Absolute Coffees goes to Naples, Italy

We went for a weekend to Naples in Italy. Or Napoli as the locals call it. According to all the Italians in Naples this is where the best espressos can be found. Forget about Milan or Rome, Naples is the place to be for a caffe! <- according to the lovely Napoli people.

View from the hotel in Naples

What a fantastic weekend! We pretty much went into every espresso bar we could find. Of course we also visited the vulcano Vesuvius and the ancient city of Pompei. But we will focus here on the coffee and the baristas. Coffee in Italy is very different than in the UK of course. Maybe not so much the coffee itself, but more the culture and the way the baristas are. Baristas in Naples are extremely proud! They seem to be very happy pulling shots all day and take great pride in their work. This is absolutely wonderful to see.

People from Napoli are great!

It is also an espresso drinking town. You will hardly find cappuccinos and caffe lattes. Only in the morning will you find some cappuccinos and I spotted only one lady with a caffe latte (but she also had an espresso). Didn’t see one single macchiato or mocha or anything else. And forget about skinny decaf caramal lattes For us, this is great to see.

Cups are kept in hot water all the time.

Most espressos we bought cost between 80 euro cents and 1.20 euro. That is definitely cheaper than in the UK and is an interesting fact. The cappuccinos were a little cheaper as well than in the UK. This did raise the question: Would people in the UK drink more espressos if we made the drink only 50 pence?
Whenever I work somewhere where we are handing out free drinks, I pull a lot of espressos. People suddenly don’t need long milky drinks or Americanos. They are happy with an espresso. Does this mean that we are charging too much for an espresso? Would it be good to make it cheaper? After all, I often find myself ordering another drink after the espresso, in the end spending more money. In Naples we had an espresso and a beer for example. But always an espresso. Interesting….

Some baristas automatically add a lot of sugar. We had to ask to serve without sugar.

Another interesting thing is the amount of traditional lever espresso machines. Many little coffee bars are using hand lever machines… I just love them. The barista fills up the group handle and loads it. Then you pull the lever down, wait for about 4 to 5 seconds and release it. The lever acts like the pump. I think it produces very interesting espressos but more importantly I like how you can manually control the pressure, pulling some very interesting shots. I didn’t see anybody in Naples do this though (manually control the lever that is).

Another big observation is that we didn’t spot one barista grinding fresh for each coffee. Every grinder was filled with ground coffee and the barista simply pulled once or twice for the dose. And I did notice this in flavour. The espressos all had good crema yet none of the shots where very fresh. They also grind as fine as possible. All extractions were nice and slow, we didn’t spot one quick shot. This is really great to see!

Espressos are usually drunk at the bar.

Every barista watches the shots. The shot is finished when the barista thinks it is. All manual. Some coffee bars have automatic espresso machines but none of the baristas actually use the preset buttons. Everything was free flow. Very cool!

What really amazed me was that some of the best espressos we had were at the airport or at the train station. Maybe because they were a lot busier and it was simply fresher coffee?

Milk techniques were a little disappointing for me. There was no latte art and I only found one barista who used fresh milk each time. Most of the time the milk was not too great resulting in rather average cappuccinos. Milk was just re-heated. I got talking to one barista and showed him a picture of some latte art. He got so excited and I ended up making a cappuccino behind the bar!! This was very cool and was the same that happened when I was in Madrid! I love this. I showed a little latte art and the enthusiasm from him was amazing. Real shame that my Italian is not good enough otherwise I could have explained it a lot more. Is latte art something that is just unknown in Napoli??

Lever espresso machine

Naples is pretty cool town. Lots of character, people are very lovely and great architecture. Little messy though which was a shame. But it was an absolutely fantastic weekend and definitely a recommendation to anyone. We flew with Easyjet and it was very cheap. Have a look for some great deals, a very good weekend out. Get in touch with us for some more info if you like.

Breakfast. Lots of pastries and cakes.

Some baristas tamp hard, some hardly tamp.

MyPressi Twist

MyPressi Twist

So, we received a MyPressi Twist from our friends to review it. We have pulled a few shot with it today and will give it a really good run before we write a review.

The MyPressi Twist uses a gas cartridge to force hot water through coffee. Ths gives you an espresso.

You can replace the hot water with any kind of fluid such as hot milk, coffee or a liquer. Very interesting!

We are going to focus purely on the quality on of the actual espresso. The main importance will be on the pressure and the brewing temperature. The Twist uses a 53mm just like our La Spaziale so that should be great to compare espresso quality.

Freshly finely ground coffee in the bottom, hot water in the top, pressure to force the water through.

Growing my own coffee

Right, so we started growing coffee and tea at home today.

Very cool. We will keep you up to date on the process. It takes years before we get anything so don’t expect many updates soon

We got about 10 green beans with the parchment skins. Let the growing begin!

Buy a coffee plant

Want to grow coffee at home? In the window or the back garden?

Why not?! You can now buy a coffee plant from the Eden Project in Cornwall. If you have ever wondered how an actual coffee plant looks like then this is your chance.

Don’t expect great coffee from it though but it’s very cool to have at home!

Coffee plant

quiet for a reason….

Just want to let you all know that we are quiet because we are developing an e-commerce website for Absolute. We have decided to start selling our delicious coffees online this year.

It is looking great already, just a little bit empty. We are working hard adding new products so you can all buy coffee online. Ordering will be extremely easy and we accept pretty much any kind of payment method.

You will also be able to buy sample packs and barista training vouchers online through the webshop.

Exciting times….

Coffe cupping event

We went over to one of our customers in Birmingham to perform a coffee cupping event. And it was really great fun!!

In the afternoon I spent some time with the baristas working on a bit more latte art. These people are so dedicated and always want to learn more which is really great!

Then in the evening we got about 30 people in for a ‘team building’ evening. We talked a little about coffee and after a short introduction to coffee we did a little mini coffee cupping competition.

There were 4 teams and each team had three different coffees to cup. I was the only one in the building who knew which cup was which. We had a lovely Ethiopian, a Monsoon Malabar and a PNG.

I demonstrated the cupping procedure to everyone and slurped away. The challenge for me was to describe the coffee in a way so that most people would be able to get the coffees right. These people had never even samples the coffees before and had to go purely on my description of the coffee. I think this is what it so interesting.

I cupped the coffees and described how they could tell the difference. After this, each group had to put the right card with the correct cup of coffee. As expected, everybody picked out the Ethiopian and 50% of the people got all three correct. This is pretty good I think!

A fantastic day.

If you are interested in organising a coffee event please do get in touch.

Each cup had a sticker underneath

Samples of roasted coffee

New flower

A variation of the tulip

Latte art - flower/ tulip

Ice Ice Ice

Wow, I could not get out of the car park this morning.

I had such a fantastic record for not cancelling courses and I believe so far I have had to cancel only once in a couple of years. Now I had to cancel the barista training today because the ice was too much. Five cars crashed outside my house this morning before 7 am!

Plus all the problems we have had with deliveries it is turning out be a wonderful winter. Beautiful though

New pictures

We have added some more pictures to our picture gallery

Visit http://gallery.absolutecoffee.co.uk

Start of the rosetta

It is still there!

I love it when the rosetta is still in the cup when the drink is finished. Latte art is so cool!

Latte art last forever!

Sour underdeveloped tasting espressos

You might have come across an espresso with a yellow coloured crema before. It was brewed with fresh coffee, right amount of coffee, right extraction time and correct amount of water. Yet you still got a yellow crema?

This  can happen in the morning if you turned the machine off the day before. The crema on the espresso looks rather yellow than hazelnut brown.

When this happens the espresso can taste sour and strange. One of the most likely reasons for this is the brewing temperature. The espresso machine might not be warm enough yet and it is producing an underdeveloped espresso with a yellowish crema.

Always flush some water through the group head and make sure that the porta filters are hot so keep them in the group head and flush them with some hot water. It might also be a good idea to back-flush just with water in the morning.

The top two espressos are brewed with 93 C, the bottom two 85 C.

New espresso machines!

Expobar Diamant

We have decided to offer a wider range of espresso machines for 2010. It is really exciting!

We now have machines available from various manufacturers such as La Spaziale, Rancilio, La Vibiemme and Expobar. All these machines are available as a fantastic package deal or as a machine on its own.

For this we have developed a brand new page with all the packages AND prices. No need to ask for a quote before you find out how much money you need. After all, why would we hide the price?

Our new machine range  is the Expobar. The Expobar espresso machines are all hand build in Spain and come in various shapes and sizes and there is a great budget machine as well. The Expobar Diamant is amazing! And each deal comes with a Anfim Caimano, even the budget deals!

The Expobar Diamant is an espresso machine with 3 boilers! One boiler for the hot water and steam, and one boiler for each group head. Because each group head has its own independent boiler you get great brewing temperature consistency. You have the option to individually set each boiler to a certain temperature and what we really like is the little display above the group head which shows the brewing temperature!
When the shot is running it is showing the shot time which is also very useful.

The Diamant comes in any colour. Simply give us the Pantone colour and the machine will be painted to the exact colour you provided. It also has lights which can change colour. So if you want a disco looking espresso machine in the colour lime green than this is no problem! Pretty cool.
And each Expobar machine comes with 3 years parts warranty.

Our new espresso machine page

Happy New Year

We would like to thank all our fantastic customers for working with us this year. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with you all, each and every one of you. We have roasted and brewed a delicious huge amount of coffee, developed new blends, taught a lot of people and helped so many nice people with the start of a their new coffee business.

A big and sincere thank you!

And of course a happy New Year and let’s make 2010 even better!

Happy New Year!

Keep track of your business with Google Alert

So, how do you know who mentions something about your business on the internet? Wouldn’t it be great if you could get an e-mail when someone writes your business name on some forum post or webpage?

Well, you can keep track of this with Google Alerts. Simply enter the search term such as ‘Absolute Coffee’ and Google will send you an e-mail when it comes across your search term in their database.

As soon as Google indexes a new page with your search term you will receive an e-mail with the link to the page.

http://www.google.com/alerts

I love teaching!

I was really looking forward to teaching today. It is funny how you can do something almost everyday yet still enjoy it so much. It is after Christmas now and this is the first barista training course that we are doing on our new S5 as well.

Louis brought his own espresso machine with him though, a Expobar Office Leva. It was really nice to teach him more about espresso and milk steaming and he poured some hearts and rosettas as well.

We opened up his machine and increased the temperature a little which gave great results! Slight sour under extracted espressos turned into beautiful rich espressos with a delicious gold brown looking crema. It just shows how important barista training is when you buy an espresso machine.

Louis got the training as a Christmas present. His girlfriend bought a voucher for barista training which has been very popular as an exciting gift this Christmas.

Extraction from a bottomless porta filter

Expobar Office Leva inside

Espresso from the Expobar

Is your milk bad? bubbly… no texture… during Christmas?!

We get a lot of phone calls usually around Christmas and New Year’s about the milk.

The milk steams fine and creates good milk however after a few seconds and especially in the cup the foam collapses. The foam doesn’t seem to have any structure.

Some people wonder if this has to do with the espresso machine but it has nothing to do with this. It is purely down to the age of the milk. Usually around Christmas time dairies stock up on milk and you might get some milk which is older than usual.

Milk steams best when it is fresh within 4 or 5 days old. 4 or 5 days from the cow that it is.

The older the milk the less structure the foam has. It has to do with protein in the milk that breaks down I believe.

So, check your use by date on the milk that you receive and ask your dairy for the freshest milk possible.

Hope this helps!

Old milk does not create beautiful coffees!

We have a new website!

It has taken a good 2 weeks of hard work and lots of pictures but its finally here: our new website!

We have decided to design a new website and re-write all the content. The plan was to write an even easier to read website with fantastic pictures. The website should be a lot easier to read, less scrolling down and better navigation. We really hope you like it!

http://www.absolutecoffee.co.uk

Visit to La Spaziale UK

I went to see Chris at La Spaziale the other day to meet a customer. Stephen wanted to have a play with the new S1 Mini Vivaldi II and we had a great time. Lots of coffees!

La Spaziale S1 Mini Vivaldi mark II

The mark II has a new display for brewing temperature

I also had a closer look at the La Spaziale Special which I never really paid too much attention to. The price is so attractive though so we have decided to start selling these as well. The Special has the same technology as the S5 but has different body work and dials for the steam operation. Quite a good machine though and really well priced.

La Spaziale Special 2 group auto

There was also the La Spaziale S40 which is like a… hard to describe the words. I think you either love it or hate it. Makes great coffees and has very useful displays directly above the group head. These displays are very useful for shot times, grinding information and things like that. You can set the S40 so it tells you whether the extraction time was any good. Quite useful.

La Spaziale S40

I would just like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Chris and Helen from La Spaziale. Thank you so much for your time.

And to Helen: ‘I still can’t believe you carry these machines up the stairs like that!’

Flat whites… bottom of the jug?

Have a read here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article6947848.ece

I pretty much agree with the description of the flat white. But I am not so sure about the pouring from the bottom of the jug thing. Surely you can get a very creamy flat white without using a spoon to hold the foam back?

I prefer to pour a flat white from a small milk jug which has been textured properly into a 5.5 oz cup or so with a single espresso. Milk not too hot, around 60-65 C. Just a half cm of foam so you drink through the creamy foam.
That is in my eyes a good flat white.

But then again… I am a Dutch man not a Australian

How does the one way air valve work?

The one-way air valve that is fitted to our bags for the coffee is designed to keep air out of the bag. The pressure of the gases inside the bag that come out of the coffee beans create a positive pressure inside the bag.

Because of this pressure inside the bag and the one-way air valve no air can get it in yet the valve allows the gases to escape so the bag doesn’t pop.

Have a look at this video for more information.

Indonesian Java

Map of Indonesia Java

I just had a lovely espresso from our Indonesian Java beans. It was surprisingly good actually. Indonesia produces some very nice coffees and there is quite a lot of variety if you ask me. This delicious java coffee was actually very sweet (for an Indonesian coffee) as an espresso and had a really good body (expected from an Indonesian) as well.

There are not many single origins that I really enjoy as an espresso but this is definitely one of them.

We roast it medium, not too dark but just dark enough for use as an espresso as well. Give it a try, it’s a really nice coffee!

Wonderful customers!

I received an absolutely wonderful present from Umar in Saudi Arabia today. Thank you so much!

Very nice chocolates from Umar!

Beautiful

Playing a camera man!

Offered to do some photography for one of our new customers today. They are not open yet but will soon create a good vibe in the city.

It’s good fun to help people out, I hope they can use it for their website.

Hacienda La Esmeralda – Panama

Hacienda La Esmeralda is probably one of the most famous coffees in the world. This is one of those fantastic coffees which is sold at a fantastic premium and is thoroughly enjoyed throughout the world.

The website of the farm is rather interesting and explains in a good way how to harvest and process coffee. It is a good read and tells you how they pick the cherries of the trees, de-pulp, wash and dry the cherries.

One of the great statements:

“Coffee quality is a product of altitude and processing. One of the truisms of coffee growers is that the bean is at its finest the moment the ripe cherry is picked from the tree. The only thing the grower can do from then on is to diminish the quality – he can in no way improve on it.”

If you are interested in learning a little more about how coffee is grown and produced then please follow this link.

Ratemyrosetta.com

This is one of my favourite websites. It’s simple, you add your pictures and vote on others.

Especially this one below. Very good!

http://www.ratemyrosetta.com

New jugs

We got some new jugs in which are great for latte art. They are like the Motta jugs but less expensive. We call them the deluxe milk jugs.

 

New deluxe milk jugs, great for latte art

 

Nice rounded leaf rosetta

 

 

 

Latte art printing machine

Very cool!

New video

New consultancy course

We are proud to say that we now offer a new consultancy course.

This is one of the most effective and value for money consultancy courses you can find (so we believe). It is 1-to-1 and we have so much to offer!

Basically we have designed a business plan to open up a coffee house and share this with however comes on the course. There is a lot of information regarding cost of sales, VAT, takings, rent and rates, sollicitors cost etc. And of course you get to drink delicious coffee during the course.

Please have a look at our consultancy course for coffee shops course for more info.