{"id":1380,"date":"2018-10-23T04:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/10\/23\/dutch-coffee-outside-the-randstad-at-black-bloom-in-groningen\/"},"modified":"2018-10-23T04:00:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T14:00:46","slug":"dutch-coffee-outside-the-randstad-at-black-bloom-in-groningen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/10\/23\/dutch-coffee-outside-the-randstad-at-black-bloom-in-groningen\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch Coffee Outside The Randstad At Black & Bloom In Groningen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Specialty coffee is booming in the Randstad, as the Dutch call the conurbation of Amsterdam<\/a>, Rotterdam<\/a>, The Hague<\/a>, and Utrecht<\/a>. But what about outside this urban quadrumvirate? Yes, beyond these metropolises, there lies a coffee universe. And in the more rural, less-tourist-traipsed country\u2019s north, there is an undeniable Polaris: Black & Bloom<\/a>. Located in the province and same-named city of Groningen, the cafe has been shining bright since summer 2012. Locals know it. The rest of the world should, too.<\/p>\n

The individual behind it is barista, roaster, and Specialty Coffee Association technical and sensory judge Gerben Engelkes. His first name means \u201cstrong as a bear with a spear\u201d in Frisian. It is fitting; Engelkes is unshy about sharing emotions and is given to bold statements about what he likes and what he does not like. He has competed in four Dutch Brewers Cups, the last being in 2016, when he placed fourth, proudly using coffee Black & Bloom had recently begun roasting.<\/p>\n

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Gerben Engelkes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That same year, Dutch trade publication Misset Horeca <\/em>awarded Black & Bloom first place on its annual Koffie Top 100<\/a>. This year, Engelkes is a head juror for the ranking body. He acknowledges that the list is sometimes derided by specialty coffee industry colleagues; one common criticism is that venues\u2014or their more moneyed sponsors, often commercial roasters\u2014must apply to be assessed and the applications carry a fee.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of people say, \u2018You sold your soul.\u2019 I say, \u2018No, I just want to improve coffee quality in the Netherlands,\u2019\u201d says Engelkes. \u201cIt was meant to be a list to make entrepreneurs aware that coffee is their business card and they should improve in making better-quality coffee in HORECA [food service], in general.\u201d The jury\u2019s scope is \u201cnot specialty,\u201d he emphasizes, but coffee-serving establishments overall, \u201cin a bar, for instance, on the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

On an old street near neighborhood of the University of Groningen, Black & Bloom seats only 25. Though neat and meticulously furnished, it feels comfy, not cramped. There is a place for everything, including a two-group Synesso MVP Hydra<\/a> and four grinders: a Victoria Arduino Mythos One<\/a>, an Anfim Super Caimano<\/a>, a Mahlk\u00f6nig EK 43<\/a>, and a Mazzer Mini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Referring to Black & Bloom\u2019s menu, two espressos and two filters are \u201cthe magic number,\u201d says Engelkes, \u201cbecause you cannot keep [more than that] fresh.\u201d To prepare the latter, he favors the Kalita Wave<\/a> \u201cbecause of the flat bed immersion.\u201d For coffee cocktails, he uses a Kyoto-style cold-brewed elixir and fruit syrups from the 130-year-old Groningen liqueur-makers Hoog Houdt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tempting cakes \u201chave the look and feel of North America and the taste of the Netherlands\u2014so [they’re] not overly sweet,\u201d says Engelkes, who bakes them himself, though can easily take up confectionary consultation with his wife, a pro pastry chef. She comes from the northern province of Drenthe, where her parents had an asparagus farm. In fact, for both spouses, food has been a family enterprise.<\/p>\n

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Engelkes\u2019 parents once ran Vonk\u2019s Automatiek<\/a>, a snack bar in his hometown of Winschoten that was passed down from his grandfather. There, Engelkes witnessed an artisanal approach to quickly consumed everyday treats\u2014the croquettes, among other deep-fried staples, were made by hand. Engelkes\u2019 cosmopolitan outlook and signet-ringed flair for presentation seem influenced by a period in his early 20s, when he was employed as a hotel operational manager in Salzburg, Austria. Later, he returned to the Netherlands and managed a small hotel in the seaport city of Delfzijl. That was no dream job, though it awakened him to local demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially on Sundays, we had 10 kilos of coffee going through easily on a fully automatic machine,\u201d he recalls observing on his hotel shifts. \u201cSo I said, \u2018Let\u2019s do something different than that. I want to be the best coffee place in Delfzijl.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Engelkes did not open the best coffee place there, but eventually\u2014after barista training, owning two franchises of Coffee United<\/a>, and working a merch stand at World of Coffee 2012 in Vienna<\/a>\u2014did so in Groningen. Black & Bloom is set to hold the title.<\/p>\n

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This past May, the shop’s Giesen W6A<\/a> moved into a new roastery, allowing for an increase in weekly output beyond the previous 45 to 60 kilos. That, in turn, will let Engelkes expand wholesale and\u2014planned for this fall\u2014launch a subscription service. He would do well to ship coffee to other provinces (not least adjacent Friesland, where the city of Leeuwarden was designated a 2018 European Capital of Culture<\/a>) and, really, anywhere else on Earth wanting a taste of the Dutch north.<\/p>\n

Black & Bloom is located at Oude Kijk in \u2019t Jatstraat 32, Groningen<\/a>. Visit their official website<\/a> and follow them on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Karina Hof is a Sprudge staff writer based in Amsterdam. Read more Karina Hof on Sprudge<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

The post Dutch Coffee Outside The Randstad At Black & Bloom In Groningen<\/a> appeared first on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Coffee News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Specialty coffee is booming in the Randstad, as the Dutch call the conurbation of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. But what about outside this urban quadrumvirate? Yes, beyond these…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[63,27,65,33,61,32,59,31,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}