Baristi & bartenders

Last Tuesday was a very special one.

My friend and colleague Mikael Eckman invited me to do a presentation for the Dutch bartender association.
Mikael is two times Dutch cocktail champ and does the secretary of the Dutch Bartender association. These bartenders are from the old school. So no throwing with bottles but nice balanced cocktails. No piercing and tattoos but good hosts with nice stories.

Mikael organized a good meeting in Living tomorrow (house of the future). A very nice place. also the home of one of my Piazza d’ Oro team members Onno. ( www.onnobarista.blogspot.com )
We started with a very nice espresso. The first old fashioned bartenders couldn’t wait till the presentation and asked me a lot questions. I was surprised and very happy with their interests.

During my presentation a mentioned that young Dutch bartenders must be very happy with so much well trained and well known enthusiastic teachers.

That’s what I miss in the Dutch barista scene. We don’t have old school teachers. Of course there are some coffee people who know a lot of the product. But they never made an espresso like we do it these days.

The best news was that most bartenders asked me to train them and their crew. So we reached the point that we finally can drink good espresso and well balanced espresso in some Dutch cocktail bars. Made by our colleagues & brothers “The bartenders”

Jeroen

Friend from Germany…

Please visit the web site of my German friend Fabian Schmidt.
He is a multi-barista from Germany. Multi because he is not only a barista but also a
trainer, developer and a Mirage enthusiastic.
On his site you will find a lot of info about the Mirage machines and his barista-career.
and he makes these beautifull tampers aswell.

Enjoy the weekend,
Jeroen

GOOD MEMORY!!!

Searching for a picture in my files, I found this one.
Just a normal day in Portland. But it was’nt that normal.
It was after a perfect Seattle week. And the two days in Portland where
the ‘cream on the cake’ We met Duane, Chris, and a lot more guys we also met in Seattle.
We made a perfect barista / espressobar tour. Very motivating.

So, as i said, nothing special, just a nice picture with four guys, impressed by the espresso / barista culture on the other side of our world…

Barista Party 2005 Amsterdam

BARISTA PARTY 2005 AMSTERDAM REPORT!
Our first barista party ‘Seattle Style’ took place yesterday July 5t in Amsterdam. It was a big success. More than 100 people from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany signed in, and showed up. And we where very happy to have Duane (Stumptown) at the party.

The beautiful location, The Coffee Company right in the middle of Amsterdam was perfectly chosen.Rick Bekkema (one of the owners of The Coffee company) and me did the organization with a lot of help from Kees van der Westen (needs no introduction), Paul van der Hulst (Peeze coffeeroasters) and Louis Claus (owner of the coffeebar and more TheBlonde Pater).

The program was very simple. Our main objective was to bring people from the whole industry together. The result was a lot of barista, roasters, whole sellers etc talking together, drinking beer and rosé wine.After the guests entered the ‘Coffee Company’ they got a welcome by Michael Eckman. He is 2 times Dutch champion ‘Classic Cocktails’. He prepared some extremely good espresso Martini’s. (1 espresso, 35 ml vodka, 15 ml sugar-water, 15 ml Tia Maria, shaken with a lot of ice and served in a Martini glass)

There was more than enough to drink and eat. Some culinary sandwiches, very nice cakes from ‘the Cooky Company’ (the new project of Donar Theunisen, Dutch barista champ 2004) and everybody was free to take whatever they wanted.

There where 2 espresso machines 3 group Mistral, 2 group Mirage with levers) and a lot of roasters brought their blendsWe had 2 Mahlkonig grinders (k30ES, k60ES), one Mazzer prepared by Kees. He made a very functional grinding on demand solution on it. And there was Donars famous Mazzer with the foot pedal and the grinding on demand function.

Of course a lot of enthusiastics went making really fantastic espressi and cappuccini. And of course some artists prepared the most fantastic latte arts. Michel Buis impressed with double Rosettas, thanks to the ‘Extreme Latte Art’ DVD with Billy and Chris D. which a bought in Seattle.

Rick had the idea to make a unique competition. He called it ‘Blindfolded baristabattle’One blindfolded barista and a assistant had to make 2 espressi and 2 cappuccini.In team one we had Duch champ 2005 Christina de Mello (she told us that she wont compete in Bern because of a time problem) and Paul van der Hulst. Christina did the talking and Paul the walking. The results where accapteble and for the public it was real fun.

Team two Rose van Asten (who will compete now instead of Christina) together with Louis Claus. After a very nice show with a lot of hilarity the winner was team two.They were very happy with the prize. 10 small coffee plants. Brought in by Peter Deprez from Viva Sara coffee roasters in Belgium.

So we are very proud and happy that the first barista party was such a success.Everybody enjoined and Is looking forward to the next event…So please enjoy the pictures and feel free to join the next Dutch barista party.I will put the invitation on the blog as soon as it’s ready.

Jeroen

Barista Party 2005 Amsterdam BARISTA PARTY 2005…

Barista Party 2005 Amsterdam

BARISTA PARTY 2005 AMSTERDAM REPORT!
Our first barista party ‘Seattle Style’ took place yesterday July 5t in Amsterdam. It was a big success. More than 100 people from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany signed in, and showed up. And we where very happy to have Duane (Stumptown) at the party.

The beautiful location, The Coffee Company right in the middle of Amsterdam was perfectly chosen.Rick Bekkema (one of the owners of The Coffee company) and me did the organization with a lot of help from Kees van der Westen (needs no introduction), Paul van der Hulst (Peeze coffeeroasters) and Louis Claus (owner of the coffeebar and more TheBlonde Pater).

The program was very simple. Our main objective was to bring people from the whole industry together. The result was a lot of barista, roasters, whole sellers etc talking together, drinking beer and rosé wine.After the guests entered the ‘Coffee Company’ they got a welcome by Michael Eckman. He is 2 times Dutch champion ‘Classic Cocktails’. He prepared some extremely good espresso Martini’s. (1 espresso, 35 ml vodka, 15 ml sugar-water, 15 ml Tia Maria, shaken with a lot of ice and served in a Martini glass)

There was more than enough to drink and eat. Some culinary sandwiches, very nice cakes from ‘the Cooky Company’ (the new project of Donar Theunisen, Dutch barista champ 2004) and everybody was free to take whatever they wanted.

There where 2 espresso machines 3 group Mistral, 2 group Mirage with levers) and a lot of roasters brought their blendsWe had 2 Mahlkonig grinders (k30ES, k60ES), one Mazzer prepared by Kees. He made a very functional grinding on demand solution on it. And there was Donars famous Mazzer with the foot pedal and the grinding on demand function.

Of course a lot of enthusiastics went making really fantastic espressi and cappuccini. And of course some artists prepared the most fantastic latte arts. Michel Buis impressed with double Rosettas, thanks to the ‘Extreme Latte Art’ DVD with Billy and Chris D. which a bought in Seattle.

Rick had the idea to make a unique competition. He called it ‘Blindfolded baristabattle’One blindfolded barista and a assistant had to make 2 espressi and 2 cappuccini.In team one we had Duch champ 2005 Christina de Mello (she told us that she wont compete in Bern because of a time problem) and Paul van der Hulst. Christina did the talking and Paul the walking. The results where accapteble and for the public it was real fun.

Team two Rose van Asten (who will compete now instead of Christina) together with Louis Claus. After a very nice show with a lot of hilarity the winner was team two.They were very happy with the prize. 10 small coffee plants. Brought in by Peter Deprez from Viva Sara coffee roasters in Belgium.

So we are very proud and happy that the first barista party was such a success.Everybody enjoined and Is looking forward to the next event…So please enjoy the pictures and feel free to join the next Dutch barista party.I will put the invitation on the blog as soon as it’s ready.

Jeroen