London Coffee Festival Write Up - Part 2

Following on from the London Coffee Festival Write Up - Part 1

The UK Barista Championships (UKBC) were fascinating to watch and it would have been very easy to sink the whole weekend into this alone. 


Well organised, with a good audio visual set up, crowds watched the barista contestants create espresso, a milk based drink and a speciality drink. These drinks were then presented to a range of technical and taste judges. 

It felt somewhere between Masterchef and the DMC’s in terms of excitement, creativity and tension. The event drew a strong audience throughout the day and I'm sure throughout the rest of the weekend. 

James Bailey in action

I particularly enjoyed watching James Bailey from Prufrock who went on to take 2nd place in the UKBC 2012 and win the Brewer's cup. He also claimed best espresso and best speciality drink. Well done James. 

For lunch I wandered the food hall and literally followed my nose. It took me to Wallahwallah, who were swerving Indian inspired street food. There were two types of curry wraps on offer; I opted for the chicken and enjoyed watching it being constructed; a meticulous process. 

Along with the curry core; on went a couple of sauces; on went pickled beetroot; various pulses, seeds and puffed grains. 


It looked a treat before it was all firmly wrapped in a flat bread and devoured by me. It was a good value, large, tasty lunch. If you see these guys at a market near you then I thoroughly recommend.

Near the end of the day I attended a session in The Lab on espresso style coffee making, but no one turned up. This lead me to have a unique opportunity, a one on one session with Vic Frankowski of Dunne-Frankowski café (http://df.studio-subsist.com/) over at the Cimbali stand. 

Vic showing the ropes.

We went through tuning the grinder, testing the shots, dosing the portafilter, tamping it down, making a shot of espresso and finally making a latte. It was a fantastic demonstration of the subtitles of coffee making. 


Using the same machine, same grinder, same beans and under expert tuition throughout Vic's coffee still blew mine away. I walked away with his in my hand, not mine, but having said that for a first go, it wasn't that bad.

Half drunk Latte. I made this!

I had a chance to conduct a couple of interviews on the day which will be posted on the blog in the near future. I caught up with Callum Hale Thomson the Young Barrista and thoroughly nice chap who filled me in with his thoughts on brewing, competing & making the best coffee in his household.

I also spoke to the enthusiastic and day brightening Lauren Morris, Programme manager for UK Coffee Week, we spoke a bit about the purpose of the week, what they had been doing and what Project Waterfall , the charity linked to the event, was all about. 


In summary "It aims to raise more than £1 million to deliver safe drinking water and sanitation projects for up to 100,000 people, specifically in Africa." A worthy course to support.

Edmund Buston with his signature martini.

The artisan café was a double bar set up, providing a rolling roster of top baristas. On the day I enjoyed drinks from many baristas including Allpress Espresso, a delicious and potent coffee martini from Edmund Buston from Clifton Coffee and a good old double mac from Alan Tomlins from the Small Batch Coffee Company. 


There really was a wealth of talent floating about and making great coffee all day.

Alan from Small Batch Coffee.

The festival seemed to be more lively this year with a greater degree of interactivity on the stalls. It was a great chance to meet people from all over the world of coffee including; growers, big chain representatives, manufactures, inventors, independent cafe owners, roasters and champion baristas. 


I drank a staggering amount of coffee which was almost without exception fantastic to taste. 

Aside from Lizzie of Ozone Coffee noting everyone was "really wired" by 4.30 and watching Keith from Union almost blew up a syphon with a panicked "Quick stand back" barked to the customer, my stand out part of the festival have to be Jeremy from UNION’s talk on roasting and the tutelage for Vic Frankowski. 


Two sessions that taught me a whole lot about the drink I love.

If you enjoy coffee and find yourself getting excited about how it is made, the kit, the raw ingredients & also enjoy the experience of wondering through markets then this event is perfect for you. 


Each year a proportion of the ticket price goes to support UK Coffee Week and Project Waterfall so you are doing something good just by turning up. 

For more information about this event please visit http://www.londoncoffeefestival.com/ Hope to see you there next year.

If you like Damn Fine Joe's thoughts on coffee then please Like us on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/damnfinejoe or follow on Twitter @damnfinejoe

London Coffee Festival Write Up - Part 1

On Friday the 27^th April 2012 I attended the London Coffee Festival trade day. Arriving in Brick Lane at 10.30 on a dreary drizzling day the next 7 hours would be a jubilant journey through the world of coffee and café culture. 

I knew I had to have a plan in place as things could go quickly awry as the caffeine levels racked up. Taking my timetable I sat in the fake lawn of the Picnic area and carefully marked out what I wanted to see and do. This initial plan lasted just under an hour.

As in previous festivals the show was broken into 3 main areas; Hyde Park, Soho and Shoreditch. Hyde park contained some of the bigger stands including the lawn, the tea and chocolate sellers and the live music stage. 

Shoreditch contained the food area along with a mix of coffee, food and beverage stalls as well as the Lab area. Soho contained more stalls along with the true Artisan Café which had a rolling staff of baristas through the weekend. 

Like last year, UK Coffee Week take up an area dubbed “The Growing Community” between Hyde and Shoreditch. Here you can learn about the process of growing coffee and about the communities that do.  


This year there was a fifth area; the Showroom, which along with a few stands mainly played host to the UK Barista Championships.

After a quick look round I kicked things off with a lecture & demonstration by UNION’s Jeremy Torz. Jeremy is Director of & roast master at UNION and he gave a quite fascinating talk all about the art of roasting. 

Using a mini roaster to demonstrate, and taking beans all the way through the process he explained many of the subtleties of the art along the way. 


He showed us how smell, sight and sound are all  used to get the perfect roast. The talk finished with a short round of tasting and a discussion on how to compare the different coffees  on offer.

This talk was part of the VIP experience which punters were supposed to book out slots on. The reality was people just turned up and joined in, the whole concept of slots and special passes seemed to fall to the wayside once the day got going. 

Other “experiences” included Ethiopian coffee tasting from Grumpy Mule and their suppliers. This included the sampling of a solar kiln dried coffee which had the unbelievable taste compared to the same bean dried with another method. 


Another enjoyable session was the Brewers & Union Beer tasting; the unpasterised beers were a taste revelation and well worth a purchase.

The Make Decent Coffee team were showing people step by step how to use all the common house hold coffee tools such as the Aero-Press, V60 & the Chemex.

The most disappointing was an over subscribed “sensory experience” session with Cart Noir. They had run a number of focus tests using music, aromas, colours and materials to make the perfect drinking environment. Some of it was common sense (death metal is bad) but other aspects were quite insightful.

The use of added aromas to manipulate the customer was starting to tip over to the more sinister side of selling but the biggest issue was what they were serving.  


No matter if you have jazz tooting out of the speaker, silk pillows scattered across dark leather sofas, creamy drapes, a wood finish, and the smell of strawberries in the air. If you are serving Cart Noir rather than real fresh coffee then  your coffee is still going to taste bad. Sorry Cart Noir.

Of the many stalls there were a few products that caught my eye and some I hope to return to at a later date in separate reviews. 


These included a number of travel solutions for drinking decent coffee, the most interesting ones being the Growers Cup Coffeebrewer, an all in one travel filter bag that made a solid brew. 

Then there was the Handpresso Wild ESE Portable Espresso Machine, essentially a bike pump come coffee maker. The pump is used to make the pressure and off you go, the shot I had was smooth and sweet. 

Can the take away coffee lid be improved? Progressive Supplies seem to think so with their FoamAroma® lid, they promise less spill and a better drinking experience. I have a bunch of lids on which to test (not with scalding fluid) so I will let you know how it goes.

A little coffee plant.

I don't normally cover non coffee drinks but Orzo Coffee's substitute tickled my fancy. Roasted Barley, ground and prepared in a cafetiere is a an interesting, naturally caffeine free alternative. It is the norm in Italy and perhaps it is something that will catch on over here. 

These are just some of the items seen on my visit to the show and the dizzying array of stalls on offer. I didn't have time to check out many of the food, tea and chocolate stalls that were also exhibiting but there was only so much time.


More to follow in part 2 including the UKBC's and further exciting coffee experiences.

New to DFJ - Bean Reviews

They have been long promised and now they are finally here. The Damn Fine Joe Bean Reviews. 


In these posts we will look at and taste beans from independent suppliers and roasters from around the world.

To kick off the project the good people at Zabu Coffee sent me 5 samples of their choicest coffee beans plus corresponding tasting notes.

For this first selection of bean reviews I visited my old friend Rex at his East London home and armed with an SLR, an Aeropress and a great thirst we set to work. 

In hindsight we should have spaced it out over a few sessions. Don’t taste 5 coffee’s in a row! Although the beans stood up to tasting my cycle ride home was a little bit dangerous.

If you want to see how we do the bean reviews in detail then please go to this page:
http://damnfinejoe.blogspot.com/p/coffee-bean-reviews.html


Like all the reviews please note there is subjectivity to our taste and likings. Please refer to the brands website to their official tasting notes. 

New town, new logo.

To celebrate my move back to London Damn Fine Joe gifted itself a logo. Hurrah.

Here it is:

Thanks to the fabulous Cait Russell for dealing with my repeated demands and tweaks, especially for the colour version. It took some time but we got there, thank you Cait, coffee is on me. Also a smaller but just as robust thanks to the fabulous Dan Nilsen for hacking in the com for an as yet unannounced bit of fun.

What is the line? Most of my reviews come from take away coffees. In these waxed 6 ounces cups I've always loved the way the coffee leaches into seal, check the reference below. As it is the last thing I see when I finish a coffee I thought what better way to represent the blog.

News - Small Batch take over 9bar coffee stalls and starts cafe

One of the top 5 places (2010) listed at the start of the year were the coffee stalls at Brighton and Hove Station. You may have noticed (at Brighton station at the time of researching) that they have a new look and a new name.


Yes both these stalls have now been taken over by the  Small Batch Coffee Company. Small Batch used to supply these stalls with their beans so the source remains the same as do the well trained and friendly Baristas. 

So what does this mean for your commute coffee? I spoke to Nick Barlow who informed me that they had cleaned up the carts and added a second machine to increase the speed of service and maintain the carts water pressure. So why is that second machine important? 


Nick explained "as we use traditional, single-boiler espresso machines.  They make excellent coffee but if you use too much hot water making americanos or teas there is a resultant loss of pressure affecting espresso/steam. Therefore, we mainly use the second machine as a source of hot water, maintaining good pressure levels on the main machine."  
and of course they now have a back up if one goes down. Imagine the trip to London without? A nightmare! 


The carts are open from 6-12 Monday-Saturday. The best place to buy coffee at Brighton station just got better.


The Small Batch Coffee Company are a Hove-based speciality coffee roaster. They have been in business for several years and supply a number of the coffee houses in Brighton and Hove. 

(Image taken from smallbatchcoffee.co.uk)

Small Batch's domination continues as they also have opened a new coffee shop in Hove on the corner of Wilbury Road & Church Road. If the quality remains as high as the stalls then this will be well worth checking out.  

The cafe boasts plenty of seating, a sun terrace and a wide selection of cakes, pastries and topped focaccia. The most exciting news is that they are also doing filter coffees (Hario V60 brewed) so I have to go and get one this weekend.

The previous stall owner, the 9bar cafe in Hove is still in business but now under new ownership.


A fresh review for the fresh stalls and a review of the cafe will be coming soon.


www.smallbatchcoffee.co.uk 
info@smallbatchcoffee.co.uk
http://twitter.com/smallbatchcc