Coffee Crusade

The new blog!

2010-03-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

I made myself a new blog in Wordpress, here's the address:

http://coffee-crusade.com

So, I won't be writing here any longer so you'd better check the new one!

Coffee, coffee & coffee in Stockholm.

2010-03-15T14:27:00.001-07:00

There's nothing this critic doens't notice.

A few weeks ago we went to a typical day-in-Stockholm –cruise with our fellow students. However, I and Niki decided to focus in coffee rather than just partying. We had planned our route through Stockholm and we even managed to visit nearly all the cafés we had planned to check. Some were bit of a disappointment, some enhanced my impression of Stockholm's superb coffee scene compared to ours – 10 years ahead of Helsinki, one could say. Here's a small review of our picks.

V Street Coffee (Vasagatan 36)

Being one of the newer coffee-oriented cafés in Stockholm and hyped in the Internet our expectations toward this stylish café were high. Coffee by DaMatteo, La Marzocco FB-80, 2 Mazzer Robur grinders and stylish interior but the coffee was a disappointment.

Niki's espresso was, according to my notes, aggressive, acid and bitter. Not very good, that is. My cappuccino was too hot. The microfoam was good but the espresso was slightly watery. Some notes of caramel but mostly the coffee was overpowered by the milk – not as harmonious as it should be. The barista rushed the coffees and obviously had no passion in coffee.

Espressino (Götgatan 9, Södermalm)

Having visited this very stylish and chic café last summer, Espressino was a definite pick. They have the largest coffee machine I have ever seen, a 5-gruppo Linea (2- and 3-gruppo Lineas fixed together, though only three group heads were in use). Mazzer Robur seems to be very popular in Stockholm as also Espressino had two of them. The coffee was roasted by Johan&Nyström.

Mr. God Shot wasn't around at Espressino today.

I knew our espressos would not be any special as soon as the barista started to make them. Although there was not any queue he didn't give any attention to distributing or tamping the coffee. The result was a thin crema. The coffee didn't seem very fresh and the taste of the espresso was sour and stale, although I found some reminiscent of milk chocolate. Compared to last summer's visit when I had an amazing shot, this was quite miserable. At least I enjoyed the decoration.

Drop Coffee (Wollmar Yxkullsgatan 10, Södermalm. T-bana: Mariatorget)

Having wondered around the city with icy wind blowing from everywhere we were delighted to find this tiny café. The place was exactly what I was looking for this trip: great, variable coffees from numerous micro roasteries, beautiful espresso (both the machine, Synesso, and the coffee itself) and stunningly nice and friendly coffee people. Unsurprisingly we ordered espressos. Even for my taste buds it was a bit too ristretto; the intense aroma of liquorice overpowered the more subtle notes that the coffee (I would not know for sure) had.

Coffees from Swedish micro roasteries.

Some seriously good coffee.

We chatted with the staff for a long time and ended up trying several of their coffees, many of them were pretty good. I was curious to try their beautiful Synesso and they kindly let me. That shot was, in my opinion, better. I don't remember the exact taste profile because of all the excitement and buzz, but it was good. As they said, the Synesso is very nice to work with. A must for any coffee enthusiast visiting Stockholm!

Johan&Nyström concept store (Swedenborgsgatan 7, Södermalm)

These J&N photos are from last summer.

This great corner space is a great location for the concept store (=café with a gorgeous 3-gruppo Synesso, training space and small roastery) of the largest and best-known fresh coffee roastery in Sweden, Johan&Nyström.

One of the best espressos in my life.

We arrived just in time for the daily cupping, today's coffees coming from Asia. Sumatra natural processed, Monsoon Malabar from India and some other from Indonesia, can't remember exactly. Rather drinking lighter coffees these medium-to-dark and dark roasts were not my all time favorite. The lightest coffee from Sumatra was alright in the cupping table but as espresso it was something else.

I have never had so balanced and sweet Single Estate –espresso in my entire life (though the amount of SE-espressos I've drunk can be counted with two hand's fingers). Their espresso blend called Five Estates (the coffee coming from five different estates, hence the name) was interesting but didn't bring anything very exciting or unusual. The barista told us that because of the numerous coffees it had the tastes can be completely different even by small adjustments to brewing parameters.

Very interesting coffees and nice people with a good knowledge of their coffee, J&N's concept store is indisputably worth a visit.

I guess I should also include a word of warning here: having drunk some 10 cups of coffee during the day we suffered the worst caffeine hangover ever but it was definitely worth it! The coffee scene of our dear Nordic neighbor is miles ahead of ours and I reckon that every coffee enthusiast should make a pilgrimage there, not to mention other towns like Malmö, Göteborg (or Gothenburg) and Helsingborg (disclaimer: I have visited these cities myself so don't blame on me if you get disappointed!)

Coffee from London, finally!

2010-03-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't been writing here very much lately because I'm setting up a new blog that'll be more professional (like I would be pro blogger...), more user-friendly and the most important thing - better-looking. I hope we manage to get it up next week. All the previous posts will be moved there. I'll let you know when it's ready!

Square Mile's Aida's Grand Reserve arrived, finally! I had ordered it alongside La Linda from Colombia but they first only shipped the Colombian deliciousness, obviously someone had not drunk enough coffee when packaging the parcels... I sent Mr. Hoffman a tweet and he almost instantly answered me via e-mail and promised to ship me the GR alongside some extra coffee that's not for sale yet.

: Tanzania, El Salvador, Colombia.

I'll post review of these coffees as soon as I've got to taste them properly. I'm also writing something about Stockholm's coffee scene in the new blog as soon as we get it rolling! There was some pretty damn good coffee there (and also the worst caffeine hangover, ever...)

Something to dream about.

2010-02-25T00:45:00.000-08:00

I first started dreaming of my own café while in NZ. Wandering around the city of Auckland, visiting all those interesting and exciting cafés, chatting with the owners and drinking wonderful coffee gave me already a clear vision of my own café. Last summer, on our InterRail –trip, I wrote down my thoughts, ideas and visions of my dream café. The list ended up being four Moleskine-pages long…

Here’s a little bit revised concoction of my thoughts. It ended up being fairly long, though.

There would be…

-3- or 4-gruppo Slayer espresso machine

Slayer espresso machine with Mazzer Grinder. My daydream.

-Mazzer / Anfim / similar grinders, grinding on-demand.

-“Slow Coffee” - French Press by order, dripper (Hario V60) station – maybe a siphon also.

20,000$ Japanese siphon brewer at Blue Bottle Café in San Fransisco, CA

-Fresh roasted coffee. Various single estate coffees and own blends for both espresso and milk based drinks. The coffees would be changing by the season and harvesting times.

-Consistency. Every shot of espresso has to be great, an experience for the drinker. Every employee should be able to produce amazing coffee, so constant training and aim for better would be the norm. “Think that every shot you make is your competition shot in WBC going for the judges.”

-Workshops. Coffee expertise shouldn’t be any kind of secret, it should be shared. The more you give, the more you get.

-Seasonal products – we would not be serving asparagus imported from Peru in the middle of the winter.

-Outstanding chocolate such as Amadei or Chjoko-pralinés.

-A coffee menu (as in Tim Wendelboe’s and in Third Floor Espresso) – no coffee would be served outside daily changing menu.

Coffee menu at Third Floor Espresso, Dublin, Ireland

-A large communal table as well as a few smaller ones.

Who could resist eating around the same table with these two little princess? Dida's, Auckland.

Delicious, vibrant and healthy salad from Sydney.

-Fresh, tasty, organic and diverse selection of foods and pastry, changing weekly or so.

Something I would serve in my own café, too. At Dizengoff, Auckland (check the review in previous post). Note the Phoenix Honey Cola in the back, a damn good drink.

-Organic, fresh and not-so-sweet lemonades, e.g. Laitila from Finland or Phoenix from NZ or Bionade from Germany, to name a few.

Phoenix-lemonade from NZ. The perfect compliment for hot summer's day.

-Nice, smart and clean toilets with individual towels (as in Michelin restaurants – a small luxury).

-Design furniture, tableware, lighting (Louis Poulsen’s lamps) etc.

-Ergonomic and comfortable tables and seats. Wooden tables and chairs made in Italy alongside leather sofas.

-Small selection of fine alcohols, for example a few great beers in tap and NZ wines by glass.

Wine list at Bill's, Sydney. Notice the leather sofa and elegant wooden tables.

-Selection of foreign magazines, including Vanity Fair, the Economist, Monocle and Wallpaper.

-Passionate staff, both about coffee and food.

-Nice and funny details, such as this Buzz Lightyear table queue "number"

The place would be…

-Mixture of bright, vibrant and energetic colors with some shady and lighter colors to balance.

-Comfortable and cosy while still being trendy.

-There would be lots of light, at the evenings some cosy and soft lightning.

-Open also on Sundays. Here in Helsinki there is no place open on Sundays I could go and have a coffee (that I could enjoy).

-Different materials used in the decoration and design.

I do acknowledge that this café is quite hypothetical and that the budget would have to be enormous, but hey, it’s just on the dream level! Maybe someday there would be a place like this..

Kaffa Roastery and other stuff.

2010-02-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

I know this may sound like advertising because I work there, but you should definitely visit Kaffa's espresso bar in Punavuori if you haven't yet. I guess it's one of a kind, the only roastery/espresso bar in Finland. Great place to try new coffees and brewing methods or buy some coffee stuff for home brewing. Pretty much the freshest coffee you can get in Helsinki.

Check out the workshop we held at the roastery a few weeks ago. There's even a picture of me there. Looks like I've drunk a little bit too much coffee.

Square Mile's La Linda a few days ago. I haven't had time to taste it proprely yet, but I'll post something about it here later. Aida Batlles Grand Cru should arrive this week, I'm really looking forward to get to taste it.

I have a few longer (and more meaningful) posts coming up. I'm moving this blog to other site and I'm really excited about that. So, keep tuned and follow my more frequent updates on Twitter, either kahvimies or Gaffe.

New Zealand Coffee Memoir

2010-02-04T14:10:00.000-08:00

Last night I browsed through my old photos and I found some mean coffee pictures from my NZ time that I hadn't posted here yet. I thought I'll put here a few reviews also, so if your heading Down Under you'd better check out these places! They pretty much all use fresh coffee from small roasteries.
(Disclaimer: I just began my learning of coffee while there so I wouldn't know how these cafes would satisfy my coffee buds nowadays. At least they are worth a try, I think!)

Dizengoff 256 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland

If you want to have your Saturday brunch here (the common practice in Auckland), you'd better be there early. Their Jewish inspired menu was pretty good ( 2 years ago at least) and coffee wasn't bad either. They've got 3-gruppo Linea there.

Reslau 39 Elliot Street, Auckland Central

This used to be my favourite café and hanging
spot in Auckland. Run by two brother, James
and Tom, and their mother who does all the
eadible stuff, this small-but-cosy café was chosen as the best café in Auckland. I used to admire their 2-gruppo Linea, but I noticed that their lattes-in-a-glass were slightly more bitter than in other place. Dunno how their coffee would taste now, but it was great back then.

Axis Coffee Company 91 St Georges Bay Road Auckland

Definitely one of the best cafés in Auckland. Such a shame that I only went there twice or so, their latte was superb and the atmosphere is nice and cosy. Check out that latte art!

They've got a 3-gruppo La Marzocco FB-80, as you can see.

Sierra Coffee Various location, but eg. 18 Victoria Road, Devonport, Auckland

Check those prices! 1 NZD is about 0,50€...

Despite being a franchising cafe chain, Sierra used to be my local favourite cafe. Nice, fresh food and superb coffee. They've got a 4-gruppo FB-80 at Devonport and coffee from the chains own roastery.

A few great videos

2010-01-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

Those of you who read regularily James Hoffman's Jimseven may have seen at least a few of these videos. This first one made me want to go to California...

Espresso, Intelligentsia from Department of the 4th Dimension on Vimeo.

This syphon/vacuum brewer seems so interesting that I'm seriously thinking of buying one. I've never tasted but I'd really love to. Does anyone living in Helsinki have one?

Syphon, Intelligentsia from Department of the 4th Dimension on Vimeo.

These guys (and a girl also?) must have been very high becuase of all that caffeine. I guess I'm going to do the same thing when I'm (hopefully) going to London in June.

Java goes to London from Tomas Jensen on Vimeo.

Hario's V60 pour-over is so great. I don't own one yet but Kaffa will get them for sale, hopefully soon. I think this is quite good example of a V60 video. The difficulty with pour-over is that you need a pouring kettle, without one it's really hard to brew great with it.

Hario V60 Brewing from pouredover on Vimeo.

I just love those Intelligentsia's videos. Pure deliciousness. If I ever go to California I'm going to make sure that I'll visit that place.

New year, new posts.

2010-01-18T09:48:00.000-08:00

So sorry about the gap since the last post. My New Year's promise here will be that I'll write a new post once a week.

Kaffa's new roastery and espresso bar is the best thing for Helsinki's coffee scene since La Torre, though you can't really compare them (at Kaffa every espresso is drinkable). The other great thing about it is that now Kaffa pays me for working them! No more ten-hour-days for "coffee-wage". Mostly I'll be doing some boring things Benjamin and Svante won't bother doing themselves (I would do the same if I owned a cafe), but sometimes I get to work in the bar also! So come and check the place next Saturday, have a nice shot of espresso and a chat with us!

Our normal job meeting at La Torre.

Being an entrepreneuer is 24/7 thing. Although this course is worth two school courses (of 75), that means about 80 hours of work, it's feeling like a full time job. The great thing about it is that it's fun. At 10.00pm, while working with some nice Excel-tables or writing marketing e-mails, I'm not frustrated at all. Or maybe a litlle, but significantly less than if I were finishing of my Swedish essays. So, maybe entrepreneurship (what a difficult word) is my thing. If you haven't checked our websites yet, do it now!

New Kenyan in the town

2009-12-28T06:08:00.001-08:00

SQM's Kenyan Kiawamururu tastes yummy! I reminds me of Juice...

Punavuori - Mecca of Coffee

2009-12-20T07:05:00.000-08:00

We have changed Gaffe's website design quite a lot actually so check it out! We also have Twitter and Facebook pages, make sure you'll follow our updates.

Something great is happening! Kaffa is opening their new roastery in Punavuori at the beginning of January. There will also be an espresso bar, first of its kind in Finland I suppose. Coffee bags, drippers and other nice coffee equipment will also be sold there. Their new space is really cool, I'm really not going to miss the old roastery... Check their blog here! (though updates seem to be scarce...)

Kaffa kindly gave me a new ceramic dripper they've ordered for the new shop. I've tried it twice so far and I'm completely amazed: This thing makes phenomenal coffee! Now that I'm having my Christmas vacation I have some more time to play with my new dripper. You can be sure I'll post something more about it here! I apologise the absence of any photos taken by me. Neither of the computers I use are very photographic friendly - Windows rules (NOT). I am going to buy a MacBook which would also help with this problem.

Gaffe!

2009-12-03T07:14:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about our small coffee business. Today we wrote some texts for websites that are supposed to be done by the end of the next week. Check the front page, there already our logo! We have been so lucky, design agency Hellogoodlooking has designed our look.

By the way, Kaffa's Julkaffe is quite interesting. I'd recommend to test it for example at La Torre. They'll brew it using filter during the this month.

Something Hilarious

2009-11-29T01:29:00.000-08:00

I found something hilarious while browsing my old blog posts from my New Zealand time. Posted quite exactly two years ago. It is in Finnish but I recon it is not a big problem because I suspect that all my readers are more or less Finnish-speaking...

"Mä sain tänään ehkä huonoimman kahvin ikinä, jos nyt ei lasketa jotain hirveetä suodatinlitkua, se oli siis jotain mitä oikeesti kutsuttiin kahviks. Arvatkaa missä?
No en nyt jostain kumman syystä tiedä mitä arvasitte, mut se oli, ah taas yks upea amerikan ketjuylpeys, Starbucks. Se oli jotain ihan hirveetä.

Nummer Einz : Cappuchinoa [Huomaa kirjoitustapa...] VAIN yhtä kokoa, ei tyyliin Small, Medium, Large, Xxxtra Large etc...

Zwei: Kahvin pitää maistua kahvilta, ei miltää teollisen makuselta maitokahviaromi-litkulta..

Drei: Cappuchinossa kuuluu olla maitovaahtoa, ei sellasta vaahto mitä löytyy köksänluokan tiskialtaasta, sama pätee siis myös makuun.

Vier: Kahvi tuodaa pöytään, tarjoilijan kuuluu hymyillä yms, ei niin että joku alipalkattu nuori aasialaisjamppa huutaa tiskin takaa että sun so-called kahvi olis nyt valmis. [Ei nyt välttämättä...]

Fünf: Cappuchino ja latte tarjoillaa erilaisista kupeista, ei typeristä, kuluneista ja naarmuisista valkosista rumista kupeista jotai tietenki koristaa kaikkia sama Starbucksin logo.

Sechs: Kahvilassa kuuluu olla oikeeta musiikkia, ei mitään helvetin jazz-pimputusta, tai ei siinäkään olis mitään vikaa, jos se olis oikeesti hyvää sellasta, mut kun ei niin ei.

Joku ehkä tässä vaiheessa ihmettelee kuin kauan mä jaksan kirjottaa näitä, voi kuulkaa, niin kauan että mä saan oikeeta kahvia... =b

Sieben: Kahvila on kahvin / pullan nauttimista varten, siellä ei kuulu myydä joulukalentereita (Tottakai niitänki koristaa logo...), lelu kahvikoneita tjsp., tai mitään muutakaan mitä nyt voi noista jo päätellä että siel voitaisiin myydä.

Acht: Ei, kukaan ei halua piparkakun murusilla koristeltua lattea... (Eihän?)

Tässä näette millainen kahvin kuuluisi olla..." [Ja kaksi vuotta sitten tämä oli mun mielestä oikea cappuCHINO. Dear oh dear. Onneksi mä olen jotain sentään oppinut.]

Nuori Yrittäjyys - "Young Enterpreneuer" -thing

2009-11-21T04:08:00.000-08:00

I apologise for the break since last post. After this one you hopefully understand the reason for that gap.

We have this "Young Entreprise(in Finnish)" -course in school. The idea of the course is that we students establish our own, near-actual enterprise. The goal, as in business usual, is to make profit. We run our firm until the end of the school year, May that is.

So, guess what my business sells. Yep, that's right, we sell coffee, Kaffa's coffee. In a nutshell our plan is to go to a company and set up a "coffee-catering" -event so that they can realise how good our coffee actually is and then buy it as their "personnel coffee".

We don't have websites yet but they are under construction, but you can be sure that I'll post them here asap.

I'll write a longer post about the business-thing, but next I have in my mind a few posts including CoffeeRail part 3 and something about the coffee I've tasted.

Busy, busy, busy...

2009-11-14T06:08:00.000-08:00

It's been soooo busy lately, I'm sorry I haven't had time to update. Tomorrow there will be coming a longer post.

Today I was at school (even though its Saturday we had school) and our business sold 48 bags Kaffa's coffee! I'll write you about that "business" tomorrow. Keep reading ;)

At the roastery, once again.

2009-11-11T10:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, after school, we went to the (Kaffa) Roastery with Niki (my business partner/coffee companion etc, and he's a guy, by the way) to help Benjamin. He would have had to do all roasting alone (Hope your enjoying your sun, Svante...) and would have stayed there until 5 am.

Being at the roatery is just amazing thing. We went there at 13 o'clock and whoops, its 9.30 pm. The time just goes by. How's that? Well, it is just so interresting to see coffee being roasted, drink and experiment new coffees, talk about it with coffee-people... I glad to able to work there, even for free. I fantasized about being paid for working there when Benjamin snapped: "Yeah, it is great." Maybe in the future...

My history with Coffee

2009-11-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

The beach next to our house. Not bad, eh?

Some of you may wonder how that 18-year-old "coffee-expert" thinks that he knows everything about coffee. Well, claim to be any kind of expert. I won't even say that I know lot about coffee. I am just an enthusiast and I wrote how the coffees tasted, that's all. I hope I could be called an expert one day, but that day is still far away.

Espresso at La Torre

My history, or "career", with coffee began about two years ago. We had decided with family to move to New Zealand for a year. There was no any real reason for that, we just wanted to do something else for a while. Anyway, the coffee culture in NZ was totally different compared to Finland's.

We lived in Auckland, the largest city of NZ. In Devonport, the suburb we lived in, there was at least 10 cafés and maybe 10 000 inhabitants. In Lauttasaari, Helsinki (that's where I live) there is maybe two cafes and over 20 000 inhabitans. And the best thing in Auckland's cafés was that they were all good or at least proper. Well, I had only started my coffee-thing, but anyway the level of coffee served was totally different.

Alone in Auckland there were at least 10 microroasteries. Every café used freshly roasted coffee. At that time I could not really taste the difference between old and fresh coffee, but it was good. The reason for this, what I have thought myself and talked with a few people, could be that NZ has jumped straight from having no coffee culture at all to have one of the best coffee scenes in the world. They have not had the "filtered coffee -phase" and the largest coffee-drinking segment of population, 15-65-year-olds (or whatsoever) may not have tasted filtered coffee ever. But that is only my guess, I'd love to hear someone else's opinion also. (I'll write another post about Auckland's cafés.)

We came back to Finland year ago in summer and I noticed that there's no coffee culture here. For six months I tried to find a proper café in Helsinki but failed. In this January I happened to get involved with Kaffecentralen and went to their barista training. That was a eye-opening experience for me. I had not realised before how difficult it actually is to make an espresso. Earlier I had thought that it totally depends in the machine. Now I was told that it is the person, the barista, who makes the coffee, not the machine.

After that one-day training I started going to Kaffecentralen, also called KC, pretty much every day. KC is not only a café but they also import coffee and machines and sell all kinds of coffee stuff. The great thing there is that they change the espresso many times a day. Because of that I was able to taste different, always correctly brewed, espressos and learn their characteristic tastes. I had a coffee-diary where I wrote down all my thoughts about the coffees, about 30 entries overall. Another reason why I went there was that Ulrika Hannula, one of the pioneers of the special coffee scene in Finland. She has worked with coffee something like 14 years now so she had a thing or two to teach me. Maybe the most important thing I learned from her was that one can not learn coffee completely, ever. You can also learn something new, you are never ready.

This summer I traveld around Europe (Check my travel posts: CoffeeRail) and learned a lot about espresso. More about it in CoffeeRail. After my trip I got involved with Kaffa Roastery and roasting coffee. I had had no idea that roasting coffee is such difficult and complicated thing. Almost art, one could say. Whenever possible I went to the roastery (I have even made a few agreements with teachers so that I could go there during school...) and tried to learn something new. It is just so fascinating to see the transformation from raw green beans to beatifully coloured, roasted coffee.

Always when I drink coffee I try to analyze it: is the temperature right, how balanced it is, what notes does my nose find, how is the texture, jsut to mention few. That is how I tasted the coffees for my article. I used World Barista Championship's rulesheet (PDF) as a guideline, but mostly I just wrote how I thought the coffee tasted. Was it good or bad, too hot or cold.

As I mentioned before, I don't claim to be an expert or anything, I just wanted to tell people how bad the coffee scene in Helsinki actually is. I hope my arctile would make the café-owners realise that it is important to hire someone who is even a bit interested in coffee. That's good for us and for them.

Article in Nyt-liite

2009-11-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

I work at La Torre once in a while on Saturdays.

An article written by me will be published in Nyt-liite (weekly edition of Finland's largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat) this Friday on 6th of November.The article is about the coffee scene in Helsinki. I reviewed overall 14 cafés for my article and tested their espresso and cappuccino.

The result was quite miserable. Out of 14, only five cafés served at least somehow proper espresso. Most espressos were something between watery, bitter filtered coffee and motor oil. If I weren't a review I would have returned most of them and asked for my money back.

The cappuccinos were not very good either. Most common problems were following: too hot milk, once-used milk, underextracted coffee, large bubbles etc. Only a couple served proper cappuccino.

If you order Hesari, please check the article in Nyt. You can find the full reviews of all cafés here: Omakaupunki.hs.fi/erikoiskahvit

No time lately

2009-10-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I haven't managed to have time lately to update this blog. I've had this German exchange student living in our house for the last week, he's leaving tomorrow. I hope I'll have some more time then to write something reallly interesting here... CoffeeRail Part 3 coming up. Also a post about my company that sells coffee. Stay tuned. Give me some comments so I know somebody is reading this, please?

Dinner party

2009-10-17T05:04:00.000-07:00

I'm going to a dinnerparty tonight with my girlfriend. When the hostess heard that I'm such a "coffee-snob", she refused to serve coffee and asked me to do it.

Should be no problem, but I'm slightly worried about my coffee-brewing capacity, I only have 3 and 8 cup French Presses and there'll be 11 guests. I hope that it'll be enough. Also, I need to decide which coffees to use, I planned to use 2 or 3 different kinds. Maybe El Salvador, Guathemala and Rwanda, all by Kaffa of course. Lets see how it goes...

Grinder made my day

2009-10-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

Bloody Santa Claus, this grinder makes some serious coffee! I've never had so smooth and well-bodied French Press at home. Even Kaffa's El Salvador -single estate was really good, although it's not my favourite one. Now I'm just wating for the morning so I get to drink some great coffee!

Compak K8 Grinder

2009-10-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

My one is without doser.
Benjamin from Kaffa kindly borrowed me his Compak K8 grinder to test at home. I could really say that the grinder is compact as it weights something like 20kgs. It was really nice dragging it home from the town by bus...

I haven't had a chance to try it yet but tomorrow I have a day off from school so time to make some coffee!

CoffeeRail - Part 2

2009-10-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

The next stop after Scooterworks was Flat White(17 Berwick Str). On their web page Tyler Brûlé, the editor of my favourite magazine Monocle, says that Flat White serves "the best coffee in London". I totally do agree.

(Some information for the ones who don't know it yet. I lived a year in Auckland, New Zealand and there I found my passion for coffee. I'm always looking to find Kiwis to chat with. Kiwi who knows how to make make some coffeee, even better.)

Flat White is run by a few Kiwis (and Aussies, not sure) and they know how to pull that sweet elixir of life, espresso. They use Square Mile's coffee, Mazzer grinders and two Lineas. Nice!

The espresso was propably the best one I have ever had. Optimally fresh, at least I guess so. Taste was just unbelievable. It felt like the coffee almost exploded in my mouth. Acid, fruity and sweet. That's all I've written in travel diary. Just increadible experience.

NZ-style latte was also great. Nice, strong double shot shot topped with perfectly steamed milk. And look at that Latte Art! That's a serious Rosetta. In my opinion, the best café in London.

This is from Portobello Road, a place I was told about. Espresso served in a paper cup and totally over-extracted and bitter. Nice staff, though.

Whitecross Street Market (Open every Thursday and Friday from 11-17)

This is one of the two coffee carts Gwilym Davies, World Barista Champion 2009, works at. Unfortunately, he wasn't at work when I visited their cart and I didn't have another chance to visit Whitecross St. Anyway, the espresso was great; fruity, adic and sweet. If I understood correctly, 80% Colombian and 20% Brazilian, roasted by Square Mile Coffee. Definitely worth a visit but beware, you'd better arrive early or otherwise there'll be a loooong queue!

From Whitecross St. we went to Borough Market. I first visited it when I was in London with my family in autumn 2006, I think. Here the old and clicheéd saying can be used: I fell in love at the first sight. The place is just amazing. (I know this isn't coffee but everyone who understands coffee should show some enthusiams for food, too.) Full of vibrant smell, colours, noices and food. All kinds of it - veggies, fish, meat, game, chocolate - you name it. I could cry when I see those passionate farmers telling people about their product regardless what it is. Farmers come from all over England to sell their product. This one man farmed only tomatoes, big and fleshy, small and juicy - tomatoes for every purpose one could ever think! I really like their attitude towards what they are selling - it seems that they like their jobs and are happy with them. Something similar in Finland? In your dreams, buddy.

Monmouth Coffee Company has a shop at Borough, a nice one actually. Espresso was alright (compared to other good ones in London). (It's actually quite funny that I have written in my travel diary that all espresso were "fruity" and "acid"... I hope I have improved my tasting to be a bit more specific than that =b ) Monmouth has its own roastery and their espresso blend was composed of Colombian, Brazilian and Guathemalan coffees.

Double shot for the price of single, nice!

I also visited their shop at Covent Garden (27 Monmouth St ). Small and crowded so I had to sit on the pavement outside the shop, nice though. Espresso blend was the same and the only espresso they had. Well brewed but a little bit boring.

That's it for London, I'm affraid! Don't worry, dear reader. London makes about half of all cafes I'm going to write about... My conclusion on London: today's Coffee Capital of the World.

Dreaming

2009-09-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

Last night, after some 12 hours at roastery, I went home and hit the sack. Guess what, the only thing I was thinking and dreaming about was coffee. Espresso, beans and especially this time - packages. Maybe I had packed a few too many bag... Should I start to get worried?

Some serious stuff

2009-09-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

I drank today one of the best espressos in my life. Although I'm only 17 (18 in a week) I have drank quite a few espressos. This one was definetely in top 5.

As you might have guessed, it was at La Torrefazione. Double ristretto in a espresso demi-tasse made from Kaffa's espresso 3.1 and brew by Roman Kolpaksti, Finland's second best barista (Barista of the Year 2009 2nd place). What can I say. Just pure beauty. Amazing crema, superb viscosity and mouth feeling, so sweet but also acid. Some great nutty notes like almond and roasted hazelnuts. Pure awesomness. Thank you Roman. You made my day. (I hoping that he would take me as his co-barista (or whatsoever) for the next competition...)

I'll continue my CoffeeRail-post next time, propably in a few days. Geez, that was a good coffee...

CoffeeRail - Coffeeholic's trip to Europe - Part One

2009-09-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

About a year ago we decided with my girlfriend that we're going to go on a InterRail next summer. I guess nealry everyone is familiar with the InterRail-phenomenon. If not, you better check it out! We started planning our trip in the spring and we ended up taking a completely different route than we had planned for. Despite a few ill-fortuned encounters and trains-late-from-schedule (Especially in Italy...) the trip was great. Out route was Helsinki-London-Paris-Nice-Venice-Innsbruck,AU-Regensbourg,GE-Prague-Berlin-Malmö,SWE-Stockholm-Helsinki and it took about three and half weeks to get back home.

But let's get to the business not, this isn't a travel blog... I had searched for some good cafes on our way. Thank God I did that, otherwise not too many proper espresso would have been consumed. Here are the best ones we came across.

London
(In London I followed a guide from FlatWhite.com that seems to be deleted now... I'll try to find it)

First espresso I had was at The Providores (109 Marylebone Highstr), a restarant that's been run by Peter Gordon, a Kiwi-chef. This espresso opened my eyes. It was the first proper coffee made from freshly roasted beans I had tasted. Taste was just amazing, something I had never tasted before. Great coloured crema. The thick nectar under the crema was high in acid, fresh but not too green. Mellow sweetness emerged when the acidity had passed. Great shot that made me realise the potential of fresh coffee.
The Shot that changed my life.

Cappucino wasn't bad either. The microfoam could have been confused to whipped cream, but taste was a bit bitter and not-so-sweet. My guess would be unwashed milk pitcher.
Next stop was Scooterworks (132 Lower Marsh, Waterloo Tube), also mentioned in the guide.
They have this really cool and old Faema piston machine (photo on the web page). Some people recon that you can pull better shots with these ones. I was a bit dissappointed with this one as some new employee made my espresso. Good crema, fruity and quite acid. Quite long but not watery. Alright but couldn't compete with Providores. However the place itself was great so I think it's worth a visit. Combine with a visit to Tate Modern.

Cupping session at La Torrefazione

2009-09-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

The cupping today at La Torre was great. The place is just what Helsinki has been waiting for - trendy and stylish but still cosy. Fresh colours, nice seats and the best part, (hopefully) suberb coffee. Today's special coffee was something rather rare and expensive and very tasty - Hacienda Esmeralda from Panama. That particular coffee has been chosen as the best coffee in the world several times. The price per kilo is quite ridiculous, about 300€. This Panaman coffee was roasted by Stumptown Roasters, Portland, Oregon, US. Great taste, sweet and balanced. Somehow I can't remember any specific notes as nothing came through very distinctively. Although it was a cupping session, we drank the whole cup and then also from the table next to us... Hey, you don't very often get a chance to taste something quite like that!

I make most of my coffee at home using Aeropress. Great invention but as everything in this business, challenging to use. One might thought that it wouldn't be that hard to use something as simple as that. Not at all. The first cuppa of Aero I drank was at Johan & Nyström. So smooth and balanced, something I haven't been able to achieve at home, yet. I tried to check some info on the Internet but everybody gives different tips... So, as usually, one must experiment.

I'm not sure if I should say this aloud, but I don't have a grinder at home - yet. Some purists might be a bit upset: "A coffee enthusiast who doesn't own a grinder?!" Benjamin offered my one. Good deal but I'm not sure if I need professional level grinder at home... Even affordable one.

Square Mile Roastery's web shop is fascinating. They have so many interesting coffees there. I discussed about that with Benjamin and he had an explanation. Located in London, one of the best coffee-cities in world, they have everything at hand. Knowledge, good markets for fresh coffee and especially Mercanta, a coffee-hunter company. Kaffa also orders their coffee from there. James and Anette, owners of SMR, can just hop into their van ( I guess they have one ) and take a trip to Mercanta and buy of some interesting coffee. The advantage in being Londoner is that they can buy only one sack where as Kaffa has to order many of them. No wonder they have all that stuff. Those lucky bastards...

Cascara

Last few drops of Juice were consumed today... I did some shopping to recover from that grief. SMR had Mauritan Cascara from El Salvador. What, you ask. Dried skins of the coffee cherries that you brew like tea. Thay say that it contains lots and lots of caffeine because coffee uses it as insect repellent. Most of it is stored in the cherry. Looking forward to get to taste it.

Sleeping Problems

2009-09-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

I wonder, how many people have sleeping troubles because of thinking, not drinking, coffee. Actually, when I go to bed all there's on my mind is coffee. Coffee that, espresso this, roasting, smell of coffee etc. Maybe not the best way to get some sleep, thinking about coffee. Even thinking about coffee works as a stimulant for me. I actually find it difficult to fall asleep if I've been involved to coffee that day (there aren't many days when I am not...). Even now I should go and hit the sack but here I am, writing a post about coffee, trying to clear my mind.

James Hoffman's blog Jimseven is a great read. He has a bit more technical approach to espresso and coffee overall. His videocasts, such as this one about crema, are great. That particular one gave me something to think, again. Something to drink while sipping my next espresso tomorrow.

Talking about learning, I've been reading David Schomer's Espresso Coffee - Professional Techniques. Even though I only read the first 50 or so pages I've learned heaps. I hadn'd understood that brewing temperature of water affects the espresso so much. Reading these things make me understand that I know nothing about coffee yet. And as Ulrika told me when I first went to her barista course: "You are a learner, I'm a bit more experienced one." She made me undestand, luckily in the beginning of my barista career that it takes time to learn things. In my eagerness I had thought: "Well yeah, it can't be that hard to make a good shot". Now, the old and used phrase: more you learn, less you know. Hopefully, in 20 years, I know a bit more.

This is the best photo of David Schomer I found. Nice moustache man.

Juice is nearly used! What a pity I didn't order two bags... Ulrika said me today that I'm bit of an exception bacause I like such coffee. Apparently not many people like those juice and fruity coffees I love. I'll try to recall the taste of the wonderful Juice espresso, maybe that'll help me to zone out...

Potential coffee phenomenon?

2009-09-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

I have kind of a problem. My lovely girfriend doesn't drink coffee. I mean, nearly not at all. Conflict of interests, eh?

Our biggest everyday problem is wheter or not I have time to pop in to my favourite coffee shop for a decent espresso. It doesn't ease the situation that I don't really want to drink coffee anywhere else (at least not yet...) because most cafes in Helsinki serve something more like petrol than espresso. There is also a geographical issue. Kaffecentralen, the coffee shop in Helsinki, is located in Punavuori which is a stone's throw away the centre of the town. This "KC-issue" might be the biggest clash in our relationship.

The team behind La Torre. Roman in the middle, Kaffa's Svante 2nd from left, Benjamin rightmost. (Click to enlarge)

Luckily, there's a new café opening in Aleksanterinkatu, right in the centre of the city. La Torrefazione will ease my life, a lot. Kaffa's guys are in, so is Roman (who came second in Vuoden Barista -competiton), so there will be great coffee and also someone who knows how to get the full potential out of the beans. Something I've been waiting for.

La Torre is planned to open any time soon, first cupping session will be next week. I'm really looking forward to that. Their visual image is great and I think they have the potential to become Helsinki's next (or first?) coffee phenomenon. ( I'm hoping they'd need an eager part-time employee...... )

Juiciest coffee ever.

2009-09-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

(Square Mile's stall at Whitstreet Market, London. This is from last summer's Interrail trip, that's why those clothes...)
I was quite lucky the other day. Surfing around the Internet, I checked the Square Mile Roastery's website in case something new stuff. Indeed there was. A new, one-off espresso blend called Juice drawed my attention. SQM's folks didn't yet know what it was going to be but something special deffinately. They promised that Juice was going to be - hence the name - juicy and high in acidity with some notes of apricots, citrus and orange. Just the kind of an espresso I love. Only 60 bags for sale and some world's best coffee used (60% Beloya from Ethiopia, 20%+20% two different Kenyan), it wasn't a hard decision.

I got to test it while I was over to Kaffa's roastery in Vantaa. First we tried it on French Press. As an espresso blend, Juice was quite dark roast so it wasn't ideal for cafetiere. Anyway, we got to taste some great notes, including - believe me or not - strawberry jam. Light-to-medium bodied and acid but sweet, not bad as French.

They had two of these amazing, brand new Mazzer Robur on-demand grinders. I fell in love immediately. I could share a bed with one of those... (don't worry Erika, just kidding). Anyway, I got to try my barista skills (I'm just a beginner) using their three-group LaMarzocco Linea. As I'm just a novice, quite a lot of Juice was wasted while configuring the grinder. At last I got it right (although I think Juice ins't the hardest espresso I've used) and managed to pull a few good or even great shots, maybe the best ones I ever have.

The taste was just amazing. So sweet, acid on a good way but also quite complex. First sensation made the think that is this warmed orange juice or espresso. When the oranges had vanished came a mellow, sweet and very pleasant after taste. I couldn't help smiling. I could have cried. It was actually so good. Kaffa's guys, Benjamin and Svante, were not so excited about Juice...

This morning it tried it on Aeropress. I've got it for a couple of weeks now. I still haven't found my style of using it and haven't yet succeeded in brewing as smooth cuppa as Kiril at Johan & Nystörm where I had my first Aeropress-cup. However, my aeropressed Juice was amazing. Just like the French we made at Kaffa but smoother and better. Nearly mixed it with my orange juice =b.

As you might notice, I am more or less excited about this particular espresso. I want to thank James and Anette at Square Mile for roasting this treat. Thank you. ( Please make similar, ASAP... =b )

Coffee Crusader

2009-09-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

As corny as it might sound, I have a mission.

That mission is to improve the quality of coffee that we Finns drink. It is said that we drink the most coffee in the world, some 9-10kgs of coffee per year per inhabitant. That is quite a lot of coffee. Most of that coffee is lightly roasted, filtered coffee.

I'm not saying that filter coffee is a bad way to drink one's daily caffeine intake. No, I'm just trying to make people to understand that why drink bad coffee when you could drink - instead of mass produced coffee thats "best before" -date is a year from roasting - good, freshly roasted coffee that has been picked, sorted, produced and roasted with love.

Yes, it maybe a bit more expensive and yes, it is easy to pick the familiar coffee package from the supermarket when you're doing your weekly shopping and not be bothered to find a proper coffee merchant. But the thing is, if we are to drink 4,5dl of coffee a day, why to drink the same old petrol every day? After tasting freshly roasted, properly brewed coffee for the first time, there was no way back to the old for me. Fresh coffee is same as fresh anything - one can really taste it.

For me, drinking coffee is kind of an expedition. I take the first sip, analyse the coffee, try to find new sensations and notes. After analysing - if there is any coffee left and if the coffee is good - I just drink it and think about it and enjoy it. Enjoying my cuppa makes me think and wonder that coffee - where is it from, what does the estate look like, the journey from bean into my cup. Even in the middle of busy day, a great shot of espresso can make my mind wonder away from my everyday life to a paradise-like coffee plantation. My mission is to produce such experiences to other people. For the start, being a barista and serving only exceptional coffee is best way to be a travel agent for coffee drinkers, I think.