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