I took a Home Barista course "Brewlution". Here's how it went...

While exploring the local coffee scene I discovered the Teneo Coffee Shop, one of the few "new wave" coffee places in Zagreb. They were offering a three-hour Home Barista course called Brewlution.

The course was rather affordable, costing 100 kn (about $15 for you international readers). It also said it included 200g of one of their single origin coffees, which they usually price at 39 kn. So I figured it was worth a shot.

Since I live some distance from the shop, I arrived a bit early as the shop was closing for regular customers. The shop is a small kiosk. The inside is full of coffee photos, chalkboard-style menu and info about current coffee and courses, and shelves full of coffee gear. This sort of styling, although perhaps popular in some places, is very different from usual cafes in Croatia.

There was total four of us taking the course, plus the coffee shop's owner, a guy named Christian. He prepared some of the gear we were going to use, and then - as we started the course - he started talking about the coffee: its' history, legends and myths, how it's cultivated, grown, processed etc. The whole story. We had questions, they got answered. To be honest, I already knew most of that since I spent a lot of time reading stuff about coffee (including the stuff he posted), but there were new informations. He also included some criticisms about most local cafes, and why the coffee they serve is far from optimal.

This took about an hour and a half, and then we moved to the practical part. First was the espresso machine - how to pull a good shot of espresso using the coffee shop's Gaggia machine. All of us tried filling the portafilter, tamping and pulling a shot. Of course, we would drink our coffee. Mine ended up slightly too runny, but still better than I got served in most bars - although I would primarily attribute that to the well-cleaned machine and good coffee. Perhaps important to note: this was purely an espresso lesson, we didn't touch the milk, steam wand or the maintenance of the espresso machine beyond portafilter cleaning (that's part of another course).

We didn't try to make other types of coffee - instead, we would just observe how Christian made them, and all of them were made using the same beans - the blend that was currently sold in the shop. Second coffee that was demonstrated was Turkish coffee, the default home-made coffee around these parts. We prepared it using the traditional gear (that few people here have and use). It was prepared slightly differently than I usually do it, and as a result was somewhat stronger and creamier-tasting.

The third method was pretty much unknown in these parts: Hario V60 pour-over (manual filter coffee). Making a coffee in it looked interesting, but a bit technical (pouring in circles using a gooseneck kettle), but the end result was delicious and tea-like clear. Since the only filter coffee I had previously was from machines, this was an amazing improvement.

By this time, espressos already kicked in and most of us were starting to feel high on caffeine, energetic and elated. That's probably why I forgot to take a photo of the next method we tried - French Press. To make up for it, I wrote instructions on using it in my previous post - since I also have it and enjoy coffee from it :). The one used on course was also from Hario, and the coffee - while not as clear and presentable as from V60 - had a nice and rich taste. This was probably my favorite coffee this evening.

This was followed up by Aerobie Aeropress coffee. We had two, actually, to demonstrate various ways of brewing it. The first coffee ended up sort of similar to V60, though maybe a bit towards the result we got with French Press. The second method was with more coffee, less water, finer grind and less immersion time. The coffee from that was totally different - closer in taste and texture to espresso than to previous brew from the same device. This was quite impressive.

The final method used was the Vietnamese filter. It's a pourover device - however, the coffee we got from it was closer to the French Press than to V60. It was also a bit more bitter. Supposedly, it's typically drunk with sweet, condensed milk but we didn't have any at hand so we tried it with normal milk.

This concluded our coffee adventure, which stretched for an extra 45 minutes. It was also supposed to include moka pot lessons, but unfortunately Christian forgot to bring one. We got 200g of the same blend we used on course (not single origin as was advertised - Christian explained that the coffee shop typically has only one coffee that is fresh and used for everything, and that rotates - currently, the blend is what's fresh). At that price, I'd certainly recommend it to everyone interested.