I attended a Specialty Coffee event in my city, where a guest barista was preparing various coffee drinks.

Hey, coffee lovers, how are you? Weekend is almost over and rather than my usual Saturday morning post, here is a Sunday afternoon one. This week was a bit different and a lot more interesting for me because of a very interesting coffee event in my city. The place was the usual Specialty Place 23, but our friend barista Misho has invited a guest barista from the capital.

Alfoe has a great experience as a barista and attends national and world coffee events. He has worked in a Dabov coffee shop. As you may know Dabov is the specialty coffee that has a constant presence in my home and every month I buy between 0,8 and 1 kg of fine beans.

The main list of drinks that alfie was preparing was Filter coffee, Espresso and… be careful… Cezve!

Of course I went for the last method, because this is not something that you can buy everywhere in the coffee shops.

The method originates from Turkey and is something that persists for quite some time in Bulgaria. I mean… at least 100-200 years. Nowadays though, you won’t be able to find Cezve coffee almost anywhere. This is because Espresso coffee has occupied almost every cafe, shop or restaurant. Now filters start to exist here and there, but Cezve is only available in some tourist destinations as a special attraction.

A key difference in the Cezve coffee preparation requires extremely fine ground coffee. It has to be like powder, and even the espresso seems coarse next to this. And this makes the coffee in your cup extremely concentrated and bitter. Of course Alfie makes it differently.

Usually, the cezve coffee has to boil three times and be taken off fire, but Alfie heats it more gradually and he does this only once. The coffee ends up being more balanced and sweet, rather than overextracted and bitter. And the second dofference is… that isually people ise the cheapest coffees available, while tis coffee was brewed using fermented (200 hours) specialty beans from Honduras.

The result in the cup was really interesting. The coffee was still very aromatic and inique in flavors. It was not full bodied like some espresso extractions, but still very intensive and fruitful in its aroma.

I was very happy to attend this event, because I and Misho (the owner of Specialty Place 23) have discussed several times that we will be happy to try Cezve coffee, but prepared with high quality and more expensive beans. That was like a dream come true. 😁

When I was leaving, I decided to buy some beans, because we will travel today. I and my wife are going to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and we woll be staying in a spa hotel. Knowing what the quality of the coffee is at these places, we need a bag of good beans.

Misho went in the back room of the coffee shop and came with this interesting. The Naughty Dog roastery sounds like something… tasty 😁

This morning was entirely dedicated to some baggage arrangement and while my wife was delaing with it it was time to make an espresso shot and arrange our “coffee baggage”.

It seems like a lot of stuff, but actually becomes quite practical and fits a small bag and the AeroPress cup.

And I am really comfortable to travel with all the coffee gear I need in this compact form. No glass parts, which can be broken, no heavy machinery. Simple and tasty!

And in a matter of week I will share with you where we will stay. Now, I have to bring the suitcases to the car and leave. Have a wonderful week. See you really soon!

Bye!