WORTH EVERY PENNY

Three Pence Roasters has installed a 60-kilogram Imf industrial drum roaster.

Three Pence Coffee Roasters talks to BeanScene about taking the leap to Imf roasting equipment and the value in staying connected to its customers. T here’s an obvious sign when experience,” Anthony says. feeling the pressure of needing more it’s time to take the next In 2005, the boys saw a shift in roasting space, Anthony and Mark relocated his step in growing a business. standards and a higher consideration in 10-kilogram Roastmax roaster to a much It could be high volume of sourcing, traceability, sustainability, and larger premises in the suburb of Caringbah. sales or the need to employ flavour experimentation. “We were roasting a tonne to 1200 more staff. For Anthony Preston of Three “There was a clear difference in the kilograms of coffee a week on our Pence Roasters, however, it was when his quality of commodity coffee we were 10-kilogram Roastmax roaster, seven days wife took one look at the family garage serving and the fresh, specialty roasted and two nights a week,” Anthony says. filled with palates of green beans and said, coffee appearing on the market. It was With a growing portfolio of wholesale “enough is enough”. a movement we wanted to be part customers, Anthony and Mark made

Anthony started his journey in the of,” Anthony says. the decision to upgrade their roaster and coffee industry around 15 years ago with As such, in 2015, Anthony and Mark started doing their homework on the school friend and now business partner invested in a 10-kilogram Roastmax roaster myriad of models on the market. Mark Gentle. They opened their first café from company Owner Will Notaras after “I learned how to roast on a Petroncini. called Miami Ice, “back in the day when meeting at an industry tradeshow. I was torn whether to stay old school or go Italian imported coffee was King”, and The new investment – a standard down the modern track. Thankfully, Will is years before the specialty coffee industry as drum roaster with gas modulation – made such a knowledgeable guy and explained we know it took off. At the height of their its home in Anthony’s Cronulla garage how advanced the technology in today’s café success, the boys owned and operated in New South Wales. It didn’t take long selection of roasters are,” Anthony says. eight cafés at any one time with 110 staff. before Anthony was supplying each of Thanks to expert insight, Anthony and

“Those early days working in cafés his cafés with his own roasted coffee, and Mark bought a 60-kilogram Imf industrial is where our love for the industry outside interest followed. drum roaster from Italy. Getting the comes from. We learned a lot from that After one year in the garage and machine into the Three Pence warehouse 46 beanscenemag.com.au

was the next step. The Imf roaster arrived fully assembled. All they had to do was hire a crane to lift the roaster off the back of a flatbed truck, and forklift the machine into position.

“Within a week of the roaster sitting on the floor we were test roasting coffee,” Anthony says. “It’s a very slick set up. The support from Imf has been incredible – the roaster is connected to Wi-Fi so Imf-trained technicians can see what I’m doing and visually check at any time if I have issues, which is really reassuring. But here on the ground Will’s roasting knowledge is just as invaluable – and he always answers his phone, which is a bonus.”

Unlike conventional roasters that use an afterburner, Imf roasters use only one burner chamber that sits to the side of the roaster. As the coffee is roasted, the emissions leave the roaster via a steel duct into the burner chamber to incinerate the emissions. Some of the clean heat in the burner chamber is instead re-circulated via a stainlessThree Pence Roasters’ Dark Carnival won an Australian International Coffee Award in the Cappuccino category. steel duct back into the roaster. It’s recirculating heat technology further reduces gas consumption by experience, but once you get your head up to 47 per cent. around that it’s really a ‘wow’ of a machine

“The energy efficiency is amazing. It – and the coffee is bang on all the time.” runs at about 550°C and sucks air from the Imf’s equaliser ensures the same electronic vortex system, which manages volume of air enters the roaster, giving accurately how much hot air mixes with even heat distribution across the entire cold air to go into the drum,” Anthony surface of the coffee beans. This eliminates says. “It’s more convective than conductive any temperature fluctuations inside energy. It’s a whole new learning the drum so that the coffee is evenly developed and consistent.

“The main difference I’ve noticed is the clarity and cleanliness of the coffee. The acidity rises a lot so you need to balance that out, but you can pick the flavours of every coffee a part easily. If you want to taste caramel, you get caramel,” Anthony says.

He adds that the roaster can be programmed to where the heat needs to be at certain times, with bean and air temperature, and airflow and drum speed easily adjusted at every point of the 12-step profile.

“No matter how technical roasters are, it’s important to still monitor your coffee visually, and assess the environment and humidity constantly. When you’re starting out in the industry there’s huge value in learning on a smaller model and understanding the fundamentals,” Anthony says.

The proof was in the pudding when At the height of their café success, Anthony Preston and Mark Gentle owned eight cafés. Three Pence Roasters was awarded one silver and three bronze medals in this year’s Australian International Coffee Awards.

“There’s definitely a bit of pride in what we’ve achieved, especially when the accolade comes from your industry peers who have said “good job”, in a way. Behind the scenes we’ve worked hard to create sustainable, consistent blends with constant cuppings to perfect our coffees,” Anthony says. “To be rewarded like this makes everything worthwhile and gives you a happy flutter in your heart when you stand next to the roaster for five hours every day.”

The award-winning coffees include Three Pence Roasters’ Kenyan Barichu in the Espresso Single Origin category, known for its black currant and toffee notes; Switch Foot Blend in the Espresso class; and Parmour Blend and Dark Carnival Blend in the Cappuccino, Milk Based category. The Dark Carnival was the first blend Three Pence Roasters developed for its wholesale customers, known as “the people’s choice” for its popularity.

“We went through a trend of chasing light, brighter roasts and now we can see Sydney roasts coming back to strong flavour hits with winey, chocolatey notes that pack a punch,” Anthony says.

The Three Pence customer base agrees, with distribution to cafés now ranging from the Central Coast of Sydney, to the CBD and the foothills of the Blue Mountains.

“We know there are roasters and cafés doing it tough at the moment but on a positive note, we’ve seen our suburban customers jump in sales by 10 to 15 per cent,” Anthony says.

Anthony and Mark have ambitions to expand Three Pence Roasters, grow the business with their customers, and continue to celebrate Australia’s unique café scene.

“We’re stoked with how its progressing and what we’re putting out there. We’ve built the roastery around the knowledge of people and cafés – that’s where our love affair with the industry started,” Anthony says. “For us, it didn’t just start with coffee, it started with showing up at cafés, and experiencing the vibe and attitude. That’s what we love and don’t want to lose sight of.”

As for Anthony’s wife, she’s much happier now that there are four tonnes of green coffee stacked up in the warehouse and not in their garage: “The car’s back in its proper home now – happy life, happy wife.”

Kony 2020

Mazzer has packaged its latest developments in grinder technology in a compact size with the launch of the Kony S.

In 2017, Italian grinder manufacturer Mazzer set out to completely renovate its product range. It began with the release of its updated Robur S and Kold S conical burr grinders. Not long after, Mazzer followed with the flat-burr Major V and the completion of its S line of conical grinders, the Kony S.

At a relatively lean 20 kilograms, the Kony S takes the new technology found in Mazzer’s larger grinders and serves it in a format more accessible for medium-tohigh-volume cafés. Marco Schnabl, Project Engineer of the Kony S, tells BeanScene the grinder was designed to enhance the aromatic notes of a coffee.

“We’ve been told it achieves this by many roasters and baristas who had the chance to test the grinder,” Marco says.

Aroma is preserved due to the Kony S’s many features that maintain the temperature of the grinder. The burrs’ low revolutions per minute (RPM) – 420 RPM at 50 hertz and 500 RPM at 60 hertz – stop the blades from heating up while still allowing a grinding speed of three to 3.6 grams per second.

Its head and body are two separate pieces, guaranteeing a better dispersion of heat from the motor. A double fan cooling system, also used in the Kold S and Robur S, expels hot air from the grinder.

But perhaps the most impressive feature of the Mazzer S line present in the Kony S is the Grind Flow Control (GFC) system.

“Designing the new models, we were faced with a number of challenges, beginning with the consistency of the grind. Then, we had to reduce the amount of coffee wastage and make it easier to clean the parts of the machine that are usually difficult to access. This is all in order to simplify the barista’s daily work and improve the quality in the cup,” Marco says.

“Our grinders are sold worldwide in more than 90 countries, with different weather conditions, climates, coffees, and baristas. Where you use the grinder and if the coffee is a light or dark roast completely changes the result. The answer from our laboratory was grind flow control, which is installed in Kold S, Robur S, Major V and now Kony S.” 48 beanscenemag.com.au

The GFC is a removable aluminium outlet insert, equipped with a wire damper, that sits in the chute below the burrs. This system prevents clumping without the need for crushing, and at the same time, reduces the electrostatic charge of coffee grounds, which means less coffee grounds are dispersed across the counter. GFC is a dynamic system that responds reactively to the coffee, without obstructing the flow, but with enhanced control throughout the chute.

“When there is a strong charge built up, the coffee grounds go everywhere. With this system, you can customise the GFC to your needs with two different wire dampers to regulate the flow [the Hybrid and AntiClumping dampers],” Marco says.

“This is possible because our highly specialised team of technicians and workshop full of the latest machinery allow us to produce complex components. We don’t just assemble the grinders, we design and make each of its pieces inhouse.”

The grinder leaves the factory with a built-in Hybrid damper, which Marco says provides the best results in a majority of situations. But for very light roasts or challenging weather conditions, the AntiClumping damper is also available in the GFC box.

The ability to easily remove and replace the GFC also keeps it simple to clean. Making the Kony S straightforward to operate and maintain was a key consideration of Mazzer during its development.

“It is very easy to use thanks to ergonomic solutions that help baristas to save time and coffee,” Marco says.

“You can remove the top part of the grinder in one piece – without losing track of grind settings – to access the grinding chamber for cleaning or changing burrs.”

These grind settings are manually established with Mazzer’s Memory Track ring. Sitting below the hopper, the bottom part of Memory Track adjusts grind size, while the top part displays numbers and markings for the barista to track.

The user can either find the point where the blades are touching, set the upper ring to zero, and go from there, or, they can find a grind size they are happy with and mark it with a certain number on the top ring to return to later. “Memory Track is basically a barista custom index of grind settings that gives users a reference number when grinding,” Marco says.

Once the grind size is taken care of, baristas can turn to dosage where there is a number of options available. Ondemand grinding can be activated with the portafilter, or using the buttons on the control panel.

“The Kony S features a new electronic control panel with programmable settings for single, double, and triple dose,” Marco says.

“It also tracks statistics and gives maintenance alerts, like when the burrs should be changed.”

This control panel is Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled, meaning this information can be collated and shared online. Mazzer will release an app to provide café owners and technicians with full access to this data and technology.

“With IoT you are able to keep an eye on your grinder remotely. If you are a technician with several grinders spread across Australia to take care of and organise maintenance for, you can view what, when, and where changes need to be made on your device,” Marco says.

“But servicing is not the only use. You can also gather statistics, control grinder settings, and realise coffee volume data, all without being near the grinder.”

Mazzer temporarily halted production from March to April due to the restrictions surrounding COVID-19. However, its research and development, sales, and other departments continued to work remotely.

Marco says the company is operating at full speed again, with its focus on maintaining both a modern approach to mechanical engineering and an artisan approach to manufacturing, as it has done since 1948.

“We didn’t suffer with big delays from external suppliers as we produce all of our main components inhouse,” Marco says.

“We have a very modern workshop with machinery that produces what we need to build the grinder. They are then assembled by hand, and every person is responsible for building an entire grinder from beginning to end, the best way to grow skills and feel rewarded by your job.”

The Mazzer Kony S made its grand debut last year at Host Milano in Italy where it left an impression on the many local and international visitors. The Australian industry will see the grinder up close at the 2020 Melbourne International Coffee Expo in November, thanks to Australian distributor Coffee Works Express.

In a market as competitive and demanding as Australia, Marco says the many medium-to-high volume cafés will benefit from Kony S’s focus on quality, stability, and ergonomics.

“The Kony S is a big step ahead from the previous model. It enhances the aromas of your coffee, has an excellent dose consistency, low retention, and produces uniform coffee grounds in the portafilter,” Marco says.

“And, like all Mazzer grinders, it’s made to last.”