Copenhagen Coffee Academy
It has been quite a while since my last post - in fact the longest since I started blogging. Times have been busy and will continue to be so but I expect to be back on track soon anyway. So, I'll kick off the new year by posting on the long awaited evening at the Copenhagen Coffee Academy that took place on Friday (January 20th).
Troels Poulsen was our host for the evening and after the introductions and outlining the agenda for the evening, he started by going through useful and interesting general background on coffee - the coffee plant iteself, how it is grown, picked, processed, etc. Interesting. We also watched a part of the video from WBC at Trieste. We then moved on from the small auditorium to the shop upstairs where Troels discussed the roasting process...
This was followed by a cupping session with eight varieties of coffee (six single origins and two blends). The differences in the individual coffees were easily perceivable but putting words on those differences and describing the flavour characteristics is difficult. Regardless, I found this to be very interesting part of the evening and would like to do some cupping in a smaller scale at home to educate my palate and develop the lingo in order to be able to describe the different flavours I experience...
It was then time head back downstairs where Troels then quickly went through the basic theories and techniques for brewing espresso (as well as the WBC scoring sheets) before we moved on to the hands on part of the evening. Everyone had a chance to pull shots, froth milk, pour art etc with guidance and feedback from Troels. We also briefly covered machine cleanliness...
The two machines and grinders that were at our disposal were the ECM Giotto Premium with a Mazzer Mini E and a 2-group Dalla Corte Evolution 3-boiler machine (yes, if I understood correctly, there is one steam boiler and two brew boilers in the machine - one for each group) with a Mahlkoening K30ES grinder.
There were no major surprises when it came to dosing, distribution and tamping, but milk frothing and pouring latte art was the area where I also picked up some useful tips - or now understand better what my problems in this area have been. The prettiest rosetta of the evening was actually poured by my better half, Marja when assisted by Troels. This one was better than anything I have ever managed myself. But with what I learned, I'm hoping to see improvements in my latte art soon...
While I had seen pictures of etching, I had not previously seen it done live. Troels did a couple of beautiful cups, one of which is pictured. Doing this looked easy, but I am quite sure its not. Something to experiment with back home anyway. I'm sure our guests would be impressed if they received a cappa that looks like this...
We finished off with chatting with Troels on his experiences on WBC, his plans going forward (no, he is not going to attempt repeating his success at WBC, but he will be passing his knowledge and experience to others). The final pic is on the group, excluding me. From the left: Peter, Perttu, Troels (our host), Anders, Marja (my significant other), Kasper, Thomas and Wilko. As with the other pics, click to enlarge.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and find the evening a good experience. I did. Thank you Troels!
Troels Poulsen was our host for the evening and after the introductions and outlining the agenda for the evening, he started by going through useful and interesting general background on coffee - the coffee plant iteself, how it is grown, picked, processed, etc. Interesting. We also watched a part of the video from WBC at Trieste. We then moved on from the small auditorium to the shop upstairs where Troels discussed the roasting process...
This was followed by a cupping session with eight varieties of coffee (six single origins and two blends). The differences in the individual coffees were easily perceivable but putting words on those differences and describing the flavour characteristics is difficult. Regardless, I found this to be very interesting part of the evening and would like to do some cupping in a smaller scale at home to educate my palate and develop the lingo in order to be able to describe the different flavours I experience...
It was then time head back downstairs where Troels then quickly went through the basic theories and techniques for brewing espresso (as well as the WBC scoring sheets) before we moved on to the hands on part of the evening. Everyone had a chance to pull shots, froth milk, pour art etc with guidance and feedback from Troels. We also briefly covered machine cleanliness...The two machines and grinders that were at our disposal were the ECM Giotto Premium with a Mazzer Mini E and a 2-group Dalla Corte Evolution 3-boiler machine (yes, if I understood correctly, there is one steam boiler and two brew boilers in the machine - one for each group) with a Mahlkoening K30ES grinder.
There were no major surprises when it came to dosing, distribution and tamping, but milk frothing and pouring latte art was the area where I also picked up some useful tips - or now understand better what my problems in this area have been. The prettiest rosetta of the evening was actually poured by my better half, Marja when assisted by Troels. This one was better than anything I have ever managed myself. But with what I learned, I'm hoping to see improvements in my latte art soon...
While I had seen pictures of etching, I had not previously seen it done live. Troels did a couple of beautiful cups, one of which is pictured. Doing this looked easy, but I am quite sure its not. Something to experiment with back home anyway. I'm sure our guests would be impressed if they received a cappa that looks like this...
We finished off with chatting with Troels on his experiences on WBC, his plans going forward (no, he is not going to attempt repeating his success at WBC, but he will be passing his knowledge and experience to others). The final pic is on the group, excluding me. From the left: Peter, Perttu, Troels (our host), Anders, Marja (my significant other), Kasper, Thomas and Wilko. As with the other pics, click to enlarge.Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and find the evening a good experience. I did. Thank you Troels!
Labels: events
posted by Teme at Sunday, January 22, 2006
7 Comments:
Hi Teme,
Seems like so much fun. Was the Probat running when he discussed the roasting process? If so.....how much noice did it produce? I think the rosetta came out really nice. What was the coffee of choice for the evening during the pouring of latte art? Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Gobs
Sounds like a great event! Love the Probat. What was your impression of the Dalla corte?
All the best,
Larry
Hi Gobs!
Nope, the Probat was not running but I've been at another roaster (Risteriet, also here in Copenhagen) with a similar sized but slightly older Probat. It was not too noisy at all - I could carry out a conversation with the roastmaster without having to raise my voice.
The coffee we used during the evening was Kontra Coffee's latte blend (the two blends we had at the cupping session were mainly aimed for French press, not espresso). I don't remember the composition of the blend since I rarely drink blends with robusta in them.
Br,
Teme
Hi Larry,
Yes, it was good fun. How was the Dalla Corte? Hmm... impressive specs with the electronic temp controls (no PID, though), multiple boilers and all. I only pulled shots from the group on the left side of the machine. The one on the right was set-up at a higher brew temperature. I was actually surprised to hear the reason for this - it was optimised for singles that were brewed at a temp 4 degrees higher than the doubles to achieve the same taste.
This was a first time on a machine with a 53mm filter size and the (Impod) tamper was not as snug a fit as I am used to, but the shots looked good and the one I had straight up tasted good, too (all other shots went into the lattes and cappas). Frothing milk was easier and a lot faster than on my Andreja. No surprise regarding the speed of a commercial vs a prosumer machine, but the the ease of getting it right was news to me.
The looks of the machine are not too pleasing and I found the PFs somewhat difficult to lock in vs my machine or any other machine I've had the pleasure of trying (I guess it would just take some getting used to). The La Marzocco FB70 I got to very briefly try a while back was built vastly better than the Dalla Corte.
Br,
Teme
Thanks for the info Teme.
Regards,
Gobs
Teme,
I read with great intrest your account of your evening at Copenhagen Coffee Academy. I visited their site, but I did not see any reference as to what language the course is conducted in. Was it Danish or English?
I am scheduled for a similar course at a local roaster, Kaladi Brothers http://tinyurl.com/pzavc and I am looking forward to it. I am going to request sitting in on a roasting session as I am very interested in this. I know that they use a hot air method, but I don't know what manufacturer.
Thanks for the great writeup on CCA.
Thanks. The courses at the Copenhagen Coffee Academy are usually in Danish. However, as my Danish is not good enough (at least not yet), I asked Troels in advance if he could do it in English. He said he could, I got together a group of enthusiasts and we were good to go.
I've heard of Kaladi Brothers. Don't they have one of the Versalb machines?
Sounds very interesting. Have fun and enjoy!
Br,
Teme
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