Archive for category World Barista Championships

The speciality sector shows itself off at the London Event at Caffè Culture

Jun 21

Posted by admin in Caffè Culture 2010, SCAE, SCAE Conference, Speciality Coffee Association of Europe, World Barista Championships | 1 Comment

I’m really excited—because we are about to launch the Association’s largest-ever event: our 2010 London Event at Caffè Culture.

All the planning and work of dozens of different people from every part of the sector comes together in the next few days, and we will be seeing the results with a busy Conference programme, four tracks of practical Workshops, and of course our five much-anticipated World Championships. (Even those who are not actually able to be here with us for these thrilling contests can plan to get in on the action by joining the live feed on both www.scae.com and on www.worldbaristachampionship.com).

Speaking of planning, this year visitors to Caffè Culture will need to do a bit of that themselves, because there are so many exhibitors that we have filled both the Grand and National Halls at Olympia. I would recommend looking at www.caffeculture.com to see the floor plan and plot your route around the show, because the latest innovations will be everywhere, and every important company in the sector will be represented. Want to see an Aeropress in action or taste an exquisite Indian speciality coffee? Caffè Culture will be the place!

It’s not only in the Championships where you’ll find the world’s top baristas. You can meet a number of world and national champions on the stands themselves—have a look at the CMA Astoria, Anfim, Kerry and La Spaziale stands, for a start: each of these will feature champions showing their expertise up close.

Of course, if you don’t meet all your colleagues and friends on the show floor, we have also arranged an enticing Social Programme (so enticing, in fact, that some of the events are unfortunately sold out!). There are still places at the Waterside pub evening on the Thames, however, and the ever-popular, quirky and surprise-filled Barista Party really looks like a winner this year too! (You can get tickets for both of these evening events at the SCAE stand in the SCAE Village area).

Our annual Event is always a good place to meet the most interesting members of the coffee business, but this year should be special, because not only are we showing off what our Association does, but also what our vibrant speciality coffee sector has to offer. You only need to look at the special London coffee map on the WBC website to see how impressive that sector is now—so, while you’re in London, experience it for yourself!

I look forward to meeting many of you in London, and I wish you all an enjoyable show!

Mick Wheeler
SCAE Executive Director

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 24/03/10 – Can we rescue the industry at origin and keep the supply of great coffee?

Mar 24

Posted by admin in Cup of Excellence, ICO’s World Coffee Conference in Guatemala, World Barista Championships | No Comments

One of the more frightening issues raised at the recent ICO World Coffee Conference in Guatemala was the whole question of where we are going to get our future supplies of coffee from.

Demand continues to grow virtually unchecked, rising by around 2% per annum, reflecting world population growth and rising real disposable incomes, especially in emerging markets. However, at origin we see real problems, as pressure from population growth and urbanisation takes its toll, with coffee lands taken out of production to provide real estate for urban sprawl and greater food production for growing populations. You might say that the market will eventually redress the balance, as prices will rise to ensure the correct allocation of resources to the production of various commodities. That is true, but the transition might well be very painful—for all of us involved in the coffee business.

Do you realise that one of the biggest problems facing the industry at origin is its failure to attract young people into growing coffee? In Uganda, for example the average age of a coffee grower is 58—and getting older by the day. Young people are just not interested in subsistence farming, and they certainly have no time for what they see as an industry stuck in a time warp. There is an urgent need to commercialise coffee growing at every level, and to introduce greater technology in an effort to make coffee growing attractive to young, well-educated professionals.

And this is where I think we can play a major role. Coffee has become the beverage of choice for many of the young, well-educated professionals in the developed world. As an Association, we need to transfer that enthusiasm and passion for great coffee to origins, and assist with the development of internal markets, so that potential coffee growers don’t see coffee as something their fathers were involved with, but as a modern, dynamic industry, centred on excellence, in which they have a future.

Maybe I’m just too optimistic but, for me, this is a matter of enlightened self-interest. If we want great coffees in the future, then we have to invest in all parts of the industry today—and nowhere is this investment needed more than at origin. To an extent, we are already doing this, as more and more origins get involved in our championships, and a lot of the initiatives and programmes such as Cup of Excellence focus on the production of great coffees. I must also take my hat off to the many World Barista Champions who have travelled to origin to transfer their skills and knowledge to the fledging baristas in those countries. But can we and should we not be doing more?

-Mick

SCAE Guest Blog – Stephen Hurst, Mercanta The Coffee Hunters

Mar 11

Posted by admin in Caffè Culture 2010, Coffee Bean, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, SCAE, Speciality Coffee, Speciality Roasters, World Barista Championships | No Comments

I have been asked to put some thoughts down for an SCAE Guest Blog – maybe a trademark rant, maybe some top down view of the specialty coffee business, maybe a wide angle perspective, maybe some punditry for the World Cup this Summer? What could I write? The World Cup is appealing, not least because I will be going two days after the
SCAE/WBC/Caffè Culture show is over. But the SCAE is not about football, so I will have to get back on track.

It is tempting to look at the specialty coffee business in light of the unprecedented financial chaos that has engulfed the world in the past 12-18 months. By all rights, the speciality coffee business should have suffered alongside the rest of the economy – but it appears (at least to us at Mercanta as a supplier to speciality roasters in 30 countries) that the opposite is true. Defined provenance, innovative and exciting packaging, pure and natural source, widely differentiated prices, presentational awareness in fine food venues, vast shelf space on retailer shelves, completely international – coffee?

No, water. And that is my point. If a product that honestly (besides being ”free” from a tap) tastes quite similar from one bottle to another can develop into a differentiated multi-billion dollar international mega-business, does anybody really think coffee (where at least eight totally distinct consumer aware flavours can be readily identified – let alone one thousand nuances) will not eventually be bigger still? It is inconceivable that coffee will not become a widely appreciated and differentiated product – finally about the bean itself and its own inherent taste and source.

So financial meltdown or not, speciality coffee is on a roll. It is not about the High Street coffee bar chains, it is not about Fair Trade, it is not about Rainforest Alliance, it is going to be about coffee. Coffee: the bean with its own character, its own source, its own taste, and, when you know who you are buying it from, you get all the ethics and environmental protection and authenticity that consumers really want. Information, professionalism and education about coffee will lead millions to make a better more informed choice; buy what you like, but buy it for the right reasons.

If you think a regular feature blog on the SCAE website might be interesting, there are plenty of subjects to cover from our perspective as the sourcing people, and based on our truly international reach. Please do let us know if you would like to see more.

Wishing you all health, prosperity and happiness in 2010.

Stephen Hurst
Mercanta The Coffee Hunters

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.