DECEMBER 2019
A World-Class Coffee Magazine
Game changer Lifting the lid on the customer experience
HostMilano 2019 wrap 48
KeepCup calls for change
Financial realities of roasting Agnieszka Rojewska’s unlikely win
@baristasforbaristas
SWEETNESS ISN’T OUR THING.
AT LEAST 5X LESS SUGAR THAN OTHER CAFE ALMOND MILKS
DECEMBER 2019
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contents UPFRONT
10 NEWS 16 STUFF ON THE SCENE
The latest must-have products
INDUSTRY PROFILES
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KNOWLEDGE LEADER
How Agnieszka Rojewska defied the odds to become a world champion
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CELEBRITY CHEF
Sarah Todd on her love for India and its emerging coffee scene
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LEADING THE CHANGE
Why systemic change is needed to address coffee cup waste
62 FREEING THE COFFEE ENTREPRENEUR
Instaurator on guiding future innovators of the industry
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CAFETTO BARISTA PROFILE
Tilly Sproule celebrates the relationships behind her coffee journey
FEATURE NEWS
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SHOWING APPRECI-ATION
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BOILER 101
The modern greeting card showing gratitude for acts of kindness
Service Sphere explains why one boiler is sometimes better than two
SKILL BASE
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ESPRESSO YOURSELF
TRAINING TACTICS
Jibbi Little creates her little penguin with happy feet
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A COOL CHANGE
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COUNTING BEANS
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The financial realities of starting a roasting business
Mocopan Coffee's Babin Gurung on how to create the perfect pour
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CUP OF GOLD
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TRAINING FEATURE
CAFÉ SCENE
Veneziano embraces summer with a new cold brew range Campos Coffee releases its most expensive coffee to date
43 A FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE
Minas Hill supports origin with newly created foundation
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TIME FOR ACTION
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OAT IS IN
Lavazza champions its commitment to sustainability Alternative Dairy Co expands its barista range to include oat milk
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ROLL OUT
Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue share their partnership with Milklab 4
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Leading Australian roasters on the importance of education
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HOST2019 WRAP
A must-see look at the new releases from Ho.Re.Ca's largest industry expo
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BEST IN SHOW
MICE2020 gets set for its largest Product Innovation Awards yet
TECHNOLOGY PROFILE
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IT'S TIME
Rocket Espresso releases its first domestic model with builtin shot timer
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CAFÉ SCENE
Around Australia
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TEA SCENE
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ALL ABOARD
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A WINNING TASTE
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E SCENE
The history of tea production in Australia, part one ASCA welcomes new board members and thanks those departing Alan Bruce shares his World Cup Tasters Championship experience
Fans of the magazine
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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 Peter Papoulias peter.papoulias@primecreative.com.au ART DIRECTOR Blake Storey
Veneziano Coffee Richmond 16 River St, Richmond VIC 3121 www.venezianocoffee.com.au
DESIGN Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty
It’s our last edition of BeanScene for 2019. We’ve seen espresso, filters, lattes, and coffee machines grace the covers this year. To finish with a refreshing bang, we’ve gone straight to Veneziano Coffee Roasters who are embracing the summer months with its new-release cold brew can range and signature drinks. While the temperature may have only been shy of 20°C and raining on the day of our shoot, Veneziano is ready to unleash its summer range and is confident customers will be impressed with the new offerings. “We looked into the different ways we can serve cold brew. It's delicious to drink straight, but we wanted to experiment and try different pairings of citrus, cinnamon, and oat milk, which led us to the signature drinks we are now serving on the in-store menu,” says Lachlan Hall, Veneziano Coffee Roasters Richmond Head Barista. “The key was to find the right balance between the nutty, chocolate flavours of the cold brew and ingredients that pair well with the cold coffee.” The result is Veneziano’s Cold Brew Portello, Cold Brew Signature Summer Cocktail, and the Gingerbread Latte. “Naturally, we had to shoot all the drinks and try them to see what would be most suitable for the December cover,” says BeanScene Editor Sarah Baker. “The Cold Brew Portello is a deep red colour that looked amazing on camera, the Gingerbread Latte was utterly delicious with all the sweet cinnamon spices of Christmas rolled into one, but the drink that got the most attention from customers as we did the shoot was the Signature Summer Cocktail. As soon as Lachlan added dry ice and lifted the lid on this drink, the theatre went up a notch and had customers asking when it would be added to the menu.” Veneziano’s Richmond café was the ideal backdrop for this shoot. Its large-framed windows from ceiling to floor added lots of natural light, while plants, bench tops, and ledges all made for interesting angles and textures to photograph. After many takes, the Game winning cover shot was the one with changer the most ‘wow factor’. “The best part is watching the reactions of our customers when they taste our drinks,” Lachlan says. “Seeing the menu come to life is really exciting, and we can’t wait for cold brew to be the focus of coffee this summer.” DECEMBER 2019
A World- Class Coffee Magazi ne
Lifting the lid on the customer experie nce
48
HostMilano 2019 wrap
KeepCup calls for
change
Financial realitie s of roasting
Agnieszka Rojews
ka’s unlikely win
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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Camilo Molina camilo.molina@primecreative.com.au CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Zelda Tupicoff zelda.tupicoff@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, ASCA, Kristaps Selga, World Coffee Events, Lavazza, David LaChapelle CONTRIBUTORS Jibbi Little, Babin Gurung, Maurizio Marcocci, Emma McDougall, Kieran Westlake, Bradley Cahill, 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.
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NEWS
Tilly Sproule of Tim Adams Specialty Coffee has won the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) Northern Region Vitasoy Barista Championship for the fifth year straight. Zhuolu Xie of TonyJ Lab placed second and Sarah Jin of Extraction Artisan Coffee placed third in the competition, which took place at Latitude Coffee from 5 to 6 October. “This year I dived into the power of our relationships, and why developing relationships with our producers is the key for the sustainable future of specialty coffee,” Tilly says. As well as placing third in Barista, Sarah Jin won the ASCA 2020 Northern Region Brewers Cup, where Karen Silver of Pourboy placed second and Cooper Ahrens of Blue Sky Coffee placed third. Kyujong Han of Ginger & Green café won the ASCA Northern Region Pauls Professional Latte Art Championship for the second year in a row. Yue Huang of ASK Career Training College placed second
Image: ASCA
TILLY SPROULE WINS FIFTH STRAIGHT ASCA NORTHERN REGION BARISTA CHAMPIONSHIP
The ASCA 2020 Northern Region Coffee Championships took place in October.
Roasters placed third. “This year, we saw a lot of new – and old – faces in Barista as well as the other categories showcasing some amazing talent and very inspiring routines,” Tilly says. “I’m excited to be a part of this growth up in the Northern Region and I can’t wait to represent our region on the 2020 national stage.”
and Chi Hang Lo of B+C Lab Café placed third. Karl Lee of KL Coffee won the ASCA 2020 Northern Region TCX Cup Tasters Championship with a score of seven out of eight in three minutes and 48 seconds. Merryn Ward of Woodman’s Axe Espresso placed second and Josh Gowty of Veneziano Coffee
ANTHONY DOUGLAS WINS ASCA 2020 SOUTHERN REGION BARISTA CHAMPIONSHIP placed third in the competition, held at St Ali in Port Melbourne from 26 to 27 October. This year marks Anthony’s sixth time competing and first time winning the barista championship. “This is the culmination of six years of hard work,” Anthony says. Image: ASCA
Anthony Douglas of Axil Coffee Roasters has won the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) 2020 Southern Region Vitasoy Barista Championship. First time competitors Ben Cheong of Veneziano Coffee Roasters placed second and William Cruger of Five Senses
Anthony Douglas is the 2020 ASCA Southern Region Barista Champion.
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“I was inspired by feedback on my previous routine at nationals, where I scored well across most of the boxes except for flavour, so I realised there was a lot of work I needed to do to understand flavour and how it was perceived and better control that.” St Ali also hosted the ASCA 2020 Southern Region Latte Art, Brewers Cup, and Cup Tasters Championships. Victor Vu won the ASCA 2020 Southern Region Pauls Professional Latte Art Championship, Louis Cheng of Poolhouse Coffee placed second, and Zhao Ting Wu of Cote Terra Coffee placed third. David Train won the ASCA 2020 Southern Region Brewers Cup, while Hyunsuk Ko of Bennetts placed second and Devin Loong of Ona Coffee placed third. Charlie Chu from St Ali won the ASCA 2020 Southern Region TCX Cup Tasters Championship. Yuki Saito of Addict Food and Coffee placed second and Sheng-Wei Wu of Cote Terra Coffee Roasters placed third. “I’ll be taking my same routine to the next level,” Anthony says. “I’m taking in the advice and feedback that I received at the regionals and see how far I can take it.”
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NEWS
ENZEN LIU OF CUCKOO CALLAY CROWNED ALMOND BREEZE 2019 BREEZEY MASTERS CHAMPION Enzen Liu is the winner of this year’s Almond Breeze Breezey Masters competition. The specialist latte art event, now in its fourth year, sees baristas from across Australia and New Zealand showcase their latte art skills using Almond Breeze Barista Blend. Enzen, Head Barista of Cuckoo Callay in Sydney, battled his way through knock-out rounds in a latte art smackdown at Specialty Coffee Curators in Marrickville to secure his place in the final against Victor Vu of Bicycle Thieves Café in Melbourne. Both first and second place-getters won a trip to the United States to compete at the New York Coffee Festival. In the final round of the Breezey Masters Final, Enzen produced a free pour seahorse and poodle design that saw him take the title. “To win is a dream come true. I started entering coffee competitions as a great way to keep learning and meet new people. I only started competing in latte art competitions last year, so to win an event like this
one is amazing,” Enzen says. “What helped me win tonight was my technical difficulty and accuracy.” The grand final judges – 2018
World Barista Champion Agnieszka Rojewska, 2019 Australia Latte Art Champion Jibbi Little, and 2017 Breezey Masters ‘Grand Breezey Master’ Lucky Salvador – agreed.
Enzen Liu (second from the right) is the 2019 Breezey Masters Champion.
NEW VARIETAL WINS PERU CUP OF EXCELLENCE Grimanés Morales Lizana of La Lucuma farm in Cajamarca has won the 2019 Cup of Excellence (COE) Peru, achieving a cupping score of 92.28 for her washed coffee. The coffee is an unidentified mutation of the Bourbon varietal Lizana named Marshel after her father-in-law. Lucio Luque Vásquez of Nuevo Progreso farm in Cusco placed second, scoring 91.44 with a washed Geisha. Junior Guido Flores Elera of Agua Dulce farm in Cajamarca placed third with 91.40 points for a washed Catuai.
An unidentified mutation of the Bourbon varietal has won the 2019 Peru COE.
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The Alliance for Coffee Excellence concluded its third edition of the COE in Jaen, Peru on 25 October, the last competition of COE’s 20th anniversary year. The judging panel represented markets from Japan, South Korea, the United States, Hong Kong, Russia, Australia, United Arab Emirates, and Peru. The national jury evaluated 209 samples submitted from 11 regions and narrowed it down to 39 coffees. The international jury evaluated these and selected 21 coffees for
the COE Auction and seven for the National Winner Auction. According to Lourdes Córdova Moya, a Peruvian panellist who has attended all editions of COE Peru, this year’s competitors showcased the diverse profiles of Peru. She says that the coffees of the past two years were very clean and sweet, with profiles of fruit and citric notes. She is delighted to see the varied profiles selected by the international panel this year that, she believes, better represents Peru.
Experience a Better Taste We have begun holding public cupping sessions to educate consumers on what goes on behind the scenes to make great coffee. For more information, visit grinderscoffee.com.au or contact us at melbourne@grinderscoffee.com.au ‘GRINDERS’ is a REGISTERED TRADE MARK.
NEWS
LA MARZOCCO OPENS ACCADEMIA DEL CAFFÈ ESPRESSO
General Manager of Accademia del Caffè Espresso, Marta Kokosar.
La Marzocco has opened the doors of Accademia del Caffè Espresso, its centre for cultural and educational development and research that aims to build a sustainable future for espresso coffee. “Accademia will create value for the entire coffee industry. It was a concept on paper a long time ago, and now we have completed a magical place here in Florence that puts the history of La Marzocco, and in fact the world of coffee, in the spotlight,” says Marta Kokosar, General Manager of Accademia del Caffè Espresso. “We can’t wait to share this masterpiece with the world, which we hope will contribute to the future health and longevity of our industry.” The Accademia del Caffe Espresso, housed in La Marzocco’s industrial building in Florence, Italy, was home to the company’s factory from 1959 to 2009. The so-called “officina” or workshop was managed
by the company’s founding fathers, Giuseppe and Bruno Bambi, and then by Piero Bambi, alongside a small group of craftsmen. Today, the space offers opportunities and platforms to
connect, educate, and champion the international coffee community towards a sustainable future. The space opens with an original Bambi Bar from 1959 where La Marzocco’s team serves a blend reminiscent of an Italian espresso from the 1970s. An indoor coffee plantation surrounded by a selection of plants offers knowledge about the origin of coffee and its complexity, the production chain, and the challenges it represents. La Marzocco’s heritage is on display in an exhibition area where a timeline reflects the long journey of the company’s design and technology. A fully equipped Accademia Bar showcases La Marzocco’s best technology and products in terms of efficiency and quality, providing a space to experiment with coffee machines, to learn, and to advance. Areas are dedicated to experimental workshops, international courses and certifications.
The new Accademia is housed in La Marzocco’s original industrial building in Florence.
WORLD’S LARGEST COFFEE ROASTERS SIGN ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY DECLARATION Some of the world’s largest coffee roasters and traders have signed a historic declaration on the economic sustainability of the world coffee sector, named the London Declaration by the International Coffee Organization (ICO). The declaration follows the first ICO CEO and Global Leaders Forum, launched to address the coffee price crisis and longterm sustainability of the coffee sector. To date, illycaffè, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Lavazza, Mercon, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, Nestlé, Ecom Trading, Olam, Starbucks, Sucafina, Tchibo, and Volcafe have signed the London Declaration.
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“We have to recognise that prices remain an issue on which we have to keep working hard,” Andrea Illy, Chairman of illycaffé, tells Global Coffee Report. “The best strategy for the future is undoubtably to continue on this same path, which entails investing more in differentiation though agronomical and genetic improvements, as well as new agricultural niches.” The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Producers, Fairtrade International, Global Coffee Platform, Hanns R Neumann Stiftung, Sustainable Trade Initiative, National
Coffee Association of USA, Oikocredit, Rainforest Alliance, Rusteacoffee, Specialty Coffee Association, and Sustainable Coffee Challenge have also supported the declaration. More industry leaders and organisations are considering joining this global effort. All London Declaration signatories and supporting organisations commit to taking action focusing on four themes – promoting competitive and sustainable production, fostering responsible and equitable growth, promoting responsible consumption, and promoting public-private dialogue regarding policy development.
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STUFF ON THE SCENE
Stuff on the scene BEST OF PANAMA ESMERALDA ESPECIAL WASHED Best of Panama is the world’s premier coffee competition in which the most celebrated producers of Panama submit their best coffees of the year. A panel of international judges spend a week in Boquete assessing Geisha and traditional varieties in Washed and Natural categories. At the 2019 Best of Panama auction, Hacienda Esmeralda was awarded the Panama Cup – a prestigious accolade that recognises the overall best producer of the year. This limited nano-lot perfectly captures the signature flavour profile of the Geisha variety with the terroir of the producer’s Jaramillo farm, clearly revealed by a quality-driven and innovative approach to coffee production. It features tasting notes of bold jasmine, orange sherbet, and tutti frutti. Esmeralda Especial is available through Campos Coffee. For more information, visit www.camposcoffee.com
MILKIT MILK TAP SYSTEM Milkit is an innovative milk tap system that has been developed specifically with cafés in mind. Using leading technology, Milkit delivers a fast and cost-effective solution for cafés to achieve milk dose consistency, maintain milk integrity, and improve barista workflow. The Milkit milk tap system has been designed to be easily installed onto an existing café bench top and refrigeration unit. Once connected and utilising 10-litre milk bladders, it’s simple to preset the volume of milk dispensed for a half jug or full jug, or use the manual setting to customise the volume. The unit is available in two configurations: Single Milk Tap and Dual Milk Tap. The system is proudly supported by Riverina Fresh with the availability of convenient 10-litre bags of Gold, Full Cream, and Light milk. For more information, contact Riverina Fresh at 1800 993 081, or visit www.riverinafresh.com.au
KEEPCUP THERMAL Introducing KeepCup Thermal, the first barista-standard stainless-steel reusable cup. The cup features a new material design, with the same attention to detail that makes KeepCups the preferred reusable cup in cafés the world over. Double-walled and vacuum-sealed with a press-fit lid and drafted for easy pouring, KeepCup Thermal is great to drink from, lid on or lid off. It fits under group heads and replicates standard volumes for espresso-based drinks, and is designed and hand-assembled in Australia. KeepCup is a certified B Corporation and member of “1% for the Planet”, donating one per cent of global revenue to environmental causes. KeepCup Thermal is made to last for dependable drinking pleasure on the go. For more information, visit www.keepcup.com.au
MILKLAB LACTOSE FREE Milklab is an Australian collaboration between foodies, baristas, and farmers to develop milks that complement the intensity of espresso, and that texture and stretch with espresso coffee. The Milklab mission is to source the best ingredients possible and trial different blends to ensure the perfect pour. Milklab is proudly designed and validated by experienced baristas and coffee professionals – because the best coffee deserves a better milk. Milklab has collaborated with farmers including those in Australia’s Goulburn Valley to bring customers its lactose-free dairy milk. The Goulburn Valley is home to some of the longest-serving Aussie dairy farmers who help supply Milklab with its freshly sourced milk. Milklab Lactose Free was awarded a Silver Medal at the 2019 Sydney Royal Cheese and Dairy Show and is now available in 12 by one-litre cartons. For more information, visit www.milklabco.com
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ALTERNATIVE DAIRY CO OAT MILK
When Alternative Dairy Co launched its soy and almond range last year, it impressed baristas around the country with plant-based milks that had cracked the code on taste, texture, and performance. Now, the Aussie brand is expanding its range with the introduction of a new oat milk which it says will have even the most loyal dairy drinkers considering the switch. Using 100 per cent Australian oats, this barista-only blend is a vegan-friendly recipe that’s low in sugar and carrageenan-free with a creaminess that its almond and soy siblings can’t compete with. Alternative Dairy Co Oat Milk is available now. For more information, visit www.altdairyco.com
VENEZIANO COLD BREW STRAIGHT UP Veneziano has developed the ready-to-drink (RTD) Cold Brew Straight Up using its popular Estate blend. It is perfect as is or can be used as a base for a signature drink. This Colombian and Brazilian blend is brewed slowly over 24 hours to create a velvety, refreshing coffee with notes of toasted cashew, sweet spice, and a lingering honey finish. Cold Brew Straight Up is best enjoyed chilled, over ice, or with a splash of milk or soda any time of the year. A RTD cask will be available through Veneziano’s wholesale network while a range of 250-millilitre canned drinks – Blood Orange, Oat Milk Latte, and Straight Up – will be on offer at Veneziano’s four flagship cafés. For more information, visit www.venezianocoffee.com.au
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KNOWLEDGE LEADER
An unlikely champion Agnieszka Rojewska has been gracing the competition stage for more than 10 years. The eight-time national titleholder and former World Barista Champion explains why she enjoys the thrill of the chase, but not always the catch.
GOLD MEDAL GOALS Agnieszka Rojewska is a veteran of coffee competitions, having her first national win in latte art in 2014. She still has ambitions to win the World Latte Art, Brewers Cup, and Coffee in Good Spirits Championships, and do what no other barista has done before.
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W
hen 2018 World Barista Champion Agnieszka Rojewska boarded a flight in Milan, she was stopped for a selfie. When she looked on Instagram she saw a video of herself walking down the street someone had just posted. And when she went to the supermarket, the cashier stared at her and said, “congratulations. I know who you are”. The thought of maintaining a public profile is something accustomed to famous sports stars, actors, and musicians, but it was never part of the contract Agnieszka signed up for. Her 37,600 Instagram followers – on last count – has her baffled, and she still draws crowds when she travels, a year and half since her World Barista Championship (WBC) crowning. Why? It’s a question Agnieszka asks herself. “The best answer I can give is the fact that I represent my followers: the community of ‘wannabe baristas’, the ones who don’t come from a company pedigree of competition champions or have the self believe they can win,” Agnieszka says. “I didn’t believe it was possible to win [the WBC] from a small country town in Poland like Poznan. It’s a financial struggle to make a full-time career out of barista work. It’s a low-paid job, and I didn’t come from a big company that backed their baristas with financial support and training. I used all my savings to compete. My team consisted of just two people.” Specialty coffee was non-existent in Agnieszka’s upbringing. Typical Polish coffee consisted of hot water poured over freeze-dried granules. She had her first sip of the beverage at 16 years of age as a means to get through a stressful week of study. She didn’t particularly like it on the first try, nor the second or third. But she did discover the caramel macchiato, and was hooked on its sweet dessert-like characteristics. It wasn’t until years later studying economics at university that Agnieszka would frequent then-Polish coffee chain Coffeeheaven for her caramel macchiatos. Her father insisted she get a job, so Agnieszka submitted her CV to the local shop and started her first role as a barista. It was only meant to be a summer job, but she stayed. In her first year, Agnieszka’s colleague signed her up for the chain’s internal latte art competition. Her teddy bear design didn’t make the grade, but Agnieszka says it was the moment she saw her
“I HOPE MY WIN IS FURTHER INSPIRATION TO ANYONE THAT DOUBTS THEIR ABILITY, BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T TRY, YOU’LL NEVER BE READY, AND YOU’LL NEVER KNOW.” competitive nature shine through. In 2014, Agnieszka’s tenacity took hold and she won her first national latte art title with a Darth Vader design. She says the win gave her the confidence she needed, not to mention brand awareness for her newly opened coffee shop. Agnieszka threw herself into the world of latte art and explored the possibilities on YouTube. She credits social media for teaching her how to pour simple patterns and inspiring her successful competition streak, winning the Polish Latte Art Championship from 2016 to 2018 with a world ranking of third place in 2017. Latte art may be the skill that ignited Agnieszka’s love of competition, but it’s the barista category that took her to greater heights. She turned her attention to the barista championship in 2015 because it was simply “the most prestigious and the most popular” at the time, and had “rules that were black and white”. Agnieszka says this was the year her career really took off. She won the Polish Barista Championship, went from brunette to blonde, and won €4000 (about $6000) in a latte art challenge. “That was the year that started everything. It was the only time Poland had really gotten on board with my barista career. Most of the time, I had support from my hometown of Poznan, but that year the entire country backed me with a national support campaign,” Agnieszka says. Live sites were established to watch her perform in the WBC in Seattle, and café customers created stickers and posters with the tagline “keep
everything crossed for Aga” – and it spread. That year she placed 34th, and achieved the same ranking in Dublin the following year. “Poland had lost hope of ever winning the WBC and at one point I felt maybe I should retire. My goal was to place 15th, but really I just wanted to be better than 34th,” she says. However, there was something about the 2018 WBC. Not only did Agnieszka achieve her goal of top 15, she made the top six. When she did that, there was only one position on her mind. On the day of the final round, Agnieszka woke feeling rested. She had ice cream for breakfast. There was no traffic on the way to the expo, and when she tasted her coffee that morning with green bean supplier and 2015 WBC winner Sasa Sestic, they were happy. There was nothing to stress about. She completed her routine in time. She didn’t break anything. Everything went smoothly. It was a “dream run”. “I really wanted to bring the wooden tamper trophy home, and I did. You can imagine my disbelief the moment I won the WBC. I never believed I could win,” Agnieszka says. The reason she did, Agnieszka believes, comes down to her “amazing coffee”, the way she celebrated customer service, and a bit of luck. “If I’m honest, I didn’t think it was a winning routine,” she says. “It wasn’t about chemical reactions or a new groundbreaking technique. At the time, my signature beverages were innovative, but it was my focus on customer service that I thought was too simple. One of the judge’s comments was: “general understanding but enough and relevant.” The judges had always said, ‘bring the customer experience on stage’, so Iliterally did.” Agnieszka became the first woman to win the WBC title. It’s a fact she is proud of, but she’s more proud that she won it at all. “For me, winning is competitive. The fact that I now fly the flag for women is great, because the reality is that for many women out there, we simply don’t have the time to ‘play’ or ‘train’ as much as we want to. We have more factors to contend with. So if I’ve opened a door for them that’s great, but I hope my win is further inspiration to anyone that doubts their ability, because if you don’t try, you’ll never be ready, and you’ll never know,” Agnieszka says. What followed her WBC win was a rush of marketing interest, a spike in her social media following, and to a certain
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KNOWLEDGE LEADER
extent, a loss of freedom. “The moment you win [the WBC] you gain a new life, but you also lose a life. I wasn’t ready for it and I didn’t expect it,” Agnieszka says. “My life was turned upside down. My body shut down from so much travel doing talks and demonstrations. I thought [the hype] would finish a year after I won, but it kept going. Being a champion is just an opportunity and you make of it what you want.” When Agnieszka knelt down and presented the WBC trophy to the 2019 champion Jooyeon Jeon, the South Korean barista looked at Agnieszka and said: “what do I do now?” “I told her ‘you don’t have to do anything. If you want to be a green bean buyer, go do it. If you want to be a coach do it. It’s whatever you want it to be’,” she says. Agnieszka misses her free days and the luxury of sleep, but when it comes to competition, she has some unfinished business. “After all these years, I have never won the World Latte Art Championship and I don’t think I will, but it’s the one I want to win most. To win, you need to be different, and like good actors and
singers, they need to be memorable,” she says. “I just need to wait for the right time, until I’m hungry again.” All going to plan, Agnieszka also aims to compete in the World Brewers Cup and Coffee in Good Spirits Championship in the years ahead. “The problem is that since I’ve already won a competition, there’s automatic expectation and interest that I will do well because I have a title next to my name. The advantage is that I know how to compete, but I don’t know how to compete at worlds. There’s too much pressure. Someone has to win. Those who do often tend to be the people who care a little less than those who want it so badly.” Agnieszka puts herself in the category that cares a little less. “People assume coffee is my passion. Yes it is, but I have many passions. I love football, I like Netflix – crime shows in particular – and I like to play PlayStation. Coffee is a job for me. I have never been super passionate about it and origin is a great experience, but I don’t feel I can make a difference there. In a café, I know I can,” she says. “The moment I took coffee seriously was when I decided not to have a job that
matched my university degree. Specialty coffee in Poland is small but it’s growing. Taxes are big, you need staff you can’t afford, and it’s a waste of time to invest in them only to have them leave for another career option.” For now, Agnieszka is happy travelling the world and taking on a new position as Head of Coffee Education and Culture at Italian coffee machine manufacturer Carimali in Bergamo. “What I’ve learnt is that if you plan, it doesn’t work out, so I don’t. My new position with Carimali will be an adventure. I’m looking forward to discovering a different, more businesslike side to coffee,” she says. Before her new work commenced, Agnieszka made a fleeting visit to Australia to judge the Almond Breeze Breezey Master Final competition and hold latte art masterclasses with aspiring baristas. Once again, the event attracted mass crowds. “Why?” Agnieszka asks. “I can only put it down to one thing: I’m one of them. I used to be in their position, thinking it’s a far-fetched dream to hold a barista champion trophy one day. But I did. So I represent them, the unlikely winners.”
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A career in coffee starts at Veneziano Coffee Roasters Do you want to kick start a career in coffee? Or simply fine-tune your skills behind the machine? With world-class training studios in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, our dedicated team of renowned trainers will be with you every step on your coffee journey. Our training program is designed to help people create coffee careers with significance. Whether you want to master your latte art technique, make great filter coffee or be coached for competition, we have the course for you. For upcoming courses in your state scan the QR code, visit venezianocoffee.com.au/training or call 13 COFFEE.
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CELEBRITY CHEF
India’s daughter-in-law Chef and restaurateur Sarah Todd has been on an Indian exploration since concluding MasterChef Australia five years ago. She shares with BeanScene the challenges of restaurant life, inspiring a new generation, and why coffee is set to become India’s next big thing. 22
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here are many things the Indian community of Goa has taught Sarah Todd: the Hindi language, local recipes, and the true meaning of kindness. But the one skill Sarah insists on sharing is her coffeemaking prowess. “The first thing I do when I get to our restaurant [Antares] is make everyone coffee,” Sarah says. “I’ve taught all the staff how to achieve the correct grind, dosage, good crema, milk texture, and latte art. I’ve even taught my mum.” Sarah worked as a barista when she was 17 years old, straight out of school. She received five job offers, one being fine dining restaurant Pacinos. Within 12 months, Sarah became the restaurant supervisor and had completed Pacinos’ official coffee training. Instantly, she was fascinated. “I just love the process of coffee making. I like a strong coffee, so I enjoy a piccolo or an espresso. I just like it to be balanced,” Sarah says. “I have really high coffee standards. From one end of the restaurant, I can tell by the excessive noise if one of the staff members isn’t texturing the milk right. There’s one guy at our restaurant who makes my coffee just right, Abhieshek. He was a waiter when we started. Now he’s the best barman we have, and the best barista.” Back in Melbourne, Sarah isn’t loyal to just one café. She enjoys using her Bialetti and, on occasion, admits to using Uber Eats for her caffeine fix. “I always feel so guilty when I do that, but I need my coffee. Having recently broken my ankle and unable to move around easily, there were necessary orders,” she says. “What I love about the Melbourne coffee scene is its vibe. There’s something about it. No-one does coffee shops like Melbourne does. Every point has been considered: the coffee is made well, the food is moreish, and the service is good. Then there’s the décor, the energy, the music, and even the usability of reading a menu. It’s the whole experience.” India is largely a tea-drinking country. However, Sarah is confident its coffee culture is shifting with a growing appreciation for high-quality coffee. “The scene is definitely building over there in a big way. India already grows quality beans, so it’s just a matter of time before its café scene evolves. Once people become trained to make good coffee, it will excel,” she says. At her Goa-based restaurant Antares, Sarah uses locally sourced and roasted beans from a company called Blue Tokai. To make the selection, she enlisted the
Sarah Todd rose to fame in India thanks to the Indian-inspired dishes she created on MasterChef Australia.
help of her friend and Melbourne-based café owner to taste each of the nine options flown over from India. “Indians like their coffee strong and they drink a lot of black filtered coffee,” Sarah says. “What we use at the restaurant is something I enjoy drinking. It’s smooth and balanced, and not too acidic.” Sarah has always felt a connection to India, given her son Phoenix is half Indian, but she credits her time on MasterChef for raising her global profile. “I was French-trained at Le Cordon Bleu and had started learning the Indian cuisine, but when I started cooking Indian dishes in MasterChef like aloo gobi, which is basically like village food from Punjab, and that episode aired in India, it changed everything,” Sarah says. “MasterChef Australia is one of the number one shows in India. More people watch the Australian version than the Indian version. They love how multicultural the show is. So when that episode aired, I got 50,000 new followers on my social media. I thought it was spam but they just loved when I cooked Indian dishes. They followed my journey.” After her time on the show, Sarah decided to do some cooking demonstrations in India but was unprepared for the attention she would receive. “No-one from MasterChef had really travelled there before. When I landed, I went straight into this cooking demonstration in the basement of this premium grocer. It was invite-only but somehow hundreds and hundreds of people found out. People were pulling my shirt, pushing me, and asking me for signatures. I was hyperventilating. I
couldn’t breathe. I had no idea what I was going into,” Sarah recalls. After the public appearance, a couple with two young kids took Sarah to Old Delhi, a city with the population of Australia. Sarah says the city’s mixture of food and energy was magical, but it was the couple’s generosity that impressed her most. “Indians have this saying, ‘my guest is my God’, so they really welcome you. I instantly felt loved and accepted into the country. They labelled me ‘India’s own daughter-in-law’,” she says. “What I love about India is the people. They are so warm and giving. It feels like home now, as does Australia. I spend three weeks there, three weeks here. Both countries are close to my heart.” It was never Sarah’s intention to open a restaurant in India, but when she received an offer from an entrepreneur for a venue in Goa overlooking Small Vagator beach, resembling Queensland’s tropical surroundings, she decided she had nothing to lose. “Goa is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before: pink/purple sunsets, coconut trees surrounding you, and I could immediately envisage what I wanted,” Sarah says. “I decided if I was going to open a restaurant, I wanted to do everything my way from scratch, from staffing to menu design and training.” Back in Australia, a television producer got wind of her restaurant exposition and immediately took an interest in following its progression. Within a month, SBS funded the project on a small budget and flew a producer and cameraman over to follow Sarah’s daily activities for four months straight.
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CELEBRITY CHEF
Sarah Todd will headline the Australian Open Chef Series at the 2020 event in Melbourne.
They created the series My Restaurant in India, which has since aired in 150 countries. “I had no idea what I was doing. I was very out of my comfort zone. I didn’t know that you would need a generator every day in India because they don’t give you enough electricity. I didn’t speak Hindi. Every day was learning. I learned how to build a restaurant from scratch and deal with staff. I had to realise that staff weren’t friends,” Sarah says. “There were days I was sitting in my bedroom crying thinking ‘what have I done?’ Many times I wanted to just give up and come home. One day I was thinking ‘nothing is working, the menu isn’t perfect the power doesn’t work, the staff don’t explain the right words
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to guests.’ Then I thought, ‘stop being a sook’. I went into the restaurant and this girl tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘ma’am, we have travelled six hours to see you. My friend is a huge fan – could you please come and meet her?’ As I walked over she was bawling her eyes out. She was so happy to see me. It was the moment I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself. This journey wasn’t about me anymore. It’s about inspiring young girls, especially in India when there’s not equal opportunities, it’s very male dominated, and girls aren’t given the respect, pay, or roles they deserve.” With the restaurant settling into a rhythm and attracting a loyal following, Sarah rewarded her staff with a belated Christmas party on 9 January 2019, a new tradition for the Indian team. She spent the afternoon dancing on tables with staff and family, listening to Punjabi music, drinking beers, and giving out Kris Kringle presents. Everyone involved in making the restaurant a success mixed, from management to cleaners. But that’s where the fun ended. As Sarah drove home from the party, she received a phone picture from a friend showing a fire from the beach and her restaurant roof on fire. “I hadn’t even reached home yet. By the time I turned around and drove back, the whole place was up in flames. It was like a horror movie. I was running towards it, but my staff grabbed me and held me back,” Sarah says. “Someone was clearing the land next door to ours in dry season. The wind lifted the flames and hit the roof in three different spots. In 40 minutes the restaurant was completely engulfed in flames and there was absolutely nothing left. It felt like my lifeline to India had suddenly been cut. It was very emotional. There was a
feeling of loss for months.” Not only was the restaurant entirely gutted by the fire, so was the rest of the street’s restaurant strip, leaving many of the locals unemployed. Despite the huge hit, Sarah says the good news is if you want things to happen fast in India, they can. After assessing the financial and emotional investment of reopening, within four months they were, this time with a fresh look. While January 2019 is a time Sarah would rather forget, January 2020 is already shaping up to be one of Sarah’s most exciting yet. She will participate in the Australian Open Chef Series along with chefs Donna Hay, Analiese Gregory, and Duangporn Bo Songvisva to offer a premium dining experience to VIP guests. “The Australian Open is one of the biggest sporting events in Australia. It’s the first grand slam of the year. I’m so exited to create a menu that celebrates Australian and Indian cultures. I’ll take my discoveries of India and infuse them with Australian produce in a light, fresh, and enticing way. It’s my own personal cuisine using native Australian and mostly Victorian produce like sun rock lobster, lamb, nettle, and different native vegetables,” Sarah says. “It’s a chance to show Australia how I’ve grown, how my cooking style has evolved, and what I’ve learned. I pinch myself to think of where I’ve come from and the position I’m in now. I know both Australia and India will be proud of the menu when it comes out. “Both countries already have a really big connection with cricket, but I think food – and maybe coffee – will be the next big influences to connect the two even further.”
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
A cool change Veneziano Coffee Roasters is determined to bring café-quality cold brew to consumers with its ready-to-drink range.
A
s spring fades and the new year approaches, Australians flock to beaches and venture outdoors to embrace the summer warmth. The rise in mercury also leads to a shift in consumer behaviour as seasonal trends come and go. Research and Development Consultant at Veneziano Coffee Roasters Pete Licata says although demand for coffee in the summer remains steady, the heat means many coffee drinkers substitute traditional hot espresso-based beverages for cold, refreshing varieties. To adapt, Veneziano is celebrating the end of the year with the launch of its new cold brew range. “We’ve played around with cold brew in the past, but at Veneziano, we haven’t made it a major focus. With summer coming up, we wanted to
“WHEN PEOPLE CAN GET A QUALITY, READY-TO-DRINK PRODUCT THAT’S REFLECTIVE OF A CAFÉ-TYPE EXPERIENCE, THEN IT BECOMES SOMETHING SPECIAL THAT THEY REALLY LOVE.” change that, so we decided to work on something that was delicious and refreshing,” Pete says. “When people can get a quality, ready-to-drink product that’s reflective of a café-type experience, then it becomes something special that they really love.” Veneziano collaborated with Tim Page-Walker from Coffee Keg, a contract beverage manufacturer in Geelong,
Victoria, during the development phase. Coffee Keg produces a wide range of pre-packaged beverages but specialises in ready-to-drink coffee-based drinks, including cold brew, nitro coffee, and espresso martinis. “I have been working with Veneziano for the last five years. It has been great to continuously push boundaries and bring new concepts to the market. We can’t wait to have our latest range of
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cold brew out there in the hands of coffee-lovers this summer,” Tim says. According to Veneziano’s Pete, a common problem in cold brew, when brewed for long periods of time, is exposure to higher volumes of oxygen. This can lead to the brew becoming oxidised and stale. “Collaborating with Coffee Keg allowed us to find the right proportions with our recipes, but also finetune a lot of technical details and mitigate those issues,” he says. The new cold brew range includes three unique varieties: Cold Brew Blood Orange, Cold Brew Oat Milk Latte, and Straight Up Cold Brew. To develop the range, the Veneziano team used a combination of industry professionals and general consumers for market research. Straight up Cold Brew is based on Veneziano’s Estate blend. It is a Colombian and Brazilian blend brewed over 24 hours. This is an all-rounder that is extremely popular due to its balanced flavour. “The Straight Up Cold Brew is light, has a nice presence of semi-sweet chocolate and caramel notes, as well as a little bit of zest and acidity,” Pete says. “Making unflavoured cold brew is as simple as being able to try different recipes, proportions, and steeping times. You can play around with these elements to find what works best. That’s exactly
Veneziano’s Gingerbread Latte is made with ginger, cinnamon, oat milk, and treacle.
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Veneziano’s range of ready-to-drink cans is available in three flavours.
what we did, along with some specific techniques I have discovered over the years. We’re really pleased with the end result.” For those seeking a stronger citrus flavour, Veneziano’s Cold Brew Blood Orange is a drink that aims to balance three separate flavour profiles in the form of blood orange, tonic, and cold brew. “It combines the coffee flavour with the brightness and citric component that comes with blood orange, as well as the sweetness and bitterness from the tonic. It’s a nice blend of all these factors and makes for a really refreshing, bubbly drink,” Pete says. To accompany the launch of the black-coffee-style cold brews, Pete says it was important for Veneziano to provide consumers with a latte-style option. He adds that after trialling different styles of milk and plant-based milks, oat milk stood out for a number of reasons. “The natural sweetness of oat milk complements the cold brew coffee perfectly. It’s something that dairy and non-dairy drinkers will enjoy. Oat milk is really trending at the moment,” Pete says. “We tried a lot of recipes to find the right balance and correct the proportions. This meant digging into every detail of what each ingredient was bringing to the table to find what worked best. We eventually found a very refreshing, tasty
combination which resulted in our Cold Brew Oat Milk Latte.” Pete says the Cold Brew Oat Milk Latte and Cold Brew Blood Orange are more complex drinks and perfecting their recipes was far more difficult than the unflavoured cold brew. “They have multiple ingredients and you have to make sure they all work harmoniously. You also have to ensure that the integrity of each ingredient is of a high quality too, so there are a lot of variables.” All three flavours will be available in 250-millilitre cans with Straight Up Cold Brew also being released in a three-litre cask. Retail consumers can also purchase the cans online. To celebrate the launch of the readyto-drink cold brew range, Veneziano has also created a variety of signature drinks for its café menu. “The idea is that our signature drinks are a special release which use our cold brew product as a base. The signature drinks all look to tell a story. They are inspired by the flavours and aromas of coffee – it’s a really unique concept,” Pete says. Among the signature drinks will be Veneziano’s Cold Brew Portello, Cold Brew Signature Summer Cocktail (as featured on this month’s cover of BeanScene), and the Gingerbread Latte. “The Gingerbread Latte works
brilliantly with a cold brew base. It aims to remind customers of Christmas. We also have the Cold Brew Portello which mixes that classic Portello taste with fresh grapefruit. It’s super refreshing,” Pete says. “The Cold Brew Signature Summer Cocktail is pineapple flavoured and is extremely impressive visually. It’s charged with carbon dioxide and served with dryice, so it’s a real spectacle.” The signature drinks will be available at Veneziano’s four branded cafés and the recipes provided to its wholesale network of cafés. With the range of ready-to-drink cold brew products and signature drinks ready just in time for summer, Pete says Veneziano is looking forward to growing Australia’s appetite for cold brew in a fun and creative way. “From Veneziano’s point of view, making products with the ultimate flavour experience that our customers enjoy is the most important thing. It’s really the driving force behind everything we do,” he says. For more information, visit www.venezianocoffee.com.au
The Cold Brew Signature Summer Cocktail is charged with carbon dioxide and served with dry ice.
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INDUSTRY XXX PROFILE
Cup of gold Campos Coffee is releasing its most expensive coffee to date, Esmeralda Jaramillo from the 2019 Best of Panama, in single serves to make this Geisha experience available to anyone.
C
offee is often compared to wine. Both beverages originate from plants, can possess complex flavour profiles, and offer varying degrees of quality based on how they are produced and processed. The Bordeaux region of France is synonymous with high-quality wine, thanks largely to its ideal climate for growing grapes and the work of its producers. According to Will Young, CEO of Campos Coffee, if coffee was to have an equivalent, it would be the Baru Volcano area of Chiriqui province in Panama. “There are so many micro-climates in that area. You’ll be standing on one crest, watching a rainstorm one kilometre away that never touches where you are. It’s what happens when the climate is being affected by both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, because Panama is this skinny piece of land between the two,” Will says. “The Baru Volcano houses everything you need to grow stunning Panamanian coffee. When you mix in a varietal like Geisha, grown by the very best producers in separate micro-climates,
“THESE ARE THE ANCESTORS OF ALL THE COFFEES THAT ARE ROCKING IT RIGHT NOW, MAKING AN IMPACT ON COMPETITIONS AND THE ULTRAPREMIUM COFFEE CATEGORY.” this delivers the most complex coffees you can imagine.” While originating in Ethiopia, Geisha is now more commonly associated with Panama and was popularised at the 2004 Best of Panama (BOP) competition by the Peterson family of Hacienda La Esmeralda after its “rediscovery”. Rachel Peterson tells BeanScene when growing and selling Geisha, it’s important that the coffee achieves the qualities the varietal is known for. “Complex and intense aromatics are a must. It should always have florals in the cup, along with stone fruit notes, and should be sweet – from when it’s brewed until it’s stone cold,” Rachel says. Will and Campos have been involved
in the BOP since 2011, with Will appointed Head Judge in 2018. He has formed close, personal connections with Panama’s producers, the Petersons in particular. In 2019, Campos brought two of Hacienda La Esmeralda’s highest cup scoring coffees to Australia – Super Mario and Jaramillo. “It’s been 15 years since Esmeralda first introduced Geisha to us and it was from the Jaramillo farm that they found the first Geisha as we know it today,” Will says. “They could have kept it to themselves but instead decided what’s best for farmers and the wider industry was to share it with everyone else. It’s from those seeds that many of the astonishing prices and award-
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Super Mario and Jaramillo are sold in 18-gram single-serve pouches.
winning coffees we see around the world are coming from. “That’s reason enough to want to try this coffee. These are the ancestors of all the coffees that are rocking it right now, making an impact on competitions and the ultra-premium coffee category.” Of the two coffees, Super Mario was released first on 1 October. Campos purchased the natural processed coffee from the Peterson’s own Esmeralda Special Auction for $524 per kilogram. Will gave the coffee a cupping score of 95 out of 100, saying the coffee practically jumped off the table and screamed ‘I am amazing’. The coffee takes its name from the Mario region of Jaramillo farm, which Rachel says has always produced flavourful and aromatic coffee. “On this occasion, we took only the very upper limit of the already small lot and kept it separate throughout the processing,” Rachel says. “Because of the weather conditions, it took a little longer to dry than usual, which allowed a more balanced flavour, body, and aftertaste to develop in the coffee.” Campos purchased Jaramillo from the 2019 BOP auction for US$233 per pound, or about $752 per kilogram. Will awarded the coffee 96 points out of 100 on the cupping table, where it averaged 94.25, less than one point below the top scoring coffee in the washed process category. Rachel says the washed process highlights
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the inherent characteristics of the coffee. “This is a coffee we wanted to do as a clean washed because of the quality of the beans and the harvest itself. It encompasses a whole bunch of attributes you want to taste in a Geisha or when cupping a coffee – an excellent fragrance, flavour, body, and acidity,” Rachel says. “Putting that coffee next to another is a good way to educate the market on what they should be looking for in a Geisha – jasmine aromatics, bergamot and peaches in the cupping notes, and citric acidity.” Though Jaramillo placed second in the washed category overall, Will says it was the coffee that left the biggest impression on him at the competition. “The coffee was so clean and bright, while still having a vivacious aspect which you don’t often get in a fullywashed,” he says. “We went all in on the coffee, expecting to pay a lot for it. When the price kept going up in the auction, we got a bit worried, and in the end, decided to move our limit upwards to secure the coffee that stood out most on the table.” Will says due to the level of quality presented at the BOP, as well as Esmeralda’s own auction, Campos decided to focus on the coffees with a high fidelity and impact. “We could’ve bought about eight good coffees or one or two standout hits. If someone is paying more than $20 for a cup of coffee, it’s got to be as remarkable as an amazing wine. You don’t buy a $100
glass of wine and expect it to taste like everything else,” Will says. “We want to emphasise the fact that these coffees do stand out and are worth the money being charged, to show that this category of ultra-premium luxury coffee exists and highlight it in all its glory.” To roast these coffees, Campos purchased a 2.5-kilogram-capacity Diedrich roaster that could handle the 500-gram batch sizes needed to make the most of the “nano-lots”. Campos Chief
Coffee Officer Adam Matheson says this ensures coffee is fresh when sent to customers. “Getting the best results and showcasing this coffee is really important to us,” Adam says. “Esmeralda has put this amazing coffee in our hands, and we owe it to them to showcase its amazing quality.” A light roast profile was applied to Jaramillo to tailor it for filter brewing. Campos’s tasting notes for the coffee include bold jasmine, tutti frutti to encapsulate its fruity flavours, and orange sherbet to reflect the dominant citrus. “The lighter roast means we can tap into some of the elements we think are special about Jaramillo, like the acidity and high flavour intensity,” Adam says. “This coffee is an opportunity to try coffees at the top of the quality pyramid. It’s important to us that consumers can experience that.” Campos sells the coffees in 18-gram single serve pouches, charging $18 for Super Mario and $22 for Jaramillo. It will also be serving the coffee as a Geisha experience poured by its top baristas instore for $26 a cup. Despite being the highest prices Campos has ever charged for a cup of coffee, Will says the single-serve model makes it available to the wider community. “In the past, we’ve sold premium coffees in 200-gram bags for more than $100, but felt that this is like selling a case of Château Haut-Brion wine when most people only want a bottle,” Will says. “We thought hard about who’s going to be buying this coffee. It’s really the baristas, roasters, and café owners who work in the industry, and people who are really passionate about coffee. But not everyone has hundreds of dollars to spare to buy 200 grams of this astoundingly good coffee. We felt everyone should have the ability to taste the best coffee in the world and not spend too much money on it.” Will hopes Jaramillo will also open people’s eyes to how far away from commodity coffee the best ultra-premium coffee can be. “If you pay $4 or $5 for your everyday coffee, a $26 cup of coffee jolts the system and people want to challenge it because they think all coffee tastes the same,” Will says. “If most days you’re drinking coffee that scores in the mid80s, drinking one of these in the mid-90s demonstrates how wide the range actually is. It opens people’s eyes to the range and the fidelity between coffees.” For more information, visit www.camposcoffee.com
Hacienda La Esmeralda won the Panama Cup for overall performance in the 2019 Best of Panama.
FEATURE NEWS
Counting beans
BeanScene looks at the financial realities of starting a coffee roastery, common mistakes people make, and how they can be avoided.
O
ver the past few years, hundreds if not thousands of coffee roasters have set up shop around Australia, with lenders, co-roasting facilities, and contract roasters having lowered the bar of entry to the industry. However, the sudden rise of coffee roasters has created a competitive landscape sometimes called oversaturated, meaning new players may struggle to thrive. According to Tim Mazzarol, Winthrop Professor specialising in small business management at the University of Western Australia (UWA), Australia has many mechanisms in place to support someone looking to start a small business. “The coffee roasting and café industries are seemingly perennial, and a business can really get going if it finds a good niche and is well managed,” Tim says. “The overall climate in Australia is relatively good for small business and the ease of starting a business is better than most other countries with a fair bit of support in a whole raft of areas.” Andrew Low, Co-founder of Ordermentum, has seen the sudden rise of coffee roasters firsthand through the online B2B ordering platform, which has more than 200 roasters using the system. As former Managing Director of Toby’s Estate, he also understands the challenges
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of running a successful roastery. “The traditional journey to becoming a specialty roaster is largely through a barista pathway. They’re often an enthusiast who works on a machine, gets into home roasting, does some sample or guest work at a small roaster, or works as an apprentice for one of the big guys, then goes off to start their own company,” Andrew says. “Specialty coffee in 2010 had 10 major players and everyone else was trying to catch up. Now there’s hundreds. The number of cafés has also doubled, so the average kilogram used per venue went down and it got harder to make money off an account.” Despite the tougher climate, Andrew says it’s still possible for a well-run roasting business to turn a solid profit.
FROM THE BEGINNING
When starting a company, UWA’s Tim says it’s important to begin working on a business model and not just a plan and strategy. “The focus of the business model is largely on identifying what opportunities you can take up within this particular area and what your customer value proposition is,” he says. “You’ve got to be able to say what’s unique about your business and why it’s valuable to customers.” After the business model is laid out, a
well-considered business plan needs to be designed, factoring in how much money it will need to run. “You will always need more money than you think, so ensure you have enough working capital – money you have on hand and are able to spend,” Tim says. “If a person has reasonable resources – unless they’re trying to raise very large amounts – credit is not hard to get from banks. “I also suggest going into business with other people. It’s not impossible to do it alone, but most successful start-ups are team-based, so find partners who can share the workload, strategic thinking, and costs by putting their own capital in.” Once the model and plan are laid out, the next step is to think about the legal structure of the business. “If you’re going to be roasting coffee, you need to at least consider employment, work health and safety, and quality assurance. An incorporated business structure would be a good start and it’s not that difficult to set up,” Tim says. “You’ll need to get an accountant with business experience and register the business with a state/territory group or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission if you plan on going interstate. A lot of this can be done online.” Most importantly when starting a business, Tim says to seek out and take good advice at every opportunity.
“People struggle when they fail to think carefully about these things, don’t take advice, and get excited by the opportunity, launch in, and work it out as they go along,” he says. “There’s always going to be a level of that, plans often don’t work out and you’ve got to be flexible and adaptable, but that shouldn’t be your sole approach to running a business.”
SETTING A PRICE
Ordermentum’s Andrew says while many would-be roasters have a good understanding of coffee, few have experience running a business. “Very few – if anyone – starts roasting as a profit-led project. What most roasters do is make a product, see if someone buys it, and at the end of the month, ask ‘do I have any money in the bank?’” Andrew says. “The risk of this strategy is that they buy the most expensive, highest grade, best tasting coffees they can find, and without really understanding their gross margin and the role of blending to achieve a target cost of goods and ultimately a satisfactory profit margin, they are actually roasting themselves to a financial loss.” One of the simplest ways to determine
price is to use a cost-plus model, taking the amount it costs to produce the coffee and add the profit margin – usually 50 to 65 per cent for a blend. This model is common in markets with low competition, but as specialty coffee increased in popularity across Australia, the average quality of competing coffee has risen, and it has become harder for roasters to set their own prices. Instead, Andrew says coffee has become a price taking category, meaning the market determines how much a product can be sold for based on supply and demand.
AT WHAT COST?
With the average wholesale sales price for a kilogram of coffee sitting between $20 to $30 according to the BeanScene 2019 Roasters Directory, a figure Ordermentum estimates through its live coffee index is trending downwards, Andrew says roasters without a strong brand identity may struggle to sell coffee at a higher price point. With prices largely predetermined, roasters must instead focus on adjusting their cost base, beginning with their blends. Despite record low coffee prices, Andrew says it hasn’t resulted
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aste r
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in roasters paying lower prices for the finished bag of coffee. “The green component is only one element of the total cost. The rest is in the supply chain,” Andrew says. “There’s freight, landing costs, tax, and duties that have to be paid to get the coffee here. The average kilogram price of green used to be about $6. Now, it’s more like $9.50 or closer to $14 if you’re buying high-grade coffee from an importer.” To get the most out of their coffee, Andrew suggests roasters be prudent when developing their blends. “If you start with more modestly priced Brazilians or Colombians, then blend in some higher graded African, Costa Rican, or Guatemalan centrals, you can get a really nice blend at a sustainable price,” Andrew says. Roasters also need to factor in wastage when determining their costs. When green coffee is roasted, the moisture loss can result in a 15 to 18 per cent reduced yield depending on the bean and roaster. That’s before breakage, product samples, and discarded coffee that fails quality assurance testing. This means when determining the cost of their coffee, roasters need to scale up the prices of their green beans accordingly.
gram
For more information, visit onacoffee.com.au/guest-roasting @onacoffee
FEATURE NEWS
With coffee roasting an increasingly competitive market, it’s important that businesses make decisions that are viable in the long-term.
BEYOND THE BEAN
Though a roaster’s costs extend far beyond green beans, Andrew says many fail to consider essential factory overheads – warehouse costs, packaging, gas and electricity, labour, and storage – and other expenses when handling finances. “There’s a whole series of unit economics around how much it costs to just turn a roaster on. You also need to pay for everything that gets the doors opened and closed,” he says. “When thinking about costs, it’s not just the beans. Each of these factory costs need to be broken down and factored into the price per bag.” However, there is another key expenditure item of coffee roasters that Andrew says is too often left out of the equation – the capital cost of equipment. “If you provide an account with an espresso machine and grinder, it can cost as much as $30,000. In a lot of cases, the roaster acts as if the customer gets this for free when looking at their profit per bag, but what they should be doing is allocating that machine depreciation cost into the product,” Andrew says. For instance, it costs the roaster $128 per week to keep a $20,000 machine and grinder with an average life of three years in a café. For a smaller account buying 25 kilograms per week, that equates to more than $5 per kilogram. “If you’re selling coffee for $26 per kilogram and buying green for $8.50 per kilogram, at 80 per cent yield, that’s $10 once roasted, plus $3 for packaging and labour, you’re making a gross profit
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of $13. But when you factor in other costs – $5 for factory overheads, $2 for trading terms and delivery, and $5 for the machine – you’re only making a net profit of $1 on an accrual basis,” Andrew says. (see Figure 1.) “As an industry, not just in roasting but across the entire hospitality sector, we need to start questioning: ‘Do I make money from this customer once all costs are truly considered?’”
MONEY IN THE BANK
A wholesale account could also be costing a roaster by simply not paying upfront or on time. “Trading terms, like letting someone pay you in one or two weeks’ time, seems free but it’s not,” Andrew says. “Roasters will tell me they make $100,000 per week, but if that money is sitting in someone else’s bank account, it’s not earning them interest, and they can’t put it towards something that makes money somewhere else. That’s before you consider late payments and bad debts.” Incentivising customers to pay without terms or via automated payment can help provide security to the roaster as they avoid bad debt and actually increase terms to the café. “The next logical step for a café might be to find an non-bank lender for easy approval finance and buy their own equipment. Once purchased, they can work out that it’s saving the roaster, say, $2 per kilogram, then go to the roaster and ask for the coffee to be that much cheaper,” Andrew says. “The roaster shouldn’t be upset about
that because it’s saving them money too and increasing their cashflow by reducing fixed asset purchases. When you add the working capital saving of the venue paying faster, it actually makes the account more profitable. So, the roaster could say ‘fine, I’ll take the $2 per kilogram off, but I want you to pay at time of order instead of on trading terms seven days later’.”
STEADY GROWTH
Once a roastery has found its footing and developed a customer base, new problems can arise if the business grows too quickly. “Growing it is the riskiest thing you can do for a business because you’re moving outside your knowledge of how to do what you’re doing,” UWA’s Tim says. “There’s also the issue of working capital. As you grow a business, it will need more available money, not less.” Tim encourages small businesses to act carefully and sustainably when considering growth. “You need to think about what cash you need, how quickly you can get paid, and manage your accounts and overhead so you can bring down your break-even point,” he says. “You have to work to be efficient, lean, and reduce the amount of working capital you’ll need as you scale. A big part of this is cash flow – making sure you’ve got a cash flow budget forecast and that you don’t find yourself in the wrong cycle. It only takes one large account to not pay up or default to be put a lot of businesses out of existence.”
OUT OF THE RED
With coffee roasting an increasingly competitive market, Andrew of Ordermentum says it’s important that businesses make decisions that are viable in the long term. “We’ve done analysis for our roasters and often find that their top five accounts are actually losing them money. They get excited by the prospect of a 50-kilogram-per-week account and shower them with discounts and machinery,” Andrew says. “We need to change that mindset. If a café asks for a second grinder for single origins, they’d need to sell a lot to make it worthwhile, and the roaster needs to determine if doing so is viable.” To help coffee roasters make these decisions as well as monitor their cash flow, Ordermentum has developed a free financial modelling tool in which businesses can enter their costs and revenue to ensure they are making a sustainable profit. “If your profit calculator is coming up short, you may be able to cut one or two dollars per kilogram out from product costs, but at a certain point, that’s a dangerous strategy that compromises product quality,” Andrew says. “I’m a fan of open book costings. I hope for the day that roasters are able to walk into a café with this calculator, show how much they spend to buy and roast their coffee, and justify why they charge what they charge. If you focus your company resources and energy on delivering the best quality product and customer service, you will spend a lot less time and energy defending the price you charge.”
Figure 1. A breakdown of the possible costs and profit of a $26 one-kilogram bag of coffee.
TRAINING FEATURE //
Changing tastes Grinders Coffee has begun holding public cupping sessions to educate consumers about what goes on behind the scenes to make great coffee.
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rom the farmer to the roaster, a lot of work goes into producing coffee to keep it consistent and at a good quality. To teach this to the public, Grinders Coffee has introduced a new series of public cupping sessions, the first of which took place at its Lygon Street café in Melbourne on 23 October, 2019. “If the consumer knows what to look out for, they’ll be better able to acknowledge, identify, and buy good coffee,” says Alec Zeta, Training Manager and Coffee Specialist at Grinders Coffee. “The more you educate people, the more they lean towards change, and the less they’re educated, the harder it is to break habits.” The October cupping session began with a summary of the work done by producers and roasters before coffee reaches the café. This included how farmers identify ripe cherries, pulp and process coffee, and steps taken before a roaster or trader buys it. “This gave the audience an understanding of what the process is when it comes to specialty coffee and an appreciation of the farmer’s effort,” Alec says. “The farmer does a lot to produce a good bean to deliver to Australia. We’ve noticed the more you educate consumers on the work of the farmer, the more they appreciate the coffee.” The cupping focused on Grinders’ blends, highlighting the different profiles
Grinders Coffee Training Manager Alec Zeta runs a public cupping session.
and characteristics of the dark chocolatey Classic, nutty Foundation, fruity and smooth Source, and high-end SoCo Roasters Society Blend. The floral Zambian coffee that contributes to more than half of the Society Blend was also presented as a single origin, allowing attendees to experience the differences between the two. “This allowed us to go into the purpose of a blend, how some are made to work with milk, and why you’d add other beans to achieve a certain body or flavour,” Alec says. “The variety of coffees gave them a reference of how a bolder or lighter blend should taste, the characteristics of different beans, how they taste when combined as a blend, and what they’re like when served on their own.” After the fragrances of the dry coffees
Grinders uses four of its blends to highlight different flavour profiles.
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were sniffed by the attendees, they were brewed at a ratio of 12.5 grams to 230 millilitres of 93°C water. When ready, Alec demonstrated how to break the crust and take in the aroma before allowing participants to try it themselves. They then took turns slurping the coffees and identifying certain flavours. “Cupping breaks down the flavour much more than we’d be able to demonstrate with espresso. It’s also more consistent than espresso tasting, where there are multiple variables that can affect the flavour,” Alec says. “This session was actually pretty similar to our quality control at Grinders, where each batch we roast is cupped and graded individually, then a sample is kept for comparison in case there are any issues.” While the introductory session focused on tasting different blends, Alec says there is more to cupping, and future sessions will highlight the different flavour profiles of single origins and defects in certain coffees. “Everything comes down to what we do at the backend – to show the public the extra mile everyone goes to while producing great coffee,” Alec says. “Across Australia, but specifically in Melbourne, there’s such a good coffee culture, but a lot of people don’t know what they’re looking for when it comes to a good cup of coffee. Showing them will help them differentiate from cup to cup.” For more information, visit www.grinderscoffee.com.au, or contact melbourne@grinderscoffee.com.au
// TRAINING FEATURE
Code of Ona
Ona Coffee has revamped its training program, incorporating knowledge the roaster has gained from competitions, café service, and activities across the supply chain.
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offee quality depends on every link in the supply chain. The producer needs the right growing conditions, the roaster must follow a specific profile, and the barista has to extract the right flavours. Hugh Kelly, Training Manager at Ona Coffee and 2016 and 2017 Australian Barista Champion, says without a knowledgeable barista, all the effort put into a coffee before it reaches the café can be lost. “Ona is spread across the whole coffee supply chain. We work closely with our green bean suppliers and have a roasting team who are obsessed with what they do. [We] work with manufacturers to make their machinery work how we want them to and operate our own cafés, so we see how each of these steps are linked,” Hugh says. “Without proper training, the whole thing falls apart pretty easily. If you’re experimenting at the farm to crazy levels to get unique flavours, the barista needs an understanding of how to extract that or else there’s no point. It’s really where it all comes together.” Ona Coffee offers a range of public courses out of its Canberra roastery in
Fyshwick and Ona Coffee Sydney in Marrickville, and plans to extend its courses to Melbourne in 2020. Hugh redeveloped the course structure in 2019 to take in new information and ensure there is enough time in each class for one-on-one work between the student and teacher. “I looked at what we’ve taught for years, incorporated what I think is relevant to cafés and coffee now, and changed the structure and setup to make the objective of each class a little bit clearer,” Hugh says. “For example, we’ve always had a Foundation Barista course. Now we’ve added Café Barista courses with the intention of whipping someone into shape, to be able to apply for a job, within a day. We’ve also added specialist custom sessions as well, like team building and sensory.” Alongside the Foundation Barista and all-day Café Barista classes, other training sessions Ona offers includes latte art and filter coffee courses that adapt to the student’s skill level, Intermediate/ Skills Practice which builds on Foundation Barista, and Advanced Coffee Extraction for in-depth coffee making. “The advanced class utilises techniques we’ve used to dial in coffees at world
All-day Café Barista classes provide a crash course on all the skills needed to work inCaption a café.
Caption
Ona Coffee runs filter coffee courses that cater to different skill levels.
competitions to provide a foolproof method of approaching espresso and offers a bit more detail on extraction and tasting,” Hugh says. “It’s for people who are coffee enthusiasts, want to run their own bar, or are head baristas and want to take their theoretical knowledge further.” Ona also provides specific training to its wholesale clients to get the best out of its coffee. “Some of the techniques are similar [to public training], but they’re targeted more towards just using our coffee,” Hugh says. “If you’re in a coffee bar using Ona Coffee, you’ll follow certain procedures specific to our brand, whereas the public training is more generalised and tries to cover a broader range of factors.” Hugh says Ona intends to further develop its training program, taking advantages of the roaster’s collective knowledge. “We’re going to add layers to the courses and introduce more tasting and rotating specialist sessions that go into more detail on higher-end, technical barista-focused work,” he says. “We want to give people not just the opportunity to learn about coffee, but taste and experience it in ways that we’ve learnt through our competitions and café service.” For more information, visit www.onacoffee.com.au/training
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TRAINING FEATURE //
A competitive edge To Veneziano, a training program is only as good as the people who teach it. That’s why the roaster is investing in its trainers to empower customers to create careers of significance in coffee.
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n the world of competitive coffee championships, precision matters. Every seemingly minor variable can have a major influence on the flavour and presentation of a barista’s coffee, with the winner often separated by just fractions. Because of this, the competitive scene attracts those in the industry who are passionate, skilled, and committed. Veneziano Coffee Roasters has an active history participating in coffee competitions and is channeling its team’s expertise and experience into its training programs. “All of our training stems from our experience in barista competitions. It’s the pinnacle of the coffee industry and many of the skills translate to café baristas. We believe in teaching these skills and striving for excellence with our students,” says Jade Jennings, National Training and Development Manager at Veneziano. The roaster offers a range of training courses that vary in skill level. These include Espresso Foundations, Brewing Ratios, Latte Art, Cupping, and Roasting Fundamentals. The courses are designed to support professional baristas to either round out their skills or hone in on a particular area. According to Jade, regardless of which course a student participates in, the most unique aspect is the trainer’s ability to create impact, purpose, and connection with each of their students. “Our trainers have been in the industry for years, usually as a barista or café owner, which means they innately know the challenges our customers face and how to work with them to improve,” she says. “But we don’t just rely on experience. At the heart of Veneziano, we are passionate about investing in our people so that they can add value to our customers.” To do this, Veneziano trainers must pass multiple levels of assessments to gain their accreditation. This includes
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Veneziano’s training studios are fitted with state-of-the-art equipment.
the Level Two Assessment, in which they must successfully perform under a competition-style format to certified World Coffee Events (WCE) or Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) judges. “Most people don’t pass our assessments on the first go and we actually don’t mind that. It’s not just about passing, it’s how they learn personally and professionally that matters,” Jade says. “These high standards ensure our people have the best possible skills and experience to develop and add value to our customers.” In addition to a competitive technical skillset, Veneziano seeks people who are personable and adept communicators. “We look for trainers who are relatable, nurturing, and willing to have some fun with their baristas,” Jade says. She adds that the most rewarding part of running training sessions is knowing that students pass the skills they learn onto the rest of the team at their workplace, which improves the whole business. “There is truly nothing like the feeling you get when you see a student experience that ‘ah-ha moment.’ They become inspired and take this back to their colleagues, which leads to better
coffee across the business. The better coffee means an increase in loyalty from customers and also additional exposure through word of mouth and reviews – the training is always a winwin,” she says. To match the prowess of its people, Veneziano has heavily invested into its facilities to ensure that students have the optimal tools and environment to learn. “We love showing off our training studios as they are a real spectacle. Our coffee pods are self-contained benches, set up as a benchmark example of a high-performing café. Our students have the opportunity to learn on state-of-theart equipment,” Jade says. “We also teach students about workflow and provide the tools to create consistency and efficiency. We know we’ve done our job when they apply even just one piece of knowledge to improving how they make coffee their own venue.” Veneziano currently has training studios in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, with Adelaide and Canberra soon to follow. For more information, visit venezianocoffee.com.au/baristatraining-courses
INDUSTRY PROFILE
A foundation for the future Green bean trader Minas Hill has launched a foundation to formalise its commitment to origin and aims to ramp up its sustainability in 2020.
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ince its creation eight years ago, Minas Hill has strived to support its farming partners and their communities. Founder and CEO Marcelo Brussi says this is due to his understanding and appreciation of not only the farm owners, but the workers who make coffee production possible. “My grandfather worked on a coffee farm, and I have always valued the work of the pickers, truck and tractor drivers, and seed sowers – those doing the work we don’t always realise even exists,” Marcelo says. “We’ve intentionally partnered with producers who we can help contribute to their communities.” The green bean trader formalised this commitment with the formation of the notfor-profit Minas Hill Foundation in October 2019. Marcelo says running Minas Hill’s philanthropic efforts through a separate entity has improved the transparency and professionalism through which these projects operate. “The Minas Hill Foundation has
been welcomed with open arms from our donors, but we were more surprised by the reaction of people who hadn’t donated money before because of a lack of traceability,” Marcelo says. “Donating through the not-for-profit provides them with a feeling of safety and security of where their money is going.” The Minas Hill Foundation highlights four core projects, with plans to expand its reach across Brazil. Minas Hill became involved in the first of these programs six years ago, partnering with Bom Jesus farm in Alta Mogiana to support Intercity Games for the Environment (GIMA). Every year, GIMA involves more than 900 children from the surrounding 10 municipalities, promoting social and environmental responsibility and providing children with access to bicycles for transport and school equipment. For almost as long, Minas Hill has also worked with 2018 Cup of Excellence winner Ismael Andrade to fund his local hospital, Santa Casa de Misericordia. Minas
Minas Hill will help launch a biohybrid plastic bag lining for hessian coffee bags.
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
GIMA teaches children about social and environmental responsibility while providing them with bicycles for transport and school equipment.
Hill encourages its buyers to donate from an additional 10 cents to $1, per bag of coffee bought from Ismael, to the hospital. Marcelo says one Australian roaster has gone as far as donating much-needed mammogram equipment to the hospital. While these projects provide social value to their communities, the Wings program at Santo Antonio and Pinhal farms promotes environmental sustainability. “The black market trade for exotic animals in Brazil is only behind drugs and weapons in terms of money involved, and 82 per cent of seized fauna are birds,” Marcelo says. “Brazil has the second highest bird diversity in the world, but with 175 threatened species, it comes first in that category. When captive birds are seized by the government, Wings takes care of them until they’re ready to be released back to nature.” Minas Hill’s most recent project at origin is Flowers in Action, which aims to create new opportunities for the female farmers of the Alto da Serra Producers’ Association (APAS). “Although APAS produces high-quality coffee, they faced challenges: selling it for best possible price, transportation, and childcare for parents who need to work. About three crops ago, we made a partnership with the women of APAS to empower, support, encourage, and recognise them,” Marcelo says. “Through Flowers in Action, we not only create extra income from buying their coffee, but allow the women to farm independently from the men. The whole community benefits through the
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encouragement of these women.” Flowers in Action also engages with the youth of the community, encouraging them to bring new ideas to coffee producing, like fermentation methods and recycling programs. Marcelo says it has been heartwarming to see the next generation, particularly young women, express interest in coffee farming. “A daughter of one of the farmers, a 15-year-old named Anna Rubia, told me that because of this project and these new ideas, she wanted to study agronomy at university so she could come back to Alto da Serra and help the region flourish,” he says. “We need to encourage the next generation to continue coffee farming. For Anna to tell me ‘I can see a future in this region’ shows me that what we are doing is working.” While the foundation addresses social and environmental sustainability at origin, Minas Hill has also taken strides to improve its impact in Australia. The trader has set itself the task of becoming as sustainable as possible in 2020. To reduce wastage caused during the import and export of coffee, Minas Hill has partnered with sustainable packaging manufacturer PlanetWare to introduce a new biohybrid plastic lining for hessian sacks used to transport coffee. “By being in two different worlds – Brazil and Australia – I can see all the waste generated throughout the supply chain, not just at the farm and café, but in transporting coffee too,” Marcelo says. “Current bag linings aren’t recyclable
and many end up in landfill. From Brazil to Australia alone, that’s about one million bags per crop. If we can reduce that figure by even 10 per cent, we are doing great.” The International Coffee Organization projects that 167.4 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee will be exported around the world in coffee year 2019-20, with many containing plastic linings that will end up in landfill in buyer countries. Ben Spruzen, Managing Director of Planetware, says through working with coffee roasters, the compostable packaging company came to see plastic bag linings as
Wings looks after native birds that have been freed from captivity.
Minas Hill and Ismael Andrade raise money for Ismael’s local hospital.
a huge issue that no-one was attempting to address. “We set about doing a whole range of testing with farmers, industry members, and bioplastics manufacturers to come up with a material capable of delivering the key components the customers requires – strength, durability, and permeability – while satisfying our sustainability values – minimising plastic use and reducing carbon footprint and toxicity throughout the supply chain,” Ben says. “We came across a good biohybrid, a mix of plant-based materials and petrochemical plastics, which delivered the performance we needed and cut the amount of traditional plastic used by 25 per cent.” Ben say just switching to the linings alone brings benefits of significantly less plastic entering the supply chain and a reduction in CO2 from the manufacturing process, though these are not the only environmental advantages. “Because it’s a biohybrid, the lining can go through existing heat-sealing equipment and recycling systems to be turned into recyclable pallets and we’re been speaking with companies in those fields,” Ben says. “We’ve also heard from importers and exporters who love the idea of repacking the linings and sending them back to origin where they can be used to store parchment. In a country with high humidity like Papua New Guinea, this could have a huge effect on reducing losses to yield.” As well as using these bags in its own operations, Minas Hill launched a Brazilian subsidiary in November 2019 to sell the new linings direct to farmers and cooperatives in the country. As well as reducing waste on the buyer end, Marcelo says the biohybrid linings pose benefits to the producer and coffee quality. “They are creating a better, more appealing solution for their customers, while showing they care about the environment of the destination,” he says. “This bag is Halal-certified and free from genetically modified organism, bisphenol A, and heavy metals, meaning the product is not contaminated by plastic or contact with food in transportation.” Marcelo says the next step for Minas Hill is to create an easy pathway for roasters to recycle these biohybrid linings while connecting the foundation with more donors across Australia. “We want coffee farmers to flourish, thrive, and keep coming up with beautiful coffees, while providing a better life to their families,” Marcelo says. “To do that, we need to pay the farmer a fair price, support their communities, and find and work with like-minded coffee roasters who value sustainability.” For more information, visit www.minashill.com.au
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COLD BREW SALTED CARAMEL 1240kJ Smooth caramel with subtle hints of salt combined with our Nicaragua Cold Brew
FEATURE NEWS
Eyes on Milan BeanScene Editor Sarah Baker travelled to Italy to find out why HostMilano has a reputation for being the biggest and greatest global hospitality trade show.
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ostMilano 2019 is a beast of the expo world. The biennial event was the talk of the industry for the past few months, with chatter among businesses on what to expect, who was attending, and the necessity to take comfortable walking shoes. For many Australians, the 24-hour journey to Milan is a commitment. It’s time away from businesses, a different time zone and a foreign city devoted to risotto, fashion, and aperitivo. But as BeanScene discovered, a visit to HostMilano is an essential one for those wishing to do business, invest in products, and make new connections to take home. Along with the record-breaking crowd of more than 200,000 visitors who flocked to Rho Fiera for 41st edition of HostMilano, this year’s event also saw its highest number of international visitors from 171 countries at 40 per cent of attendees. It also attracted the highest number of Australian exhibitors to date, including Cafetto, St Remio, Coffee Roasting Australia Technology, Espressology, Coffee Machines Technology, and Barista Group,
“THE MARKET IS CHANGING. IT’S VOLATILE AND COMPLEX, SO THE MORE CONNECTED WE ARE, THE BETTER.” which participated in the five-day show from 17 to 22 October. HostMilano is a feast of technological innovation, future out-of-home and consumer trends, and hard-core industry networking, and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. The prominent theme and dominating trend at this year’s show was undoubtedly automation and quick-service coffee, followed by the integration of Internet of Things, sensor technology,
the importance of data collection, and supporting partnerships and services that put the customer first. There was further focus on compostable packaging, roasting equipment, and milk dispensing equipment, but it was automation that stood tall. Inside the four trade halls dedicated to coffee, roasting, and processing equipment, endless vending machines were scattered throughout the stands – including one producing scrambled egg within a minute. Furthering the idea of “automation”, three robot arms were spotted: one pouring shaky latte art, one serving Aperol Spritz at a bar, and another roasting and packaging coffee, signs that automating the barista role is still very much of interest. To that end, Eversys unveiled its limited-edition Cameo X machine at the company’s 10th anniversary party the evening before HostMilano. Talking about the company’s “blue ocean” approach, Eversys Chief Commercial Officer Kamal Bengougam highlighted the company’s vision to further bridge the gap between traditional coffee equipment and intelligent electronic super-automatic coffee machines. “We want to humanise the coffee
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FEATURE NEWS
La Marzocco’s KB90 made its European debut at Host, as did its range of grinders.
machine and produce bespoke solutions without compromise to in-cup quality,” Kamal said. “We believe the balance of power from traditional to super-automatics will shift by 20 to 30 per cent over the next five years. We must keep on driving innovation forward, but first, consolidate our new technology and then we’ll need to elevate again.” Along with the Cameo X, Eversys launched the eGhost tap-and-go machine powered by German company iovent, another example from Eversys’s Super T category that embraces attractive design and the ability to create quality products without fuss. Over on the La Marzocco stand, the KB90 was still attracting huge interest from the European market in addition to baristas pulling shots on Host 2017’s biggest attraction: the revised Leva. But the real attention grabber was the Innovations Gallery where hordes of people crammed into the stand as eager as tech geeks at the release of a new iPhone. This time, it was La Marzocco’s elevated foray into the grinder market that took everyone by
surprise with the release of the Swift Mini and Swan grinders. “We’re committing to grinding equipment in a big way. We’ve been producing the Swift grinder for the past 10 to 15 years, but now we’re delving into grinders that really fit in with our other products,” says Scott Guglielmino, Product
Manager for La Marzocco. While the Swift Mini is targeted for the high-end home and office markets, the Swan S is ideal for high volume coffee bars. “We tried to look at the design of the Swan to pair really well with La Marzocco’s PB range – of KB and Strada machines. We see an incredible opportunity for growth because the Swan directly addresses retention, consistency, heat, and static – all the things that are well-established problems.” Scott says by addressing static in the grinder, all these other problems could easily be resolved. After seven years of work, the “true solution” was a static shocker, a ring beneath the burr set that introduces electricity that neutralises the static charge generated in the coffee as it’s ground. “By completely eliminating the static charge, the coffee can completely exit the burrs through the static shocker and fall into the portafilter. With that, retention and clumping go away,” Scott says. Also attracting attention was the onegroup Leva and Modbar AV, concept design GB three-group with integrated scales, and La Marzocco’s automatic milk
Victoria Arduino’s Eagle One is designed to be an expression of personality in a café.
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Astoria’s new Profilo gives baristas manual control of espresso production.
steamer. This company-first uses an ultrasonic infrared sensor rather than weight to assess the level of milk in the jug, then tilts the jug to allow air in, and runs to the pre-set temperature. Rancilio also showed off a fleet of newrelease technology, with the launch of the Classe 20 espresso machine, Silvia Pro onegroup – with two separate boilers equipped with proportional integral derivative software – Egro Next Touch Coffee superautomatic drip coffee machine, and V50 solid aluminium grinder with 50-millimetre blades and zero retention. The Egro kiosk dispensing unit with cold milk foam had Australians considering its suitability Down Under. At Simonelli Group, design was top of mind from the brew bar – featuring the official 2019 World Barista Championship Black Eagle Machine in Boston red, signed by all the competing baristas – to the window display and Eagle One that looked like an art exhibition. Eagle One is a professional espresso coffee machine designed to become the centre of expression and personality in a café. It is born in response to the new generation of coffee shops where design, performance, and sustainability
are determining factors in creating a memorable experience. “Eagle One brings digital innovation to the industry in a simple way. The market is looking for simplicity, so in this machine, less is definitely more,” says Fabio Ceccarani, CEO of Simonelli Group. “We are at the stage where you cannot impact the market with big technology to break the industry, but rather we want to focus on harnessing data and platforms that put the focus on the end user and delivers exactly what the barista wants. The market is changing. It’s volatile and complex, so the more connected we are, the better.” Also new to the Nuova Simonelli line-up was the Appia Life machine. Ceccarani says this model embodies Simonelli’s focus on sustainability, with a 20 per cent reduction in environmental impact compared to the Appia II. It is even more simplistic and innovative thanks to the introduction of the Easycream system to dispense silky milk foam, and is apable of high productivity. Over to the Astoria and Storm stand, barista star power in the form of 2017 World Latte Art Champion Arnon Thitiprasert and 2016 World Coffee in Good Spirits Champion Michalis Dimitrakopoulos were demonstrating
their skills behind the Storm FRC, along with the Astoria Tech6000, presented as the brand’s new flagship model. But it was the Storm Profilo and its music-mixer-like control panel that turned heads. “The idea with Storm Profilo is to make every step of coffee production manually adjustable. You start with the pre-infusion where you separate the extraction into three steps. The first step is to set up pressure in four different levels and timings, such as two bar for two-anda-half seconds,” Arnon says. “Then we can adjust the speed between pre-infusion into the real extraction and the extraction itself, taking the pressure from zero up to 14 bars, which has five different levels of adjustment. When you lower the pressure, the extraction takes longer. The bitterness is reduced, but the aroma is high.” Carimali’s boilerless technology was another talking point. Not only does it
Carimali released a boilerless espresso machine at HostMilano.
FEATURE NEWS
Slayer displays its customised threegroup machine in “Host Milan blue”.
weight just nine kilograms and save up to 90 per cent energy, it also occupies as little as one-quarter of bench space compared to equivalent traditional coffee machines. Brand ambassadors Agnieszka Rojewska and Gregory Scace were on hand to take customers through the machine, opening cupboard doors underneath the benchtop to prove there was indeed no boiler in sight. “You don’t often get to disrupt coffee, and now I’ve done it twice [first with the launch of the Scace temperature measurement device],” Gregory says. “Thanks to magnetic induction, our temperature profile is remarkably reproducible and stable. It’s a principle known since the 1800s and commercialised for other applications, but no-one has mastered it in coffee – until now.” Wega Macchine per Caffè’s stand had everything from a bakery to cocktail bar, featuring the Nexa, WBar, and Nova coffee machines. The Nexa uses a straight, lock in-group handle that raises automatically to meet the group head and start the extraction for improved barista ergonomics. The Nova was equally impressive in design with its angled back. At the busy Slayer stand, it was the limited-edition Slayer Espresso custom machines that had visitors pulling out their smartphones for photos in the likes of its “Catwoman” all-black single group, “Pink Panther” all-pink single group, and a vibrant “Host Milan blue” three-group machine. Slayer’s stand was a celebration of its motto, “make coffee better” with its latest machines on display – the Steam EP, Steam LP and Steam LPx – the results of secret trials inside the Slayer Lab. San Remo debuted the Brave coffee machine, described by Ona Coffee’s
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Hugh Kelly as “five machines in one” to help off-set changes in grind and barista imperfections and “makes your bad coffees taste pretty good”. “It essentially allows us to control coffee to a really high level of detail,” Hugh says. “It does flow control, automatic mode, and at the same time, can be stripped back and is really simple to operate. We’re really excited to see it next at MICE2020.” In the grinder game, Mazzer’s new Major V was a notable favourite. It’s a flexible device with flat burrs suited to high-to-medium-volume coffee shops that want to make the leap to the next level of grinding technology. It features optional Internet of Things connectivity so users can monitor and control the grinder output remotely via its internet-connectable platform. Grinding can be activated with a keyboard or portafilter.
The new Mazzer Major V and new Kony S grinders on display at HostMilano.
“The electrostatic charge reduction feature of the Major V is what keeps grounds from getting on the counter while getting uniform coffee grounds in your portafilter, thanks to Mazzer’s Grind Flow Control system,” says Cristina Scarpa, Marketing Manager at Mazzer. “This system consists of an easy to clean removable aluminium outlet insert equipped with a through-flow wire damper to prevent clumping and improves dose and grind consistency.” Mahlkönig’s E80 Supreme was also impressive. This heavy-duty machine is what Hemro Group Product Manager Ansgar Bitz considers the “fastest grinder in its class” thanks to its large engine. The other new Mahlkönig Grind by Weight grinder, the E65S GbW, is equally as impressive thanks to its ability to eliminate scales in the grinding process. “This is the biggest improvement in grinding technology because it’s not any longer grind by time, but grind by weight. If I measure the weight of the dispensed coffee on a scale to compare the dose, you can see it’s extremely accurate and consistent,” Ansgar says. Aside from machine launches, there were massive crowds gathered around The Ripple Maker as customers added their face or company logo to a cup of coffee or pint of Guinness. Host is as much a game of endurance and physical stamina as it is a fun fair of new machines. Come the afternoon of 22 October, scooters flew down the aisles, step-counters were monitored one last time, and there was no shame in roaming the gelato pavilions for a few samples followed by a classic palatecleansing Aperol Spritz. And that, coffee friends, was HostMilano 2019 – until next time in October 2021.
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Images: David Lachapelle
A year to act
Earth CelebrAction is promoting sustainability through photographer David LaChapelle’s artistic vision.
Lavazza’s 2020 calendar titled Earth CelebrAction is designed to champion sustainability by celebrating the planet and acting as a call to arms to fight for its future.
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n September 2019, representatives from some of the largest coffee roasters and traders in the world converged in London for the International Coffee Organization CEO and Global Leaders Forum. The event addressed environmental and economic sustainability across the entire supply chain of the coffee industry. The forum led to overwhelming support for reform and many leading organisations, including Lavazza, signed a declaration of intent known as the London Declaration. The document acts as a pledge to take action on four themes: promoting competitive and sustainable production, fostering responsible and equitable growth, promoting responsible consumption, and promoting public-private dialogue regarding policy development. In addition to supporting the declaration, Lavazza is advocating for environmental awareness through the launch of its sustainability-themed 2020 calendar, Earth CelebrAction. “The 2020 edition of our calendar,
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entitled Earth CelebrAction, reflects Lavazza’s focus on the issues of sustainability and the future of the planet, treated here in a poetic study of beauty, and an attempt to rediscover connection with the environment,” says Lavazza Group Board Member Francesca Lavazza. “The project seeks to celebrate the beauty of nature, but also act as a call for action, as every one of us has the ability to personally defend the environment.” Earth CelebrAction is designed to be visually engaging, bold, colourful, and inspiring. “In the calendar, we have explored the earth theme by offering up a symbolic story in which the classical elements of fire, water, earth, and air come together in the presence of humans to create enthralling natural scenarios,” Francesca says. Lavazza has created its CelebrAction Manifesto to accompany the visuals of the calendar. The manifesto comprises 12 themes, one for each month, to emphasise giving back to the earth. “The 12 months demonstrate the
thoughts of Earth CelebrAction’s manifesto and the idea of opening up to Earth, fully appreciating its importance, listening to its needs, respecting it as our mother, and taking care of it to take care of ourselves,” Francesca says. Each month is also expressed in verbs that relate to actions people should take to promote the environment. For example, Francesca says the word “celebrate” represents January, which refers to the manifesto’s stance that “we celebrate the Earth, because its thanks to her that we exist”. The full list of monthly themes includes celebrate, listen, realise, defend, care, sustain, honour, nourish, reconnect, breathe, respect, and change. For the calendar’s imagery, Lavazza hand-picked American commercial photographer David LaChapelle to spearhead the project, under the direction of advertising agency Armando Testa. “We saw David’s evolution towards the issues of sustainability and environmental protection running parallel to the
evolution of our calendar. David has already spent time in Lavazza’s artistic family and, over the years, we have been following the evolution of his career very carefully,” says Michele Mariani, Creative Director at Armando Testa. Michele adds that the most important aspect of the 2020 calendar was to produce something that had a strong, memorable message and rich aesthetics. “That was why David came so easily to mind. He made nature and the environment his central inspiration and, even though we knew how he worked, he surprised us again with his richly imaginative universe, fertile inspirations, and obsession with detail,” she says. The photographs used in the calendar were produced in Hawaii, where David lives on an eco-sustainable farm. According to Michele, it was in Hawaii where David became interested in landscape photography and so focused on the environment. Prior to this project, David has had pictures feature in some of the world’s most recognisable publications including Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and the New York Times magazine. “The Earth CelebrAction calendar was an ideal opportunity to pursue my imaginary journey through an idyllic paradise where humans and nature coexist in harmony. I’m grateful for the total freedom of expression granted to me by a company that I respect, and which respects the planet,” David says. The 2020 calendar is the latest in a long line of sustainability-focused initiatives driven by Lavazza. According Reputation Institute’s 2019 Global Corporate Responsibility Study, Lavazza is the top-ranking food and beverage company and the ninth ranked overall for its corporate responsibility. Silvio Zaccareo, APAC Business Unit Director and Lavazza Australia Managing Director, is proud of the company’s rise in corporate responsibility rankings, after improving from 32nd in 2018. “For us, the most important part of this process is actively engaging with and providing support to the individuals in local coffee growing communities,” he says.
Wake the world up to your coffee
S I LV E R
STRALIAN I N AU
GOLD
T
W EE A ARDS FF O
STRALIAN I N AU
ATIONAL RN C NATIONA TE LC ER W EE A ARDS FF O
ATIONAL RN C TE
W EE A ARDS FF O
STRALIAN I N AU
For more information, visit www.lavazza.com.au
BRONZE
2020 Australian International Coffee Awards Call For Entries Share your passion for quality and innovation with the expert panel of judges at the 2020 Australian international Coffee Awards. Don’t miss this chance to take home gold and gain industry recognition for excellence.
Each calendar month celebrates the beauty of nature and a call for action to defend the environment.
For further information visit
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Oat is in Research shows dairy-free milk has surged in popularity. Australian owned Alternative Dairy Co is determined to capitalise on the trend, expanding its barista range with the introduction of its new oat milk.
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lant-based milks have become a part of Australia’s mainstream café culture. Baristas around the country are now adept at working with non-dairy products, with consumer demand driving cafés to introduce more variety. According to a 2019 study by Report Buyer, plant-based milk isn’t a simple craze which will fade into obscurity any time soon. The research shows the global alternative milk market is experiencing a compound annual growth rate of 14 per cent and is expected to reach revenues of US$38 billion (about $55 billion) by 2024. “Where soy was once the hero, almond has now taken over, but there are also other great tasting varieties such as cashew and coconut-based milks driving excitement in the category,” says Emma Seberry, Senior Brand Manager Alternative Dairy Co. Part of the Sanitarium Health Food
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“OAT MILK HAS BEEN TRENDING GLOBALLY DUE TO ITS CREAMINESS AND NATURAL SWEETNESS. THIS COMBINATION MAKES IT UNIQUE COMPARED TO OTHER PLANTBASED MILKS AS IT APPEALS TO THE DAIRY DRINKING SEGMENT TOO.” Company Stable, Alternative Dairy Co is riding the dairy-free wave in Australia and has been providing premium plant-based milk products designed exclusively for the café trade since 2018. In December 2019, it launched its new offering – oat milk. “Oat milk has been trending globally due to its creaminess and natural sweetness. This combination makes it unique compared to other plantbased milks as it appeals to the dairy drinking segment too,” Emma says.
Alternative Dairy Co’s oat milk is vegan-friendly, low in sugar, and carrageenan free. Like its soy and almond milk siblings, it’s created specifically for coffee. “Our products are perfectly designed for use in cafés,” Emma says “We work on a formula where the milk complements rather than overpowers the coffee.” According to Emma, the decision to source oats from Australian farmers was an easy one, given the brand’s values
and its Australian ownership. “It’s important that we support Australian farmers. It’s a win-win because we’re getting a quality raw ingredient with a small carbon footprint and consumers are getting something that they trust,” she says. Oats require less water during production, which makes oat milk highly desirable for sustainability-conscious consumers. Additionally, sourcing homegrown ingredients reduces fuel and energy compared to if they were sourced from overseas. When Alternative Dairy Co’s project team began developing the oat milk, it was projected that it would take 18 months to get the product from the concept stage through to market, but Emma says they recognised that they needed to move quickly. To do this, Alternative Dairy Co formed a team of specialist food scientists and engineers to fast-track the development of the new oat milk offering. “Amazingly, they were able to turn the entire project around in six months. We are extremely impressed with our team,” Emma says. She adds that one of the challenges during production of oat-based products is that oats naturally create sugars, leading to an exponential rise in sweetness that can be overpowering when mixed with coffee. “But we managed to find a clever method that balances the milk’s sweetness so that it promotes the flavour of the espresso,” Emma says. In order to test the flavour and find a balance of sweetness that appealed
Alternative Dairy Co’s oat milk is tailor-made for coffee using Australian-sourced oats.
to consumers, a coffee lab was setup with La Marzocco espresso machines at Sanitarium’s manufacturing facilities on the New South Wales Central Coast. The oat milk was blind tasted and trialled with different beans. Test groups included dairy and nondairy drinkers to ensure the final flavour appealed to a broad spectrum of consumers. “The dairy milk consumers told us it’s the best non-dairy milk they’ve tasted because of the creaminess. So, we feel
Alternative Dairy Co has found the right balance between oat milk’s creaminess and sweetness when paired with espresso.
it is probably the closest alternative to milk, which is a great thing,” Emma says. Baristas from St Ali and Glee Coffee Roasters were also invited to try the oat milk during production and provide feedback. Having perfected the recipe, Sanitarium’s field team has now embarked on an extensive tour of cafés around the country. Its mission is to demonstrate to baristas how the new oat milk performs both in terms of taste and texture, and increase awareness of oat milk among coffee drinkers. “We work with cafés in a really personal and dependable way because for us at Sanitarium, we are a very collaborative company and are all about the relationships that we build with our customers,” Emma says. She says that despite the oat milk industry being in its infancy in Australia, the promising performance of oat products overseas, coupled with domestic demand for dairy alternative products, gives her optimism. “Dairy-free milk is really on trend at the moment for a variety of reasons, whether its environmental, health, or flavour. A lot of people are making the switch – and we’re really passionate about driving the category,” Emma says. For more information, visit www.altdairyco.com
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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE
It’s time The Cronometro brings a modern approach to the old adage of ‘30 mills in 30 seconds’ as Rocket Espresso releases its first domestic range of models with a built-in shot timer.
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inimalistic, elegant, and iconic are the first three words Charles Stephens, CEO of Espresso Company Australia (ECA), uses to describe the new Rocket Espresso Cronometro range. Released in late 2019 and now available throughout ECA’s national specialty coffee retail network, Cronometro derives from the Italian word for stopwatch, which is reflected in the extraction speed of the machine. “With the help of the Cronometro’s shot timer feature, you can adjust and dial in your grind size – either coarser or finer – to speed up or slow down the flow rate of the espresso to achieve a guideline extraction of 30 millilitres in 30 seconds.” However, Charles says modern home baristas now like to follow a unique recipe, often published by the roaster, which includes an espresso volume over a number of seconds, and to achieve this, the appropriate tools are required. “This ensures consumers are able to maintain consistency of flavour in every coffee. When the coffee in the grinder has the accompanying extraction recipe, the consumer will experience flavours as designed by the roaster,” Charles says. “There is a finer line these days between professional baristas and the home enthusiast than ever before.” Despite being a key new feature, Charles says successfully integrating a shot timer into the Cronometro required a carefully considered approach. “There was extremely high consumer demand for Rocket to include a shot timer, but the challenge was implementing it while retaining the simplicity and elegance of the brand’s trademark aesthetic,” Charles says. Rocket Espresso’s team was determined to find a solution, trialling different styles and designs of shot timers to find something which matched the desired aesthetic, until Co-owner Andrew Meo took a different approach. “Andrew decided that rather than trying to force something that clearly wasn’t working, the perfect solution was to
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The Cronometro Giotto features distinctive triangular side panels.
custom-design and build the Cronometro its own unique shot timer,” Charles says. “The result is a stylish shot timer that subtly illuminates in a soft, pale blue when on and then fades into the stainless-steel mirror face of the machine when off.” The Cronometro is available in two designs, Giotto and Mozzafiato, and two models, Tipo R and Tipo V. Tipo R contains a rotary pump, a mechanical pump that is commonly found in commercial espresso machines. It also allows the user to plumb the machine into the water mains of their home or office. The V series contains a vibration pump, a small electromagnetic device that has a piston attached to a magnet, set inside a metal coil. As an electrical current form through the coil, the magnet rapidly shoots the piston back and forth,
pushing water through the machine. The average vibration pump operates at 60 pulses per second. Opinion varies in terms of whether the pump affects espresso flavour, but Charles says vibration pumps are slightly louder, albeit cheaper and easier to replace. Other than the pumps, the machines have identical technical components. In addition to its shot timer and two different pump styles, Cronometro includes a Proportional Integral Derivative to regulate temperatures of the boiler and heat exchange, a 2.5-litre water reservoir, height-adjustable feet, and an E61 group head. “These machines categorically deliver every characteristic of a commercial coffee machine that you would find in an espresso bar, including the same temperature, flowrate, pressures, and
build quality. It’s a perfectly scaled down commercial machine in all senses,”Charles says. “Cronometro uses a 10-amp plug and 2.5-litre internal water reservoir, so it’s a dream for portability.” The choice for consumers doesn’t end at pump preference. The Cronometro also comes in two distinctive designs, the traditional Giotto and contemporaryMozzafiato. Starting at the bottom, Giotto’s side panels subtly flare out diagonally before snapping back near the top of the machine. This creates the unique triangular prism body shape on each side. The Giotto’s distinctive side panels originated from original Italian manufacturer Espresso Coffee Machines in the 1990s. Around that time, Charles began importing the products and since then, Rocket Espresso has been improving its version of the Giotto. “It was a very high-quality product and totally unique to anything else. I was fortunate to be bringing them in over 20 years ago when the now-huge espressoat-home wave started,” he says. Mozzafiato shares identical technical features to the Giotto, but sports more conservative cast alloy straight- sided panels. “Our sales would indicate that the Giotto is our number one model. It’s an iconic design, but we were missing out on a market segment that prefer the look of straight-sided edges,” Charles says. All models of Cronometro, follow the “fatto a mano” Italian tradition, which translates to “made by hand”.
The built-in shot timer makes it easy for users to achieve an ideal extraction time.
“Rocket’s team of craftsmen build domestic and commercial espresso machines with meticulous care and attention to detail. It’s another really cool point of difference that makes Rocket Espresso so special,” Charles says. To complement the Cronometro series, or any of the other models in its domestic range, Rocket Espresso has launched the Faustino grinder in 2019 as a smaller alternative to the Fausto. Both the Fausto and Faustino are tailor-made to fit the Rocket Espresso aesthetic and provide consumers with an accessory that stylistically matches their espresso machine range. The Fausto, released in 2016, features
Faustino grinders are designed to fit the Rocket Espresso aesthetic.
a digital display with commercial quality and size burrs, a grind shot counter, and programmable duel control buttons for easy portion control and quickadjustments. Charles affectionately refers to the Faustino as “the son of Fausto”. It shares the same features as the Fausto with slightly scaled down power and a smaller footprint that takes up less space ona benchtop. “In essence, the Faustino is refined, sophisticated, and functional, and incorporates a new responsive LCD touchscreen and display. It comes in four colours that all look beautiful sitting next to one of our machines,” he says. Faustino is around 6.3 centimetres shorter than Fausto, 3.8 centimetres thinner, and 5.1 centimetres shallower. The Faustino weighs in at 7.6 kilograms compared to its 11.3-kilogram fathermodel. “The Rocket Faustino has been very well received by consumers – we actually underestimated just how popular it would be. It’s a worthy and beautifully branded grinder that’s very compact and perfectly complements any domestic Rocket machine,” Charles says. With the new Cronometro models and Rocket-branded grinders now on the market, Charles says Rocket Espresso is continuing to look forward by preserving what makes the brandunique. “Rocket is continuing to find waysto innovate its range and develop new features without losing its identity,” Charles says. For more information, visit www.espressocompany.com.au
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Roll out
Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue have partnered with Milklab, providing the dairy alternative brand with a new platform for consumer engagement.
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uffin Break broke ground in 2013 as one of the first national coffee chains in Australia to stop charging extra fees for soy milk and other dairy alternatives. Jeremy Regan, Head of Coffee at parent company Foodco, says Muffin Break and sister brand Jamaica Blue have always led consumer trends in this way. “We work hard to supply our customers with what they want. They were sick of being charged from 50 cents to $1 extra for soy milk, and cutting that cost allowed us to engage with our non-dairy customers,” Jeremy says. “Now, we’re looking to continue that
relationship by offering a new product and wider range of plant-based milks.” When it came time for Foodco to find a new dairy alternative supplier for its 189 Muffin Break and 117 Jamaica Blue stores nationwide, Milklab came out on top. Milklab Marketing Manager Sarah Herbert says even before the formal partnership, the two companies had a good relationship for some time. “We’ve been talking and friendly with Foodco, and recently there’s been more of a demand from consumers in Jamaica Blue and Muffin Break asking for Milklab by name,” Sarah says. “Both Foodco and Milklab are dedicated to providing our customers with the best coffee experience possible.
Muffin Break was one of the first coffee chains to stop charging extra for soy milk.
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This partnership is an important platform for us to be able to share Milklab with more people across Australia, increasing the availability and chance for Milklab fans to enjoy our products.” Beginning in November, Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue partnered with Milklab to supply its plant-based and lactosefree milks. Muffin Break stocks Milklab Almond and Lactose-Free and will offer Milklab Coconut as a seasonal option for franchisees from January. Jamaica Blue has taken on a wider range, also offering Milklab Soy, with Milklab Macadamia an optional extra for franchisees. Jeremy says the new alternatives will allow the brands to capitalise on emerging trends. “We’ve seen a definite increase is requests for dairy alternatives. Soy has historically been a strong dairy alternative and that’s leaning now towards almond, with coconut and other varieties gaining more awareness,” Jeremy says. “It’s a lifestyle choice for many consumers who are looking to reduce their intake of animal products and are turning to plant-based milks for that.” Before awarding the contract, Foodco conducted a series of tastings of its brand’s coffees with different plant-based products. Jeremy says from a taste and flavour perspective, Milklab was the top pick. “For us, it was about the quality of that product working with our awardwinning coffee, so we have an offer that tastes really good, works well, and that the customer wants,” he says. “Milklab has also shown a strong ability to move with the market, with research and development, and understanding what the customer and market are looking for, to which Foodco can relate. Milklab has done a great job of creating a range of plant-based and lactose-free milks. We were impressed by
Jamaica Blue will stock a range of Milklab products in its 117 stores.
the quality of the product, the work that’s gone into it, and to a degree, the awesome packaging. We also needed competitive pricing and Australia-wide availability, so all our franchisees and customers can benefit from the relationship.” Milklab’s range features a simple shared design with different colours used to separate the products, meaning they look homogenous on a shelf. “Many people know Milklab for Milklab Almond, the largest sector of our portfolio, but we have a range of alternative products designed to marry with coffee,” Sarah says. “We’re like a one stop shop for cafés. They don’t need to go to different suppliers for soy, almond, or other milks. We have a full range they can take on board.” Jeremy adds that the partnership with Milklab will extend beyond a typical supplier-customer relationship. “We’re really engaging with our staff so they can work with franchisees,” Jeremy says. “Instead of just delivering this product to site, we’re actually working hard with our staff and franchisees to get them to understand and taste the product and know how it works with our coffee.” Sarah says one of the benefits of partnering with Foodco is the knowledge that they have the training systems
“THIS PARTNERSHIP IS AN IMPORTANT PLATFORM FOR US TO BE ABLE TO SHARE MILKLAB WITH MORE PEOPLE ACROSS AUSTRALIA, INCREASING THE AVAILABILITY AND CHANCE FOR MILKLAB FANS TO ENJOY OUR PRODUCTS.” and professional support in place to ensure consistent use of Milklab’s dairy alternatives. “We’ll give them our guidance on how our milk should be textured and stretched for optimum use and we know Foodco will roll that out with care. We’re confident they’ll be a brilliant partner for us,” she says. “We want to be able to give access to Milklab to as many people as possible. Four years ago, Milklab started its life in specialty coffee shops. Those brilliant baristas in the industry have given us a lot of support, and through word of mouth, more and more people have grown to love Milklab. We continue to see an evolution of our collaboration with the coffee industry.” Sarah adds that the new partnership
and increased distribution will open up Milklab for consultation with a wider audience. “Before launching Milklab, we went on a trip around Australia, getting feedback from baristas and coffee experts. We took that in and are open to listening to what the industry and consumers want so we can achieve the best product possible,” Sarah says. “Foodco will play a role in that discussion. We’re a collaborative brand and having access to more people who can tell us what they think can only be a good thing. “We’re not just a milk company, we’re serious about coffee and providing the best experience we can.” For more information, visit www.milklabco.com
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Leading the change KeepCup Co-founder and Managing Director Abigail Forsyth tells BeanScene why systemic change is required to truly address the problem of coffee cup waste and the takeaway mentality.
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hough KeepCup celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019, it has only been in the last few years that consumers and the industry have caught up with its message of single-use waste reduction. “Ten years ago, people didn’t know that disposable coffee cups weren’t recyclable and the massive plastic waste problem we are now facing globally wasn’t really being discussed,” says Abigail Forsyth, Co-founder and Managing Director of KeepCup. “But people have woken up to the
KeepCup believes government intervention in single-use disposables would cause an instant change in consumer behaviour.
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issue, realised that single-use plastic – indeed all avoidable single-use items – are a huge problem, and that these little coffee cups contain plastic.” When the waste dilemma was raised to prominence in Australia by the 2017 ABC television series War on Waste, the café industry was quick to respond to the coffee cup crisis. “People are looking hard at the volume of waste they are producing, and disposable coffee cups have become a large part of that conversation because they are something you do not actually need,” Abigail says.
KeepCup is not the only organisation to attempt to address coffee cup waste, with numerous companies launching compostable, recyclable, or reusable options. However, Abigail feels some of these initiatives fail to prevent waste from going to landfill. “Many cafés survive on takeaway sales, which are a huge part of their revenue, so they are desperate for an answer,” Abigail says. “They’d like to do the right thing, and compostable cups present themselves as a solution, but most of the time they’re not actually composted. They need a dedicated waste stream going to the right facilities, very few of which exist in Australia. And as Australia burns, reducing impact on native forest for paper pulp is critical.” The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation Working Group 2018 Report says only an estimated 18 per cent of councils have, or plan to have, kerbside organics collection, and even fewer of these accept compostable packaging. Abigail says the compost generated from plant-based packaging is often considered low quality. “In composting, you’re trying to produce good organic material so when it goes to the farm, it will improve the soil and grow more crops. You won’t get much of that if you feed compost machines with cardboard and plant-
based plastic, so you haven’t really solved any problems. Instead, you’ve just found another way to create rubbish,” Abigail says. From a manufacturing perspective, Abigail says compostable cups carry a significant carbon footprint to just produce and distribute. KeepCup carried out a peer-reviewed lifecycle analysis in 2018, which compared KeepCups with two single-use cups – compostable and paperboard – and two other reusable cups – bamboo and polypropylene. It took 10 uses for a KeepCup to have a lower carbon footprint than a compostable alternative, compared to 24 uses for KeepCup to have a lower impact than a standard disposable paperboard cup. “On average, any end product represents about 5 per cent of the raw materials used to make it. When you look at single-use products and multiply that out over volume, it becomes quite substantial,” Abigail says. Ultimately, Abigail says many of these solutions don’t address the root cause of coffee cup waste – the takeaway mentality that has become commonplace with Australian café customers. “In the end, any disposable coffee cup is still a single-use item. Using a different material for single-use items is not changing the behaviour that we need to change, which is avoiding single-use items in the first place. You’re swapping out one resource for another, but you’re still using a lot of resources,” Abigail says. “With KeepCup, you’re using less resources because you’re reusing the same products over and over again.” While reusable cup loan schemes produce less waste than disposable cup systems, Abigail says they also do little to influence consumer behaviour. “There is no one solution to the problem, but they are again an attempt to preserve that convenience culture. We are advocating for a society where we step away from hyper consumption, and that is through individual ownership of the product,” Abigail says. She adds the government could play a larger role in altering consumer behaviour. In 2018, the United Kingdom Government proposed a ‘latte levy’ of 25 pence on every coffee purchased in a disposable cup in an effort to curb waste. Meanwhile in Australia, governments in Victoria, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory have implemented bans on various forms of single-use plastic – lightweight shopping bags in particular – with the latter two singling out disposable coffee cups as likely future additions. Abigail says a disposable cup ban would force the
Abigail Forsyth is the Co-founder and Managing Director of KeepCup.
“WE TRY TO MEET THE CONSUMER AT HOW THEY DRINK THEIR BEVERAGE, WHETHER IT BE A LONG BLACK OR A SMOOTHIE, SO THEY’RE NOT JUST USING KEEPCUP BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THINGS TO DO, BUT BECAUSE THEY PREFER DRINKING FROM IT.” behavioural change needed in consumers. “In Australia, the most important thing that needs to happen is the government setting a strong direction and policy that puts deadlines on the things the industry has already started doing,” Abigail says. “New laws would cause it to happen overnight. When something is banned, people’s behaviour changes immediately. But the government will always wait for social licence before they move. The role of the consumer, the public, and business is to be a voice to demand that change.” In the meantime, the industry is able to promote this cause by discussing the issue with its consumers and identifying the alternatives. In recent years, KeepCup has had this conversation with a broader audience by widening its range to cater for a variety of different beverages. “We try to meet the consumer at how they drink their beverage, whether it be a long black or a smoothie, so they’re not just using KeepCup because it’s the right thing to do, but because they prefer drinking from it,” Abigail says.
“For example, we’re about to launch a double-walled stainless-steel KeepCup. This addition to our range creates more uses for the cup and keeps beverages hotter or cooler for longer. We’ve also got more iterations down the track that will aim to replace more single-use products with reusable alternatives.” While the government is yet to set guidelines around disposable coffee cup usage, Abigail suggests Australian’s coffee culture could come to emulate its Italian heritage, where people stand around and enjoy their coffee before moving on, rather than always drinking it on the go. “Not long ago, people were free to smoke in cafés, pubs, and restaurants, and it seemed inconceivable that they would ban it, because it was so associated with going there,” Abigail says. “Gradually, the social acceptance of smoking declined and finally, the government acted. I see the same thing happening with single-use packaging.” For more information, visit www.keepcup.com.au
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Freeing the coffee entrepreneur Instaurator tells BeanScene what inspired him to write a book that will guide the future innovators of the coffee industry.
Espressology allows Instaurator to directly share his coffee experience with young coffee entrepreneurs.
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or many people in the coffee industry, their passion was ignited by a great coffee tasting experience. In the case of Instaurator, Director of Espressology and author of The Coffee Entrepreneur, this occurred with an Ethiopian coffee when he was in his early 20s. “I didn’t know coffee could be that good,” Instaurator says. “I don’t know what varietal that coffee was – probably an heirloom Sidamo – but I remember being struck by the exotic taste and aroma. It was very enticing.” While Instaurator would go on to literally write the book on being a coffee entrepreneur, it was his pioneering brother Robert Forsyth who lured him into the specialty coffee industry. Instaurator tasted that eye-opening Ethiopian coffee while on summer holidays from university when, out of curiosity, he went to see what his brother was up to –
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setting up his own roastery. Realising he’d struggle to make a career out of his Australian history degree without taking a further teaching component, Instaurator turned his attention to coffee full time. At the age of 27, he headed up a specialty coffee distribution business of his own, now known as Danes Gourmet Coffee. “Danes became a wholesale specialty coffee roasting business, and we did things the opposite way around compared to many other roasters who emerged in the 1990s and 2000s,” Instaurator says. “Whereas others started with a single café then developed the wholesale part of their businesses, we were already an established specialty coffee roaster before opening three successful cafés.” Before the end of the 1990s, Instaurator was headhunted by a large franchise chain, which tasked him with establishing a brand-new coffee division. The business enjoyed a great deal of success,
and within five years, was worth $16 million. The coffee chain was sold to another group with priorities that contrasted with how Instaurator believed a specialty coffee business should be run. Instaurator says with highs come lows, and this experience taught him some hard lessons about business. “When you start playing with the big boys, you’ve got to toughen up. It definitely gave me some hard life lessons on how to deal with people and protect myself in business,” he says. So Instaurator went back into business for himself in 2008, setting up Espressology, a private label specialty coffee roaster that allows him to share his coffee knowledge with others looking to start their own specialty coffee businesses. “During my time in coffee, I’ve seen the transition from the late 1980s, when consumers looked down on Australian roasted coffee and preferred Italian brands. In the last few decades,
Australian consumers have matured and don’t necessarily want European brands anymore. They have higher demands for freshness and quality and café operators have responded to that,” Instaurator says. “Being successful in the current market is less about having a big brand name and more about being independent. Espressology is enabling small and large coffee entrepreneurs to be just that.” Several of Espressology’s clients have experienced great success while employing non-traditional business models. “It has been interesting to see how specialty coffee has changed, developed, and opened up more opportunities for coffee entrepreneurs. One of our clients started an online business 12 months ago and we developed a private blend for them,” Instaurator says. “Recently, they have signed an export contract to ship containerloads of this coffee overseas. This client had a simple idea for an online business, brought it to life, and now has customers around the world.” While Espressology allows Instaurator to share his experience with clients, it wasn’t until he went on a sabbatical to the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia that it occurred to him to put pen to paper again and reach a wider audience. “I was surfing on a remote island with a couple of young, global-roaming business opportunists. They were smart kids, with good business experience, and were working for practically nothing to give themselves the opportunity of surfing on this idyllic island,” Instaurator says.
“IN THE LAST FEW DECADES, AUSTRALIAN CONSUMERS HAVE MATURED AND DON’T NECESSARILY WANT EUROPEAN BRANDS ANYMORE. THEY HAVE HIGHER DEMANDS FOR FRESHNESS AND QUALITY AND CAFÉ OPERATORS HAVE RESPONDED TO THAT.” “One was reading a book about entrepreneurs. He showed it to me, and I realised I had a few similar stories. I shared a few experiences and he seemed to like them, so I thought ‘there’s plenty more where that came from’. Over the next couple of months, I started writing the stories down.” The Coffee Entrepreneur chronicles Instaurator’s career in the specialty coffee industry, focusing on risks he’s taken to succeed and lessons he learnt from failures. Instaurator tells BeanScene that many people from varied backgrounds want to get into the coffee industry. “A lot of people around the world get bitten by the coffee bug. It can happen when you’re young or even later on in life. On a recent trip to Italy for HostMilano, I met a 47-year-old corporate lawyer who is looking to get into coffee, and also Mark Folker, a hydraulic engineer who recently developed the Trinity One and Delter coffee brewers,” Instaurator says. “Other people get stars in their eyes and dream of owning their own coffee shop. But turning this passion into a viable business is trickier than it seems. Running a successful café is hard work, particularly in Australia with high competition and labour rates.” Instaurator says with a nearly 40-year career in coffee, he can offer insights to others heading down a similar path.
“I followed the coffee rabbit down the hole, like thousands of young people are doing now, but when I started, it was more of a wilderness. There was no internet, nor connection between grower and roasters, or auctions like the Cup of Excellence. You really had to figure things out for yourself,” Instaurator says. “Through Espressology, we’re empowering new specialty coffee entrepreneurs so they can learn more about coffee and business. We train them up, teach them to cup, roast, and even develop their own brand. My hope for The Coffee Entrepreneur is to continue to help people grow using my hard-won experience.” When it comes to business, Instaurator says the main takeaway from The Coffee Entrepreneur is to take the leap. “A wise person once said to me – they quoted Confucius, but I don’t think he was the one who actually said it – ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step’. That first step seems risky, but once you’re a hundred steps in, you realise it is worth it,” Instaurator says. “Any successful enterprise is about risk taking, and you can only control it to a certain extent. The key is to still be prudent – listen to advice, do your research, and if you make a mistake, learn from it. But take the risky first step. Risk-taking is what it means to be an entrepreneur.”
Instaurator published his first book, The Espresso Quest, in 2008. With his second book, The Coffee Entrepreneur, he turns his attention from the art to the business of coffee.
The Coffee Entrepreneur is available on Amazon, Kindle, ibooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. For more information, visit www.espressology.com/shop
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CAFETTO BARISTA PROFILE
Tilly’s triumph From the producer who makes it to the customer who drinks it, the relationships behind coffee are why Tilly Sproule loves the industry. Tilly Sproule frequently collaborates with the Lanza family of Finca la Huerta.
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espite five consecutive wins at the Northern Region Barista Championship, Tilly Sproule says the growing Queensland coffee scene has kept her on her toes. “There’s a bit of excess pressure every year, but part of me feels proud to come back and represent 12 months of exploring new coffees and ideas. There’s also been a nice movement in the Northern Region competitions,” Tilly says. “The support you feel onstage is incredible. This year, the room was jampacked and the community was keen and excited to see what we had to present. There was also so much passion from the baristas this year – old faces coming back and new ones striving to succeed. I like to think I played a part in that.” When Tilly began working as a barista at Gloria Jean’s 11 years ago, it was less as
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a career choice and more of a casual job. “During the busy morning trade in the city, we had a lot of professionals coming in, making interesting conversation. It was the opposite of what I was studying at university,” Tilly says. “The whole customer interaction side of things really intrigued me, and it felt good being somewhat responsible for making someone else’s day with a cup of coffee.” Tilly deferred her urban and regional town planning degree and went to work for Gloria Jean’s full time. She entered a management role, overseeing several coffee houses, before transitioning to training, covering the Sunshine Coast. During this time, Tilly started attending industry events and became a regular of Lamkin Lane Espresso Bar, the café of former Australian Barista Champion Tim Adams and face of his roasting business, Tim Adams Specialty Coffee.
“I’d been following Tim’s journey in barista competitions and knew [Head Roaster] James Pedrazzini previously. We got to know each other and build up a relationship,” Tilly says. “I started to feel a disconnect between what I was learning about coffee and my job as a trainer for a large international company. Tim offered me the chance to join his team and it took me about 30 seconds to give an answer.” With Tim Adams Specialty Coffee, Tilly heads up barista training for wholesale or “anyone who wants to chat coffee for a few hours”, and contributes wherever else she’s needed, from managing and building wholesale relationships to machine maintenance, packing, and deliveries. “Our team is really one big family that does everything together. There’re no set roles, which I find really refreshing and versatile. Our customers appreciate that
too, because they can reach out to any of us for help,” Tilly says, adding that this team mentality carries across to her competition performances. “The thing I love about barista competitions is how it trains us to think outside the box. We dive deep into our coffee and techniques, and it unites our team as well. I’d never have achieved any of this without the support of my team.” Barista competitions have also allowed Tilly to connect with the wider industry, from other competitors to sponsors and supporters like cleaning product supplier Cafetto. “Through the competitions you get to meet some amazing people who are passionate about coffee, including the Cafetto crew, and I’ve been lucky enough to have their support,” Tilly says. “Cafetto is a product Tim Adams Specialty Coffee has been using for more than 10 years. It’s a brand and a product we’ve been pushing to every wholesale customer for cleaning or maintenance and we wouldn’t ever recommend any other product.” Though the industry relationships have been beneficial, Tilly says barista competitions have also paved the way for her own personal development. “This has been powerful for me as well because it’s this awesome platform to improve and learn,” she says. “There’s amazing times in training and challenging times too, when the coffee goes to sleep or doesn’t taste right. It really provides an opportunity to go down the rabbit hole of coffee.” Through her competition career, Tilly’s routines have increasingly focused on the role of the producer and strengthening ties between them and the consumer. She visited origin herself for the first time in 2016, volunteering at the Brazilian Cup of Excellence. “As a barista trainer, up until that point, I’d told the story of origin every chance I could get. I’d tell aspiring baristas about producer livelihoods, varietals, and processing, and how it influences flavour. But I felt like I’d lived those memories through other people,” Tilly says. “When I saw it for myself, I realised how big an effect everything at origin has on a barista’s everyday life and vice versa. Every coffee is a chance to support producers. That experience gave me the need to come back.” Tilly has since travelled to El Salvador and Honduras, during the latter of which she visited the Lanzas, a producing family whose coffee she has brought to several competitions. “When I first used their coffee four years ago in a barista comp, the Lanzas
“WE WERE ALL WILLING TO HELP EACH OTHER. NONE OF US FELT LIKE THE COMPETITION WAS THE SOLE PURPOSE OF BEING THERE.” actually travelled to Australia to sit in the audience and support us,” Tilly says. “I’ve continued working remotely with them, talking to them about their coffee, and over the years our relationship developed more and more. Having the opportunity to visit their farm and spend time with them, to realise that connection, is beyond words.” Tilly further cemented her international connections when she participated in – and won – the eighth Fushan Cup International Barista Championship of China. The invitation-only tournament follows a similar format to the Australian and World Barista Championship circuit, though Tilly says it posed its own challenges. “The environment is really unique. The biggest difference I found was that we went by ourselves. When we compete in the regionals or nationals, we have our ‘formula one’ teams around us, and there’s so much support and energy,” Tilly says. “The stage and coffee machine were also different and our fancy tools [like the Ona Coffee Distributor] didn’t fit in the basket. But these unexpected situations created this awesome level playing field for everybody, because we were all in the same position.” Tilly adds that the competition gave her and the other baristas an opportunity to showcase their unique coffee cultures, relationships with different producers, and new ideas. “It was cool to learn from baristas
around the world. Going to China was outside my comfort zone, but the competitors were all there for an incredible time. We went on excursions to coffee farms in Yunnan and it was almost like the competition just happened to be there,” Tilly says. “Backstage was hilarious, and we were all willing to help each other. None of us felt like the competition was the sole purpose of being there.” With the relationships behind coffee – customers, producers, and community – core to Tilly’s love of it, her goal going forward is to share these connections with as many people as possible. “Coffee service is bizarre. We have a few hours in the morning – roughly 6am to 11am – to chat to the people who give us our business, the only reason we can sell coffee, and build relationships or share ideas, and everyone is always in a rush,” Tilly says. “It’s different to wine or even food service, which is engaged, relaxed, and offers more time to educate a customer. We’re slowly transitioning more to that type of fine dining service, offering a wider selection of coffees with unique flavour profiles, but for now, the challenge is translating why we love coffee so much to the consumer.”
For more information about Cafetto, its support of industry members, and latest product range, visit www.cafetto.com beanscenemag.com.au
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Best in show The 2020 Melbourne International Coffee Expo will highlight the best and brightest the industry has to offer with its biggest Product Innovation Awards to date.
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magine the next big technological breakthrough in the coffee industry. Could it be a device that raises quality to new levels? Or will it embrace new technology like automation and telemetry? These are questions that the 2020 Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) will ask during its Product Innovation Awards. MICE provides a platform for dedicated members of the coffee sector to congregate and share new ideas and technology. These annual awards bring these new developments to the forefront. “The Product Innovation Awards shine a spotlight on the great and creative work being done in coffee,” says MICE Show Director Lauren Winterbottom. “Past winners have included energy systems, water filters, and coffee destoners that truly had something new to offer the industry, and the awards drew attention to these innovations.” With nearly 200 brands set to be
on display at MICE2020, Lauren says the next Product Innovation Awards will be to most competitive and impressive yet. “There is going to be an increased international presence and many first-time exhibitors at MICE2020, so we’ve decided to broaden the scope of the Product Innovation Awards and can’t wait to see what ground-breaking products the industry has to offer,” Lauren says. In past years, a panel of industry leaders judged all of the finalists and determined a top three to be awarded in the Judge’s Choice category. In 2020, however, a single award will be given out in four categories: • C offee preparation equipment – espresso machines, brewers, roasters • A ncillary electrical equipment – such as grinders and milk steamers • C offee accessories – such as cups, tampers and cleaning products • S pecialty beverages – syrups, spirits, dairy and dairy alternatives, and other
The Milkit Dual Tap won People’s Choice in the 2019 Product Innovation Awards.
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items used in conjunction with coffee beans to create a specialty beverage. Attendees at MICE2020 will also be able to vote in the People’s Choice category for the finalist they find most innovative. The 2019 People’s Choice went to United Supplies for the Milkit Dual Tap System. The unit is capable of dispensing two types of milk in measured doses at once, improving productivity, consistency, and hygiene, while minimising waste. United Supplies Marketing Director Nicole Saleh says winning the award provided the Milkit Dual Tap system with an exciting launch into the marketplace. “We entered the awards as we knew it would be a fantastic way to demonstrate the benefits of the Milkit milk tap system to the specialty coffee industry and we were really honoured to win People’s Choice and be recognised by our peers,” Nicole says. “Milkit connected with the coffee community because it delivers a fast and cost-effective solution for cafés to achieve milk dose consistency, maintain milk integrity, and improve barista workflow. We had both the dual and single milk tap models on display at MICE, showcasing a variety of colours and running demos that allowed potential customers to experience firsthand the benefits of the system.” The 2019 Judge’s Choice winner was the Energy Bar system by BrewBar. The Energy Bar allows coffee machines and equipment with significant energy requirements to operate from a 240-volt 10-amp supply, or without a power supply for short periods of time. BrewBar Director Brett McKimmin says winning the award, and resulting coverage, generated significant interest in the product. “We’ve experienced a great wave of interest and, after making a few further upgrades to the system, are gearing up to start providing the Energy Bar to
Judge’s Choice in the 2019 Product Innovation Awards went to BrewBar for the Energy Bar system.
customers around Australia,” Brett says. “The goal with Energy Bar was to make specialty coffee more mobile and accessible. Winning the award was confirmation that the idea of taking specialty coffee anywhere and everywhere without power restrictions is provable and something the community would love to see.” Brett encourages MICE2020 exhibtors to take advantage of the platform the Product Innovation Awards offer. “It’s a great way of showcasing a new product,” he says. “It also means you can gauge the market’s response to new technology as well as the wider need for innovation.” Last year’s runner-up was Rancilio Specialty for the RS1 espresso machine, which was recognised for its advanced temperature profiling system. “Advaced temperature profiling allows us to explore and control flavour by dynamically changing the extraction temperature,” says Paul O’Brien, Area Manager – Australasia for Rancilio. “Performance and innovation are what drives our business. Rancilio was a bit late to the market with a specialty-oriented machine, but that’s because we wanted to wait until we had something truly innovative and different.
The timing of the launch was perfect to take part in the Product Innovation Awards.” With Rancilio presenting several new machines and pieces of equipment at HostMilano in October 2019, Paul is excited to share this technology at MICE2020, and again take part in the award. “Coffee is a highly competitive market and people always want to see the latest and greatest. For us, the
awards drive the industry. Without innovation, we don’t progress, and we at Rancilio want to see how far we can take this,” Paul says. “There’s no such thing as a perfect cup and trying to get there is a journey. The faster we innovate, the quicker we move along.” For more information, visit www.internationalcoffeeexpo.com/ product-innovation-award
Rancilio impressed judges with its advanced temperature profiling.
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Showing Appreci-ation The Appreci app is the modern greeting card, creating a convenient and useful way to show gratitude for daily acts of kindness.
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xpressions of gratitude are displayed for a variety of reasons: babysitting the kids, shouting Uber Eats for a friend, or thanking a staff member for putting in extra hours before a deadline. Studies have found that those who write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone have seen higher happiness scores, with benefits lasting up to a month. Craig Mair, Managing Director of Appreci, tells BeanScene that while it’s important to demonstrate gratitude, the way it’s being communicated is changing, with Hallmark cards a thing ofthe past. “We make 30,000 decisions a day. You get to the end of the day and the last thing you want to do is to send a greeting card to someone. It doesn’t fit into the flow of life,” Craig says. What does, however, are electronic expressions of thanks. One such company tapping into this market is Appreci, with an app that provides a platform to send tokens of gratitude to friends, family, and co- workers, all from the palm of your hand. With Appreci, people can send a “thanks” to someone and it can be redeemed for a coffee or two at a growing network of participating cafés across the country, such as Pablo & Rusty’s Coffee Roasters and Di Bellaflagship cafés. “Appreci sits on your phone, it’s free to download, and easy to use. Right there, in the moment that you’re grateful for something, you can send someone a token of thanks in a couple of clicks. The receiver instantly receives a notification and can go to an activated café to grab a cup of coffee.” The app contributes to the idea of the gratitude economy, where people yearn to feel and connect with others on a deeper level. “Consumer behaviour is shifting. Experiences are going to
be replaced with things that make us feel,” Craig says. “You can make someone feel really, really happy by sending them a gesture of gratitude which, in a very natural way, is a cup of coffee. It’s something that we all enjoy every day. It binds us across nationalities and geographies, and symbolises the value of being recognised and appreciated.” Another aspect of the gratitude economy is a conscious attempt to drive users away from their screens to have more face-to-face interaction. “We work hard to minimise time on the screen, to push people out to the coffee shop to connect with a friend. Using the technology as a vehicle to transmit something is innately human,” Craig says. By giving through Appreci instead of a gift card, recipients have more flexibility regarding their drink choices. The monetary value is also separated from the reward. Rather, the true gift lies in the sender’s gratitude. “It’s about meaning and purpose, not about the dollars. You would never hand a co-worker a few $2 coins to thank them for working hard over the weekend – that would be awkward. Sending an Appreci focuses on the intent of gratitude, not the cost of the action,” Craig says. For cafés, there are no upfront costs to participate in the program and join the growing network. They just need to sign up online and then they will receive a QR code to display on the counter. Recipients of an Appreci can then come into the café to redeem their coffee or tea. “We’re not asking cafés to discount their prices. We pay industry average and even a little more,” Craig says. “We drive grateful consumers to your door. People who come in to grab a cup of coffee are much more likely to walk out with a higher spend.” In the medium to long-term, Appreci hopes to provide targeted marketing
The Appreci app enables users to send a gesture of gratitude in the form of a free coffee from participating cafés.
services by driving consumers towards coffee shops for promotions or during non-peak hours. Appreci also hopes to provide data on consumer behaviour trends to coffee shops. Appreci is on track to gain 120,000 daily users by March 2020, with more than 100 activated cafés. The goal is to activate every café in Australia so that Appreci can be redeemed anywhere by anyone in their favourite coffee shop. “Coffee is an international symbol of human connectivity. It doesn’t matter what language you speak. It doesn’t matter which part of the world you’re from, you know that if you sit down with someone you’ve never met before over a cup of coffee, you can connect with them instantly,” Craig says. For more information, visit www.appreci.io/registercafe
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CAFÉ SCENE
Regiment’s coffee bar features an Übermilk, Mythos 2 grinder, and KB90 espresso machine.
REGIMENT 333 George Street, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000 Open Monday to Friday 7am to 4pm (02) 9299 4001 After 20 years of experience in hospitality, Zach Hiotis had a vision to bring something fresh to the Sydney CBD. In early 2017, Regiment was born, and on the verge of its third anniversary, Zach says the café is continuing to go from strength to strength. “Regiment is a collective progression of everything I’ve done over the years. I really wanted to bring a higher end offering to the CBD market,” Zach says. “The aim was to create a mix of a destination café and a traditional CBD café. Something that would cross people’s minds to visit when they came into the city, but that could also meet the fast-paced requirements of city workers.”
Regiment gets its name from its location, sitting on the shoulder of Regimental Square in the heart of the CBD. The pedestrianised area serves as a memorial to the Royal Australian Regiment’s campaigns in Asia from the start of the Korean War in 1950 to the end of the Vietnam War in 1972. The café uses Veneziano Coffee’s Estate Blend and rotates single origins for its black coffee, something Zach believes is extremely important in a competitive business environment. “I’ve really seen Sydney grow as black coffee drinkers so one thing we wanted to nail was a really good black. Our coffees are of the highest grade,” he says. “I’m super excited with the relationship I have with Veneziano. I can see myself growing with them and customer reception to the coffee has been phenomenal.” Staying ahead of the curve is imperative to Zach and he says he is
Regiment offers a full breakfast and lunch menu that caters to on-the-go office workers and those looking to sit inhouse.
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always exploring new trends, products, and technologies to improve the café. “I was the first to bring Übermilk to Australia and I saw the [Victoria Arduino] Mythos 2 grinder trend really early. Our latest installation is the La Marzocco KB90. All these things collectively speed up our operation and increase quality,” Zach says. “Running an effective café isn’t only about equipment though – it’s a combination of being progressive, using great coffee, and having a strong team.” In terms of food, Regiment has a commercial kitchen and offers a full breakfast and lunch menu that caters to on-the-go office workers and those looking to sit inhouse. “We are quite selective in who we partner with and source artisanal, specialty producers. We see our suppliers as more of a collaboration and we think that translates to really good food,” Zach says. Regiment’s layout was designed by Sydney-based business Porter and Maple and was shortlisted for an Eat Drink and Design Award in 2017. “Regiment has a small footprint but maximises space. Within a 45-squaremetre layout we’ve got some of the most impressive espresso bar concepts, a full commercial kitchen, and seating for 34 people,” Zach says. With Regiment almost three years in, Zach says he is still enjoying the challenges of hospitality and is looking forward to seeing the business continue to grow. “We’ve got a couple of exciting plans for the future. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I can honestly say I still love doing this every day. I get a real kick out of seeing customers leaving happy and satisfied.”
VILICIA COFFEE 39 Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania, 7000 Open Monday to Friday 6:30am to 4pm, Saturday 7am to 12pm (03) 6231 5688 As busy office workers in Hobart rush to start their day, there is one place they know they can stop for quality coffee and breakfast on the go. Vilicia Coffee, the first child of founders Alicia Liu and Viv Xiao, has been a Murray Street staple since its arrival in 2014. While their second creation, Bear With Me, is a
place to sit back and relax, Vilicia Coffee has a different dynamic that suits its CBD location. “Vilicia is very coffee-focused, with nice and simple food,” Alicia says. Although customer interactions are usually brief, Alicia says they have still been able to create a culture of coffee aficionados. “Slowly, you start to build up this little community. You get people coming in, knowing nothing, to knowing exactly what you’re talking about. You discuss flavour notes every day, sometimes you discuss roasts, sometimes you discuss the processing method. It’s just nice having this
Vilicia Coffee has built a small community of coffee aficionados in Hobart.
BUDDY ESPRESSO 12 Lloyd Street, Strathmore, Victoria, 3041 Open Monday to Friday 6:30am to 3:30pm, Saturday 7am to 3pm (03) 7015 0873 When best friends Eugene Coghlan, Alastair Hall, Marc Nanfro, and Jared Bryan decided to open their second café, the idea was to create an intimate, relaxed space that focused on bringing quality coffee to the local community. “Buddy Espresso’s main offering is the coffee. We’re a very beverage-focused café. We offer Toby’s Estate’s Brunswick as our house blend and rotate their single origins for our filter coffee,” Eugene says. The custom-built eucalyptus green La Marzocco PB Linea is headed by Michael Healey, a hospitality expert who roasted coffee for nine years in his native New Zealand. Michael, like the rest of the staff, was hired based on his personality as well as his skillset in order to create a tightknit, collaborative atmosphere. “We’ve handpicked our staff so that the team gels really well. It creates a great energy in the shop and that positive vibe spreads to our customers,” Eugene says.
Buddy Espresso takes its name from the relationship between its owners and is the group’s second venture, after opening Jack and Daisy in Pascoe Vale eight years ago. “My three partners were groomsmen at my wedding. We’re all best friends, so the name is a play on that,” Eugene says. When it came to establishing Buddy Espresso, the group of friends spotted a vacant property at 12 Lloyd Street in Strathmore and viewed it as the perfect spot to open a local café. Since then, Eugene says the team is thoroughly enjoying being part of a community of traders in the area. “Strathmore is a true village. We get our meat from the butcher next door and our fruit and veg from the shop two doors down. It’s a full local shop network, which is really nice to be part of, and our customers are a part of that too,” he says. As for food, Buddy Espresso serves a traditional café menu with many classics, but Eugene says the simplest items are the most popular. “The most commonly sold item is a humble toastie that’s done really well because we use premium ingredients,” Eugene says. The shop’s aesthetic is modern, clean, and minimalist, something which Eugene
communication,” Alicia says. “Rather than just getting up and getting a coffee, [our customers] actually drink their coffee for the flavour and for the service.” Vilicia uses Ona Coffee’s The Founder as its house blend, which it complements with a small selection of rotating single origins from guest roasters. Alicia says Vilicia’s partnership with Ona has been vital. “They’re just amazing. It’s just a whole, huge, amazing team. They give us all this support throughout everything, and with the options and the menus of the selections of roasts and beans and all that,” Alicia says. “It’s nice having that support from Ona, who are one of the leading teams of the industry with that passion. I think passion is very important.” A seasonal menu features a range of takeaway brioche buns, often filled with egg and bacon or, in summer, fresh Tasmanian salmon. “They are really popular. People can come in, grab their coffee, and grab their favourite brioche bun on the go. It’s just the perfect way to start the day,” Alicia says. From the coffee to the customers, Alicia says it’s important to enjoy your work as a café owner. “You don’t just do it because you’re doing it,” she says. “You do it because you love it.”
Buddy Espresso takes its name from the relationship between its owners.
says the group of owners proudly designed and put together themselves. “When we took the keys, it was just four walls. We designed everything from the ground up. Personally, that’s the most rewarding part – we created it all ourselves, just four best mates,” he says.
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CAFÉ SCENE
Besser Kitchen and Brew Bar serves blends, single origins, and premium coffees from Campos Coffee.
BESSER KITCHEN AND BREW BAR 6/116 Coonawarra Road, Winnellie, Northern Territory, 0820 Open Monday to Friday 6:30am to 3pm, Saturday 7:30am to 2pm (08) 8984 3254 Though Besser Kitchen and Brew Bar takes its name from the besser blocks that make up its building, the café uses wood panelling, polished concrete floors, and greenery to lighten the space. “Traditionally, Winnellie is an industrial area, but more corporate businesses are starting to open up here. It wasn’t the sort of place where you would find a sit-down venue. Everything was more of a takeaway style,” Director Lisa Heames says. “It has been lovely to bring that type of service to the area and people have really embraced it – enjoying a leisurely breakfast instead of a coffee on the run.”
Since opening in 2016, Besser Kitchen and Brew Bar has served Campos Coffee’s Superior Blend as their house blend and some of the finest single origins around the world for both espresso and filter. Recently, the café was able to offer the award-winning Esmeralda Geisha Super Mario from Panama. “Campos has been amazing. They supported us from the start, were very hands on with installing the machines, and continue to run training for our new staff and also to upskill our knowledgeable team when Campos tweaks its recipes and procedures,” Lisa says. Besser Kitchen and Brew Bar also features a diverse food and drink menu. The café is licensed from 11am and offers a range of craft beers, wines, and martinis, including a “nostalgic” Milo martini. On the non-alcoholic side, Besser Kitchen and Brew Bar makes its sodas in-
house using seasonal flavours. “People are looking for fresh unique offerings, not just something squirted out of a bottle,” Lisa says. “In Darwin, we haven’t got as much access to that farm-totable [movement] as you’d get down south, but people really like knowing that we’ve made that ourselves.” Other standouts on the menu include a gluten-free dark chocolate brownie with white choc chips, crispy fried chicken burger with pickles and purple slaw, soft spiced lamb taco with mango chutney, and pulled pork toasty served with jalapeños, house barbecue sauce, and chilli fries. From food and drinks to cutlery and crockery, Besser Kitchen and Brew Bar makes an effort to be sustainable and eco-friendly. In the last few years, Lisa says the number of customers using reusable cups has gone from only a handful to nearly half. “We’re passionate about doing our part for the environment,” Lisa says. “We’re phasing out as much single-use plastic as we can, replacing it with ecofriendly alternatives like plant-based non-plastic straws, and donating our used coffee grounds for composting.” This sustainable approach has endeared Besser Kitchen and Brew Bar to its community and attracted a dedicated team of employees. “We’ve been able to build nice relationships with our customers, and watch the development of our staff,” Lisa says. “Growing the business and owning two cafés, there’s been room for progression and more responsibility to give to people. It’s been nice to see our staff grow alongside us.”
Besser Kitchen and Brew Bar encourages the use of reusable cups to reduce the need for single-use plastics.
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POUR AND TWIST 13 Garrett St, Te Aro, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand Open Monday to Friday 8am to 5:30pm, Saturday and Sunday 8:30am to 5pm While New Zealand often lays claim to having invented the flat white, Pour and Twist in Wellington has taken a different direction, serving only filter coffee. The manual brew bar saw some teething pains when it opened in 2017, but the local community has come to embrace its artisanal approach to coffee making. “We have no espresso machine and everything is brewed by hand,” Co-owner Elaine Loh says. “There’s more to it than just downing a coffee. It’s about the whole process, actually tasting what you’re drinking, being mindful and aware of the bean-to-cup process. It’s a connection with our customers as well and getting to know what they like. It means a lot when customers come in and order a black coffee and say ‘wow, it doesn’t taste burnt or bitter’.” Elaine and her partner Zuyi’s interest in hand-brewed coffee began about five years ago. “Filter was taking off in Wellington around the same time. A few years later
MANLY KITCHEN 50 Cambridge Parade, Manly, Queensland, 4179 Open seven days 7am to 4pm (07) 3191 1841 While not as famous as its beachy New South Wales namesake, the Queensland coastal town of Manly has become a boating hotspot, home to a number of clubs and the largest boat harbour facility in the Southern Hemisphere.
Manly Kitchen features a custom-built Victoria Arduino Black Eagle on the bar.
Pour and Twist serves exclusively hand-brewed coffee in Wellington.
it died down and cafés embraced quicker options like batch brew,” Elaine says. “After a while, you really start to miss that handmade feel. Batch brews can be great, but nothing beats a hand brew. It’s also a point of difference for us and fills a gap in the market.” Pour and Twist uses multiple brewing methods including V60, Chemex, AeroPress, and cold drip to highlight a frequently changing coffee menu, featuring a rotation of roasters from around New Zealand such as Flight Coffee, Rocket Coffee, Rich Coffee, Vanguard Coffee, and Silverskin Coffee. Pour and Twist takes its coffee offering
even further with a menu of specialty drinks and recipes. Popular drink the Grey Marble includes activated charcoal powder, coffee or chocolate, maple, cream, and milk served over ice. Orange Choffee is another crowd favourite, using freshly brewed coffee filtered through an orange peel over blocks of chocolate topped with creamy froth and chocolate shavings. “We’ve also added a new drink called Salted Creamy Cascara,” Elaine says. “Cascara is the skin off of a coffee cherry and the drink is kind of like a coffee tea, but we add a salted cream on top that makes it really nice and refreshing.”
Manly Kitchen, just off the coast, incorporates the town’s boating history into its interior with a set of oars proudly adorned on its walls below the café’s name. A blue and white colour scheme, wooden tables and seating, and a colourful espresso bar combine to create a friendly, modern, and fun atmosphere. Owner Martin Tang says this was the goal when he opened the café in 2017. “I had over 20 years of experience as a chef in hotels, clubs, catering, and multi-star restaurants and was looking for
a change and a challenge,” Martin says. “We’ve seen a lot of local support, especially with the market down the road. It brings in customers while giving us access to local produce and suppliers.” Manly Kitchen runs Mocopan Coffee’s Pasquale as its house blend through a custom-built black and gold Victoria Arduino Black Eagle espresso machine. “I was looking to change our roaster and was introduced to Mocopan Coffee by one of our baristas. Since then, they’ve provided us with great service, training, and even equipment,” Martin says. “The customers love the coffee and we’ve found it more stable, consistent, and easier for our baristas to handle.” The food menu contains many Australian brunch and café standards, from house-made granola to the everpopular smashed avo, though Martin says Manly Kitchen has slowly sprinkled in specials with an Asian influence. “We recently offered a sweet vinegar braised pork belly bao and a kimchi omelette. Soon, we’ll be serving a waffle with red bean paste, green tea ice cream, mochi, and passionfruit caviar,” Martin says. “It’s been good to offer these creative dishes. I love seeing people eating and enjoying our food and coffee.”
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TECH TALK
Maurizio Marcocci is the Director of Service Sphere.
Boiler 101 Maurizio Marcocci of Service Sphere compares single, twin, and multi boiler systems and explains why one is sometimes better than two.
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n espresso machine is a complex piece of equipment, which only becomes more so as manufacturers add new features and technologies to improve coffee quality. An obvious example is the boiler. The original espresso machines, or simpler modern models, use one boiler to heat and maintain water at a set temperature before it is pumped into the group head. But from the 1960s and 1970s onwards, heat exchangers and twin and multi-boiler systems were introduced to allow espresso machines to heat water to the different levels needed for the steam wands or multiple group heads. Over the years, other features have even been added to boilers to improve their performance and consistency. Some of these innovations include: • Proportional integral derivative (PID) control: Continuously measuring and regulating the boiler temperature so that it stays exactly at what’s needed to make the perfect cup of coffee. • Smart Boiler Technology: LaCimbali’s smart boiler technology manages the barista’s water usage and constantly injects mains water into the service boiler to suit, as opposed to waiting for large refills. This minimises recovery time and prevents sudden temperature drops during peak hours, while maintaining thermal stability. While you might assume multiple boilers are better, it is not always the case. Single boilers still have their place and twin or multi boilers can come with drawbacks, so let’s look at the pros and cons of each system.
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The La Cimbali M34 is a single boiler machine that caters to high-volume environments.
SINGLE BOILER
Many domestic and commercial coffee machines feature a single boiler where one boiler is used to heat water to the set temperature for brewing, as well as producing steam for steaming milk.
PROS
• A single boiler, such as the La Cimbali M27, features a simple design with fewer components than a twin or multi boiler machine, making servicing easily available • S ingle boiler machines with PID control have the ability to adjust brew temperature independently of steam pressure
• S ingle boiler machines like the La Cimbali M34 are usually more affordable for those operating on a budget, while providing a solution which will cater to high volume environments.
CONS
• There is a higher chance of temperature fluctuations, especially when making multiple extractions and steaming milk all at once • There’s also the inability to set brew temperature independent to steam pressure • In general, single boiler machines have smaller boilers with less capacity than other models.
TWIN AND MULTI BOILER
In twin boiler machines, cold water from the mains line connection is pumped into two boilers, usually one dedicated to the steam and hot water, and the other a dedicated coffee boiler to cater for all group heads. Water in the steam boiler is heated to provide the desired steam pressure. Water in the brew boiler is heated to the desired brew temperature. Usually, the temperature of each boiler can be independently adjusted. Multi boilers operate in a similar way, with the exception of additional coffee boilers (one for each group head). This means if you have a two-group machine, you will have two coffee boilers and one steam boiler.
CONS
• T win and multi boiler machines have more complex design with more components so less service providers in some areas • T hey are more expensive than comparable single boiler machines. While a twin or multi-boiler model will generally offer a more consistent coffee and ability to steam milk, there are cases where a single boiler better suits the situation.
This includes where the machine is being installed and when price is a consideration. When it comes to coffee, sometimes simple is better. It’s always best to consult the professionals when considering what type of coffee machine best suits your environment.
For more information, visit www.servicesphere.com.au
PROS
• I ndependent brew temperatures and steam pressure adjustments are available on the espresso machine • There’s less effort required to get consistent brew temperature • Usually these machines offer higher levels of electronic functionality such as pre-infusion, temperature, and pressure profiling adjustments • On some multi boiler machines, such as the LaCimbali M100, there are more electronic components to eliminate breakdowns, such as pressure stats.
While a twin or multi-boiler is usually more consistent, single boilers better suit some situations.
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ESPRESSO YOURSELF
Jibbi Little of Jibbijug is the 2019 ASCA Pauls Professional Australian Latte Art Champion.
Little Penguin Jibbi Little shares a challenging penguin latte art design with a lot of character and two happy feet.
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rom the whimsical movie Happy Feet showing one penguin’s desire to dance, to Morgan Freeman’s majestic voice narrating the sometimes harsh March of the Penguins, the flightless birds have captivated people’s imaginations with their unique look, behaviour, and habitats. Though both these films follow the huge emperor penguins of Antarctica, Australia has a native species of its own, the fairy or little penguins. Victoria’s Phillip Island is best known for its little penguin population, as is Western Australia’s Penguin Island, home to 1000 pairs of penguins during winter that featured in a movie of its own, Oddball, in 2015. The penguin is a popular latte art design, but for my version, I’m going to get the scene and add a little extra detail. This pattern is complex and may prove difficult for beginners. It requires a good
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understanding of spacing to ensure the penguin looks right when the body connects with the wings. You’ll also need to understand how one technique will affect the look of another, such as pouring through the hearts in step one to draw the branch. A high level of proficiency is also needed to master the different sized and shaped rosettas, thickening your pour when moving from the body to the face, and the cunning eye technique used to provide the design with its character. Getting the right shape for the face, eye, and beak will also likely take quite a bit of work to perfect. This fairy penguin design is definitely a challenge, but the reward is the look on your customers’ faces when you reward them with a delicious coffee and equally impressive-looking latte art of a feathered, fluffy friend.
1. With the handle at 12 o’clock, pour four small hearts from six to three o’clock, pulling through on the last heart to form a branch.
3. Turn the handle to three o’clock. Pour a five-leaf rosetta from the centre of the cup to the handle, then pull back through along the side, forming the first wing.
5. Just to the left of the centre of the cup, pour a five-leaf rosetta, ending just before touching the ground. Then, pull back up along the side, forming a second wing.
7. In the same motion but with a thicker foam, use the cunning eye technique to fill in the face and draw the eye. Pull through along the bottom to form a beak.
2. Pour a nine-leaf rosetta from where this branch ends to roughly nine o’clock, then pull through.
4. Near the bottom heart of the first branch, pour a horizontal seven-leaf rosetta to the edge of the cup, forming the ground.
6. To create the body, start with a small heart just above the ground, pointing inwards. Pour a backwards question mark shape beginning from the bottom that connects both wings and ends with the loop above them.
8. Drop a small amount of foam below the second wing to form the tail, another larger drop to fill the body, and a small drop at one o’clock to form the moon.
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TRAINING TACTICS
Babin Gurung is the New South Wales Barista Trainer of Suntory Coffee Australia.
The perfect pour Mocopan Coffee’s Babin Gurung on how to effectively train a new barista to texture milk and build confidence in their pouring ability.
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s confident as you are in your barista role, teaching someone new the basics of coffee making can be a challenge. Something like milk texturing may come second nature to you, but for a beginner, it might sound like rocket science. That’s why knowing something and teaching it are two very different skill sets. An experienced barista needs to have both. As with any training, it is important to assess the knowledge and skill level of the trainee and build on it. Besides respecting everyone’s ability
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and methods of learning, you need to be patient and create a comfortable environment. Breaking down concepts into small chunks or steps is a good way to introduce new ideas. Always make sure the trainee is confident in the first step before moving on to the second one. Milk texturing is one of the hardest and longest skills to master. To help you structure the training and break down concepts around milk texturing, I have created two methods to help achieve perfect milk. Using this guide will help relay all the key concepts effectively and give new baristas confidence quicker.
KEY FOCUS
It’s important to explain the ‘why’ along with ‘how’ when training to help better cement ideas. Always allow your trainee to trial the concepts while you observe. This is your opportunity to correct or adjust their techniques if necessary. Remember, there is more than one way to learn and use your insight to create the best possible outcome from your training.
METHOD 1: TEXTURING
METHOD 2: POURING
Texturing milk includes aerating the milk to its desired froth level before bringing it to the right temperature (60 to 65°C). As a simple rule, the more air you add to the milk, the more froth you build. You need to do this while the milk is cold in order to stretch the proteins, which helps build silky smooth foam. Here are few steps to get consistent result every time.
Your pouring technique is really important to get the right amount of froth into a cup while retaining the crema. Before you start pouring, I use what I call the “reading the jug” technique to assess the amount of froth in the jug. When you swirl your jug, frothy milk moves slowly while a flat milk will spin faster. Learning to read the jug will help you switch between various pouring techniques. There are three mains ways of pouring milk into a cup.
STEP 1: PORTION
Start with the right amount of milk in your jug to avoid wastage or reuse.
STEP 2: PURGE
Purge your steam wand to clear any residue. This prevents any foreign matter going into the milk and avoids milk from splashing.
STEP 3: POSITION
Position the jug at an angle to help the milk spin. Make sure the tip of the steam wand is about half a centimetre below the surface of the milk. This will ensure you start adding air as soon as you turn on the steam.
STEP 4: AERATE
Once the steamer is on, allow the milk to aerate. You should hear a hissing sound. This is a sign that air is building into the milk to create froth. The longer you leave the steam wand in the milk, the more froth you will get.
LOW POUR
A low pour means pouring milk while keeping the spout of the jug close to the cup. The angle allows more froth to come out. So, for drinks like a cappuccino, it’s preferable to use a low pour. However, if you start your pour low, the froth can break the crema, giving you milky coffee. Therefore, you need to start at a medium height followed by low pour.
MEDIUM POUR
A medium pour is when you keep the spout of the milk jug around 10 centimetres above the rim of the cup. This ensures the crema is not disturbed and gives you slightly less amount of froth. This technique works best for lattes as the angle creates even mix of milk and froth.
HIGH POUR
The high pour method is great for pouring flat whites as it requires the least amount of froth. For this, you need to keep the spout around 15 centimetres above the rim of the cup, creating a sharp angle which pushes froth to the back of the jug and allows more milk into the cup.
If you don’t hear the sound, you need to slide the jug lower so that the tip of the steam wand comes closer to the surface creating the sound.
STEP 5: TEMPERATURE
To get consistent amount of froth for different coffee types, here’s a good time measure: Cappuccino: three seconds of hissing sound Latte: two seconds of hissing sound Flat white: one second of hissing sound. If you’re making multiple coffees, simply add the number of seconds per drink.
SPLIT POURING Split pour technique can be used to get control over froth levels when making two or more coffees at once. HALF ‘N’ FULL
You can use the half ‘n’ full technique to pour two coffees quickly from a single jug. You will still need the two methods to achieve the desired consistency and volume of froth in your milk. Start by pouring the frothy drink first but only up to halfway mark in the cup. Then proceed to pour the second cup filling it all the way to the top. With the leftover milk in your jug, finish the first cup. This helps you get the right amount of froth into two cups every time.
HALF ‘N’ HALF
This technique gives you more control over your milk. Once the milk is textured, first pour about 75 per cent of the milk into a second pre-heated jug then pour back about 25 per cent of the milk into the first jug. This will ensure you end up with two halves that are equal in quantity and froth level. Now using the pouring methods, you can achieve the desired amount to froth in your coffees.
What you don’t want to hear, however, is that awful screeching sound of the milk under attack. Hissing is good, screeching is not. Once you’ve achieved the right level of froth, raise the jug slightly so the steam wand sinks deeper below the surface, which will stop the hissing sound. STEP 6: CLEAN
Always wipe the steam wand after texturing and purge to clear any leftover milk.
TAP ‘N’ SWIRL
Tap and swirl the jug to remove any large air bubbles to achieve a silkysmooth consistency.
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Island Espresso 171 Elizabeth St, HOBART Pilgrim Coffee 48 Argyle St, HOBART Villino Café & Specialty Coffee Roaster 30 Criterion St, HOBART
NEW ZEALAND Bean Addicted 4 Link Dr, Wairau Park, North Shore, AUCKLAND Espresso Workshop Roastery 19 Falcon St, AUCKLAND
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Jasper Coffee 267 Brunswick St, FITZROY One Origin Specialty Coffee 83 Glenferrie Rd, MALVERN Proud Mary 172 Oxford St, COLLINGWOOD St Ali 12 Yarra Pl, SOUTH MELBOURNE The Vertue Of The Coffee Drink 8 Raffa Pl, CARLTON The Winey Cow 39A Main St, MORNINGTON
DECEMBER 2019
A World-Class Coffee Magazine
Game changer Lifting the lid on the customer experience
Veneziano Coffee 16 River St, RICHMOND
WA Urbanistar Cafe & Empire Coffee 212 William St, NORTHBRIDGE
Axil Coffee Roasters 322 Burwood Rd, HAWTHORN
Yahava KoffeeWorks 4752 West Swan Rd, WEST SWAN
Café Esssence 53 Bull St, BENDIGO
Yahava KoffeeWorks Bussell Hwy, MARGARET RIVER
HostMilano 2019 wrap 48
KeepCup calls for change
Financial realities of roasting Agnieszka Rojewska’s unlikely win
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TEA SCENE
Bradley Cahill and Mafalda Moutinho are Co-founders of Casa De Cha and Consultants to the Australian Tea Growers Cooperative.
From little things big things grow Bradley Cahill and Mafalda Moutinho of Casa De Cha reflect on the history of tea production in Australia: part one.
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ustralia is known for its high-quality products, impeccable standards, and green or clean practices. When it comes to tea production, however, many would be surprised to learn it is grown here at all. Over the past 20 years, the Australian tea industry has been evolving and gaining momentum, winning awards nationally and abroad. Currently, tea farming is an emerging industry, a quiet achiever on the agricultural export market. If the visions of a few mavericks come to fruition, Australia may very well become a major player in the tea world. So, how did we get here? During the 19th century, colonial Australians were the world’s highest tea consumers, knocking back an average of four to five kilograms of tea per person per year, compared with today’s average of just 0.8 kilograms. Mostly green tea was drunk, alongside other commonly available Chinese teas. Many of Australia’s early colonists also grew and made their own tea. James Inglis was a politician, author, and agent of the Calcutta Tea Syndicate. He also pioneered black tea in Australia, successfully introducing Indian and Ceylonese tea to the colonies during the 1880s. His company, James Inglis & Co, marketed Billy Tea using an altered version of Banjo Paterson’s Waltzing Matilda for advertising, a song now known as Australia’s “unofficial national anthem”. By the time World War II broke, some people were drinking eight
John Robb, Director of Austea and Australian Green Tea.
to 12 cups of tea per day. When the government started to ration tea – which severely curtailed tea consumption – the general population was displeased and disgruntled. Members of the Australian public wrote relentlessly to their parliamentarians and Prime Minister complaining about the tea ration. “Never mind the Japanese invasion, this tea rationing is totally unrealistic and unreasonable,” one letter reads. Historical records show a surge in petty crime during the period, including reports of chests of tea being stolen from homes and theft of an unattended truck loaded with tea. Another recounts how police were called to break up a riot which erupted in Melbourne when a Bushell’s truck overturned, prompting people to rush
onto the street to fill their hats with tea. Eventually, a black market emerged and thrived. In 1970, Allan Maruff began producing tea commercially on his estate at Nerada, near Innisfail. Nerada Estates is now the largest commercial producer of tea in Australia. In 1978, Daintree Tea Company was started by the Nicholas family on the Cubbagudta Plantation, situated in the heart of the Daintree Rainforest in Far North Queensland. Although tea has a rich history in Australia, it was only around 20 years ago that the country’s potential as a producer was first recognised in a larger scale by Japanese tea companies looking for a place to grow tea during the off season. Together with the Department of Primary Industries, several test plantations were set up with Japanese tea plants using Japanese processing methods. Due to the nature of this setup, all the tea produced from these plantations was being shipped back to Japan to be sold under Japanese brands. In the last couple of years, several Australian tea companies have incorporated nationally grown tea into their own collections as a way to educate the Australian audience, support Australian produce, and ultimately grow the industry. We have seen this happen before with the Australian wine industry, which grew from a grassroots movement to the international stage. Needless to say, we in the tea world believe that the same is possible for tea.
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ASCA
Kieran Westlake is the President of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association.
All aboard
The Australian Specialty Coffee Association welcomes its new board members and thanks those departing.
ASCA President Kieran Westlake with board members David Seng, Bruno Maiola, and Melissa Caia.
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ith the election of a new board, so begins a new chapter for the Australian Specialty Coffee Association. I’ve talked a lot about how 2020 is the year for ASCA – there are numerous things we’re doing differently from past years to keep the association thriving. This was cemented by the election of several new board members at the recent annual general meeting, held in Melbourne on 25 October. We greeted several much-loved and familiar industry faces to the ASCA Board, bringing with them fresh ideas and new directions. They include Craig Simon, David Seng, and Jane Clarke. We are excited by your presence and are looking forward to working with
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you to make the Australian industry bigger and better than ever. For anyone who’s been following the specialty coffee industry over the past few years, I’m sure these three members need no introduction. Craig is a former Australian Barista Champion, having represented us on the world stage on three separate occasions, most recently in 2018. A boutique roaster, we welcome Craig as head of the Roasters Guild. David is a World Coffee Eventsaccredited judge and respected barista trainer in Melbourne. We welcome David as head of the Barista Guild. Jane is the familiar face behind the Pauls Professional brand in Australia. Jane has also been heavily involved in ASCA for years, from judging to organising competitions and local events. We’re pleased to have Jane as
our newest Ordinary Member. Of course, to welcome these talented individuals to the board, we have had to say goodbye to some dedicated coffee professionals. I am humbled to have worked alongside industry stalwarts Nic Michaelides, David Boudrie, and Michaela Gerard as Vice President, Secretary, and head of the Barista Guild respectively. As many of you would know, Nic, David, and Michaela are much-loved within the industry, having committed hundreds – if not thousands – of hours of their time over the years to make ASCA and our activations and competitions a success. I’m pleased to note that while they may have left the board, Nic, David, and Michaela will still be seen regularly at events around the country. I am also pleased to introduce our new Vice President, Bruno Maiolo, and Secretary, Melissa Caia. Bruno and Melissa have both served on the board over the past year. Having them in senior positions moving forward speaks to the continuity we are seeking to establish with regard to the strategic direction of the association. Don’t forget – if you want to contact any of the board, or have questions, you can do so via info@aasca.com. We’re here to listen and ensure that we’re serving you, so please don’t hesitate to let us know how we can provide you with the best value and quality industry connections and information. Here’s to the best year yet. Sign up for our FREE newsletter at www.australianspecialtycoffee. com.au
NZSCA
Emma McDougall is the Communications and Administration Co-ordinator of the NZSCA.
A winning taste The NZSCA catches up with Alan Bruce of Flight Coffee Roasters after his fifth placing at the 2019 World Cup Tasters Championship in Berlin. Image: Kristaps Selga, World Coffee Events
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hen Alan Bruce of Flight Coffee Roasters went to represent New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup Tasters Championship in Berlin this past June, not even he realised how well he’d do. “My only aim was to get past the first round, so to finish fifth was an incredible feeling,” Alan says. “I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of difficulty, so we tried to make my training as challenging as possible in the weeks leading up to it. Once I started tasting the first few sets, I knew we’d prepared enough.” Before trying his hand at the New Zealand Cup Tasters Championship, Alan was a regular New Zealand Barista Championship and Brewers Cup competitor. But after a few years away from the competition scene, Alan wanted to try something new. “I haven’t competed in the Barista Championship for a few years, and I’m not sure if I’ll do it again. I don’t have the time to commit to it these days,” he says. “It turns out I still have a bit of a competitive side though, so I felt like this would be a good time to try Cup Tasters. I had no idea that I would win. That came as a huge surprise.” Though Cup Tasters can feel like a race against the clock, Alan says going in fully prepared and with as much practice as possible is key to winning the mind game. “I was very nervous in the opening round, [as I was] one of the first people to compete. I could barely get the spoon to my mouth with my shaky hands. As the rounds went on, I got a bit more confident
Alan Bruce hopes to defend his title in the 2020 NZ Cup Tasters Championship.
and started to relax a little,” he says. “[You need to] taste a range of coffees in the run-up to the competition. Set up proper triangulations and practice as though it’s the real thing. It’s a different discipline from the tasting that you might do cupping or dialling in, so you need to treat it differently. Don’t let the time pressure get to you.” Alan’s experience at the world championship allowed him to connect with and learn from baristas and cuppers from around the world, including 2019 World Cup Tasters Champion Daniel Horbat of Ireland. “Daniel was on an insane diet for months leading up to the competition to try and keep his palate as clean as possible. I don’t know if I could put myself through that – I enjoy my food and drink too much,” Alan says. “I think my skills as a cupper have improved greatly over the course of
preparing for the competition. Even though Cup Tasters is a different discipline to full cupping, there’s a huge benefit to the speed with which you’re able to process the information.” Alan now looks forward to defending his title in the 2020 NZ Cup Tasters Championship and will also contribute to the NZ Coffee Championships as a coach in the 2020 Meadow Fresh New Zealand Barista Championship. “Competition is the best way to keep pushing yourself to progress. I’m not sure about [reclaiming] the title yet, it’s a lot of pressure to live up to, but I’ll definitely compete again,” Alan says. For more information on the New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association, or to join, visit www.nzsca.org
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E-SCENE
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MATT WILSON Two-and-a-half years ago, l couldn’t stand coffee. Now I have it almost every day. I used to be the odd one out, ‘that’ person in the group who didn’t drink coffee when I went to a café. Now I understand why people always harp on about how they need their morning coffee. I’m a latte guy myself, no sugar for me though. Coffee gives me that much-needed energy boost during the day, especially workdays in my copy-writing role. I find sometimes that, no matter how much I try to focus, that I just need that extra boost. I usually drink coffee at work but I’m currently learning how to use my own espresso machine at home and, slowly but surely, I’m turning into a stereotypical Melbourne coffee snob – one delicious shot at a time.
JESSICA TEUMA
The smell of coffee wakes me up in the morning. I love to sit down and enjoy a coffee by myself or with company. The variety of coffees you can get is out of this world. You can choose a different type for which mood you are in. Or, if you need a wakeme-up coffee, you can choose the strength. I love a good coffee with chocolate, biscuits, or cake. Coffee is so dependable and it makes me happy. I love walking past a coffee shop. The smell is inviting. These days as a mum of four, I go to McCafé and the kids play while I sit down and enjoy a coffee. I’ve also got Gloria Jeans and Hudson Coffee local to me which are great. As a kid I used to love going to my Yiayia’s (nana’s) house as I would get to smell the strong Greek coffee aroma. My family would all sit down and enjoy a coffee and smoke outside. After it was made, her house would smell amazing and I guess that is where my love for the coffee started. When I’m at home now I usually drink Jarrah Latte Moccona, I love the flavour.
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CALLAN APPLEBEE Coffee for me is essentially a lifestyle choice. I appreciate the effort baristas place into making a masterpiece with form, aroma, and fond memories. I wake up thirsty for my first cup every morning, knowing it’ll help the day and give me a good perk up. Everyone has their own unique version suited to themselves, I like that about coffee. Piatella Café Bar in Glen Waverley and Father John Café in Melbourne’s CBD are my two favourites places. I usually order a magic or strong latte, depending how I feel At home I use instant coffee or pods.
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