news – No Pressure Coffee

Coffee Cabana has a new barista

I will be working as a part-time barista in the wonderful new Brasilian-minded coffee place Coffee Cabana, in Utrecht, starting today!

Single origin Brasilian coffee from the owner’s region where she grew up. Roasted to spec by Spot On Roasters in Amsterdam. We’ll try to bring back the smells flavors of the coffee she grew up with.

They also offer Brasilian bites and dishes for lunch and in between. Many products made from Tapioca flour which is naturally gluten free and vegan. Come check them out! Close to train station Vaartsche Rijn in the Vondellaan in Utrecht.

Coffee Cabana beans from Brasil — Coffee Cabana

Officially Registered “No Pressure Coffee”

No Pressure Coffee is now an official one-man company and registered at the chamber of commerce in Utrecht.

My KvK number, for tax purposes is 75493039.

So I’m available for all your short or long term shifts, projects or events! Use my contact page to get in touch with me.

I’m also on several modern temp and traditional job sites or services. You can find me on:

Look forward to hearing about your coffee business, your plans or your dream! I’d be happy to help any way I can!

Checkout my certificates as well as my services. I have been a member of the SCA since 2018.

What to do with old coffee?

Here is an idea that can come in handy on warm summer nights when you crave a coffee but it’s too hot to drink it.

Sometimes you find yourself buying ground coffee in larger quantities because the store has a sale. But some of these packs may find themselves getting hidden behind other groceries in your closet. And then suddenly they are out of date and you normally toss them in the garbage. But you could do way better! And reduce/reuse at the same time…

Take your old outdated coffee, open it and store it in an airtight container. Use your favorite recipe and method for making coffee and increase the coffee dose approximately 20-30%. Use whatever you like, just use more coffee. Aeropress, Chemex, filter brewer, cafetière, Mr Coffee machine, doesn’t matter.

Get a whiskey glass for each cup you’re making
Fill each glass with 50% ice cubes
Get cold whole milk from the fridge (almond or soy will also work but they lack the milk sugars, so add a pinch or two sugar to taste in those cases)
Stir the fresh made coffee to mix flavors and bitters
Pour coffee slowly on top of ice to instantly cool it; fill so that the ice just floats and cubes clear the bottom of glass
Froth the cold milk or pour straight from carton

Voilà, iced coffee! Nothing special but the milk sugars will hide the somewhat stale flavors of the old coffee and the milk fat will make it creamy and smooth. Especially if you can froth the cold milk!

Out with the old, in with the new

Tickets are set, container has been shipped off already, apartment in the Netherlands arranged.

We leave in three weeks and will be back home by the end of Spring.

I’m selling most of my barista equipment because I can’t use it on 230V or 50Hz or both. Check Facebook and Instagram for good deals.

If you are a coffee house or catering company in Amsterdam, Utrecht or Amersfoort (of anywhere in between) and you are looking for a skilled (head) barista to cover shifts during the Summer, please get in touch with me using the contact form on this site.

Sint Maarten coming to an end

Unfortunately we have decided to leave this beautiful island of St Maarten earlier than originally planned. Family health issues are making us move back to the Netherlands so we can be closer to our parents. While it is not a real issue finding a flight at any given day, being closer feels much better than 10,000 km due East.

So No Pressure Coffee SXM will soon cease to exist and I’ll reopen in the Netherlands in one form or another.

Hope to see you there when the time comes…

Trying Amavida Coffee

I’ve been waiting for a good reason to do so, but now that my beans are gone, there are no visitors scheduled to arrive anytime soon and I really don’t enjoy local supermarket coffee, I had to find a new supplier.

Now, from my experience at the Marketgarden supermarket, I know that Carib Bean Company in Antigua is a good, local and reliable supplier. They make fabulous blends that have stood the test of time, roast on-demand and deliver via airfreight. Fast, but expensive. So I need an alternative. Maybe it can be achieved cheaper, better coffee or faster?

Amavida coffee roasters

So I ordered a couple of small 8-12oz sample orders from Amavida in Miami. I use a US mailbox address that can repack multiple orders into one small package and forward that via boat, DHL or Fedex. MyMalls is fast and reliable but also not as cheap as using local shipping companies such as SCS, Tropical or the Mailbox. However, for fresh roasted coffee it must be fast.

The tropical heat and humidity kill off roasted beans in 15 min when left exposed to air!

So Amavida it is and I’m very excited! They were awarded “Roaster of the Year” in 2018, so my expectations are very high! I hope they equal or surpass my experience with the Ethiopia single origin from Evermore in Rotterdam!

Running out of beans

After having finished the amazing reserves of coffee beans I’ve had brought to me by visitors, the sad time arrives when they run out… This happened last week so now I am resorting once again to supermarket coffee from St Maarten.

“Which coffee do you drink?” is a question I get asked regularly. Well, I don’t make it a secret but bean selection on St Maarten is pretty poor and limited. I’ve tried all the coffees, both ground and whole bean, and my favorites are the house brands from either SuperU or Carrefour. Value/price is super. They both have the same supplier that packages the coffee in custom packages for both, but the coffee is identical as far as I have been able to test and taste.

They come in different “flavors”: Peru, Colombia, Brasil, Ethiopia and Mexico. The Peru and Ethiopia match the best with my tastes. Bold, strong smells and flavors, full bodied strong coffee with enough balance and sweetness not to make it too bitter. They are blends from 100% Arabica beans. Both of them.

Normal recipes call for 30 gr of coffee for 500 ml of water (at 92-96 Celsius) but since this is an espresso grind and not a filter grind (much finer than would should be used), I either use colder water than prescribed (82-86 C) or I reduce the amount of coffee by 10% (3 grams here).

My favorite brew methods are Aeropress in the morning (it makes a more bitter espresso-style cup) and Hario V60 in the afternoon (smoother, milder, less bitter oils)

Caribbean Coffee Culture

Coffee culture is fascinating. Different in Puerto Rico from St Maarten in many ways but essence is the same, that’s my conclusion after aspending 2 weeks in and around San Juan. They favor more bitter cups of coffee in the Caribbean, IMHO. Dark roasted (French or Italian) blends of Latin American beans, some strengthened with Robusta beans.

The body is always unbalanced, though. Coffee is rarely ground on demand so it spoils quickly in the heat and humidity. In Puerto Rico they favor the espresso and cortadito whereas in Sint Maarten they favor plain filter coffee and lattes or flavored coffee with syrups. Saint Martin goes for espressos and cappuccinos but people often overheat the milk here.

Pack of coffee beans — Uncommon “medium roast” coffee from Puerto Rico

It’s just painful to taste all the uncleaned portafilters and old grinds together with the “spoiled” grinds that have been sitting there too long. Such a shame. Keeping up the spirit for a good coffee. Even if one in a hundred.

Barista Christian Peper on island92 radio

I had an interview with the famous Dr Soc of island92 radio last Monday. We talked about coffee in general and what you can do on the island of St Maarten make a better “cup ‘o joe” in the morning.

Summary:

No matter what ground coffee you are using on Sint Maarten, use a filter coffee maker and

use Volvic (bottled) water
boil the water and let it cool a minute or two
pick a spoon to measure the ground coffee and always use the same exact one!
use between 50 and 65 gram ground coffee per liter of water.
I recommend starting with 30 gr for 500 ml and see how that tastes.
- If too bitter: use less coffee, for instance 27.5 gram for 500 ml
- If too bland: use more coffee, for instance 32.5 gram per 500 ml
pour a little bit of the water onto the grounds and let the coffee “bloom” for 30 sec
pour the rest of the coffee not taking more than 3 minutes for all the water to seep through
let it cool a little bit before drinking

Enjoy!

Going separate ways

Sadly, Market Garden, the Double Dutch Café and No Pressure Coffee will be going their separate ways as of today. It’s really difficult establishing specialty coffee standards in an area that still consumes large amounts of instant coffee, that was already known when we started our cooperation in March.

But it has proven increasingly more difficult to do so, instead of becoming easier, and that’s why No Pressure Coffee has decided to go its own way and seek a different cooperation.

We thank Market Garden and staff for their patience, effort and the opportunity. We wish them the best in their endeavors for the future with the cafe.