Barista Magazine

JUN-JUL 2012

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starting from the Guatemalan to the Brazilian, next the Ethiopian and last the blend. Lori began the intro to tasting and cupping by explaining the cupping forms. As Heidi and Lori began to talk to the group about the importance of setting up the proper atmosphere in a tasting room and then how to fill out the tasting forms, I positioned myself to talk with a husband and wife couple at my brew station. Michael and Jennifer Cameron Lattek have started a pop-up coffee station called Filter, located in Kreuzberg, Germany, while they wait for the completion of construction on their permanent café location. They were in Portland for the week, visiting family as well as attending all the SCAA events. When asked why they chose to come, Jennifer replied, "There is so much more experience here. We are hoping to bring back what we learn." As for one of the main brewing techniques used at Filter, Michael and Jennifer use a Chemex coupled with the KONE to tout their fresh cup offerings. We wrapped up slurping our samples and some of us headed downstairs for a demonstration of illy's new MonoArabica Espresso Capsule system. After a shot each of Guatemalan and Ethiopian espresso, I decided illy pulls the best tasting espresso I have ever had from a capsule machine. Your genius, skill, and enthusiasm continue on, Dr. Illy! Later, I headed up to the main floor to meet my good friend Brad Quirie of Café Umbria. We chose to listen to the Discovery I Session by Mark Romano of illy caffe entitled, "Answering the Call for Sustainability, Hearing the Demand for Quality. " His topic proved to be rewarding and was a highlight to my day. Mark's discussion included a complete presentation highlighting coffee farming sustainability issues including areas such as the adverse working conditions and the low wages many workers are paid coupled with small farms that use unskilled labor to operate dangerous equipment. Moving onto sustainability efforts, he briefed us about the Fair Trade and USDA Organic certifications, what they started out as and what they have become today. Then he touched upon how in 1989 and 1990, Dr. Illy pioneered direct trade, allowing the buyer to work directly with the farmers to help them improve their quality. A year after that, Dr. Illy began a reward system in which farmers earned premium prices when they produced the highest quality and consistent coffee. Mark ended with a quote from Dr. Illy: "Coffee prompts social activity, stimulates friendships and conversations, and it should never be enjoyed alone; you should always share it with someone." Then we went downstairs again for lunch. This time there were two long tables filled with Portland favorite Russell Street Bar-B-Que's barbequed pork, shredded beef brisket, and this being Portland, smoked tofu, complete with all the fixin's. After I ate, I introduced myself to some women visiting from Russia. They were none other than Anna Tsfasman, owner of Koffein's 26 cafés in Moscow, and multi-year, as well as the current Russian Barista Champion Olga Melik-Karakozova. I was thrilled to meet them! I felt so honored to meet so many entrepreneurs in the specialty coffee business. By the end of the day, my inspiration was off the charts! Taking my seat for the afternoon sessions, I prepared my notes for Development II, as Sauro Dall' Aglio and Giorgio Milos, Italian National Champion and illy caffe Master Barista spoke about "La Scienza dell Latte: The Science of Milk" and ended with a hands-on lesson, "From Latte to Arte. " After spending some time focusing on the base of a cappuccino or latte and distinguishing between froth foam and micro bubbles, Giorgio began to bring up the ratios of proteins, water, fats, and sugars found in whole cow's milk. Touching on steaming techniques, Giorgio said it's all about, "position and control of your movements...just a little movement sends the milk out of its spinning." And losing the spinning causes the quality of bubbles to decrease. Sauro continued with information on key temperatures, especially emphasizing the importance of making sure www.baristamagazine.com 23 baristas do not re-pasteurize the milk they are steaming by bringing the milk's temperature up too high. "Follow your senses, sight, use your ear, and use your sense of smell. The right milk heated properly has no smells." After talking us through more logistics of espresso to steamed milk ratios, I felt great appreciation for the time and effort Sauro and Giorgio had put into this presentation. Our group moved from sitting to engaging as the session changed to "From Latte to Arte," and the hands-on breakout session gave us the opportunity to improve our latte art skill set alongside the leading industry professionals. We gathered around the three Stella di Caffe machines, in groups with Sauro and Giorgio, along with Tom Vincent from the Texas School of Coffee. I chose Tom Vincent's group, and he began to teach us how to learn to pour latte art with just an eight once steamer pitcher filled with water and a standard ceramic cup. Tom remarked that this is the cheapest way to learn your pouring technique and fine-tune it. "If you can learn to do this with water, latte art will be so much easier, " Tom explained. As the session came to a close, we took a small break and polished off some more pastries, grabbed another cup of coffee and headed off to our last Discovery II sessions. Deciding to stick with Sauro and Giorgio, I headed back upstairs. This time there was no tactile workshop, but rather a more laid back lecture including more time for questions and answers from Sauro and Giorgio. For the conclusion of the day there was a session called ''Devices I Competition: Create Innovation in Your Café'' overseen by Heather Bradford. In this closing activity, participants would have 30 minutes to create a product, or business idea which could legitimately and logistically happen if the participants were each given $200 as a starting budget to help their business get off the ground. After this spontaneous and creative exercise, first place went to Michael and Jennifer of Filter, and the two-year subscription prizes for Barista Magazine went to Eduardo Ramos of Flying Goat Coffee, and Rachel Louise of City Café. Barista Nation PDX proved that great things can happen when people who have a passion for coffee unite. Even a café owner, roaster, or barista who has been in the coffee business for years is sure to increase in knowledge about his or her trade at a Barista Nation event. It is seriously worth taking the day off to attend! —Rhonnymi Liberte

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