How did it go at the 2016 National Aeropress Championship

*Back to back with the great champion; photo credit: Mihai Lupu

It’s been about eight years since we gossiped on Romanian forums about espresso machines and low-quality coffee (for 4 years about our Espressoman), during which we waited for the coffee market to evolve and show signs of maturity. If on the equipment line we can say that we have «di tati», on the coffee line we still have some jaratec to eat. That’s how I am, I start from pessimism to show you the beautiful side of things. I’m not the only one, and my colleague Ernest has something of this style 🙂

I’ll start directly: in 14 years of hosting events, I have never had the freedom to say into the microphone «gentlemen, stop consuming coffee from the supermarket or the «horeca special», stop drinking brands, but look for freshly roasted specialty coffees, with the roasting date written on the package». It is a great pleasure to be able to say this and to have some of the best bakers in the country close to you, where the people who have listened to you can go and taste this or that origin and be convinced. I think this was the big effect of the True Artisan Cafe, the coffee event where the National Aeropress Championship took place.

The location, The Ark, didn’t give me a strong feeling of optimism at first, being located a little far from transport, among the brown flowers, but it turned out to be the best choice, because the 100-200 people present almost permanently inside made this compact place seem always full of life. And so it was. I saw many actors from the coffee scene, many passionate espresso drinkers, many from Cluj, many hipsters as the dominant genre, public figures, but also many mothers with their babies in baby carriers and fathers staring into the beautiful eyes of comedian Teo’s wife.

But what struck me most was the feeling of unity! We are talking about a competitive market with the potential for implosion if the customer base is not increased, in which obviously each roaster or specialty café has its own interests, measured in hundreds of kg of coffee roasted monthly. But seeing how the business remains a little on the sidelines and roasters like Yume, Claro, Origo, Olivo, Guido speak with a smile on their faces, exchange bags of coffee and do education together by serving delicious coffees to the general public, it means a lot as a sign for the future and certainly a stone in the eyes of traditional HoReCa brands, who feel that their chair is starting to wobble a little. I said little, not much, for now 🙂 Too bad there were no more bakeries, the impression (before the event) was that it was just one day, in a not necessarily beautiful area, with the insecurity of a large number of visitors, etc. Look, these fears were defeated by reality and I think that the investment in participation for those who came turned out to be successful, and for those who really had nothing to regret. I am convinced that in the second edition we will have even more bakers. Indeed, on the Origo – Guido – Olivo triad there was the impression of a «premium cartel», but I am sure that the professional teams of Claro and Yume felt very good, without such impressions. At an organizational level there are things to improve and I am convinced that small oversights such as two toasters on a single group of espresso coffee machines will be fixed in the next edition.

Above all, one cannot help but notice the rise of Cluj, which in terms of the number of cafes using bean specialties breaks Bucharest’s neck in the opinion of the «capitalists» or even surpasses Bucharest, according to the inhabitants of Cluj. It’s not a war, but an example of how some people in certain cities can understand that running a coffee shop isn’t just about collecting exclusivity payments and «marketing budget» from a famous coffee brand, but looking at things through the lens of the quality you want to offer customers in the cup, the training you do with the team of baristas you hire. And the entrepreneurs of these two cities have overcome this apparent barrier and are now on the wave.

The National Aeropress Championship, the central point of the event, was also a great success, with 37 participants registered to compete for a place on the plane from Dublin to the world championship. Congratulations to the winner, Alexandru Lazar (Victor Fresh To Go, from Cluj-Napoca) and I am sure that after a few days of training with the jury Cosmin Mihailov, he will represent us with honor at the world championships. Congratulations also to all the competitors for the fact that by participating they have demonstrated that we have a new generation of baristas, passionate about their work, talkative, intelligent, smiling and optimistic, all ready to welcome customers with the new 3rd wave coffee philosophy. Speaking about the jury, the organizers brought together some of the best coffee professionals from Romania, as well as Cosmin Mihailov (Bloom), Vlad Buda (Steam), Marius Nica (Olivo), as well as an expert judge from Berlin, Patrick from 5 Elephant.

I was pleased to see that the Espressoman community also had two warm representatives, Cosmin Racolta and Stefan Dinescu, Cosmin at his first participation, Stefan also qualified in international competitions after winning the national Tasting Cup. Furthermore, for my colleagues on the forum, I also reserved a space just for us where I put my Brewtus Expobar and a La Marzocco GS/3 EV side by side, with the idea of ​​seeing the differences between an E61 group and a saturated LM one. I made a mistake in not having two identical grindings in order to be as objective as possible, but I promise to find a suitable place and repeat the experiment, with all my homework done.

In the end, the organizer of La Marzocco Romania, via Afshin Roshanian, seemed overwhelmed by the overall picture, probably realizing everything only the next day, because I saw him very upset by the magnitude of the event, at the awards ceremony. A big BRAVO, both to him and to all those involved in the project.

As Mihai Panfil, head of the competition, said, we must remember and invite all coffee enthusiasts to the following great events dedicated to coffee this year, Bucharest Coffee Festival organized by SCAE Romania from May 4th to 8th, Barmaniada, with 8 years of tradition behind it, on May 31st and why not, Tea and Coffee Festival in autumn. As we said on site, these competitions are not necessarily demonstrations of strength, but have the role of rewarding excellence in the sector and promoting good taste, quality, specialty coffees, enthusiasts behind the bar, all ingredients for a more prepared and demanding end customer.

Other photos of the event can be found in the topic dedicated to the event on the Espressoman Forum.