Hello everybody,

Coming Monday the Dutch Barista championships will be held in Utrecht. This year it will be the first time a combination with the Dutch Latte Art finals.
www.dutchbaristachampionship.nl and
www.latteart.nl

The Central Studio’s in Utrecht is the stage where the new Dutch champs will act.
My colleagues Onno and Herman will both compete in the latte art and the Barista final.

It will be an spectacular event with dj’s and vj’s. Thanks to our milk producer Friesche vlag. They pay a lot of money to promote their milk of course but thanks to them and the other sponsors it will be very interesting.

Then….
May 18th it’s party time!!!
The Dutch and the Belgium’s has organized an ‘have to be there’ Barista Party during the SEAE weekend in Antwerp.
Please read our flyer and visit our party. Highlights are:

Female Dutch DJ,
Machines to rumble,
beer,
fun,
network,
Mini Cooper transport from the SCAE welcome party to our location MmmmH,
And PARTY!!!

So please copy and sent the flyer to every barista or coffee geek you know!

Take care, Jeroen

in memorial…

Present morning sad news reached me.
The announcement of Mr van Eembergen’s death came very sudden for me.

Mr van Eembergen was a true pioneer for espresso in the Netherlands.
He was the man who brought espresso to our country.

I remember Mr van Eembergen as a craftsman and an expert with a mission.
His mission was the same mission as we have today; ‘better espresso in our country’.

In a way we can suppose that Mr van Eembergen was one of the first baristi in the Netherlands.
Although his age of 76 years, he always showed up at the barista championships, trades, shows and other espresso-occasions.

Mr van Eembergen was very interested in our ‘new’ barista skills. He didn’t always agree with us, but he respected us. And we respected Mr van eembergen…

Jeroen

photo shoot

Hello,

Last week we were working on a new brochure. On Tuesday we were working with a professional food-photographer (Hans). For an amateur photographer as I am, it was a very special day.

Big brother is watching it!
My Sony camera was a really a small camera next to the Nikon d200 with the magical lens they used. I was very lucky with Hans, because it was no problem for him when I touched his baby.

Now we’re talking!

Until Tuesday I was quite sure that the Canon eos 400 was my favorite to buy. But since Tuesday I’m very enthusiastic about Nikon camera’s.

The real work!
It was fun to work with professional people, and I’m sure that the pictures will be awesome.
I’ll post them when they are ready.

Until than you have to do it with my Sony pics!

Yes, i’m am an addict! (we used this thing to fill up the coffees without breaking the crema)

Hello all,

On Wednesday 14th of February (valentines day) I had the change to make some nice cappuccini for the editors of ELLE magazine. In Holland we have a special ELLE edition about drinks and food. I asked them two months ago, to watch my barista skills. And I was hopeful to make them enthusiastic to write more articles about the barista scene.

So February 14th we went to club ODEON in Amsterdam. The ELLE people came with a camera man to make a small video clip. I reached my goal because two women who didn’t like cappuccino when they arrived are now addicted to coffee (that’s what they say)

And one of the editors was really interested. He likes to be a master barista as soon as possible.

The next positive thing is that I’m going (trying) to write some articles/columns for ELLE website.
ELLE is a perfect stage to reach lots of people (consumers).

On this link you can watch the small movie clip on the ELLE website. ELLE

take care, Jeroen.

Barista party Antwerp 2

goodmorning all,

Question: Are you going to Antwerp?

If yes: Do you like to join our barista jam?

If yes: Please vote yes in the poll?

If no: Please vote no in the poll?

I’m asking you this because we like to know in average how much guests we can expact at our party.

We have to know because of the amount of Heineken beer we have to bring to Belgium

take care, Jeroen

Examination

Hello,

I would like to inform you about an exiting exame we did last month. Louis, Moniek, Louis wife Micky and My self went to Germany, Frankfurt to passe for our international barista certificate 1 & 2. And we all passed!!

But I have to be honest, it wasn’t easy for us. Especially the theory about regions was hard to learn. We planned to visit the exhibition and German Barista final between the classes and workshops but… We had to learn.

So we sat there in a restaurant like 16 year old students. Louis brought his coffee bible and we had two ours to learn our stuff.Alf Kramer was our teacher for the day. On day one we did certificate 1. That wasn’t hard to do. But to be honest again, during the practical test I was a bit nervous.

We had to make 2 perfect espressi, two over extracted and two under extracted. Simple stuff but my knees were shaking all over.

But happy enough we all passed!

Take care, Jeroen

SCAE international barista certificate

ExaminationHello all,Welcome in my new world. I decided to move from Blogspot to WordPress. WordPress give me more opportunity’s to make things visual. I would like to inform you that Louis, Moniek, wife Micky and my self went to Germany, Frankfurt to passe for our international barista certificate 1 & 2. And we all passed!! But  have to be honest, it wasn’t easy for us. Especially the theory about regions was hard to learn. We had plans to visit the show and German Barista final between the classes and workshops but… We had to learn. So we sat there in a restaurant like 16 year old students. Louis brought his coffee bible and we had two ours to learn our stuff.Alf Kramer was our teacher for the day. On day one we did certificate 1 and that wasn’t hard to do. But to be honest again, during the practical test I was a bit nervous. We had to make 2 perfect espressi, two over extracted and two under extracted. Simple stuff but my knees were shaking all over.But happy enough we all passed!  Take care, Jeroen

BARISTA PARTY ANTWERP

Dear baristi,

We are proud to announce this party news…
During the SCAE COFFEE FIESTA in Antwerp, May 18-20, 2007
There will be a unique barista party.

Because of the friendship between Belgium and The Netherlands we decided do organize something nice together. Our Dutch team (Michel Alleborgh/Pavoni – Jasper, Kimbo coffee – Albert, Blanche Dael Coffee Lovers and me) and the Belgium team (Peter, Viva Sara, Pascal, Kimbo coffee) put the hands together and voila, the party is there.
It isn’t as easy as it looks but no worries’.

Louis Claus pouring blindfolded latte art during the last barista party in Amsterdam…

The plan is to invite all barista and their teams etc on Saturday 19th.
We have found a nice “rock & roll” location in the centre of Antwerp.
And the party will be simple and “rock & roll”. I remember the karaoke party in Seattle. That was what we like. Drink beer, sing international duets and have fun.

The main reason to do it this way is to try to bring all nations together in the same bar. I have visited lots of WBC events and I’m always enjoy the evening program. But the problem is that nobody can find each other. So what we did is ask the SCAE to bring our party in the official evening program guide. I have some good hope that they will. The man in charge here is Jens (NBC) and he knows how to bring people together!

Lots of sponsors are willing to help us. We don’t need much but it’s nice to know that for example the MINI Dealer likes to bring baristi from A to B. They sponsor a few cool MINI’s to transport you from the Gala diner in the Hortus to the party location. I’m really looking forward to see how that looks. And of course we have a DJ. We are negotiating at the moment with one of the the best DJ’s in Belgium. It would be a nice idea to do a Barista DJ-JAM.

If you have any suggestions to make more party at the party please mail me at jveldkamp@decs.nl
And at the same time please let me know if you like the idea!!

Hope to see you there and please tell everybody in your world that there is a Dutch/Belgium barista party on Saturday 19th.

More details will follow!

Take care, Jeroen

Ultimate Barista Bag

Hello all,

I would like to inform you about an ultimate barista gear I’ve found.

I am traveling a lot. International but most times national.
And every time I’m bringing lots of things with me.
Grinder, milk jugs, tamper(s), laptop, camera, papers, agenda etc.

And to transport this on a save, relax and trendy way I’ve been searching for a long time for the perfect barista bag.

And now I’ve found mine. This bag use to be a DJ bag. And we are kind of DJ’s don’t we? Lot’s of our colleagues like Tiësto, Paul van Dijk, Carl Cox, Lisa Lashes etc use these trolleys.
These trolleys are designed to travel easy and relax with vinyl, cd’s etc. But also with clothes and laptop’s and so on.

But most of all it has the looks. Everywhere I come I receive compliments about the trolley.
So I decided to contact the producer and ask him if I can bring those trolleys into the barista scene. They are very happy with that initiative and here they are.

New 3-stage internal trolley system with a comfortable soft rubber grip-

Smooth rolling in-line wheels with precision quality bearings-

Large surface kick plate and reinforced wheel housing for impact protection-

Water resistant nylon- Electroplated zippers and integrated combination lock-

Larger side and front pockets provides convenient storage for headphones, magazines and accessories

If you are interested in this trolley for your daily transports between home, customers and work, please mail me at jveldkamp@decs.nl and I will give you the right addresses.

And no I don’t make money on this. It’s my mission to help each other and protect you all for diseases by carry to much stuff everyday!

Take care, Jeroen

Like father like Son

Hello all,

This picture came to me by internet the other week.
Do you recognize this young barista?
No you’re not drunk! It’s true it’s the son of the most famous Belgium men
in the Netherlands. It’s the son of my colleague and friend Peter Deprez.
Peter and his family own the beautiful roastery “Viva Sara” in Belgium.
And most of all Peter won two times the Belgian barista championships.
This year he will compete against our Rose in Tokyo.

We are kind of soul brothers. We both won the 1st two national championships in our country.
And we’re both trying to be a barista ambassador in out country.

On the photo I like to introduce you to Mérten Deprez. He’s wearing one of the smallest barista aprons in the world.

And the rumour goes that little Mérten is already able to make some latte art…!!!???

take care, Jeroen