Barista Magazine

AUG-SEP 2013

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Meister: Are baristas noticeably intimidated when you walk into a café? McCarthy: Yeah, I mean I was told already that I'm not allowed to order pourover coffee. [Laughs] Meister: Did you make a lot of changes from your regional and then national and then international competitions? McCarthy: Change of season means that I chose a different coffee. For the regionals I used Buziraguhindwa [from Burundi], and for the nationals I used whatever was freshest and best, and Tim [Hill] was able to get the Geisha coffee from Hacienda la Esmeralda, the Lino lot. I knew going into a competition using a Geisha coffee I had to say something interesting and say something different. Honestly, people roll their eyes when they hear that you're using a Geisha coffee, because it really does have such a unique flavor profile that scores really well. So I wanted to dig a little deeper with it in my presentation. I mean, Geisha actually came to Panama because the Panamanian government in the '60s was looking for coffee varieties that would be resistant to coffee-leaf rust. They distributed it, but of course the variety also had to be productive. This one didn't prove to be as productive as they wanted, so they basically eradicated it from most of the farms; but the Petersons in 1997, when they bought their farm, [they found that there] was still some Geisha on their farm. Talking about variety was such a game-changer and really a milestone on the timeline of specialty coffee, when we started to attribute flavor notes to something other than processing or terroir. I wrote the speech with Katie [Carguilo] and tried to tie it all together in a way that made sense and was still only 10 minutes long. I was able to talk about how important it is that we're talking about variety, because of the future of coffee and coffee rust and how there's only a handful of varieties grown in Latin America—relating it back to Hacienda la Esmeralda and Panama. Most of those varieties are Typica and Bourbon, and most of them come from the same tree, and that puts farmers at a disadvantage when diseases hit. Linking our history with something inspiring at the end. Meister: How much do you think being a technician for Counter Culture has changed the way you brew or taste coffee? McCarthy: The kind of home-brewing equipment that we use at the competition is a much simpler kind of situation than what's going on in the machines that I work on. I think knowing how those machines are set up to heat water and deliver water totally gives me a different perspective over what I'm controlling in pourover brewing. I think especially the science of the brew, too, and the mechanics of what the water is able to do going through the brew bed. I'm thinking about that a little more. Meister: What do you think is the most important knowledge that a coffee professional can give to someone asking how to make coffee at home? McCarthy: The first thing is, "Don't be afraid of messing up," which is a funny thing for a Virgo to say. I think another good tip is to keep notes. If you really want to get into brewing good coffee at home, keep notes on how much coffee to how much water you use, how long it took to brew, and then what you felt it tasted like, and then obviously you can go back and look at different coffees that you've tasted, and different methods, and different recipes. That's really the way to learn from it. Meister: Do you think it's important for professional baristas to be able to communicate that to consumers? blog Updated daily with the most relevant and interesting coffee news and event coverage www.baristamagazine.com/blog 66 barista magazine

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