Despite the backlog of other posts I can never find the time to visit, I suspect blogging for the next week will probably be devoted to the WBC.

Having said that I don’t know that I will have time to create the kind of coverage you will see on the unofficial WBC blog over here, which is already chock full o’content.

People are arriving into town, as I type this team Japan are at the roastery plying us with delicious things.  Other barista champions are visiting or arriving later today and I hope people get a chance to enjoy both London’s coffee scene – as well as the city itself.

Having done these before I’m coming to terms with the frustrating idea that I just won’t have time to properly chat to everyone I want, that there will be a lot of half finished conversations but I am excited to see lots of people again who I haven’t seen for a while.

I’ll try and update flickr, twitter and here too!

UPDATE:  Another WBC Blog.

Just a very quick post to let you know that if you are coming to London for the WBC and want suggestions of somewhere to go then I’d recommend checking out the WBC/Coffee Kids London Coffee Map.

Not only will you get delicious coffee, but the participating shops are also raising money for Coffee Kids, which is two good things for the price of one!

London Coffee Map

I plan to talk a little bit more in future about some of the ideas behind The Penny University, but for now I will say that we are about to close out the applications for the two jobs we have open there.  We hadn’t really posted the advert in a lot of places, and while we’ve had some great responses, I just wanted to make sure it was spread as far as could be.

You can read a little more about the project in the job descriptions.  I should also add that we’d be very uncomfortable asking anyone to relocate for a job, especially with work visas being so difficult right now.

If you have any questions do let me know, though we’re not releasing a lot more detail about the shop for a few more days.

Barista

Store Assistant

Scottie’s trip is all about learning – talking to as many different people as possible, tasting as much as possible – and it seems like a pretty good idea to me.  It is easy to slip into habits where working hard every day at what you do, and maybe reading up on stuff online feels like enough.  You can’t replace the experience of learning through doing, but what I like about learning through discussion and tasting is that you often are taken down avenues and get ideas you hadn’t expected.

I haven’t travelled very much since the company started roasting, so I am really looking forward the upcoming SCAA show.  The show is all about people for me, but I am pretty excited about the SCAA Symposium on the days beforehand.  (It probably won’t surprise you to find out that Scottie is going to this as well!) Yes, I should be clear and state them I am involved in one of the sessions on the first day (about which I am actually a little nervous) but I am looking forward to the rest of the program too.  (If you are curious you can see the program here)  The idea of being in big room full of people who know more than I do about every single aspect of the coffee industry is immensely enticing!  I’ll try to blog as much as possible from the event, but if you are going I look forward to having a chat over some coffee!

Hopefully when I get back I can get stuck into (and reveal) another couple of big projects that I think will be amazing – and are the reason all has been so quiet on here of late.

Thanks to all who responded!

There are a load of posts I keep meaning to publish, but they are all so horribly written that I haven’t!  (The post about who is to blame was so badly written that, while the responses were really interesting, I didn’t manage to communicate what I wanted to – which was embarrassing!)

Before I type cheese too many times I want to let people know that the next London Gastronomy Seminar is coming up and I am really quite excited about it.  There are more details here.

On a side note – Neal’s Yard Dairy are a company that I have a huge amount of respect for, not just because of the quality of their product but because they do such a great job of communicating it in their shop, and ultimately they are incredibly good at selling it.

There is lots to be learned here.  I hope to see you there!

The new Uber arrived today and I am very excited.  This probably could have been a post for the Square Mile Blog, but there are many more exciting/important things to post on there!

What’s different about this Uber?  The capacity is bigger.  We sometimes used the old one for cupping, but it had more of a cafe use/quick recovery capacity so couldn’t do many bowls.  This one has a 6 litre boiler – very exciting!  This one has a flow control dial, instead of an button control.  It also has some beta software for us to test out.

I missed the Uber when it was gone.  My brewed coffee consumption dropped (a bad thing).   My experimentation also dropped off a little (also a bad thing).  I hope to get that going again.  I also grew irrationally annoyed with kettles (a weird thing?).

Before anyone accuses me of spam (perhaps fairly) I should make clear that we don’t make any money from the sale of Uber boilers, though yes – they are now available for sale.  It is just a project that we’re really excited about and it has been, and will be, a great tool for exploring coffee.  We’re extremely grateful to Marco – they are splendid!

It is called Brew Methods and I strongly suggest you visit, bookmark and begin sending the link to everyone you know.

You can read more about it by its creators on cleanhotdry, but the premise is simple – a single place online you can send anyone who wants to know more about brewing coffee, and there they will find links to various different tutorials, write-ups and videos.

There is also a submission form so you can help increase the amount of knowledge aggregated there.

Outstanding!

Gwilym Davies – you know, the current World Barista Champion – has come up with a rather splendid card: the disloyalty card.

The idea is simple:  If you go and drink coffee at 8 interesting, quality focused cafes around (mostly) East London then he will say thank you by making you a coffee for free.

(click to embiggen)

I just think this is brilliant.  There is no catch, it isn’t some cunning ruse to sell more coffee.  It might work if one roaster supplied all the places on the card – but there is a complete mix from Burgil to Union, from Square Mile to Nude’s in house espresso.  Gwilym just wants people to go and try coffee in different places.

This man is a great ambassador for coffee.

So swing by Prufrock Coffee in Present at 140 Shoreditch High Street, grab a card and then have a little tour of some great cafes around Central and East London.  There is one of the best baristas in the world at the end of it, waiting to give you a delicious drink to say thank you.  Superb.

The idea behind the seminars is to explore and enjoy the science of food.  Some people find that science, that understanding, can take the joy out of things but I for one find beauty and fascination in unweaving the rainbow.  I don’t think any of food’s delight and enjoyment is lost if we understand the mechanics of our recipes better.  Especially if, through that understanding, we can improve the recipe!

Having heard both Tony and John speak at our first forum I really look forward to seeing them present again.  (I also really need to get to Tony’s bar  - 69 Colbrooke Row.

I will probably post more about this soon, I am somewhat wrecked after a week of rebuilding the roastery and building out a new training room (and, you know, running a roastery!)

For those of you in London or nearby, I hope to see you there!