.

If you’ve got a city to suggest us, please do it!

The world is so full of specialty coffee that every time we have to choose a new town, it’s a big decision.

Last but not least, there are new things in our future.

A new super cool job, months far away from home… and this will hopefully bring us to visit new cafés and roasters, to meet old and new friends, to learn and discover something new every day.

And you will read about it pretty soon, it’s a promise.

We’ve still got so much more to explore together… the two of us, and all of you that so kindly supports and follows us.

Thanks so much for being part of the Coffee Insurrection Community.

Pics @Tanya

]]> Mon, 19 Apr 2021 21:10:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?where-are-we-going https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000021 <![CDATA[Elisa Urdich and Fabio Tiralongo: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #8]]> imblog

1 - Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

We're Fabio and Elisa from Treviso. We are the owners of a specialty coffee shop in Treviso, Taste Coffee & More, and we are proudly baristas.

2 - When and why did coffee become important to you?

For Fabio coffee became important when he started to work as a barista. He was looking at his boss making a cappuccino and she did an amazing latte art. From that day Fabio started to study and improve his coffee knowledge. Elisa won a coffee course at Sigep 2014 and from that day coffee started to be one of the most important thing in her life.

3 - Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

Fabio: Burundi Kibuye cup of excellence 2014 was an explosion of red berries and honey.

Elisa: Ethiopia Washed. the most classic washed Ethiopia, super citrus and peach, with an elegant tea like finish.

4 - What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

What we love about going to work every day is the fact that we are coffee lover, and so we love our job, we love what we do. Plus, we have the opportunity to share what we do with a lot of people every single day, and this is amazing.

5 - What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

We both love V60 brewing method because it is a kind of ritual process. For us, this method helps people connect with the world of coffee. Obviously, it's not an espresso, but it's super aromatic. But, first of all, it's also a slow moment to share with friends or simply coffee lover.

6 - Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

Fabio : Panama Gesha 90 Plus 'Lotus' hot fermentation 2019.

Elisa : Ecuador Finca La Florida Catucai 2SL (Winning Coffee Italian Brewers Cup 2019) - Bolivia Gesha Takesi 2018.

7 - Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

Generally we fall in love with Ethiopian and Kenyan coffee. They're an explosion of aromas and flavours, and also for their nice and brilliant acidity.

8 - Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

We suggest you a micro-roastery called Peacocks, based in Milan.

9 - What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

How to run a business, taking care of the quality. You need a lot of passion and you need to try with all of you to communicate and share all the values around coffee, from the farm to the cup.

10 - How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

I think that if you have knowledge and expertise, you can continue to run your business, controlling better your incoming and especially your costs (always keeping fight for quality and sustainability of coffee world).

11 - How do you the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

Specialty coffee in the world is increasing a lot. In 10 years we'll see more customers asking for high quality cup of coffee, with more awareness. Talking about Italy I hope to see at least 150 physical coffee shop where people will be able to drink, daily, amazing coffees.

12 - Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

We try to get better day by day, always studying, researching, knowing more and more about coffee world. We hope to reach our goals, be a kind of inspiration for Italy and, why not, expand ourself all around the world.

13 - Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

Don't be afraid, open coffee shops with a specifically idea and with all of your passion. Study, study, study and communicate as good as you served coffe.

]]> Thu, 15 Apr 2021 08:38:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?elisa-urdich-and-fabio-tiralongo-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-8 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000020 <![CDATA[Agnieszka Rojewska: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #7]]> imblog

1. Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

My name is Agnieszka. I’m from Poland. Currently I work for Carimali as Head of coffee quality – I check our machines and together with RD team try to improve the performance of new products.

2. When and why did coffee become important to you?

It was around 2009 when I started to understand that coffee is more than just a bucket of milk with caramel syrup and it can taste great without additional stuff.

3. Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

Not really sure exactly but I think it was natural Ethiopia or Kenya – both of them were a big thing to me.

4. What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

That I will drink my 500ml of coffee – and I keep all the gems in freezer in the office.

5. What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

I like clever dripper because I don’t really need to focus of making it – so it is great for my mornings. The other thing I like is flat bed brewer like kalita 185 or April brewer – I enjoy how they influence the body of the cup.

6. Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

Hard to say – I hope it is still in front of me. For now, of course my WBC Ethiopian coffee the other one that I keep in my mind is Eugenoidis espresso from Wojtek Białczak during WBC 2019 in Boston.

7. Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

I think Ethiopia and Colombia. They just always satisfy my need of complex coffee.

8. Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

I would say Standout Coffee.

9. What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

That there is nothing sure in this business – everything is constantly changing.

10. How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

Mine work didn’t change a lot – as I mostly test machines. I just see that manufacturers of coffee machines have really hard time now, and coffee shops as well. Governments are not helping a lot, especially in Poland. And business owners are left for themselves.

11. How do you the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

I think it will be much more automated and we will see a lot of new species and varietals in coffee shops.

12. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hopefully in a peaceful place, with a dog, making coffee from time to time.

13. Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

Coffee is not an easy career, but it really worth the effort.

Cover Pic @lucarinaldi

]]> Mon, 12 Apr 2021 09:24:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?agnieszka-rojewska-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-7 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/00000001F <![CDATA[I’M NOT A BARISTA “The Brewing Guide Card Deck” ]]> imblog

Here at Coffee Insurrection, we’re all about the Specialty Coffee Community.

Obviously we love specialty coffee, it’s the behind all of it, but the love for our beloved community is pretty much at the same level.

We love to meet new people over coffee (even just virtually right now), talk about beans, recipes, stories, brewing methods and all those nerdy things we all love so much.

Connect this community is one of the reason why we started our project, and we love when we stumble upon a project that is so likeminded to what we believe in.

Today, while scrolling Instagram for news, we spot a post by our friend Łukasz Gałęcki regarding something called I’M NOT A BARISTA, a Kickstarter project about “The Brewing Guide Card Deck”.

Interesting, uh?

We couldn’t wait to read more about it, and what we found on the Kickstarter page was really interesting… as I said, something so similar to what we aim… another way to help tighten our community.

What’s all about?

First of all, we read about the guys behind the project.

I’M NOT A BARISTA is a not-for-profit company with the mission to empower coffee people behind the cup.

In a world increasingly dominated by technology and functioning virtually, human connection is more important than ever. Behind every cup of coffee there is a story, a group of people, and a process. The journey from bean to cup is a craft that deserves to be acknowledged. Each coffee represents an opportunity to appreciate, celebrate, and advocate for the enthusiasm which upholds this entire industry.

These are just some of the core values the team behind I’M NOT A BARISTA stand for.

This is already pretty nice per se, and their first project, “The Brewing Guide Card Deck” is something really important, in every moment and even more right now, after one year lived fighting the pandemic.

Their coffee stories are meant to put a spotlight on baristas, placing an emphasis on the human aspect in coffee and helping to raise awareness for the people that are an important part of this industry, but sometimes get overlooked.

Their project is a mission inspired by the community which seeks to then give back to the community. Baristas work tirelessly to provide us all with our daily caffeine fix. More often than not their long hours of hard physical work receives too low a pay and the true value of their efforts is rarely recognized. Furthermore, the pandemic has been greatly detrimental for baristas on a global scale. As specialty cafés have closed their doors, both the barista’s profession and livelihood have been taken away (and we behind Coffee Insurrection sadly know so much about it).

So, the guys behind the I’M NOT A BARISTA company ask themselves “what can we do to help?”

“The Brewing Guide - A Gift from the Global Coffee Community”, was their answer.

In a way similar to a cookbook that shares famous chefs’ recipes, the I’M NOT A BARISTA Brewing Guide is a collection of tested recipes for everyone that wants to level up its coffee experience, from coffee champions, experts, and really good home brewers from around the world, because anyone can brew and anyone deserves good coffee.

But this is not just about the brewing recipes – it’s about bridging with talented individuals around the world who share their knowledge and technique for better brews.

The goal of Micky Wang (the founder) and his team is to spread the love for drinking coffee around the world, and to empower baristas - those that are know by name and those they want to shine a light on.

How? This Brewing guide contains 55 cards in total, 48 recipe cards and 7 special cards. In the recipe card you can easily discover and enjoy 48 unique verified recipes from the comfort of your own kitchen or office. Each card represents so much more than a recipe: it is a vehicle for connection in these lonely times, represents a real coffee lover, or a barista champion who you can reach out to, whether because you want to learn from them, show gratitude for their work or simply bond over your shared passion for coffee. Nothing is more powerful than connection. The 48 recipe cards are based upon community verified and hand-selected major brewing methods: AeroPress, Pour-over, French Press, Moka pot.

To add more fun to the brewing experience, the team has also created an irresistible Spotify playlist (based on the recipe owners’ favorite brewing music) to enhance your brewing routine. 48 music recommendation from 48 coffee lovers like you. It absolutely changes the way your coffee tastes. Each recipe comes with a specific song track to recreate the exact experience.

And if this not enough to tackle your curiosity, take a look at the contributors barista!

For pour-over (not only V60, but also Melodrip and Lilydrip): Brandon O'Shea / Christos Klouvatos / Hrishikesh Mohite / Tanty Hartono / Ronaldo Hurtado / Josh Williams / Łukasz Gałęcki / Michal Boček / Renan Dantas / Sarah J. Hannaway / Siew Hui Ong / Tzanetos Dalletos / Ray Murakawa / Orkun Ustel / Zach Vasquez / Priscila Pinho

For Aeropress (both inverted and standard): Ronița Dragomir / Kiki / Alvin Cheng / Konstantinos Spanos / Fakhri Wiratama / Sulaiman Alalawi / Jared Dennison / Hafidz 'Ryuki / Nicole Battefeld-Montgomery / Tim Rogg / Paul Asquith / Pedro Martinez / Ricardo Saavedra / Wendelien van Bunnik / Smayah Uwajeneza / Naomi Carbin / Jessie Gao / Zarak Yusufzai

For the Moka Pot: Valentina Palange / Arquimedes Rondon / Davide Spinelli / Andrea Panizzardi / Frankie Breda / Pierpaolo Caperna

For the French Press: Vasileia Fanarioti / Alejandro Cardenas / Clarijs Rob / Lucia Ng / Andrea Ley / Karolina Gaizauskiene

And, last but not least, two special recipes from World Barista Champion for the clever dripper: Kyohei Tanaka / Berg Wu

To us, all of it seemed really interesting.

If you want to know more anout Micky and his team, to read about this cool project and to support it, head to their Kickstarter page, and enjoy!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iamnotabarista/the-im-not-a-barista-coffee-brewing-guide-card-deck

]]> Fri, 09 Apr 2021 15:58:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?i-m-not-a-barista-the-brewing-guide-card-deck https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/00000001E <![CDATA[Alessandro Galtieri: Coffee Insurrection Hero Chapter #6]]> imblog

1- Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

I’m Alessandro Galtieri, I live and work in Bologna (Italy) and since many years (since 2001) I’ve got a café dedicated to Specialty Coffee: it’s called Aroma. Aroma was an innovative project for the times, when in Italy specialty coffee was almost non-existent. I was already the owner of a “typical Italian bar”, where I used to serve also lunch and appetizers. When I met Cristina, my partner, I found in her an ally to turn the bar into a proper coffee shop, completely dedicated to coffee, to its culture and to the various extraction methods. So we prepared not only espresso, but we also used “Neapolitan” coffee maker, Ibrik and French Press.I was Italian Brewers Cup Champion 2018 and 2019, I competed in the World Championships and in 2019 in Boston I ranked third. I have been AST since 2014, for the Barista and Brewing modules of the Coffee Skills program of the Specialty Coffee Association and I am also Content Creator, i.e. I participate in the creation of the Association's Brewing educational modules. Furthermore, I have written manuals compliant with the SCA educational program for baristas who wish to upgrade to a professional level: Basic and intermediate level barista, conforming to the official program of the SCA (“Abilità del Barista”, the basic level is translated and published in English with the title "The Barista Reference Book" in print and e-book format); for brewing I have also published a manual dedicated to alternative extraction techniques, ("Oltre l'espresso", which was a great success in Italy and which will soon be available in English).

2- When and why did coffee become important to you?

I started to work in a coffee shop in the ‘90s, and in 1994 I bought a café. At the time, the coffee was just “complementary” to the offer, because I used to serve also alcohol, sandwiches and so on… the typical offer of an Italian bar. However, I have always identified coffee as the main product of the bar, and that’s why I started asking about the quality of the product I was buying: I was curious, I wanted to know what was in the blend I was serving my customers. However, my enthusiasm was frustrated by the only response I got from the representatives: “the best arabicas” ... and I thought: but what are these best arabicas? We must realize that in those days getting news was really difficult; internet did not yet exist, there were no publications in bookstores, the only possible contact with the coffee industry were the representatives of the roasting companies who were very well prepared on prices, promotions, merchandising and loan for use, but knew nothing about coffee. In 1996, a new coffee roaster in Bologna began to propose a real list of blends of which he indicated composition and degree of selection: a truly futuristic thing for those times. He was the first to speak to me about coffee with competence.

3- Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

Of course I remember it! It was a Sidamo, the first single-origin coffee I had ever tasted. For me it was an epiphany. I realized at that moment that I had hardly ever drank coffee and that no one else I knew had ever drank coffee either. That’s when I decided that I would dedicate my professional life to spreading the culture of quality coffee.

4- What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

Over time the clientele of my coffee shop has become more and more prepared and demanding. With the most curious of them I have a dialogue on the coffees I propose, on their origins, on processing, roasting, preparation… in short, on all those aspects that in a commercial proposal are unknown and ignored. My greatest pleasure is to extract new coffees (or classic proposals that I keep choosing year after year) for them, in order to exchange opinions while looking for peculiar nuances and characteristics.

Sometimes customers bring friends to show them unexpected and surprising aspects of a product that is considered so well known as to be trivial. Interest often runs out there, but sometimes even these people are so impressed that they change their vision of a product that they did not consider or even disliked. When this happens, it’s extremely rewarding.

5- What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

Well, it depends on the moment. I like the plastic V60 and the ceramic Loveramics as conical drippers, the Lili dripper as a flat bottom, Clever and Aeropress as hybrids ... Oops! I did not mention espresso, maybe now they will withdraw my Italian passport;) No, don't worry I also like espresso; but at the moment the extraction methods I appreciate most are the gravity one and the infusion one. After all, I have also participated in some Brewers cup competitions that have given me great satisfaction so I am very fond of this style.

6- Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

I think I can say without a shadow of a doubt that for now the best coffee I have ever tasted is the one I brought into my competitions, precisely a Gesha with 20 days of anaerobic fermentation from the Hartmann family. It is a coffee that followed me in competitions both in 2018 and in 2019, a very special and unusual thing as in competitions we tend to use very fresh coffee. My experience, on the other hand, was the truly incredible quality level of that lot: perhaps this is the thing that struck me more than any other about this coffee. I still remember backstage in Boston 2019 before stepping onto the platform for the final, when Cristina and I tasted the coffee: it was simply stunning, a coffee harvested more than one year before, with very lively flavors of mango and pineapple, blood orange, orange blossom… really crazy. I have not yet found a coffee that has given me such realistic sensations of the presence of fruit and floral aromas, a bouquet of such complexity, but at the same time of such great cleanliness in the cup. I fervently hope to meet another one sooner or later, because tastes like these will stay with you forever.

7- Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

I could simply answer Ethiopia but in my experience I have learned to respect all origins. I admit that I have some prejudice, but I’m ready to accept the lessons of humility that coffee gives from time to time. The "globalization" of post-harvest techniques, the increasing care to create more valuable and better-paid lots, it’s helping to increase quality, even in countries that in the past only offered commercial productions. We must never forget that what identifies a coffee as "Specialty" is ultimately the quality of the cup, not the origin or lineage.

8- Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

Just one? No, come on, it would be too simplistic, I really don't know who to choose, the view is so interesting! No, I just don't tell you one!!! Ahahah.

9- What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

That you’re never done. I am old, so I’ve now seen more than a generation of new roasters or baristas promoting a new way of making coffee, only to get trapped in those ways that in the meantime had been overtaken by the next generation. The world of specialty follows the Galilean method, there is no room for dogmas, you must always stay awake.

10- How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

The hospitality sector is suffering greatly. Those who already addressed the domestic market before the pandemic, especially online, had an excellent chance to maintain a good turnover. While those who changed their proposal during the pandemic are trying to grab a slice of that market, I have the impression that they have not achieved the desired results. The challenge for recovery will be won by those who are lucky enough to do business in those countries that have been more efficient in reducing the incidence of infections; with effective prevention first and then with total vaccination coverage. Lucky them; my business does not take place in one of those countries.

11- How do you see the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

I believe that demand will continue to grow because we are still a long way from saturating this market. In particular, Asia will be the driving force. The offer will obviously try to meet demand but the effects of climate change are not encouraging - for the whole sector, not just for the specialty. I'm afraid there won't be enough for everyone :( The laws of the market will enforce their principles and prices will rise in proportion to the quality and rarity of the products available, putting a stop to the spread of specialty to almost all income brackets, like today… but perhaps this scenario is just my nightmare… now I’m going to drink a good cup of Yirgacheffe and I’ll overcome the pessimism :)

12- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope and I’m pretty sure that I’ll always be in this sector, I don't know in what role, because I believe a lot in the evolution of myself and in what I do and in the paths I take, but I sincerely believe that coffee will remain my vocation and the sector in which I will continue to express my professionalism.

13- Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

Aim high, but with respect and humility.

]]> Mon, 05 Apr 2021 20:57:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?alessandro-galtieri-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-6 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/00000001D <![CDATA[Let's Talk About Something Different: Bevanda N°124]]> imblog

Let’s talked about something different: Bevanda N°124

Thanks to the guys at Café 124, a specialty coffee place based in Milan (whose name comes from the historical Fiat 124 produced in 1983, that they use to deliver in town), we were able to try this “Bevanda N°124” (Beverage N°124), a coffee beverage similar to a cold brew, that comes in cute glass bottles. After reading about it while writing our website, we were really curious about it, and the team at Café 124 was kind enough to send a box full of bottles.

But what is it? Because is not a cold brew (is not written anywhere) and for sure is not a crappy soft drink made by coffee… so, what is it?

In the beginning, Bevanda N°124 was supposed to be a “regular” cold brew, but while brewing it, the team at Café 124 understood that for them brewing a normal cold brew was not economically sustainable. They had to wait 8-9 hours to get 20-30 liters of cold brew… not really what they were looking for.

That’s why they decided to do something different, something faster and more sustainable. They choose to reduce the extraction times by adding kinetic energy to the drink via a platform, and from there they were able to improve the extraction times from 8 hours to exactly 15 minutes. Subsequently the drink is microfiltered with natural cartons (the same ones used in wine) which help to eliminate all the remains of the coffee, and give a final product amber-colored, almost like a natural wine.

Pros and Cons of Bevanda N°124?

Pros: It has no added sugars or gasses, it’s diuretic because it’s made for the 95% of water, it can be drink cold (directly from the fridge but also on ice) and hot up to 70°C, it’s super nice to use (even at home) to prepare cocktails or soft drinks.

Cons: for sure it’s more delicate that a regular cold brew, but this can really help customers that usually drink just “commercial” coffee to appreciate something different, approaching the world of specialty coffee.

They produce Bevanda N°124 with different kind of specialty coffee beans: the one we tried was made with NDaroini AB from Kenya, roasted by Friedhats (Amsterdam), and was really sweet and balanced.

You can order it online from their website, or in Milano not only at the Café 124, but also at Tipografia Alimentare and Tondo Forno Artigiano.

]]> Sun, 04 Apr 2021 21:45:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?let-s-talk-about-something-different--bevanda-n-124 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/00000001C <![CDATA[Łukasz Gałęcki: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #5]]> imblog

1- Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

I’m Łukasz Gałęcki, I live in Warsaw, Poland. Since 3,5 years I work in Cophi Solutions as a Head Barista and Trainer. I also have the honour to be the Polish Ambassador of Alpro and Field Expert of Comandante.

2- When and why did coffee become important to you?

Around 5 years ago I started to follow European Coffee Trip created by my friends Ales and Radek and got the idea to write a few cafe guides in the cities I was planning to visit. While meeting inspiring coffee people I got completely hooked and had to try the work behind the bar and since then it became my daily drive!

3- Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

It would have to be an Ethiopian pour over made by now my friend Nihan, the owner of Rispetto Coffee in Ankara, Turkey. She put some much passion and heart into brewing. I could see how she glows why the coffee bloomed and we could start to feel the sweet aroma. All the issues, frustrations of the day suddenly disappeared and we could just enjoy the moment.

4- What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

Making peoples day. I really feel like on a mission to brighten my guests’ mood and give them a bit of liquid sunshine. I also really love the fact that no day is the same. It might seem like routine work from the other side but if you do it right, it really isn’t!

5- What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

I love to experiment with brewing methods and gather/collect equipment. But if I would have to choose I would be making the decision between a 3-cup chemex and a V60. First one since I really love the ritual and aesthetic of brewing in a chemex and how it makes every coffee taste good. And V60 because it’s my universal way of quality check of beans and roasts. It exposed the truth about them and I can really know what’s going on.

6- Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

I always struggle with this question since it’s like asking which of your kids do you love more. The best one is the one I choose to enjoy. And I think that’s the best attitude since coffee is organic and alive and you will probably never be able to drink the same cup again.

7- Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

I love to flirt with a lot of origins but I tend to always come back to Colombia. I chose beans from this origin for my first Brewers Cup and kept choosing subconsciously beans from this country again and again. I love the complexity of Colombian beans and how the farmers care for the coffee and processing. I’m also very pleased to see way less of the colonial past in Colombia and more ethical and fair conditions for the amazing people who work on the farms.

8- Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

Blend - a tiny roastery from a smalltown in Poland called Pszenno. It’s the only roastery from which I’ve never had bad coffee. The owner and roaster is a complete coffee lover. He puts so much passion and skills into his coffee. https://www.palarniablend.pl

Shokunin Coffee Collective - a beautiful project owned by the youngest coffee professional I’ve met few years ago. Jelle completely impressed me with his coffee knowledge and his educational sets blew my mind. Everyone was shocked when I chose him to roast coffee for my performance at Brewers Cup but I’ve never regretted it. Jelle created a beautiful coffee for me and shared all the knowledge about it with me. https://shokunin.coffee

Dear Judges - a project of my great friend and coffee sensei AST Janina Łaszkiewicz. She roasts competition grade coffees and brings them to people. While getting her beans you also get access to edutainment nights - online meetings when you can meet coffee producers and champions who competed with these amazing coffees. https://www.instagram.com/dearjudges.coffee/

9- What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

The good thing - coffee brings people together even in the hardest times. Especially now in the hectic pandemic times, coffee became a hobby or moment of “back to normal” for a lot of people and that’s amazing.

The bad thing - not everyone is fair and there are rotten fruit also in the coffee community. I also got to know about the colonial past of coffee and I’m still quite upset I personally can’t do more to increase the live standard of the people working on some plantations in the world.

10- How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

It’s definitely a constant “crisis management” situation. Especially in Poland when we can’t really get at all prepared for the new restrictions and changes. However it is a great ongoing test for our creativity and team spirit and so far I’m happy to report that Cophi Solutions passes this test very well. We didn't close for a single day since the beginning of pandemic. In the hardest, darkest days we took orders from guests via a walkie-talkie to avoid any direct contact with guests. It's been a rollercoaster yet we still hope that the worst is behind us and we look with great hope and optimism to the future.

11- How do you the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

I’d love to see it way more tolerant, accessible and educational. With a focus not only on the most quality product but also sustainability and caring for the planet. Without extra boxes for coffee bags, plastic lids for cups and extra waste in cafes. Way more a friendly lifestyle than snobby hobby.

12- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Working in coffee for sure. In the same role? For sure not however I think I will always have some connection to the bar. Fortunately the world of coffee is truly the world of endless possibilities and things you can do, skills you can gain. I would for sure love to understand coffee and the supply chain better and have more local or maybe even global influence on it.

13- Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

Don’t get down thinking that work with coffee is just a temporary job for students. It’s one of the most graceful and fortunately still artisan industries. You can truly feel the passion around you and connect with so many amazing people. Just open your eyes wide and let yourself get immersed.

]]> Thu, 01 Apr 2021 21:57:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?lukasz-galecki-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-5 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/00000001A <![CDATA[Hungry Bird Coffee Roaster Canngu Bali - Our Caffeinated Road Trip 2]]> imblog

Figure this out.

Half a day spent on the beach enjoying the sun, enjoying life.

A couple of hours on a surfboard and the rest just chatting, swimming, walking with your toes in the sand.

And then you want coffee.

You crave for a cup of coffee.

It’s like 3pm and it’s been so long since your last cup of coffee that, you have to admit, was also pretty bad.

So you decide it’s time to go on a mission and check that specialty coffee roaster you read about online, that seemed so nice.

It’s not far from the beach, not even a mile, but walking a mile in Canngu, Bali, could be like teetering on the brink of the abyss.

Tons of cars and scooters crowd the main road, sidewalks are nowhere to be seen, and you have to walk in single file, hoping that your personal saint won’t look the other way.

You cannot even grab your boyfriend’s hand because you’re pretty sure it would mean sudden death.

And then you see the sign with a cute bird and a cup of coffee, and you read the name “Hungry Bird” and you know you made it, except…

Except you have to cross the street, and that’s bad, but you wanna do it, you need to do it… damn’ you can smell coffee from where you stand!

Your boyfriend grabs your hand and you run across the street, almost stunned by ceaseless car horns, dodging approaching vehicles, just praying to stay alive.

And then you succeed.

You’ve reached your final destination.

At that point you’re also starving. You grab the menu and look for a hearty snack: choco-banana pancakes for you, eggs benedict for him.

Then, it’s finally time to choose your coffee. The menu reads “Single origin coffee, seasonal. Your choice of Indonesian Coffee: Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi, Java”.

You ask for the daily offer and they tell you about their V60, a Kintamani Natural, harvested up on the Balinese’s mountains and roasted by the home team from “Hungry Bird”.

You’re pretty excited about it, because you were up on those mountains just a couple of days before, visiting farms, and you definitely wanna try it.

And now, it’s an emotional roller-coaster. Technically speaking, its (probably) not even a specialty coffee, or at least you cannot find its score anywhere, but who cares.

The coffee is awesome, one of the best you ever tried until that moment, and you’re pretty sure you’re gonna remind it for so long.

It’s quite unique, because you don’t often see natural process coffees from Bali, and it’s got a super creamy sweetness and a predominant berry flavour, with low acidity and a full, jammy body.

Plus, the food is nice and the atmosphere is friendly, and it takes you just a sip of coffee to understand this will be “your” place while in Canggu.

The place where to drink an awesome cup of coffee.

The place where to have a huge and yummy breakfast before jumping on your surfboard.

The place where to relax, and enjoy life.

]]> Thu, 01 Apr 2021 17:01:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?hungry-bird-coffee-roaster-canngu-bali-our-caffeinated-road-trip-2 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000019 <![CDATA[Caroline Bell: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #4 ]]> imblog

1- Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s

your job.

Caroline Bell, Co-Founder and CEO of Café Grumpy in Brooklyn, NY.

2- When and why did coffee become important to you?

Coffee became important to me during high-school. Back then, my friends and I used to spend hours hanging out at our local New Jersey diner taking over bottomless cups of

coffee. Back then it was more about the social aspect and less about the taste.

3- Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

Yes - it was when I first discovered fresh beans, a grinder and French press!

4- What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

Drinking coffee of course! Most days, I go to sleep looking forward to the first cup. Before the pandemic started, we would get espresso shots at our cafe (next door to our office and roastery) then head over to the roastery for a morning cupping. Since everything is still “to go” and we have limited the amount of people allowed inside the cafe at a time, we had to change our routines. Now, we batch brew at the roastery - a different coffee each morning and compare tasting notes. In the afternoons, we brew a few coffees on Chemex to share.

5- What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

When I am making coffee at home, I still like to use a French press. I don’t want to stand there with a timer and kettle watching the coffee bloom - I’d rather get some dishes done while the coffee brews itself!

6- Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

To me, even just an okay cup of coffee can taste great in the right environment - just like great coffee can somehow taste bad if something doesn’t feel right. The best cups of coffee are always ones linked to memories of being with family, friends or just discovering a new coffee spot while traveling.

7- Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

I really feel attached to all of the coffees we roast - especially the coffee from farms I have been lucky enough to visit in person. As far as flavor profiles in general, it depends on the time of day. In the morning, I would probably select a washed coffee from Guatemala with a clean approachable profile that gets sweeter as it cools (because I drink coffee slowly). In the afternoon, maybe one of our selections from Honduras - like Las Mariposas.

8- Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

I would check out Ritual Coffee in San Francisco - another woman-owned business that has also been around since 2005.

9- What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

As a hands-on business owner, the most important thing I have learned is to try to stay

as organized as possible and as healthy as possible. The work and stress are never-ending so you want to make sure you are able to keep up.

10- How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new

challenges for hospitality?

This has been a huge challenge that we never expected would last this long. We ended up permanently closing one of our cafe locations and still have 3 that are temporarily closed, but we are hopeful that New York City’s office workers and tourists will come back soon and that small businesses will be able to survive. In the coffee shops themselves, it has been very stressful for baristas, but thankfully, we are doing well with the vaccine roll-out here, so people are starting to feel a little more comfortable working in the service industry. I do think a lot about what coffee shops will look like in the future though - will people want to hang out, drink out of ceramic and chat to the person making their coffee? Or will the to go drinks,order ahead and get in and out as fast as possible vibe continue? It is a little sad actually as you spend years trying to build a place where people from the community can come and feel welcome and what is left right now is a place where you can’t really have much of a personal interaction. Will the commuters want to buy a coffee on their way to work if they have to wear masks on the subway?

11- How do you the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

It will depend on how we take care of each other and the environment.

12- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I would like to be relaxing with a cup of coffee, reading a book with my dogs next to me.

13- Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

Stay focused on quality and listen to your intuition.

]]> Sun, 28 Mar 2021 13:26:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?caroline-bell-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-4 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000017 <![CDATA[Friedhats' Sampler Box]]> imblog

8 March 2021 is not only the International Women’s Day, but also the date that Friedhats choose as the roasting day for their “Sampler Box” Vol. 2.

They were talking about it online in the weeks before, and reading about these amazing coffees I told Endri “Come on! We actually never tried a Gesha from Panama before… why don’t we do it?” Yep, you got it right.

Never tried a Panama Gesha before.

I know, it’s bad.

Plus, the other coffees seemed equally amazing so we decided to empty (even more) our wallets and buy the Sampler Box.

Let’s jump forward in time, about a week, when we finally receive the order. Three “regular” coffees (Indonesia, Kenya and Rwanda) and the “Super Special Sampler Box”, that’s simply so cool.

I mean take a look at the box itself: the big sparkling sticker with a cool dude (or a cool monkey? Difficult to say!), the five tiny plastic bottles (so similar to pill bottles), the small stickers inside, and all that yellow torn paper as a bed to let the bottles rest…

I mean it, it’s just so damn’ cool.

And then it’s time for the tasting.

From each bottle, a coffee each and one to share, simple as that.

In less than three days it’s all over, but guys, what a ride!

The five coffees were all amazing, with different flavors, different complexity and different bodies. It was hard deciding what was best, and this is our ranking, and it’s totally personal because all of them were awesome… it has all to do with what flavors, and which kind of body, and so on… we love in coffee. That’s it.

But let’s proceed.

#5 Colombia Las Margaritas Java Natural

Java is a variety that is growing towards superstar status. Originally taken from Ethiopia by the Dutch, planted in Indonesia, and named after the Island, it was first introduced in Central America around 2016. It's somewhat similar to the Gesha variety and also performs well at higher altitudes. And the taste is insane… In a good way! It's like drinking very sweet rum, except you're not getting drunk, you can still drive and your friends' jokes are still not really that funny. It comes with notes of rum raisin, cane sugar and dried fruits, and its body is really thick. The only reason why this is in the last position is that it was really too “rummy”… and we’re more into whiskey! Jokes aside, this was Endri #4 and my #5, but I’m writing the blog, so… #5 it is.

#4 Brazil Daterra Masterpieces Gesha D17 Anaerobic

Daterra is a pretty well-known farm, and usually their coffees are mild, smooth and sweet, but not really crazy. A couple of years ago they started making "Masterpieces” as they call it. Small lots, hand-picked (unusual for Brazil) and with experimental varieties and processing methods. This turned out pretty well. They even managed to win the World Brewers Cup in 2018. Every year they auction a range of masterpieces, and with a bit of luck the guys at Friedhats managed to secure a box of their favourite lot #D17, Anaerobic fermented Gesha from Brazil. This is really amazing for a coffee coming from Brazil, it still has the classical nutty notes, but here they’re together with some tropical fruits and a floral finish. It was Endri’s #5 and my #4, but again… I’m the one writing J

#3 Colombia Las Margaritas Sudan Rume Natural

Another year of Sudan Rume from Café Granja La Esperanza! This has been Lex's absolute favorite coffee since he first tasted it in 2015. "I remember this moment really well. I was cupping some coffee's for competition, and this coffee was just astonishing." he says, "The name of the farm was Las Margaritas and I had heard about them because they were experimenting with many different varieties on a single farm, which was super interesting because it allowed us to taste the influence

that variety had on the flavor of coffee. One of those varieties stood out. Sudan Rume." Five years later, the guys at Friedhats are still blown away by the extreme bright floral and herbal notes of the super clean natural coffee. Its notes are the ones you can find on a tropical cocktail, with hints of mint and a pleasant syrupy feeling in the mouth.

#2 Colombia Paraiso Experimental

Finca El Paraiso has got a name for producing some interesting coffees. It is located in Piendamò in the famous Cauca valley and run by Diego Bermudez and his family. This coffee is a Gesha variety, that is a good start for a flavorsome coffee, but this coffee is next level in flavor. They create this flavor with a two phase fermentation and "thermal shock" process. This is their process: First the coffee is washed with 'ozonized' water to reduce microbial load, then it is fermented aerobically for 60 hours at a temperature of 18 degrees. Next, it is de-pulped and then the second phase of fermentation begins - this time - anaerobic for 36 hours at 18 degrees. It is then washed, using thermal shock in order to "transfer and fix the secondary aromas developed in the fermentation phases of the culture medium". It is first washed at 35° C and then at 12° C. It is dried for 29 hours with a recirculating air of 35°C and a relative humidity of 25% until the bean comes down to between 10% and 11% humidity. It is bagged and stabilized for 15 days. All of that, makes this flavor and that is astonishing in many ways. It’s like drink a peach tea, the one I used to have when I was a kid. It’s really, really awesome.

#1 Panama Black Sheep Rocky Mountain Gesha Natural

This is the first coffee from Panama ever, for the guys at Friedhats (yep, not only for us!) It's not that they don't like Panama or anything. Lex even visited Panama early in his coffee-career. But for some reason Friedhats never had it. So here it is: their first Panamanian Coffee ever. And as you might know, Panama has everything in place to produce really good coffee. Beautiful farms, ideal climate, skilled farmers and lots of money. Plus, they have all the best varieties. Gesha was even rediscovered in Panama. All of this doesn't come cheap, but you know, you only live once. This coffee is from the Rocky Mountain farm owned by the famous Hartman family. The variety is Gesha which gives it heaps of florals and tropical fruit. The process is Natural with a bit of extended fermentation which contributes to the intensity of the fruit flavors. And yes, it was astonishing. The tropical fruits notes, like passion fruit, was so intense it fill your own mouth… and it smelled and tasted floral, and orangy… as I said, astonishing.

And that’s basically it.

It was a hell of a ride… and in a way, I can say that this is why we’re so much in love with specialty coffee.

Amazing flavors so different you can hardly imagine they come from a simple coffee bean, and that one bean so similar to the first one can have notes so different.

We had peach tea, rum, passion fruit, nutty, tropical mint cocktail, and much more.

Obviously is not affordable to drink this kinds of coffees daily, at least not for us, but it’s a really nice way to treat yourself nice once in a while, to let yourself (and your loved ones) know how special you are.

To the guys at Friedhats we can only say: thanks so much, it was really worth it.

]]> Sat, 27 Mar 2021 10:05:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?friedhats--sampler-box https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000015 <![CDATA[Muhammad Fakhri: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #3 ]]> imblog

1- Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

My name is Fakhri Muhammad, many people called me Murad because of my account on Instagram (that’s my father’s name). I’m from Indonesia, East Borneo, Samarinda City. Honestly, I'm not working in the coffee industry, I'm just someone who loves to make a manual brew coffee, or what we usually called “homebrewer”. My job is actually as an assistant of a psychologist, but because of the corona pandemic, I decided to resign and now I help some friends who work in the coffee industry as mentors or trainers for manual brew coffee classes.

2- When and why did coffee become important to you?

I first got to know specialty coffee at the end of 2015. The thing that attracted me to coffee was the interaction. The interaction that I mean is the relationship that occurs between baristas and customers or fellow coffee enthusiasts. The interaction seems without limitation because there is always something to be discussed. The hospitality that exists in the coffee industry also makes me enjoy it.

3- Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

In early 2016, the Brewers Cup competition in Indonesia started for the first time. At that time I was not familiar with the competition. We know that when there is competition, there will be lots of great coffees that appear. I had the opportunity to try competition coffee from my favorite coffee shop, which's coffee from Panama (I forgot the coffee's name). When I tried it, I was confused, why does coffee taste like flowers and fruits? Since then I started to try various kinds of coffee.

4- What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

Before work, in the morning I always make coffee for myself and drink it while smoking a cigarette (like most Indonesians). But I do it all alone because I like to visualize or imagine the things I want to do in the future.

5- What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

The brewing method that I like is pour-over. There are two main drippers for me, V60 and Werkudara dripper (a flat bottom that I made and designed myself). Why V60? As we know, it can produce bright acidity and a pronounced flavor. Why flat bottom? Because this shape is able to produce a good sweetness and a good body. With both types of a dripper, I just need to adjust to the needs of the coffee. For example, if there is coffee that already has a high acidity intensity but does not have a body, then I will use a flat bottom, also if there is coffee whose acidity needs to be increased, then I will use V60.

6- Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

The best coffee I've ever tasted is Panama Geisha Anaerobic Natural from Finca Nuguo. That's coffee is my competition coffee when I won Indonesia Brewers Cup 2019. The flavor is so good and very complex.

7- Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

Of course my beloved country: Indonesia!. Indonesian coffee has a great potential to become like a coffee from African and American. In this era, when all processors use anaerobic fermentation, Indonesian coffee has a very rapid increase in flavor. That's why I believe in two or four years, Indonesian coffee will able to compete in the world competition.

8- Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

Maybe, I will suggest my partner roastery from Jakarta, namely Onward Coffee Company.

9- What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

The most important thing in my opinion is the relationship between fields. Create collaboration, not competition. And also, respect the process.

10- How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

Since I don't work as a barista and also don't have a coffee shop, I will answer it from the side of a customer. I see my coffee friends have made a lot of changes in the face of this pandemic. Many of my friends use e-commerce platforms to help with their sales, such as selling roasted beans or other menus. All of them are still opening their shops for dine-in, but with a visitor capacity of only 50% and the operational times is not to long like usual. All baristas work with the health protocol very strictly for making sure customers feel comfortable.

11- How do you the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

I think the next few years, specialty coffee will adapt to what commercial coffee is doing. Now we can see that many specialty coffee people make products such as commercial coffee. We can see a lot of canned coffee, capsule coffee, drip bag coffee, and so on. Does that look bad? No, it is a form of survival in this industry, and indeed innovation must be carried out continuously. But the most important thing that we must keep is hospitality.

12- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I want to join the competition again until I become the world champ in the brewers cup. After that, I want to compete in barista championship because I want to make a history that a disability people can be a world barista champion. Then, I want to make a small coffee shop that the barista is just me (one man show), and in my coffee shop the customer can tell stories about their lives, their love, or maybe about their family. Why do I want to make a coffee shop like that? Because I'm a psychologist and maybe a good listener.

13- Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

For people who don't know me, I am a person with a disability, my right hand is only half, but I am proof that this industry is very open and friendly to anyone who wants to enter into it. Just do what you want, stay polite and humble, always learn because the coffee industry is always growing.

]]> Mon, 22 Mar 2021 10:54:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?muhammad-fakhri-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-3 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000014 <![CDATA[Ralf Rüller: Coffee Insurrection Hero Chapter #2 ]]> imblog

1- Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

Hi, I’m Ralf, I’m German and I’m the founder and CEO of “The Barn Coffee Roasters” in Berlin.

2- When and why did coffee become important to you?

Well, coffee was always important to me as a consumer, especially remembering my time back … well, if I dig deep, in my childhood I was waking up smelling coffee. My father was a postman and he got up really early and he drank quite a bit of coffee before he started his work. Later on, I worked in London and every morning I passed by my coffee shop and I had a fantastic Flat White before I started working. Then, of course, I started “The Barn” in 2010 and I got obsessed with coffee.

3- Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

My first “more than just a cup of coffee” I have to say was Tim Wendelboe’s Te-Ka-Ngu. A really, really nice coffee from Nyeri region in Kenya, and it was the first time I experienced like a mix of tomato soup and rhubarb with high sweetness. I’ll never forget that cup of coffee, it was absolutely amazing.

4- What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

The favorite thing about going to work in the morning? I love my job, I give everything, I work everyday for very long hours. Everywhere I talk about coffee, all the time I meet coffee people. They keep me energized, and I think the community in coffee is what keeps me pushing, and with community I always mean the community at source, on the farm, and the community in the cafés. I work with amazing people from more than 20 nationalities and it’s a great spirit at “The Barn”, I really love it, and we have amazing customers in the cafés. My favorite thing to do, for which I don’t have much time anymore, is really to be in a café on a Saturday and clear the dishes and talk to customers. I really enjoy the exchange of people enjoying my coffees, giving me feedbacks, and just sharing the moment of tasting the coffee is fantastic especially when you work at the farm and you know how much work is going into each coffee that we roast. And then the roast process, and everything around it. I’m just really blessed that I work with a product and with people that I really, really enjoy.

5- What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

I brew a V60 every morning, sometimes I go for the Aeropress, but I really do enjoy a V60. I really like clean coffee, and I like the 2-3 minutes of breathing in my coffee when I’m brewing it. It just get me excited about drinking it.

6- Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

The best coffee I ever tasted? Well, it’s hard to say… I feel like a father that has ten daughters, and I find them all beautiful. They’re all different, and I like them all for different reasons. So I can’t really say. I can’t.

7- Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

Origins? Same answer. We work so much with the farmers, and they’re elevating the coffees: they’re cleaner, we work with different styles, with different varietals, we try so many things. Wherever we engage, coffees are becoming better, I think that’s the most important thing as a roaster, to work with the farmers, and not many roasters are doing that. There’s a lot to do, it’s not all about just brewing it, and talking about it, you need to engage with the farmers and make the coffees better. I used to say Kenya, but there’s so much going on everywhere, and they’re all great.

8- Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

I really love “The Barn” and what we’re doing… and I think it’s very unique, so it makes it really hard for me to recommend anything else. I’m sorry, there’s no humble way of saying this. Of course I appreciate many others, what they’re doing and trying to do, but I think everybody can push harder, to be honest. There’s so much to do in coffee and, again, we should never forget the farms work, and also buying great coffees, roasting them well, talking about them, sharing their stories… yeah, there’s a lot to do.

9- What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

I learn all the time. We all learn all the time. It’s such a big question… For sure, I’ve learnt that the whole chain is important, from start to finish, and if anything goes wrong along the way you can really mess up the products. The baristas are very, very important, because they’re the “last moment” of prepping the coffees and than handing them over to the customer, who’s then enjoying it, and then paying for the whole thing. So that’s a really important moment, but just as much as we need the farmers, and just as much I need the roasters. Everything needs to work, and we all need to work together.

10- How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

Oh my God, Covid… do we really need to talk about it? It’s a nightmare, of course, and I’ve just opened eight of ours ten shops, even though it’s economically not really viable. We’re a fairly little business, we need tourism, we need the offices, and we need people to sit in, and enjoy coffee and food. Now we have take away, and in winter time we were closed for three months because it was raining and snowing and no one was walking around, but I decided that I don’t want us to be stuck any longer, because I want to have life back, and I want to have baristas back at work, so we just do it and see what happens. It’s really not easy… it’s not easy for the farmers, we’ve got difficulties in picking the cherries, processing everything nicely… we had to reject a few coffees last year, we tightened our “green control”… luckily I’ve an amazing roast team, and we have great “green control” from start to finish, so that’s great. And I’m very thankful for “The Barn” community and all the customers that are buying our coffees and are supporting us. It’s really amazing to see the support from everyone, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to make it.

11- How do you the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

No one knows. What I saw in the last ten years, because I’m doing it for ten years, it’s maybe more interesting. You know, “The Barn” is fully focused on the product, that’s the most important thing, not the packaging. We have probably the most boring packaging in the industry and I’m quite proud of it, we don’t have a perfume box or things like that, or a flashy logo and marketing. It’s all about the product and the taste, and that, together with the people involved, it’s the most important thing. In the last few years we’ve seen more and more specialty coffees on Instagram, beautiful shops, roasteries popping up… but I really want them to push harder, to bring the quality up, to share farm stories, to focus on the products. I hope this trend of having a nice shop, put it on Instagram and so on, but with no training and no communication, will change. And I can also tell you that in Germany in the B2B side, the cafés are always asking for a specific price. They want the beans cheaper, and that’s really not specialty coffee. I think in specialty coffee we should never ask for a cheaper price. It should be a fair price. A price that the farmers have a good life with, and the roasters and everybody along the chain too. So, there’s still a lot to be done, and hopefully people will pushing up quality over the next ten years.

12- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I don’t know… I mean, who knows? I enjoy what I’m doing, I go day by day, month by month, year by year. I really enjoy my work, and coffee… it gives me a lot of energy, so hopefully I’ll keep doing my job.

13- Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to

start this path?

My suggestion it’s always been the same, since the beginning. When I started in the “little barn” I was the barista, and people came in and they were looking at the interior, at what we were doing, and sometimes they wanted to copy what we were doing and I just said “look, my most important suggestion is that you need to go your own way, you need to find your own style, you need to learn a lot, you need to be authentic and truthful and humble and just engage with the product, present it well”. It’s an amazing product to be working with, I really enjoy being in specialty coffees and work with farmers, and work with my crew in Berlin. We have an amazing vibe and fantastic staff members, and the customers… it’s just really cool. I travel a lot, I think before Covid I was in 25 countries in 2019, and wherever I go people love our product, and it’s just an amazing connection. Especially nowadays, where people are looking for a meaning in life, is right in front of you. You can do so much in coffee… so just engage.

Pictures @pimrinkes

Read more about The Barn, Café Kranzler

]]> Tue, 16 Mar 2021 10:05:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?ralf-rueller-coffee-insurrection-hero-chapter-2 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000012 <![CDATA[Origami Dripper: Why All The Fuss?]]> imblog

In the last months we saw popping out from almost every Instagram coffee related pic, an origami dripper.

At the beginning we just thought “Well, cool!” because let’s admit it, this dripper is cool for sure. It comes in bright and pastel colors and it’s extremely photogenic.

But there should be more, right? I mean, if coffee gurus from all the world are “playing” with this new kid in town, there must be a reason apart from its coolness.

So, let’s learn a little bit more about it.

This dripper is designed by the founder of Trunk coffee and Origami Japan, and produced by a Japanese manufacturer called, guess what, ORIGAMI, that designs equipment to support the “chasing of the ultimate cup of coffee”.

The name Origami (折り紙), as you probably already know, is Japanese: coming from ORI (folding) and G(K)AMI (paper) and is the Japanese Art of folding paper in delicate, often colorful pieces of art. It’s an integral part of the Japanese culture for centuries, so it was probably obvious that, sooner or later, someone decided to combine this art with the coffee brewing, nowadays so famous in Japan.

But let’s see more about the dripper itself. The design team worked with many baristas to come up with the perfect shape to achieve the ideal blooming and dripping time. 20 creases ensure that space is kept between the dripper and paper filter in order to ensure the smooth passage of hot water, creating the right air channels and aiding in extraction at various temperatures, and it became quite famous after it was used by Jia Ning Du (from China) to win the 2019 World Brewers Cup Championship. The shape of this dripper gives you a smooth control over the extraction and the brew time.

It comes in two different sizes, S and M (respectively suitable for 1-2 and 2-4 cup pour overs. It is made with Mino porcelain (over 400 years of manufacturing history, pottery has great heat conductivity) and is microwave and dish washer safe (while hand washing is recommended).

One thing really cool about this dripper is that it can be use with different shapes of filter paper. The S size is perfect with the Cone-shaped Origami or V60 paper (01), to enhance more acidity; or with the Makita Wave paper (155) for more body and sweetness.

To use the Origami you’ll need an holder ring (usually made of wood or plastic) that helps placing the dripper on the right position over the mug/server.

We actually haven’t tried it yet, but we’d like to try it ASAP. In the meantime we’ve found online so many recipes using the Origami.

If you’ve already got it, or if you’re just curious, take a look at the following links!

https://kurasu.kyoto/blogs/kurasu-journal/origami-dripper-brewing-recipe-how-we-do-it-at-kurasu

https://youtu.be/WMPmZ9oXV6E

And enjoy.

https://youtu.be/WMPmZ9oXV6E]]> Fri, 12 Mar 2021 14:30:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?origami-dripper-why-all-the-fuss https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/000000010 <![CDATA[International Women's Day: AMACA Project]]> imblog

Today is International Women’s Day,and in many ways things are always the same, both in the specialty coffee community and in the “real” world.

I cannot tell you real numbers, but for sure there are a lot more men than women involved in our business.

Farmers, producers, roasters, companies’ owners, even baristas… and what’s even worse is that a study by SCAA stated that “women comprised an average of 70 percent of the workforce in the fieldwork and harvesting roles”. That means planting, pruning, picking and processing. Nevertheless, women represent less than 1 percent of the world’s legal landowners. Many go unpaid or unrecognized, and not for lack of interested or passion for coffee. Often, governments still don’t recognize land ownership to women, and many banks won’t extend credits to women. Plus, many cooperatives won’t still recognize a woman as a member independent of a husband or a father.

Sad, isn’t it?

But, things are slowly (so slowly...) changing, and you can find small realities around the globe, entirely made by women.

Like this AMACA Project, made in Colombia.

AMACA means Asociación de Mujeres productoras Agropecuarias del Cauca, and it’s a group of women (yep, all women) coffee-producers located in El Tambo, Cauca, Southwest Colombia. It was formed in 1999 by 80 women from this region, and now they’re 140, all of them farm owners and heads of household. While they support their families via the cultivation and production of coffee, AMACA basically works as a platform to improve the production practices and to promote the access to the specialty coffee market.

In 2008, AMACA partnered with the ministry of agriculture, the governor of Cauca and the municipality of El Tambo to increase the production and quality of coffee on eighty members’ farms.

In 2010 the organization “Social Action” supplied 22 farms with new wet mills and processing tanks.

Today, 140 active members from three different villages across the El Tambo municipality make up AMACA. Their average farm size is one hectare (5000 coffee trees) per member, and while some farm is up to three hectares, many are less than one.

A premium is paid to AMACA above the value of the coffee itself to support their goals and aspirations as a group. Their most important goal is to improve the quality of life for their members (together with their families).

Right now, one of their most pressing needs is a warehouse space to properly receive, cup, manage and store their coffees.

AMACA is also an important local reality because these women were able to create a safe space from gender and domestic violence, for themselves and for other women and families.

That said, there’s still a long way to go, both for the AMACA group and for all the other women involved (in any way) in the specialty coffee world; and things are not gonna change anytime soon.

But, every time a woman is hired as barista, every time a woman open her own company, every time a woman raise and do something, is a small step toward a world more equal.

Support AMACA and support all others women reality.

If you want to read more:

https://vimeo.com/193405012

(AMACA interview)

https://perfectdailygrind.com/2018/03/women-in-the-coffee-industry-what-you-should-know/

(Things you should know about women situation in the specialty coffee community.)

https://girlswhogrindcoffee.com/

(An all-female coffee roastery owned and run by Fi O’Brien and Casey LaLonde. An Aussie and an American, both now living in Frome, Somerset. Girls Who Grind Coffee are an all female small batch coffee roastery, sourcing specialty coffee from female producers and those who work to support them.)

https://strongwomenofcoffee.com/

(A nice Project about the women in this world, that often need to be “stronger” that their male counterparts.)

https://epicureandculture.com/female-coffee-roasters/

(Three inspiring female coffee roasters: Caballo Rojo Coffee, Little Waves Coffee, Brewpoint Coffee)

]]> Sun, 07 Mar 2021 23:45:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?international-women-s-day-amaca-project https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/00000000F <![CDATA[Gian Zaniol: Coffee Insurrection Hero: Chapter #1]]> imblog

1- Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, where do you work and what’s your job.

My name is Gian, I’m originally from Treviso but basically from Venice, I’m based in Berlin as the Head Barista of Chapter One, in Kreutzberg, and I’ve made of coffee my choice of life.

2- When and why did coffee become important to you?

Ah… big question. There are two-three steps that pushed me in this direction. Firstly, my origins, because if you’re Italian, coffee is just “in your DNA”: I’ve got a lot of coffee memories related to my grandparents such as the smell of coffee in their house, and my grandpa giving me spoons of coffee just to try it. The second step was my breakfast when I was just a child, and it was always the yolk with sugar and coffee: a booster of energy based on coffee. And then I grew up in Italy, being just a “standard coffee consumer”, and it all changed when I moved to Berlin and I had the chance to try my first real specialty coffee. It was so unexpected and so different from anything I had before, that something just snapped in my brain: discovering the specialty coffees, the 100% arabica, I understood that there was so much more in a cup of coffee compared to what I thought until that moment. And the rest was just trying and trying, while discovering that it was a very complex world, with so many things to learn. So in the beginning I fell in love with something so new just for curiosity, but soon it turned into a passion, even because I love all jobs in which you are in contact with people, and when I find a new spot where I can put my “clown mood” into the job, it just become a kind of love story.

3- Do you remember the first coffee you had that was more than “just a cup of coffee”?

So, we’re talking about a serious coffee… well, it was December 2011, I was new in Berlin, struggling to find a job, kinda depressed after a month unemployed, and my girlfriend thought that maybe this “new specialty coffee thing” (that I never heard about before) could be something for me, so she dropped me in this specialty coffee place in Prenzlauer Berg (a Berlin neighborhood), and I tried a specialty coffee espresso for the first time and, I wanna be honest, my first thought was “What the Hell is this?”, basically because it was acidic, with a low body, and I couldn’t understand what was going on. And then, while it was cooling down, it became nice, and I decided that I wanted to learn more so I dropped my CV in that place and after a week I was hired. So, my very first specialty coffee was not a “wow” experience, because it can be that you have to train yourself to “appreciate” something so different, but I had the sudden feeling that there was so much more than bitterness in coffee, and it was like opening a door, and I started to work with curiosity to keep spying behind that door. And I can also tell you that it was an Ethiopia washed, and I said it was more a “shock” than a “wow”, it was an earthquake and it took me a while to deal with acidity in coffee, but I suddenly understood that there was more, that coffee could be something else. Plus, for the first time I discovered that the coffee was not just a bag of beans but there was the farm name, the process, the roasting date… it was really a first. I wanted to know more.

4- What’s your favorite thing about going to work in the morning?

My route to work… no I’m joking! I’m a “people person”, I really love to be in contact with people, to work at the counter… it gives me the courage to just face the world. I’ve got the feeling that when I’m behind the counter I’m the “king of the world!” (Gian laughs), something like that. I really love to make people happy, and my favorite day of work is Monday because I like to change the people’s mood. It’s all about be in contact with humans, share experiences, bring happiness with a cup of coffee. It’s like, you know, yesterday was my anniversary and this customer of mine knew about it, and baked me a cake… and when you know that you’ve touched people’s lives in this way it’s amazing. They’re not just people you serve, there’s more. For me, working humbly, with humanity, is the key factor to just have an happy life. And I don’t want to say the old bullshit that “if you love your work you’ll never work a day in your life”, because sometime a day feels like a month, but if you love what you do, it’s easy to just have a nice mood. Plus, I have the chance to drink a lot of great coffee, always different, seasonal. There are some days when it’s hard waking up, and you’re just sleepy, and it’s cold, and you arrive at work, and maybe you feel lazy, but then you take that Costa Rica, you take your time and brew the coffee, when the café is empty, no people around and just silence… I really love these moments, these ten minutes just for me before the opening. I normally seat in the middle of the café, drinking my coffee in silence, enjoying the quiet before the storm.

5- What’s your favorite brewing method and why?

After I’ve spent years trying as much methods as I could, I went back to the V60, I don’t wanna say that I’m kinda obsessed with it… but I’m kinda obsessed with it. I don’t know if it’s because during these years I’ve become more skilled with V60 than with other methods but the big hole in the center, the control you can have on extraction, its shape… it’s a method pretty easy, it deals with acidity very nicely. It doesn’t work very good with old coffees (it’s better to use a full immersion method), but once you have good water and a good brew technique, it’s pretty hard to screw a coffee with V60. It’s possible, but pretty hard. It’s a combo of what I like in the cups and the fact that it’s the most known and friendly method I have. It was the second method I approached too (the first was Aeropress), the one I’ve the longest relation with, we made together two National Championship and one World Championship… it’s my favorite for different reasons, from the heart, from the mind, but basically it’s because it’s able to produce consistent coffees with vibrant acidity and not very aggressive bodies.

6- Which is the best coffee you ever tasted?

I guess the best one I had was the coffee I used for the 2017 competition: it was NinetyPlus Ethiopia natural multilayer fermented, by Semeon Abay. There are people that tried my coffee back in ’17 and still ask for it. It was impressive because it was a fresh crop and probably it was one of the first times that I drank something that was so much in the “tropical fruit direction”. There was mango, watermelon, yellow kiwi… and it probably was the best coffee I had in my life, but you know, sometime I really enjoy also some standard natural Ethiopia, sometime I just need an easy coffee that just give me body and a nice aftertaste.

Specialty Coffee Chapter One made in Berlin

7- Is there a country of origin that you tend to favor coffee from? Why?

No, there isn’t, because you know, when I made my second National Championship I had some issues and in the end I was so surprise because I won the second place with a coffee from Congo, and it did so better than other coffees so much more expensive… What I mean with this example is that with the right choice of beans, with the right water and the right method, you can extract something amazing also from those not super popular origin countries. Plus, countries are evolving a lot. Just think about Colombia: 7 years ago it was not cool as it is nowadays (a personal opinion of course). Now you’ve got many coffees from Colombia, Costa Rica, Uganda ecc ecc...that are just outstanding. I can tell you that I really like Kenya for the acidity, and Colombia and Ethiopia, but choose a favorite is really hard.

8- Suggest us a roastery to check (not the one you working at/you use at work).

I can suggest you two nice places that are working good, with high quality. I’d go for Three Marks Coffee from Barcelona and Java from Warsaw.

9- What’s the most important things you’ve learnt while working in the business?

That is an never ending learning process. Every time you learn one thing, you’ve get a hundred more questions, and you’ve got to dig deeper. And that’s the coolest thing because I’m so scared of the feeling when I’ll arrive at the point I’ll think “Ok, I’ve arrived, that’s it”. That day scares me a lot, I love to just postpone that day as much as I can, day by day. Plus, just be relaxed, it’s the best way to work; be open mind, and what I like to say is that you can learn something from someone that started to work just yesterday. I’ve worked 27 years in hospitality, but I can still learn from fresh minds, maybe 17 years old kids, super young but with really good ideas, and you have to take them… take all the good ideas that comes from everybody and everywhere.

10- How your work and the specialty coffee world are coping with Covid and the new challenges for hospitality?

During this period we decide to stay open, with all drinks just to go, and considering that Germans have got a “to go culture”, it was not a big issue for many of them; and we like to describe ourselves as an unpretentious coffee shop, we are very relaxed, we love people to just be happy, enjoy the coffee and go out with a smile. You know, you can serve damn’ good coffee, but the customer service is always the key factor. You go nowhere if you don’t have this approach with your customers, and in a period like this when everyone have less money it’s even more important. I’ve got customers that used to come four-five times a day and now they come just one or two times, and one of the regulars moved to another district but he still comes to us, because he says “I prefer just walk and have one of your coffee, because I know you, and I wanna support you”. So with the job that we made in the years before Covid and the way we decided to face this period, with the best mood possible, trying to keep people as much safe as possible, it’s working. And even if in the beginning we probably seemed too obsessed with “safety”, with the growing of the pandemy people started to realize that we did that just for them, and they started to really appreciate it. So, if you’re clever enough to realize how to change your protocol for the time we’re living, and to let people know that your priority is their health, they will appreciate you a lot. That’s why we’re working every day better. Obviously we’re not in a great condition, because as everyone else right now we’ve got much more expenses, but it’s going good, and we also had this idea that if you take your own cup, you’ve got a 20 cents discount, because also the message we wanna give is that customers must understand that they have to be part of the solution. You must have your own cup, it’s much better for you, for the environment and for the taste, and we try to give you also a “money push”, so you can save some money, and it’s actually working. We stopped to do handbrew, just batch brew to be faster, but we didn’t change the quality of the coffee, and this is a thing that people noticed. We’ve got rules: just one by one in the coffee, only wearing a mask, only to go, they cannot stay in the shop or outside the café, they just have to go immediately, and it’s not easy now with -10°C, but it’s working.

11- How do you see the specialty coffee scene in 10 years?

What I like to say first is: we’re still just a drop in the ocean and I know that we are serving the best but sometimes I have the feeling that if we’re not gonna change the general mood, this snob mood that too many time is around the scene, in 10 year we’re still gonna be just a drop in the ocean. There’s no grow if we don’t understand that. People will understand us if we’ll invest time on explain them what’s going on, and we have also to find the most appealing way to bring them on our side. If I just say “no, there’s no sugar because my coffee is perfect” it’s wrong, I’m gonna say “look, I’ll give you two coffee. Try one with sugar, and one without, and tell me which one do you prefer”. To me this is the clever way. Or if someone ask for a cappuccino extra hot you cannot just say “no!”, but you can say “sure I’m gonna do it, but you have to know what’s going to happen to your cappuccino, so if it taste miserable it’s your bad”. And you know what is gonna happen next? Nine customers out of ten won’t ask for an extra hot cappuccino, no more. It’s just a clever way to approach customers. Sometimes you have to invest two-three minutes with a customer, trying to be humble, explaining easily, because often customers want to learn more. Avoid be snob, using super professional terms because they don’t give a shit. Because sometime people just want a coffee, and you can let them understand that is not “just a coffee”, but you have to do it in a friendly way. Also, every country is different: traditions, culture, approach to coffee… something can work in Germany but not in Italy, but the most important thing is the part that we play behind the counter, and we have to understand it, because just serving crazy good coffee, is not enough. Because we work with people, and people are made by feelings and not just by “taste”.

12- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Well, in ten years I really hope to be still behind the counter, in my own café, maybe with a little roastery… something like 35square meters of happiness, me, myself and I. Something like that, I don’t have crazy plans, I just want a quiet life, where I can survive with my business, that’s it. But I don’t know exactly where I’ll be, in which country… that’s I cannot answer, but I’m pretty sure I’ll keep working with coffee.

13- Any last word? Any tip or suggestion you wanna share with someone that want to start this path?

Don’t forget that you can go far just if you’ve got lust for learning, and if you’re curious. What I mean with “being curious” is: listen to everybody, put everything in doubt, try the other way around, and try to just be “yourself” in what you do. Just because a world champion told you that “that’s the way to do it”, probably he’s right but you don’t have to believe it blindly. Just try, be curious, make errors, waste coffee… I know it’s bad, but it’s the best way you can develop something that is just on you. And when you are making something that is personal, you’re adding something to the cup of coffee. Is not just serving something, but you’re “putting yourself” in the cup. And be you. In my personal experience you can reach this point just through experiments: brew something that satisfy you first, and after that you can deal with others. That’s it. Don’t learn blindly from others, try to understand why, even because also many times when you have two ideas what happens is that in the process you develop a third one, a we may need that third one. Is something like frozen coffee: until seven years ago, if you talked about frozen beans you were just crazy, but look at it now… just because someone said “I wanna try to freeze it”. Let’s see what’s gonna happen in two years! That’s it. And just be humble, be humble because we just brew coffee, and it’s great, but just calm down.

]]> Thu, 04 Mar 2021 14:36:00 GMT https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/?gian-zaniol-coffee-insurrection-hero-1 https://www.coffeeinsurrection.com/it/cafe/blog/rss/00000000E <![CDATA[The Barn at Café Kranzler, Berlin, Germany - Our Caffeinated Road Trip 1]]> imblog

Me and The Barn, we go back a long way.

It all started a bunch of years ago, when Berlin became “our place” for punk rock gigs.

After all, Berlin was already in our heart, after back in ’11 we saw there No Use for the last time, but I digress.

As if by coincidence, when we started travelling to Berlin once or twice a year (following Frank Turner, Dave Hause and many more), it was also the time when we fell in love with specialty coffee, so it was natural for us to check some of the nicest coffee shops in town, and The Barn was at the top of the list.

We use to reach the Little Barn early in the afternoon, choose a V60, sit outside and just relax and enjoy.

Enjoy the coffee, enjoy the sun.

Enjoy life.

And then a stroll around Mitte before grabbing a bite, and reaching the venue.

It was a simple life.

Fast-forward to spring 2019, when I flew to Berlin to have a trial for a barista job, guess where? Yep, at The Barn.

It all went smooth and a couple of months later I moved to Berlin, and started my job as a barista.

As the rest of the team, I started working in all different locations, until I accidentally had a shift at Café Kranzler.

Historical note: Cafè Kranzler is huge, famous and kinda historical. The branch in Charlottensburg opened in 1932, the current flat-roofed Kranzler-Eck building, with its distinct rotunda and red-white touched awnings, was erected in 1957/58, and back then, located as it was in West Berlin, it became a major tourist attraction of the Wirtschaftswunder era (the West German “boom” period right after WWII). It was the place where to go in the ‘50s, the place for the rich and famous, where to have a slice of Kuchen and a cup of “Caffecrema” after shopping.

In a way, it was “the place”.

So, it’s not difficult to understand why working at Café Kranzler was kinda awing: a mix of wonder and reverential respect.

After all, even after 70 years, customers were still looking for the “Old Café Kranzler”, and we were so different.

But at the same time the place itself, and working there, was just awesome.

The café sits only on the second floor, but in a way it feels like you’re on top of the world, standing above one of the coolest crossroads in town, with the bustling streets, the sparkling lights, the rich and the famous and tons of tourists shopping, or just strolling around.

The big terrace lets you soaking up the sun while you enjoy the view and drink a lovely V60 (and if it’s on the menu, go for the “Volcan Azul”, one of my favorites ever) just resting, chatting and fully enjoying your life.

Plus, working at Kranzler gave me the opportunity to witness all of it, feeling a bit like “part of the history”.

Wanna know my favorite moment?

Christmas time, for sure.

The Xmas market just around the corner, the Xmas lights along Ku’damm, the snow topped Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

And most of all the crowded café, bustling with joy.

How to forget it?

Cover Pic by @joannagarm0n