Local barista ready to take the plunge as Vancouver hosts World AeroPress Championship | 24CA News
At his day job as a barista at Vancouver’s Nemesis Coffee, Jeremiah Macadam makes use of a Slayer-brand espresso machine, which weighs round 100 kilograms.
On Friday, Macadam will take half in a world coffee-making competitors geared up with a plastic, syringe-like object that weighs round 400 grams.
Macadam will symbolize Canada on the World AeroPress Championship, going down in Vancouver by way of Saturday.
The major occasion, which occurs Friday at The Pipe Shop in North Vancouver, will see rivals from around the globe attempt to make one of the best cup of espresso with an AeroPress, a cylindrical tube with a plunger and a silicone seal.
The AeroPress was created in 2005 by toy inventor Alan Adler, who was in search of a method to manually make a single cup of espresso. Macadam says he often makes use of the AeroPress whereas tenting or backpacking and has grown to understand its versatility.
“There’s a bunch of different styles or ways that you can brew an AeroPress and that creativity really gives the barista the opportunity to highlight different flavours or really bring out what they want in that certain coffee,” he mentioned.
Several variables go into utilizing an AeroPress, he mentioned, together with grind measurement, the amount and temperature of the water, how lengthy you let the espresso steep, how a lot you stir — or agitate — the espresso, and the way arduous you press down on the plunger.
What’s Macadam’s model?
“I love a fairly coarse grind and a lot of agitation,” he mentioned.
Captain Canuck
Grant Gamble, one of many championship’s co-organizers, describes the occasion as a fast-paced elimination event the place rivals have 5 minutes to make espresso utilizing the identical sort of beans and an AeroPress earlier than presenting their creation to a panel of three judges.
He says it differs from many espresso competitions that permit individuals to make use of completely different tools and beans.
“It’s a pretty even playing field, unlike many other coffee competitions where a lot of times it kind of feels like Formula One where [if] you have more money, more resources, you can tend to do better in competition,” he mentioned.
Once a champion is topped, rivals will go to 10 espresso outlets round Vancouver on Saturday to brew the winner’s recipe.
Gamble says the championship began in 2008 when a group of buddies in Norway wished to see who may make one of the best cup of espresso.
From there it is grown to function greater than 3,500 rivals yearly from dozens of nations. He says the championship does obtain assist from AeroPress, however is its personal unbiased group.
This 12 months’s championship in Vancouver will host rivals from 39 international locations — together with some from international locations who’re competing for the primary time, together with Uganda, Morocco and Oman. They’re not all baristas, however come from all walks of life, Gamble says.
Macadam says he loves the competitors. In this case, he’ll be within the uncommon place of vying for a world title in entrance of a hometown crowd.
“My family is going to get to come watch. My wife will come watch … and my close buddy is coaching me here,” he mentioned. “They called me Captain Canuck,” he mentioned.
So what recommendation does a aggressive AeroPress consumer have for the common Joe trying to up their recreation?
Macadam recommends utilizing a scale to measure espresso grounds. Those who do not have a scale ought to intention to fill their AeroPress with about an inch-and-a-half to 2 inches of floor espresso.
“Pour hot water over top, all the way to the top, give it maybe three stirs, put the cap on, let it sit ’til about a minute-and-a-half or two minutes, and then press it,” he mentioned.
“That’ll probably produce a pretty decent cup of coffee.”
