Now that we’ve caught our breath from the WBC mania…..

Tonight I board a plane to seek out some great 2008 crop coffees in Brazil, a country I love visiting. The place is so vibrant and beautiful, the culture is so rich. The myth of the fearless coffee explorer hacking away the brush and fending off dangerous creatures to discover secret coffee jewels does not apply here. 

Brazil is packed with great coffee, though it doesn’t receive the same accolades as many of its South American neighbors. As far as coffee is concerned its mostly known for producing the majority of the World’s commodity crops sold on the open market. Only since the hullaballoo surrounding the CoE events there has Brazil begun to gain recognition as a country capable of producing stellar coffees. I’ve got ten days of sampling some of these beauties ahead, as well as taking in the scenery up and down the state of Minas Gerais and Sao Paolo.

Oh, and of course, my required visit to Sao Paolo’s stellar “Santo Grao” cafe, which boasts no less than nine espressos on bar at any given time.

Should be a fun trip, and should yield some great coffees for the Black Cat. I’ll try to keep this blog updated with pictures and stories as I go.

Kyle

Well, it has come and gone too quickly. It feels quite strange now to wake up without my favorite coffee people by my side, easily accessible down the hall from my hotel room or in the halls of Oksenhallen.

I’m unsure of how to summarize my experience in Copenhagen. It was a rollercoaster of emotions. The joy of just being there. The thrill of performing. The excitement of meeting so many names I had only seen in print. The frustration of having the beautiful grinder I had brought along, expertly hot-rodded by Terry and the crew at Espressoparts, dismantled by TSA agents beyond the point of easy repair. The disappointment of not clearing the final six. The elation of seeing my dear friend and occasional work-mate win the WBC.

In the end it was a great experience, one for which I am incredibly thankful. I owe a lot of people for helping me on the way to Copenhagen, and while I could never repay the collective effort that went into my performance this year, I want to highlight the effort that these various kind souls put forth.

Deaton Pigot was the unseen half of team KG for the WBC. He easily invested as much time and effort into my performance as I did, and kept me on track when I was distracted. He gave me the truth when I needed it, and he should be really proud of what he has achieved and how good he is at what he does.

Doug Zell has offered invaluable insight and wisdom over the two years I have known him. His support, in many different forms, is invaluable and is a huge part of what has shaped what I have become as a coffee professional.

KC O’Keefe was so lenient and patient with Deaton and I while we prepared for this thing. I have learned so much from him and regard the time we worked together as incredibly formative and important.

Terry Z and the Espressoparts Crew came through in such huge ways leading up to the WBC. Terry put together a beautiful new grinder only to have it destroyed by TSA en route to Copenhagen. Terry is one of the most legit guys I’ve ever worked with and will continue to do so. His contribution was huge and I am so indebted to him for it.

Chang Yu did all of my custom woodwork for free. That guy spent hours building and putting up with my silly layman feedback to put together a set of absolutely beautiful trays and boxes for me. He also owns the craziest frozen yogurt/coffeebar (Bliss Frozen Yogurt) in Orange County rocking no less than a 4 group Linea, Clover, and 3 phase Robur. Oh yeah and Intelli coffee. Say what??

Mazzer graciously allowed me to use their only Robur E for the competition. They totally bailed me out of what would have otherwise been a bad scenario for team USA.

Joe Monaghan of La Marzocco who carried my replacement circuit board on the plane to Copenhagen and delivered it to me just in time. I love working with you and your company and look forward to building more crazy machines with you.

Stephen Morrissey gave me heaps of help leading up to the WRBC and his friendship and guidance have been crucial to my successes of the past year. He is such a worthy champion and I am so proud of him. I hope I get to see his sweet, bearded face again soon.

Fritz Storm’s help and training have been invaluable. Without his intro to competition 101 I would still be absolutely clueless.

The Whole Intelli Barista Team gave me such good feedback and so much help on the road to the WBC. I can’t thank them enough for donating their time and insight, particularly the LA based crew (Ryan, Devin and Nick) for putting in their time in the lab in the last few weeks.

My beautiful partner, Deanna, has been so patient and generous. I love her to death and can’t wait to meet our baby in October.

Sarah Allen and Barista Magazine for being so kind and supportive the whole way through. You guys are great!

Michelle Campbell, the queen of grace under fire, who made all the baristas feel at home and taken care of. I’ve rarely seen someone so capable of pouring her heart into an event. Thank you for everything!

Maria Luisa Berard of Finca Santa Teresa took a risk in producing a small lot of pulped natural coffee and it continues to blow me away. I was so proud to serve that coffee on the World’s stage.

The barista community for continuously inspiring me and setting the stage for true quality.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few. Thank you to all who’ve helped me in any small way. You know who you are!

Cheers,

Kyle

Throw some beer and wine into any occasion and you have a party, right? This was kinda the theme for Kyle’s send-off before he heads of to Copenhagen on Sunday. Everyone at Intelligentsia Los Angeles got the chance to see the run-through that Kyle himself said “was the most unnerving experience thus far”. To do a run-through in front of every Barista that you have trained takes nerves of steel, and only a slightly shaky hand.

Head Judge was the ever-effervescent Marcus Boni. As Sensory Judges, Ryan ”larger than life itself, just ask me” Wilber, Devin “Mr. Scotch, always goes down smooth” Pedde, Shar “Mrs. Dependable, can fix anything” Griffith, Nick “it’s not that good” Griffith, Steven “got pork?” Lee, and last, but not least, me.

Kyle started with his 15 minute prep time while everyone else started with nibbles and drinks to get things under way. With every minute that passed as Kyle set up, the volume, along with the anticipation in the room, built. The onlookers stared in bewilderment as Kyle “twinkle toes” Glanville was in a constant state of motion reminiscent of say, the ballet, Swan Lake.

Now with everyone standing shoulder-to-shoulder, Kyle took a moment to swig on a glass of amber liquid and collected his thoughts before he introduced the night’s routine.

15 minutes later.

Like a dream, silence filled the room before slow applause from the back of the room echoed off the stone cold walls. Like a new Hollywood high street fashion, the applause quickly spread and caught on. Now a roar of appreciation, adulation, tears and cheers the hairs on everyone’s skin stood at attention as all toasted the champ!

Now the reality.

With such fantastic judges on hand Kyle sat up on the bench and took his licks, with note pad in hand he furiously scribbled notes and took the critique like a man.

Looking forward.

A few loose ends to tie up, like roasting his performance coffees on the weekend, cutting foam so his wares don’t break in flight, and lastly to pack bags for the flight.  Onward, to Copenhagen!

Like a football team during a tournament, it’s important not to peak too early, and teams should not be flat-footed and tired at the end of the season. Over the last week I am happy to say that it feels like Kyle is on track. With every run-through over the last few days Kyle’s performance is getting better and better. So Kyle “Twinkle Toes” Glanville is now ducking and weaving in his run-throughs like Nick Farr-Jones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Farr-Jones) or Tom Brady (for you American football fans), but there is still room for improvement and to us, at least, that is a good thing.

We put the call out to our Baristas at the cafe to come and take part in and help evaluate Kyle’s preparation. It was pitched as an idea that this was truly a great opportunity to stick it to the man, paybacks for all those
long arduous deflating training session with Kyle.

The call went out and two stepped up to the plate: enter John Hicks (who was just promoted to Barista at the coffeebar) and Jared Linzmeier (Shift Lead at the coffeebar). Inconspicuous to some, but given half the chance, like today, they will tear you to shreds! We sat them down as sensory judges, put a blank piece of paper in front of them, and let them go.

I am now sitting down in front of the PC typing this post and it brings a smile to my face to hear them still at it. Brain storming and poking fun, all whilst getting the job done. This is what it’s all about.

Kyle’s coffee has had enough rest so we now have a good idea what it’s about taste-wise. It has some big notes, it’s pushing some boundaries, and it’s ultimately delivering on the promise that Kyle found on the cupping table. It really is special.

Good times.

Well, we have had an amazing week gone by though it feels more like a couple of minutes since my last post. Setting up the Los Angeles sight has been an eye opener to say the least and like any start up business we are working out our systems on the fly. So with 15 hour days under our belt unfortunately it leaves very little energy for anything else, including this blog, my apologies. We had three goals for the week: 1) double output, 2) make it happen before the UPS pick up at 4.30pm and 3) do it in only 3 days and down one roaster (for at least one of the days). Being that we were so busy it was great to see everyone on board here pitch in and help. It came down to the wire but somehow we got through it and, more importantly, the coffees were delivered on time.

In saying that, this does not mean that Kyle nor myself were not doing any WBC work over the week gone by. Earlier this week we had a very special and exciting delivery. Kyle has been getting some custom “stuff” built for him, now that they are here it has made our nights in the lab a lot more functional. Everyday we are getting closer to the elusive signature drink preparation, Kyle is using the same sig drink as the USBC but with some very new twists. Last but not least we had the arival of Kyle’s WBC coffees, fresh crop and very exciting to say the least.

I had the chance to roast this coffee on the Gothot today, along with my roaster in crime Steven Lee, and to say that we were as excited as two small school kids in a candy store would be an understatment.  Expect to hear more about this / these amazing coffees as the build up to the WBC intensifies!

Deaton

5-27-08

 The long weekend is upon us, which provides a chance to get out of the warehouse and do some shopping. First on the list: Guitar Center.

 I resisted the urge to shred (or should I say “strum” as I am not really a shredder) on a $5000 Martin acoustic guitar and we instead bee-lined for the drum section. We were looking for hard cases that could hold all of Kyle’s gear and were also air-flight approved. Surprisingly, and almost a little too easily, we were able to pick up two cases that were remarkably cheap! Equipped with wheels and tie downs, they were exactly what we were looking for.

As we walked out of the store to Kyle’s car with both cases in hand, I was still thinking about how this all went down so smoothly. It wasn’t until we got close to the car that I started to think about how we were going to get these things into such a small vehicle. The idea of pregnant Deanna walking home wasn’t sitting too well with me, and it was going to be a little awkward pulling out of the car park with her left in the rearview mirror. Thankfully, we managed to squeeze everything in and a wave of relief washed over me. I didn’t want to be the one to tell her to walk home!

I won’t bore you with the details of our trip to the Grove to buy a few more odds and ends at the usual shops. I will instead mention that we roasted two fantastic coffees for the cafe just the other day. If you have read the Black Cat web site, you will know that we have started to do single origin espressos at the cafe. Anjilanaka from Bolivia has made its way on to the menu to a great response. Its intense juice, explosive tropical fruit acidity and cane sugar sweetness are hitting all the right notes. On a personal note it is very nice to have been part of the roasting team that roasts this coffee. I also get the luxury of pulling shots of it at the coffee bar as well. Woo-woo!

5-23-08

Today was shrouded in mystery as we have just received something akin to the America’s Cup Great Winged Keel Controversy of 1983:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20041114/ai_n12763140

Something so secretive, not even our own staff was allowed to see the treasure. The extra security around the LA Roasting Works (in the form of N8000, a.k.a. Nate Waters) had everyone on edge. If you get too close, you’ll get busted!

May 21st, 2008 By Deaton

Playing around with ideas

Kyle has his own idea

Now hear mine

Oh yeah!

Quick KC’s here!

That’s all for tonight we have a meeting at Kyles house at 7.30pm.

Stir crazy is in the air… Kyle (the competitor) is raving mad, Nick (Griffith) is being coy about something, Nick (Barnett) has gone AWOL, and poor Sean (our warehouse guru from Chicago) is cowering in the corner, scared. Neither Sean nor the rest of us have any idea that Kyle is about to do the run-through that nightmares are made of!

Espresso:

1) Kyle has to remake his second set of shots.

2) For some reason Kyle is not practicing with 6 cups, so he re-serves espresso in the dirty ones.

3) He falters during the introduction of his sig drink speech.

4) He forgets to tell the judges how to drink his espresso.

Cappuccino:

1) Disaster hits as his steam wand covers his bench in water.

2) The drinks have good definition but come out a little on the thin side.

3) A key ingredient in his sig drink is not dispensed correctly.

Signature Drink:

1) The second set of shots pours from one side of the spout, defying gravity for almost the whole time.

2) He doesn’t have not enough time to remake his espresso.

3) The device to help pour his sig drink ends up being more of a hindrance then an aid.

4) Kyle forgets to his spare cloth to wipe up drips from his “pouring aid”.

5) He runs out of time before he gets to add his final ingredient in his sig drink.

Maybe the good luck charm that I set on the end of the judges’ table is not so lucky after all. (No, it couldn’t be that.)

So with all that said and done, we have learnt from his mistakes, and we have worked out: how to dispense his sig drink better and cleaner, how to get around the gravity-defying espresso, how to make sure that the ingredients in his sig drink will work for him, how to allow more time in case he needs to re-pull shots, and how to iron out some kinks in our grinder. All this while working on his speech and mannerisms.

Now to do another run through!

May 18 2008

OK, I had every intention of posting every day of training but yesterday we had some very special visitors drop by which foiled my plans. So instead of writing, Kyle and I rolled out the red carpet for our friends Chris Owens and M’lissa Muckerman (who people might recognize from the cover of the latest Barista Magazine). I shouldn’t forget our friend Tonx and Intelligentsia’s Nick Griffith as well as Russell, a new mate from Australia who is running a cafe in Sydney.

This was a great opportunity to do a run-through in front of some very experienced people. As it happens, Chris actually judged Kyle in the semi-finals of the USBC, so what better person than him to give some sound advice?

Now Kyle still has some bits and pieces missing from his routine (like some of the wood work that he is getting hand-made), so I asked the crew to really think about overall impressions rather then anything technical. We set up our camcorder on the tripod and with an imaginary red button Kyle started his run-through. 15 minutes later we all ripped in to him… in a constructive manner, of course.

We got some fantastic feedback from everyone involved, so I really want to give a big “thanks” to all who joined in! I really believe that this is what competition is about: sharing ideas and innovation and the coming together over coffee. I like to think that most of us are in the Specialty Coffee industry because our passion drives us and this was really the case today.

Today (Sunday) we are here again writing out Kyle’s speech, waiting for our dishwasher to wash all the wares. (It did not turn on last night for some strange reason.) So to inspire ourselves, we are listening to the 2006 WBC podcast on portifilter.net. Klaus Thomsen really nailed his performance with no hesitation, no um’s and er’s. I just wish I had of been there to witness it.

Thanks again to all who were here yesterday!

Deaton