On January 2nd this year I made five predictions – you can read them here – and I guess before I put up my predictions for 2009 I should probably decide how well I did last year. Or better still – you guys decide!
1 – The spread of the Clover.
I could be really brave and predict that Starbucks will start using
them, but I think the guys at Clover would curse me for jinxing them!
I think I did pretty well here – though no one predicted Starbucks buying them outright. You could argue that Starbucks haven’t really spread them around, but as I am not in the States I don’t know how often they are cropping up.
2 – World Barista Championships
I am not going to be as bold/stupid as to try and pick a winner but I
think the shift away from a Scandinavian-heavy final will continue.
2 of the 6 finalists were Scandinavian, but neither placed in the top 3. I feel pretty safe claiming this one! Congrats again to Stephen!
3 – Coffee prices continue to rise
I am not sure I am going to be able to claim this one. Whilst things did look good (briefly) for this prediction earlier in the year prices seemed to have slumped at the end of it. (Don’t worry – I am not going to go on about the media exaggerated financial issues).
4 – Pressure Profiling in Espresso
I am not sure on this one. Synesso released the Hydra – the first machine with a pump per group as far as I know, LM released their new paddle group, John “The Awesome” Ermacoff kindly built me a pressure profiler that makes my head hurt but makes me happy, and the new Slayer machine also is big on pressure profiling. All the above says yay, but I don’t feel we’ve come much further on understanding it all.
5 – The continued rise of the Microlot
Again I feel the need to plead my case here. Certainly this was the year of the Ethiopian microlot – the numbered lots from Aricha and Beloya getting everyone very excited for good reason. This was the year that Esmeralda divided their crop into micro microlots for the auction. This was also a year that my understanding of microlots got a little more nuanced, and I felt less sure that they were all I had wanted them to be 12 months ago. From this point on I leave it up to you dear reader – how well did I predict the year?
(You can add your own half point answers if you feel the need)
Would love to hear your comments on this. I think I’d like to claim 4 out of 5, but that is up for debate! Look out for my next set of hilarious predictions come January 1st!
Related posts:
- Independent branding of microlots – Aida Batlle and “Los Luchadores” I read as much as I can these days to...
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