Berlin revisited

Chris enjoying a coffee at Five Elephant

It was more than a year ago I was in Berlin, and so much had happened it was time to go back for a visit. My main focus was going to see good mates Chris Onton and Shawn Barbers latest venture, Companion Coffee, a new favorite to the Berlin scene placed in the Voo store that previously hosted CK Voo. Also, from last, I had to see Five Elephant where Da Matteo barista Kim Björnsson had previously worked, as well as Chapter One, considered by the Berlin crowd to be the best on the scene.

To me, Paris is a dirty yet inviting city. London is busy and bustling. Berlin, is like the best of all the cities I like, put together in one. Street art everywhere, scary but never hostile. Easy to get around, yet so huge it’s almost unbelieavable. My girlfriend and I needed a break from the dreary Stockholm pace, and saw ourselves going for 48 hrs to our favorite city.

We opted to stay at the Michelberger Hotel, which by itself was worth the trip. My old co worker and friend Chris Onton met us at the bar in the hotel, and we stayed up late on our first night. The morning after, we had a hearty breakfast, and then walked down to The Five Elephant to have something that wasn’t aeroplane coffee (that’s the only thing undrinkable in the whole hotel). A bustling café and roaster in the middle of a residential area recently gentrified, serving some of the best coffee I’ve had in Berlin. Owner and roaster Kris took time with us to have a coffee and a hearty chat. We actually met at the Nordic Roaster Forum, but I never connected the dots until now.

Next stop was Chapter One, where I was hoping to see the owner Nora. Unfortunately she was out, butBjörn was more than helpful. We opted for a filter Ethiopian and a syphoned Kenyan. The syphon was one of the best I’ve had, and Björn explained the device thoroughly. I can see why coffee afficianados rate Chapter One so high. A lovely space, and so friendly! Will try to come back as soon as I can!

Returning to the crime scene, we found ourselves having a coffee and cake at The Barn, where I was hoping to see Ralf, the owner. Last time I was here, I served my competition blend on the espresso machine! He as well was out, but I learnt later that I was served my coffee from Thomas Lehoux’ sister who worked there. Thomas is the owner of Ten Belles in Paris, and a good mate! Little did I know! Contacted Ralf, and met up with him at the new Barn, which also hosts the roastery. The place is absolutely stunning. Ralf, a person known for his attention to detail, has made an immaculate space to present coffee the way he feels it deserves to be presented; without any disturbances from outer sources such as crying babies or your own indulgence in your laptop. It’s admirable! Ralf told me a lot of mothers have written him to thank him, since they want to use their child free time, in a child free environment. Any which way, I find that The Barn offers something unique in the world of coffee, especially as I find that Speciality Coffee so long have ignored one of the major elements in its presentation, being the environment.

From the Barn, it’s not far fetched to go see two former employees of Ralf; Chris and Shawn. I met up with Shawn earlier last year in Vancouver, and he is a spectacular guy! For him and Chris to join forces seems like the most natural marriage made in heaven. Where Cory Andreen once occupied the space at Voo, Chris and Shawn took over and created Companion Coffee. Since we were coffeed out upon arrival, we had sneaky Baileys instead, before meeting up for ramen in Mitte.

The following day, after ramen + drinks with Shawn, Chris and film festival PR manager Claire with a wet ending at our hotel, we went out to see The Cafe At The End of the World. Apparently two bike couriers with coffee passion, being home baristi extraordinaire, decided to open up a café. This is in a residential area, in a rather new building. Despite this, the guys have created a stunning location that actually looks old. The coffee used comes from The Barn, and we went there to see Chris train the guys in coffee making. I really hope it is a success among the locals, cause it’s such a stunning site, and the guys are just lovely!

After having the worst hung over pizza ever, we went and saw Cory at CK Café, one of my favorite haunts in Berlin. Yet again it’s like being greeted like a regular, when in fact it’s only my second visit. We were offered some very good coffee from Solberg&Hansen, in my case a CoE Mexican coffee as an aeropress. My strongest impression from Cory is when I witnessed him take home the World Champion title in the Cupping in Vienna 2012. Such a lovely guy! And now he asks me if I know how to fix his toaster he bought on ebay for 14 Euros. Cory leaves us at Godshot where I meet up wih Denize that I did shifts with at the Brew Bar at the WBC last summer. Lots of coffee, lots of talk on afro hair.

Berlin is becoming a home to me in so many ways. Just the idea that a cappuccino costs you 2.70 and a glass of sekt or prosecco costs 2.90 in the same bar is somewhat overwhelming. To stop at for instance Dada Falafel for lunch and have a meal for two including beer for under 10 euros is almost ridiculous when you consider that the setting is a coctail bar after 6pm at night. There’s art everywhere, and people in general seem aware but not politically pretentious. I really can’t see myself not moving here eventually.

The coffee scene might be up to scratch with Sweden or Paris, but the design is definitely in a league of its own. All the details are stunning. In a very simple setting. Just staying at the hotel is inspirational. And affordable. Take notice, Sweden!

NP Kent Berlin

Swedish Brewers Cup 2013

This years Swedish Brewers Cup and Cupping championships were held at the Fast Food fair in Stockholm. I was tempted to enter the cupping, but decided not to, especially since there were already four people from Da Matteo entering. That didn’t stop me from entering the Brewers Cup though, with a total of three (with myself included) from us competing. The Cupping championships were a very exciting one, and in the end Tobias Palm from Johan&Nyström was crowned a worthy winner! All the best of luck to him in Nice this year! 

In all honesty, I entered the Brewers Cup for all the wrong reasons hence me not winning. At least that’s what I tell myself. Making it to Melbourne was more intriguing than to compete, and competing to do it together with our own Ellen who has never competed before was more fun than training in order to nail it. Needless to say, I didn’t make it all the way. But two things needs to be said regarding this: first of all; all competitors were really good, and regardless if I had been prepared and practiced like crazy, the competition was fierce! The second thing is that the competition itself was a mess.

The first round was a compulsory serve where no one was to know what coffee was used. We did have one day in order to train on the coffee, however upon arrival the sponsor grinders were home barista tools and not anything like professional ones, and thus that parameter was out the window. At least it was the same for everyone. The glamour you witness in the picture above is the competitor area behind stage, where three baristi at a time are preparing their drinks, with one grinder each and sharing a water boiler that was sort of half functioning. At least it was the same shitty situation for everyone, and everyone made it through to the individual presentation, as the total score showed who won the competition.

My own presentation was directed to the idea that Speciality Coffee needs to be approachable. Hence my direction to the crowd, something that the judges didn’t like (I wasn’t the only one though). But even if I understand the point they are making, a few of us wanted to take the opportunity to reach out to the public in such an environment that is inviting to do so. The idea of competitions are to educate and attract, as well as develop the Speciality Coffee industry. This is where I might disagree with the judges.

Second from Da Matteo Stockholm was my sparring partner, Ellen Klintenberg, one of the most solid baristi in Stockholm I know of actually. This was her first competition, and I know she was very nervous really wanting to do the Nekisse she was presenting justice! I tasted the coffee, and it was great, but her presentation was one of the most solid I’ve seen. I would very much like to see her do more competitions in the future, cause I think she really has what it takes to win! The picture above is taken just as she has finished her presentation, and Erik (Rosendahl of Drop Coffee/SCAE, MC) is asking her a rather “funny” question, and Ellen is asking him if he is “f-in stupid”? Grrrrl power! The sky is the limit for this barista, and I am pretty sure she can win if she dares compete again!

A lot of great competitors went on and off stage, but as the clock struck four, the exhibition closed down and everyone had to leave. This was yet another disasterous moment in the competition, just after the fact that more than one barista had to break their performance due to technical collapse of the water boiler. Reggie Elliot was on stage second to last, doing his presentation only in the presence of other competitors and without a microphone. The picture shows the last seconds of his presentation, a rather dramatic finale to his routine that unfortunately cost him points due to overtime. What little I heard from the presentation though, I found it very solid, and I feel terrible for Reggie who had stressed all day to get in time and wrap his head around the coffee due to a cold… A true trooper!

Last out was Da Matteo’s Patrik Rolf Karlsson, competing on our spanking new Rwandan coffee. About this time, the workers at the exhibition hall were asking us to “f-in leave, will ya” and Patrik did a solid routine with myself as time keeper and two judges as only witnesses. He was happy about his routine though, and did everything he had set out to do, so with that in mind I think the context didn’t matter too much, but it’s a set up I don’t think any competitor deserves.

In the end the judges, Mats Carlson of Kaffeknappen and Daniel Remheden of Love Coffee, crowned one of my favorite people in coffee, Nico Castagno, the winner!

Nico was a combination of both nailing all his descriptors as well as addressing the judges in a very charming and approachable way. I’d like to add, that is the way he is as a barista in general, which I think just goes to show why he deserved the title! Nico will represent Sweden in Melbourne, and I wish him the best of luck!!

Unfortunately, he will not be able to prove his success as the Swedish Brewer of the year due to the fact that the trophy was lost by the organizers. And that basically is the straw that broke the camels back. I have seriously never seen a competition this poorly executed. Three people needs to be mentioned as troopers keeping the competition worth its salt regardless; the two judges already mentioned, who had to do so much more except judging (which is not supposed to be on a judges plate at all…) and Erik Rosendahl for doing the best and funniest MC’ing I’ve seen in a competition, keeping everyones spirits at a top level. Also worth mentioning is the fact that these rather horrid circumstances really brought out the best of the barista community, where everyone just helped and coached each other with great heart! And that is what it’s all about….

NP: The Shamen Ebeneezer Goode

Paris coffee scene revisited

About a year ago, I visited Paris with my daughter. This I have written about here. Since then, I’ve met up with some of the key players in the Paris coffee scene both in Sweden and in Vienna. Chris, who then worked at Kooka Boora, came to stay in Stockholm for 6 months, and made a pretty big impact on the Stockholm scene as a barista in the Kafé Esaias crew. And David, then at Le Bal, I saw perform a Tamper Tantrum talk on this years WBC, on the Paris coffee scene. Besides that, I had drinks with the Coutume crew at the La Marzocco party in Vienna, so the Paris scene has probably outside Stockholm been the one I’ve been most up to date with, and thus mostly keen on returning to (the others being Berlin and Perth).

First stop on my Parisian coffee crawl was the much anticipated Telescope Café, situated very close to Opera. This could be one of the most slick and minimalistic cafés I’ve seen, but still with a hell of a lot of soul and very inspirational! The quiche were brilliant and the coffees just beautiful! Everything seemed like a designers dream, however presented very casual! In many ways, I find Telescope to be sort of the opposite spectrum of Revolver in Vancouver (if that makes any sense at all), however as inspirational!

The main reason for me to go across town, up to La Gare d’Est, was to meet up with good mates Chris and Thomas. At Ten Belles, it was really pumpin’! Ten Belles is owned by Thomas Lehoux, who I have had the pleasure of meeting at several occasions. Thomas is one of the friendliest dudes in the industry, and the place reflects that really well! Chris, mentioned earlier, was here too working the machine and serving us Swedes some super delicious coffees, roasted by Telescope! Had a lovely homemade pie before heading up to Le Bal.

Le Bal has shifted coffee from Café Lomi to Has Bean. Not that it made any difference to me, as I ordered a glass of wine. Chris girlfriend Emelie was working, so we had the opportunity to talk Swedish and ask about tonights dinner in Montmartre. It was nice seeing Le Bal again, and I will definitely return for coffee on my next visit to Paris. This time around, it was poor timing for us though.

As the night time took us out to party and quickly turned into morning before we hit the suburbs and the bed, it wasn’t until late morning we found ourselves in central Paris again. I really wanted to revisit Kooka Boora (now named KB Café), the place where my daughter had the pancake breakfast every morning, where I met the friendly baristi and had some wonderful juice. This time around though, I took my girlfriend to a semi packed joint where the people behind the counter didn’t really seem to know what they were doing. There was nothing vegetarian available, so I ordered an espresso and a cappuccino and sat myself outside waiting. Some good fifteen minutes passed as our Swedish friends also had found their way there. Realizing it was too much of a wait, they ordered take aways, and left shortly afterwards. Me, I asked for my drinks two times before I left the place half an hour later, ending up getting nothing. By then, it was only half full and they still didn’t seem to know what they were doing. Very sad, and annoyed, I never want to set foot there again.

Instead, for coffee I went to Coutume. Now, outside there was a huge line. And it didn’t seem to move fast. So after a few minutes, I saw a Japanese coffee tourist move to a stool at the bar, so I followed his steps. Before doing so though, I asked the guy at the line if Antoine or Tom were around, the two guys who owns Coutume. The answer was no, but he wanted to know if I was Jesper, and if so my visit was expected! This really blew my mind! I sat down at the bar, and had a chat with the two friendly baristi from Iowa. I was presented two solid and consistent shots of espresso before heading to Palais de Tokyo, but as I was sipping it, I thought about how great it was to see a café have a line on a Sunday, and noone seemed to be minding the wait, but rather anticipating a really good time! Then I said goodbye, and left with a smile! Paris café culture seems to be really happening!!

There was one place I wanted to go, but didn’t have time to this trip, and that was the new space of the Café Lomi crew! Also, last night Antoine of Coutume was flooding instagram with pictures of a new place in town, so there are lots of things happening in Paris, and I am extremely exciting to be going back next summer for an extended stay! In many ways, I find Paris more interesting than London these days! And bare in mind, I do love London!

NP: Lifelike Sequencer

There just might be an X in espresso

This was both my second time to Paris, and second time I got to tag along the wonderful da Matteo crew to serve the press coffee at Volvo’s stand at the international car fair. The fair was both smaller, and more intimate! Since it was a press booth, sometimes the reactions from other car exhibitors who wanted to taste the coffee, but could present no press-ID, was slightly stressed. One Swedish guy exclaimed; “But I’m very important on Twitter”, and ran off angry.

The da Matteo crew, minus Jocke who had to leave due to an early flight

We had great reactions to the coffee from both major newspapers coming to report from the show. Both added that Volvo had the best coffee on the fair, which we naturally had to investigate. Mercedes and Toyota both had big espresso bars, with plenty of staff. Toyota had something like 4 grinders (not sure what they were for though?), but the coffee tasted hideous.

As for the coffee, this was very true…

Also we were filmed by various teams that were reporting from the fair, and one journalist presented himself from the last trip to Geneva, and handed me the link to the report from earlier this year (check out the presentation on Volvo V40 in this link ) (for some additional car pics, please visit my Flickr)

Working at fairs like these is a lot of fun, and though we worked 12 hours a day, we still managed to squeeze in some fun on town! Also, we had the opportunity to extend our stay in Paris for a couple of days, but sort accomodation ourselves, which was a great opportunity, since my girlfriend as a very good coincidence had a performance in Paris the same weekend.

“Fresh” the audience thought!

Besides the coffee side of things, I met up with an old friend I hadn’t seen for the past 15 years or so, and had drinks in Montparnasse. Service was hideous, but the company was great! My friends boyfriend is a super exciting producer/DJ, well worth checking up!

Just before going home, I went with friends to the fabulous Palais de Tokyo. It’s an amazing arts space close to the Trocadero area, with a giant café offering close up view of the Eiffel Tower (that I also caught glimpses of from a taxi, and from the skybar in Montparnasse. It’s like it is casting a shadow over everything this weekend without ever taking centre of attention).

Palais de Tokyo offering some impressive artwork

My second visit to Paris really left me wanting to explore further, and by the looks of it, I will have the opportunity to come back next summer for a couple of weeks! Can’t wait!

NP: Lifelike Heatwave

TNT STHLM

The idea behind the TNT is simple; basically gather baristi on a Thursday night, and throw milk in coffee. Best thrower wins. Good mate Reggie Elliot in Gothenburg, who when living and working in DC, worked at Café Murky with David Flynn, one of the brains behind the Frog Fight in Paris. Reggie moved to Gothenburg, and made the Thursday Night Throwdown something very succesful, pretty much like the Frog Fight in Paris. If you ask me, the secret behind the success was actually the lack of a proper scene, but a hunger for getting together with other people in the industry.

When living in Perth, the idea of these nights came about when I was in a group trying to get the Western Australian Barista Championships going in 2010. And so they did, even though I personally only got to attend the very first (and very successful event at Elixir in Nedlands). What happens when you have pizza, beer, coffee, milk, an espresso machine and lots of coffee people in a room? It’s probably the oldest question in the coffee movement, and the answer is a no brainer.

Later in 2010, I had moved to Stockholm, and found that there was a lack of community. It seemed as if there had once been one, but not anymore. At the same time, Cymon Reid at Kura felt the same thing, and we did a cupping together in order to try the new Da Matteo roast of the Nekisse. Lots of baristi showed up, for coffee, beers and the following outing at the now legendary Tiki Room. Since then, I’ve had an idea of the necessity of community, one that has been successful at times and ignored at other times.

The launching of the TNT STHLM idea was something that developed from Reggies idea, as well as in Malmö at the same time. We’ve had TNT’s at Kura, Esaias before the Barista Championships in Stockholm, Drop Coffice and now at Café Pause in order to get a regional top three for the National competition held in two weeks! We also did some non-coffee gatherings such as the Bad Boy Billiards, and the Bad Boy Boule nights, where industry people have been drinking heavily around another kind of activity.

The latest TNT at Café Pause was a huge success, most people within the industry came to throw down some milk (and Achi, owner of Pause as well as the Chairman of the SCAE in Sweden, had invited Reggie Elliot to host it!) and/or watch the vibe!

What I like about the format, specifically, is that we can do local themes together with sponsors or hosts (we’ve done cuppings and try outs of pour overs etc.), but also focusing on something that we are very ambivalent to; the latte art. Jesse Raubs recent blogpost on milk is encouraging in the sense that we should not ignore the fact that latte art is something interesting and fun, but shouldn’t be all of your focus in coffee. How perfect then to make this the focus of a non prestigious “comp” on friendly terms.

I’d like in the future to focus more on this format, and I think the recent SCAE idea of using the TNT format for its regional competition, is showing the value of it!! You can follow future events at the TNT STHLM Tumblr!

NP: AC/DC TNT

Back behind bar(s)…

I haven’t really been working in a café on a steady basis since I left Australia in 2010. A few things in my life saw me wanting to return to do actual bar work, and I got the opportunity to take over after my friend Craig left our friend Alex’ bar Espressino to go back to Australia, so somehow the full circle made sense.

In just two weeks, I’ve made more sandwiches, single espresso and macchiatos than I have in a long long time. I’ve had friends popping in every day to see what I’m up to, and it feels great having a place to meet and greet people over coffee. This in many ways reminds me of my great days back at Ristretto and Spring Espresso in Perth!

The pictures above shows some, but not all, of the people I’ve had in for the past few weeks. Since Espressino is an espresso based bar, I’ve been brought some filter coffees to brew up to friends occasionally. Since we don’t have a proper grinder, and hand grinding takes a lot of time, some of the interaction has been to let the friends themselves grind up what we’re brewing. My good friend Kåre who lives in Portland brought me in some beautiful coffee from Heart Roasters, as well as the latest Able Kone and Disk, to try out! I’ve made some ice coffees from delicate Kenyans when brewing chemex in solitude, with mixed results.

But it feels great to back in the saddle, and once I get the routine at work going (when to prepare sandwiches, when to start preparing for close etc.) I am really looking forward to start digging deeper into the world of coffee again! Some more negative thoughts on the Italian espresso house culture will be shared in my next post though…  Until then…

NP: Belleruche Minor Swing

Vienna – WBC 2012

This years World Barista Championships was placed in Vienna, the city where coffee culture might or might not have started in Europe by accident. Legend has it, the Turks occupied the city, and a spy who finally got them to leave after a long siege, got those sacks of beans that were left behind, and started a coffee shop using them. I have to say though, that Vienna to me is known for one thing only, and that is that it’s now the home town of legend Danny Violence of punk rock heroes The Accidents, among other bands.

I got to Vienna on the Tuesday, in order to meet up with good buddy Charles Stewart who I got to know in Perth some years back. I competed against Charles in 2008, and in 2010 we were both part of a group organizing the WABC, something I had to leave behind due to my move to Sweden, however Charles and the others did a great job setting it up! Charles and his girlfriend Nick were both in Europe to bum around, and took the opportunity to experience the WBC while over here. They happily arranged for me to stay with them in a hostel that was quite a trekk away from everything, but really nice regardless.

The amount of people and parties attended during this week are simply too many to mention, but I have to admit I slept probably around 8 hours in 4 days. Saying that, there were definitely some highlights and some things that could’ve been better.

One of the absolute highlights of the event was working the brew bar. I got to meet some really interesting people to work with, but also had the opportunity to serve a number of people walking up to the seats watching the competitions. Together with Chris, the inventor of the Espro French press, I made some interesting coffees on the Espro. I got to work with people from all over the world, so many people so much better than I am at these things for sure! That’s how to learn, and I am surprised not more people took advantage of this opportunity to work with other baristi and with some spectacular coffees, as well as some really off ones. I especially appreciated the input and feedback from Canadian roasters Phil&Sebastian, who were truly interested in getting feedback from the brewer people as well as anyone.

I’d say that a couple of things regarding the organization could’ve been better. I understand that exhibitors such as La Marzocco and Marco probably paid a lot of money to have top spots next to the stage, but I think those exhibitors would’ve had a pull effect on people anyway. Instead, everyone competed for attention at the same space, and most other areas were almost empty, and on top of that the activity announcements were poorly presented. The Tamper Tantrum stage, which was a really good idea and also ended up online naturally, wasn’t that well visited when I walked past unfortunately. I saw one presentation, which was very interesting, where there were literally two people in the crowd, and one of them was the moderator. The other one was me. This had nothing to do with the person speaking, but the announcing of speakers on the premises. As a volunteer, I had a very good idea of where to go and what to do, but I overheard competitors in various competitions, at several occasions, who had no idea whatsoever where to go or when to be there.

Did I get to try some interesting coffees? To be honest, I attended a few interesting cuppings, one was at Kaffas stand presenting some Coffee Collaborative coffee from Honduras, another one was an invitation from Scott of AIR roasters in Sydney to cup his three competition roasts in the new roasting competition, launched this year. The third interesting coffee to taste was the Costa Rican Barista Champions black honey processed coffee as an espresso, at the Costa Rican stand. The rest of the coffees weren’t anything to write home about. One very famous roasters coffee that we brewed was so awful we had to change it rather soon, which was surprising. But I think it goes to show that the twitter hype around various “excellent”, “awesome” coffees are just a way to pay respect to the roasters behind it, rather than it actually being that extraordinary excellent and awesome.

Speaking of twitter, there was a huge miss from the WBC organization not having free wifi accessible to the audience. Everyone and their friend had to go lurk outside the Nespresso booth to get free wifi, which was kind of ironic. Also, I got really tired of the “starfuckers”, people only interested in stars in coffee. I thought at this level, people came to these kind of things rather open minded, but I guess the scene is still so young, people are impressed with that kind of stardom. At the other spectrum, I got to hang out with some seriously legendary dudes in coffee, with no pretentions what so ever, only pure friendliness and love for the coffee and the people in it.

I also found it really interesting to see that sponsors such as Natvia and Keep Cup had a great hang of what the coffee world is about, and were really accomodating and friendly. I even got to do some interviews for Natvia with some coffee peeps, but not sure if they ever saw the light of day. The guys from Keep Cup actually approached me at a party, recognising me from my Instagram and Twitter where I’ve several time posted pictures of their product, which they were genuinly kind and appreciative of. That kind of recognition is such a treat, and also makes it a real community! Had the best Caipirihna with those guys as well!

One of the nights, I got out of the coffee scene and went to Arena when long time friend Danny Violence works these days. It was an opportunity to see the “real” Vienna, so to speak. Good to catch up with an old friend I haven’t seen in probably 10 years or so. All in all a wonderful week of coffee, friendship and hard drinking. Can’t wait to go to Melbourne next year!!

NP: The Accidents All Time High

Happiness is only real when shared

For some time now, I have been scrutinizing the world of social media, both in coffee and outside. It seems to me, the good thing about the forum (mainly Twitter) is the ability to bind people together despite great distances. I’ve met many people through Twitter and have had good times together with them; anything from coffee crawls to inspiring conversations. I especially have gotten to like Instagram, which is sharing images and not thoughts in letters, which is both inspiring but also even more narrowed down as a lifestyle marker to image your life through a filtered lense.

But I think there is a backside to social media, maybe especially in coffee (since this is the platform I am examining social media from). Partly because it creates a hype around things that aren’t necessarily what they seem to be (or its mirror, where someone can write a negative blogpost without having much to go on). In short; there is things of value and things that are rubbish, going out side by side, and it opens up for relativism among people who can’t really separate the information from each other.

Creating a webpresence online, is sometimes indistinguishable from a webpersona. You might know yourself, but people online who follows or encounters you might get a completely different picture. In general, I think this is where so called “trolling” comes about, when people start having a problem distinguishing their own webpersona from themselves.

But the paradox is equally problematic. There is a very large conformity among these people too. Everyone likes microbrewed beer, eats at Guide Michelin star restaurants and witness neofolk band (or hipster emo as I’d like to call it). Now, it’s up to me to follow or unfollow these people, naturally, but there seems to be a clear indicator that people who wants to join these Twitterati in their “winners circle” also must like and do these things, as if they were markers of what makes people interesting.

On a macrolevel, it is exactly this conformity that is the beginning to an end for these kind of forums, cause it just waters out whatever was possibly interesting with the people behind these webpersonas (does anyone have an opinion anymore?). It’s like the Twitter app is a painting by Wu Daozi, where everyone is creating their parallell reality, and then steps into the picture to forever disappear.

To remain sane, I must turn the other direction. I must leave this evolutionary dead end behind and now start my walk, into the wild….

NP: Bad Religion Walk Away

The Champs of Elysium

In my continuing rescue of some travel experiences that will go lost when my old blog goes extinct, I have curated our little weekend to Paris here. Since my wife went with her family to London, I thought it just for me and my daughter to have a trip of our own!

For our trip to Paris, I was solely in the hands of Oliver Strands then recent article on the coffee rise in Paris, and some tips from my mate Jeremy Hulsdunk of 5 Senses Coffee in Perth, who spent a year working with Aleaume Paturle (who now owns Café Lomi). It all came down to five cafés worth visiting basically.

The first to visit was Kooka Boora in the heart of Montmartre, a rather simple yet cosy and welcoming place where Sydney born- and bred barista Luke Barret was making a wonderful espresso for us, while ordering a hearty Australasian breakfast. Luke worked together with Chris Nielson, who I had the pleasure to meet later in Stockholm (and who now works at Kafé Esaias in Stockholm, while Luke has since moved back to Sydney and is back at his origin White Horse).

Second stop was Le Bal, to me one of the coolest spots in Paris! Bar, café, restaurant, art gallery etc. My daughter found her haven outside, in the little park where they had a beautifully designed playground. Inside, I met expat American David Flynn, who while making a gazillion cappuccinos, also had the time to squeeze in the best chemex I’d had up to that date. His work flow and accuracy impressed the shit out of me, and I hear now he’s opened up his own space! Well deserved!

David, together with Thomas Lehoux, started the now famous Frog Fights in Paris, the blue print for the TNT SWE (Gothenburg, with Malmö and Stockholm franchises) movement basically. I had the opportunity to meet up with these guys for a cupping session at Café Lomi, hosted by Aleaume as well as his roaster Paul Arnephy, with Luke, David and Thomas. This was a meeting that truly was inspirational and saw great opportunity for coffee not only in Paris but in Europe!

Café Coutume was also interesting to visit, a café full of expats and owned by Antoine who has spent time in Melbourne learning about coffee. They were the first to have the Strada in Paris, and they also do various brewing methods, among them an Australian favorite; the syphon. So, naturally I had me a syphon of the Nekisse which was slightly dark roasted for that purpose in my opinion, but still rather enjoyable. The area in which Coutume resides hosts a beautiful movie theatre that I will make a point of visiting next time I’m in Paris for sure!

Two cafés I squeezed in on the visit were La Cafeotheque, which seems to be sort of a stomping ground for any barista that moved to Paris within the past few years. Ambience was nice, but the coffee too, eh, French in my opinion (too much roast character). Merce And The Muse was my last stop before the airport, and I really liked the place itself, but the coffee wasn’t too interesting, but maybe it turned a bit sour from the company of a loud American pushing herself to be the next big thing in Europe, having the same hairstylist as Madonna had on the Vogue tour. Well, good luck with the music, I say!

Epilogue

Since my visit to Paris, Thomas visited Stockholm with his friend Chris, who now works at Kafé Esaias in Stockholm. David has opened up his café/roastery Télescope, make sure to check it out if you go! Also see Per Nordbys blog post (in Swedish) from his cupping tour in Paris just a little while back!

NP: Thin Lizzy Parisienne Walkways

A Gallery of Instagram Pictures

I didn’t have the camera with me on the trip at all times, and then used the phone. These are some of the pictures I did in Instagram. I thought they’d be pretty cool to share too!

NP: Eddie Vedder Society