CoffeeGeek: what you’d expect, a nanopublishing venture slavishly devoted to discussing the minutae of the bean in mind-numbing, exuberant detail. This must be what I sound like when I talk about [copyright|geek pride|end to end|spectrum|science fiction|etc] to civilians.
The day started for me with a close watch on the ongoing Barista championships. The Worlds were in full swing, and let me tell you, if anyone thought the US Barista Competition was full bore, the Worlds was hyper intensive yet perfectly calm at times. I saw the Italian competitor (Andrea Lattuada) and he was amazingly casual. He talked for almost five minutes into his 15 minutes, addressing the crowd, talking about how the scene in Italy is for cafe espresso, then eventually clapped his hands, and said “Okay! Let’s make drinks!”. He pounded out four espresso with such nonchalance, but the crema was dripping thick, and the shots looked amazing. I noted that he tamped extremely well and used the piston tamp, that is, the arm straight up and bent at the elbow. No knock that I could see – but a variation on the Staub tamp, which is a four quadrant tamp.
The cappuccinos were also spectacular. He seemed to be going slow, but as he was prepping and building his drinks, I realised what he was doing – his timing was so spot on, he had his last of the signature drinks built and served as the clock ran down to zero. Amazing stuff!
(via Ben Hammersley)