9 minute read
BARING IT ALL
Adrian Duquilla of Instagram account The Naked Barista talks about the rise of his social media presence and why he chooses Califia Farms’ Oat Barista Blend every time.
As the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens, and when many cafés were forced to close their doors to dine-in customers at the beginning of 2020 when COVID-19 arrived in Australia, a new door opened for Adrian Duquilla.
“I’ve always had a passion for coffee and before COVID-19 hit, I would buy a cup every day from either my local café near home or my local work café in the city,” says Adrian.
“It wasn’t until the lockdown — when I didn’t have access to either cafés — that I decided to try my hand at making coffee and buy my first coffee machine. The first one was a Rancilio Silvia V5.”
Adrian started to document his coffee journey on Instagram. His initial posts focused on growing his coffee making skills, but the idea quickly evolved, and in May 2020, he launched coffee-focused Instagram account The Naked Barista.
Unlike the name suggests, the page features no nudity, but rather aesthetic and informative coffee content from videos featuring brewing techniques and latte art to how-to’s with coffee gadgets and equipment.
“The name was inspired by my favourite café in the city, and I thought it would generate a lot of attention, which has seemed to work because within the first three months the page just blew up,” says Adrian.
The account, which now has more than 38,700 followers, is known for its high-quality video and photography content.
Adrian believes what resonates with so many people is the clear tutorials designed for home baristas like himself.
“I learned through asking people online and definitely pestered many of the Instagram accounts that I follow. I was so overwhelmed with how friendly the global coffee community is,” says Adrian.
“I even had one person in the United States who agreed to jump on a video call with me and walk me through some new latte art skills. It’s a good thing I have a big family to drink all the coffee I was producing during my learning days.”
It was also through his Instagram page that Adrian was introduced to plantbased milk brand Califia Farms and its Oat Barista Blend.
“I’d honestly never heard of oat milk before. When I had ordered alternative milk, it always used to be soy milk, so when Califia Farms reached out to me last year, I was very intrigued,” Adrian says.
“The first time I used Califia Farms’ Oat Milk product, I was blown away because of how the oat milk textures. It stretches and foams like full-cream milk does, and when I posted a picture of the results online, I received a huge amount of positive feedback.”
For Adrian, it’s also the consistency of quality.
“Every time I froth the milk there’s no change in the end result because of
Califia Farms’ Oat Barista Blend is non-GMO, has no added sugar and is vegan and kosher friendly. the high-quality oats Califia Farms uses,” he says.
With a longer shelf life than dairy milk, Califia’s oat milk has no added sugar or GMO, and is vegan and kosher friendly.
It was developed based on the everyday barista’s needs, including how well the milk textured to produce latte art.
Adrian advises frothing Califia’s oat milk between 60°C to 65°C to create the optimum flavour and temperature for drinking.
“I am also careful not to inject large chunks of air at once, and to keep the jug as still as possible to get a consistent whirling motion,” Adrian says.
Another benefit of using Califia Farms’ Oat Barista Blend is its high resistance to splitting from the espresso.
“This often occurs if the coffee is a light to medium roast. When it does, alternative milks can sometimes ‘break’ the crema,” says Adrian.
“This means it will separate from the golden foam layer that lies on top of an
For more information, visit www.califiafarms.com.au
Adrian Duquilla was introduced to Califia Farms through his Instagram account The Naked Barista.
espresso shot and results in poor latte art. This is because of the coffee’s acidity. However, with Califia’s oat milk it just glides on top and mixes smoothly.”
With cold coffee beverages also surging in popularity, Adrian says the creaminess of Oat Barista Blend also makes it ideal for iced coffees.
“My favourite recipe for an Iced Oat Milk Latte is a shot of espresso, 250 millilitres of Califia Farms’ Oat Barista Blend, and half a cup of ice,” Adrian says.
“Alternatively, for a Matcha Oat Milk Latte, I’d recommend two-thirds a teaspoon of matcha powder dissolved in a bit of water with 250 millilitres of Oat Barista Blend, and half a cup of ice.”
Adrian says oat milk has completely “changed the alternative milk market” because of its neutral flavour which complements coffee best.
As such, he sees no sign its growth trajectory is slowing.
“I definitely think oat milk’s popularity will continue to grow, with more people realising how delicious and creamy it is,” Adrian says.
“I’ve already converted two-thirds of my family and friends into becoming oat milk drinkers.”
With The Naked Barista Instagram account now well and truly established with a loyal following, Adrian is excited to take the next step in his coffee career and open his own café in 2022.
“Until now I’ve been filming these videos in my renovated kitchen, and with The Naked Barista café I’ll have more space for equipment and more skills to share, both online and in-person,” he says.
“I’ve loved working with Califia Farms and having them with me on my Instagram journey. I can’t wait to convert more people to die-hard oat milk fans through my new café space.”
Califia Farms’ Oat Barista Blend has a high resistance to splitting from the espresso.
MISSION AGAINST EMISSIONS
Single O sources coffees from all over the world, but when it came to the perfect oat milk to serve in its own cafés and recommend to customers, the answer was right on its doorstep.
“We’re not saints - there’s currently no way to avoid accruing thousands of shipping miles to get our coffees here. So, when you’ve got a quality product on your doorstep, it’s a way we can support local. We were looking for an oat milk provider that used a higher quantity of locally sourced ingredients, and from a supply chain perspective, with less emissions or ‘food miles’ that went into transporting the products. The Alternative Dairy Co came out on top,” says Tobias Aubrey-Poiner, Head Trainer at Single O.
“They’re just up the road on the Central Coast, so The Alternative Dairy is fairly local to us too. It means we can easily get on the phone or visit their production facility. That’s why we looked so closely at The Alternative Dairy Co initially and it was backed up by its quality and approach to sustainability.”
Single O achieved carbon neutral status in April 2021, this involved an assessment of all the company’s emissions across the supply chain. The roaster then reduced what it could and offset the rest through investments in tree planting & ecosystem regeneration projects, via Green Fleet.
This process encouraged the Surry Hills roaster to look closer at the products it’s using too.
“We started offsetting our emissions by contributing to carbon capture projects but that wasn’t enough for us. We’re on a ‘Mission Against Emissions’. Climate change is threatening the future of specialty coffee; We’ve been highlighting this with our No Death to Coffee campaign, and as part of that, must continue to reduce our impact across the whole supply chain,” Tobias says.
“The industry has a good understanding of the emissions it produces when it comes to the coffee, but when you look at dairy and dairy alternatives, and think about the high percentage of customers drinking milk-based coffees, it becomes a bit of an oversight. Moving to a locally produced oat milk was a no brainer.”
Not only did The Alternative Dairy Co Barista Oat Milk perform best in terms of sustainability, Single O taste tested 12 different oat milks with all four of its blends – Reservoir, Killerbee, Paradox, and Yeehah! – and whilst there was some tough competition, it was the most consistent performer.
“When it came down to it, we had to base our decision on the quality of the oat milk. We held over 70 blind testings with people from across the company, with people who already drank plantbased milks as well as traditional dairy drinkers to cast a wider net, and landed on The Alternative Dairy Co,” Tobias says.
Finding and serving high-quality dairy alternatives has become increasingly important as more coffee drinkers turn to plant-based milks for their morning brew.
“People are shifting from dairy to alternative milks and the demand is going up every week. It’s driven by a few things, but mainly it’s people being more diet conscious and environmentally aware,” Tobias says.
“As a trainer, I’m on the ground a lot or out in customers’ cafés and am seeing oat milk open up plant-based milks as an option to more people who traditionally drink dairy. It’s a little bit more neutral tasting than previous options and that’s helping people make the change, which I’m witnessing across our wholesale network, even regionally.”
Moving into 2022, Single O will continue to reduce its carbon footprint and The Alternative Dairy Co will play a part in that.
“With New South Wales opening back up, we’ll be doing more events. Latte art competitions are always fun, but in the back of my mind is how wasteful they are with the amount of milk poured down the drain, which is lessened if you’re using an oat milk with a smaller footprint to begin with,” Tobias says.
IN CAFÉ
