It is not very often that the reigning World Barista Champion descends on New York for an afternoon of coffee fest with us mortals; so understandably, there was a lot of excitement at Chelsea Market on Sunday, long before the event started.
Andy Schecter and I got there early to spend some time with James Hoffmann before it got too busy. James, with Annette his girlfriend were still on London time though you wouldn't see it on them. We chatted for a while about everything coffee, including the coffee scene in London. New Zealand came up as the place with the largest number of micro roasters in the world, and of course espresso machine development. He has been testing equipment from various manufacturers some of which are doing out of the box pressure profiling, going up to 14 bars.
From left: James Hoffmann, Ken Nye & Andy Schecter
My two seconds of fameThe event, courtesy of Counter Culture Coffee was hosted by 9th Street Espresso. Their shop in Chelsea Market is truly a coffee bar and is beautifully integrated into that space. No chairs or tables and no walls for that matter. It is an integral part of the shared common space in that market. That large open space, so rare in New York City Coffee Shops, gave the place almost a European, even Italian flare, and for a moment transported me to Rome.
9th Street Espresso Bar
The meet and greet with James was in essence a series of drinks he prepared and served to a lucky few who won a seat at the table in a raffle. Lucky for me, Andy & Andrey Akselrod both won seats and made sure I was not left high and dry.
The coffees were all new coffees he hasn't tasted before, so his prep for the most part was pulling shots on the GS3 to fine tune his brew parameters for each coffee. That took about 30 minutes during which we had our own private party among the audience, with a few HB members in presence.
James hoffmann during his prep (picture by Andy Schecter)James started his presentation preparing a straight shot of CCC Ethiopia Beloya. He tamed the acidity nicely, and served a sweet concoction of mango, papaya, passion fruit, and a hint of apricot & tangerine. Yum!
Look at that picture perfect pour (picture by Andy Schecter)The next round was a 5 oz cappa. He used a straight shot of Kenya as the base and said we should taste black currents cutting through the milk. And so we did. In competition, we award a barista extra points for delivering on a promise and it is always a pleasure to see it in action.
The last round was his signature drink. The same drink he served in the WBC, kind of. Not exactly the same coffee and he was missing a scale to weigh the ingredients. He infused rosemary, hazelnut, chocolate & tobacco leaves in simple syrup, added it to a shot of espresso, and topped it with whipped cream. (This is all from memory, and I may be wrong on the exact recipe). The drink was delicious though too sweet, and unbalanced. Too much chocolate overwhelmed the drink. After the presentation, he noted that without the ability to weigh the ingredients, it was tough to get the quantities right.
The Lucky Four. From Left: Andrey Akselrod, two other guys & Andy Schecter sniffing the sig drink for explosivesIt was a wonderful afternoon, and a fine presentation by the champ. I must say, regardless of his title, James is just a great guy to spend time with, and many thanks to Counter Culture Coffee, Ken Nye at 9th Street Espresso, and James Hoffmann for giving us that fortunate opportunity. Those of you who happen to be in London later this year, James & Annette will be opening their own roastery and coffee shop in East London by the end of the year. Definitely worth a visit.
Andy Schecter's Flickr Photos From the EventMy Flickr Photos
by Abe Carmeli on Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:41 pm 
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