lost in londinium

lost in londinium from iambrianjones on Vimeo.

This little video is the result of a class I took recently. We were asked to use video to illustrate a quote relating to London. I chose the following quote by author V. S. Naipaul.

“I came to London. It had become the center of my world and I had worked hard to come to it. And I was lost.”

Gwilym is the World Barista Champion

Gwilym Davies – the current UK Barista Champion – is now the World Barista Champion. A few months ago Gwilym travelled to Atlanta, Georgia to compete with approximately 50 baristas from around the world for the title. Congratulations, Gwilym!
(I am just posting this now because I have been too busy drinking great coffee from this company :)

Gwilym Davies, United Kingdom – 2009 WBC Finals

Gwillym Davies, WBC champion talks a little about his drink preparation

Lush Macro Flora

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Just throwin’ up some recent macro work I shot during a visit to the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Hyde Hall in Essex. I didn’t take any notes, so your guess is as good as mine as to what the plants are.

Follow this link for the full Flickr stream of all the images.

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Gwilym Davies 2009 UK Barista Champion

Congratulations to Gwilym Davies who has just been crowned the 2009 UK Barista Champion. I’ve just thrown this post up for people who want to know more about this great barista. (click here for full post with embedded media.)

Gwilym works outdoor coffee carts at two busy London markets. He uses coffee from East London’s Square Mile Roasters.

Gwilym’s winning espresso was a 50/50 blend made up of Finca San Jose Pulped Natural Red Catuaí from Erwin Mierisch and family in Nicaragua, and an El Molino de Santa Rita Washed Orange Bourbon from Jose Antonio Salaverria’s farm in El Salvador.

During the the final Gwilym’s espresso and signature drink attained the highest scores. The idea behind his signature drink was to enhance flavours that were already in the espresso he was working with. He created an infusion of butter, cinamon, orange peel, muscovado syrup, and dark chocolate that he added to the espresso.

Here is Gwilym’s semi-final performance:

Here’s Gwilym’s championship-winning final performance:

Here are all the videos from the UKBC Finals.

Here is a video of the results and an interview with Gwilym:

Here’s a podcast about Gwilym.

(Note: At the time of recording Gwilym was using beans from a different London roastery.)

Click here to download this podcast.

Here are some photos of Gwilym at work on Whitecross Market

Below is a map showing the locations of Gwilym’s coffee carts.

View Larger Map

Here’s Gwilym on Google Street View:

View Larger Map

Articles about Gwilym in the media:
Gwilym is the odds on favourite to win WBC from Newsdesk.
It’s the third wave of coffee in the Guardian on 16 March 2009
Evening Standard 10 March 2009
All hail Gwilym, the coffee king! from the Islington Gazette 18 March 2009
Hospitality Magazine 11 March 2009
CatererSearch 13 MArch 2009

Blog posts about the man:
Square Mile Coffee Blog
Gwilym Davies Barista Eccezionali from Belaphon
Twitchy interview with Gwilym

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