Visiting World of Coffee Berlin 2019
World of Coffee is the biggest coffee fare in Europe and again this year thousands and thousands of coffee geeks gathered in Berlin to see what’s new in coffee. Also new coffee champions were crowned in World of Coffee -event!
New espresso machines
It was interesting to see that espresso machines are definitely evolving and new manufacturers are coming to the market to challenge traditional ones such as Nuova Simonelli, La Marzocco etc. It’s not only that the new players are coming to the market but they are bringing in new innovations such as a machine that you can see through (Aremde) or a machine that is shaped like a piston (Francesca). Totally different and probably ground breaking is Decent Espresso Machine which is developing extraction potential to another level. With Decent you are able to control everything DURING extraction; water flow rate, water pressure, water temperature and so on.
The coffee guru Scott Rao (author of eg. Roasters Companion) was on Decent’s stand making some ultra high extraction espressos and demoing their machine and its potential. I got to taste one of his espressos which was extracted to 27 % (18-22 % is usually considered balanced, read more about extraction here). Usually 27 % extraction coffees should be tasting extremely bitter but this one didn’t. It was pretty pleasing with some bitter notes coming through in the end.
New hand brewing methods
Hand brewing or pour overs have been really popular in recent years and constantly you can see new ones coming. Especially I feel that aesthetics have become more and more important with pour overs. Again in Berlin there were some new ones that were really beautiful!
Btw did you know that last two World Brewers Cup Championships have been won with “new” brewing devices? 2018 Emi Fukahori won with Gina Smart Brewer and 2019 Jia Ning Du won with Origami Dripper. Also 2019 Patrick Rolf, who came 2nd took the brewing device game to another level; he wasn’t satisfied with any of the devices so he decided to create his own - April Brewer.
World Champioships
World Barista Championships and World Brewers Cup were held in SCA Coffee Expo in Boston earlier this year but World of Coffee hosted many World Championships: Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits and Cup Tasters. I wasn’t able to follow the championships that much but I saw a few latte art contestants. As you might expect, the level of the patterns was superb!
The results for the competitions
World Latte Art Championships
1. Manuela Fensore, Italy
2. Hao-Yuan Chen, Taiwan
3. Liu Guoqiang, China
World Coffee in Good Spirits Championships
1. Dan Fellows, UK
2. Tim Lam Wing Fat, Hong Kong
3. Agnieszka Rojewska, Poland
World Cup Tasters Championships
1. Daniel Horbat, Ireland
2. Dajo Aertssen, France
3. Josh Clarke, UK
