SCAE

Speciality Coffee Association of Europe

Archive for category SCAE Gold Cup Programme

SCAE Guest Blog 4 – Paul Stack talks about a ‘Brewvolution’

Mar 29

Posted by admin in SCAE Gold Cup Programme, World Barista Championships | No Comments

A bright future ahead for brewed coffee?

Brewed coffee has certainly grabbed the attention of the niche end of the market and therefore gained a serious audience in recent times—one which it hasn’t enjoyed for years.

Why the resurgence in interest in brewed coffee? Barista Championships, global communications and geekdom have been at the genesis of this re-awakening. The explosion in Barista Championships over the last decade, aligned with the mind-blowing advances in global communication infrastructures, personal web logs (blogs) and social networking, have enabled the move.

The openness of social networking has exposed the lies of marketing departments and allowed the coffee geeks of the world interrogate the ‘truths’ behind coffee. These coffee enthusiasts are an interesting demographic. Generally in the 18-30 age group, technically adept and without a hidden commercial intent, they probe the coffee industry armed with a healthy disrespect for accepted norms.

Ironically, these industry interrogators, who are fuelling the brewed coffee re-awakening, generally come from an espresso background, having been seduced by the passion for excellence and networking forums provided by the World Barista Championships. The driven barista then wanted to go deeper. Rather than be a performing monkey, the champion barista questioned coffee origins, processing methods, flavour profiles and the characteristics of their coffee choices. This led them to cupping different origins, ignoring commercial didacts, and simply chasing quality. Cupping coffee origins led this troupe of groundbreakers to different brew methods, because brewed coffee allows the nuances of coffees to be enjoyed and compared. Conversely, espresso’s intense strength makes it extremely difficult to contrast an origin’s flavour characteristics.

This movement coincided with an increase in the idea of terroirs for coffees, like the wine industry, whereby varietals, altitude and processing all deliver individual flavour characteristics to the cup.

With an energetic, young, well-travelled educated push for excellence in brewed coffee aligned with more and more access to single origin coffees with different processing methods, the movement was primed to benefit from the global economic boom, which fuelled a slew of micro-roasters interested in both exploring and investing in the quality end of the brewed coffee market.

The information sharing and web publication of this group’s findings has essentially exposed the coffee world’s marketing departments, who have spun stories to mask the fact that brewed coffee had universally slumped to an all-time quality nadir. Commercial ignorance and pressure to save costs yielded a standard of under-dosed, over-ground, over-roasted coffees. This led to an incorrect universal acceptance of filter coffee being bitter, over-extracted, weak coffee from poor quality beans. Shame.

Changing these perceptions will take a long time. Leading companies are taking the brave steps to do things properly, using Gold Cup brewing standards. A significant movement Stateside in brewed coffee is under way, led by companies like Intelligentsia and recently given an accepting nod by Starbucks starting the introduction of hand-brewed coffee across 11,000 stores, which can only positively influence the consumer in brew methods and the possibilities therein. The widespread availability of brewing devices for a relatively low capital spend will allow home baristas and consumers to challenge the poor norms exacted upon them on the high street.

Let’s not fool ourselves. Most of the volume roasters know what they are doing. Hopefully through education and networking, brewed coffee’s re-awakening can continue and thrive, eventually positively impacting the average brew on the high street.

Paul Stack
Operations Director, Marco
Programme Leader, SCAE Gold Cup Programme

Mick Wheeler’s Blog 04/03/10 – Why Championships are just the tip of the SCAE’s iceberg

Mar 4

Posted by admin in Caffè Culture 2010, Café Europa, SCAE Gold Cup Programme, Speciality Coffee, Speciality Coffee Association of Europe, World Barista Championships | No Comments

UKBC 2010 winners

Before starting this week’s blog, I should mention that one of the industry’s greats, Emilio Lavazza, passed away recently. I cannot say that I knew him well, but did meet him on a number of occasions, most notably at the Lavazza plant in Turin about 10 years ago. He was a knowledgeable man with a passion for coffee and innovation. He will be missed.

You can almost feel the excitement and tension now rising throughout Europe and beyond as our national champions in five of the coffee disciplines head towards the World Championships in London in June.

The crowning of national champions is a great thing, and certainly brings the whole speciality coffee movement into the media spotlight. But it is important not to forget why we have the Championships—and also to emphasise that, as an Association, we have a great deal more to offer than just competitions and training for competitions.

Let there be no doubt, the SCAE’s Championships fulfil an important part of the Association’s mandate to promote quality. They do this by emphasising and reinforcing the message that attention to detail and excellence at every stage in the marketing chain is paramount—be it the barista making the final cup, or the cup taster selecting the best coffee. Championships are an extremely important tool in the arsenal we use to generate excitement and commitment to quality, but they must NEVER be seen as the only thing that we do.

We do so much more, and I urge you all to look beyond the competitions to the Gold Cup Programme, the trips to origin; the fantastic education programme at our events, the research programme, Café Europa, the monitoring of EU legislation and the fact that we act as a voice for the industry.

So yes, enjoy the Championships, celebrate the winners, commiserate with the losers, but remember: there is more to the Association than competitions. Above all, get involved!

Mick

Mick Wheeler’s Blog 02/02/10

Feb 2

Posted by admin in SCAE, SCAE Gold Cup Brewmaster Course, SCAE Gold Cup Programme, Speciality Coffee, Speciality Coffee Association of Europe, World Barista Championships | No Comments

SCAE Gold Cup Programme

The coffee industry is familiar with the concept of balance. A balanced blend. A balanced cup. Balance. The early years of the SCAE was the stuff of voluntary organisations – fuelled by enthusiastic industry experts who believed in the cause and delivered more than their fair share. Little would those early volunteers have thought the fledgling World Barista Championships would become the powerful vehicle it has become. While undoubtedly an enormously powerful vehicle for the furtherance of quality coffee, that power tipped the balance of the SCAE’s output.

The SCAE was rightly criticised from within and without for its espresso focus. It was clear we had to put some energy into brewed coffee to redress the balance. The first successful move was to introduce brewed coffee into the competition arena with the World Cup Tasters Championships. The second and more pervasive shift was the introduction of the SCAE Gold Cup Programme. The Programme was officially launched in Antwerp at the SCAE Coffee Fiesta event in 2007. It was launched as a whopping three-day course, which was actually more of a coffee course than a brewing course. Everything from coffee origins to processing options to roasting to cupping was covered, along with the more relevant topics of grinding, brewing and extraction measurement.

The standard of filter coffee is getting an overdue shot in the arm with the Gold Cup Programme. The great success of the programme has been the quality of both the education content and the delivery of the key learning points, now mercifully condensed into a concentrated one-day course. Taught by Level 2 qualified Brewmasters, the SCAE Gold Cup Brewmaster course is a hugely beneficial day for any coffee professional, which clinically deconstructs how a great filter brew can be achieved or ruined, with course attendees measuring and computing extraction levels. The next course runs in Dublin on February 25th, details here.

While the balance still leans toward the espresso-based beverage world, and the scales will tip forcefully at the WBC in London, we will continue to keep filter in focus through the SCAE Gold Cup Programme and other brewed coffee initiatives.

Mick