Beanscene August 2019 by Prime Creative Media

AUGUST 2019

A World-Class Coffee Magazine

More than a cup Why community connections matter

Coffee in crisis

Emilio Lopez Diaz on supplyÂ chain realities Aremde removes the wall of steel

Ethiopiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lasting legacy

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AUGUST 2019

contents UPFRONT

10 NEWS 14 STUFF ON THE SCENE

The latest must-have products

INDUSTRY PROFILES

KNOWLEDGE LEADER

CELEBRITY CHEF

Producer Emilio Lopez is a voice for El Salvador Christine Manfield on enjoying coffee in its simplest form

74 Coffee in Good Spirits and Cup Tasters Champions

42 DESIGN FEATURE

Companies share the meaning of design in their businesses and products

66 MICE2020

Secure a ticket to the hottest expo and parties in town

74 THE REAL ORIGIN

Cofi-Com’s John Russell Storey on the legacy of Ethiopian coffee

76 TECH TALK

The humble coffee group head and why it matters

SKILL BASE

78 ESPRESSO YOURSELF

Jibbi Little presents the Fantastic Mr Fox she presented at the 2019 World Latte Art Championship

80 TRAINING TACTICS

NOMAD’S LAND

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Mocopan Coffee’s Babin Gurung on the meaning of strength and how to achieve it

THE COMPLETE PACKAGE

Aremde removes the wall of steel with the Nexus One

Dr Monika Fekete explores temperature-dependent variables

The many arms to Nomad Coffee Roasters

39 A WINDOW TO COFFEE MAKING 82 R&D LAB

Ransom Specialty Coffee makes its voice heard

47 SLAYER'S LATEST HIT

Lavazza's new ¡Tierra range is the roaster's commitment to sustainability at origin

50 FIRST CRACK

60 REIGN OF ¡TIERRA!

64 CAFETTO BARISTA PROFILE

Slayer unveils its newest LP combining craft and capacity The latest scales from Hiroia helping baristas improve

Singapore's John Ryan Ting crosses the bench from barista to judge

52 RIDING THE WAVE

FEATURE NEWS

54 A MAJOR DEAL

25 A SOCIETY OF COFFEE

SoCo Roasters on building a community around coffee

32 COFFEE IN CRISIS

The impact of the C Market decline on Australian businesses

36 MEET THE CHAMPS

Introducing the 2019 World 4

beanscenemag.com.au

The new Nuova Simonelli Aurelia Wave maximises the potential of coffee The new Major V grinder from Mazzer featuring Internet of Things technology

56 THE KEES TO CUSTOMISATION Three coffee equipment specialists are giving greater access to the specialty machine brewing technique

CAFE SCENE

68 CAFE SCENE

Around Australia

85 ASTCA

Honouring the original pioneers of the Australian coffee-growing community

86 ASCA

Ready, set, regionals

87 NZSCA

Worlds behind us and comps ahead

89 TEA SCENE

How to start a conversation about specialty tea

90 E SCENE

Fans of the magazine

Unpretentious coffee that delivers consistency in every cup.

Quality roasted coffee – SINCE 1954. www.mocopan.com.au 1800 423 267

vershoot o c e n e c S n Bea PUBLISHER Christine Clancy christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Baker sarah.baker@primecreative.com.au JOURNALISTS Ethan Miller ethan.miller@primecreative.com.au Alexandra Duffy alexandra.duffy@primecreative.com.au ART DIRECTOR Blake Storey DESIGN Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Camilo Molina camilo.molina@primecreative.com.au

The Hungry Fox Cafe 305 Wirraway Rd, Essendon Fields, VIC, 3041 www.socoroasters.com.au There may be no snow in Melbourne during these cooler months, but the mountain-inspired chalet that is The Hungry Fox Café in Essendon, Victoria, is the ideal winter escape. The café opened in 2018 as an extension to the nearby LaManna Supermarket in Essendon Fields, and has become a favourite hangout for locals looking for a suburban retreat. With the café still relatively new, as is its coffee supplier, SoCo Roasters, BeanScene Editor Sarah Baker says it was a perfect opportunity to feature both brands on the cover of our winter edition. “What a fantastic opportunity to celebrate a passionate café that embraces family, food, and fantastic coffee, and a new roaster that thrives on story sharing and supporting the local community. It's the perfect alignment of values,” Sarah says (see page 25). With the assistance of SoCo Coffee Specialist Victoria Alec Zeta, BeanScene took over the large café space towards the close of business and put Alec to work. He demonstrated his technique and patience as he pulled shot after shot and perfected his latte art under pressure. The three-hour shoot utilised SoCo’s Society house blend consisting of Zambian Catimor and a Colombian Dulima blend of Typica and Caturra. “SoCo is so well suited to The Hungry Fox Café’s diverse demographic. It’s locally roasted, and packs a punch. The Hungry Fox Café was our first test ground to trial this new brand. The reaction has been incredible,” Alec says. The final covershot, photographed by Blake Storey, aimed to capture The Hungry Fox’s ‘winter vibe’, and was done by utilising the café’s many interesting interior and textures, including its fireplace, marble benchtop, and granite wall. “The final shot is one that represents everything that SoCo More than a cup embodies in terms of its connection to nature and origin. Looking at the cover image, you can’t help but want to enjoy a SoCo coffee, and then hopefully another and another,” says SoCo Roasters’ Trade Marketing Manager Faye Heininger. +

AUGUST 2019

Why community connec

A World- Class Coffee Magaz ine

tions matter

AUGUST 2019

beanscenemag.com.au

Coffee in crisis

Emilio Lopez Diaz supply chain realition es

Aremde removes

the wall of steel

Ethiopia’s lasting

beanscenemag.com.au

legacy

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Brad Buchanan brad.buchanan@primecreative.com.au DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au CLIENT SUCCESS TEAM LEADER Janine Clements janine.clements@primecreative.com.au PHOTOGRAPHY Blake Storey, World Coffee Events, Kate Beard, Ona Coffee, Simon Shiff, Toby's Estate, Rosa Friend, Kristaps Selga, Josh Griggs, Fairtrade ANZ CONTRIBUTORS Jibbi Little, John Russell Storey, Babin Gurung, Maurizio Marcocci, Emma McDougall, Kieran Westlake, Dr Monika Fekete, Bradley Cahill and Mafalda Moutinho HEAD OFFICE Prime Creative Pty Ltd 11-15 Buckhurst Street South Melbourne VIC 3205 p: 03 9690 8766 f: 03 9682 0044 enquiries@primecreative.com.au www.beanscenemagazine.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 03 9690 8766 subscriptions@primecreative.com.au BeanScene magazine is available by subscription from the publisher. The rights of refusal are reserved by the publisher. ARTICLES All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format. COPYRIGHT

BeanScene magazine is owned by Prime Creative Media and published by Christine Clancy. All material in BeanScene magazine is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published. The opinions expressed in BeanScene magazine are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by, the publisher unless otherwise stated.

the best coffee deserves a better milk A collaboration between foodies, baristas & farmers who are passionate about coffee.

• MILKLAB® is a premium product that has been specially formulated to texture and stretch with espresso coffee.

• We have collaborated with roasters, Q Graders and Baristas to develop our MILKLAB® range.

• Designed to allow the coffee flavour to cut through.

• Convenient twist cap for easy opening and storing.

FOLLOW THE JOURNEY

#milklabco

MILKLABCO.COM

CONTRIBUTORS In each issue of BeanScene we profile a few of our talented contributors. Dr Monika Fekete is a chemical scientist with a passion for coffee. She is the Founder of Coffee Science Lab, Australia’s first independent scientific coffee consultancy. She has collaborated with innovative coffee companies, roasters, and competition baristas, helping them underpin coffee research and development projects with solid scientific principles. Monika regularly hosts workshops around putting coffee science to practice. She also works for the Department of Food and Agriculture Innovation at Monash University.

Babin Gurung is the Suntory Coffee New South Wales Barista Trainer. With a Masters degree in accounting from the University of Southern Queensland, the only numbers Babin crunches these days are extraction and dose times. He came to Australia from Nepal 11 years ago to study, fell in love with coffee, and hasn’t looked back. Babin has worked at many different cafés in Sydney, and now enjoys sharing his coffee knowledge and skills to help build a new generation of baristas.

Rawirat Techasitthanet, also known as Jibbi Little, is originally from Thailand and lives in Sydney, Australia. She is a barista, latte artist, and roaster at Jibbi Little Roasting Co. She is also the designer and creator of the Jibbijug milk pitcher. Jibbi has worked in the coffee industry for the past 10 years. She is a five-time Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) NSW Latte Art Champion, and is the 2019 ASCA Pauls Professional Australian Latte Art Champion. Jibbi is also a Q-Grader, competition judge, and founder of the Jibbi Academy.

Maurizio Marcocci lived in Milan and attended the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, where he completed a Masters of Economics and International Relations. He has distinct qualifications from Italy as a Certified Coffee Taster with an Espresso Specialist Certificate. Now, as the Managing Director of Service Sphere, Maurizio has grown the business to become an industry leader in the sales and service of coffee equipment in just 10 years.

Emma McDougall is the Communication and Administration Coordinator for the NZSCA. After gaining a degree in hospitality management, Emma has worked in Sydney, Dublin, Auckland, London, and most recently, Wellington. She has owned and managed cafés and tech-judged the New Zealand Barista Championship in 2015 and 2016. Now, she gets to help run them. One of the greatest joys she gets from the coffee industry is watching young people progress through their coffee journey.

A word from the Editor

IS THE ROMANCE DEAD?

omewhere along the line, coffee became a romantic product desired by consumers to transport us to a magical place. It’s presented as the “drink of choice” for a catch-up with friends, the DNA to Australia’s cultural fabric, and the subject of commercials presented by celebrity actors and tattooed baristas. But how did it come to this? In July, I attended Toby’s Estate’s Knowledge Talk series where El Salvador coffee producer and roaster Emilio Lopez Diaz gave audiences a reality check on the challenges faced across the supply chain. He also spoke about the decisions specialty coffee producers face amid growing pressures from saturated coffee markets looking to be “unique”. Emilio is one of the lucky few. He had an education and exposure to support networks early in his career to help him navigate through the highs and lows of the producing industry. For the majority of producers, however, the farmer is not in control. Emilio says many are confused and are doing anything they can to sell their coffee (see page 16). With specialty coffee production representing only 20 per cent of the market, Emilio said it’s time we move away from the notion that everything hand sorted, picked or harvested is “sexy and romantic” and stop thinking that coffee produced from Brazil is “only” focused on volume. Coffee is a business game. For many producers, it’s not about how romantic we can make it, but how they can survive in a low C Market. If the market continues its downwards trend, Campos Coffee Founder Will Young says we run the risk of a dystopian future where commodity coffee reigns supreme, and the rest is an expensive luxury (see page 32). If we want coffee to be around for future generations, Emilio says it’s time we start thinking about what the consumer wants, because they do know more than we give them credit for. It’s for this reason roasters and cafés should continue conversations about origin, prices, and transparency along the supply chain. Some consumers may not bat an eyelid, but they should if they want to understand why the price of their daily cup might rise in years to come, breaking their romantic relationship with coffee once and for all. In a time when the industry is shifting from rituals to real estate and story telling to trade, differentiation is key if we want our producers to survive. In his closing remarks, Emilio told audiences that it’s up to us to help producers find their point of difference, because just as there are thousands of roasters in Australia, there are millions of farmers around the world.

SARAH BAKER

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Because origin matters. Sourced from the Riverina

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NEWS

TAKUMI SAKAMOTO OF DELUCA COFFEE WINS 2019 AUSTRALIAN COFFEE ROASTING CHAMPIONSHIP Takumi Sakamoto of Deluca Coffee has won the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) 2019 AMC Australian Coffee Roasting Championship, held at Criteria Coffee in Port Melbourne, Victoria in late May. Pat Connolly of Genovese Coffee placed second and Daniel Shadbolt of Veneziano Coffee Roasters placed third in the competition. “I’ve been roasting for six or seven years and never entered any competitions... I just can’t believe I won,” Takumi tells BeanScene. “I had no idea what to expect. To win in roasting is an amazing feeling, especially in Australia, one of the ‘coffee capitals of the world’.” Takumi roasted in a smaller one-kilogram batch so more hot air would fill the drum, maximising its convection power. “I made sure I got the best tasting coffee in a cupping format. If I was to roast for milk, filter, or espresso, I might have taken a different

approach,” Takumi says. While Takumi was commended by the judges for sticking close to his roasting plan, he learnt that it is also important to understand what they are looking for. “I roasted in a way that I would like, but what judges want in a cup might not

be the same thing,” Takumi says. “I need to understand how judges see the coffee and how the scoring works.” Takumi will represent Australia in the 2019 World Coffee Roasting Championship, taking place in Taipei from 15 to 18 November at the 2019 Taiwan International Coffee Show.

Pat Connolly, Takumi Sakamoto, and Daniel Shadbolt took the top three spots at the ASCA 2019 Australian Coffee Roasting Championship.

AUSSIES COMPETE IN WORLD COFFEE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Image: Jeff Hann, WCE

Danny Wilson placed ninth in the 2019 WCIGS.

The World Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits, and Cup Tasters Championships were held in Berlin, Germany at the World of Coffee Expo from 6 to 8 June. Danny Wilson of Ona Coffee placed ninth in the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, with Dan Fellows of Origin Coffee in the United Kingdom reclaiming his title. Jibbi Little of Jibbijug made it to the semi-finals of the World Latte Art Championship, where she placed 11th.

Italian Manuela Fensore of Barlady Café Academy took home gold in the competition. MJ Kim of Shamble Coffee Brewers placed 39th in the World Cup Tasters Championship, where Daniel Horbat of Ireland proved to be the fastest and most accurate coffee cupper. New Zealand’s Alan Bruce of Flight Coffee placed fifth. In 2020, the three competitions will take place at World of Coffee in Warsaw, Poland from 18 to 20 June.

Same difference. Everything you do with milk, you can now do with oat.

AUSSIE GROWN & MADE

Finally a plant milk that works just like dairy. When it comes to taste and foam quality, no other plant milk comes close to NEW Vitasoy CafĂŠ for Baristas Oat.^ With a mild and balanced flavour, and perfect fat content, it lets the beans speak for themselves. ^Based on our results from an independent blind trial with select baristas. Full cream dairy milk used for the coffee above, Vitasoy CafĂŠ for Baristas Oat used for the coffee below.

NEWS

ELIDA ESTATE REPEATS BEST OF PANAMA VICTORY In 2018, Wilford Lamastus of Elida Estate made Best of Panama (BoP) history when he won in both washed and natural Geisha categories and broke the coffee quality competition’s record for its highest scoring coffee. Now, Elida Estate has done it again, winning both categories and setting new records at BoP 2019, which took place from 22 to 25 May. The Elida Geisha Green Tip Natural ASD (anaerobic slow dry) scored 95.25 out of 100 in the natural/special process category, beating last year’s score of 93.34 points. Its washed equivalent scored 95 in the Geisha washed category, beating the previous record of 94.66 points. “It feels unbelievable, like a dream. There was always this thought about winning one category and doing well in the other, because no-one had ever won both categories in the same year, and then we ended up doing it twice,” Wilford says. To reach that record-breaking score in the natural category, Elida Estate processed its coffee using the ASD method. Wilford and his team fermented the coffee in anaerobic tanks for five days, and then slow dried it over a five-week period. “Most coffees are dried within two to three weeks. We made sure that the coffee dried in a longer period of time while being careful to ensure it will come out clean in flavour,” Wilford says. “[Combined with anaerobic fermentation, slow drying] a coffee from an altitude lower than 1700 metres or a non-Geisha variety creates a new flavour profile that changes the cup, creating intense liqueur and winey notes, with some cacao nib notes. But in high-

The Elida Geisha Green Tip Natural ASD scored 95.25 out of 100 in the natural/special process category.

judges is proof that Panama has some of the best producers in the world. “Judging by this year’s high-scoring results, Panama has currently the best coffee in the world. It’s like the Bordeaux region in France, a region that has an incredible reputation for producing the greatest wine in the world. That’s what Panama, and in particular the Baru volcano region, is for coffee. It’s a country that keeps innovating and drawing the best out of its coffee. The value is also inherent in its terroir and microclimates.” The BoP competition has been running since 1998, however, the overall winning award recognising the producer with the most points across all categories, the Panama Cup, has been a title for only the

Elida Estate has broken Best of Panama records in the natural and washed Geisha categories for two consecutive years.

beanscenemag.com.au

past six years. It was awarded to Hacienda La Esmeralda, which beat the Lamastus family by just four or five points. “To see Daniel, Rachel, Price, and Susan [Hacienda La Esmeralda] on stage to accept the winning trophy was an incredible moment, 15 years after they introduced the world to the Geisha varietal. There couldn’t have been a better result for the Petersons, who have now won the BoP

altitude coffees, there is not much change. There is just an added feel of elegant subtle red wine notes, or a cherry liqueur feel that helps add complexity to the coffee without losing the flavours from the variety. In other words, it remains a clean Geisha.” Will Young, Founder of Campos Coffee, was Head Judge of the BoP for the second year in a row. He says the high-scoring coffees from the panel of 21 international

twice, along with the Lamastus family, and Kotawa Estate,” Will says. Wilford says his family’s consecutive Geisha category wins demonstrate the overall quality of Panama coffee. “In the past years, several Panama Geisha farms performed exceptionally, and placed high in BoP and BoP auctions, but Hacienda La Esmeralda owned the records and the majority of the first places,” Wilford says. “In the general public’s eye, it was about Esmeralda Geisha more than Panama Geisha, and I feel that by us winning back to back, it helps the general public understand that is not only about Esmeralda’s superb quality, but Panama’s quality as a whole.”

Antra Svarcs Illustrator. 2019 Grinders Grant Recipient

Since 1962, Grinders Coffee has been committed to reaching new heights in crafting the perfect blend. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve fuelled the passions, deadlines and sleepless nights of Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creative souls. The Grinders Coffee Grant will be awarding $25,000 to another budding Melbourne creative in 2020. Could this be you? Visit grinderscoffee.com.au to register. Entries close August 31st

STUFF ON THE SCENE

Stuff on the scene NEXUS ONE

LELIT GIULIETTA

Aremde is proud to announce the Nexus One, a breakthrough commercial espresso machine for the global specialty coffee market. Designed in the Netherlands and engineered in Australia, the Nexus One sets a new standard in commercial coffee machines. Based on the principle “less machine, more experience”, its body is opened up in order for baristas to truly engage with their customers in contrast to the traditional, closed “wall of metal” machines. Nexus One integrates weight-based extraction to ensure the perfect brew ratio is achieved every time. One digital display presents all essential parameters. Ergonomic buttons are designed to be simple and smart in order to give baristas unparalleled freedom to connect with customers and showcase their art and skill. For more information, visit www.aremde.com.au

Lelit has been hand building espresso machines in its Milan factory for decades, and has now turned its attention to the compact commercial market with the twogroup Giulietta. The Giulietta has “full size” specs with a 10-litre boiler and E61 group heads but compact dimensions at only 58 centimetres wide. The mobile coffee market will appreciate the standard 10-amp power requirement and that it can be plumbed or run off an external tank, while the office market will appreciate the clean lines of its all-stainless steel body. Baristas benefit from the temperature stable groups with no cooling flushes, cool touch steam wands, and sprung rotary valves. Service costs are minimised with easy access to internal components via the side and top panels, with one screw each. The Lelit Giuilietta is distributed in Australia by Jetblack Espresso at RRP $4999. For more information, contact wholesale@Jetblackespresso.com.au

CLICKPOS APP Upgrade your point of sale to ClickPOS, turning your iPad into a powerful point of sale system. The ClickPOS app is packed full of features tailored specially for the food business. The app takes customer orders, creates invoices, captures customer details, and identifies delivery options. The product catalogue includes multi-variant options, which means offering variety to customers during the sales process. In a coffee sale, select size, sugar, and type of milk are all displayed on a single line. Food orders include standard menu items and additional toppings with prices, so orders can be navigated easily. All items are printed to various points of service, and optional mobile eftpos connection allows staff to collect payment at the table. Minimal training is required as products can be easily identified with crisp clear thumbnail images. The system is fully hosted, developed, and supported in Australia. For more information, visit www.clickpos.com

CALIFIA FARMS OAT BARISTA BLEND

Califia Farms Oat Barista Blend is now available in Australia. Made with whole rolled oats and completely unsweetened, Califia Farms Oat Barista Blend has no added sugar or gums. Crafted in partnership with the barista community, Califia Farms makes sure it exceeds expectations on both taste and performance. It’s creamy, rich, and complements the natural, robust flavour of coffee. The Oat Barista Blend also steams without splitting and creates a delicate foam for impressive latte art. For more information, contact australia@califiafarms.com

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LAVAZZA KAFA FOREST COFFEE Lavazza’s recently introduced Kafa Forest Coffee is one of the finest coffees in the world, and one of the first from the Earth. It originates in the Ethiopian forest, where coffee grows spontaneously, with minimal intervention from the locals. Its coffee cherries are chosen by hand, one by one, and sun-dried so the beans retain the maximum aromatic fragrance. The precious beans are then roasted slowly by Lavazza to become one of the world’s finest single origin, prized blends. The coffee is produced in limited quantity for a unique sensorial experience, intense floral notes, and a typical honey and dates aftertaste, with ripe cherry notes. It has the perfect balance of aroma, taste and body, thanks to the slow gentle roasting that enhances the characteristics of this unique coffee. Kafa is intense, lingering, rich – the real connoisseur’s coffee. For more information, visit www.lavazza.com.au

SUNNY QUEEN FRENCH TOAST Sunny Queen’s ready-made, real egg French toast can save your business time, money, and wastage. The versatility of French toast makes it the ideal centrepiece for a wide variety of breakfast or brunch creations. Full flavoured with a lovely crunch – Sunny Queen’s French toast can be served sweet, savoury, plated, or as takeaway – all from a single product. Whether you’re looking to add an extravagant hero item to your menu or a simple takeaway option for on-the-go customers to add to their coffee, it’s a safe bet Sunny Queen’s French Toast will make café menus shine. All Sunny Queen’s brekkie creations are made with quality ingredients and real eggs. For more information, visit www.sunnyqueenmealsolutions.com.au

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Images: Tobyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Estate Coffee Roasters

MAN OF MANY HATS Emilio Lopez Diaz runs successful farms, mills, exporting and importing operations, roasteries, and retailers in countries around the world. In 2018, his farm La Cumbre placed first and second in the El Salvador Cup of Excellence.

beanscenemag.com.au

KNOWLEDGE LEADER

From seed to cup Emilio Lopez Diaz is a champion of El Salvador’s coffee industry. Through Topeca Coffee Roasters, he operates a vertically integrated company from production and milling to roasting and retailing.

n 2000, Emilio Lopez Diaz had a decision to make. A recent graduate of an engineering management degree at the University of Portland, Emilio could follow his original plan to open a microbrewery in his home country of El Salvador, or, he could join the family coffee business. “At one point, my family was producing and exporting a lot of coffee. But my mother was one of 11 and so was my grandmother. The land had been divided to the point where we only owned 25 hectares,” Emilio tells BeanScene. “About nine months before I graduated, my dad visited me. He said we needed to either sell or grow my mother’s business. The coffee price was too low, and to continue, we would need to invest in becoming millers or exporters to add value to the raw product.” Emilio had his father send him 150 pounds of green coffee, the least he could send via courier, so he could experiment with roasting and selling it while in the United States. “Before I graduated, I remember holding a program in each hand, one for the American Brewers Guild, the other for the Roasters Guild of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. I chose the Roasters Guild and joined them that year,” Emilio says. Emilio learnt to roast through the guild, of which he became Chair in 2017, as well as through networking and connecting with other roasters. He brought this knowledge with him when he returned home after graduating. “When I came back to El Salvador, I went online and searched for the company that could sell me the smallest and most affordable equipment for depulping, milling, hulling, and roasting I could do business with,” Emilio says. “I found a company called Pinhalense, a Brazilian milling manufacturer of machines that had that option. In my first year, I only produced 100 bags of green coffee. No-one else back then had machinery capable of processing such a small amount of coffee per hour or harvest. We’ve since grown, but from the very start, we’ve

“COFFEE ON ONE SIDE OF THE COUNTRY IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TO THE OTHER. WE’RE PUTTING EL SALVADOR OUT THERE AND MAKING IT WORK.” done it all ourselves. It’s been a vertically integrated company.” Emilio sells his roasted coffee under the brand Topeca Coffee Roasters in El Salvador and the US. He now distributes Pinhalense equipment in El Salvador, owns a farm in Brazil, where he also manages exporting operations, and sells green coffee to buyers from more than 40 countries. “A big challenge for most farmers is to find the right home for their coffees,” Emilio says. “In my case, I have a lot of options. I don’t sell a single bean to someone I don’t know. I have personally visited almost every single roastery, know the machine, the roaster, and have been to the coffee shops and met the baristas. We don’t roast all of our coffee, and we have many other customers who buy our green coffee. Diversifying risk is the main thing I’ve accomplished by being so spread out.” It’s this presence in multiple facets of the coffee industry that gives Emilio an enhanced appreciation of the issues faced at every level of the supply chain. Emilio shared this perspective when he toured Australia for Toby’s Estate’s Knowledge Talks series in July 2019. “I want to raise awareness of the realities actors across the chain face on a daily basis, not just what I and other farmers go through at origin, but the roaster and retailer too,” Emilio says. “The challenges Australian cafés face might be different to the US or Italy. For example, by law, Italian cafés can’t sell an espresso for more than €1. Many coffee shops are struggling because of this.” In the US, Emilio says many café owners struggle to make a profit unless they are able to open multiple outlets. “It’s almost impossible to be competitive

or profitable in only one location. You need to have five or more shops to compete. Otherwise, you’re just one more shop and someone can take over your business,” Emilio says. “A single café might succeed with great food or a point of difference, but for the most part, business is about real estate and financing.” For roasters around the world, Emilio believes competition and differentiation have become the biggest challenges. “Countries like Australia – with only a few major cities – are completely saturated. How many Australian roasters have opened up shop in other countries?” he asks. “They go to the US, Europe, or Asia to expand. However, Aussies do coffee in a different way to everywhere else, so it has worked in many other countries.” While these issues are hitting the consumption side of coffee, Emilio says it’s the problems at origin that require urgent action. This includes commodity coffee prices declining below many farmers’ production costs. “People selling specialty get a better price, but 80 per cent of world’s coffee supply depends on the C market,” he says. “I wish all coffee was specialty, but that’s not the case and we need to change its perception. With wine, for example, you have table wine, reserve, and the elite. There’s a bit of everything. Wine has been de-commodified, except for that much lower quality. We have not been able to do that for coffee yet.” Individual producing countries also face problems of their own. In El Salvador, Emilio says the country’s coffee industry is still struggling to recover from a decline in production that started in the 1980s.

beanscenemag.com.au

KNOWLEDGE LEADER

Emilio Lopez Diaz visited Australia as part of Toby’s Estate Coffee Roasters’ 2019 Knowledge Talks series.

“El Salvador’s industry has completely diminished, and we touched rock bottom two years ago. We went from producing around 4.7 million [60-kilogram] bags in 1980 to 500,000 bags last crop year,” he says. “The government had so much control over coffee, and agriculture in general. For the last 40 years, it’s kept the control,

but abandoned investment, aid, and incentivisation in the industry. “Then, in the early 2000s, coffee prices went as low as 40 US cents per pound on the stock exchange and 80 per cent of producers went bankrupt.” The nation was dealt another blow when coffee leaf rust reached its shores in 2012. “Part of what makes El Salvador coffee special is our unique varietals, like Pacamara and Pacas, or the traditional Bourbon and Typica. We were so controlled and blocked by the government in the 70s and 80s – the years a lot of rust-resistant varieties were spread around the world – that some of us had never even planted a rust-resistant variety,” Emilio says. “Then, when a plague hits a country in a bad situation, it completely kills it. Only a few farms survived. But we’re still up on our feet. We are the smallest country in Latin America, but coffee on one side of the country is completely different to the other. We’re putting El Salvador out there and making it work.” Despite the challenges facing El Salvador, Emilio is positive about the

future of its coffee industry. He has formed the Federación de Café de El Salvador, an organisation uniting different players of the country’s coffee sector to provide a single voice for the industry. “We’ve met with the new government that recently came into power, as well as corporations like the Agricultural Institute of America and International Bank of Aid, which all want to help invest in the country,” Emilio says. “There’s a good environment and optimism. It won’t be the same as when we were at our highest point, but we hope to get back to 2.5 million or so bags per year. This will be enough volume to be competitive again.” Looking ahead, Emilio expects the coffee industry to face new hurdles but believes farmers are up to the task. “Throughout history, we’ve been able to adapt and face challenges head on,” Emilio says. “Only 20 years ago, the gap between the farmer and roaster was huge. Now, there is so much more communication. We are all in this together, and should think as an industry, not as a single part of a chain.”

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Christine’s curious mind

THE ORIGINAL ESPRESSO MARTINI Before the espresso martini craze took off, Christine Manfield had her own coffee cocktail on the menu at Universal restaurant called The Flux Capacitor, “a posh espresso martini” made with Mount Gay XO rum, coffee, hazelnut vanilla maple syrup, and Toussaint Liqueur – “luxurious and velvety”.

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Christine Manfield, one of Australia’s most celebrated chefs and culinary ambassadors, speaks to BeanScene about her fascination with flavour and the importance of being brave.

hristine Manfield believes there are some things that should be enjoyed in their most natural form, and coffee is one of them. Mention of latte alternatives such as matcha, chai, broccoli, turmeric or cauliflower spark strong resistance from Christine, with the culinary icon questioning the interest and purpose in such fads. “Sometimes we just need to take a leaf out of the Italians’ book. Go to Italy and get an education on how coffee should be served. It’s not to be drunk in large volumes, or with new-age alternatives. Coffee is coffee and milk is milk. I’m a purist when it comes to coffee. I find it offensive and so Americanised when it’s served as anything else,” Christine tells BeanScene. Rather, Christine credits Australia’s European population for helping develop our coffee culture. “We’ve been lucky. Italian immigration, which largely began in Melbourne, has had a really positive effect on Australian food, wine, and coffee culture. Because of the country’s immigrant history, we’ve been able to share great food and traditions with so many people,” Christine says. Her own coffee tradition starts with a piccolo each morning, or a macchiato with a little extra milk on the side, which she caps at two by midday. “I look for delicious flavour and texture, and nothing too acidic or astringent. Everyone’s palate is different. Some like it a bit more acidic and some like it more fruity, so it’s not definitive,” Christine says. “I don’t ever settle for second best, and that extends to good coffee. Life’s too short to drink crap.” Christine admits she did abandon coffee for six years to alkalise her diet, a decision to help reduce coffee’s effect on arthritis and her gut health. While Christine says the impact was immediate, some things had to give, including her favourite vegetable eggplant and coffee, which she’s reintroduced to her diet. When she’s not using her Nespresso

“SOMETIMES WE JUST NEED TO TAKE A LEAF OUT OF THE ITALIANS’ BOOK. GO TO ITALY AND GET AN EDUCATION ON HOW COFFEE SHOULD BE SERVED. IT’S NOT TO BE DRUNK IN LARGE VOLUMES, OR WITH NEW-AGE ALTERNATIVES. COFFEE IS COFFEE.” capsule machine at home, a device Christine says “delivers consistency” and “takes the brainwork out of coffee making”, she enjoys visiting her local Sydney cafés. This includes Room 10 and Zinc Café in Potts Point, Latteria in Darlinghurst, and Brother Baba Budan and Patricia Coffee Brewers when in Melbourne. “There’s so much good stuff in Melbourne. Sydney has gotten a lot better but if I had to say it, Melbourne still has the upper edge,” Christine says. “What’s happened in the Australian coffee industry in the past five to 10 years has been pretty extraordinary, especially in terms of coffee roasting, which has gone through the roof. It’s pretty exciting. We can now offer a fresher product without having to rely on imported brands that have sat on a ship for four months and lost some of its freshness, vitality, and viscosity.” Across the North Pacific Ocean into the United States, Christine still finds the coffee culture disappointing, and similarly in India, which despite its many coffee farms has “gone down the Starbucks, American chain route”. She does, however, commend London as one of the most progressive coffee cities. “Lots of Australians have gone over there and spread good coffee culture and awareness. London now has a flourishing barista scene – check out Pavilion Café & Bakery on Broadway Market – and that’s the good thing about coffee in general,

it’s flourishing,” Christine says. That extends to Cape Town in South Africa where Christine spent half the day at Truth Coffee Roasting with Owner David Donde, and Tribe Coffee Roasting & Café, both employing Melbournetrained baristas. Beyond the café walls, Christine has also travelled to origin to experience coffee production in Bhutan, India, Vietnam, Colombia, Kenya, and Ecuador. “It’s always good to see where things originate. Coffee appreciation has definitely evolved in the past 10 years from chefs and consumers. A lot of work is going into education and public awareness. More and more, we want to focus on the provenance of food source, minimise food miles, and eat healthier. Coffee is part and parcel with that,” Christine says. “I’m a firm believer that everything has to be sustainable and free trade – the automatic markers we should be considering for everything we buy in our food chain, not just coffee.” Christine describes her culinary career as “a never ending story”. She started out working as a hairdresser then a teacher, both of which she pursued for seven years. Christine turned to commercial kitchens in the 1980s with no formal training but a fascination for flavour and the origins of different cuisines. It’s this curiosity that’s led Christine to a fruitful career as a restaurateur at the helm of highly

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CELEBRITY CHEF

acclaimed restaurants including Paramount in Sydney from 1993 to 2000, East@West in London from 2003 to 2005, and Universal in Sydney from 2007 to 2013, in which she served seasonal coffee from Sydney-based Single O coffee roasters. “I had no game plan. [Cooking] was just something I started doing and really enjoyed,” Christine says. “You can’t know it all when you start. But for me, it was about having an open mind, being curious, making brave decisions, and being prepared to step right outside of my comfort zone. It’s advice I give to lots of people in the industry. If you’re going to be timid and not brave enough, then really it’s not the game for you. “The beautiful thing about the food world is that you can never stop learning. It’s infinite. There are always new things to discover. As long as I stay engaged, challenged, and interested, I’ll keep going. I’ve always had a very lateral approach to my work, and such a broad playing field. I’m not restricted or pigeonholed into one cuisine or country. I want to

explore the whole lot.” And explore she has. Using her travel expeditions and industry experience as inspiration, Christine has published 13 cookbooks (the 14th is on the way), and cements her love of coffee as an ingredient from “way back” when her first dessert book featured a chocolate tart with an espresso ice-cream cone on the cover. “For me, it’s about working out what flavours are compatible with each other so you get a complete synergy and lovely chemistry happening in your mouth. Having a finely tuned, astute palate allows me to experiment with the alchemy of how flavours all work together,” Christine says. This talent served Christine well when she worked with Nespresso in 2013 to design a five-course degustation in Spain highlighting two of Nespresso’s new, strong capsule offerings with spicy characteristics. Christine continues to combine her love of food and travel by hosting regular food tours to some of her favourite culinary destinations, including Central America, India, Italy,

Mexico, and Colombia. “Travel is a large part of my world,” she says. “At this stage in my life it’s about starting collaborations, having some fun, and making the most of whatever you do. It’s important to not take yourself too seriously, but at the same time be able to deliver a knockout memorable product or service.” Reflecting on her 36-year career, Christine says while there are too many career highlights to list, the fact that she’s still standing in a progressive industry is definitely up there. “The key has been reinvention and adaption, staying ahead of the pack, and keeping it fresh and interesting rather than doing the same tried and tired things all the time,” she says. “Working overseas has also been a huge advantage. It’s humbling to remind yourself that you’re a small fish in a very big pond, and to find your place in the world.” For more information on Christine Manfield’s upcoming food tours in 2019 and 2020, visit christinemanfield.com/tours

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

A society of coffee SoCo Roasters talks to BeanScene about connecting with origin, developing a unique blend, and building a community around coffee.

t less than a century old, Zambia’s coffee producing industry is one of the youngest in the world. With its first coffee trees planted in the 1940s, local farmers are happy to share with visitors the folklore of how coffee was introduced to the country. “The unofficial story of coffee in Zambia, as told by locals, is that a British explorer crashed his plane in Zambia and was nursed back to health by a local nurse. They fell in love and he ended up staying, started a coffee farm, and never left,” says Jonathan Goldthorpe, Coffee Specialist at SoCo Roasters. “Google has different ideas, but I’m more inclined to trust the locals.” SoCo Roasters, which made its public debut at the 2019 Melbourne International Coffee Expo, uses a Zambian coffee – sourced through trader FTA Coffee – as the basis of its Society house blend. SoCo Roasters Marketing

Manager Steven Commerford says through this partnership, the specialty roaster is able to contribute to those who provide its coffee. “There are some really strong community projects on the ground in Zambia. An 800-student school and medical clinic were built for the local community in the last few years, and the farmers we buy from have employed the first female tractor drivers in Zambia,” Steven says. “There are not many opportunities for women to work in Zambia. They’re often left at home to take care of the family, and that’s their only option. This project allows the women to gain agricultural knowledge, be hands on in the producing process, and build their skillsets. “All of the development and work being done there is only the beginning. We can be directly involved and actually see the impact and change these projects are making.” As well as an opportunity to

contribute to the local coffee producing community, Jonathan says working with FTA Coffee in Zambia has provided SoCo with access to unique and exceptional coffees. “The coffee from Zambia has an interesting tasting profile, with a big body, bright acidity, juiciness, and slightly spicy taste. We just found it really different,” he says. “The farms are fairly young as well. They only produced their first fruit in 2015. It’s exciting to see their potential to produce even better coffee.”

WHAT GOES IN A BLEND? Zambian Catimor contributes to 50 per cent of the Society Blend and is paired with a Colombian Dulima blend of Typica and Caturra. “Quite a bit of development went into the blend. We made more than 20 different combinations, experimenting with roast profile, blend ratio, and different coffees. We narrowed it down

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

to three coffees we really thought were fantastic,” Jonathan says. “We then had people throughout the industry independently and blindly cup several coffees, including our’s, to make sure we were putting out the best tasting coffee we could.” He adds that involving people from outside SoCo Roasters in the research and development phase ensured they were not only appealing to their own taste preferences.

roasting,” he says. Since the blend made its debut, Steven says it has been well received, with SoCo’s wholesale customers experimenting with different ways to serve the coffee. “I was visiting a customer who was trying different shot times to get the best out of the coffee,” he says. “They found if they extract it for longer, it will taste more chocolatey, and a shorter yield draws out more acidity.”

SoCo Coffee Roasters’ Society Blend contains tasting notes of dark chocolate and juicy cherries.

across Australia. He brings with him a decade of experience as a barista and seniority as the Chairperson of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association Central Region. “We meet on a fortnightly basis and work with roasters to tweak the roast profiles and make sure we have best tasting coffee we can put on the market,” Jonathan says. “We also communicate internally about what the brand is about and sharestories from origin. SoCo Roasters is built on the stories of where we get our coffee.”

FROM THE GROUND UP

“A lot of small roasters create coffees they like, but no-one else does. Having other knowledgeable people in the room with you is often good. That way you’re not just stabbing in the dark until you find something only you like,” Jonathan says. The Society Blend contains tasting notes of dark chocolate and juicy cherries. Steven says in Australia’s current coffee climate, it’s important to offer something memorable as well as high-quality. “You can absolutely taste those flavours – it’s obvious and distinctive. The best and most popular coffees in Australia are those that you can recognise with one sip. That’s what we were after, something that would really stand out,” he says. Jonathan adds that the real challenge is finding this type of quality coffee for use in a house blend. “When you’re trying to find something unique, with some kind of connection to the farm, it’s tough to source it in a large quantity. A lot of people forget that when they begin

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Jonathan agrees that people enjoy the versatility of the blend. “Some blends are hard to manage, whereas this is quite flexible and easy to use. It can behave differently depending on how it’s treated,” he says. “Most coffees use a standard twoto-one water-to-coffee ratio, but we’re pouring it with a short yield and it’s tasting great, really highlighting the nice juicy acidity of the Zambian coffee.” Alongside the Society Blend, SoCo Roasters has introduced a single origin program to its offering. Jonathan says so far, the standout of the program has been a Sidamo Guji from Ethiopia. “I think it’s the best single origin we’ve ever made,” Jonathan says. “It has an amazing, really strong strawberry flavour in the grind and as a piccolo, it cuts through like a strawberry milkshake.” Jonathan assists master roasters with procuring coffees like this from origins around the world, as well as quality control and research and development with a team of Coffee Specialists

As well as communicating these stories, Steven felt it was important the look of SoCo Roaster stood out in the marketplace. He says SoCo’s brighter colours contrast with the darker packaging that was popular at the time. “We wanted something to reflect a clean, fresh palate that was easily recognisable,” Steven says. “The star in our logo, between ‘So’ and ‘Co’, reflects the acronym of society and coffee. It brings the two idea together.” Much of the other imagery SoCo uses connects to the folklore of the British pilot and projects carried out at origin. Steven says this represents the importance of Zambian coffee to SoCo Roasters. “People in the industry want to know every detail they can about the coffee they sell and consume. Café owners and baristas want to hear the story of where that coffee came from and how it’s changed over the years,” he says. “Promoting our connection to Zambia and these stories provides a richness to the brand while raising awareness of the country’s coffee industry.” Like Zambian coffee production, SoCo Roasters is still relatively young, but at less than a year old, its retail operations have extended outside of Melbourne to New South Wales and the Northern Territory. “There’re only a few specialty cafés around Darwin and we were lucky enough to find a particular owner that absolutely loved the coffee and said that’s what he wanted for his café,” Steven says. “He even named it Society Café and for its backdrop, he painted a cool mural of a skeleton preparing an inverted AeroPress from a pre-launch Halloween event we ran last year. “Our goal is to build an ecosystem which is the ‘Society of Coffee’. We want our customers to be online, connected, and understanding what we’re trying

to do with our coffee.” In July, SoCo partnered with the Delaware Group to open a venue at Melbourne Airport, an opportunity Steven says will help increase the brand’s visability to a broader audience. “Melbourne Airport is becoming a hub for coffee and SoCo will be right there,” Steven says. “It’s good exposure, but it’s also the right exposure. Our objective is to build this in the right way. We don’t want to partner with people not committed to the quality in the cup.” Steven says to continue growing, it is important SoCo offers something new to the Australian coffee scene. “Coffee is all about the society around it. We want to be everything a society, culture, or subculture could want around coffee,” he says. “SoCo is about doing things in a different way. It’s more than just a supply type arrangement. We offer a personal service, connection with the best people in the coffee industry,and celebrate everything great about coffee culture.” For more information, visit

www.socoroasters.com.au

SoCo Roaster

SoCo has spread to New South Wales and the Northern Territory since launching in Melbourne last February.

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Nomad’s land Veneziano Coffee Roasters is just one facet of what parent company Nomad Coffee Group has to offer. CEO Craig Dickson discusses the group’s different arms and plans for growth.

eneziano Coffee Roasters is a well-known brand within the Australian coffee industry, with multiple Australian Coffee Championship titles to its name. It has a presence in every state, including roasteries in Melbourne and Brisbane, and training studios and cafés spread across the country. However, there is more to Veneziano than meets the eye. The specialty roaster is just one part of the Nomad Coffee Group, a parent company launched in 2018. Craig Dickson, Managing Director of Veneziano and CEO of Nomad Coffee Group, says the new identity reflects the parent company’s dedication to coffee. “Nomad Coffee Group is a collection of specialty coffee brands with different roles, interests, and customers. We wanted to establish an overarching identity for a couple of reasons,” Craig says. “Firstly, to connect our brands via common goals and values, but also let them stand up on their own and in their own space. Secondly, we wanted to unify our people and provide

them endless opportunities to explore and build a meaningful career in the specialty coffee space, demonstrating our merit as an employer of choice. Nomad Coffee Group lets us do that. “Ultimately, the parent company needed to epitomise specialty coffee. That’s what we’re all about and we want to remain true to that as we grow.” The group takes its name from the nomadic shepherds of Arabia who first discovered coffee beans growing on the hills where they grazed their flocks. “In looking for a name, we explored the commonly known and respected history of coffee – ensuring that we leveraged a belief the world shared,” Craig says. “Nomads were the original coffee drinkers, so we felt it a great term to explain the adventurous and exploratory nature of our business and our people.” Craig says the values shared across Nomad Coffee Group include integrity and trust, people and community, knowledge and curiosity, a winning culture, collaboration, and sustainability.

“These have underpinned the success of Veneziano since we started it almost 20 years ago,” he says. “Now, we’ve been able to take that to a broader group level and share these values across each brand.” Another of Nomad Coffee Group’s brands is Black Bag Roasters, a contract roaster launched in 2015,and led by General Manager Lance Brown, an accredited World Latte Art Championship Judge. Black Bag Roasters offers large retailers, franchises, and catering companies the opportunity to utilise the group’s specialty expertise to develop their own blends and packaging. “We saw an opportunity in the marketplace for people wanting access to specialty coffee roasters, talent, and the approach we take to coffee,” Craig says. “Black Bag Roasters has a range of customers. Some choose specialty and others pick high-grade commercial coffee. They can choose their price point by deciding what quality of green they have in their blend.”

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Craig Dickson is the Managing Director of Veneziano Coffee Roasters and CEO of Nomad Coffee Group.

Craig says Black Bag Roasters applies the skills and knowledge of a specialty roastery to large volume contract roasting and is one of the few in its field to offer post-blending capabilities. “Most contract roasters use a fairly automated closed system, where green beans go in one end and a bag comes out the other,” he says. “The advantage of Black Bag Roasters is that it’s still artisanal. The guys stand at the roaster and watch and track every batch.” Despite sharing an appreciation for the craft of specialty coffee, Craig feels it’s important the two brands maintain separate identities and value propositions. “Veneziano roasts at a smaller scale. All blends and microlots are strictly specialty coffee and it provides value beyond the bag, like barista training and operational service,” he says. “On the other hand, Black Bag Roasters has the ability to scale to larger volumes and build blends to suit the customer’s need and budget.” With Black Bag Roasters catering to large-scale clients and Veneziano focusing on cafés and restaurants, Craig felt there was an opportunity for the group to go direct to the consumer. Coffee Hit was

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established for this purpose. While initially an online business, Coffee Hit opened its first physical store in Westfield Doncaster more than a decade ago. “Westfield approached us and asked if we wanted to put a roaster in the middle of the shopping centre. We thought it was ridiculous at first, but it has worked really well,” Craig says. Coffee Hit follows a franchise model, and roasts coffee instore at its 12 locations in shopping centres across Australia. “We train each store owner on how to roast, and every time we introduce a new coffee, a member of the Nomad roasting team visits the store to set the profiles,” Craig says. “Soon, we’ll be able to dial in from our Richmond headquarters and upload the profiles direct to their systems.” Craig believes while there is much talk of oversaturation in the Australian market, there is a growing demand from suburban and rural areas for specialty coffee. “Consumers understand if you go to a specialty outlet, you get a much better coffee experience. When they’re at work in the city, they’ve got access to specialty, then at home in their shopping centre, it’s not there,” he says.

“Even the landlords are challenging franchises to step it up. They want their retailers to be experience-based and specialty, which is why independent operators like Axil are thriving in centres like Chadstone.” While Craig is sure there is room for growth in Australia, Nomad Coffee is exploring overseas for further investment. “We have an ambitious growth program and want to grow more outside of Australia. Recently, we partnered with a New Zealand business called Flight Coffee,” Craig says. “We were looking at how to expand into other markets and have known the Flight Coffee guys for some time, so knew our values aligned. There were clear synergies of both companies pushing to achieve similar results.” Flight Coffee rose to international prominence in 2013, when co-founder Nick Clark placed fifth in the World Barista Championship (WBC). The team at Flight are big supporters of the global industry, Co-founder Richard Corney a respected WBC judge and other team members participating in groups such as Coffee Quality Institute and Specialty Coffee Association. “We have a lot of respect for the Flight Coffee team and think they’re one of the leaders of specialty coffee in NZ,” Craig says. “We’ve grown a successful business here and we are now sharing information between Flight Coffee and our people. We believe with our systems, processes, and access to talent, we’re able to help them soar.” Nomad Coffee Group has plans to extend its reach beyond the Southern Hemisphere, as far as Europe and North America. “We’re currently looking at a roastery in Asia and for potential investments in the United Kingdom and United States,” Craig says. “It’d be hard to start Veneziano from scratch in a new market. We’d rather invest in an existing business and help it reach its next level.” In the meantime, Craig says Nomad Coffee Group’s Australian focus is to increase the presence of its three brands, particularly Veneziano. “We have an office and training room in every state, but now the goal is to build a retail experience like we have in Melbourne with Veneziano Coffee Richmond,” he says. “We see a lot of growth opportunities.” For more information, visit

www.nomadcoffeegroup.com.au

FEATURE NEWS

Coffee in crisis Coffee prices are at their lowest in more than a decade. Australian industry leaders tell BeanScene how this affects their relationships with farmers, the local market, and the future of coffee.

here will the coffee industry be in 50 years? A hopeful barista might tell you that coffee will resemble wine, with their role like that of a sommelier, recommending premium coffees from a select reserve list. Another could warn you of the perils of climate change, putting 50 per cent of coffee producing land at risk. But what if we faced an industry in which producers focus solely on volume and cherries are picked by machine? Campos Coffee Founder Will Young says with record-low prices being paid to coffee farmers, this “coffee dystopia” could very well become a reality. “The situation is soul destroying. At a time when the specialty coffee movement is getting bigger and bigger, the C Price is getting lower and lower, which is pushing coffee farmers to give up on coffee all together or just say, ‘forget it, we’ll go for volume instead’,” Will tells BeanScene. “If it continues this way, we’ll go back into a recommodification stage, where there’s no nod to terroir and it will all taste the same.” The International Coffee Organization (ICO) says the coffee market has experienced a continued downward trend since 2016. On 7 May 2019, the daily price fell to 89.31 US cents per pound,

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its lowest point since 2006. Most of the world’s coffee is traded as a commodity on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) . On this “C Market”, the C Price, the amount in US dollars Arabica coffee is traded for, is largely determined by supply and demand as well as speculation through futures contracts, deals to buy coffee at a later date for a price determined in the present. Sasa Sestic, Founder of Ona Coffee and Project Origin, says in theory, futures contracts allow coffee roasters to back their future supply chains if they predict a low yield. However, actors from outside the coffee industry have complicated things. “What’s happening is hedge funds and investors, who understand the market and stock exchange, are buying the futures when prices are low and selling their stock when prices are high,” Sasa says. “People setting the prices are not working in coffee. A majority of them have not even visited a farm.” John Russell-Storey, Marketing Manager – Trade at green bean trader Cofi-Com, says many consumers falsely assume that how much they pay for a latte reflects what farmers receive for their coffee. “The reality is a complex maze of skills and expertise from growing, milling, grading, distribution on the green side,

then roasting, blending through to the end cost of espresso equipment, baristas on the roasted side,” John says. “These are factors that New York doesn’t reflect.” Elements that can play into speculation and the value of coffee include the strength of the US dollar, the Brazilian real – where a majority of coffee is grown – and production levels. Campos Coffee’s Will says overproduction from Brazil is a key contributor to the C Price decline. “Brazil has overproduced by the same quantity of coffee that Colombia produces. When you get that much more volume going into coffee, it’s going to push prices down,” Will says. While the majority of specialty coffee is purchased through direct trade instead of the C Market, Sasa says these low prices are still affecting high-end producers. “Maybe 10 per cent of the coffee we buy worldwide is specialty, but 90 per cent is purchased as a commodity. Besides that, a lot of specialty coffee is also bought with a differential based on the NYSE, so when the C Price plummets, so does the specialty price,” Sasa says. Craig Dickson, Managing Director of Veneziano Coffee Roasters and CEO of Nomad Coffee Group, says many producers are forced to sell the majority of their crop at C Market prices. “Specialty grade coffee is maybe only

WHY SHOULD AUSTRALIA CARE?

Ona’s Sasa says Australia has one of the most developed coffee scenes in the world and exerts significant influence globally, but it isn’t exempt from responsibility or the flow-on effect of the low C Market. “We have a lot of big coffee roasters, and people from all over the world follow what we do in Australia,” Sasa says. “But the Australian dollar has dropped a lot in the last few years. Many businesses are struggling and there’s so many cafés in places like Melbourne. In order to go forward, a lot of roasters think they need to buy a cheaper product.” Campos Coffee’s Will says as some specialty roasters grow and are acquired by larger companies, they can lose sight

Image: Jordan Montgomery, Ona Coffee

a fraction of what farms produce. Yes, specialty roasters will buy the specialty grade coffee at fair prices, but farmers still need to sell the entire crop to make a living,” Craig says. Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand CEO Molly Harriss Olson says low prices are only one part of a “perfect storm” currently hitting coffee production, with climate change, decreased soil fertility, competition for natural resources, and an ageing farming population all clouding the future of coffee production. “Apart from the obvious economic implications of low prices for coffeefarming families, there are significant knock-on effects,” she says. “If coffee farmers collectively are pushed any further into desperate circumstances, the crop itself will suffer. The specialty segment of the market won’t be immune to the long-term potential impacts.”

Project Origin works with producers to improve the quality of their coffee and become less reliant on the C Market.

of what makes coffee special. “With such low prices, a lot of companies are going back to buying commodity coffee,” Will says. He suggests this has led many companies to invest in marketing over sustainable sourcing practices. “You’re seeing a lot of really brilliant packaging and clever marketing coming out now because they’re competing on that rather than on quality and how the coffee actually tastes,” he says. “This also confuses the consumer, thinking they’re supporting true specialty coffee, but in fact they could be purchasing commodity.” Nomad Coffee Group’s Craig says this type of short-term thinking poses a severe threat to the future of the coffee industry. “Record low coffee prices will have an extremely negative effect on our supply chains in the future. We need to be very conscious of that,” Craig says. “I don’t think consumers especially

B OUTIQUE.

have any idea of the potential long-term effect this will have on them. Farmers have no ability to invest in their farms, leading to a decrease in yields and quality, and therefore less income. Growers are then forced to replace coffee with crops that will provide them with better income. This means there may be less coffee in the future and prices will go up, but at the same time, the quality of coffee could suffer.”

PAYING A FAIR PRICE

Some green bean traders, like Cofi-Com, buy specialty coffee through a deeply embedded origin network, benefiting from feedback at every major origin. These networks operate through field operatives working closely with farmers on progressive social, environmental, and agricultural practices. “Through these programs, farmers know they have a market for their coffee through us at a fair price. Knowing this in advance, they can plan their next

U NIQUE.

A FFORDABLE.

season crop. In turn, we benefit from accurate, timely advice, invaluable for our long-term planning. If farmers aren’t receiving a fair price, there’s always the possibility they’ll understandably turn to a cash crop that takes less time and effort,” John says. “With any commodity, and coffee is no exception, it pays to take a long-term and local view of New York pricing. For us, it means a focus on making sure we have the right quality coffees at the right price in stock. At a local level, day to day the New York price has little impact if we’ve bought and forecasted correctly.” Roasters are also capable of purchasing their coffee through direct trade, with some making efforts to increase transparency in their coffee buying to support farmers. This has included publishing the prices they have paid for coffee, whether that be free on board, direct to farmer, or to the importer. While this can support the credibility of the individual brand, Fairtrade’s Molly says systemic change is required across the industry to ensure the benefits of fair prices and accountability are felt by more coffee farmers. “Direct trade can be very powerful and is a good way to see what is happening to coffee farmers on the ground, but there is no verification of claims, and anybody can say anything,” she says. Molly says Fairtrade exists to address power imbalances in global commodity trade structures. One way it does this is by facilitating independent, third-party auditing and transparency throughout supply chains, providing consumers the assurance of fairness that has to be taken on faith in many direct trade relationships. Fairtrade also requires the first buyer to pay farmers the Fairtrade Minimum of US$1.40 per pound, with

Image: Fairtrade ANZ/Josh Griggs

FEATURE NEWS

Fairtrade can facilitate closer relationships between roasters and growers, alongside its certification, accountability, and community investment.

an additional Fairtrade Premium of 20 US cents per pound, which delivered US$100 million to farmers in 2018. A quarter of this premium is directly reinvested in businesses and community projects, including training, education, and health care. “It’s not as simple as roasters paying higher prices to traders, or coffee buyers handing over more money for a flat white,” she says. “Because control of the global industry is in the hands of just a few major corporations, we need everyone who cares about coffee to demand transformational changes throughout the supply chain.”

THINKING LONG TERM

Veneziano Coffee Roasters and Nomad Coffee Group believe in forming longstanding partnerships with producers. Their sustainable coffee program includes developing long-term relationships, paying premiums, ensuring traceability of its coffees, and giving back to the local communities.

“Our agreements on price are not based around the C [Market]. Instead, they are based on the sustainable, long-term viability of the businesses,” Craig says. “This is achieved via minimum volume commitments over a number of years in advance. Our arrangement enables the farmers to continue running profitable businesses and investing in their farms to achieve our mutual current and future quality commitments.” Through Nomad Coffee Group’s contract roasting arm, Black Bag Roasters, Craig says the company is also able to buy more coffee from its producers than a typical specialty roaster. “We’re able to go in and buy specialty coffee from a producer for Veneziano but can also purchase larger volumes of their high-grade commercial coffee for use in Black Bag Roasters,” he says. “As we are buying both specialty and high-grade commercial coffees, we are able to have a bigger impact on the profitability

and long-term viability of the producers.” Despite Nomad Coffee Group’s individual commitment to its producers, Craig believes collective action is required from the world’s largest coffee buyers to address coffee prices. “Nomad Coffee Group is a fair-size business, but we don’t make a blip on the world as far as global coffee volume goes,” he says. “The major players who sell commodity coffee on an international scale need to make a stand and take the lead.” Ona Coffee has also not let falling coffee prices impact the way it does business. “We are not paying the farmers we work with a smaller premium than we were last year. I don’t think we should just because we can,” Sasa says. “We are kind of ignoring what’s happening with the C Market and rewarding producers for quality if they produce it, and if they’re not, working with them to improve it.” Sasa believes helping smaller producers improve their coffee quality makes them less reliant on the C Market and does this through green bean trader Project Origin. This began with a project in 2015 to improve the coffee quality of Finca El Arbol in Nicaragua. “It was a commodity farm for more than 100 years, producing 77- or 78-point coffees. The owner decided it was too hard, and we were silly enough to take up this project,” Sasa says. “It’s proved difficult, but with a great team and carbonic maceration processing, in four years, we’ve turned this farm from commodity to specialty.” Sasa says while the whole industry needs to address low coffee prices, roasters – especially in Australia – are responsible for raising awareness. “If we can have influential roasters talking more about it, who believe in supporting producers,

we can make consumers more aware,” Sasa says. “Each one of us depends on what happens at farms.”

PROMOTING EXCELLENCE

As well as purchasing its coffee using high quality-based differentials and fixed price contracts, Campos Coffee’s Will believes promoting “luxury coffees” from auctions like the Cup of Excellence and Best of Panama can help producers receive higher prices. “This brings awareness to how coffee can taste significantly better than the average cup of coffee you find through commodity,” he says. “These competitions have shown farmers they can find a market for their hard work. And they make the news. When you sell a coffee for US$803 per pound, it gets in the papers. That makes people look up and see that not all coffee tastes and is worth the same.” By promoting the best of the best, Will hopes raising the reputation of

coffee will cause consumers to stop viewing it as a commodity. “In much the same way as wine, probably in the 80s or 90s, people became aware of how much better Bordeaux-produced wine was than your typical red wine,” he says. “Hopefully, that’s happening in coffee, but we have to keep pushing and talking about it.” Will says if industry bodies do not soon take action, the opposite will happen instead. “It’s about the future of coffee. If we don’t get involved, farmers will keep leaving farms, and there will be nothing for us to buy,” he says. “If we don’t support those who produce real specialty with the appropriate price, we’ll lose all the 85-to-89-point scoring coffee. We’ll be left with this big gap where we won’t be able to find beautiful coffees to make espresso or standard blends. You’ll only have this dystopian future where there is only expensive luxury coffee and the rest is commodity.”

Campos Coffee’s Will Young warns that low coffee prices could have ramifications on the future of the specialty industry.

FEATURE NEWS

The world’s best

Introducing the 2019 World Coffee Champions who have proved their skill, determination, and talent on the world stage. Dan Fellows

2019 WORLD COFFEE IN GOOD SPIRITS CHAMPION

fter winning the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship (WCiGS) in Brazil 2018, Dan Fellows was already developing his WCiGS routine for 2019 in Berlin, Germany. “After winning in 2018, I already knew what I wanted to present in the 2019 routine. I was immensely proud and excited by the concept,” says Dan. “Almost everyone has asked me why I would take such a huge risk and enter a world championship I won previously, but I always believed that I would regret not showcasing the routine more than doing so and risking not winning. This belief pushed me to deliver the routine as well as I possibly could.” Dan began developing his drinks in early 2018 with the support of Carlos and Patricia Pola from Juayua in El Salvador. “I tried to ensure the drinks and routine for 2019 were totally different to 2018. I had a specific focus on their visual

The Frozen Natural Experiment explores the effect of freezing coffee cherries before processing.

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Dan Fellows is the 2019 World Coffee in Good Spirits Champion.

appearance, which I wanted to be impactful but elegant,” Dan says. The routine was designed to explore where to start when designing coffee cocktails. People always ask Dan that question, but he states that there is no one fixed starting point in his experience. “I served two drinks, which were inspired by a concept [Frozen Natural Experiment and Zero Waste Shrub] and two which used the characteristics of coffees to recreate memorable experiences [Bonfire Toddy and Sticky Toffee-inspired Irish Coffee],” he explains. The Frozen Natural Experiment utilised an experimental coffee processing method inspired by two of his favourite ingredients – ice wine and blood oranges. “Both of these give distinctive characteristics from cold temperatures. Blood oranges develop the blood red colour and raspberry-like sweetness when they reach cold temperatures overnight. Ice wine is made from squeezing grapes which have frozen,” Dan says. “This inspired me to explore the effect of freezing temperatures on coffee.” To achieve this effect, Dan approached Carlos and Patricia who froze Red Pacamara coffee cherries for seven days

before natural processing. “The resultant cup profile was very sweet and had flavour notes of raspberry and tropical, which worked perfectly in the drink when paired with ice wine, Glenfiddich Winter Storm [finished in ice wine casks], blood orange ice, malic acid, and cascara syrup,” Dan says. In the final round Dan was awarded a score of 355, enough to win the title and claim victory for a second year. “It’s an absolute honour to be the first back-to-back WCiGS Champion,” Dan says. “There were a lot of emotions. I always knew it was either brave or stupid to try and defend the championship. I was incredibly pleased and thankful it ended up so well.” Looking to the future, Dan hopes to inspire and support baristas and bartenders who are thinking of competing or looking to improve their skills in cafés and bars. “I plan to help as many people as I can in the coming years, through seminars, masterclasses, pop-up bars, coaching, and beyond,” he says. “I am immensely fortunate to be in such a privileged position. I cannot wait to share my experiences and excitement for coffee cocktails as far and wide as possible.”

2019 WORLD CUP TASTERS CHAMPION

hen Daniel Horbat, Trainer and Consultant of Coffee Laboratory in Dublin, was announced the 2019 Cup Tasters Champion after four years of competing, he felt all his hard work and sacrifice had finally paid off. “Each year, I felt more motivated to come back stronger than before and I knew that I will only stop until I leave with a trophy,” Daniel says. Part of his success was down to his rigorous training and diet. “I trained for five months until my taste buds got comfortable with different coffee profiles. I didn’t want anything to take me by surprise,” Daniel says. “I knew from previous competitions I had to cut out anything that would negatively impact my palate, including salt, spices, sweets,

Made with whole rolled oats, Califia Farms Oat Barista Blend is unsweetened (no added sugar) and has no gums or stabilisers. RICH & CREAMY • DOES NOT SPLIT • BETTER LATTE ART

Image: Kristaps Selga, WCE

Daniel Horbat

alcohol, and smoking. They all had to go.” Leading up to World of Coffee, Daniel dedicated every day tasting different coffees until he consistently achieved a perfect result. On the day, Daniel says tensions were running so high he was almost unaware he had qualified for the final round. “It was the most unexpected reaction when I qualified into the final. Out of nowhere I burst into tears. I went into the final challenge emotionally ready and liberated,” Daniel says. “After I tasted all of the coffees and pushed all the winning cups behind the line and shouted time, I realised what just happened and I couldn’t shake the feeling of achievement.” Cup tasting is a test of a keen palate where competitors pit their wits against each other, picking out the off coffee from three cups, moving on to the next against the clock. Daniel finished with a seven out of eight with the fastest time of two minutes and 33 seconds. “When I realised I won I felt relieved, honestly, I was happy it was over. I reached a goal I was aiming for so many years,” Daniel says. “I gave up everything to reach my goal.

Daniel Horbat is the 2019 World Cup Tasters Champion.

It’s somehow a confirmation that all the hard work I put in, paid off.” Daniel says what drew him to cup tasting was the unique and challenging way to test his palate. He encourages others baristas to compete. “I entered the Cup Tasters Championship because I was always attracted to the sensory part of the coffee business. Every time I drank coffee, I would try to figure out what flavours and aromas I could find in there,” Daniel says. “The biggest competition is yourself. Don’t let failure be a reason to give up. Learn from the mistakes and work hard.”

TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

A window to coffee making The Nexus One espresso machine from Aremde removes the wall of steel that traditionally separates the barista from the customer, revealing the secrets of coffee making.

ustralian manufacturer Aremde has created an open theatre experience in which the barista can perform for the customer, and nothing separates the coffee maker from the coffee buyer. Netherlands-based designer Rempt Van der Donk says Nexus One’s seethrough structure opens up the craft of coffee making, which is beneficial to both sides of the bar. “The barista can show off their skills while creating a memorable experience for the customer,” Rempt tells BeanScene.

An architect by trade, Rempt had no experience in product design prior to working on the Nexus One. He says the project first came his way while working on a building in Saudi Arabia. “I was building a new headquarters for Raqtan, one of the largest food services equipment companies in the country,” Rempt says. “The owner of the company, Muthanna Raqtan, recognised a problem with traditional espresso machines. They were either between you and the customer, or had you standing with your back to them. He asked me, ‘can you design a solution?’ I knew nothing about coffee

machines but took the challenge.” Rempt says in his design process, inspiration can strike at any moment. In the case of the Nexus One, it was while driving. “I looked through the window of my car and thought, ‘this is what I want to create’. I stopped the car and sketched the initial design on my steering wheel, showing the flow between the barista and the customer. That drawing became the Nexus One,” he says. “I showed the design to Muthanna, who thought it was a great idea. Then, because the machine had to be realised, we had to find someone to build it.”

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Caption Aremde can customise the Nexus One in multiple colours to fit any workplace.

A contact in Italy recommended Muthanna and Rempt get in touch with Queensland-based engineer Geoff Michelmore. The three men first discussed the idea over Skype. “We said to Geoff, ‘You don’t know us, but we have something to show you. It’s drastic and could change your life’. Geoff said if he liked it, he’d do it. If not, he won’t. But he loved it and joined the team.” Along with Muthanna, Rempt, and brand expert Walter Amerika, Geoff became a Co-founder of Aremde. He tells BeanScene he was attracted to the machine’s potential to involve the customer in the coffee-making process. “The customer can watch every aspect of coffee making,” Geoff says. “At cafés using the Nexus One, we see that patrons who have ordered coffee are not usually on their phones as usual while they wait. They’re actually engaged with what the barista is doing.” He says making the design possible was the easy part, moving the boilers, heaters, and internal components under the counter. The challenge, however, was making it practical. “Aremde is a design company, so it leads from that perspective. But the machine still needs to be functional. It could not be difficult to make coffee with,” he says. “This took a lot of time to get right, from the spacing of group heads to the alignment of the steam wand.” Geoff says the placement of the steam wand, within the window, provides the barista with complete control of

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how they froth milk. “You can hold the jug and steam the milk traditionally, or if you need to multitask, you can rest it on the platform inside the coffee machine,” he says. Geoff says this level of consideration extended to the touch and feel of the Nexus One’s buttons, running along the top of the frame, above the corresponding groups. A short touch will purge the group head while a longer push will run the extraction until pushed again, freeing the barista’s hands. “We even installed sliding cup tables, which means the barista can use different size cups without worrying about breaking the crema,” he says. “Using the machine is super easy, but it’s still a high-end coffee machine, with a very precise temperature, pressure, and volumetrics.” To achieve a consistent weight-based extraction, Aremde collaborated with Acaia to develop a set of internal scales for the Nexus One. A multi-boiler system and proportionalintegral-derivative controlled heating ensures its group head temperature is consistent to 0.2 degrees. Meanwhile, a steam-thermo cycle rotates steam through the boiler and valves to maintain temperature in the steam wand. The extraction process begins with a soft pre-infusion, which Geoff says provides a consistent pour. “We have a restrictor built into the flow meter, which reduces the initial flow of water to the group head. This allows a small amount of water to infuse

the grinds before the restrictor opens for full extraction,” he says. “This pre-infusion means the coffee extraction is not done in a volatile way, so we get a soft and consistent flow of coffee pouring out of the machine.” With Geoff developing and building the machines in Brisbane, the Aremde team agreed it would be best to base its headquarters in Australia. When the Nexus One launched in September 2018, the first café to install and test the capabilities of the machine was Queensland’s Extraction Artisan Coffee. It has since been introduced across Australia as well as Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. “The Nexus One has seen a strong early response because design is so important to cafés, especially in Australia,” Geoff says. “You want every aspect to be unique, comfortable, and engaging for the customer. A crucial part of that is getting the right machine.” Aremde offers the Nexus One in every colour of the rainbow, allowing cafés to customise their equipment. Geoff says the espresso machine’s components are painted before final assembly, much like a car. “Our chassis is made from stainless steel, so the painting and finish is very important. To ensure the quality, we use a paint company that specialises in high-end vehicles, like Porsches, custom Harley Davidsons, and hot rods,” he says. “We wanted to do this at the factory so the machine’s not disassembled in a workshop halfway across the world as the Nexus One gains popularity overseas.” The popularity jumped in June, when

the Nexus One was displayed at the Specialty Coffee Association’s World of Coffee expo in Germany. There in Berlin, it received the Best New Product award in the Commercial Coffee or Tea Preparation and Serving Equipment category. “We were extremely energised by the award. We felt we had a great product and to win on the world stage was a great moment for the machine,” Geoff says. “World of Coffee is the pinnacle of coffee. If they see Nexus One as an innovation in the industry, it’s a confirmation of our philosophy: less machine, more experience.” Aremde also unveiled its second product, the Modus One, at World of Coffee. The under-the-counter cup warmer uses the heat from the Nexus One’s hydraulics system to maintain the cups’ temperatures. Geoff says this creates even more space on the bar and improves efficiency. “You don’t need to stack your cups on top of the machine or bar. Instead they’re kept under the counter in standard, easily rotatable dishwasher racks,” Geoff says. Aremde’s accolades continued in July, with the Nexus One winning two Good Design Awards in the Engineering Design

Aremde founders Rempt Van der Donk, Walter Amerika, Geoff Michelmore, and Muthanna Raqtan wearing shirts bearing Rempt’s original concept design.

and Product Design categories. The jury recognised the design and how it’s engineered as “a bold design move in what is otherwise a conservative market with little disruption to date”. Rempt calls it a welcome surprise to be recognised outside of his primary field of architecture. “I never expected I’d be designing a coffee machine, let alone an award-winning

one. It gives me a boost as a designer, as well as to our company,” Rempt says. “Aremde sees a need in the market for a big change in how coffee shops are designed. We will continue to provide new products and services that will improve cafés and the way you set them up.” For more information, visit

www.aremde.com.au

DESIGN FEATURE

Passion to professional Jetblack Espresso is a one-stop-shop dedicated to enhancing the skills and knowledge of one of the largest growing demographics in the coffee sector – the home barista.

or Jetblack Espresso Owners Charlie and Debbie Monteleone, there’s no greater reward than watching their customers have that “lightbulb moment” when they can produce a three-tulip latte as good as the café down the road. “It still gives me a kick to see the sense of achievement on peoples’ faces when they’ve learned new skills and realise they are capable of producing a café-quality product – that’s the pay off,” Debbie says. It’s a moment Charlie and Debbie experience regularly during Jetblack Espresso’s education workshops to teach avid coffee lovers how to dial-in a grinder, extract the perfect shot, steam milk, and care for their own home coffee machine. Course participants are even encouraged to bring in their equipment so they can feel confident to achieve the same results at home. “It’s an exciting time for the home coffee market,” Charlie says. “First came

Italian manufactured Lelit produces prosumer espresso equipment, including the Giulietta.

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the evolution of capsule machines and super-automatics, which gave home users consistent coffee options, but there’s been a real shift in the market where customers are more interested in how they can achieve café-standard coffee in the comfort of their own home.” Jetblack Espresso is a company designed to encompass everything a home barista needs to make a quality cup of coffee, from education to equipment. The New South Wales-based company is the exclusive Australian distributor of Lelit and Profitec espresso machines, two innovative brands with a range of models to help turn a curious home coffee drinker into a home barista. Lelit, an Italian manufacturer, produces “prosumer” espresso equipment ranging from a $900 single-boiler espresso machine to a $4999 compact two-group commercial machine, the Giulietta. This stainless steel model with 10-litre boiler and E61 group heads is compact in size and can run off a standard 10-amp power point, making it suitable to use in coffee carts, sports clubs, churches, and cafés. “Some compact commercial machines have a four- to six-litre boiler, but with a 10-litre it means baristas can make a half a dozen long blacks without the boiler pressure dropping,” Charlie says. Many components from commercial machines can now be found on domestic models, making them easier to use and more reliable. These include the E61 group head and rotary pump, found on the Lelit Giulietta. Another example of the “trickle down” effect is the prosumer Profitec Pro 800 lever, which has the same group head found on commercial lever machines. German manufacturer Profitec sees

the potential in prosumer equipment and caters to the market with espresso machines from $2500 to $4500, all installed with PID controllers. To complete the full service experience, Jetblack Espresso not only distributes machines but also provides wholesale prosumer equipment and genuine spare parts to like-minded businesses across Australia, including brands which can be hard to source. While other Australian companies are typically focused on the commercial market or roasting, at Jetblack Espresso, the home user is everything. “Our interest in the home barista comes from a place of pure passion. We didn’t think it’d be a strong market. We were just interested in taking what we had learnt and sharing it with others so they could benefit too,” Charlie says. “Then the Masterchef-effect took hold, with more people devoting energy and time into learning about produce and how to make quality coffee.” Making quality coffee remains Jetblack Espresso’s mission, and it’s confident it can. The company has grown from having just two staff in 2008 to an additional 10 in 2019, with its showroom, workshop, and distribution centre doors open for all to experience in Frenchs Forest in Sydney. “Australians love their coffee and that’s not going away,” Charlie says. “Over the past 10 years the quality and consistency of café coffee has excelled and it will continue to do so, but on the home front it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. There’s an exciting time of growth ahead, and we’ll be there to support that market every step of the way.” For more information, visit

www.jetblackespresso.com.au or call (02) 9452 6470

DESIGN FEATURE

Through the looking glass Clark St Coffee has designed an open and immersive coffee experience at its Richmond roastery.

lark St Coffee Roasters operates an espresso bar on Crown Street in Richmond, Victoria that’s more coffee lab than café. The fit out, designed by architect Dion Hall, makes good use of galvanised steel, taking inspiration from the materials used in the roasting facility. “By drawing these materials into the customer space, a clear connection and relationship between both [the bar and roastery] is formed,” Dion says. “[Clark St Founder Melissa Floreani] and I never refer to the venue as a café. It is a hybrid of a roastery, educational space, coffee testing lab, and training centre that opens its doors to the general public for the simple pleasure of consuming coffee.” Melissa says Clark St contrasts this cold steel backdrop with saddled leather seating on its bleachers, timber serving trays from wood maker Hugh Makin, and ceramic pottery made using coffee chaff from Melbourne artist Shari Lowndes. “All of the touch points for customers, have a warmth to them,” Melissa says. “We wanted to create an almost cellardoor experience. It invites people to behave differently because it’s so open. They’re encouraged to look around and observe the space.” Customers can watch coffee be roasted through the glass panelling that separates the bar from the roastery. Melissa says the audience almost forgets the glass goes both ways. “There’s a sense of voyeurism to it. You can stand at the window, look through it, and feel like the roasting team can’t see you watching on the other side,” she says. “We see people make the journey here specifically for the coffee and to enjoy the space. A lot of them order pour over, because they’re well educated coffee drinkers and are seeking out places that strive for excellence in their coffee.”

Clark St Coffee in Richmond offers visitors a holistic coffee experience.

However, visitors can do more than just watch the action. The espresso bar includes full access to a training station and cupping table, where Clark St operates its own quality control processes. “People will watch our quality control happen throughout the week, become interested, and come in for a cupping themselves. Every second Saturday, we run a public cupping or masterclass in coffee extraction here at the bar,” Melissa says. “It’s such a versatile space. We talk to a number of green coffee importers and producers and offer to host their events here. It’s amazing how many have taken us up on that already.” The openness of the venue is shared with Clark St’s wholesale customers, who benefit from unencumbered access to the workings of the roastery. New cafés are also able to have their equipment calibrated and staff trained onsite prior to opening. “Our customers are very well educated in coffee. They’re looking for a high-end

coffee solution for their cafés because they’re putting so much effort into their food and fitout, and the coffee needs to match,” Melissa says. “We walk them through the roastery, so they know what coffee we’re using, the producers who supply our coffee, and can truly understand our process. That gives them a lot of confidence in the quality of the coffee.” Melissa says transparency is a core value of Clark St Coffee and the Crown Street coffee lab embodies this. “The space works well for us because the bar and transparency provide a high level of quality control. That feedback loops back through to the roastery,” she says. “Clark St Coffee and this space have been designed to share the parts of coffee that we love.” For more information, visit www.clarkst.coffee or call

(03) 9428 3229 beanscenemag.com.au

DESIGN FEATURE

Streamlining service ClickPOS has launched a new tablet application designed to simplify café operations and put valuable information in the hands of those who need it.

t’s been said that knowledge is power, and in the world of point of sale (POS) software, a new iOS application from ClickPOS offers just that. The ClickPOS app acts as a gateway to connect a café’s stored information to a centralised database, where product information, sales, and purchases are accessible at baristas’ and café owners’ fingertips. Ozkan Sahin, ClickPOS Managing Director, says the app can operate in any service business, including cafés, restaurants, mobile food service, and takeaway outlets. “The food and beverage industry’s success relies on streamlining its business process resulting in better customer service. The ClickPOS app simplifies the order taking process by displaying userdefined options on the screen to create order dockets and receipts, capturing customers’ details, and identifying delivery options,” Ozkan says. The ClickPOS app, available through the App Store, is suitable for iPads – with Android compatibility coming soon – and makes it simpler for business owners to update, navigate, and communicate with staff. Once installed, the app will also sync to a café’s eftpos. “Mobile ordering permits users to carry the iPad to a customer’s table to take orders and process payments. Bills can also be processed at the table via mobile eftpos which can also be integrated to the iPad, avoiding having the customer walk to a single counter,” Ozkan says. He adds that cafés using an outdated cash register or bulkier PC-based system will benefit from an iPad application that’s user friendly, easily updated, and hosted on the cloud, meaning the database is always backed up and can be accessed anywhere. “Baristas work in a small environment. The iPad conserves space, doesn’t have routers and cables running underneath the table, and makes it easier

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for baristas to move behind the register or make orders,” Ozkan says. “iPads have the best resolution and sensitive touchscreen on the market, topped with the most stable operating system. It’s also easier to service or maintain and can be updated like a normal app.” Because the ClickPOS app is cloudbased, it provides a cafe with multiple user access points to reach a wider audience

He adds that when a new employee starts, they should be able to use the screen without any training. “The screens have a simple flow, with step-by-step instructions and large images. The POS system guides the employee through the order-taking process, even prompting questions for payment,” Ozkan says. The app can also print order dockets

ClickPOS has designed a point of sale app that simplifies a café’s ordering process.

Once installed, the app produces a catalogue including multiple variant options, offering a selection of products to choose from. “When downloaded, it’s a blank database. Users can quickly build their menu and have the option of taking a photo of each product to use as the thumbnail, allowing any new staff to rapidly recognise the entire catalogue,” Ozkan says. “The product catalogue is categorised to make the screen look seamless and less cluttered. Customer options such as the size of the coffee, condiments, and milk can be built as variant buttons to avoid any typing, making the order taking process simple.”

to different locations within the café, eliminating the risk of lost receipts. “Regardless of the size of the establishment, the ClickPOS app can be scalable from being a small to large operation. Those options are readily available to set up once they’ve downloaded the app,” Ozkan says. “We chose to launch our new ClickPOS app for the coffee industry as Australia is booming with cafés. We can proudly say that the development, support, and hosting of the system is all local in Australia and has been for the past 20 years.” For more information, visit www.clickpos.com, call +613 9092 5300 or email sales@clickpos.com.

DESIGN FEATURE

Milk made easy Übermilk from Barista Group streamlines a café’s workflow by reducing waste and improving quality and consistency.

hen designing a café, workflow should be as big a consideration as the aesthetics. This is why both factors were taken into consideration when German manufacturer Übermilk was developing its signature milk foaming system. Übermilk automates the milk frothing process, delivering a consistent, ready-topour micro foamed milk at the barista’s desired temperature. Compact and customisable, the system looks right at home sitting next to a grinder and espresso machine on the coffee bar. Joe Chalhoub of Australian distributor Barista Group says Übermilk improves a café’s workflow speed and efficiency without compromising coffee quality. “By the time you grab your milk bottle, pour it in a jug, and steam it, to put it in coffee terms, it’s like you’re dosing, tamping, and extracting it. Essentially, you’re spending the time it would take to make a second cup of coffee,” Joe says. “This is about 20 seconds per cup, which adds up over a day. Whereas Übermilk does all this at the touch of a button and frees up the barista to focus on customer service or café operations.” He adds that Übermilk’s user interface is easy to navigate, allowing baristas to find whichever option they need, whether that be dine-in or takeaway, latte or cappuccino, and hot or cold milk. However, Übermilk’s benefits go beyond its operator to the owner of the café. “The in-built cleaning journal can be used to check if staff have been cleaning the machine, and the statistics counter lets you view how many serves were produced and what orders are popular,” Joe says. “It also really reduces the amount of time spent training staff. One of the main assets of the machine is that a new barista can produce milk the same quality as, if not better than, someone more experienced.” A hose directly connects the unit to milk sitting in the refrigerator, reducing the time it spends out of the fridge and clutter on the bar.

“The beauty of the Übermilk is that you can use your existing fridge systems. You don’t have to invest in something new that was specifically made to connect to the unit, providing the site meets the installation requirements,” Joe says. The desired volume of milk is syphoned into an aerator, where a needle valve is used to control how much air is incorporated. It then runs through a highpower heater and filter, resulting in micro foamed milk pouring out of its nozzle. “Once you dial it in, Übermilk will produce consistent milk all day, all week,” Joe says. “This reduces wastage at a café because you’re always getting exactly the amount you need.” With Übermilk making its local debut at the 2018 Melbourne International Coffee Expo, Joe says the machine

has been popular in Australia and New Zealand. “Australians love their milk coffees and Übermilk makes them easier to produce consistently, while freeing up the barista to focus on their espresso or latte art,” Joe says. “We’re also seeing increased interest from Asian countries like Taiwan and Indonesia in the product and Barista Group is planning the launch there in the next few months. “The goal of Barista Group is to introduce more products like Übermilk that improve workflow while saving our customers precious time and money.” For more information, visit

www.baristagroup.com.au or call (02) 9896 4808

Übermilk fits easily onto an espresso bar, not looking out of place next to a grinder or coffee machinne.

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Slayer’s latest hit The Slayer Steam LP coffee machine combines an artisanal approach to crafting espresso with high-volume capacity.

ike many musicians who release an extended play to test the waters before they drop a full-length album, Slayer Espresso has launched the Steam LP, the follow-up to its successful EP espresso machine. Ross Quail, Asia-Pacific Branch Manager of Slayer Espresso, says the Steam LP represents a new high point for the espresso machine manufacturer. “The LP takes the most commercially evolved machine in the Slayer range – the EP – and applies the manual espresso making capability of the classic Slayer Espresso and makes it automatic,” Ross says. “The machine evolves to the needs of the individual who makes the coffee, instead of vice versa. In the same way using an iPhone becomes intuitive, the Steam LP becomes second nature. At Slayer, there is an embedded empathy for that drive to make the best coffee we possibly can, from the top of the company with [President and CEO] Jason Prefontaine to the most junior technician.” Jason says the Steam LP was designed to highlight single origins

“THE MACHINE EVOLVES TO THE NEEDS OF THE INDIVIDUAL WHO MAKES THE COFFEE, INSTEAD OF VICE VERSA. IN THE SAME WAY USING AN IPHONE BECOMES INTUITIVE, THE STEAM LP BECOMES SECOND NATURE.” while bringing out the best in blends. “The Slayer Steam LP simplifies the workflow and dialling-in process, making it easy to extract those boutique coffees effortlessly and repeatedly,” Jason says. “All Slayer machines are designed for the passionate coffee lover and having a Slayer on bench tells your customers that you’re serious about serving them the best. Working on a Slayer is also a pleasure as it’s apparent that the machines are designed and crafted by fellow coffee lovers.” The LP completes the Slayer Steam Box Set, a collection of espresso machines that caters to every budget,

volume, and brewing type. “Through the Box Set, we offer a range of machines that focus on workflow and design to allow those highquality machines to flourish within the modern café. The Slayer design is a beautiful marriage between form and function. For instance, the hollows within the legs allow you to stow electrical cables to keep the workspace organised, safe, and visually appealing,” Ross says. “Then, we look at how the range presents itself to the individual coffee machine user. We start by asking people: ‘How do you make your coffee?’ Some people will say: ‘I craft every

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

The Slayer Steam LP completes the Steam Box Set, a range of machines to accomodate different budgets, requirements, and volumes.

shot and make every coffee myself.’ In these cases, the machine for them is the Slayer Espresso. Many others say, ‘I need a volumetric machine but still want to craft’.” Ross says the Steam LP fills this niche and is targeted at “the evolved specialty coffee barista with a focus on black coffee”. “The machine still allows beautiful milk texturing, but speaking to a global audience, Slayer could see an evolution in black coffee,” he says. “Asian markets in particular are doing a tremendous amount of black coffee. Much of that comes from the Australian market’s

The Steam LP facilitates the artisinal approach to espresso Slayer is known for in a high-volume environment.

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influence, with its maturity and commitment to espresso excellence, despite still being very milk-based. “The LP is for those baristas who want to run multiple coffees, sometimes very dynamically within their business, as well as a milkbased coffee, or two, at different temperatures.” The Slayer Steam LP made its debut at the Specialty Coffee Expo in Boston from 11 to 14 April 2019. Ross says the United States’ positive reaction to the machine has already spread throughout the AsiaPacific region. “It’s been extraordinary. The initial reception was really welcoming. So many people love that Slayer is contributing a new machine to the global coffee zeitgeist that makes coffee better,” Ross says. Key features of the Steam LP that Ross says have really left an impression include an intuitive barista dashboard and user interface, the ability to manually dial in then save and copy the desired shot across other groups, and a single-pump line pressure pre-infusion. The latter allows baristas to soak the coffee before extraction begins, providing a more even spread of water during extraction. “We’ve repurposed a standard piece of coffee machine technology to be utilised in a completely different way, entirely to the advantage of the barista,” Ross says. Once the barista has determined the best levels for pre-infusion, they are able to pre-program two settings per group head using Slayer’s classic paddle system. These settings include

water temperature, extraction time, and volumetric dosing. “Slayer uses an algorithm within the machine to calculate the amount of water dispensed through the flow meter, the coffee, and into the cup to understand how much water remains in the puck of coffee, in addition to the espresso,” Ross says. “Provided you use a consistent dose, the machine can regulate itself, and continually dispense the same volumetric amount of water through the coffee to create an espresso without the need for scales.” Ross says the steps Slayer has taken to streamline its designs, such as the use of an algorithm instead of a set of physical scales, reduces costs and parts of the machine, aiding maintenance. “If you open the machine, you won’t see a mess of wires. It’s so well designed that a technician can take off any panel and get a spanner on any nut,” Ross says. “It’s very uncomplicated because of the efficiencies taken in how it was built, utilising new technology rather than overengineering. Slayer has built a simple machine to do a complex job.” While the Steam LP arrived in Australia not long after its American launch, Ross felt it was important the Slayer Australian team, and its local distributors, became well versed in the machine before it was

The Slayer Steam LP allows the barista to preset four individual recipes at once.

“THE LP IS FOR THOSE BARISTAS WHO WANT TO RUN MULTIPLE COFFEES, SOMETIMES VERY DYNAMICALLY WITHIN THEIR BUSINESS, AS WELL AS A MILK-BASED COFFEE, OR TWO, AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES.” made available in August. “We wanted to provide our resellers and constituents an opportunity to be ahead of the curve. It’s difficult to provide support if they’re at the same level of understanding as their customers,” Ross says. “We’ve established a branch office in Australia to further contribute to the success of our resellers. We work tirelessly to travel, train, and support end user customers and those who make Slayer a part of their business.” Despite the distance, the Seattle-based Jason is confident in Ross and his team’s ability to represent the Slayer brand in Australia’s dynamic and competitive market. “I’ve always strived to build my businesses based on customer service, support, and industry expertise, putting the customer first based on my belief of what they needed from us for their businesses to succeed,” Jason says. “Ross and the Slayer Asia-Pacific crew are literally the best people we could find in Melbourne who understand and embody everything that Slayer is and stands for, and like me, they’ve been doing it for a long time.” For more information, visit www.slayerespresso.com

The Slayer Steam LP allows baristas to pre-set recipes for multiple coffees.

FIRST CRACK

Scaling up The latest brewing scale from Hiroia is helping baristas track their brewing technique with greater visibility and more consistency.

uch like baking, brewing requires detailed measurements to achieve accurate results, including precise water temperature and volume, and the particular coarseness of the ground coffee. To help measure such variables, scales are a barista’s best friend. One brand that is passionate about empowering baristas with the tools to achieve the perfect cup is Hiroia. The Taiwanese specialty coffee equipment manufacturer has launched its latest innovation, Jimmy, a scale for baristas to brew, track, and accomplish consistent results. “Jimmy is an innovative, elegantly designed specialty coffee scale that takes espresso brew methods and education seriously,” says Charles Stephens of Espresso Company Australia (ECA), importer and distributor of the Hiroia Jimmy scale.

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“JIMMY IS AN INNOVATIVE, ELEGANTLY DESIGNED SPECIALTY COFFEE SCALE THAT TAKES ESPRESSO BREW METHODS AND EDUCATION SERIOUSLY.” The Jimmy scale features a detachable Bluetooth display with a magnetic attachment, allowing baristas to monitor the scale remotely. “The detachable screen enables the scale to sit on a drip tray and the display can be magnetically attached to your espresso machine for better visibility. It’s not fixed to the scale,” Charles says. “Having greater visibility over an extraction helps baristas repeat the same recipe to ensure quality and consistency.” The dual Bluetooth scale connects

to the Jimmy app. Available on iOS or Android devices, the app enables baristas to measure flow rate in real time in pursuit of a perfect pour over. “The Jimmy app gives the barista control over various functions including normal scale mode, espresso mode, pour over mode, and training mode. Within each mode there are further functions that aids baristas to choose which workflow best suits them,” Charles says. “The app will log historical data for all pour overs and espresso shots so baristas can save and review their

days extractions and brews. The Hiroia Jimmy app has pushed into the areas that no other specialty coffee scale has been before.” Within the app, baristas can create customisable training sessions for their staff where they can practice pouring speeds and consistency to replicate the same pour overs. “The more scales become a part of espresso and brew bar set-ups, the more positive impact they will have on quality, consistency, and training,” Charles says. He adds that brewing scales have become popular additions to specialty coffee competitions, helping competitors achieve accurate extraction volumes. “Many baristas have been using the Jimmy scale around the world in barista and brewing competitions. Jimmy is quickly becoming the scale of choice for baristas that need the most from their scales,” Charles says. Fully charged, the Jimmy scale will operate up to 10 hours with 1000 hours on standby. It is also water resistant. The Jimmy scale also features a 32-bit processor, with plenty of space UNL_August2019BeanScenePrintAd.pdf to create and update new modes as1 4/07/19

they become available. “This new technology will only continue to develop to ensure the Hiroia Jimmy scales are the most innovative scales available,” Charles says. “One of the great parts of the

The Jimmy scale helps baristas practice pour speeds and consistency. 7:00 PM

Jimmy scale is the new technology where there will be new espresso and filter coffee modes with more training functions in the near future.”

For more information, visit www.espressocompany.com.au

TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Riding the wave

The new Aurelia Wave from Nuova Simonelli is packed with innovative features to maximise the potential of coffee and highlight different flavours.

ost surfers strive to a ride a breaking barrel, the hollow part of a wave that curves around them. Inspired by the waves of the ocean, the new Aurelia Wave espresso machine from Italian manufacturer Nuova Simonelli mirrors the same hollow look in its side and back panels. “The machine went from a traditional square block to a completely rounded machine. It’s a completely new design for us. It makes for a nicer effect on a counter,” says Lauro Fioretti, Project Manager of Simonelli Group. Apart from its design, the Aurelia Wave features five new functions including Smart Water Technology, eco-sustainability, digital interface, ergonomics, and Pulse Jet technology. One of the biggest focuses when constructing the Aurelia Wave was controlling its energy consumption.

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Lauro says it was key to study the machine’s lifecycle and evaluate how to reduce its carbon emissions. “For the first time we’ve been investing in studying the life of a coffee machine, starting from the material that we used to build the machine, to the assembly line, and examining the machine’s use in coffee shops across the globe,” Lauro says. “We began calculating the total footprint of the machine until its end. The results showed that more than 90 per cent of carbon dioxide is produced during the espresso machine’s life in the coffee shop. To combat this, we’ve tried to reduce as much energy as possible.” The Aurelia Wave conserves energy during slow hours of the day along with its temperature control system. The energy savings are made with a combination of elements: new materials, new project techniques including fine element method and computational

fluid dynamics, which are used in computer simulations and algorisms in the automation, train and ship sectors, new insolation systems, and more accurate electronic controls. The temperature control system is based on the super accurate T3 technology the Simonelli Group developed and has used in the World Barista Championship since 2013. “We work every day on several projects to reduce energy emissions further,” Lauro says. As part of its new updated technology, the Aurelia Wave features the Espresso Management System, a new remote-control interface that enables baristas to view hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly statistics and compare them to find the best practices. “The Espresso Management System will aid baristas to have full control over its performance, report critical issues, and monitor and improve quality

Simonelli Group Project Manager Lauro Fioretti oversaw the design of the new Aurelia Wave.

and consumption,” Lauro says. The interface displays multiple pre-set scenarios to change extraction settings, which act on the main parameters including volume and temperature of the boiler, group boilers, and group heads that adapt to various coffees. “Everything is done using a touchscreen, making it user friendly. Baristas will have full control over all the steps of extraction, preparation, dispensing, and cleaning,” Lauro says. “Baristas and café owners have their own access to the machine via profiles on the touch pad. It’s incredibly easy to use. Baristas can click on icons and slide from one menu to another.” Lauro says the Aurelia Wave is one of the most ergonomic machines Nuova Simonelli has created, featuring milk lights and a new auto-purge system. “According to the placement of the machine, if it’s in a dimly lit area baristas can electronically adjust the intensity of the lighting,” Lauro says. “The light sensor on the wands is activated when baristas pull the steam lever. The lighting is only activated when needed. It stays on for 10 seconds when steaming milk to conserve energy.”

With its new auto-purge system, the cleansing of the shower heads happens automatically when unplugging the filter holder. André Eiermann, Nuova Simonelli Ambassador, says the auto-purge system is his favourite feature on the Aurelia Wave and is sure baristas will feel the same. “You might ask yourself why nobody else invented an auto-purge system decades ago,” André says. “When the barista takes out the portafilter of the group head, the machine will flush automatically with the right amount of water. This new feature helps speed up workflow and enables baristas to save costs and become environmentally friendly.” Thanks to Nuova Simonelli’s Smart Water Technology, the Aurelia Wave is able to detect essential parameters of inlet water, warning the barista of any variations on pH level and total dissolved solids. “Water is the main solvent in coffee. Having clearer water can produce better coffee. It enhances the aroma, flavour, and acidity and is becoming more important,” Lauro says. “The Smart Water Technology will protect the machine, providing it with a longer life, lower maintenance, and purchase costs of [water] filter cartridges, and improves the quality of coffee.” Using the Smart Water system enables baristas to easily address issues associated with poor water quality. If water quality parameters are outside the expected value range, the electronic system will alert baristas through the Espresso Management System. The latest innovation incorporated

in the Aurelia Wave is its Pulse Jet technology, designed to optimise the flow rate and water pressure during the dispensing phase. “Pulse Jet technology is a unique feature that explores new flavours inside the coffee where baristas can create different extraction profiles,” Lauro says. “From pulsing water onto the coffee powder, the powder expands giving better water percolation. The Pulse Jet technology then splits the extraction into three phases: pre-infusion, the infusion, and post-infusion.” For each of the three phases, baristas can define the frequency of the pulses to be applied. “Pulse Jet technology can highlight fruity and floral notes and enhance the cup profile. This way baristas can reduce the bitterness in the aftertaste or increase the body and give it more sweetness,” Lauro says. André says the Aurelia Wave meets the current demands that baristas are asking for. “A few years ago, the Nuova Simonelli team reached out to baristas to understand their needs. Baristas today are looking for a reliable machine, that delivers consistently high-quality beverages that are fun to use – even during peak hours,” André says. “With its integrated new features, the Aurelia Wave meets those expectations, especially with the Espresso Management System, which helps increase a café’s profitability. Nobody will complain to have some extra money in their pockets.” For more information, visit

www.espressomechanics.com.au

The new Aurelia Wave has changed its design from a square block to rounded sides.

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

A Major deal Mazzer has created a grinder that helps baristas complete their daily work with user-friendly solutions, new electronic features, and Internet of Things technology to give more control over the final cup.

azzer Founder Luigi Mazzer began developing coffee grinders in 1948 from his precisionmechanic workshop near Venice, Italy with one goal in mind: to create the best possible professional-grade coffee grinders. Since then, Mazzer has kept that promise, evolving its range of grinders and introducing innovative solutions to respond to the needs of baristas all over the world. This is embodied in its latest model, the Major V. “Quality, usability, and control are the foundations on which we have developed our entire range, and these attributes are exemplified in Major V,”

The Major V is designed with easy access to the grinding chamber and burrs.

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“WE BELIEVE THAT KNOW-HOW IS CRUCIAL AND NO MATTER HOW PRECISE MACHINES AND TOOLS ARE, THE HUMAN FACTOR MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.” says Marco Zottin, Project Engineer of the Mazzer Major V. “Mazzer is moving fast to upgrade its entire product line, adapting to the needs of a fast-moving coffee community and bringing the company to the next level.” Marco describes the Major V as an evolution of its classic Major model, and the faster among the company’s flatburr grinders. “It’s low retention, flexible, and performs well during rush hour and regular flow. It’s the grinder to have when a coffee shop wants to make the leap to the next level,” Marco says. “Baristas want equipment that’s able to help workflow, save time, and make good coffee. The Major V delivers great consistency and precision, enabling them to have even more control.” The Major V also incorporates advancements from Mazzer’s more recent models – the ZM, Robur S, and Kold S – while adding extra functionality. Marco says one of its key features is a Grind Flow Control (GFC) system to reduce electrostatic charge while producing uniform coffee grounds. “GFC is the Mazzer Lab’s response to three main issues: to avoid clumping to get more uniform coffee grounds, reduce the electrostatic charge that causes dispersion of coffee on the counter, and improve dose consistency,” Marco says. The system is composed of a removable aluminium outlet insert equipped with extractable interchangeable wire dampers. This

allows for more control over the flow of coffee throughout the chute, preventing clumping instead of crashing it. The Major V also boasts a new electronic control panel, that can be set up in 19 different languages. Through this panel, Marco says baristas have control over dosing times to 100th of a second, five times more accurate than the previous model. Baristas can also pre-program three doses and pause functions to settle the coffee and avoid spillage. “The control panel is easy to use and provides information on maintenance updates, statistics, worn burrs alerts, and dose countdowns,” Marco says. “It tells the user when the burrs need to be changed, and once the burrs are replaced, the date and type can be saved for reference.” Another step forward Mazzer has taken in embracing new technology is the Major V’s Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. “Nowadays, connectivity plays a more and more important role in our life and data is key to any business,” Marco says. “That’s why Major V will be equipped with an optional Wi-Fi connectivity module.” Mazzer’s IoT technology allows grinder output to be monitored via the Mazzer app and keeps all of a café or chain’s grinders connected to ‘the cloud’. Marco says this gives the barista, roaster, café owner, and technician remote access to the machine.

“The Mazzer app is a useful tool to monitor workflow, efficiently schedule maintenance on multiple grinders, collect feedback, and analyse results to improve quality in a scientific way,” Marco says. Despite the implementation of these advanced features, Marco says first and foremost, the Major V is designed to be user-friendly. One example is how baristas can access the grinding chamber to clean or changeburrs quickly and efficiently without unscrewing the collar and losing the grind setting. “The multi-adjustable portafilter holder enables baristas to centre the flow of grinds in the basket while keeping hands free,” Marco says. “Settings can be indexed with a userfriendly Memory Track ring that gives users a reference number when grinding. Baristas can also use the portafilter or keyboard to activate ondemand grinding.” Marco says the Australian coffee community’s penchant for quality has played a key part in Mazzer’s international growth and development of these features. “The Australia barista community is at the forefront of coffee. Over the years, Australian baristas have given us useful feedback to help us meet the baristas’ needs,” Marco says. “Our products have been influenced from the Australian market and we’ve been able to grow alongside them.”

The Mazzer Major V is the faster among the company’s flat-burr grinder models.

The Major V features a new electronic control panel to pre-program dosing times.

For more than 70 years, Mazzer has produced high quality grinders and burrs in its factory in the countryside near Venice. Four out of 10 grinders are produced using solar energy and 12 per cent of annual turnover is invested in research and development. Marco says in a sector in which production chain delocalisation is very common, Mazzer not only assembles but internally designs and produces all parts connected to the grinding process. “While we invest a lot into innovative technologies, we give

great and equal importance to handcraft capacity. We believe that know-how is crucial and no matter how precise machines and tools are, the human factor makes the difference,” Marco says. “Each grinder is built from the deft hand of man, making it unique.” Coffee Works Express, an Australian distributor of the Mazzer Major V, will display the new model at the Sydney Fine Food expo from 9 to 12 September 2019. For more information, visit

www.cwe.com.au beanscenemag.com.au

TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

The Kees to customisation Three coffee equipment specialists have partnered with Kees van der Westen to give Australians greater access to their own customisable specialty machine.

here are a few classic American cars that still turn heads. One that refuses to fade is the iconic twoseater Thunderbird, a time machine to the 1950s that’s synonymous with sophistication and style. Not only is this the car Kees van der Westen drives, but is one of the inspirations behind his line of self-titled espresso machines. Since the early 1980s, his company, also called Kees van der Westen, has been creating and designing artistic and technically beautiful espresso coffee machines in Waalre, the Netherlands. With a desire to expand his brand to the Australian coffee market, in January 2019 Kees van der Westen partnered with independent coffee equipment specialists, Espresso Company Australia (ECA), Specialist Espresso, and Espresso Works. “Kees van der Westen appointed equipment specialists who would

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be able to open the brand up to the entire specialty coffee industry,” says Charles Stephens, Chief Executive Officer of ECA. “Roasters will have access to three professional entities who will offer impartial, independent, and unbiased access to a quality range.” The joint venture will see Kees van der Westen machines such as the Speedster, Spirit, Mirage, and the 2019 Slim Jim, distributed from each company and accessible to roasters and cafés across Australia. “All national roasters and independent espresso bars can now take advantage of this beautiful iconic brand via an independent service and supporting entities,” says Charles. “The alliance will offer customer service that will provide genuine spare parts available on demand and dispatched overnight.”

Kees van der Westen’s latest machine, the Slim Jim, features 20 different customisation points that can be selected during the ordering process and configured to match the needs of roasters, espresso bars, and cafés. “The Slim Jim is one of the most customisable specialty machines available, where the owner has the ability to create their machine to their own specification and design,” Charles says. “Customers will be able to look at, test, and evaluate all Kees van der Westen models and create a bespoke machine that’s ordered via three companies.” Under the partnership, roasters can visit any Espresso Company, Specialist Espresso and Espresso Works site across Australia, and select specific features such as legs, front panels, side panels, cup rails, colours, awnings, knob colours, and handles. Charles says the biggest challenge for

“THE SLIM JIM IS ONE OF THE MOST CUSTOMISABLE SPECIALTY MACHINES AVAILABLE, WHERE THE OWNER HAS THE ABILITY TO CREATE THEIR MACHINE TO THEIR OWN SPECIFICATION AND DESIGNS.” coffee machine technology at present is its inability to stay relevant and meet the needs and expectations of the local coffee market. “Cafés want something that’s aesthetically beautiful, but it needs to be backed up with supporting engineering components that can’t be temperamental. Australia is brutal on the demands of the espresso machine. What we do to it from 6am to 11am is quite unbelievable so the machine has to deliver that demand that’s placed upon it,” Charles says. The Kees van der Westen Slim Jim machine combines presence in design and technology features from both the classic Mirage and high-end Spirit, providing baristas with the tools and functions to bring out the best elements of a blend or single origin. “The Australian coffee market is so sophisticated that when you’re working in the specialty market you really have to offer the best machines, grinders, coffee blends, and single origins,” Charles says. “The maturity of the Australian coffee industry has grown to become one of the leading markets in the world and Kees van der Westen takes a lot of inspiration on how to make his machines better for the benefit of everyone.” The Slim Jim features a multiple boiler system, encompassing a steam boiler and individual boilers per group where temperature is controlled through a proportional integral derivative, a selflearning device that keeps temperature as stable as possible. The three groups are fed with preheated water to a targeted temperature via a high capacity self-regulating thermosyphon loop. The water temperature in each group is shown using a large three-digit display. Each group also has a pressure gauge, which shows realtime actual extraction pressure at the puck. “In Australia some cafés are producing up to 30 kilograms of coffee daily. These cafés require a high volume machine that maintains exceptional quality,” Charles

says. “The Slim Jim has technical and innovative pieces, including the ability to adjust the temperature of each group to best dial in the aroma and flavour of the full range of single origins and blends that will give an advantage for making great coffee.” Another key feature is the Slim Jim’s eco mode, designed to customise the machines’ energy management. When café orders have dropped off in the afternoon, a barista can isolate and turn off each group head to conserve energy. Charles says Kees wanted to create equipment that’s energy efficient, reducing energy consumption. He adds that the Slim Jim was designed with the purpose to create a comfortable work area for baristas. “Kees van der Westen machines make a beautiful working environment. A barista has to stand in front of a machine for eight to nine hours in a day and you would want a machine that’s comfortable and easy to use,” Charles says.

“The Slim Jim is as good as a machine can be. It offers baristas a really open, comfortable and functional work area that’s easy to keep clean and is a pleasure to stand in front of.” In addition to its key features, Charles says Kees van der Westen’s designs are what customers and roasters gravitate to. “For the customer, the espresso machine can be the key focus of the café. It’s something that people really look to. Kees van der Westen is a boutique and premium brand that is aspirational, bespoke, and worthy of being on top of any espresso bar counter. The Slim Jim brings a different and refreshing design to Australia,” Charles says. “The roaster, or the owner and barista, can work together to create a machine that will make the most incredible coffee and the owner and designer can make something really unique that becomes part of the aesthetic centre piece of the café.” Charles says the future of ECA’s partnership with Kees van der Westen will continue to build and support the Dutch brand throughout Australia. “We now have the unique opportunity to represent this brand and enjoy the potential of opening the brand up to the greater specialty coffee market to place upon the bench to enhance and compliment the environment of any café,” Charles says. For more information, contact

info@espressocompany.com.au or visit espressocompany.com.au

The Slim Jim combines design and technology features from Kees van der Westen’s Mirage and Spirit machines.

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

The complete package Kirby and Sarah Koopman, Owners and Founders of Ransom Specialty Coffee Roasters, have established a business that specialises in customised coffees and barista training for cafés.

irby and Sarah Koopman are living their dream. Up at the crack of dawn, each day you’ll find the owners and founders of Ransom Specialty Coffee Roasters in their Cairns-based factory roasting, packaging, and preparing coffee for distribution to cafés in and around Queensland. Before entering the world of roasting, Kirby and Sarah spent several years running their own café, which was losing money when they purchased it. “One day, Kirby just came home and said he bought a café. I went from being a legal secretary, to mum, to café owner. It was pretty full on but incredibly rewarding,” Sarah says. “Every day is an adventure with Kirby.” After establishing a loyal following and successful business, the couple turned the business around, producing a profit, and were at an impasse on which direction to take next. “We began roasting just for our café. Within six weeks, coffee sales increased by 30 per cent. Within a year, it was 300 per cent, and just kept growing. We were still learning about roasting and our machine, but other cafés started asking if they could use our blends. We were torn between roasting and serving coffee. Out of the blue we were approached by a regular customer who wanted to buy our café. We took it as a sign and decided to dedicate our efforts to roasting full time,” Kirby says. “Our start came when we gave a local café a bag of coffee to try. Its barista accidently put it in the grinder on a busy Saturday. The regulars commented on the coffee being exceptional that morning. The owner realised it was our coffee, not their usual brand. He called me and they switched straight away.” Four years on, Kirby and Sarah roast

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Ramsom Coffee Roasters’ Kirby Koopman strikes a pose with the Latino Love Child blend.

under their Ransom Coffee banner. Designed for ease as a central point for all café needs, Kirby says Ransom Coffee offers customers everything from roasted coffee and machinery to teas, syrups, chocolate, and training. “We aim to meet the needs of all cafés and restaurants in every way. At the end of the day, if they grow, we grow,” Kirby says. “Our ethos is to produce high quality coffee that’s affordable and dedication to our existing clients. We roast top-grade beans using state-of-the-art technology delivering consistent, quality coffee that’s organic and fresh. If we supply our product to a particular venue, we won’t supply others in their area.” Ransom Coffee also tailors exclusive blends for customers, ranging from simplistic to complex recipes. Its commercial blends include Amigo Coco, a certified organic coffee featuring a light milk chocolate tone with a delicate finish, and Latino Love Child, a mix of Central and South American beans with a smooth caramel flavour embedded with chocolate and white rum. Kirby calls the Naked Honey Badger – a four-bean blend with dark chocolate notes and sweet honey characteristics – a favourite, “excellent for short blacks and even in soy milk”. Ransom Coffee’s signature blend is the Screaming Maasai, featuring African and Colombian beans, offering a rich cocoa taste with fruit notes and a mild yet exotic spice. “The blends came from trial and error. When we first started roasting, we had ideas about what we wanted. We would play around with ratios to see what worked best and to find flavours that complemented each other,” Kirby says. “The Screaming Maasai is our flagship coffee. It’s our most complex and by far our best seller. It works fabulously with milk but can be served as a long or short black.” More than just a roastery, Ransom Coffee is enthusiastic about educating and enhancing the skills of baristas across the country. As a result, Ransom Coffee conducts a comprehensive training program. The course is designed not just for café start-ups, but for those wanting to hone their skills or learn a little more taking a holistic approach from pulling shots and texturing milk to customer service, storing coffee, and bad jokes. “Good coffee isn’t hard to make if you follow a few core principles, then mix in a little experience. We show people the basics of espresso-based drinks and

The Ransom Coffee Roasters team: Sarah and Kirby Koopman, and Vivien Williams.

how to prepare them correctly. I sat down and wrote a manual that covers everything from getting the machine and grinder ready for the morning influx to finishing up later in the day. Our course combines a mix of practical and theory, so people don’t just learn the ‘hows’, but the ‘whys’ as well,” Kirby says. “Our barista training gives people confidence. We don’t just show people how to make good coffee but explain why it needs to be done a certain way.” Over time, as Kirby and Sarah focused on their roasting and listened to their clients’ needs, they began to witness Ransom Coffee evolve into a larger enterprise solely through word of mouth. Kirby says watching Ransom Coffee grow organically has been surreal. In its very early days, the roastery produced 20 kilograms per week. Four years, and a new roaster and warehouse later, they roast up to 40 times that. “We initially just wanted to make and serve great coffee and have some fun too, but Ransom took on its own identity kept growing. It wasn’t just the coffee, but how we engage with our clients. We go out of our way to treat them all as we would want to be,” Kirby says. “I always wanted to produce something. Not to make a fortune, but to be able to have a product we can proudly call our own that we’ve developed from scratch. It’s probably a little self-centred, but you need to follow your dreams.” While Kirby concedes Ransom Coffee is a smaller boutique roastery, it’s

starting to gain attention in other states. “We’re a minor player in the world of roasting, but inside Queensland we’ve grown substantially. When we catch up with our clients, we enjoy talking to like-minded business owners. It’s a great source of information and ideas exchange,” Kirby says. Ransom Coffee is now seeing its coffee sold to Victoria, New South Wales, South and Western Australia, and Canberra – even London and Chicago. “They’ve tried our coffee at a venue in Cairns and wanted that taste in their business. That’s precisely how we branched out into South Queensland and into New South Wales,” Kirby says. Looking to the future, Kirby says Ransom’s objective is to get its coffee into the cups and onto the palates of consumers and see how it stacks up against the best. “We’ve only just started thinking of expansion. We would like to spread ourselves a little more around Australia but didn’t want to do it to the detriment of our service, product, or sun-kissed lifestyle in North Queensland, so we recently upgraded our roastery again. It’s important our growth doesn’t stop us from making the best coffee we can,” Kirby says. “Coffee has to be one of the most rewarding, amazing, and challenging industries to be a part of. I really do love it.” For more information, visit

www.ransomcoffee.com beanscenemag.com.au

INDUSTRY PROFILE

Reign of ¡Tierra! Lavazza’s locally roasted ¡Tierra! Brazil and Colombia blends represent the roaster’s commitment to sustainability at origin.

hen Marco Lavazza, Vice Chairman of the Lavazza Group, touched down in Melbourne in January for the 2019 Australian Open, it was not just to celebrate Lavazza’s third year of partnering with the tennis grand slam. The roaster had decided that the competition was the perfect platform to launch a first for the company: coffee roasted outside of Italy. Three locally roasted coffees were on offer at the event, the single-origin Kafa Forest Coffee, and two new Rainforest Alliance-certified blends belonging to the Lavazza ¡Tierra! range – ¡Tierra! Brazil and ¡Tierra! Colombia. While the rest of the world’s ¡Tierra! is roasted in Italy, Cristiano Portis, Asia and Pacific Coffee Research and Development Manager and Licensed Q Grader for Lavazza, says ¡Tierra! is of special interest to the Australian community. “They’re more than your usual coffee blends. ¡Tierra! tells a story that goes beyond flavour descriptors,” Cristiano tells BeanScene. “In a market like Australia, which is very advanced in coffee, it’s a pleasure to talk about and share this information, because the people

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have a deep knowledge.” ¡Tierra! is a sustainability project launched in 2002 and developed on a joint basis with Rainforest Alliance, with the aim of improving the social and environmental conditions and the production techniques of several coffee-growing communities. ¡Tierra! sustainability projects, supported by Lavazza Foundation, are primarily intended to increase coffee quality and yields, while also promoting entrepreneurship among coffee growers and improving their living conditions. In order to achieve these goals, Lavazza spreads good agricultural practices that foster coffee quality and respect for the environment, supporting coffee growers in building and managing their own organisations, and strengthening gender equality. Lavazza says organised growers gain access to broader markets, obtain services useful to improving production, and enjoy better access to credit. Cristiano adds that ¡Tierra! allows Lavazza to demonstrate its connection to coffee producing communities. “To Lavazza, coffee is more than just a commodity. Having a range of coffees resulting from our projects shows that we

are not just buying coffee over a phone call,” Cristiano says. “We actually go to those countries, work with farmers, help the local community, and very carefully select coffee to share with our customers.” These projects have allowed long-term relationships to develop and provided great power to producers. “If you actually invest in and teach people how to make their coffee better, they’re able to provide a higher quality,” Cristiano says. “I had a fantastic experience working on one sustainability project a few years ago. I went to many different origins and was working with agronomists who are on the field every day in difficult areas supporting farmers. There’s a lot of work going into improving basic practices, making irrigation better to reduce water waste, and applying fertiliser properly to enrich the soil.” ¡Tierra! Colombia includes coffee from the Lavazza Foundation’s Meta Sustainability Project in the municipality of Mesetas, conducted with local partner Carcafè. Lavazza says coffee cultivation had not been practiced for a long time due to armed conflict in the area. However, since 2013, empty plots of land have been reassigned and given back to displaced farming families with the aim of

revitalising coffee production. Cristiano says the successful project has produced coffees that bring something new to Lavazza. “We’ve been using Colombian coffee for a long time, but this was our first blend of only washed Arabica from Colombia,” he says. “In terms of flavour, it was different to our usual coffee. We found it had a nice acidity, with fruity notes and flowery jasmine. “At the same time, we wanted to maintain our traditions, giving a full body to this coffee. In Italy, we are selling espresso, and in a country like Australia, 90 per cent of coffee is consumed with milk. You need a coffee with body or it vanishes.” Cristiano says ¡Tierra! Brazil, on the other hand, represents the best of what consumers have come to expect from Lavazza. “¡Tierra! Brazil is a combination of natural and semi-washed coffee that results in tasting notes of dark chocolate, dried fruit, and sugarcane,” he says. “We developed this blend for a quintessential Italian taste. It’s been a great success through all our markets and is perfect when paired with milk. This is why it was one of the blends we chose to roast in Australia.” ¡Tierra! Brazil sources some of its Arabica from the Lambari Sustainability Project, where Lavazza – in partnership with Hanss R Neumann Stiftung – has increased the income of small-scale coffee farmers by supporting climate change adaptation and good agricultural practices. This is paired with a carefully chosen Robusta that Cristiano says provides the finishing touch. “We looked through Brazil to find

Lavazza locally roasts ¡Tierra! Brazil and Colombia distributed in Australia.

the right Robusta to bring out the best potential for this blend. We found a particular coffee called Conillon using the semi-washed process, which gave us the exact flavour we wanted,” he says. “When we proposed roasting some of our ¡Tierra! coffees in Australia, we wanted to offer blends which would complement each other. One like ¡Tierra! Brazil, which is closer to what people expect from Lavazza, and another – ¡Tierra! Colombia – which speaks to a country like Australia that celebrates the aromatic and acidic elements of a coffee.” Cristiano says roasting the coffee specifically for Australia has allowed Lavazza to cater to the market’s preference for the freshest coffee possible. “With so many local roasters, Australians are used to receiving coffee within a certain time from the roast date,” he says. “While our processes and packaging ensure the quality of the coffee we are sending out from Italy, roasting in Australia means we can meet the demands of the remote market.

¡Tierra! is a sustainability project that aims to improve the social and environmental conditions of coffee-growing communities.

“Lavazza had never roasted its blends for the professional channel outside of Italy due to our strict quality control standards and we wanted to see if it could work roasting in different regions. Australia is a bit of an experiment, which is working for us so far.” Once the decision was made to roast in Australia, Lavazza’s focus turned to how to maintain consistency with the coffee it produced in Italy. “Since we put the Lavazza name on it, we needed to follow the same rules we’ve established in Italy,” Cristiano says. “All the coffee we import meets the same standards we’ve set at origin and then undergoes the same chemical analysis once it reaches our facility. So, not only do we follow the same procedures, but the composition of the blend and the origins are exactly the same to guarantee the same experience to our customers.” He adds that this ensures the message of ¡Tierra! is shared across different audiences. “It’s the same coffee so we don’t want to tell a different story,” Cristiano says. “The coffee we roast in Australia stays in Australia, but if someone at the Australian Open drinks ¡Tierra! Colombia, then has it again at Wimbledon, we want them to have the same experience.” In the case of ¡Tierra!, he says it was also important to adapt the recipe to suit the reduced volume produced Down Under. “We use a different roasting machine to Italy, so to start, we needed to trial and adjust different roast profiles to achieve the same result,” Cristiano says. “Because the operations and roaster are smaller in Australia, you are automatically more involved. You’re really there, seeing the coffee go into and out of the drum. You really get to know the roaster and what to expect.” For more information, visit

www.lavazza.com.au beanscenemag.com.au

MAY 4 - 7 / 2020 MELBOURNE CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE WWW.INTERNATIONALCOFFEEEXPO.COM

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CAFETTO BARISTA PROFILE

Crossing the bench

Image: Kate Beard, World Coffee Events

After helping establish Singapore’s specialty coffee industry on the world stage, John Ryan Ting has taken his knowledge, skills, and love of teaching to Indonesia.

ohn Ryan Ting is one of few baristas with experience on both sides of the competition table. Before becoming a certified World Barista Championship (WBC) judge – including at the 2013 WBC in Melbourne – he had two Singapore Barista Champion titles to his name. John began his coffee journey as a part-time barista at a chain in the 1990s. After finishing his studies, he entered the profession full time with the Spinelli Coffee Company in 2003. “I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, but I enjoyed coffee and knew I could make it well,” John says. “Then I discovered the WBC and made it my mission to compete.” He took his first step in 2007 at the inaugural Singapore National Barista Championship, where he placed second. “It made me want to improve and become better. I competed again in 2008 and this time, I won,” John says.

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He competed consecutively the next two years, winning his second title in 2009. His streak ended in 2010 when his own boss, Keith Loh of Oriole Coffee Roasters, beat him in the competition. John had joined Oriole as an Outlet Manager in 2008, where he was able to add training and roasting to his skillset. “Keith owned a couple of cafés and restaurants, and my role was to train people to make coffee across the venues,” John says. “In early 2009, Oriole became a roastery and we started supplying coffee to other cafés too.” In 2012, John joined green bean trader Bero Coffee to progress his coffee knowledge even further. “It was a good experience, but it made me realise my heart lies within the operational side of coffee,” he says. “After that, I wanted to get involved in the WBC again, but didn’t feel ready to compete. Instead, I became certified as a judge, and

began training baristas who wanted to compete in national championships.” John says judging gave him a different perspective on the competition. “Being on the other side of the table, you realise what the judges are looking for and learn to think more critically,” John says. “It allowed me to see the important areas that other competitors are not really working on.” John put this new way of thinking to use in 2015 when he entered the Singapore National Barista Championship after a five-year break. “I always wanted to compete again. After judging, I think I went back as a stronger competitor,” he says. “In a barista competition, it’s necessary to engage the judges. It’s easy to get nervous and make mistakes, but you need to share the correct information and make it something they haven’t heard before.” John won the title for the third time, and

Image: Kate Beard, World Coffee Events

took his fresh perspective to the 2015 WBC. He continued to improve his WBC ranking over the years, going from 32nd in 2008, to 20th in 2009, and 12th in 2015. This made John the first and only Singaporean barista to make the semi-finals. For as long as he can remember, John says cleaning product provider Cafetto has supported him and the Singapore Barista Championship to reach new heights. “I met [Cafetto Managing Director] Chris Short many times. He is a very nice person who really cares about coffee,” John says. “While working at roasteries and cafés, we always used Cafetto Evo to maintain our own machines and recommended it to our customers, because it’s specifically designed for coffee, and it works.” His experience judging, consulting, and training showed John the value of sharing his knowledge with young and passionate baristas. “I enjoy connecting with my trainees, and seeing their improvement over time, whether that’s in daily operations or overall coffee skills,” he says. “It also feels meaningful to train and inspire the next generation of baristas.” John launched Academy Roastery Café (ARC) in 2015 to explore this newfound passion. The venue emphasised training new baristas, with many participants going on to compete in or win Singapore’s coffee competitions. One such trainee was Andrea Tan, who won the first Singapore Brewers Cup in 2015. John succeeded her as the Singapore Brewers Cup Champion in 2016. After a successful few years, ARC ended operations in 2018. Not long after, John’s former boss Keith offered him a new opportunity. In 2017, Keith had launched Caffeine Solutions, distributing coffee equipment to Singaporean hospitality venues, and wanted to expand into the larger Indonesian market. He needed a knowledgeable coffee professional to head up Caffeine Solutions’ office in Jakarta and John took up the opportunity, moving to Indonesia in April 2019. “I was excited to work for Keith again,” he says. “While Caffeine Solutions’ focus is selling coffee machines, we operate a training centre where I still get to share my knowledge and help our customers train their baristas to the next level.” John says Indonesia’s coffee scene is in a state of rapid growth, with consumers expressing an increased appreciation for specialty coffee. “The coffee culture has definitely improved a lot in the last few years,” he says. “[Though Jakarta] is not quite yet at the level of the world’s coffee capitals like London, New York, and Melbourne.” Singapore, on the other hand, is

“IN A BARISTA COMPETITION, IT’S NECESSARY TO ENGAGE THE JUDGES... AND MAKE IT SOMETHING THEY HAVEN’T HEARD BEFORE.” progressing at a slower rate. “There are a few cafés serving top notch coffees, but not as many. The general market is still more commercial and the number of coffee drinkers who appreciate specialty coffee is small. It’s increasing, but it’s still early,” John says. Indonesia faces its own challenges. “They are a producing country and the government wants to protect the livelihood of its farmers, so coffee roasters pay a high amount of tax to import coffee,” John says. “The market is still very used to Indonesian coffee and has had very little exposure to coffees from places like Colombia, Panama, and El Salvador. Only some of the bigger roasters can afford to bring that coffee in.” Despite this, John hopes Indonesia’s Mikael Jasin placing fourth in the 2019 WBC demonstrates the value of international coffee to local consumers.

“[Mikael] used a Panama, Ethiopian, and Indonesian coffee, all processed through carbonic maceration, to show how they can achieve different flavours,” John says. “Hopefully, he will inspire a lot of Indonesian baristas and roasters to start importing coffee from other origins.” With the WBC taking place in Melbourne again in 2020, John says he may soon return to Australia, this time as a competitor. “I’ve had very little origin focus in my past routines and am planning a trip soon. I hope to really get involved in the processing of the coffee,” he says. “I’m giving myself until the end of the year to decide if I’ll compete, and to find the right coffee.”

For more information about Cafetto, its support of industry members, and latest product range, visit www.cafetto.com beanscenemag.com.au

MICE2020: party time Make the best purchase of the year and book your tickets to MICE2020 to secure your position at the hottest coffee event, and parties, in town.

en years ago, hoards of footy fanatics would line up at the crack of dawn, some camped overnight, in order to gain first pick of AFL finals tickets as the clock struck 9am in a first come, first served basis. Some may recall gathering at university libraries minutes before tickets to top music festivals were released. Students would click refresh on repeat with the lucky few proudly boasting their win.

Early bird tickets to MICE2020, inclusive of the World Barista Championship and World Brewers Cup, are now available.

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On 1 August, coffee fans felt the same rush of adrenaline when tickets to the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) 2020 went live. “The official ticket launch is a sign that MICE2020 is well and truly on the horizon. Next year’s event is such a highly anticipated one, so it’s essential that visitors make the most of early bird ticket sales to gain their place at the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest dedicated coffee event, and at the best prices,” says MICE

Show Director Lauren Winterbottom. MICE2020 visitors can maximise sale opportunities with early bird general ticket sales of $30 for a one-day pass, $40 for a two-day pass, and $50 for a four-day pass. Ticket prices include access to the expo and viewing of the World Barista Championship (WBC) and World Brewers Cup (WBrC). Early bird rates apply until 31 October. “Next year’s event is a four-day extravaganza. For those that plan to book out their entire week and maximise every

education opportunity, the four-day pass is the best value to ensure you don’t miss any part of the action – on the expo floor or the comp stage. It’s been seven years since we last hosted the WBC and WBrC, and who knows when it’s going to come back again?” Lauren says. In addition to the expo sales going live, MICE Platinum Sponsor St Ali will also launch a suite of ticket offerings on the MICE website. The roaster, known for its quality coffee and food, will also uphold its reputation for memorable parties. “What better way to celebrate the world coming to Melbourne than to open our shop doors and café laneway to welcome the world’s best barista talent to our coffee city? All the competitors will be focused on putting their best foot forward, but we also want to create a fun atmosphere where they can enjoy their time in Melbourne and make lasting memories,” says Michael Cameron, Studio Ali Manager. St Ali will host the following official events, with all details and prices available via the MICE website: • W elcome to Melbourne evening – Sunday 3 May 2020 To welcome all competitors and noncompetitors to Melbourne, St Ali will host an evening of top-notch food, coffee, and entertainment, celebrating the laneway

3Brothers Coffee will celebrate its 10th anniversary at MICE2020.

vibes of Melbourne to kickstart the expo week. Expect live DJs and Studio Ali offering “Made in Melbourne” bespoke souvenirs from its nearby studio. • C offee Tasting Menu Dinner – Tuesday 5 May 2020 Combining St Ali’s world-class kitchen with WBC coffees sourced by its green bean procurement specialist, St Ali will present a tasting menu matched to WBC coffees, limited to 80 seats. • O fficial MICE2020 Afterparty – Thursday 7 May 2020 In conjunction with World Coffee Events, St Ali will hold the Official MICE2020 Afterparty. VIP tickets will be available allowing access to plenty of extras and goodies. St Ali knows how to party – come along and see how. General entry is automatic for all MICE ticket purchases. • L aneway Recovery – Friday 8 May 2020 Finish up MICE2020 with a relaxing recovery laneway party. Stationed in St Ali’s South Melbourne laneway, there will food trucks and coffee galore, with the return of Studio Ali’s “Made in Melbourne” bespoke souvenir shop. Michael says this will be the perfect way to finish up an epic week. With the countdown to MICE2020 well and truly on, event organisers have confirmed original space allocations have sold out, with limited additional space still available. The event will see a high representation of roasters, manufacturers, traders, and suppliers, including long-time exhibitor Bombora Coffee + Water Supplies. Bombora Managing Director Bernard Peters says for him, MICE2020 is a chance to catch up with customers, suppliers, and friends. “It’s the one show in Australia that

focuses completely on specialty coffee. If you are in the coffee industry this show is for you,” Bernard says. With Bombora introducing new products each week to market, Bernard anticipates May 2020 will present more products and exciting innovations to introduce to the Australian and international audience. For Tercio Borba, Co-Founder of 3Brothers Coffee, MICE will be an opportunity to run a schedule of cupping throughout the day, combined with other collaborative activities and seminars. “Our model is based on knowledge sharing so we will bring exciting speakers, farmers, experimental aspects, the map of chemistry of coffee, neuroscience in coffee and how we perceive flavours, plus more,” Tercio says. MICE2020 will mark 3Brothers’ 10year anniversary. Tercio says the event is a great way to “meet exciting people, drink amazing coffee, and have a laugh while doing great business”. “MICE is a great global platform for us to expose our work, brand, and unique business model working with producers and roasters. MICE is also based in the country of birth of 3Brothers Coffee, where it all started, Australia,” Tercio says. He adds that Australians are innovators in many industries including coffee and have set the benchmark for roasting, brewing, and service. “The level of knowledge and development applied into coffee service is one of a kind. So many people have been doing an incredible job to make this one of the most exciting spaces in the world of coffee,” Tercio says.

For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.internationalcoffeeexpo.com beanscenemag.com.au

CAFÉ SCENE

THE HUNGRY FOX CAFÉ 305 Wirraway Road, Essendon Fields, Victoria, 3041 Open Monday to Saturday 7am to 3pm (03) 9027 9201 The Melbourne suburb of Essendon is known for its proud football club, Melbourne’s first international airport, and one of the most talked about supermarkets in town, LaManna. Just as conversations in Melbourne celebrate coffee, when it comes to groceries, LaManna is top of mind as a “destination” for its quality food, custom cakes, and the “deliberate chaos” it creates on the weekend. Just a few hundred metres away in Essendon Fields Airport is The Hungry Fox Café, an extension of the LaManna brand but in its own dedicated way. An experience in its own right, since the café opened in 2018 it has become a local favourite for customers to linger over a coffee and chef-prepared dishes without a shopping trolley in sight. Rather, the only connection to the supermarket down the road is the quality produce it supplies for the menu and its traditional family values, meaning everyone is welcome. “From supermarket to café life, opening The Hungry Fox was a challenge for the LaManna family because it was new territory, but as soon as I started working here I knew it was something special,” says Jason Shiong, Head of Hospitality at LaManna. “To see its progression from where it started to where it is now, and where it’s going, is incredible.” The café is positioned among the car dealerships of Essendon Fields, the Victorian Police Air Wing, Royal Flying

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Doctor Service, and regular airport traffic, meaning there’s never a shortage of customers. That includes couples, and mums and bubs that swarm to the playground for an hour of relief. Just as the café is a new venture for the LaManna family, so to is its partnership with roaster SoCo, using its Society Blend in addition to rotating single origins, served via batch and cold brew (see more page 25). “The Hungry Fox is excited to continue its relationship with SoCo and its new and unique offering. SoCo is so well suited to Hungry’s Fox’s diverse demographic. It’s locally roasted and packs a punch,” Jason says. “We were the first café to trial this new brand, and the reaction has been incredible. It’s interesting to see that some customers who would get their morning coffee from LaManna are now coming to Hungry Fox – it’s a

The interior design resembles a ski lodge in the Napa Valley, only this café is in Essendon.

battle of the baristas.” The café menu is a playful touch on popular café favourites, from burgers to salads. Jason says crowd favourite Earthy Eggs has been a staple since day one because of its marriage of flavours and display of technique. The chef lives by the rule that everything on the plate serves a purpose, meaning it’s not just Instaworthy but “generous and full of flavour”. “The menu changes regularly and seasonally. It’s dictated by our butcher, fruit and veggie team, and delicatessen cabinet at LaManna,” Jason says. The Hungry Fox is named after onehalf of Essendon Fields owners, Andrew Fox. Legend has it he envisaged the café to resemble a place visited in the Napa Valley, and the chalet vibe is exactly what interior designers Lukas Partners delivered. Shaped with a pointed roof, large windows, wooden furnishings, and fireplace, The Hungry Fox Café is the perfect way to see out the winter days with a SoCo coffee in hand – watching the hours past by and the air traffic take off, just like the café itself.

The Hungry Fox Café’s Earthy Eggs.

THE YOGA PLACE BLACKSMITHS 6 Mitt Street, Blacksmiths, New South Wales, 2281 Open Tuesday to Saturday 8am to 2pm 0405 279 133 While travelling overseas, Brooke Simpson and her husband Ben were inspired by feloow travellers to open a plant-based café adjacent to their yoga studio. After developing their yoga studio – with classes running seven days a week – two-and-a-half years ago in Newcastle, New South Wales, Brooke says she never thought she would be opening a café so soon. “We had all this space next to our studio and the people we met travelling really helped us set up and gave us all this advice,” Brooke says. “We’d talked about opening a café, but we always wanted to do it when our children were a bit older. However, it seemed like the right time to get the ball rolling.” At the time of print, the Yoga Place Blacksmiths had been open for several weeks and Brooke says the response has been overwhelming. “Everything has been really positive especially around the coffee. We use coffee from Syndicate Coffee from Melbourne. As a NSW business, people would expect us to use coffee from local suppliers, so this really sets us apart,” Brooke says. “It’s been a real crowd pleaser to use coffee from Melbourne as the city is known for its coffee and culture.” The Yoga Place uses Syndicate Coffee’s King Pin sustainable espresso blend, which it serves on a three-group La Marzocco machine.

QUALITY INNOVATION SUSTAINABILITY RELATIONSHIPS

#CLARKSTCOFFEE

The Yoga Place approaches coffee with a sustainable outlook.

Brooke says part of the appeal of Syndicate Coffee is down to its approach to sustainability. “Coffee and food come with a lot of packaging and we want to have a low environmental impact. Through Syndicate Coffee, everything is compostable,” Brooke says. She adds that one of her goals in opening the café was to share her passion for plant-based foods, which is reflected on the menu, including an open vegetarian burger, smoothie bowls, and nacho bowls. “Serving plant-based food is

COMMITTED TO SUSTAINABILITY — MASTERFULLY ROASTED & CURATED COFFEE — COMPOSTABLE PACKAGING

quite unusual for our area, but we wanted to create a place where, after class, visitors can enjoy some really wholesome food that’s good for you,” Brooke says. “We’re seeing a lot of families just come to have lunch as opposed to visitors who have just finished a class. You’ll be surprised to see how many people just want to visit and see an open garden and drink coffee. “It gets quite emotional looking out into the garden and seeing people eating good wholesome food that’s good for their bodies. It’s really amazing.”

03 9428 3229 INFO@CLARKST.COFFEE 73 CROWN ST RICHMOND VIC 3121

CAFÉ SCENE LANEWAY SPECIALTY COFFEE 4/1 Vickers Street, Parap, Northern Territory, 0820 Open Monday to Saturday 7am to 4pm, Sunday 8am to 2:30pm (08) 8941 4511 While Darwin isn’t as well known for its coffee as some major cities, Laneway Specialty Coffee Owner Lisa Heames says there is a growing coffee scene. However, it was not always that way. “When we opened Laneway there wasn’t a lot of cafés around Darwin, just a few franchises. People would travel interstate to Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, have great coffee, then think ‘why can’t we have this at home?’” Lisa says. “The community was hanging out for specialty coffee, so we were embraced from the start. The coffee culture has grown since then, but we’ve kept a solid group of regulars who we still see every day.”

Laneway serves a diverse menu of Australian breakfast favourites.

Lisa opened Laneway – which turned five in July – with friends Adam and Danielle Mann, and says it’s important to give back to the local community by participating in initiatives like Red Nose Day and CaféSmart. This community outlook extends to its employees. “Staff are a high priority for us and we have an amazing team of chefs, servers, and baristas,” Lisa says. “We firmly believe in looking after the team to look after the customer, and some of our staff have been with us since we started.” Also sticking with Laneway since the beginning is roaster Campos Coffee, whose Superior Blend is served at the café as its house blend.

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Laneway’s benchtops are recycled timber sourced from a local bowling alley.

“We were in talks with Campos while still developing the café, and we’ve enjoyed an amazing relationship with the team,” Lisa says. “They’ve provided fantastic service, training, equipment, and amazing coffee. I’m really happy to have them in our corner. We’ve continued to work with them at our second café, Besser Kitchen & Brew Bar.” Campos-roasted single origins are also used for espresso, filter, and cold drip. Lisa says the latter becomes particularly popular in the wet season. “Darwin gets a lot warmer than down south and people like a nice cold refreshing coffee,” she says. Alongside the coffee, Laneway serves a menu of Australian favourites plus some special dishes including a gluten-free buckwheat hotcake, vanilla pannacotta and cinnamon syrup, with fresh berries; an Indo brekkie bowl with brown rice, heirloom mushrooms, chilli and fried egg; and beef brisket and bacon burger with American cheddar, bourbon barbecue sauce and fat pickles. “We make all of our pastries, cakes, and sauces from scratch, as well as handcrafted soda for cold drinks as well,” Lisa says. “We put a lot of love into our food and the café, and customers really feel that.” While the coffee and food has attracted its fair share of customers, Lisa says so has the venue’s industrial fit-out which contrasts with Laneway’s surrounding shopping village. “We’ve installed a brick wall along the back of the café and complement it with plenty of greenery. Because we’ve gone for that industrial look, our benchtops are recycled timber we sourced from a local bowling alley which was replacing

its floors,” she says. “That mix of new and recycled materials creates a nice atmosphere, and people can feel really comfortable here.” This has allowed Laneway to build strong relationships with a diverse array of regulars. “We have a broad range of people drop by, from business people on their way to work, to mums and babies or more mature customers throughout the day,” Lisa says. “It’s been really important to build relationships with our community. Over the years, we’ve watched our customers start families and have children. Now we get to know their kids as they grow up. It’s a special feeling and really makes it feel worthwhile.”

Campos Coffee’s single origins run on cold drip are particularly popular during the wet season.

OZONE COFFEE ROASTERS 18 Westmoreland Street West, Grey Lynn, Auckland, New Zealand, 1021 Open Monday and Tuesday, 7am to 9:30pm, Wednesday to Friday 7am to 10pm, Saturday 8am to 10pm, Sunday 8am to 9:30pm +64 09 3608125 In a former warehouse in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn, Ozone Coffee Roasters’ new eatery and roastery combines industrial elements with a warm, hospitable feel. Creative Director James Gurr says this creates a space that morphs throughout the day. “We had been seeking the right opportunity to have an Auckland presence for some time. We wanted to find the right place and although it took longer than we expected, the space we found in Grey Lynn was just the spot, within a community we couldn’t wait to be a part of,” James says. “It’s a leafy suburb, a stone’s throw away from Central Auckland and Ponsonby Road. It’s busy but relaxed at the same time, and there’s a sense of discovery in finding our spot which our customers love.” The venue doubles as a 100-seat

eatery and wholesale roastery. Behind a wall of glass runs a visible Probat UG 22 reconditioned coffee roaster, and upstairs is a barista training facility and quality control lab. The café roasts all of its coffee in-house, including rotating single origins and two blends. Ozone’s house coffee is Empire, a South American and African blend with caramel, chocolate, and berry jam notes. “The components change throughout the year in line with the availability of fresh crop, but we work hard to maintain the taste profile and quality in the cup,” James says. “It’s a trusted friend that we know we can count on time and again.” These coffees are prepared with a customised La Marzocco Strada, or across brewing methods including AeroPress, V60, syphon, and cold brew. Two Mythos Ones and a Mahlkönig EK43 grinder sit on the bench, along with a Juggler milk dispenser, Bunn Smart Wave brewer, and Felicita scales. “Efficiency and workflow with beautiful design were priorities in our choice of equipment as well as working with brands we already know and love,” James says. With existing operations in New

Ozone’s Auckland venue combines a 100-seat eatery with a functioning roastery.

Plymouth and London, James says the Grey Lynn eatery allows Ozone to offer a space for everyone in the community to share food and feel relaxed. “We love that we have the ability to give people a chance to chill with us, get some flavour in their cup, some lush on their plate, and build relationships and make connections with the people in our community,” he says.

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All images are serving suggestions

Contact us now for a sample — and see the rest of our breakfast solutions at sunnyqueenmealsolutions.com.au or call us on 1300 834 703

CAFÉ SCENE METHOD TO THE MADNESS 3/9 Marshall Lane, Kenmore, Queensland, 4069 Open Monday to Friday 6:30am to 4pm, Saturday and Sunday 7am to 3pm (07) 3706 3793 What’s in a name? When the time came to name their first café in the Sunshine State, Reagan Nongkhlaw and Urvik Bhalani

Method to the Madness takes inspiration from a well-known Shakespeare quote.

A MOTHER’S MILK 105 Unley Road, Unley, South Australia, 5061 Open seven days a week 7:30am to 3pm (08) 8271 4329 For many café owners, a toned-down, rustic look is a design choice made to increase the character of their venue. But for A Mother’s Milk in South Australia, it began as a necessity. “When the original owners set up the café, they didn’t have much of a budget for design, so it was quite raw, with exposed bricks and wooden floorboards. But the concept has become more popular and it looks amazing now,” Owner Tania Basheer says. “We’ve definitely improved the interior since then, polished the edges, made it a bit cleaner, and improved the facilities.” Tania took over the café three years ago, looking to move away from the long hours involved in restaurant work in favour of the calmer, customerfocused, and daytime structure of running a café. “When a business changes hands you’re always worried you’ll lose a few customers, but it’s been really

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turned to one the greatest creative minds in history – William Shakespeare. Method to the Madness comes from a famous line in Hamlet, “Though this be madness, yet there is method”. Reagan says they settled on the name because it reflected his and Urvik’s decision to move from the dynamic Melbourne coffee scene to Kenmore. “Before opening, we were travelling to and from Brisbane a lot, and people kept asking why we’d leave Melbourne to start a café,” Reagan says. “We loved the location and knew it would work. We said there was a method to our madness, then related that to the Shakespeare quote, and that became the idea behind the café.” From Melbourne, Reagan brought with him an existing relationship with Veneziano Coffee Roasters. Method to the Madness runs the roaster’s Estate blend for milk coffee and rotates single origins for black and cold drip. “I used Veneziano at a few cafés where I was working in Melbourne and really liked the coffee. When we came up to Brisbane, I did my research and got in touch with [Queensland State Sales Manager] Michaela Gerard to seal the deal,” Reagan says. “Estate is really different from a lot of

smooth. We’ve gained new customers and our regulars have stuck with us too,” Tania says. “It has an eclectic vibe. The clientele ranges from young hipsters to older people, families and residents to business people and shoppers. It’s really a mixed bag and everyone’s welcome.” Since last December, A Mother’s Milk has run Toby’s Estate’s Woolloomooloo as its house blend, prepared with a Synesso espresso machine. It also rotates single origins for espresso and batch brew. “We love the consistency and freshness of the coffee, and the team behind it as well. We’ve made some good friends with the people that visit from Toby’s Estate,” Tania says. A highlight from the café’s food menu to accompany the coffee is the baked eggs. The dish sees the eggs cooked in a traditional Italian sauce in a terracotta pot, then topped with provoleta cheese and served on toasted sourdough. “Our sourdough is famous for being one of the best in Unley,” Tania says. “We make a lot of our food and toppings from scratch, from the aioli and sauces to our cakes and slices. Pretty much everything but the bread, which is baked specifically for

other blends on the market. It has a great taste and a strong acidity. It’s a great coffee, really consistent, and we get a lot of support from the Veneziano team.” While the coffee keeps people coming, it’s the Shakespearean influence that gets them in the door. Iconic quotes are scattered across the walls, and literary allusions add character to the café’s menu. Favourites include the ‘sausage roll benny’, ‘Shakespeare never had an Avo’, and ‘Blow blow thou winter wind’ soup of the day. “I studied Shakespeare a bit in school and we even have a small library in the café with some of his books and plays,” Reagan says. “As well as families and professionals, we get a lot of people who study English coming in and asking, ‘Who’s the Shakespeare fan?’ The theme receives a lot of good feedback.” Following Method to the Madness’s success, Reagan hopes to expand across Queensland. “We intend to open a few more cafés. We’re looking at the market, what places are available, and where we’ll fit in,” Reagan says. Whether future cafés will continue the Shakespearean theme or not, that is the question.

Despite common misconceptions, A Mother’s Milk actually takes its name from a Red Hot Chili Peppers album.

us by a local baker.” Due to the venue’s warm and friendly atmosphere, Tania says the meaning behind the name ‘A Mother’s Milk’ is often misconstrued. “It actually came from a Red Hot Chili Peppers tour and album. A lot of people assume the ethos is tied to nurturing or breastfeeding mothers, but it actually has nothing to do with that,” she says. “But it’s definitely a great icebreaker with new customers.”

NEW SEASON

ETHIOPIAN MICROLOTS GUJI GRADE 1 HARO LEBETU Washed & Natural GUJI GRADE 1 MUDA TATESA Washed & Natural Welichu/Kudhumi Varietals 1800 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2300 MASL Garden farm grown, handpicked

CONTACT 02 9809 6266 Dariusz@coficom.com.au / John@coficom.com.au coficom.com.au

ORIGIN

John Russell Storey is the Marketing Manager of Trade at Cofi-Com.

The original origin

Bruck Fikru of Volcafe describes the legacy of Ethiopian coffee and how new ideas are transforming traditional processes.

t took a while to connect with Bruck Fikru, General Manager of our sister company, Volcafe, in Ethiopia. Political turmoil in the country led to restrictions being placed on people’s internet and social media access. Bruck says this difficulty with communication is one of several challenges being overcome by Ethiopia’s enduring coffee industry. “Ethiopia is the largest producer of coffee in Africa, and one of the most important producers of Arabica in the world,” Bruck says. “Coffee is a valuable cash crop for farmers, but beyond that, it’s also very culturally significant. Arabica coffee comes from Ethiopia – it’s our gift to the world. “Unlike most producing countries, we drink most of the coffee we produce. Our consumption goes back centuries, almost as long as – if not longer than – cultivation. It’s one of the ways communities come together to share stories, and the coffee is generally very good, so people enjoy drinking it.” Due to Ethiopian laws preventing non-national companies from exporting

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coffee, Volcafe cannot buy coffee direct from farmers and processors like in other countries. As such, Volcafe buys Ethiopian coffee from exporters while Bruck’s work centres on helping producers improve practices and market access. “An ordinary day sees me spending most of my time speaking to Ethiopian exporters, farm owners, and managers of unions and cooperatives, looking to see what we can do for them or what we can buy, and following up on logistics and quality issues for every contract and container,” Bruck says. “A good part is also spent talking to my colleagues around the world – in Australia, Europe, Asia, and the United States – enabling all of our importing offices to get good quality coffee from Ethiopia at a fair price and on time.” Despite the story of Ethiopia being the birthplace of coffee, Bruck believes it’s the country’s huge diversity of varietals that bolsters its reputation for quality. “Ethiopia probably has the richest variety of coffees in the world,” he says. “The majority of farms in Ethiopia are

owned by smallholders who produce small amounts of coffee. Even at this level, you find people are planting different varieties. A combination of the natural factors, growing conditions, and diversity of bean results in a very interesting cup that’s hard to replicate in any other coffee producing country.” However, having smallholders make up so much of the industry causes problems of its own. The number one challenge Bruck sees Ethiopian farmers face is productivity. Simply put, farmers could earn more money if they produced more coffee. “Most farming land is subdivided as it’s passed on to children. With a fast-growing population, landholdings per capita is significantly going down for producers. That results in a circle of lower output per farmer meaning less income and so on,” Bruck says. “Volcafe is working to help farmers diversify their crops to increase their income and productivity so some of these challenges can be addressed.” Despite individual farms’ production levels, the US Department of Agriculture

anticipates the current Ethiopian crop year – October 2018 to September 2019 – will reach a record high output of 7250 60-kilogram bags. Bruck says the benefits of this bumper crop have been partially offset by low prices linked to the New York Stock Exchange, though not to the extent of other countries. “Producers have by and large done OK. Most coffee is paid for upfront and the price risk is taken on by the exporters, who need to decide if they’ll sell the coffee forward or hold onto it and wait for a better price,” Bruck says. “Specialty coffee is becoming a larger focus for farmers and processors because it’s more rewarding to produce that higher quality. It’s also a growing market on the consumer side, where people are becoming more aware of quality and conscious of how they pay for their coffee.” Ethiopia is particularly well regarded for its natural processed coffees. Bruck says mills and processors slow dry their coffee, allowing the beans a significant amount of time to absorb sugar compounds as the water dries from the cherry. “The naturally processed coffee from Ethiopia is sun-dried on open beds. It is not accelerated as is the case with artificial drying. You get coffees that are very sweet, due to the sugar being absorbed into the bean, and maintain the fruity characters Ethiopian coffees are known for,” Bruck says. “When you wash coffee, you leave a lot of those compounds in the water, highlighting the coffee’s acidity. Whereas in naturally dried Ethiopian coffee, the sweetness and fruity

complexity really stand out.” While the nation has maintained a traditional stance when it comes to coffee production and processing, new ideas on how other countries achieve their higher quality levels are slowly gaining legs in Ethiopia. Volcafe has worked with producers on the ground on how to best utilise this information. “Coffee production is driven by knowledge. People are beginning to understand that quality and consistency can only be achieved when you have control over the work that goes into producing and processing coffee. Standards that have been introduced around the world are slowly trickling into Ethiopia. For us, it’s a question of accelerating those practices and spreading them across various parts of the country,” Brucks says. Alongside agricultural training and support, Bruck supports the Ethiopian market by being a prominent buyer and providing access to the international market. This may not seem overly apparent to a consuming country like Australia, but as Bruck puts it, “when you are here, and see the limitations on market access, you understand the importance of Volcafe’s presence in Ethiopia”. “We’ve been present in Ethiopia for more than 50 years. However, with the establishment of the commodity exchange, engagement with a lot of producers became quite difficult. Rules around the exchange were relaxed last year, so we are seriously thinking about how to continue where we left off,” Bruck says.

“In the meantime, we do what we can to enable producers and processors to manage their finances and be better business institutions, train their producers for higher productivity, and improve the quality of their coffee so they can earn more. The whole thing works for producers only if they can generate the income to not just survive but thrive.” Cofi-Com has been a long-time supporter of Ethiopian coffee, with our Operations and Trading Manager Dariusz Lewandowski making an annual trip to the country along with some of our roasting partners. It’s an opportunity to meet farmers and producers, assess the new season and see what’s happening at the farms and mills. The time spent with Bruck is always instructive and helpful for us. He knows what we are looking for taste-wise and the cupping table is full of reminders what’s special about Ethiopian coffee. As Bruck explains: “This is how a lot of meaningful engagement starts, when people on the buying side of coffee make the effort to come to origin, familiarise themselves with the country, and learn firsthand by engaging with people on the ground. We are seeing that this quite significantly enables young, hardworking producers to sell their products to the Australian market, which can be quite demanding from a quality point of view.” As high demand for quality Ethiopian coffee continues, having partners as passionate and experienced as Bruck and his team on the ground is invaluable.

Bruck Fikru of Volcafe works with farmers and exporters in Ethiopia to improve coffee quality and market access.

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TECH TALK

Maurizio Marcocci is the Director of Service Sphere.

Coffee group heads Maurizio Marcocci of Service Sphere discusses the role of the group head, a common espresso machine part that serves a huge purpose.

o pull the best shots possible, baristas need to learn everything they can about coffee extraction. From grind adjustment to water temperature, these factors can all influence the flavour of coffee in the cup. However, while trying to grasp these complex concepts, many baristas can skip over a key component of espresso extraction. Following our last Tech Talk where we discussed the huge growth in technological advancements within modern coffee machines, this time we are going back to the basics of an espresso machine and exploring the humble coffee group head. Essentially, the group head is the part of the espresso machine where water from the boiler is dispensed into the coffee filter basket. It acts as a meeting point, connecting the machine to the group handle and the water to coffee. The E61, created by Faema, is the most common type of group head found in commercial coffee machines.

HOW IT WORKS

E61 group heads use a thermosyphon heating system, which sees the coffee machine’s heat exchangers heat water in the boiler. This hot water rises through the group head causing it to heat up. The water will continue to rotate from the heat exchanger to the group head and back to the boiler, causing thermal stability throughout the day. This system allows for natural pre-infusion of coffee, where a small amount of hot water is applied to the ground coffee at a lower pressure than full extraction pressure. This wets the coffee, allowing the barista to gain full flavour from the blend.

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A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

The classic Faema E61 group head dates back to the 1960s. Before this model, manufacturers struggled to make coffee consistent between machines, with group heads of different shapes, designs, and systems producing radically different results. The E61 became a group head template for manufacturers, each making slight variations on the design to suit their own requirements leading to the introduction of multiple boilers to their machines. The E61 design is a tried and tested method – and half a century of research and development later, many coffee machine manufacturers still believe it’s a better idea to build on its concept than replace it with something new.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

At Service Sphere, baristas frequently tell us that the position of a group handle must be at the 90-degree angle

for the machine to function correctly. This is not the case. Instead, the further across a handle sits when locked into a group head alerts our technicians that there is wear in a group seal, group head, or handle.

FREQUENT PROBLEMS

Most group head issues occur due to a lack of proper maintenance. When machine owners complain about the taste of their coffee, we regularly find dirty group heads and solenoids are the culprit. Some group heads also use small restriction points to maintain a particular water pressure. If the machine has high amounts of limescale, these points can clog up and limit water flow. If this occurs, we highly recommend you contact your service technician as soon as possible. There are a few simple things baristas can do day to day to minimise these problems from occurring, saving time and money in the long run. Baristas should be backflushing their group heads with a suitable cleaning product

“BARISTAS NEED TO LEARN EVERYTHING THEY CAN ABOUT COFFEE EXTRACTION. FROM GRIND ADJUSTMENT TO WATER TEMPERATURE, THESE FACTORS CAN ALL INFLUENCE THE FLAVOUR OF COFFEE IN THE CUP.” lead to the over-tightening of group handles, causing increased wear on the group head. Another great way we recommend baristas prolong their seals is to leave the group handles locked into the group head when not in use. This is because the seals can become dry overtime without the group handle locked in.

HANDLES

once per day. This washes out sticky oils left from ground coffee, which can become lodged within the group head’s components. Another great way to ensure your group head is maintained is to adhere to a comprehensive preventative maintenance program on your espresso machine.

It’s important to use the correct group handle for your coffee machine. Most group handles are made of a soft metal called brass because of its strong heat conductivity. The trade off is that it’s a relatively weak metal. Because of this, some people purchase non-genuine group handles made with stainless steel. Although this leads to reduced strain on the group handle, it increases wear to the group head. Ultimately, the switch to stainless steel ensures the longevity of an easily replaceable component at the expense of equipment that is far more expensive and labour-intensive to repair.

Simply treating your machine with care instead of jamming in and over-tightening the group handle will increases the lifespan of a group head to a surprising degree.

REPLACING PARTS

If a group head passes the point of no return, it’s good to know that each part is replaceable. Service Sphere, for instance, stocks parts for many popular manufacturers, including group heads and handles. However, the real question should be: is it worth getting to this point? Prices for a basic group head begin around $300 and climb very quickly. The work required to change these parts can require a technician to spend significant time to do this correctly. So yes, it’s replaceable, but would I instead try to ensure the group head doesn’t need replacing? Absolutely.

For more information, visit www.servicesphere.com.au

SEALS

Ensuring your group head seals are in good condition is important, since a poor seal will lead to leaking in the group head. Over time, poorly maintained seals become especially troublesome when they need to be replaced, as baristas will try and overtighten the group handles to compensate, causing more damage. Some technicians carry generic ‘packers’ instead of holding specific parts for each brand. When replacing a seal, they simply pack the desired amount, which is usually not to the manufacturer’s specifications. Although they may appear identical, it takes only slight width variations to cause a sealing issue. When a genuine part is available, we do not recommend packers because they can fall out due to a lack of contact with the group head and not fitting oversized coffee seals. This can

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ESPRESSO YOURSELF

Jibbi Little of Jibbijug is the 2019 ASCA Pauls Professional Australian Latte Art Champion.

Fantastic Mr Fox Jibbi Little shares her fantastic take on a Roald Dahl classic that’s more cunning than any canine and quirkier than a Wes Anderson movie.

ne of my favourite books as a child was Fantastic Mr Fox. Many people are familiar with Wes Anderson’s animated film, but it actually began as a novel by Roald Dahl. The book tells the story of an intelligent fox that steals food from a wealthy farmer to support his family. As I child, I connected with this story and it taught me the importance of family. When I began conceptualising the patterns I would use this competition season – from the regional to world stage – I decided early on that I would use the stories I loved as a child as inspiration for my designs. Fantastic Mr Fox was one of the first books that came to mind, both because of its influence on me as a child, and the countless ways it could be brought to life. At each subsequent competition, I finetuned the design, working

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in different features, techniques, and levels of detail based on the time constraints and my ability to pour consistently. This pattern is the one I presented at the Australian Specialty Coffee Association Pauls Professional 2019 Australian Latte Art Championship in February at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo. For me, it finds a good middle ground between the repeatability of the regional version and complexity of my World Latte Art Championship (WLAC) design. This pattern is perfect for aspiring baristas to attempt to recreate in their own cafés. Unfortunately, my WLAC journey was cut short in the semi-finals where I placed 11th out of 41 competitors. My experience taught me the value of preparation, knowing the rules and regulations, and – similar to how Fantastic Mr Fox did as a child – the value of my Australian coffee family. Thank you to everyone for their support throughout my WLAC campaign.

1. Build your base with the cup handle positioned at three o’clock.

3. In one movement, draw a small loop from the end point of the C to the middle and back. Then, drag a line that is parallel to the start point of the C.

5. Pour a seven- to eight-leaf rosetta running along the top of the V. Drag up along the side of the rosetta, forming the neck.

7. From the top of the neck rosetta, drag a straight line up then diagonally down towards the point of the neck drag, stopping halfway. Drag back to meet the first line, forming the ear.

2. To start the body, pour a C-shape beginning three quarters down the middle of the cup and end near seven o’clock.

4. Drag another line straight down the cup, beginning slightly higher than the C and connecting the two points of the body. Pour a second line forming a narrow V shape.

6. From the mid-curve of the C, pour a 10-leaf rosetta up along the edge of the cup until 11 o’clock then drag through alongside the rosetta until you touch the C again, forming the tail.

8. Drop a slight amount of foam then pull through along the last drag with a heavier volume of foam, forming the snout. A thin gap should be left between the snout and the ear to form the eye.

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TRAINING TACTICS

Babin Gurung is the New South Wales Barista Trainer of Suntory Coffee Australia.

Some like it strong Mocopan Coffee’s Babin Gurung on what coffee strength means and how to achieve it.

uring my barista hustling days, customers often told me they liked their coffee strong. I had no problem adjusting to customers’ needs, but found many people had different ideas of what “strong” meant. Some of the things strength commonly referred to was more caffeine, darker roast, or sometimes, just bitter coffee. These ideas aren’t necessarily wrong, but here in the coffee world, when we say “strong”, we mean the strength of flavours contained in an espresso. Bitterness in coffee can result from a number of other things, like roasting profile, staleness, over-extraction, or not cleaning the machine properly – none of which make your coffee stronger. More caffeine does not always mean a better coffee. Robusta coffee has a higher caffeine content than Arabica and some coffee brands prefer it because of that. But for an espresso coffee, at Mocopan, we generally stay away from Robusta due to its harsh flavour. Still, it’s not only the coffee you use that determines caffeine content. An ongoing industry debate is the effect of roasting on caffeine. Some believe darker roasts lead to higher levels, while others argue the opposite. Various studies have measured the amount of caffeine produced through various roasting profiles, but due to a large number of variables, such as coffee variety, density, and the molecular structure of the beans, it has proved a difficult task. In most cases, caffeine levels were consistent throughout the roasting process. So, the most common and consistent method baristas use to make coffee strong is by adding extra shots of espresso to a drink. This means you are

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Insolubles Sweet and earthy Light and fruity Nut, vanilla and chocolate Bitter, ashy, salty

Figure 1: an example of how the composition of coffee affects flavour.

getting a higher coffee-to-milk ratio in the cup, making it taste stronger. However, if you are looking to increase strength in a single shot, you will need to adjust the brew ratio. This refers to the ratio of ground coffee to water. Smaller ratios produce more concentrated, strong coffee, while a larger ratio results in weaker coffee. There are three main ratios that apply to most espresso-based coffees: • R istretto (1:1) – This has a ratio of one gram of coffee to one gram of liquid, which results in a stronger shot, and produces intense flavour with big body. A ristretto mostly captures heavier flavours but is known for lacking clarity of others. • E spresso (1:2) – This is the most common ratio applied by baristas. Compared to a ristretto, an espresso has more water flowing through the same amount of coffee, which extracts more flavours, giving it a well-rounded

taste. Along with body, you get more clarity of flavours. • L ungo (1:3) – This style of coffee is not very common. The coffee is more diluted in this ratio, which can result high extraction of flavours but decrease in intensity. Coffees with delicate flavour notes could benefit from a lungo ratio. These brew ratios reveal that a stronger coffee is not always more flavoursome. If you want to achieve a higher extraction of flavours, you need to also understand the role of dose and extraction time. A coffee bean is a complex mix of soluble compounds that give coffee its colour, flavour, and aroma, along with caffeine. The flavour of coffee depends highly on its origin, variety, processing, and roasting profile, but generally speaking, it will have a combination of acidic, fruity, sweet, nutty, vanilla, and chocolate flavours along with dark and

“BITTERNESS IN COFFEE CAN RESULT FROM A NUMBER OF OTHER THINGS, LIKE ROASTING PROFILE, STALENESS, OVEREXTRACTION, OR NOT CLEANING THE MACHINE PROPERLY – NONE OF WHICH MAKE YOUR COFFEE STRONGER.” bitter flavour notes (see figure 1). It’s important to understand that different solubles dissolve at different extraction rates. Therefore, by controlling the amount of time the coffee is exposed to water, you can control what flavours you absorb from that coffee. Each coffee has its own unique properties and flavours, which extract at different rates, so there is no universal extraction time that applies to all coffees. You will need to taste your coffee at various extraction times to find the best result. What’s interesting is that extraction time only controls what types of solubles are dissolved and not how much. The only way to increase the amount of soluble flavours is by increasing your dose. As a simple rule, more coffee equals more solubles. Figure 2 demonstrates the impact of time and dose on flavour extraction. Along the horizontal axis, from the blue to purple cup, you can see how the increase in extraction time results in more solubles being dissolved. But after a certain point, you start getting bitter flavours in your cup (the grey shapes). The idea is to pick the time where you are absorbing only the good solubles, in this case, the pink cup. Upon tasting this cup, you will find a good balance of

Light, fruity

acidity, sweetness, and roundness. Now, keeping the extraction time fixed, we can see how changing the dose impacts the taste in the cup. If you lower your dose, although there is a good mix of solubles, it will most likely taste weak. The flavours Figure 2: Time affects what flavours manifest while dosage affects their strength.

Sweet, earthy

Figure 3: Different solubles are brought out of the coffee at different extraction times.

in the green cup are more transparent, but will be drowned out in milkbased coffee. In the red cup, the dose is increased to allow more solubles in the cup, making it more intense and bigger on body. This will make the red cup stronger and ideal for milkbased coffee. However, if you continue increasing the two variables, the flavour decreases and can even have an inverse impact. You need to identify when you reach peak flavour and lock in the variables. As a barista, your goal is to chase that flavour peak and continually adjust your variables to make the best coffee possible. Learning to control this combination of brew ratio, dose, and extraction time can do just that.

Nut, vanilla, chocolate

Bitter, ashy, salty

Extraction time beanscenemag.com.au

R&D LAB

Dr Monika Fekete is the Founder of Coffee Science Lab.

Cause and effect Dr Monika Fekete looks at temperature-dependent variables and their consequences on grinder and espresso machine performance.

n a chilly winter morning, hot cup of coffee in hand, I’m once again thinking about the many ways temperature has influenced the liquid I’m drinking. In the June edition of BeanScene, we investigated how changes in grind temperature affect the viscosity of espresso shots, shedding some light on why shots tend to speed up over time. This time, let’s zoom out and look at a complete map of temperaturedependent variables, and the complex ways they influence the end result (see image 1). Rather than discussing the details of each effect, I’m going to focus on how they are all interconnected. On a cold day, coffee beans will sit at a significantly lower temperature in the bag and in the hopper than they would on a summer day. This, on one level, will affect how the beans age while they wait to be used. The cold weather is perfect for keeping your beans fresher for longer: every 10°C increase in storage temperature speeds up the release of volatiles by 50 per cent, according to a research article published in 1993. This alone is a powerful reason to keep the coffee bags and hopper away from heat sources, such as direct sunlight or the espresso machine itself, as much as practically possible. After grinding, that aroma evaporates even faster. Grinds release volatiles three times faster for every 10°C increase. So grinds at 50°C lose aroma 27 times faster than grinds at 20°C – luckily we don’t usually let them sit around for too long. Warm grinds affect more than just the aroma. As we discussed in the last edition, warmer grinds do increase

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“WHEN OPTIMISING EXTRACTION TEMPERATURE, MY ONE PIECE OF ADVICE IS TO REMAIN PATIENT: THE SHEER BULK OF THE MACHINE MEANS THAT CHANGES WILL NEED SOME TIME TO TAKE EFFECT.” overall extraction temperature. One effect of this was that the viscosity of the overall hotter espresso decreased, resulting in a faster shot. This effect becomes even more pronounced as the machine itself – including the basket and portafilter – heat up too. Another potential effect of the heating grinder is a possible shift in particle size distribution. This is a much-debated question with little solid data to back it up. Until I can report back to you with a set of my own experiments, let me refer to investigations by Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, former UK Barista Champion and Owner of Colonna capsules. He based his findings on data provided by grinder manufacturers, which, as stated in his blogpost ‘The heat is on – more grinding puzzles’, found that cooler conditions seem to produce more fines than hotter conditions, possibly due to the increased brittleness of colder grinds. This, in addition to the change in viscosity, could help explain why shots speed up as grinder and machine warm up during the day. One of the most important temperature dependent variables is

luckily somewhat easier to control: brew water temperature. This can be quite accurately set on many espresso machines. However, as Ona Coffee Head Trainer Hugh Kelly warns in one of his blogposts, we first need to understand what the temperature reading on the machine actually refers to. Hugh says if the reading is taken from the boiler, the water will have changed in temperature before it hits the coffee grinds. Some machines have different heating mechanisms in the group heads to maintain brew temperature, but each is different. So 93.5°C in the boiler could mean less than 93.5°C is actually applied to coffee, and sometimes more. Calibrating the output temperature with a Scace device and a good quality temperature probe – a job best left to machine technicians – can help get more precise readings. Keep in mind though that brew water temperature will determine extraction temperature together with the temperature of the grind and the metal parts in contact with the coffee. According to a heat transfer model first proposed by Matt Perger through

Image 1: This illustration highlights that virtually all components of a coffee machine and grinder impact temperature (T) and flavour profiles.

Barista Hustle, then refined by a process engineer via TheDIYCoffeeGuy.com, a brew water temperature of 93°C can result in an effective 87°C or even 82.5°C extraction temperature (for grinds at 50°C and 20°C respectively). You are probably brewing espresso a lot cooler than you imagined. Extraction temperature plays an all-important part in shaping the flavour profile of the final beverage. The solubility of all constituents of the coffee bean changes with temperature. Flavour molecules become more soluble as the heat increases, but they do so at different rates, which affects their ratio in the final brew. As an example, the solubility of sugars is roughly 2.5 times higher in boiling water than at room temperature. No wonder that higher brew temperatures favour the extraction of sugars, as backed by TR Lingle’s The Coffee Brewing Handbook. The handbook also points out that the concentration of acids remained similar between 74°C to 100°C. Caffeine concentration wasn’t found to change much either in the temperature range used for espresso brewing (which is also in agreement with my investigations as published in BeanScene’s February 2019 issue).

Other researchers investigated the concentration of compounds responsible for fruity flavours and found that these were extracted at higher rates when the brew water temperature was set to 92°C compared to 88°C. At 96°C and above, there was an increased concentration of bitter flavours due to the breakdown of chlorogenic acids at such high temperatures. When I put espressos made with brew water at 90°C, 92.5°C and 95°C to a panel of judges, the sample at 92.5°C was found to be the most balanced. Of course, the tastiest combination of extracted flavours will strongly depend on the coffee you are using. As a guideline, we can expect lower temperatures to result in more prominent acidity and less bitterness, but also less body and sweetness. Higher temperatures can help increase body and sweetness, at the cost of introducing more bitterness and slightly reducing acidity. Higher extraction temperature also means that carbon dioxide gas in the puck will be present at higher pressure, meaning a higher resistance, which will somewhat counteract the observed “speeding up” of hotter shots. Lastly, the taste experience strongly depends on the temperature we

taste the coffee at. A study published in the prestigious science journal Nature in 2005 found that tiny microscopic channels in our tastebuds are responsible for changing taste perception at different temperatures. These channels send stronger electrical signals to the brain when food is tasted at higher temperatures. When we taste coffee hotter, its sweetness and, in particular, its bitterness will become more prominent. As such, keeping your cups at a steady temperature helps deliver more consistent coffee to the customer. If you’re adding milk, remember that not only its temperature but also its volume will affect the final drinking temperature, along with the temperature of your dine-in or takeaway cups. Take another look at the map of temperature dependent variables. Whether your grinder and machine are just warming up during the day or you have decided to adjust the temperature of the brew water, the consequences are far-reaching. When optimising extraction temperature, my one piece of advice is to remain patient: the sheer bulk of the machine means that changes will need some time to take effect.

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AUGUST 2019

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More than a cup Why community connections matter

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AUGUST 2019

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Emilio Lopez Diaz on supply chain realities Aremde removes the wall of steel

Ethiopia’s lasting legacy

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ASTCA

Jos Webber is the Treasurer of the Australian Subtropical Coffee Association.

Leading legacies The Australian Subtropical Coffee Growers Association salutes two trailblazers of the local coffee growing community who dedicated their lives to encouraging quality over quantity.

ast year saw the passing of two stalwarts of the Australian subtropical coffee industry: Joan Dibden and John Zentveld. Each, in their own way, contributed to the establishment, development, and expansion of the coffee-growing industry in the Northern Rivers Region of New South Wales. We, as an industry, have benefited from the sound groundwork these modern-day pioneers put in place, and will do so for years to come.

JOAN DIBDEN (24.9.1933 – 13.9.2018)

Joan and her partner Joy Phelps retired from their pathology and nursing careers respectively to take up the challenge of rekindling a local coffee industry that had folded some 60 years earlier. They established their Wombah Coffee Plantation near Iluka in 1982. They used seed from existing coffee trees in the area that were descendants of original coffee trees planted by Joan’s ancestor, John Bale, at Woolbin Island on the Clarence River near Wombah in the 1890s. Before long they had grown the plantation to its capacity of 1100 trees. Their original intention was to produce just enough coffee to use themselves but by 1992, production exceeded their demand, and they sold their excess green beans to the Sydney market. Joan and Joy encouraged other locals in the Richmond Valley to get into coffee growing and for a small fee, they processed the coffee, and roasted their harvests. Joan and Joy insisted that all coffee they processed was to be handpicked and sundried, and advised prospective growers never to plant more trees than they could cope with because of the high cost

Joan Dibden of Wombah Coffee Plantation.

involved in hand harvesting. Once the roastery and café were established in the 1990s, they had established the first ‘crop to cup’ coffee enterprise in Australia – a path that others were to follow.

JOHN ZENTVELD (27.6.32 – 17.3.2019)

When Phytophthora fungus devastated John’s avocado plantation in the late 1980s, he looked for a replacement crop to grow on his Newrybar property. David Peasley from the NSW Agriculture’s Tropical Research Centre at Alstonville encouraged John to grow coffee. It was known historically that the Northern Rivers Area was perfect for growing coffee. However, the high cost of labour caused the industry to die by the early 20th century. John’s interest was stimulated by the development of a mechanical harvester, which at the time cost 60 cents per kilogram against $6 per kilogram for hand harvesting. John was also an enthusiastic participant in the varietals trials to select the best coffee to grow in the Northern Rivers region, a project undertaken

Patriarch of the Northern Rivers’ coffeegrowing industry, John Zentveld.

by the NSW Department of Primary Industries. John started off planting two acres with several of the variety finalists. When the trees were three years old, with the financial backing of the government, a harvester was brought down from the manufacturer in Bundaberg for trials. The result was so good John decided to continue planting out the whole property with 33,000 K7 varietal coffee trees, and thus became the first commercial-sized coffee grower in subtropical Australia. John will be remembered for his tenacity to gain distribution rights for coffee processing equipment in the Pacific Rim, and initiate the manufacture of small coffee pulpers for small landholder coffee producers, which are now sold in Australia and across the Pacific. The Australian subtropical coffee industry owes a great debt to the vision, initiative, hard work, and success of Joan and John and their respective partners. They helped establish and grow an industry in the Australian subtropics that produces coffee comparable to some of the best and more established growing regions of the world.

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ASCA

Kieran Westlake is the President of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association.

Smells like community spirit ASCA exists to promote and develop the Australian specialty coffee community, and relies on it to continue thriving.

ecently, the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) Board was approached by a regional community looking to up-skill their baristas to a level where they could compete on the national stage. We jumped at the opportunity. ASCA was founded with the aim to advance the specialty coffee industry in Australia, and what better way to achieve this mission than to provide training and career advancement opportunities in a regional area? As the only domestic pathway to competing in the World Coffee Championships, it’s important to us that the ASCA Australian Coffee Championships are accessible. We are thrilled with the calibre of recent competitions, and so proud of our baristas who are kicking goals on the world stage. But if we want to continually grow the standard of specialty coffee in Australia, and spread it to all corners of our vast country, we need to keep investing in new members and helping them to achieve excellence. With our Judges Workshops completed and another competition season about to kick off, I for one am eagerly waiting to see which faces we’ll see in the #ASCATop12 for 2020 and beyond. While we give what we can to the Australian coffee community, we are lucky enough to have it give back to us too. We see many baristas, café owners, and industry insiders who want to contribute to ASCA as well as benefit from it. So, how can you get involved?

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LIST YOUR EVENT ON THE ASCA WEBSITE

Got a community event taking place? It could be a cupping session, coffee tour, industry presentation, or even a gathering of coffee lovers debating over their favourite brew, wanting to share the love with some newcomers. If you’re an ASCA member, you can list your event on the ASCA website for everyone to find.

ASCA’s 2020 Regional Coffee Championship season kicks off in September.

Volunteers keep ASCA ticking along. Each of my fellow board members and I are volunteers, as are our judges, scorekeepers, and organisers. Volunteering is a great way to kick off your involvement with ASCA. Want to see what happens behind the scenes, meet some of the industry’s best baristas, or network with leading coffee professionals? Volunteering is the best way to get there. Our volunteers help with everything from photography to time keeping and tallying scores to stage management. Some of our volunteers are now sought-after judges, highprofile competitors, and internationally regarded industry members. You can start by helping out in the ASCA Regional Coffee Championships. The dates and locations are as follows: • Central Region – New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory at Fine Food Sydney from 10 to 12 September. • Northern Region – Queensland and Northern Territory at Latitude Coffee in QLD from 5 to 6 October. • Southern Region – Victoria and

Tasmania at St Ali roastery in Port Melbourne from 25 to 27 October. • Western Region – South and West Australia at Optus Stadium in WA from 15 to 17 November.

BECOME A MEMBER

Membership of ASCA gives you unparalleled access to Australia’s specialty coffee community. Participate in events, try your hand at competing, and help us to grow Australia’s specialty coffee industry from the ground up. We can’t wait for you to join us. Sign up for our FREE newsletter at www.australianspecialtycoffee. com.au

NZSCA

Emma McDougall is the Communications and Administration Co-ordinator of the NZSCA.

Hoony hits new heights New Zealand Latte Art Champion Hoony Chae relives his World Coffee Championship experience and why reality can bite. Image: Rosa Friend

ften, the journey is as important as the destination. Especially when it takes 26 hours and four flights to get from New Zealand to Berlin for the World Coffee Championships. I talked to Hoony Chae about his experience representing NZ at the World Latte Art Championship (WLAC) in June. Hoony has entered the Meadow Fresh NZ Latte Art Championship (MFNZLAC) three times. When he describes standing with the top six finalists in 2019, he says: “I was very nervous and excited to hear the results. It reached the point where only the top two were left. It was when emcee Alan Bruce called out the name for runner-up, I realised I’d just become the champion of MFNZLAC 2019.” Hoony “teared up” as he remembered all the time that he had spent preparing for the competition and was pleased to have persisted. His next thoughts were of being “extremely happy and honoured to be a champion”. He also knew he had a lot of work to do to reach the WLAC level. “Luckily, I had Team Mojo and Team New Zealand on my back. I could never fit it in without their help,” he says. One of the concerns Hoony faced was knowing that other competitors had at least three months’ preparation time, some as much as eight. He finalised his patterns just one week before Berlin. He had also never poured with a 600-millilitre jug and was not confident with a bigger 300-millilitre cup. Watching at home online, a big group

Hoony Chae flies the flag for New Zealand at the World Latte Art Championship in Berlin.

of the NZ coffee community gathered to cheer on their champion. However, on reflection, Hoony says his time on stage was not perfect. “I was super nervous but did my best to calm down and pretend to be confident,” he says. “I can’t really remember what I did on the stage.” Backstage however, Hoony enjoyed helping and getting to know other barista competitors. He says the WLAC experience was a big learning opportunity and next time, with his goal to be a WLAC finalist, he wants to improve his time management and preparation skills. “I don’t think I prepared enough for the world stage. If I’d started practicing for the WLAC while I was preparing for the national [championship], I think the result

in Berlin might have been different.” For newcomers, Hoony recommends that artists “read the rules and regulations and really study and analyse how to gain scores for each category”. Hoony hopes to defend his title at the NZLAC on 1 March 2020 in Auckland. “I really wish to have another opportunity on the world stage,” Hoony says. “I would love to try again, with a better performance and even better signature patterns and use all things that I have learnt from the world stage experience.” For more information on the New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association, or to join, visit www.nzsca.org

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AUGUST 2019

A World-Class Coffee Magazine

More than a cup Why community connections matter

Coffee in crisis

Emilio Lopez Diaz on supply chain realities Aremde removes the wall of steel

Ethiopia’s lasting legacy

ROASTERS DIRECTORY 2019

PROMO FEATURE

OCT/19

OUR BRAND PROMISES

BeanScene is compiling the 2019 Roasters Directory edition, and we want you to be apart of it.

We offer you the best exposure to decision makers

Each year BeanScene generates a comprehensive list of all roasters throughout Australia and New Zealand.

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The 2019 Roasters Directory will comprise a state-bystate breakdown of all available wholesale roasters. It is a great reference document for café owners throughout the year, and the best part is, it’s FREE to be a part of. BeanScene’s October issue will be the biggest edition of the year. Don’t miss the opportunity to be scene – and heard. Share your product, service or business with our readers and advertise in this highly soughtafter reference tool.

BOOKING DEADLINE: 5 SEPTEMBER Book now: Camilo Molina | 0481 736 890 camilo.molina@primecreative.com.au

TEA SCENE

Bradley Cahill and Mafalda Moutinho are Co-founders of Casa De Cha and Consultants to the Australian Tea Growers Cooperative.

The third place Bradley Cahill and Mafalda Moutinho of Casa De Cha on why it’s important to create tea ambassadors and drive a common vision.

ike many out there, our life plans didn’t include a radical change in professions, but as we like to say, ‘tea chose us’, not the other way around. We imagine that many people in specialty industries – coffee, wine, food – have had a particular experience that changed everything. The awakening was triggered by one memorable experience. Like an avalanche, the complex flavours and aromas in our first ever Gong Fu tea ceremony engulfed us, something we never expected from tea. A specialty tea experience like this can still be incredibly hard to find. Since the 1950s, clever marketing and misinformation due to the ‘colonisation’ of the tea industry and the rise of capitalism have pushed the culture of quantity over quality. This created unsustainably low prices and standardised the end product. One of the defining traits of our time that has affected the rise of specialty tea is the particular value we assign to speed. Speed has gone from being a supplementary property to define distance, increase leisure, and denote importance, to a commodity in its own right. Speed assigns false value to things that are of little worth just to the extent that can be consumed quickly. From food, coffee, and information, speed has made our lives shallower, more divided, more visceral, yes, more convenient, but also less reflective. Speed and specialty tea, unfortunately, do not mix well. With tea, the joy is in the slower more immersive experience, which mirrors the skilled process in which it was made. People are looking for ways in

Casa De Cha says consumer education and accessibility to specialty tea are key.

which to slow down, and through our observations, we know that tea drinkers will pay more for these experiences. The question is, can this fit into our current café model? There is a movement building among the specialty tea industry. Because many of us don’t have our own spaces to reduce overheads, we are reaching out to cafés, roasteries, restaurants, and workshop spaces to offer modern tea experiences so that we can inspire and drive a new tea culture. Tea businesses have opted out of fighting over the crumbs and instead are reaching out to one another, creating alliances and hosting collaborative events to convert the wider audience to a new, modern tea experience. Festivals such as the Brisbane and Melbourne BrewIN aim to make high-quality teas more accessible to the average punter. Tea meet-ups and social events, such as the newly formed Specialty Tea Social in Sydney, also focus on education and a slower, more immersive experience with tea.

We are finding new ways of letting specialty tea speak for itself – making it accessible, educating the consumer, and facilitating memorable experiences that stay with people. We are sharing its story, our knowledge, and our passion. In doing so, we are not just creating customers, we are creating ambassadors. A recent article caught our eye, about sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s concept of a place that humans need in their lives, besides work and home, which Oldenburg refers to as “the third place”. In his book, Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories about the great good places at the Heart of Our Communities, tea houses fall into that category of places that “host regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work”. In the past, the Chinese have given credit to tea houses for their social evolution. It was only after tea houses opened that people from all castes had a place where their social standing had no importance. It was a place they could share their ideas, music, art, and poetry freely while simultaneously building on each other’s opinions and insights. Perhaps that is what specialty tea is moving towards, a cultural shift. Perhaps soon we will be surrounded by spaces that accommodate a slower more immersive experience. Our belief is that both specialty tea and coffee need spaces like this to reach their full potential. Only then will we be able to fully appreciate the product’s story, flavour, as well as personalise the customer’s experience. We need to better engage with our consumers and we need to work together so these products are more accessible to everyone.

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E-SCENE

Every edition we highlight BeanScene’s digital coffee community, hearing from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram followers. For more information, visit www.beanscenemag.com.au ‘Like’ us on Facebook/BeanSceneCoffeeMag

DOMENIC NIGRO I was first introduced to coffee at the ripe old age of eight by my mum and loved it from the moment it hit my lips. Being from an Italian background, it’s a part of the fabric of life to me. I found myself making it for others at the age of 16 when I worked at my best friend’s restaurant. I later worked in a café and took on what you could call a barista apprentice role and improved my skills at the hands of a fully fledged Napoletano barista. While running Mezzapica café, I was introduced to Toby’s Estate coffee, and it took me to the next level. I was amazed at the different characteristics single origin coffee could offer, in particular the Indian Monsoon Malabar. It was cultivated on the coast of India and the seasalt came through in the espresso. It’s not available anymore, but it’s still my alltime favourite coffee. I’ve been in business on my own now for almost six years in St Leonards at Nero Caffetteria in New South Wales. This journey has made me realise how hard business is, so when I go out for coffee, I love trying new venues and don’t discriminate on anything – to an extent.

SHAY HAMO

When I established He Brew Espresso, I had one goal in mind and that was to change people’s perception of what good coffee should taste like, and more specifically, show that it could be delivered by a mobile vendor. My passion for making great coffee comes from being exposed to so many inconsistent, average cups. I knew that there must be a way to make a consistently good coffee and set myself the task of learning how to do it. My favourite moments are when I manage to take someone’s mind off their daily troubles, even for just the few short minutes that I get to spend with them. The reward of a smile is priceless. I’ve been in the industry for three short years but can’t imagine myself ever doing anything else.

JESSICA GOUGH

I captured this picture while working in my shop Jespresso in Wellington, New South Wales one afternoon. My 82-year-old Poppy is reading BeanScene to my one-year-old daughter Audrey. When Audrey sees coffee, she goes “mmmmm”, and gets excited when you turn the steam wand on. I’m so lucky to have a family and community around my café as I run two businesses and raise Audrey.

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WE WANT YOU!

Have a coffee passion you’re dying to share? We’d love to see it. Email a 150-word bio about your love of coffee, your favourite coffee moment, and a little about yourself with a high-resolution image (1MB or greater) to BeanScene Editor Sarah Baker: sarah.baker@primecreative.com.au

INTRODUCING OUR LATEST INNOVATION: STEAM LP Slayer’s newest model, the STEAM LP, is an absolute dream for those seeking ease of programming, precision, and absolute control of extraction. These features allow for an effective dial in and quick calibration as variables change, ensuring accurate extraction every time! Program your volumetrics, preinfusion, and post-infusion to maximize your coffee flavor experience on every level. This feature filled model is not just function rich, it also has a gorgeous mirrored body and beautiful onyx black wings, keeping true to our commitment of exceptional design.

For orders or to learn more contact our team, sales@slayerespresso.com Slayer Espresso APAC 1 Nelson St Abbotsford, 3067 Victoria

The STEAM LP is a true innovation, but don’t take our word for it, go ahead and discover for yourself.

SLAYERESPRESSO.COM

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@SLAYERESPRESSO