New York Coffee Photo Essay with Kalle Freese
A while back right before the ’13 World Barista Championship, Finland’s national champion, Kalle Freese, visited New York. Naturally, we had to do a coffee crawl to see what the city has to offer. We couldn’t do everything in the short time available, but fresh from Scandinavia, the photos below document the adventure that was...
Koppi Cafe & Roastery, Helsingborg, Sweden
When I first moved to Sweden every coffee geek I met spoke in reverent tones about this mysterious cafe and roastery called Koppi in a little town named Helsingborg an hour or so north of Malmö. It was described as the best cafe in Sweden, at the vanguard of the Swedish specialty coffee industry, all...
3FE (Third Floor Espresso) Ireland
3rd Floor Espresso’s owner, Colin Harmon, has won the Irish Barista Championship twice, and both times placed 4th in the World Barista Championship (2009 and 2010) – which is no easy feat! 3FE uses Hasbean coffee, a world class roaster based in the UK, as well as guest roasters. I haven’t had occasion to visit...
Prufrock Coffee, London
Prufrock Coffee is home to Gwilym Davies, 2009 World Barista Champion. The affable, scruffy bearded barista who lives on a boat has assembled a talented supporting cast at two locations in London. My favorite is Prufrock Cafe on Leather Lane, a large, airy and colorful space, inviting you to linger and enjoy one of the...
Emil Eriksson of Johan & Nyström, prepping for World Brewers Cup
This marks the first year of the World Brewers Cup, a coffee competition similar to the World Barista Championship, though instead of espresso it’s focused solely on brewing coffee. The goal seems to be to do for manual brewing what the Barista Championships have done for espresso, pushing the leading edge of knowledge, technique, and...
Paul Bassett, Shinjuku, Tokyo
Paul Bassett’s shop at Gosok Terminal in Seoul, Korea (article here), was one of my most frequented shops due to its consistently great espresso (though its convenient location didn’t hurt). They also have a shop in Tokyo that I had a chance to visit this past summer. It turns out that Paul Bassett’s Shinjuku cafe...
Republic of Coffee – Kenya & Costa Rica
I received these two coffees from Lee Jong Hoon (Korean Barista Champion ’09) and his girlfriend and partner Seol Mi Gyeong, who run Republic of Coffee together. Two great people and very dedicated coffee professionals that I feel privileged to have met! The Kenya AA Top Mchana is complex and fruity. Dry red wine is...
Caffe Themselves
When I came to Korea in 2007 for a summer at Yonsei University, I was excited to see that Seoul is jammed full of cafes – in fact, I don’t think there’s any place in this city where you’re more than a five minute walk from a cup of coffee (if you know of a...
Republic of Coffee
Earlier this week I had a chance to visit 2009 Korean Barista Champion Lee Jong Hoon’s workshop in the north east area of Seoul. My coworkers from the middle school I teach at here in Korea actually made the reservation. I guess the coffee I make for the office every day has brought them over...
