My life in coffee

mineral water

2009-01-19T17:06:00.000-08:00

Today I spent a couple of hours tasting water and decided I would go with hildon mineral water for the comp. It is used by wine tasters to cleanse the palate, so why not coffee tasters too? Bottled in England, it has an extremely low mineral content, and more specifically it was the lowest count of sodium for my entire test.

Signature drink decided!

2009-01-15T16:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, lots of work as gone into perfecting my signature drink and I think I am eventually there!

I am going for espresso poured on top of blended stem ginger with orange rubbed round the rim of the cup!

What do you think? Don't steal!

Heat times now announced

2009-01-15T08:26:00.001-08:00

I just received my heat time for wednesday, I am on from 1050 till 1105!

Hope you can make it!

UKBC workshop at Matthew Algie

2009-01-06T16:30:00.000-08:00

I was at a ukbc workshop at Matthew Algie, it was really informative. The day started with a good talk about coffee harvesting and processing, I enjoyed hearing about how the coffee industry has affected co-operatives in coffee producing countries. We then split into 3 groups, one went on a factory tour, one had a talk on the sensory aspects , it was nice to get an idea of what was acceptable, and one had a talk on technical aspects with really useful example of a good setup for a judges table and we swapped over throughout the day. Then we had a really good talk about choosing good ingredients for a speciality drink. I found some of the things Eduarda said about appropriate flavors and how they match different coffees as well as things such as the colour of the cup used affects the perceived taste before the judge tastes the drink. Thanks to everyone at Matthew Algie and Espresso Warehouse for a really informative and fun day.

UKBC official machine

2009-01-05T12:10:00.001-08:00

So there is very little information online about the competition machine the SanRemo verona TCS:

I had a bit of a play with this bit of kit at a barista jam at Ristretto in Wimbledon during December.

I am not overly impressed by the machine, but it is not without it's pros:

-It has 2 groups their 'tcs' which I think is simply a PID system used in some machines.

-It has the option of pre-infusion or non pre-infusion shots

-A large 9l steam boiler

A major issue I have discussed with someone is that the pre-infusion option lets out a lot of steam initially, I think this will burn the coffee from the start, so it may need quite a long purge just before the shot.

I am not fan of twisting steam levers, I am more fond of the elektra/spaziale flick steam levers.

Anyone else had a go?

Links

2009-01-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

Hey, so I have decided to use my site to increase people's awareness of speciality coffee and have made a post with some links. If you think you have a website/blog, or know a website/blog appropriate for this list, please leave a comment:

Too Much Coffee: The European Coffee Resource

http://www.toomuchcoffee.co.uk

A list of posts by me

Coffee Geek: The International coffee Resource

http://www.coffeegeek.com

The Speciality Coffee Association of Europe UK chapter

http://www.scae.co.uk

This is just a start, I plan on adding to the list as time passes by.

Welcome

2009-01-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

So you may have stumbled upon this blog whilst surfing the web, or may have found a link from another website, lucky you.

I am a barista at Coffee Angel on Brandon Terrace in Edinburgh at the moment. It is a new business, and have been open since August 2008.

In three weeks time, I am entering the scottish heat of the UK barista championship at Teviot House in Edinburgh (next to the university).

I intend to post information about the competition, my own experiences in coffee, anything I learn, and any interesting anecdotes on this blog.

I hope you enjoy it, and if this is your first visit, leave a comment and a link to your blog and I will check you out.