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World Barista Championship - Day 1
ZacharyZachary.com has been video blogging the entire competition. AMAZING!
I am extremey pleased to be able to give you, The performances of every competitor for Day 1 of the 2007 WBC.
Day One Overview - ZacharyZachary.com
Be ready for a ridiculous number of hours spent watching the art of the best baristi in the world.
World Barista Competition - 2007
It’s about that time again.
The World Barista Competition is here!
WBC-2007
“The Big Sight”
Tokyo, Japan
July 31 - August 2
More information can be found:
http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com/
The United States will be represented by the current United States Barista Champion, Heather Perry.
If you came to the South Central Regional Barista Competition, you probably had a chance to see her performance first-hand. Stellar.
The Nordic countries generally dominate this thing, and Canada’s been nipping at their heals for years. Last year, the United States held its highest placement ever thanks to Matt Riddle of Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea with a Third place finish. Oddly enough, there is not a competitor listed for the home country of last year’s champion. Norway, however, the home of the legendary Tim Wendelboe is being represented, with Tim coaching his country on.
The UK is being represented, yet again, by the internet celebrity via www.jimseven.com, Mr. James Hoffmann who pulled off a 5th place finish last year.
Many believe that this year is our best chance to see a United States world champion in WBC history.
Cheer Heather on to take home the gold for the first time in US history!
Video blogging about the WBC is promised to come from www.zacharyzackary.com. I sure hope they deliver, as a lot of people helped pay their way to Tokyo just so we coffee fans who can’t make it in person can still get journalistic type updates.. for the first time in the history of the WBC.
If you’re interested, below is a link to the list of Competitors for this year’s World Barista Championship.
-TXCP
Antigua Coffee House, Pearland, TX Review
Robert Harmon posted his review of this coffee house in Pearland on CoffeeGeek. I thought it only fitting to include it here.
With permission, of course.
Like a moth drawn to a flame…
The TurboCrazy is out of whack (anyone know where I can get a refill?), so I
decided to give the local roaster another try. Previously I’d mentioned
their problems relating to espresso (I’ll let sleeping dogs lie, so maybe
the crescendo of barking will quite down). This time I bought a half pound
of their Costa Rican Full City roast to use at home. They had a good variety
of SO’s on hand, primarily Central American.This store is still having trouble with the simple things. After weighing &
bagging my beans they tossed them on the counter & rang up the sale. Fine,
except the bag seemed a bit heavy to me, so I asked them to reweigh it.
Turns out I was given an extra half-pound because the clerk didn’t know how
to work the digital scale. I informed the owner of the problem, suggested
more training, paid for the full pound and left.I ground enough for a couple of doubles & set about making two shots, one on
the Gaggia & one on the Bunn. Before I get into the results, let me once
again praise my newest acquisition - a Rancilio MD50 grinder. There’s not a
day goes by that I’m not reminded of why I like it so much better than the
Rosito Bisani/Rossi RR45 & Mazzer Super Jolly. Besides the obvious grind
quality there’s the matter of lower RPM’s resulting in quieter operation.
That plus the almost total lack of grounds flying about as it’s grinding &
dosing makes it a vast improvement in my opinion over the other two grinders
mentioned earlier.Now, on to making the shots themselves. The beans were roasted nine days ago
& still in their prime. The shot I pulled on the Gaggia was done at a
temperature of 200F & the Bunn was done at 193F. Both shots produced full
shot glasses of crema and both were great tasting. The Bunn’s results were a
bit less sour (temp difference?) while the Gaggia’s tasted a bit sweeter.
The shot from the Gaggia was for me - a straight shot enjoyed with a
Lazzaroni macaroon. Yummm, I felt sorry for everyone not sharing one with
me. TASTY!The shot from the Bunn went into the Ol’ Ball & Chain’s vanilla latte & got
raves from her (how she could tell given the pure vanilla extract, sweetener
and half & half, is beyond me).Bottom line: Juan is on the right track with his coffee roasting at least.
This is the third SO from him that I’ve tried & each has been evenly
roasted, with lots of the varietals’ flavors present & loads of crema. While
the store in general still needs some improvement I can recommend his beans
as being as good as any I’ve had. If you happen to be in the area give the
Antigua Coffee House in Pearland, TX, a visit. Hey, you might get a twofer
bargain like they *tried* giving me.REVISIT!
From a visit since the review above:
Like a moth to a flame…
Back to the Antigua Coffee House on Broadway I go. This time I was pleasantly surprised, as Juan took my earlier criticisms to heart and bought a Rossi RR45 espresso grinder. I had them make me a double of their Guatemalan Vienna roast and it was great, lots of crema and an even flavor from start to finish. Maybe not the cup-licking quality I make at home: I think the machine temps & pressure are a bit off. But this was the kind of drink a coffee house could build a reputation on.
Thanks for the review, Robert.
Antigua Coffee House
8201 Broadway St
Pearland, TX 77581
(281) 485-6670
NOTE: They could really use a website.
Featured Coffee - Brown Coffee Co. Espresso One: Cottonwood
The Brown Coffee Co. sent a bag of their first ever espresso blend they call Espresso One: Cottonwood, which is English for Alamo.
Fitting for a roasting outfit from San Antonio.
The label on the bag lists a flavor description of a coffee that is “Creamy and complex with a chocolaty base and a plush black currant character.”
For the most part, this description is quite accurate. It’s a three-bean blend of very simple proportions. 25% 25% 50%. Simple. Concise. It’s as close to letting the coffee speak for itself as you can get in a blend intended to be balanced enough for WBC standards to be met(meaning, a very specific defined proportion and balance of specific flavor characteristics with none overpowering of the others).
The chocolate is not so pronounced as in some other blends out there, but there is a distinct berry flavor.. but not a false berry flavor. The flavor is that of fresh produce. This is not something often achieved in espresso blending from my experience. Not overly complex, a medium-heavy body, and one of the smoothest mouthfeels I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
If you’re looking for a new espresso to try, and you’d like to support a TX roaster, be sure you give this one a try. Guaranteed to please.
Open House at Cuvee Coffee, July 27th.
Dan Streetman posted this on the old forums earlier today:
Hey everyone,
I want to invite you all to come see our new training facility next Friday.
We will be cupping coffees, playing on the espresso equipment, and also be running our Clover 1S.
Also, you can meet special guests Patrick Pierce, the newly crowned SCRBC champ, and Silence Huang, one of Coffeegeeks resident Latte Artist.
We will be hanging out from 10am - 4pm. Our new training center is located at 2810 Louetta Rd Spring, TX 77379.
It should be a great time, and I look forward to seeing you all there!
I won’t be there, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go!
TX-Coffee does Coffee.
Yes, we have taste buds too!
I’m going to start doing reviews of signature coffees from independent roasters around the state of Texas, and featuring them here, on the main page.
The Brown Coffee Company was bold enough to be the first in this line of tasting, opining, criticizing, and glory by sending over a bag of their signature espresso blend, “Espresso One: Cottonwood” and a bag of Guatemala Finca Vista Hermosa from the 2007 crop year that just happens to be the #8 CoE placer in this year’s Guatemala Cup of Excellence auction.
Stay tuned. Review(s) to come.
If you’re a roaster in TX, and you are dying to have your coffee featured here on tx-coffee.com, you can sign up! Just fill out the contact form with the topic title of “TXCP Coffee” and let us know.
New Ad-Free Forum!
I installed a new forum that is free of ads.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I got really tired of seeing advertisements for instant coffee, or “Toddy in a bottle” on the forums for a fine crowd of people like you.
It’s hosted on my own server for the time being, but it will be moved when this blog moves to its own server within the coming months ahead.
To see this new forum, click here!
Don’t forget to register while you’re there, and join in on the conversation.
If you’re looking for the old board, it’s still there! Just click here.
Job opening in Highland Village.. Dallas area
Jeff posted this message in the forums, and I thought it should be up on the main page.
Texas Roast is hiring for a new retail location!
We’re (Texas Roast) opening a new store in September in Highland Village. Its in a great location and should be a high traffic shop. Just like our current location, we will be roasing in store. We are looking to hire for all positions. If you are interested, or anyone you know is interested, please contact me via e-mail at: jschneider(AT)texasroast(DOT)com
The store is opening in The Shops at Highland Village, a lifestyle shopping center at the intersection of FM 407 and 2499.
Thanks Jeff.
Best of luck!
Texas Coffee People and the Wordpress Conundrum
This site is used on a Free wordpress.com account with a custom domain name.
This means that customizations, modifications, implementations, and even linking on the sidebar are made extremely difficult due to the limitations of free web-hosting.
This also means that the forums are hosted independently, and I’m sure many of you have noticed the advertisements there… also caused by the benefits of free web hosting.
What I would like to see happen is for TX-Coffee.com to be hosted on its own server to be used with the open-source Wordpress.org software… and to install a forum onto the same server.
This would mean more freedoms on the main page, and a forum free of advertisements (unless we put them there ourselves), with far more options for customization and usability. For instance, the “Forums” link could link directly to the forums… which could actually be integrated into the parent layout entirely. We could have a Feature corner to feature roasters or baristas “of the month” who are doing things to promote coffee, as per this site’s purpose. Use your imagination.
The problem is that hosting costs money. It’s not that it’s a lot of money, but it’s not free, and it’s paid every month. Forum software can be found for cheap, or possibly even free. The domain name switch would cost money, but the monthly rate would continue as normal.
I started to revamp the CafePress store, which, in itself, has many limitations… again, thanks to free web hosting… not to mention the nature of CafePress in itself, to move a few shirts to possibly help kickstart this project. I would love nothing more than to do a bunch of TX-Coffee shirts up properly, but… again.. that takes money.. lots of money that we don’t have.
I’m not asking for donations, per se. What this would also provide is the ability to legally sell advertising space on the main page, and possibly the forum, but I’d REALLY prefer to just keep that clean. I don’t want this to turn into a profit venture, as the sole purpose of this project is to promote the Specialty Coffee business in the state of Texas, but I feel a little profit is needed as cushion(and foundation) in order to make this change happen.
Advertising space would not be sold to everyone who asks. Legitimacy is a must. Super premium quality is not, but an effort towards excellence really doesn’t hurt things.
Advertising space could be “won” via contests that can be put on. Open source code is a beautiful thing that would open horizons considerably farther than our current platform offers.
I personally feel that we, as a web community, are being held back from our full potential by the limiting factors in place.
I will fund the switch, but I cannot fund the sustenance of said platform independently in the long run without running some ads to fund it.
What do the readers of Texas Coffee People think?
I’d like to keep this as an open discussion for everyone who feels like they own a little piece of this culture we’re trying to help foster in our home state, so please, speak your mind.
I’m going to link this to the blog so lengthy discussion can be written and followed easier.
As usual, follow the “read” link to read posts on this topic in the forum. Follow the “write” link to make a post in response to/about this topic in the forum.
Question For Coffee House Patrons
VS 
Do you prefer ceramic or paper cups?
Why?
Do you notice a difference in flavor? Does the presentation differ enough to affect your experience at the shop?
Do you use the “condiment bar”? What would your response be if your shop were to take away the condiment bar in favor of doing everything for you per order?
What would your response be if there were no longer any sizes listed for cappuccinos?
Consider this a market feeler for Texas.
I’m genuinely curious. If you are a regular customer to a single or many coffee houses, read here, but never respond, here’s your turn to have some fun.
I’d prefer to keep this clear of opinions of industry professionals, as I think we’re pretty much all in the same boat with not much to really discuss in terms of the perspectives of our customers. Thanks for understanding.
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TX-Coffee Partners
EspressoTrainer.com