Category Archives: Aiheeton

Thoughts on Video

Barista on Finnish coffee culture from Erika H on Vimeo. My girlfriend Erika made this video for her study project. There are some of my thoughts about Finnish coffee culture and its future, barista competition and a part of my routine in the Finnish Barista Cup 2012 finals. I ended up second, more about that [...]
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Appellations

I had a great discussion about appellations with Jonas, a sommelier and barista from Stockholm. Over a few beers we pondered whether appellations could be adopted into coffee. He had some interesting insights in the wine world and how the appellations work there. It certainly is a fascinating idea, to certify coffee either by origin [...]
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Helsinki Coffee Map

Click here Helsinki Coffee Map for a larger map Visit or regret afterwards - usually very good coffee, definitely a must for any coffee aficionado (Red pin on the map) Kahvila Sävy (Kinaporinkatu 1, metro: Sörnäinen, trams: 6,8, 7A, 7B) Coffee bar Sävy is a fresh breeze in Helsinki’s coffee scene. Sävy is the first one [...]
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This should keep you busy

A few people wanted to know where exactly did I go for a coffee in NYC. I’m not going to compone a coffee map of my own this time as there’s a lot better one, the one I pretty much followed. New York Times’ coffee guy Oliver Strand has produced this somewhat comprehensive map so [...]
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Coffee Crusade on Tumblr

Coffee Crusade is now also in Tumblr. The idea is that here in the blog I’ll post longer and more informative or in depth writings. Tumblr I will update more often, trying to do that several times a week, and it’s more just single photos, quick notes, quotes or anything I feel doesn’t really fit [...]
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the Big Bean

MY TRIP TO… WAS A city with such a high pace needs coffee to keep it going – and a lot of it. Luckily, several of those fuel stops serve some really high-octane stuff from around the country. And to mend all those over-caffeneited dwellers the city offers very decent spots to tank in some [...]
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Semifinals and mistakes

I made it to the national finals in the Finnish Barista Cup. To be honest I wasn’t really surprised – quite the opposite actually. When you have 10 competitors in the semifinals and six of them are going through to the finals a somewhat okay routine and decent espresso (I used Nekisse from Ethiopia) should [...]
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A quick catch-up

Training for the barista competition can be very time-consuming, frustrating and exhausting. Nevertheless, I’ve learned a lot and am starting to understand the idea behind the competition. More about that later. Last week I went on a coffee trip to southern Sweden and Denmark with this guy. It is interesting how much you can learn [...]
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A Yoda wanted

Some people have the ability to help and make other people achieve their goals – whether it’s winning the Olympics or succeceeding in an exam. These people are often dubbed as coaches, trainers or leaders but basically, whatever the title, they help others to do better than they would’ve done on their own. Coaches can [...]
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Customer as a judge

Morning shifts at a coffee bar are great. It’s still quiet, everything is cleaned up and ready for the next morning. The machine is still shining and there’s no need to prepare food whatsoever. Pretty much the only thing left to do is calibrating the espresso grinders and possibly filter one, too. The best thing with [...]
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