"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Professional barista and ex-pat Aussie, Jeremy Hulsdunk, has been travelling abroad. Based in Paris, Jeremy has been working at the home of the 2007 French Barista Champion, Alto Café, where he has been presenting a new vision — coffee Australian style! Along with some of his coffee compatriots from Altos, Jeremy made the trek across Europe to Copenhagen, Denmark to catch some of the excitement of the World Barista Championship, bottle it up and send it on to us to enjoy …

My pilgrimage started in Paris, on a cold, cold summer’s morning at Port de Clichy where I met up with some other French coffee fanatics and colleagues from Alto Café — owners Aleaume and Tom, my manager Adrianna and me (the coffee nerd of the trip).

The journey entailed around 1,500km of driving across France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany before finally arriving in Denmark, in good time for the Saturday heats of the World Barista Championship (WBC).

Our first port of call was Antwerp in Belgium. We stopped to check out some great espresso bars, the most notable being Caffenation. The idea of this bar is very interesting — its cool groove and relaxed atmosphere made me think we would never get any service from the guys behind the bar. But I was wrong! The tracksuit-clad barista, Bert, was a consummate professional about all things coffee, the tattoo of a portafilter on his right arm being just one clear sign of his passion for his art.

The coffee he served was top quality. He gave us numerous single origin and estate coffees to try and impressed us all with his creativity, preparing a few particularly interesting drinks for us, one of which involved putting chilli into the portafilter with the coffee. I left with Bert’s comment that he hoped to see me competing against him at next year’s WBC ringing in my ears — here’s hoping! A big thanks to Caffenation, they kept no secrets when we went to visit and we all walked away with huge smiles on our faces and a warm coffee belly.

The trip continued … After a brief overnight stay south of Hamburg, we pressed on to Copenhagen. We arrived with just enough time to stroll around the Expo and see a few of the competitors. The Expo was small but intense, with all facets of coffee preparation represented, although it’s obvious that the WBC is the true crowd puller!

The next morning we headed out early for the beginning of the WBC finals with six countries represented. The day was a true learning experience. The house was packed and the temperature reached phenomenal levels; I’m sure spot fires would have started breaking out, if they hadn’t moved half the crowd to another stage!

David Makin from Australia was first up, introduced by two greats of the coffee world, MCs Carl Sara and James Hoffman. David performed like a champion, so much so that I was sure he had the competition in the bag. He was smooth, calm and collected, more so than any other competitor, and his latte art was nearly perfect. The part that impressed me, though, was not his great signature drink of almond-infused cream and a cherry reduction. No, it was the clever craftsmanship of his all-in-one grinder and knock box! As I watched him finish his performance, I was quietly confident of his imminent victory.

The next competitor was Soren Stiller Markussen from Denmark, who gave an entertaining performance, even linking his signature beverage to a traditional Danish dish, which really accentuated his national pride. Michael Yung from Canada followed, with a very confident performance. Even when his gas burner wouldn’t work for the siphon he planned to use in his signature drink, he smoothly found his way through the problem like a true professional.

The next national champion to compete was Daniel Remheden from Sweden, giving an interesting and detailed description of the origin of his coffee. As a barista, it is great to see such detailed traceability of the bean. He named both the harvest date and the lot number at origin (lot 17) in Ethiopia.

The Irish competitor, Stephen Morrissey, was the next on the stage, and after an initial nervous squeak to his voice, he regained his composure and the confidence of the crowd by saying “I turn twelve next week”. He pulled some great espressos and when he carried them over to the table balancing three in one hand, I worried for David. His music was great, his charm reached levels only an Irish person could achieve and the crowd was right behind him as he confidently made some great cappuccinos. Stephen’s signature drink was a mixture of chocolate melted with water to form a sludgy solid, which was then mixed with a vanilla and blueberry jelly that apparently gave a blueberry muffin quality. He got a big cheer when he got these ingredients out safely, as apparently in the heats they had turned upside down and took an ice bath. It stayed upright … and at that moment I knew it was going to be a close call.

The Dutch competitor, Liesbeth Sleijster, was up last and did a great job with an interesting, although I believe somewhat controversial, cupping session at the beginning of her performance. At the end of her latte art focused performance, it was time to count the points.

It was a nervous wait, with (I thought) the two clear leaders David Makin and Stephen Morrissey vying for the World Barista Champion title. David’s name was announced first placing him second, to a mixture of reactions from the noisy crowd. Stephen Morrissey, the larrikin from Ireland, was the deserving Champion, followed by David Makin from Australia, Liesbeth Sleijster from the Netherlands, Daniel Remheden from Sweden, Michael Yung from Canada and the hometown hero, Soren Stiller Markussen from Denmark.

It was a great weekend, and I owe a big thanks to Alto Café for taking me along for the ride. I’m already waiting with anticipation for next year’s round of competitions. As a spectator, I can’t help thinking that the scale of support for this competition is only just beginning …