I had a curious time at the Nordic Barista Cup.
What an odd trip. It’s not quite my gig, since I am on the green coffeeGreen coffee refers to the processed seed of the coffee tree fruit. Coffee is a flowering shrub that produces fruit. The seeds of the fruit are processed, roasted,... ...more buyer/cupper/roaster end of things, and am always a little put-off by the barista thing.
But this “NBC” had a huge originIn coffee talk, it refers to a coffee-producing region or country; such as, "I was just at origin." Of course "Origin" for most product we use is not... ...more/roaster flavor to the program. The hospitality is great; I don’t want to sound like some cynical ingrate … but there was something uncanny about the trip.
I am used to traveling to coffee origins and I don’t have much experience in European travel at all…a few of my comments here are being misinterpreted, probably because they are unclear so I am self-censoring a bit .
Anyway, I just felt like an ogre among happy smurfs. And not that smiling Norwegian ogre either. I’m the kind of guy who was not class president and doesn’t go to high school reunions, so maybe it’s just that.
Clearly they have a good, cheery relationship among the coffee shops of Oslo and the greater Nordic area. They all like each other a lot and that’s cool.
Then again, there’s norwegian satanic death metal and all that. So who knows. Here’s some Nordic Barista Cup pictures anyway …- Tom
Expresso Rosast – And they roast Expresso at Kaffa. I did not even know you could get expresso in Europe. All the old Probat UG have this on their air flow from this era. 
Cupping with Bjornar at Kaffa roastery, Oslo – Bjornar is the roaster at Kaffa – I met him on the Rwanda Cup of Excellence jury. With Andreas, they suggested I come to the Nordic Cup, which was more about roasting this year than previous, it seems. 
Two probats and a Sirocco – Sample roaster overload. Some spiffy new Probat 2 barrels and surprisingly a Sirocco roaster, made by Siemens in the ’80s. This one was suspiciously unbranded and the information for electrical was etched out by hand -odd. Aass Pilsener – Probat roasting samples at Kaffa with a bottle of Aass. The other type is the draft beer, called Aass Fat. George Howell lecture at Nordic Cup – Next day was the first of the Nordic Cup. Actually it was a smaller group focused only on roasting, and all of the day’s events and cuppings were roaster-oriented. It’s the main reason I went. The Vegatronic. At Solberg and Hansen – Back over to Solberg and Hansen to marvel at the wonders of the Vegatronic 2000 
The Loring Smart Roast at Solberg and Hansen, Oslo – Later on that afternoon, the Loring demonstration was on. The attempt was to match roasts from the Probat UG-22 more or less and cup the two against eachother. Probat at Solberg & Hansen, Oslo – Solberg has a whole slew of Probat roasters – the trier handle on their Probat UG-22 Reflecting in a roaster. – The counterweight on the door of the roast drum, shined to a mirror finish, if not a very distorted one. Analog Probat – Weigh scale on their green coffee distribution system Controls at Probat Green Bin system – Control panels always look good – this is on their green coffee handling system No Blokker, you. – Words of warning, not understood of course. Probatino First Generation – We needed to roast a bunch of Colombia samples for Robert Thoreson’s (Kaffa) presentation the next day. But this was a very early Probatino lacking many of the features of later models. It was not easy to use. Probatino textures – Trippy decorative metal skin on the Probat. I like the old stuff that had the hand-hammered look. Training room at Solberg – Training room at Solberg & Hansen Questing it at Solberg – The problem was that the cycles on the transformer were not correct for the roaster, so the drum was turning too slow. The coffee was sitting in the bottom of the drum. I compensated by lowering the batch load and upping the air speed with the fan control. Coffee Queen of Sweden. In Norway – A brand of coffee brewer, so it seems. Bjornar on the 1st generation Probatino – Bjornar took charge of this machine, even though he had not used it. I was mostly busy roasting batches on the Quest at the same time. The oldest Probatino roasters are a bit of a nightmare – gas is all-off or all-on, no visual flame control, the temperature sensor is mis-placed …. etc Cupping Loring vs. Probat roasts at Solberg – Cupping Loring vs. Probat roasts at Solberg. My first impression; the Loring roasts seemed one-dimensional, clean, yet simple. Covered Cooling Trays – THe covered cooling trays on Solberg & Hansens small batch roasters. So cute. So effective Sniffing Oslo – More Loring roast cupping. I also felt the body in the Probat batches was better, more rounded, and I felt they were sweeter and more dimensional. Alejandro and David in this picture. Loring Vs Probat, Oslo – This was the lineup of finished batches, Probat Vs Loring Smart Roast Andreas, Bjornar, Other, cupping Solbergers – Some people actually preferred the Loring batches. I know Bjornar and I both agreed that the Probats were better. One of the coffees was pretty weak too, an El Salvador Santa Rita – just blah. Quest M3 and Probats – I opened up the Quest M3 roaster I bought once the transformer arrived. It was slow to heat, and I didn;t want to overload the transformer but we eventually nudged it up to a place it would work well. Transformer, less than meets the eye. – The guilty transformer. Heavy, expensive, and not quite the right spec. Stephen Vick’s coffee tattoo – Flash forward to the next day, all the baristas had shown up for the event, and it was quite different than the first day with only 20 or so people, all roasters. Stephen Vick and his coffee tattoo. Saw quite a few coffee tattoos actually. Defect Cupping, Oslo – This was the cupping following Jaime Duque’s presentation on Colombia coffee production. The 6 defects that we cupped ranged from mildly bad to gawd-awful. One was like vomit, literally. Good Parchment? – This was supposed to represent the good parchment, but in my opinion it was pretty poor quality in what I like to see in Colombia. In fact I will be there in 2 weeks so I can compare! Beer – Food pairing – That night, a beer and food pairing with infusions of coffee as well. Some of the food was pretty exotic for me Smoked Moose – Moose was another offering I wasn’t expecting. The night before I had reindeer meatballs! I ate Rudolf! The moose was actually quite good- strongly smoked but nice. 
Cascara Ale – The Cascara beer was a highlight, but wasn’t actually going to be presented until the following night, But with my inside connections I was gifted a couple bottles. Cascara, the coffee skin, was from Aida Battle, just as the Cascara we offered this year. The cascara was dry-hopped in the beer recipe. I must admit, I did not love it – it was alright, more spicy than fruity. Whale Roast Beef – The whale kinda took me off guard – wasn’t sure it was kosher to eat any whale, but it is local product from the coast, and I have never heard of controverisal Scandanavian whaling – only Asian/Japan. SO with some trepidation I tasted it. The first recipe, a tartar, was nice, but this roast beef style whale was really wild -too much. Kaffa’s Jave cafe in olso – THe last morning was spent poking around the Kaffa cafes in Oslo, the original one called Java, the second one called Mokka, and then the their retail store Kaffa Buttik next to Mokka Kaffa’s Jave cafe in olso – The menu of roasted offerings at Java cafe, with a few things we share such as Costa Rica Villa Sarchi and Arce Caturra Kaffa’s Jave cafe in olso – All of Robert Thoreson and Kaffas barista awards are at Java, against an amazing tile backdrop – really beautiful place Kaffa’s Jave cafe in olso – Pastry is art – is this not? Robert at Kaffe Brenneriet – We stopped at Kaffe Brenneriet, a competitor of Kaffa and a place who serves coffee roasted by Solberg & Hansen. They are a huge buyer of Cup of Excellence buyer. Coffee samples, Kaffa Buttik – An assortment of parchment samples, green coffee, and even some decaf? Probat at Mokka – This was the original roaster that Robert used for Kaffa, but now it has been replaced by the 2 older Probat models Siphon, Aeropress, Chemex at Kaffa – Siphon, Aeropress, Chemex at the Mokka store of Kaffa. Kaffa Buttik public cupping room and merchandise shop – This is where they sell merch and have public cuppings on Saturdays At Kaffa’s Mokka cafe in Oslo – Hand pour Hario bar at Mokka cafe- The Honduras they served was great!. Frank Sumatra! So, I went to Oslo… – …and it is filled with buildings like this. You know, galleries and castles. Of course I didn’t see much of that, I was cupping or roasting most of the time.
