On Friday the 13th of March, what seemed like the entire Dutch coffee scene gathered together in Amsterdam at the flagship store of Coffee Company, on the Oosterdok. From the northern region of Groningen to the southern town of Maastricht, and even neighboring Belgium, baristas flocked to Amsterdam for the Dutch AeroPress Championship.
The host Coffee Company, the biggest specialty coffee bar chain in the Netherlands, generously provided the space, beer (from local brewery De Prael), pizza (via Margherita Tutta La Vita), and also the competition coffee: Colombia Finca El Mango, sourced by 32Cup.
The judging panel consisted of Gabriel Dunn (International Sales Associate at Café Imports, based in Berlin), Yoeri Joosten (Quality Manager at the Golden Coffee Box and third runner-up of the World Cup Tasters Championships 2014), and Sofie Nys (E-Account Manager and Sales Support for 32Cup). According to Nys, herself competing in the Belgian AeroPress Championships on the 15th of March, judging her own coffee clearly showed her how diverse a coffee can taste brewing with an AeroPress. The flavor profiles were widespread, from full and chocolatey to a juicy mango-bomb.
It was a tough match, with a lot of Dutch all-stars and previous finalists showing their skills. Looking at all the techniques and recipes used, one general observation is that the coffee was best when overdosed, fines removed, brewed cold, and then chilled down. After a lot of cupping and spittoon usage, the judges finally crowned Floris van der Burg of White Label in Amsterdam the 2015 Dutch AeroPress Champion.
Floris van der Burg will be flying off to Seattle to compete in the World AeroPress Championship in April. Second place went to the 2013 champion Mieke Boden, while the bronze AeroPress went to White Label’s Francesco “Disco” Graccotti.
3rd Place: Francesco Graccotti (White Label)
20 grams of ground coffee on the Mahlkönig EK 43, fines sifted
Inverted method
3 paper filters
Stir and bloom the ground coffee using 40 grams of water at 15 degrees celsius for 2 minutes
Over a period of 30 seconds add 160 grams of water at 80 degrees celsius
Wait for 30 seconds and plunge while screaming “POMPEN!!!” (loosely translated as “PUMP IT!”)
2nd Place: Mieke Boden (Borgman Borgman and Crusio)
23.6 grams of coffee very coarsely ground on the Mahlkönig EK 43
Inverted method
2 paper filters
Add water at 74 degrees celsius and fill to the top
Aim for a total time of 1:45 minutes
1st Place: Floris van der Burg (White Label)
19 grams of coffee finely ground on the Mahlkönig EK 43, fines removed
Standard method
1 Paper filter
Stir and bloom the ground coffee using 30 grams of water at 15 degrees celsius for 2 minutes
Over a period of 30 seconds add 160 grams of water at 72 degrees celsius
Wait for 30 seconds and plunge for 30 seconds
This is Cerianne Bury’s first feature for Sprudge.com. Photos by Pim Rinkes.
