Tuesday, January 04, 2005


barista magazine & ecco, ecco

look for it in march. i'm glad our old bccy pal from fresh cup, sarah allen, has landed in such a cool spot!

good luck to you, sarah! the editorial board also includes other bccy friends, like john hornall from hines market coffee, as well as a pile of high-profile european and scandinavian baristi.

this shouldn't be a surprise as even a quick survey of the world barista championship results prove that northern europeans dominate the top ranks of the profession. i was however surprised at the relative lack of baristi from australia and new zealand, another hot spot for killer coffee talent.

whenever i see a list like this i always look for my personal fave barista, emma markland-webster, who besides being a top-notch kiwi barista, also happens to be a super-cool girl. i think she's working for atomic coffee now.

and let me take a moment to thank andrew barnett of ecco caffé. he sent me 3 awesome pounds of coffee: his northern-italian espresso, his organic northern-italian espresso, and an incredibly famous certified organic, fair-trade, bird-friendly [the stunningly beautiful prince ruspoli's turaco is the main protected bird you are helping when you drink this coffee!] ethiopian yrgacheffe from the award-winning oromia co-op.

ken davids in a review last october rated this coffee an easy 90 in the hands of another roaster! i'll definitely be making this up in the cafetiére (a.k.a. french press) tomorrow. . .

long-time readers know yrg is one of my very favorite coffees, so i'll be drinking this one up with real joy. this is exactly the kind of highest-quality, hand-crafted coffee you'd expect from andrew, who's using his artistic background to raise specialty coffee to the supreme level.

he is exactly the kind of roaster and pro scaa member we here at bccy are proud to know.

i talked to andrew yesterday a bit and was completely thrilled by his passion and devotion to artisan specialty roasting. more coffee lovers need to know about andrew!

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