FEBRUARY 2024
A World-Class Coffee Magazine
Customer needs drive industry to the next level
No. 91 ISSN 1449-2547
9 771449 254002
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La Pavoni’s success in the Australian market Packaging progression and solutions
MICE launches education series Bakke Coffee Museum debuts
THERE’S COFFEE,
THEN THERE’S
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FEBRUARY 2024
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contents 12 NEWS 16 STUFF ON THE SCENE
36 61 54 FROM A TO NZ
61 OWN IT
19 KNOWLEDGE LEADER
56 A CARTEL WITH CHARISMA
62 HOUSE OF EXCELLENCE
23 CELEBRITY CHEF
66 BREWING UP SUPPORT
63 AT THE READY
INDUSTRY PROFILES Former La Marzocco International CEO Kent Bakke unveils the Bakke Coffee Museum Chin Chin’s Benjamin Cooper on how coffee has influenced the way he questions and cooks with food
27 SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A
DIAMOND La Pavoni details the progression of the brand and its success in the Australian market
31 A WELL-OILED MACHINE
Barista Group partners on how the Übermilk and Markibar Izaga W streamline a café’s workflow
34 CELEBRATING WITH FRIENDS
Why collaboration is part of Milklab’s ethos, and how it plans to take things to the next level
38 CRÈME DE LA CRÈME
Campos Coffee celebrates a month of single origin releases from Cup of Excellence
40 SOLAR SWITCH
Monin Coffee Creativity Cup winner and runner-up discuss their winning coffee mocktails
The Bean Cartel on why great coffee is the heartbeat of the Melbourne-based roaster
CafeSmart prepares for its 14th edition, hoping to reach more people in need than ever before
68 MICE MASTERCLASS
MICE2024 unveils a new education series to target information café owners want and need
TECH PROFILES
36 A TRUSTED PARTNER
Why Barista Attitude’s new Faro grinder is a reliable ally
46 CAPSULE EVOLUTION
How IMA Group has solutions to meet any packaging request
50 THE KONY SG
Mazzer unveils its first commercial gravimetric grinder
PACKAGING FEATURE
Riverina Fresh’s Wagga Wagga factory makes a shift to solar
58 THE PERFECT PACKAGE
Coffee Tools Distributing reflects on a successful 2023 and gets excited for what’s to come in 2024
59 PAVING THE WAY
44 LET’S GO AGAIN
48 SHOW BUSINESS
Barista Equip explains why its new showroom is an all-in-one space for the coffee industry
52 TWENTY-YEAR TRIUMPH
Coffee Machine Technologies celebrates two decades of business
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How Trimatt is saving time, effort and money on packaging options
SammyBags unveils one of the world’s first fully washable and reusable coffee pouches Maipac introduces its coffee packaging facility in South Australia Tetra Pak offers RTD options for roasters looking to capitalise
64 TOGETHER AT LAST
Wipf AG and Close the Loop Group release a new degassing valve
65 STRIVING FOR
SUSTAINABILITY EcoBarista shares a plant-based lining with an increased oxygen barrier
SKILL BASE
74 ESPRESSO YOURSELF
Reigning Australian Latte Art Champion Amy Zhang demonstrates her take on an iconic Disney character
CAFÉ SCENE
70 CAFÉ SCENE
Around Australia and New Zealand
76 BIOSECURITY IN THE
SPOTLIGHT ACTA hosts its Annual General Meeting with a talk from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Roastar provides a new coffee bag that protects beans from oxygen and moisture
77 CARBON CUTTING
Jet Technologies on why it’s committed to finding sustainable solutions
78 GET TO KNOW
60 LEADER OF THE PACK
NZSCA on how the Association is helping New Zealand coffee roasters reduce carbon emissions Suzy McGhee of Villino Coffee, Australian AeroPress Champion
rshoot
ve BeanScene co
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Christine Clancy christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Baker sarah.baker@primecreative.com.au JOURNALISTS Hayley Ralph hayley.ralph@primecreative.com.au Dominic Morrell dominic.morrell@primecreative.com.au ART DIRECTOR/DESIGN Daz Woolley Coffee Machine Technologies 285 Lygon St, Carlton, VIC 3053 coffeemachinetechnologies.com.au
HEAD OF DESIGN Blake Storey
It was an overcast, humid, La Niña summer morning when BeanScene travelled to Coffee Machine Technologies’ retail-based showroom in the heart of Carlton on Lygon Street for the February edition cover shoot. In the showroom is a variety of commercial and domestic machines for the Australian market. Among them is the La Pavoni Esperto Abile lever machine, which usually sits on display on the showroom floor, but for our covershoot purpose, was taken to a cornered off area and placed delicately on a table to show off all its best angles for regular BeanScene photographer Blake Storey to work his magic. “Like most La Pavoni machines, the Esperto Abile is a piece of art, an installation and a symbol of Italian architecture,” says BeanScene Editor Sarah Baker. “To have the Esperto Abile in Australia is an incredible achievement for La Pavoni.” To fully appreciate the ethos behind the model, this edition BeanScene talked to Smeg Australia’s General Manager of the Professional Division Leon Wolf (see page 27) to understand the intricacies behind this statement piece. As we learned, La Pavoni has a unique way of turning everyday utilities into statements of art. Blake enjoyed playing with the manual lever on the machine, and the elegant silver eagle-topped dome that gave the final image the ‘pop’ it needed. “Coffee Machine Technologies National Sales Manager Carmelo Corallo showcased his dedication to help ensure we got the right shot in the right moment. After two hours, countless angles of both the Esperto Abile and Diamantina semi-professional machine, and multiple brews later, we captured a beautiful bright angle,” says Blake. Sarah adds that the shoot is a great reminder that quality coffee is one thing, but the apparatus it’s made from is just as important to achieve the final result. Customer needs drive industry “Beauty is in the detail, whether to the next level it’s the delicately sourced coffee, the way the lever ignites the extraction, or the golden extraction and delicious profile in the cup,” Sarah says. “This machine is about espresso appreciation and the equipment it takes to achieve it.” FEBRUARY 2024
No. 91 ISSN 1449-2547
01
9 771449 254002
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A World-Class Coffee
La Pavoni’s success in the Australian market Packaging progression and solutions
Magazine
MICE launches education series Bakke Coffee Museum debuts
DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER Michelle Weston BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Adele Haywood adele.haywood@primecreative.com.au CLIENT SUCCESS TEAM LEADER Janine Clements janine.clements@primecreative.com.au PHOTOGRAPHY Blake Storey, James Thomas CONTRIBUTORS Emma McDougall, Joe Taweel, Amy Zhang, Niall Seewang, Samuel Porter HEAD OFFICE Prime Creative Pty Ltd 379 Docklands Drive, Docklands, Victoria 3008 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.
C o
Celebrating 8 Years of MILKLAB!
Celebrating 8 years of MILKLAB, means we’re celebrating 8 years of incredible colLABoration with the coffee industry! Our mission back in 2015 was to elevate the café coffee experience for baristas and coffee lovers alike with a range of premium, high performance barista milks, and nothing has changed to this day. From the world’s most experienced and influential baristas, coffee roasters, café owners and other industry professionals we couldn’t have made it without you, so THANK YOU! To this day, colLABoration remains at the heart of everything we do as we continue to work with the industry to evaluate and evolve our range to ensure we deliver the best tasting, highest quality range of barista milks. @milklabco
milklabco.com
CONTRIBUTORS Each issue of BeanScene we profile a few of our talented contributors.
Amy Zhang is the 2022 ASCA Australian Latte Art Champion. Born in China, Amy is a Coffee Quality Institute-certified Q Grader and Barista Trainer, basing many of her latte art patterns off her favourite Disney films. Amy won the 2022 ASCA Northern Region Latte Art Championship, and the 2022 National title. She currently works at The Maillard Project in Brisbane, Queensland.
A word from the Editor
Heros wear aprons Joe Taweel has been Chairperson of the Australian Coffee Traders Association Inc since November 2022 and General Manager of CofiCom (part of Volcafe) since 2021, prior to working as the company’s Chief Account and Operations Manager. Joe has worked in the coffee industry for the past 13 years. He has gained extensive trading, warehousing, logistics and finance experience with some of Australia’s largest manufacturing companies. Joe is a qualified Certified Practising Accountant, and was accredited as a Q Grader in 2016.
Emma McDougall is the Communication and Administration Coordinator for the NZSCA. After gaining a degree in hospitality management, Emma has worked in Sydney, Dublin, Auckland, London, and most recently, Wellington. She has owned and managed cafés and tech-judged the New Zealand Barista Championship in 2015 and 2016. Now, she gets to help run them. One of the greatest joys she gets from the coffee industry is watching young people progress through their coffee journey.
hen you’re sitting in a café reading this column over the summer break, spare a thought for the barista who just took your order and poured a perfect rosetta in your morning cup. For business owners and hospitality staff, the summer holidays provide no respite, only an opportunity to capitalise and recoup revenue from holidaymakers and leisurely locals who are only too happy to take a seat and indulge. When I arrived on the Gold Coast in December, the first place I went was a café on the surf coast. The menu was inviting, the single origin list extensive, and I noticed a category devoted to cold brew creations. ‘Well done’, I thought, this is a café thinking outside the box and isn’t afraid to play with some seasonal trends. As a customer, I appreciated the variety, but for the café, I could tell it was a decision that would pay off, with a few tall glasses of cold coffee variations around me. During a recent presentation evening with former La Marzocco CEO Kent Bakke, he reflected on his first trip to Australia in which he was blown away by the quality and volume of consumption of coffee. He recalled visiting a Melbourne café where, after consuming his first coffee, was asked by the barista if he wanted another to pair with his meal. He obliged. Then another to conclude with. Kent says he couldn’t resist, and was equally impressed with the natural up-sell technique that added a few extra dollars to the bill, and a few extra hours spent awake that night. Most café owners don’t go to university to learn marketing techniques. They don’t spend years in a lecture theatre understanding how to develop a menu, manage staff or rosters, and they don’t get training on how to engage with customers or handle inventory expenses. In most cases, they are self taught, model off family or friends, and rely on their natural charm to turn a one-off customer into a repeat one. And it’s hard work. As most café operators would attest, any ‘small business’ is neither small in effort nor operational requirements. It’s for this reason that the 2024 Melbourne International Coffee Expo will take a supportive approach and add a café series of presentations to its three-day event. The intention is to add value to café owners attending the expo. We’d love to see them motivated and more knowledgeable about subject matters that speak to their needs, and can help take their business to the next level in these challenging economic times. Four years on, many businesses are still feeling the after-effects of COVID-19, paired with inflation, and staff retention and labour issues. We need to do everything possible to support the core of our café industry. Without stabilising the foundation, our industry is at risk of longevity and losing its international status as a hub of innovation and an advanced leader in creativity. I for one am excited about the potential we can achieve when there is focused attention. In the meantime, it’s time for me to order something experimental on this café menu. There’s no harm in trying.
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SARAH BAKER
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NEWS
EKAMETH WIPVASUTTI WINS 2023 WORLD AEROPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP Ekameth ‘Tay’ Wipvasutti from Brave Roasters in Thailand has been crowned the winner of the 2023 World AeroPress Championship in Melbourne. “It’s so exciting to win,” Ekameth says. Germany’s Carlo Graf Bülow placed second, and China’s Lin Zhang finished third, who also took the opportunity to propose to his girlfriend after the results were announced. The 15th edition of the competition saw baristas from around the world gather at FieldWork Coffee in Melbourne on 2 December in the battle to brew the best AeroPress coffee. For Ekameth’s winning recipe, he used 16 grams of the washed Kenya AB coffee from Karindundu, Nyeri, ground on an IzPresso ZP6 at 65 clicks. He poured 100 millilitres of 89°C water onto the coffee, and used one chopstick to stir for five seconds at 30 seconds in. He then added an additional two grams of coffee into the mixture at 0.45 seconds before stirring again for another five seconds. Ekameth pressed down on the AeroPress to bring the plunger up and remove any excess air. He closed the cap and used an inverted method, flipping the AeroPress carefully and pressing down again at 1:35 minutes in, for approximately 30 seconds. The final product was bypassed with room temperature water to 115 grams, before bypassing with hot water to 155 grams, and serving to the judges. Ekameth says he settled on this recipe at 1am the morning of the competition, having
From left: Carlo Graf Bülow, Ekameth ‘Tay’ Wipvasutti, and Lin Zhang Image: Prime Creative Media.
spent the day before experimenting with new ideas. “I had so much coffee [the night before] that my heart was beating all morning,” Ekameth says. Despite the late selection, Ekameth says he was very confident as the final approach, knowing that his preparation was alongside business partner Nirodha Veratumpoonsawat. “We believe we crafted the best recipe last night,” Nirodha says. “After that, we decided we needed to get some sleep.”
On the day, Ekameth’s efforts were enough to claim the top prize, proceeding through each round successfully until her held the golden AeroPress trophy in his hands. “You’ll never have a perfect cup, so I just tried to make it better and better with each try,” he says. As part of his prize, Ekameth will now get the opportunity to visit a coffee farm in Costa Rica. The 2024 World AeroPress Championship will take place in Lisbon, Portugal.
CHRIS MAYBURY WINS TOBY’S ESTATE SWIRL CLUB FINALE Chris Maybury of Only Coffee Project won the Toby’s Estate’s Swirl Club finale, which took place on 16 November at its Alexandria Warehouse in New South Wales. Sabita Lama of Leaf Café placed second and Josiah Arayata of MakeMyDay placed third. “We swirled it up in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne and got to meet some talented baristas along the way. We were on a mission to find the best baristas in Australia, and let’s just say, mission accomplished,” says Toby’s Estate Marketing Coordinator Vee Ketsak. “The amount of tension and hype was through the roof with more than 200 people in attendance. What a way to finish the tour.” Chris was awarded the first-place prize of $15,000 cash. Sabita claimed the second-place prize of $10,000 cash, and Josiah took home $5000 cash for third-place. The top three placeholders also received goodies from event sponsors. Toby’s Estate thanks event sponsors Slayer Espresso, ACME, Riverina Fresh and Best Water Technology.
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From left: Sabita Lama, Chris Maybury, and Josiah Arayata. Image: Toby’s Estate.
Introducing xBloom - your gateway to specialty coffee. xBloom is designed to deliver a seamless pour-over workflow. Enjoy café quality from your favourite roasters’ coffee at home or at work with just one touch.
NANOFOAMER PRO The new NanoFoamer PRO by Subminimal is a completely automatic, hands-free, premium microfoam maker. It heats and perfectly textures milk, creating silky microfoam with just the touch of a button.
NEWS
WORLD COFFEE CHAMPIONS ANNOUNCED LiangFan, representing China, is the 2023 World Latte Art Champion. Lu Daoqiang of China placed runner-up, and Bala Shao Sing Lin of Taiwan placed third at the World Coffee Championships, which took place at the Taiwan International Coffee Show from 17 to 20 November. For his finals routine, LiangFan presented rooster, kangaroo and dinosaur latte art designs, combining the use of circles and Boolean arithmetic to create all three patterns. “Although dinosaurs have gone extinct, our exploration of history and biological evolution never stops,” LiangFan said in his finals performance. Australian competitor Amy Zhang placed seventh in the competition. Rastislav “Rasty” Kasar, from the United Kingdom won the 2023 World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship. “For centuries we have shared our stories over drinks at the bar or in the coffee shop. Today I want to continue that tradition and share my story of how I came to love two coffee cocktails inspired by chapters of my life,” Rastislav told the judges. Tanpong of Thailand placed second and
The top six finalists in the 2023 World Latte Art Championship. Image: Specialty Coffee Association.
Danny Andrade of Australia placed third. “I’m honoured and very grateful to everyone that has helped me prepare for the competition. My family, team, and friends have all been so supportive. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by such generous people,” says Danny.
Taufan Mokoginta of Indonesia was crowned the 2023 World Coffee Roasting Champion. Talha Erdinc Bas from Turkey came in second, and Andrew Coe of the United States placed third. Australian competitor Artem Kryuchenkov came in 14th place.
HONOKA KAWASHIMA, DANIEL WILSON CLAIM MONIN CUP TOP HONOURS
The Monin Coffee Creativity Cup is a complete sensory experience. Image: Monin.
New Zealand’s Honoka Kawashima won the Monin Coffee Creativity Cup Asia-Pacific final for 2023, with Australian Daniel Wilson coming second. Honoka, from Frank’s Coffee, emerged victorious at the 22 November final, which took place at Slate At The Row, Kuala Lumpur.
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“The New Zealand specialty coffee community allowed me to grow, and I’m grateful to be a part of it,” Honoka says. “I’ve been practising to get a good result, of course, however the important thing for me is also the process for the competition, and the people I met in Malaysia.” The winning drink was a combination
of Monin blood orange and pure sugar cane syrups, with espresso, amazake and osmanthus tea. Representing Ona Coffee, Daniel’s second place performance rounds out a successful campaign for the Australasian representatives. “It was really exciting to see all the different styles of drinks everyone came up with,” Daniel says. “Malaysia definitely has a growing coffee scene with many different influences from other industries.” The theme of this year’s Monin Cup was to enhance the five senses. Competitors had to make the most creative espresso-based mocktail that appeals to sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. Each contestant was judged on how well each sense was incorporated into their drinks. “The competition day was as well super fun and run really well by the Monin team with everything we needed to show off our creations,” says Daniel. Both Honoka and Daniel will enjoy an Asian holiday as part of their prizes.
Ready for 2025? Let's talk about sustainable coffee packaging. As Australia’s 2025 National Packaging Targets draw near, Jet Technologies offers several packaging options designed especially for coffee application that meet our national targets. Whether you are considering the switch to recycle-ready packaging, industrially compostable packaging, or something else – our packaging options will mean that you don’t compromise on shelf life, output speed, embellishment or cost. Complementing our packaging, our range includes high speed packing lines - such as the Goglio G21 machine pictured here – that is designed to work with newer sustainable packaging materials. Reach out now to discuss your particular requirements. Scan the QR Code
Talk to us now P: +61 2 8999 4999 E: info@jet-ap.com
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PRODUCTS
Stuff on the scene Elektra KUP The Elektra KUP is for the modern barista who values both form and function. Its minimalist design exudes a captivating beauty while embodying advanced technology. Highlighting temperature control within the delivery groups, this machine ensures precision in every cup. The KUP model boasts distinctive features such as the innovative double steam wand positioning and the optional automatic milk frothing wand. Its energy-efficient night mode and Elektra’s barista integrated consumption management and data utilisation system offer unparalleled convenience and efficiency. Crafted with factory wooden steam/hot water levers and group handles, the KUP is equipped with high cup group heads catering to various drink sizes, including extra-large 16-ounce takeaway options. Complete with a large cup warming area and a chic painted body available in black or white, the Elektra KUP complements various environments, ensuring both functionality and aesthetics are met. For more information, visit coffeemachinetechnologies.com.au
xBloom The xBloom is a fully automatic pour-over system, designed to deliver a seamless workflow. From bean grinding to solid state pouring, the xBloom has been engineered to deliver a specialty cup of coffee in just a few steps. When using the conscientiously designed xPods, which feature beans from world-class roasters, xBloom adjusts the temperature, grind, ratio and pouring patterns to ensure every cup tastes exactly as the roaster intended, via the Radio Frequency Identification tag at the bottom of the xPod. Alternatively, the user can enjoy beans from their favourite roaster and brew them in the same way by using the reusable dripper and the xBloom app, which can be completely personalised. With its architecturally designed exterior and small footprint, xBloom is ideal for home use, the workplace, or anywhere a customer wants to experience exceptional coffee. For more information, visit www.coffeetools.supply/xbloom
Milklab Limited Edition Merch Collab Milklab has teamed up with Aussie sustainable apparel brand The Common Good Co. and local Australian artist Luke John Matthew Arnold to create a range of clothing and accessories that are made with baristas and coffee enthusiasts at heart. The exclusive ‘Made with. Made For. Baristas’ collection is a blend of creativity, sustainability, and style. The range will be available exclusively from the online Milklab merchandise store. Get ready to stand out in the café with this new collection, and make the coffee-making experience even better. For more information, visit shop.milklabco.com
QuinSpin The Quin Spin is a bench mounted cleaning device designed to remove and clean used coffee grounds from the group handle and filter basket. This two-step device can be used simultaneously if cleaning more than one group handle at once. One side removes the spent grounds, while the other polishes the basket clean. Quick and quiet, the Quin Spin eliminates the need for a knock tube, bin and dirty cleaning cloths hanging around the espresso machine. For more information, visit baristagroup.com.au
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Wega WBar Pro The new WBar is designed to make busy working hours a less frenetic experience for baristas. The machine combines functional aesthetics with completely intuitive operation, making brewing quicker and easier while upholding the quality of great espresso. It features versatile cup trays and electronic shot counters that keep the extraction times of each group under control. There is also the option of the Autosteamer, which can be activated with a button located directly on the group keypad. The control console consists of two cylindrical groups in an attractive anodised orange colour. On each are ergonomic, vertically positioned, back-lit keypads which allow up to four doses to be programmed. For more information, visit www.cwe.com.au
Will & Co Specialty Coffee Concentrate Create coffees, cocktails and desserts with Will & Co specialty coffee concentrate. Meticulously crafted, the coffee is brewed nice and slow to capture the robust flavour and richness of Will & Co’s renowned signature blend, Eight-O-Eight, in a concentrate format. That means the goodness of specialty coffee can be enjoyed without any of the equipment and minimal clean up. Not only is the concentrate a great retail item, it also invites cafés to get creative with their coffee menu. Use in place of cold brew in a coffee tonic, coffee mojito or oat milk cold brew to open customer’s eyes to the brewing possibilities at home. After all, the world is your caffeinated oyster, and this specialty coffee concentrate is up to the challenge. For more information, visit willandco.com.au/concentrate
SUPERIOR COFFEE EXPERIENCE
THERE’S COFFEE, THEN THERE’S
KNOWLEDGE LEADER
A snapshot in time
Image: Prime Creative Media
After 24 years at the helm of La Marzocco International, former CEO Kent Bakke is starting a new chapter as director of the Bakke Coffee Museum, which celebrates his love for espresso machines and the art of storytelling.
ome people like to collect stamps, others wine and classic cars, but for former La Marzocco CEO Kent Bakke, a collection of hundreds of commercial espresso machines and other coffee technology artefacts makes him one of the world’s largest collectors of the coffee industry’s most precious displays of design and artisan craftsmanship. Unlike stamps, Kent’s collection is not dainty nor light. With a collection of heavy machines spanning more than 100 years of coffee history, Kent bought a building in his hometown of Seattle, United States to house his collection after La Marzocco’s factory in Florence start to overflow with his own personal collection. “In Italy, back in the 70s and 80s, old coffee machines were not kept for very long in a working café. I’d go to the La Marzocco
factory and ask where all the old machines were kept, and the staff would say in broken English, ‘throw out’. They kept very little of their history,” Kent recalls. “On some of my earliest trips to Florence, I’d end up at a coffee roastery and notice an old La Marzocco that the factory didn’t have. The very first machine I bought was a one-group lever La Marzocco and I gave it to the factory.” He then picked up a two-group La Marzocco Lever, found some more old machines in New York cafés, and kept going every time a shiny piece caught his eye. “Somewhere along the line in the late 80s, I met a gentleman named Ambrogio Fumagalli. He’d written a little pocket-sized book on coffee makers. He was the earliest person I recall that had been collecting. He had worked in the 50s for Pavoni and
Gaggia, and had a long history collecting interesting small commercial machines,” Kent says. Kent started acquiring some machines from Ambrogio, along with collector Enrico Maltoni, the late-Belaroma Founder Ian Bersten, other people he met on his collecting journey, even some odd finds on eBay. “At some point I thought, ‘well someday I’d like to have a coffee machine museum,” Kent says. That day is now, and that dream has become a reality. Kent has opened the Bakke Coffee Museum in Seattle to demonstrate the evolution of different coffee machines, which includes 250-plus models, a few 100 small coffee pieces, and a dozen grinders. He is also in the process of constructing another smaller museum in Florence.
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KNOWLEDGE LEADER
The Bakke Coffee Museum in Seattle includes more than 250 espresso machine models spanning 100 years. Image: Bakke Coffee Museum.
“Each coffee machine has a story behind it. There are people that envisioned that machine, who built it, and that used to work on it. Some of the stories have been lost, but there are some we hope to recreate,” he says. “If somebody dragged you along to our museum, even if you’re not a coffee drinker or really interested in equipment, I would hope that we have created an experience that’s entertaining and that can show you something you didn’t know.” Kent says the museum is a trip down memory lane and a snapshot in time for coffee culture throughout the ages. “In the beginning I really didn’t have money to buy machines. They were much less expensive back then. As business became more successful, I found a few more resources. I had no criteria for machines. I have machines from Italy of course, and the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Spain, and the US,” Kent says. “I had the luxury of having the space to buy big machines. I have several large, six-group machines, and I’ve got my eye on more. I’m still collecting.” Among his collection is a vertical Universal espresso machine with a lever group attached, suggesting it’s of post-war era, and a few functioning pre-war vertical machines. “I have some instruction manuals and records. You can understand how a machine works, but it also makes you question what the beverage was really like back then,” Kent says. “Did they serve a blend or single origin back in the beginning? What were the grinders like? What was the roast? What was the size of the beverage? I have a booklet that says it took 45 seconds to make an espresso. But we don’t know how many grams. What was the extraction like? Did it have crema?”
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The most prized possession in Kent’s collection, however, is one that’s more sentimental than practical. “I still have the first espresso machine I ever owned from 1977, which was from a café space in Seattle where I was opening a restaurant with friends. It’s not really a modern version of an antique machine, dating from 1973. It is a replica Victoria Arduino vertical machine that’s now 50 years old,” he says. “In the beginning, I bought machines because they were cool. Now, as I’m trying to organise the collection, I find the machines that I thought were complete and fine from the outside, aren’t so complete when you open them up. Even if I was able to restore one machine a month, it would take a long time. I am now more interested in preserving machines in a functional condition.” Kent says this journey of discovery is exactly the type of intention he wants the museum to embrace. In time, he hopes to interview baristas and café owners about their stories and experiences, and design a ‘family tree’ of baristas at a specific time and place to track their career progression and journey in coffee. “We all start somewhere,” Kent says. “Stories, experience and life, this is what coffee is all about.” Kent graduated from college in 1974 and worked in a hamburger stand in Seattle before buying a defunct soup and sandwich shop, which was renamed Hibble & Hyde’s in Pioneer Square, the old part of town. It had an espresso machine in it, the Victoria Arduino mentioned above, and it sparked Kent’s curiosity. “I hadn’t seen one before, or if I had, I didn’t know what it was,” Kent says. “I like mechanical stuff and I was fascinated. I
didn’t know that it didn’t work. There was a motor thing or pump that didn’t make any noise. I didn’t know what it was for. But I put coffee into the machine, and brown liquid would come out. Sometimes foam would appear when steaming the milk, and sometimes it didn’t. I wasn’t a coffee drinker at the time,” he says. Back then, Kent recalls only eight espresso machines in Seattle, one of which he owned. He started going round to coffee shops, pretending to be an espresso machine technician. He’d take the top off and stare awkwardly at the inside components, wondering what each did. He eventually learnt how to change the portafilter gasket, how to remove the steam valve, and other basic repairs. A discussion with Kent’s business partner determined that if he could fix these machines, he should sell them too. In 1978, Kent and his business partners travelled to Italy to visit espresso machine manufacturers. CMA invited him to its factory in Veneto. Next, they ended up in Florence, and after seeing so many La Marzocco machines there, they contacted the company to visit its factory on the edge of Florence. There, they met with Piero Bambi, La Marzocco Engineer and son of the founding brothers. Back in the US, it was an interesting time for the country with lots of young people trying to evolve the food and coffee culture after travelling to Europe and gaining interest in better quality coffee. “The specialty movement in the US really started at a grassroots level. It was really small and slow. But people that had been introduced to a different type of quality of coffee wanted to do something to ‘spread the gospel’, so to speak. We were on board with that. If we sold one machine a month, we thought we had done something to help that movement,” he says. Kent and his partners sold, installed, trained, and serviced La Marzocco espresso machines to the American market, first to the Northwest states: Washington, Alaska, Idaho, California, and Montana. He used the yellow pages and went door knocking, tasked with convincing people that espresso coffee was economically feasible and a worthwhile investment for a market that didn’t really exist. It was a slow and steady process. It took Kent one year to sell his first machine after his initial trip to Italy. To Kent, this was a sign of great things to come. “We would go out to market and ask: ‘Have you thought about serving espresso coffee?’ Some people had no clue what we were talking about, and for others, it was ‘nasty Italian stuff’. We discovered that
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people liked to drink a lot of milk coffees, so we changed our marketing strategy to selling ‘cappuccino machines’,” Kent recalls. “It had a much better ring to it. Since nobody really knew what coffee beverages were, we were really selling a beverage concept, not a machine. We built a cart to house the espresso machine, and we took every opportunity to set it up at any event we could. Even if there was only 10 or 20 people, it was a great way to introduced people to espresso coffee beverages. America is a filter coffee nation. Even to this day, espresso makes up only 30 per cent of the market.” By the time the Specialty Coffee Association launched in the early 80s, a whole generation was inspired to roast coffee, and as Kent best puts it, “things were starting to wake up”. “It was a time of social and cultural change, including lots of food development, so we were in the right place at the right time,” he says. “I’d go to Italy and see all the coffee bars, see how coffee should taste, then bring that back and translate it to the US market without bastardising the product.”
The La Pavoni Concorso on display at the museum represents the history of espresso machine manufacturing. Image: Bakke Coffee Museum.
Over time, the uptake grew, and Kent become recognised as a pioneer of the espresso movement in the US. Just like the collection of coffee machines he is now gifting to the world to view, Kent says he is fortunate to have endured a career that celebrates the evolution of coffee, including its progression in Australia. “For years people told me I had to go to
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Australia and check it out, and on my first trip I was blown away by the quality and volume of coffee that people consume,” Kent says. “It’s inspiring to see the level of sophistication, passion, and execution for great quality coffee. My thanks to all of you, and I hope you’ll come visit the museum in Seattle one day. It’s waiting for you.”
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CELEBRITY CHEF
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Images: Chin Chin
Benjamin Cooper has enjoyed London’s Monmouth Coffee, smelt the aroma of freshly picked coffee cherries in Ethiopia, and put fish sauce in his espresso in Vietnam, but his most memorable and strongest coffee experience was from Miss Sunshine hostel in Bangkok thanks to a travelled barista with exceptional espresso and pour over skills.
Benjamin’s buzz Chin Chin Executive Chef Benjamin Cooper on how coffee has influenced the way he questions and cooks with food, and the reason he’s a fussy espresso drinker. By Sarah Baker enjamin Cooper has an advantage over most finedining chefs when it comes to coffee knowledge. For five years he worked as Head Chef at Melbourne coffee institution St Ali, and the experience, he says, helped shape his appreciation for coffee, but also his approach to food. “My work at St Ali just happened organically. My whole career has been like that. Life has put me wherever I’ve needed to
be at the time. It was amazing. I embraced it, and had an incredible time creating some really cool coffee dinners,” Benjamin tells BeanScene. “I was lucky that Sal [Salvatore Malatesta, St Ali Creative Director] had enough faith in me to let me do my thing. It was a chance to break the shackles and play freely with food. We drew inspiration from Middle Eastern, Mediterranean cuisines, European, Asian, South American. It was an exciting time.”
Benjamin loved jumping behind a La Marzocco coffee machine on the bar, and visiting the roastery where he would seek inspiration from the roasting process. “Coffee is a fascinating world, and I got to appease my curiosity in why and how a good coffee is made, from the rate of extraction and dosage, to even pressure on the tamp,” he says. “I’d often stand by the coffee roaster, talk to the roaster, watch, and smell the drop of freshly roasted beans, and something would
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CELEBRITY CHEF
Chin Chin is renowned for its quality Asian-inspired dishes and energetic atmosphere. Image: Lucas Restaurants.
kick into gear. It allowed a dish to make its way into my head.” Benjamin saw coffee not just as a beverage, but an ingredient for which he took inspiration in the way flavour notes could be extracted. “From a chef’s perspective, roasting coffee and extraction of flavour is like playing with dried spices,” he says. “I remember when we first started getting into really high quality pour overs and filter coffees [at St Ali], I’d taste strawberry and vegetal notes, and it was mind blowing. Coffee is a super complex world and I have the utmost respect for the industry. “Any time you find anything that has unique flavour, properties and qualities, and you discover unique ways of extracting those innate qualities, it makes you openly question everything you’ve learned and the things you do, and question whether those methods of extraction can impact the way you do things.” For Benjamin, filter coffee methods made him question the way he extracted flavour from lemongrass, fruits, and oils, the way he produced a certain soup, wet and soaked whole spices, and added flavour to dishes. Benjamin grew up in the small town of Taree in New South Wales in the days when drip, percolated, and instant coffee were still dominant. Coffee was always in the family home, but Benjamin was forced to become a purist from the get-go due to his dairy allergy. “I remember the first time I had a black coffee, and no sugar. I almost fell over backwards. ‘What is this stuff that all the adults keep raving about?’ This is disgraceful. ‘How could you ever drink this?’ But it stuck with me. I’ve never drunk
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anything else other than black coffee: espresso, long black, batch brew or pour over,” he says. Benjamin is honest about this love for espresso, to the point he says he’s “very, very fussy”. “It’s got to have beautiful crema, a beautiful viscous – viscosity verging on syrupy, good aroma, and hot enough that it needs to sit for about 30 seconds before I take my sip,” he says. Benjamin has a Giotto Rocket machine at home, a Mini Mazzer grinder, three different pour overs, two Chemex, and an AeroPress. When he’s in Sydney visiting Chin Chin’s second venue in Surry Hills, he visits Paramount Coffee Project and Corduroy Café, which does “exceptional Vegemite toast” and “super tasty coffee”. In Melbourne, Benjamin enjoys visiting Proud Mary, Onethirtytwo, and Bowery To Williamsburg – which make him a Red Eye: a filter coffee with an espresso shot added in. “Sometimes you wake up and say, ‘I need caffeine’ to get your heart pumping. From a flavour perspective the Red Eye is actually quite enjoyable. You get the floral high end tea quality notes of filter, but you also get the punch and the depth of an espresso,” he says. He credits Melbourne’s iconic coffee scene to its rich European history, acknowledging the Greeks and Italians who brought with them a love for espresso, and the Asian countries of Vietnam, China, and Japan for their filter methods. “This influence, paired with the lack of fear that you tend to see in Australian hospitality, to push the boundaries and go in new directions, really spurred on the growth of coffee and the opportunity for coffee,” he says. “You name it, you can find it in
Melbourne from Vietnamese and Turkish coffee to old school Italian espresso as strong as they come, to super refined Japanese pour over. It’s all here. Eventually that brings out the best in everything. When a city can respect deeply, cool things happen.” Benjamin says the country has been fortunate to have coffee roasters who pay attention and adapt to different roasting styles to meet different consumption and brewing trends. “We’re incredibly lucky to have gone through the coffee wave where the passion for excellence was elevated beyond everything. Coffee, tea wine and beer are incredibly passion-based. It’s an artisan culture. When you get to speak and share time with anyone from those industries, it has a positive impact on yourself. It’s energising and inspiring,” he says. “It’s also undoubtable, that the growth of respect for coffee farming has had impacts throughout other agricultural processes.” Benjamin pursued his culinary talents in Sydney before travelling to London, but it is Melbourne where he has built his career, most notably working at the iconic Flinders Lane restaurant Chin Chin for the past 12 years. “Chin Chin is an absolutely incredible restaurant, and I feel lucky to have been part of it. It came along at a point where it probably broke the mould for how restaurants operate and the way we do things, and Melbourne really embraced us, Sydney too,” Benjamin says. “You’re lucky to be busy. You want to make sure your guests get the absolute best experience they can. Every day, the whole team comes to work to ensure that’s the case – to go to the ninth degree to make people’s days fun and wonderful.”
That level doesn’t go unnoticed, with guests invited to dine, drink, and indulge in kitchen and bar environment, surrounded by visual and sound stimulants, and an energetic vibe from morning to night. “From the start, Chin Chin has been positioned as an experience and an escape from people’s day-to-day life. It’s about understanding the quality of all things combined that make a dining experience memorable,” Benjamin says. “At its core, if you asked everyone in the hospitality industry, 99 per cent of people would say they got into the industry to make people happy. It’s as simple as that.” To continue that connection, Chin Chin regularly hosts cooking classes in Melbourne and Sydney. It’s a concept that launched during COVID-19 and has become an incredible success since. Head Chef Benjamin conducts a demonstration before participants make three to five dishes, which they get to enjoy afterwards, followed by a Q&A session. “It’s been a really fun extension of my career. It’s nice to share knowledge and stand in a room full of people and have them be interested and curious about what you have to teach them. It’s been one of the most exciting things I’ve been able to do, and it will only continue to grow,” he says. On the professional side of the kitchen, Lucas Restaurants, which owns Chin Chin, also runs an apprenticeship program across
Benjamin Cooper spent five years as Head Chef at St Ali and 12 years as Executive Chef at Chin Chin. Image: Lucas Restaurants.
its suite of venues, which Benjamin gets great enjoyment from. “We really try and spend time with those young chefs, to nurture their growth and ensure they’re not jaded by what could be challenging industry,” he says. “For me, more and more, the opportunities to work with the junior staff and to share the passion for the industry
is so important, and to ensure it doesn’t disappear. Rightly or wrongly, people sometimes think this industry’s hard, and it is, but it’s also wonderful. “I love the creative side of this industry. I love pushing the boundaries and being part of energetic growth that pushes you to deliver great things. Let’s keep doing what we’re doing.”
COVER STORY
The Diamantina is a diamond-like prism of reflecting angles. Image: Prime Creative Media.
Shine bright like a diamond La Pavoni details the progression of the brand, how its range of machinery caters to both domestic and professional baristas and its success in the Australian market.
n 1956, Gio Ponti, Chief Editor of the Italian design and architectural magazine Domus, announced an international design competition for a coffee machine. After an influx of submissions, Domus selected a design by then-unknown Italian artists Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari. They nicknamed the machine ‘the Diamond’ due to its contoured panels offering a diamond-like prism of reflecting angles, which could be composed to obtain different colour combinations and sizes. La Pavoni originally sold this machine under the commercial name of ‘Modello Concorso’ until the early 1960s when it officially adopted the Diamante name.
“What’s interesting, is that at the same time the competition was running for the design of the Diamante, in 1955 an international design competition was also launched by New South Wales Premier Joseph Cahill for a venue suitable for operas, ballets, and concerts, [with the winning design becoming] what we now know to be the Sydney Opera House,” says La Pavoni National Sales Manager Tom Douch. The Diamante range has been renewed over time, adopting the latest technology on the market while maintaining its timeless charm. It’s also due to be released in February as a domestic version, with a smaller footprint and the promise of the
same high-quality coffee. The new Diamantina is a semiprofessional coffee machine made of copper and brass internal components and finished in golden and chromed geometric elements. Handmade by La Pavoni, the Diamantina’s dual boiler and electronic temperature regulation ensure constant temperature and unrivalled precision in coffee preparation. “A machine for domestic use with bar performance, Diamantina offers high performance thanks to temperature control, guaranteeing thermal stability in water supply thanks to the two independent boilers,” says Tom. “Equipped with a Brewing Pressure
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COVER STORY
According to La Pavoni, the Expo lever machine is an iconic model. Image: Prime Creative Media.
Profiling Control system, it allows the barista to vary the water pressure exerted on the coffee during brewing in real time, obtaining an optimal result in the cup with every blend.” Thermo Proportional-IntegralDerivative (PID) temperature regulation allows the user to program the boiler temperature to personalise flavours in the cup. Tom says this also allows the user to follow specific coffee recipes and make the most of unique coffee varieties. “This semi-professional coffee machine stands out for its attention to detail and is ideal for true specialty machine enthusiasts. It is the true expression of authentic Italian craftsmanship,” says Tom. Accompanying the Diamantina in the new La Pavoni range is the Cellini Mini, a semi-professional machine equipped with a stainless-steel single boiler. For a small machine, it holds a water tank capacity of
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2.5 litres and can be housed in a polished stainless steel or black finish. Tom says the small footprint and powerful steam performance makes the Cellini Mini a great option for customers switching to a semi-professional machine for the first time. “If we look at our customers’ journey through espresso, a lot of them start out using a mid-range machine but find the steam isn’t fast enough, the portafilter isn’t big enough or there’s a temperature issue, before upgrading to a semiprofessional,” he says. “The Cellini Mini is more cost-effective, and it doesn’t take up a lot of space on your benchtop or compromise on quality. It’s definitely worth the spend.” La Pavoni is also refreshing its Botticelli and Cellini semi-professional range to keep up with market demand and customer needs.
Smeg Australia’s General Manager of the Professional Division, Leon Wolf, says lever machines are also an important part of Italy’s design history, one which has made preparing coffee “a delicious art”. To continue this tradition, La Pavoni offers domestic lever machines. Some feature a larger professional boiler, capable of brewing more coffees on a single tank, and are equipped with a pressure gauge that displays the boiler pressure at all times. The range includes the Europiccola, Professional, Stradivari and Esperto models. “The perfect combination of design, tradition and technology, the lever models offer ideal brewing which allows the user to enjoy a delicious coffee with abundant crema from a miniature espresso bar-type machine. Manual brewing incorporates the art of preparing a real espresso in the finest Italian tradition, for a coffee with an intense, full-bodied flavour,” Leon says. “The La Pavoni Professional model is on display at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, highlighting how these models represent the highest standard of coffee machines for domestic use in the world.” Leon says this was further validated at the 2023 Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE), where he received extremely positive market feedback from attendees. “This was only our second time exhibiting at MICE. The first time was great, but in those 12 months after the expo we made a lot of changes to the products and improvements on the quality, and came back in 2023 with a stand that proved that,” he says. “The industry recognised that we were listening to market feedback and gave us an amazing response. It gave us a really positive outlook on the future of the brand and where we can take it.”
A LEADING LEGACY
La Pavoni has been synonymous with Italian coffee since 1905. According to Italian home appliance manufacturer Smeg Australia, which acquired the brand in 2019, it has a long history of passion and tradition which has made its espresso coffee machines famous around the world. “La Pavoni, one of the original brands in the coffee world, gave life to the first espresso machine for bars, the ‘Ideale’, and created one of the world’s most famous lever machines. We’re eager to educate the Australian market on La Pavoni’s heritage and the authenticity of a handmade Italian coffee machine,” says Leon. “This acquisition also allows us to complete our category offering in our professional division. With our professional ovens, dishwashers, cooktops, and now
coffee machines, we can supply a café with all the equipment they need to open their doors and become a successful establishment.” La Pavoni’s range of commercial coffee machines encompasses three distinct series: Geniale, Desiderio and Diamante, each available in a variety of colours, featuring two- and three-group models. The Geniale is a collective of workhorse machines capable of handling high output volumes for a diverse range of businesses and industries. The Desiderio elevates the coffee machine experience by incorporating an LCD display that offers real-time machine feedback, customisable settings, and brewing calibrations. Diamante machines are available in lever-operated and programmable push-controlled brewing options. “Each series within the professional coffee machine line-up is a testament to [La Pavoni’s] commitment to innovation, quality, and value. From the performance Geniale, the technical Desiderio, and the avant-garde Diamante series, each machine reflects their dedication to providing coffee enthusiasts, businesses, and the industry with the ultimate coffee machine,” Leon says. He adds that La Pavoni also completes Smeg Australia’s domestic collection,
From left: Smeg Australia’s James Hill, Luca Duarte, Leon Wolf and Tom Douch. Image: Smeg Australia.
offering a range of semi-professional and lever machines. Leon says he leans on the brand’s heritage to elevate its market value and will focus on increasing brand awareness in 2024. “Having 118 years’ experience in manufacturing espresso machines is not something many brands can attest to,”
he says. “We’re very aware of how sacred La Pavoni’s history is, and we want to appreciate and embrace that in each machine we sell. “I have a great team that embodies the same passion and enthusiasm to help grow the brand.” For more information, visit au.lapavoni.com
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
A well-oiled machine
BeanScene talks to Barista Group partners on how the Übermilk and Markibar Izaga W streamline a café’s workflow by reducing waste and improving cup quality and consistency.
The Shed uses the Übermilk and Markibar Izaga W to bridge the gap between all levels of baristas. Image: The Shed.
ver the past six years, Barista Group had built a portfolio of products that streamline many elements of coffee making, from grinding and tamping to brewing and steaming milk. Two of those products are the Übermilk automatic milk frother and Markibar Izaga W grind-by weight coffee grinder. Designed for workflow and purposebuilt for speed and efficiency, Three Beans Director Matt Howe says these products are exactly the type of high calibre equipment he looks for in his cafés, combining excellence in practicality and functionality. “We’ve worked with Barista Group for five years now, and the first product we implemented into our cafés from (Barista
Group General Manager) Joe Chalhoub was the Übermilk device when he first imported them into Australia. I think we actually received two from the first batch he bought into the country,” Matt says. Übermilk automates the milk frothing process, delivering a consistent, ready-topour micro foamed milk at the barista’s desired temperature. Compact and customisable, the system looks right at home sitting next to a grinder and espresso machine on the coffee bar. “It really reduces the amount of time spent training staff. One of the main assets of the machine is that a new barista can produce milk the same quality as, if not better than, someone more experienced,” Matt says.
A hose directly connects the unit to milk sitting in the refrigerator, reducing the time it spends out of the fridge and clutter on the bar. The desired volume of milk is syphoned into an aerator, where a needle valve is used to control how much air is incorporated. It then runs through a high-power heater and filter, resulting in micro foamed milk pouring out of its nozzle. “We are always looking for ways to incorporate innovative products into our cafés. For example, I visited a café in Queensland a few years ago and saw that they were using an espresso takeaway cup to dose shots. I saw how we could create a more efficient process and printed a 3D
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Three Beans uses a Markibar Izaga W grinder to increase speed and efficiency. Image: Three Beans.
plastic dosing cup before making our own aluminium ones,” says Matt. “The most important thing for us was that our coffee tasted the same whether a customer visited a café in Brisbane, Manly, Miranda or Parramatta. When we saw what Joe was doing and how he was incorporating innovation into the industry, we wanted to be a part of his network.” Campos Coffee is another company that saw Barista Group’s reliable and competitively priced equipment and decided to support the brand and its products. “When I started at Campos in 2020, they’d recently brought in the Markibar Izaga grinders. Part of my role was looking at what equipment we could offer our wholesale customers, and I quickly realised this grinder was designed for establishments with high volume output and for those wanting to eliminate steps in their workflow,” says Campos Coffee Program Specialist Geoff Clarke. Geoff says the Markibar Izaga W features innovative Grind-by-Weight technology with instant scale-controlled dosing that guarantees maximum consistency and a constant quality in coffee, without barista adjustment. “The grinder delivers consistent doses despite changing the grinding point, which can be altered to finer or coarser without affecting the coffee dose delivered to the filter. It also isn’t affected by natural burr wear and tear, changing the type of coffee used in the grinder, or environmental factors like temperature, humidity, or sunlight,” he says.
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Users can switch between the Instant Dose and On Demand grinding modes on Izaga W grinders at the touch of a button. The work mode and status of the dosing chambers are shown in real time on the alphanumeric display. Geoff says when it comes to supplier relations, Campos Coffee takes careful consideration into who it partners with. “We always look for a few key things in our partnerships. Firstly, we look at the quality of the product and the coffee that comes out of it. Secondly, we consider the reliability of the equipment, and if it will reduce technician call-outs, and in turn, reduce costs. Thirdly, while we do put a lot of investment into training staff, any way that the machinery can reduce that requirement is also super important to us,” he says. “We want consistency to represent our brand in each of our cafés and we want to replicate that same quality through all our wholesale partners. The equipment we’ve received from Barista Group certainly helps us reach this goal.” The Shed is another brand that takes its coffee seriously. At each of The Shed’s 23 stores, Operations Manager Frank Bilgic says quality coffee is the heart and soul of the cafés. “We decided from day one that we must use high-grade specialty beans. Our house blend regularly scores between 84 and 86 points, and we wanted the best equipment to honour those beans. That starting point allowed our head baristas and owners to work their magic on the frontline,” says Frank.
“All our stores work with a recipe and we are strict in keeping within our ranges. When we kicked off the franchise in 2014, we only used a scale to dial in the coffee. We quickly realised we needed to weigh every dose to the milligram to achieve consistency in each cup.” Frank says the Izaga Grind by Weight has been “incredible” in achieving not only the exact dose but speed with an instant dose option. “The exact dose was an instant game changer for our stores. It allowed for more efficiency when pulling shots. We clean our grinders every day and it’s super easy to clean as well,” he says. Frank says the Übermilk rounds out the equipment used in The Shed cafés that offers increased consistency and workflow. “Übermilk has not only improved efficiency but also the quality of milk being served with perfect foam and temperature in each cup. Most head baristas are unsure at first to use the Übermilk, but give them a day or two with the machine and they fall in love,” he says. “One of our main priorities is achieving and maintaining quality across all stores. The Izaga Grind by Weight and Übermilk have become a standard part of equipment and have helped with scalability and bridging the gap between all levels of baristas. By combining high quality beans with high quality equipment, we have achieved great results across all stores.” For more information, visit www.baristagroup.com.au
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INDUSTRY PROFILE Milklab celebrated its eighth birthday with a series of collaborations and activations. Image: Milklab.
Celebrating with friends Collaboration is part of Milklab’s ethos and the company hopes to take it to a new level in 2024. ecember served as a monthlong birthday celebration for Milklab, and the premium barista milk brand plans on keeping the party going in the year ahead. Milklab’s journey began in 2015 with a goal of producing premium alternative milks to the hospitality industry, and to elevate the café coffee experience for baristas and coffee lovers alike. Some eight years later, the company celebrated its milestone with a series of collaborations and activations which helped enrich its relationships with baristas, roasters, food scientists, café owners, and other industry professionals. “There have been so many amazing collaborations in 2023, and we wanted to give thanks to the brands and people we collaborated with last year, and over the
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past eight years,” Milklab Brand Manager Melanie Ung says. “We wouldn’t be where we are today without [establishing relationships with other companies] – it’s one of our core brand pillars ever since way back in 2015. “We definitely don’t like doing things alone – we incorporate feedback and collaboration is vital to pretty much everything that we do. We can’t wait to see what opportunities arise in 2024.” Milklab took its partnership efforts up a notch in December 2023, which included consumers enjoying free coffee at eight participating cafés from around Australia. The company also partnered with Australian clothing brand Breakfast Shirts to produce the Milklab Breakfast Shirt, available on the Milklab merchandise store. Earlier in the year, at the 2023 Melbourne International Coffee Expo
(MICE), Milklab displayed the strong bonds it had created since its establishment by bringing ‘Milklab Lane’ to life. Melanie says Melbourne’s laneways, hole-in-the-wall style cafés, inspired the immersive experience with a network of coffee carts, and a live DJ. “Debuting Milklab Lane at MICE was a real highlight – it was an opportunity for us to collaborate with our roaster partners and baristas from all across Australia,” Melanie says. “We also celebrated a sustainability partnership as well, with our stand made with sustainable materials including Saveboard – a low-carbon building material made from hard-to-recycle liquid paper board used in milk and juice cartons, including Milklab packaging. “Sustainability is important to Milklab and we are always looking for ways to reduce our environmental impact, so
knowing each board saved 500 used beverage cartons from landfill made partnering with Saveboard a no-brainer.” Some of the brand’s other activations at MICE included launching an International Barista Battle, and partnering with four roaster and machinery businesses to present the ‘Oat Standing Café’ with Roasting Warehouse, ‘Almond Arthouse’ with Undercover Roasters, ‘Summer Sensations’ with White Horse Coffee, and ‘Nutty Nook’ with Evolve North. Milklab also launched a new merchandise line during the year, in partnership with visual artist Luke John Matthew Arnold, and ethically made apparel business, the Common Goods Company. To further highlight its roaster partnerships, Milklab began publishing a new content series called ‘Coffee Chats’ across its platforms in late 2023, with more to come in 2024. Coffee Chats features interviews with partner roasters so readers can get to know a little more about the businesses that work with Milklab. Melanie says Milklab is always on the lookout for interesting and fun ways to partner with businesses in the coffee industry. “Collaboration remains at the heart of everything we do as we continue to work with the industry to evaluate and evolve our range,” she says.
The Milklab plant-based and dairy milks have been developed to complement espresso. Image: Milklab.
“We’ve loved highlighting a lot of our café and barista partners throughout the year on our own website and social media channels, showcasing what makes each roaster and café unique, and [the reaction has been] overwhelmingly positive. “We want to thank everyone for our collaborations over the past eight years and
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we’re still committed to collaborating with baristas and the café industry in the future – there’s still a lot more to come, and we’re looking at how we can take that into 2024.” For more information, visit www.milklabco.com
TECH PROFILE
A trusted partner Why Barista Attitude’s new Faro grinder is a reliable ally baristas can trust thanks to a complex system of technology that delivers speed, precision and grind consistency. The Faro grinder features an integrated weighing scale with automatic portafilter recognition.
ost people have a partner in life that guides their decision-making and has their back when times are tough. When it comes to coffee equipment, the same rules apply. A barista needs to rely on the quality and consistency of its tools to ensure the job gets done easily, and to the highest standard. It’s for this reason coffee machine manufacturer Barista Attitude is introducing the Faro grinder to complete its range of espresso equipment, which already includes the Tempesta, Storm, and Pilot espresso machines. “Faro is an integrated system that provides technology solutions and features that are combined with the same aim and target as all Barista Attitude products – to help make the lives of baristas easier,” says Barista Attitude Group Marketing Director Jacopo Bambini. “Our products have always provided solutions, such as single and multimachines, pressure profiling, long steam
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wands, touchscreen displays. And now, the Faro can help support baristas even further by producing a consistent grind that delivers a perfect up every time.” Faro, meaning lighthouse in Italian, is a development of the Grindie Solo grinder, of which Barista Attitude now owns under its portfolio of products. As such, Barista Attitude has retained the tried and tested technology in the grinder, and modified its design to incorporate key attributes of Barista Attitude’s range, including Tempesta’s raised metal feet, and a new digital interface. “Retaining the technology in this grinder also means certification is already in place in some countries, such as Australia, where we hope to launch Faro in early 2024,” Jacopo says. He is confident the specialty coffee market will appreciate this model. Not for one technological standout, but because of the equal complexity of technical features underneath Faro’s surface, and its simplicity on the outside.
One such feature is the integrated weighing scale. Users can set desired doses for each portafiler just once, before presenting it to the portafiler holder where the grinder will recognise the weight thanks to automatic portafilter recognition with an integrated scale connected to the portafilter bracket. From there, it will grind the pre-set single or double dose required to +/- 0.1 grams of accuracy thanks to in-built scales monitoring every particle extracted. The exist dosage is visible on the digital interface in real-time, so the user can see exactly how the dose is measuring. “No longer will you have operator error about under- or over-dosing because the grinder technology will recognise the desired dose, produce a really accurate result, and ultimately this will be reflected in the cup-quality,” Jacopo says. “The blend quality is important, the coffee machine is important, but so is the quality of the grind, its consistency and precision during operation. You shouldn’t need to worry about the variables. Instead, you should be communicating with your customers, concentrating on human relationships, and serving them the best cappuccino of their life with ease.” Grindie Business Development Manager Eleonora Bardoni agrees, saying for many years the industry has undervalued the importance of grind consistency for quality extraction. It’s for this reason the first industrialised version of the Grindie grinder was created in 2019. “The grinder was developed for the specialty coffee industry in mind. The main problem with grind-by-weight technology in general, is that when the cell breaks, you have to stop using the device and stop your business. With our model, you can simply switch to manual mode, the grinder cuts out by weight technology, and reverts to previously set dose settings so you can keep using the grinder without interruption,” Eleonora says. “Baristas have enough problems to work through during their day. They need to feel safe, and that they can trust the equipment they’re using. You can have a great machine like the Tempesta or Storm, but a coffee can be easily ruined with the wrong grind. Just like in a sporting team, each member needs to play their part otherwise no one reaches the end goal.”
Micrometric adjustment of Faro’s 68-diameter burrs also ensures the accuracy and consistency of the grind. “Sometimes people think bigger burrs imply bigger retention because you have more space under between the burrs and the grinder chamber wall. But in our opinion, the burr diameter is a perfect compromise between the right level of productivity with very small retention,” Eleonora says. “We chose the best burrs on the market, using Black Diamond titanium coating. Following sensory tests, it was determined that this coating guarantees more fruit and flower flavour notes in coffee. The burrs don’t heat the coffee and are longlife burrs, so they maintain a stable grind for a long time.” Through Faro’s touchscreen display and information setting, users can see the temperature and set your own profile, and safely protect it under password lock avoiding staff error. The other advantage, Eleonora says, is Faro’s screwless burrs. “One of the most annoying processes in maintaining equipment is cleaning. When you open grinder, you are never able to clean the retention inside the screw holes. Faro’s burrs are in a fixed position, which actually gives you more cutting surface. Sixty-eight diameter burrs without screw holes gives you more productivity because you have more cutting surface. This cutting surface, even the geometry of teeth, was
The Faro grinder has 68-millimetre diameter burrs with Black Diamond titanium coating.
designed to give you the perfection range of microns to suit the extraction you need,” she says. A patented anti-clumping feature is also integrated into the grinder. “Without with system in a grind-byweight grinder, the ground coffee will agglomerate in big clumps. They will fall down in the portafilter, so you can’t have accuracy in the weight system, and you’ll get channelling during extraction because when you press the powder, clumps will give a higher density inside the [coffee] biscuit,” Eleonora says. Every component inside the grinder has also been designed for noise absorption, with anti-vibrant features helping to keep noise during the grinding process to a minimum. Barista Attitude has considered how temperature impacts the flavour of coffee, and uses a temperature probe inside the grinder body to monitor the air and exist temperature of coffee granules. “One fan sucks out hot air produced during the grinding process, and another fan sucks in fresh air so a circulation of air inside the grinder is always maintained and kept stable,” Eleonora says. She adds that as a result of the Faro’s accuracy, there is less grind and time wasted trying to perfect the right grind dosage. “A few days ago, I took part in an intermediate roasting course where we had to roast coffee and find the right extraction. One participant used and wasted half a kilogram of coffee which was thrown out in the process of finding the best extraction and tasting each time. Of course, he didn’t use the Faro grinder,” Eleonora says. “Coffee is precious. There’s lots of labour behind it. You cannot afford to throw away specialty coffee because you can’t find the right geometric size for the right extraction. It’s also about how you value your time as a barista, and the value you present to your customers.” More and more, Jacopo says Barista Attitude customers have requested a grinder that meets the needs of the specialty market. He said while price point is important, how the grinder can improve cup quality and add value to a café’s daily operations should be positioned beyond any numerical figure. “There are so many variables that can ruin your work, and in this current climate of staff shortages and low retention, baristas need the confidence that they have the right tools to produce the best outcome,” Jacopo says. “If we can make their lives that little bit easier, even with Faro, then we’re doing our job right.” For more information, visit www.barista-attitude.com
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Crème de la crème
Campos Coffee celebrates its longstanding support of the Cup of Excellence program with a month of single origin releases from the specialty coffee competition. up of Excellence coffees are the pinnacle of taste and quality. Quite often they’re rare, exclusive, and limited, from exotic places most consumers have never dared to visit. But Campos Coffee has. The Australian roaster has committed to purchasing more than 133 Cup of Excellence (CoE) coffees over the years, a competition considered the pinnacle of coffee grading. In March 2023, that number will climb when Campos Coffee launches a month of consecutive CoE releases. “We will start with our feature espresso Coffee of the Month being a Natural Processed Caturra and Rui-11 from Pampojila y Anexos in Guatemala,” says Campos Coffee Green Bean Buyer Lloyd Thom. “It ranked 27th in the 2023 Guatemala CoE with a score of 87.15 and really stood out to us on the cupping table. We loved the fruit forward complexity and intensity of this coffee. We knew it would make for a seriously impactful espresso and might even be a profile customers might not expect from Guatemala.” Campos Coffee will also feature a Natural Processed Geisha filter coffee from Noruega in El Salvador. This coffee ranked 19th in the 2023 El Salvador CoE and received a cupping score of 88.04. “This coffee is from the farm that [Campos Coffee Coffee Program Specialist Geoff Clarke] visited after he participated in the international jury in June 2023, and then also bid on during the auction,” says Lloyd. “El Salvador has become one of our favourite CoE auctions every year. It’s a country that, while relatively small in size, prioritises a high level of quality and innovation with exotic varieties and adventurous processing.” This year, Campos Coffee will also feature its first Taiwanese coffee. The first official CoE event in Taiwan – The Best of Taiwan CoE Pilot – held its online auction on 24 August 2023. This Natural Process SL34 from Koana Coffee Farm in Taiwan scored 87.92 and ranked 12th in the competition. “We are really excited to bring our first ever release from this exciting origin. While it is a familiar variety and process, a Natural Process SL34, it still brought a whole range
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Lloyd Thom (right) is Campos Coffee’s Green Bean Buyer. Image: Campos Coffee.
of new flavours for us and will also be roasted for filter coffee,” Lloyd says. Finally, the roaster will release another espresso coffee, a Washed Bourbon from El Rejo in Peru. Ranking 23rd in the 2023 Peru CoE, this coffee received a cupping score of 87.79. “This is a really classic representation of the Bourbon profile at its most complex and decadent and also comes from our old friend and farmer Jose Rivera who we’ve known since 2018,” says Lloyd. Each of the four premium single origins will be available in new 150-gram premium packaging. Lloyd says a big reason the roaster has been able to secure exquisite coffees over the years, is thanks to its ongoing commitment to the CoE specialty coffee competition, which it has supported since 2010. “I’m proud of our history and support of Cup of Excellence. We’ve spent almost US$2 million (about AUD$3 million) on Cup of Excellence coffee since we started supporting the program, and we have also been involved in more than 50 CoE international juries,” Lloyd says. “The most important thing that’s evolved through our involvement in CoE is the direct relationships we have now established with farmers outside of the competition. It started with us buying their lots and now we’ve continued to support them beyond
the event, buying more and trying their different coffees. It’s not always about single origin, unicorn coffees. It’s about seeing what else the producer can supply and what potential there is to broaden the relationship. That’s the great thing about Cup of Excellence, it facilitates those relationships.” Lloyd looks forward to rolling out Campos Coffee’s program of CoE coffees each week of March, and will continue to promote the CoE program and create awareness for the producers behind the beans. “CoE has become an incredibly important centre point for defining how we approach quality and relationships as well as the emphasis we place on transparency and traceability,” Lloyd says. “The program has set the standard for increased premiums that farmers have been able to receive for their exemplary coffees. It continues to build a much more transparent infrastructure and gives farmers the tools needed to improve the economic model of their farms. It’s a great way to raise funds for coffees farmers in origin countries and incentivise and motivate farmers who know there can be a recognition and financial reward for their hard work and effort.” For more information, visit camposcoffee.com or cupofexcellence.org
INDUSTRY PROFILE Riverina Fresh’s Wagga Wagga factory started the switch to solar energy in 2023. Image: Riverina Fresh.
Solar switch Riverina Fresh’s factory in Wagga Wagga is changing over to solar energy in 2024, and joining some of the company’s partner farms in their quest for sustainable solutions. he rising cost of electricity has many Australian businesses considering other options to curb the costs but keep the lights on. For Australian dairy and food services company Riverina Fresh, the decision to install solar energy was an economical and environmental consideration that compliments the factory’s focus on lowering its overall energy consumption. Riverina Fresh Engineering Manager John English oversees capital projects at the Wagga Wagga factory in New South Wales, including the recent installation of solar panels on the roof of the company’s head office. “One of our core values [at Riverina Fresh] is impact, and that refers to our impact both today and into the future,” John says, alluding to the company’s commitment to renewable energy. The factory completed its installation of 1300 square metres of solar panels contributing almost 300 kilowatts of power, which John says is a good amount to help the factory start its switch to renewable energy. The project is one of the larger private solar installations in the Riverina. “There is potential to add to it in the years to come,” he says. “For now
The Singleton family takes care of approximately 750 cows at their Blighty farm. Image: Ellie Haines.
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though, in particular, the cool rooms lend themselves to solar energy, especially during hot sunny days.” With the solar switch having started in late 2023, John projects the factory will save approximately 10 per cent of power consumption per year moving forward. “It will really help us reduce our carbon footprint and lessen the impact of recent fluctuations in electricity prices,” he says. The Wagga Wagga factory became the first within the company to install solar panels, with similar changes being considered at other locations in the Riverina Fresh network. Riverina Fresh has 19 dairy farming partners who it works closely with every day to ensure the milk is of the highest quality. This includes working with the local farmers on sustainability as well as innovation in renewable energy opportunities. Ellie Haines, alongside her brother Sam Singleton and their partners, are one of a number of Riverina Fresh farmers who have also made the move to renewable energy. The family-owned dairy farm in the New South Wales town of Blighty joined forces with Riverina Fresh in July 2021, and has installed 100 kilowatts of solar panels
across its dairy shed and select rooftops across the property. It has also become the first farm in the Riverina Fresh network to incorporate a hybrid model of batteries and solar energy. “We’d been looking at solar system for a while now,” Ellie says. “It just made sense for us to go ahead and make the change, and we’re in an ideal location to set it up so others can see it, so that it could hopefully have a positive influence on other farmers in the region.” Approximately 750 cows on the family farm are milked twice a day year-round. As such, Ellie says power is an important part of making sure the farm’s daily operations run smoothly. The batteries, installed alongside the solar panels, provide a further 128 kilowatts of storage, which is crucial for the milking that takes place before dawn as it provides light in the sheds. “There’s going to be a further push for sustainability in the future, so we thought we’d get ahead of it while we could,” says Ellie. Ellie says her family has been pleased with the transition to a hybrid power system, which has helped reduce energy costs without compromising on productivity. “We have had a 60 per cent decrease in power usage on our bills,” she says. “We’ve been very happy with how things have gone so far, and the service we’ve had with the solar company has been fantastic.” For Ellie and her family, partnering with a company like Riverina Fresh that shares similar values has led to a great relationship from both a sustainability and business perspective. “We are very happy to be involved in the fresh milk market,” Ellie says. “We love to know that our milk is going to good use in coffees.” For more information, visit www.riverinafresh.com.au
INDUSTRY PROFILE
Let’s go again As another epic year begins, Coffee Tools Distributing reflects on a successful 2023 and gets excited for what’s to come in 2024. hen you’ve had a busy and successful year, it’s natural to question how to match it, or better it. For Coffee Tools Distributing, 2023 was jam-packed. It had a mass influx of new coffee equipment, exhibited at the 2023 Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE), and most recently, sponsored the Australian and World AeroPress Championship. “Overall, it has been a great year with lots of exciting new products and sponsorships. We’ve also expanded our team and added some great new members,” says Coffee Tools Distributing Director Curtis Arnold. Over the year, the distributor welcomed new products including the Subminimal NanoFoamer Pro automatic milk foaming device, Barista Hustle AutoComb distribution tool, DiFOLD origami water bottles, xBloom automated pour over machine, and AeroPress XL and Clear coffee makers, to name a few. “Our first shipments of the xBloom arrived in late 2023, so we’re eager to get that out into the market. I think that will be a game-changing product as there isn’t anything else like it in market,” says Curtis. “Our AeroPress products also received a lot of attention at MICE 2023. It was great to see such uptake in the Australian coffee community for such a longstanding product.” The xBloom produces a stream of water that saturates and agitates the coffee bed. Image: xBloom.
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The AeroPress XL has double the capacity of the original AeroPress. Image: Coffee Tools Distributing.
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Curtis says exhibiting at MICE 2023 was beneficial for the company. It generated great feedback from customers and was a “really positive experience for the team”. “MICE was a huge success for us. It was great being a sponsor and we’re really looking forward to exhibiting at the expo again this year. Connecting in person with attendees at events like this is invaluable,” he says. Not long after MICE, Coffee Tools Distributing continued its sponsoring duties at the 2023 Australian and World AeroPress Championship, which took place in Melbourne from 1 to 2 December. “The competition was fantastic, and participation at the world event was very high. They’ve also just formally announced that the 2024 event will be in Lisbon, Portugal which is really exciting. We will hopefully get to see that event live too,” says Curtis. Curtis is also eager to continue his partnership with CafeSmart, an annual event organised by not-profit StreetSmart Australia that raises funds to support Australians affected by homelessness. “Sponsoring CafeSmart is something I’m really excited about. I’m really looking forward to hopefully increasing our participation this year, raising awareness, and taking action against homelessness,” he says. Curtis is also proud of the company’s
commitment to 1% for the Planet, a global movement inspiring businesses and individuals to support environmental solutions through everyday actions. Each year, the company donates 1 per cent of its total sales to approved sustainable organisations. “Coffee is truly the source of what we do here at Coffee Tools Distributing and is an essential part of the lives of the people who work here, which is why the causes we support are so valued to us,” Curtis says. After a positive reflection on the past, and an optimistic outlook on the year ahead, the Coffee Tools Distributing Director hopes 2024 will offer more opportunities for growth, and more opportunities to connect with an industry he’s passionate about. “We’re hoping to move into a bigger warehouse space in Queensland, as we’ve outgrown our existing space. We also have a bunch of new products coming, including a new line of Grosche water bottles and cups as well as the AeroPress Premium coffee maker, featuring a construction of glass, stainless steel, and aluminium instead of the usual plastic,” he says. “The premium materials and attractive design will also make it a standout piece on any coffee bar,” Curtis says. For more information, visit www.coffeetools.supply
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TECH PROFILE
Capsule evolution
Trends in coffee capsule preferences are always on the move, which is why IMA Group has prepared itself to provide solutions for any request. talian packaging specialist IMA Coffee has identified Australia as an emerging coffee market, according to Head of Product and Project Management at IMA Coffee, Alessandro Nobili. “There are many small roasters in Australia who are not yet producing large volumes, but it is still very costly and time consuming to manually handle the roasting, packaging and delivery of their coffee,” says Nobili. “If they are going to increase production, they need to think about how to automate the packaging process to ensure better efficiency and profitability while maximising time and resources.” As such, IMA Coffee’s Packaging Division has developed a wide range of packaging solutions, from consultancy and design to production planning and turnkey lines, providing equipment for dosing, filling, sealing, and cartoning. “Whether Classic or Avant-garde packaging style, IMA Coffee machines can process and handle every type of coffee product. Starting with evergreen products, such as coffee bags, as well as soft and hard pods with a customised envelope configuration,” says Nobili. “Coffee is extremely sensitive to exposure to air, light, and environmental odours. The fragrance and flavour of coffee is its core value, and IMA’s packaging solutions protect its quality, and extend the shelf life for both beans and ground coffee.” IMA’s packaging machinery includes hermetic sealing systems, special valve systems for freshness, and resealable systems for consumer convenience, which are configurable for gusseted bags, flat bottom, flat top and stabilo bags, block bottom and quad seal. Every IMA Coffee vertical machine can handle recyclable or compostable packaging materials. “The coffee sector is evolving fast in terms of types of packaging, and it is important to constantly innovate to meet the increasingly rapidly changing needs and
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global attention to sustainability, even in Australia,” says Nobili. Nobili says Australia tends to follow the lead of European trends in the industry, including the rise of single-serve packaging over the last decade. For these product types, IMA Coffee provides low, medium, or high-speed solutions. “The trend of recent years has seen a strong increase in the consumption of coffee in single-serve pods and capsules,” says Nobili. “Most of the coffee filter paper pods on the market are of the ESE 44 (Easy Serving Espresso) type, that is, 44-millimetre diameter pods with pre-dosed coffee content varying between seven and eight grams.” Nobili says coffee capsules, on the other hand, differ from one another in terms of shape, size, and the material they are made of, whether it be aluminium, plastic, or compostable material. “Coffee capsules are complex structures where the capsule body, lidding, and filter must be precisely designed to deliver a consistently high-quality experience,” he says. He adds that before the capsules reach
IMA Coffee opened its Coffee Lab at its headquarters in northern Italy in 2022 to test its fully functional processing line with new packaging materials. Images: IMA Coffee.
consumers, it’s key that these components sustain well during assembly and filling, brewing, and while on the shelf. “Thanks to a high degree of automation and flexibility, every filler from the IMA Coffee portfolio can handle all types of capsules, no matter what material they are made of,” says Nobili. IMA Coffee officially presented its lowspeed filling technology, the SB1 Lab, at Host Milano 2023, which is able to handle compostable materials. “The SB1 is an extremely compact rotary machine for the filling and sealing of single capsules, meant for Lab purposes and small productions,” Nobili says. “Thanks to a very fast size changeover, the SB1 can handle Nespresso compatible capsule in plastic, aluminium, and compostable material.” Capsules can be fed manually by the operator and individually inserted into the rotary table or stacked into a magazine, before being placed into the rotary table by means of an automatic de-stacking unit. Capsules can be closed at the top with aluminium film, micro perforated, filter paper, triplex coupled, polypropylene, and a compostable lid. Nobili says IMA Coffee can also offer complete packaging line including secondary and end-of-line solutions. Secondary packaging ensures product protection and integrity when it leaves the production site to reach the final consumers. Different secondary packaging methods are performed according to the primary packaging type. “The end-of-line solutions allows you to create a safe packaging for coffee packages, facilitating their transport on pallets,” says Nobili. “IMA Coffee’s bundling and wrapping machines, case packers, palletisers and de-palletisers cover a wide range of speeds.” For more information, visit ima.it/coffee
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Show business
Barista Equip’s showroom opened in November 2023. Image: Barista Equip.
Barista Equip tells BeanScene why its new showroom is an all-in-one space for the coffee industry to grow, learn and network. t took Barista Equip two-and-a-half years to bring its glistening new Queensland showroom to life. But for CEO Brett Bolwell, the payoff hit him in less than a minute into its official launch in mid-November where about 70 people from all sectors of the coffee industry attended. “We’ve been in barista technology for just over 10 years and decided to do a rebrand under more of a global brand, which became Barista Equip (formerly Barista Technology Australia). As part of
that rebrand, we wanted to form a really solid alliance with Queensland café owners, roasters and the industry in general,” Brett says. “We said, ‘well, if we’re going to do that, we need a collaborative space that we can use as a showroom, both retail and commercial, but also as a destination for events, product launches, training, competitions, cuppings – basically a collaborative space for our local and interstate coffee friends to utilise in whatever their minds can imagine.
The space is located in Burleigh Heads, Queensland. Image: Barista Equip.
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“[At the launch] I saw people playing with the latest Eversys machines, Perfect Moose and our new, auto-adjusting Flow grinder and they said ‘wow, I can literally do the work of two people as one person’. I told them ‘that’s the story we’ve been trying to convey for the past 10 years, and you’ve just worked it out in under 30 seconds’.” Brett says the showroom, located in Burleigh Heads, offers the perfect opportunity to give clients a more tangible experience with its products. “For most people, it is just the touch and feel of being able to use the equipment and see it in the flesh that is different to seeing it on a video or reading about it online,” he says. “I think customers like to interact more when they’re going to invest in equipment, rather than seeing pictures or reading about products. The space offers us an opportunity to plant that seed in their mind – to play around with whatever they want to, and then tell us what they think. “Since [the launch] we’ve had quite a few people say they’d love to bring some clients or colleagues or their whole team back through and spend some proper time in front of our equipment.” The showroom features the latest in commercial cafe technology and a developing prosumer retail space. It is split into two areas, with a huge glass door
divides the space, which can be opened or shut depending on what is required. Brett says as well as being a practical space for testing equipment, the showroom will allow his and other businesses the chance to host events and functions yearround. He adds that it’s another testament to Barista Equip’s commitment to industrywide growth, innovation and education. “We want café owners who invest heavily to launch their businesses to still be in business in five to 10 years, and we want them to be opening multiple stores, not just one. If they learn more and get educated about different elements of their industry, then we want to help and be part of that. It’s a win-win for everybody,” he says. “For us, [just like with a] trade show, when you get in front of a few hundred people, our goal is to be able to do that every week, or every two weeks. We’re effectively going to be running 20-odd trade shows a year out of there, but just in a more personalised context to the audience’s requirements. “We will be running all sorts of different events, which could also be a business-tobusiness type event, not always necessarily coffee-related. Part of being in the coffee industry is being in business, which is a constant learning process. You never stop learning. I’ve been in business for 32 years now and I’m still learning, and I think most people these days are open to learning something new and different.” Brett says all elements of the coffee industry can benefit from using the showroom. “If businesses want to do a product launch, or they want to run a particular event or an educational or training or promotional event, we’re going to use it in that capacity,” he says.
Barista Equip will launch several new innovations at the showroom in 2024. Image: Barista Equip.
The showroom offers the opportunity to give clients a more tangible experience. Image: Barista Equip.
“For example, if you’re an alternative milk-based business, or you’re a packaging supplier, we want to use the showroom as a collaborative space for all industry-related people to use. “We feel it’s going to broaden the community and give people better insights into what’s actually going on out there, rather than if they’re stuck inside the four walls or their café.” Barista Equip hopes to make booking
the showroom as easy as possible for companies interested in using the space. “There will soon be an online event booking calendar going up, where businesses will see the events we’ve got coming up which they might want to attend, but they will also be able to book the space themselves,” Brett says. The space will be free to use, with only costs associated if staff need to be hired for catering. Brett says the development of the functional space will help take the company to new heights, with Barista Equip to reveal five new innovations throughout 2024, officially launched at the showroom. “I think it takes us to another level because there really isn’t anything like it in Australia. People have showrooms, and they have equipment on display, but this is more of a functional space,” he says. “When people walk in, they just get what it is. They don’t have to guess, we don’t even have to tell them. I think it just it adds to our brand recognition and it says ‘this is the new Barista Equip’. It’s our new image – a way more personalised image than what it was before. I’m confident we’ve created a much more engaged experience. “People walk in and go ‘wow, this is a very unique space’.” For more information, visit baristaequip.com
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TECH PROFILE
The Kony Sg Mazzer presents the new Kony Sg gravimetric grinder, which provides higher precision but the same quality as the original model. he Kony S grinder works by time, but the new Kony Sg, designed for medium-volume venues and specialty coffee shops, grinds by weight. When it comes to grinding with a weightbased system using a high-precision load cell, the first thing users have to face, is being able to manage the vibrations of a real-life coffee shop environment. Grinder manufacturer Mazzer has been working with this criteria for years, testing different technologies and looking for the best solution. It’s a process Mazzer started in 2015, and one it has adopted through the many tests and firmware releases of its Kony model. The result, is the latest version of the Kony Sg, Mazzer’s first commercial gravimetric grinder. Its vibration control system ensures that all doses are weighed, eliminating time-based dosing even when used in environments with many vibrations. Mazzer Vice President Luigi Mazzer says this feature sets the Kony Sg apart from other grinders. “We decided to bring the scale technology into a grinder much appreciated by the coffee community, the Kony S,” says Luigi. “What people like about this model is still there, which is the overall platform, its usability and the taste profile of the burrs, with the same particle size distribution. On top of this we added to the grinder the possibility to grind by weight to streamline the workflow, and increase the precision of the dose.” Luigi says this a great feature for specialty coffee shops and any barista willing to have more control over the final result in the cup, without having to manually weigh every single dose. The grinder features a professional-grade built-in scale that is able to weigh each dose within a precision of a hundredth of a gram. Luigi says this provides “top-notch accuracy” and improves the final result in the cup. “We decided to be transparent, showing on the electronic display not the target weight of the selected dose, but the actual weight of the ground coffee in the portafilter,” he says. “For example, if the target dose was 8.20 and the actual dose is 8.29, the difference is 0.09 grams, which is way less than an actual bean in terms of accuracy.
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The Kony Sg scale measures 1/100th of a gram. Image: Mazzer.
“I think it’s good to have this feature and be honest about the result. In this way the barista can check the dose and adjust if desired. Not only are we being transparent in communicating the real weight, but precise and consistent in the dose. The Kony Sg achieves levels of dose repeatability
that are challenging to replicate by other devices on the market.” The portafilter is weighed via the scale before each dose, then quickly tared to ensure maximum accuracy. “This is just the first of our models to feature this technology but if the market’s
feedback is as good as we expect, it will be deployed to other grinders such as Major and Robur,” Luigi says. He says the process behind the release of the Kony Sg gravimetric grinder has been long, but a journey the Mazzer team has embraced and used to continually improve the final product. “At the Mazzer factory, during the construction of the new laboratory, we noticed there was a jack hammer being used. It was so noisy and disruptive. Rather than asking the construction workers to stop while we were testing the grinder, the research and development team took advantage of the situation and decided to test the grinder with these conditions to assess how vibrations impacted the final results, and it helped. We learned a lot from that unexpected test,” Luigi says. The grinder features 63-millimetre conical burrs, designed and produced in the Mazzer factory near Venice. With 420 revolutions per minute (50 hertz) and a double cooling system, the grinder protects the coffee beans from heat exposure, making it suitable for medium-volume coffee shops. Kony Sg features the Grind Flow Control (GFC) system, which features a removable aluminium outlet insert equipped with a
Mazzer’s firmware and electronics are the result of its grind-by-weight precision. Image: Mazzer.
Mazzer Vice President Luigi Mazzer with the Kony Sg grind-by-weight grinder. Image: Prime Creative Media.
through-flow wire damper that responds to the coffee flow. “The GFC reduces the static charge which causes the coffee powder on tray and counter and prevents clumping. This system is easy to customise, with users able to choose between an AntiClumping or Hybrid damper depending on weather conditions, coffee origin, roast profile, work environment, or barista preference,” Luigi says. In addition, it is easily removable, meaning the cleaning of coffee grinds is made easy. For baristas wanting to be informed about the accuracy of their dosage and areas for adjustment, the Kony Sg includes daily grinding statistics, Internet of Things connectivity for remote data monitoring, and firmware upgrade option. Kony Sg will be released in Australia in Q2 2024. “The Kony Sg really is something special.” Luigi says. “I hope the coffee community will see the passion and innovation behind this model, and that Mazzer is committed to manufacturing all our products with the goal of delivering something we’re proud of, and most importantly is a beneficial tool for baristas of all abilities and experience.” For more information, visit www.cwe.com.au
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
Twenty-year triumph This year Coffee Machine Technologies celebrates its 20-year anniversary. The company reflects on its growth journey and how it will carry that success into the future. ot all companies can attest to reaching two decades of business. It’s a milestone that is a result of years of dedication and hard work, and now, Coffee Machine Technologies Founder John Colangeli says it’s time to take a step back and celebrate what its achieved. “Twenty years ago, I never imagined this is where the business would be today,” says John. “To go from being a man with a van to one of the most recognised independent service establishments in Australia is something I’m immensely proud of.” When John set out to make a name for himself, he saw that the industry needed a service department that could supply and service a range of coffee roasters, coffee chains, independent cafés, and corporate organisations on a national scale. “We operated as a service company for the first five years, with handpicked industry technicians who were providing around-the-clock support to all customers. Then we expanded the business to include selling and distributing equipment,” John says. “I was eager to take it to the next stage, and perfect sales, customer relations, and account management. That’s when [National Sales Manager Carmelo Corallo] came on board and helped me bring that vision to life.” Carmelo says when he first began working with John, most coffee companies had their own technicians to fix coffee machines. He says hiring an external service provider “wasn’t the done thing”. “John quickly built a reputation of offering customers integrated and tailored service solutions designed for the hospitality industry. It gave customers the peace of mind that we could handle the jobs no one wanted to do,” he says. Carmelo was brought on board to assist John with the increasing machine sales and customer relations growth. “I remember telling John, ‘I am like an octopus, I’ve got eight arms that can all work on eight different needs at once’,” he says. “If John was prepared to do it, so was I. “Today, thanks to our hard work and dedication, we’re recognised as an industry leader in international and domestic markets for coffee equipment service,
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From left: Coffee Machine Technologies’ John Colangeli, Domenic Gugliandolo, Carmelo Corallo and Gianluca Colangeli. Image: Prime Creative Media.
repairs, and sales.” Coffee Machine Technologies is so internationally recognised, that in September 2023, the national distributor was awarded the Italian Business Award 2023 from the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Australia. This award acknowledges excellence in business success, support of the AustralianItalian community, and exceptional accomplishments by a company that goes above and beyond to offer excellent products or services. “This was an absolute dream come true moment for the company. We are proud to be continually working with our Italian partners,” John says. Coffee Machine Technologies has a branch office and warehouse in Sydney, two showrooms in Victoria in Rye and Carlton, and a recently upgraded head office in Tullamarine with larger and more advanced facilities. John says the relocation was spurred by rapid growth and the need for expanded capabilities. “The new premises signifies a substantial step forward, with quicker access to stock and parts enabling the team to enhance
the efficiency in delivering equipment and services to customers. The increased space also allows for more room for in house repairs and equipment preparation, ensuring higher quality and prompt delivery,” John says. The expanded location will feature a dedicated showroom, where the distributor can exhibit its diverse range of products and innovations. John says the 800-square metre space symbolises its commitment to excellence, and innovation in the coffee industry. “Watching the brand’s growth and impact on the coffee industry has been the most rewarding part of my career,” he says. “All I wanted to do was create a business that would leave a legacy, leave something behind that we’ve built, but I think we’ve done more than that. I’m so proud of the impact we’ve made on coffee, and to the people who live for it.” John says nowadays, excellence lies in being able to manage changes and where possible, anticipate it. He says Coffee Machine Technologies is made up of motivated people who are committed to offering outstanding solutions and
exceeding expectations. “I was very fortunate to find a team of sales representatives and technicians that were just as passionate as I was about coffee. We didn’t lose any time training people up. They had prior expertise and knowledge that allowed me to throw them straight into the deep end and service client’s machines,” says John. “I don’t make decisions without consulting the team. I know I can trust them to make important decisions with the company’s best interests in mind.” Thanks to such partnerships, Carmelo says Coffee Machine Technologies has become a successful and high-level distributor and independent service provider, but one that retains a family feel. “I’m proud to say I’m a part of a family business. To watch John’s son, Gianluca, gain more responsibilities and become the next generation of business is a really rewarding thing to see,” he says. John says he also enjoys watching Gianluca gain confidence in different aspects of the business. He has since become Assistant General Manager, which has taken a lot of pressure off John. “As his experience grows it is inevitable that he will take over the business. I’m proud to work alongside him and watch him gain respect from everyone in the industry,” he says. John says Coffee Machine Technologies
Coffee Machine Technologies has moved to an upgraded head office and warehouse space. Image: Coffee Machine Technologies.
is thankful for the past 20 years. He says none of it would be possible without the support of the people who have bought its machines, given feedback, shared their experiences, and helped the business grow. “We’re growing our team while remaining true to our roots to support
the hospitality industry to thrive with our machines,” John says. “It’s been an amazing 20 years, and we are looking forward to the next 20.” For more information, visit coffeemachinetechnologies.com.au
The showroom in Carlton features many historic machines. Image: Prime Creative Media.
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
From A to NZ
Monin Coffee Creativity Cup winner Honoka Kawashima and runner-up Daniel Wilson discuss their unique coffee mocktails, representing New Zealand and Australia respectively on the world stage, and striving for innovation.
The winners circle including Australia’s Danny Wilson (second from left) and New Zealand’s Honoka Kawashima (centre). Image: MONIN Coffee Creative Cup.
ew Zealand’s Honoka Kawashima from Frank’s Coffee was the last competitor to take to the stage in the international final of the Monin Coffee Creativity Cup in Malaysia this past November. As she waited on the sidelines for the other 40 competitors to have their turn, she repeated her script again and again. Some may say the best is left till last, but also against Honoka was the fact she didn’t have a strong level of mixology experience as many of the other competitors. “Going into the final, I was hoping to maybe finish in the top six,” she says. The Monin Coffee Creativity Cup is not your standard barista competition. Each competitor is tasked with creating the best tasting coffee-based mocktail using Monin syrups, but they must also embrace the four other senses in their created beverage: touch, smell, feel, and sound. Honoka’s drink told a story. Each component was a symbol of her past, which she hoped would resonate with the judges. “I remembered back to my childhood of
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drinking amazake, a fermented rice drink, with my family every New Year’s Day,” she says. “I know amazake isn’t the most common drink, so I presented some to the judges to show them how it can change the taste of coffee.” Honoka also added a floral element on top of the amazake, paying homage to her grandmother’s garden. “She grew lots of osmanthus flowers which have a very floral and fruity aroma,” she says. These stories were repeated to the judges as the drink was prepared, while images of the coffee farms in Colombia where Honoka sourced her beans were displayed, providing an educational experience before the drink was served. “I talked a lot during my presentation, which I hope made it a more enjoyable experience [for the judges],” she says. To finish the drink, Honoka added two of her favourite Monin syrups to the espresso and amazake base – cane sugar and blood orange – which she says are a perfect addition to the Colombian coffee.
“I set the base of the coffee first before choosing the ingredients, so I know what will work best with the blend,” she says. The beverage not only impressed the international judges, but embraced the sensory and innovation criteria all Monin Cup Creativity winners must possess. “I’m just so happy that I won,” Hanoka says. After moving to New Zealand in 2018, Hanoka competed in a number of coffeebased competitions, mostly in the latte art field, but nothing quite like the Monin Creativity Cup. “I really like competing in general because it gives me a challenge and it helps me develop my skills,” she says. “The Monin Cup was very different, but the process of preparing was very similar, as I was able to apply some of the techniques I had used from previous competitions.” Honoka wasn’t the only Oceanic representative to succeed in the 2023 event. Australia’s Daniel Wilson finished right behind her, with his Monin Amaro beverage landing him in second place. After taking home the Monin Cup prize
at the Australian competition in August 2023, Daniel soon turned his attention to the Malaysian international final. “I wanted to change things up with my drink,” he says. “When I was chatting to the [Monin] team, I thought it would be best to make the drink a bit simpler to put together.” As such, he took the creation he presented at the Australian competition, a botanical sour mix with a large variety of ingredients, and redesigned the concept. “I went up to the Monin studio in Sydney and I got to open up the vault and check out all the different flavours they had,” he says. Daniel’s new signature mocktail for the final included four Monin flavours mixed with espresso, pink grapefruit, Monin bitter, cinnamon, and frosted mint syrups. “It’s a bit of an unusual combination, but when layered together well, it creates a very unique flavour profile,” he says. The five senses were a key focus for Daniel in preparation for the final. He says sound was the most difficult and abstract of all the senses to bring into the frame. “Behind the idea of the drink was the notion of contrast, specifically contrasting flavours from the city and the country because that encapsulates the way I think about coffee,” he says. “We tend to think about coffee as a citybased drink that people have on the way to work, but being a roaster myself, I think about it more as a natural product.” As a result, Daniel looked to set the ambience of the scene through a mix of sounds that could transport the judges to a different place. “I got one of my favourite chill drum and bass tracks that represented more of a late-night vibe and combined it with some Australian bird sounds from the country,” he says. The soundtrack to the tasting was just one of the added elements Daniel included in his presentation. He had many different experiences when trying the drink himself and wanted to show this variety to the judges. “Every time I tasted the drink, it felt different depending on how I would drink it,” he says. “I provided the judges with a tool kit featuring a spoon and a straw so that each way of drinking it could provide something new.” Daniel credits Monin for helping him experiment with new flavours and concepts, both before the final and while in Malaysia. “Especially after the national round, they were really helpful in formatting drinks with me,” he says. “They looked after us well over there, and it made for a smooth and easy time.” Daniel says the mix of competitors from around Asia was a highlight, as the varying backgrounds among those who progressed
Forty competitors made their way to Malaysia for the final. Image: MONIN Coffee Creative Cup.
to the final introduced him to new concepts and methods. “We had some competitors who were bartenders, and some who were baristas, and a few in between,” he says. “Whenever you get such a big mix of people, it’s interested to see how they approach things when it comes to putting their drinks together.” He adds that the coffee culture shared across Australia and New Zealand is likely what separated he and Honoka from the crowd. “We’ve got a very strong coffee background here, and I feel as if it came through in our presentations,” he says. “I wish I could have tried Honoka’s drink as well.” Danny was one of the first competitors to
present in the final round of the Monin Cup. While he was preparing his drink in front of the judges however, Honoka was backstage, focused on her routine and preparing her story. Honoka will continue her own story of success when she visits a coffee farm in Indonesia during its next harvest season as part of her winning prize. She will have the opportunity to get up-close to the cherrypicking process for the first time in her life, and continue her passion for story-telling. “I’m really excited for this trip because I’ve never visited a coffee farm before, but it’s always been something I’ve wanted to do,” she says. For more information, visit www.monin.com
Each component of Honoka Kawashima’s drink reflected a chapter of her history. Image: MONIN Coffee Creative Cup.
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INDUSTRY PROFILE
The Bean Cartel is a Victorianbased coffee roaster with a devoted team behind it. Image: The Bean Cartel.
A Cartel with charisma
The Bean Cartel’s packaging and attitude may be flamboyant, but great coffee is still the heartbeat of the Melbourne-based roaster and distribution company. he Bean Cartel’s evocative packaging, featuring a funloving skeleton caricature, is a far cry from most office environments in Victoria’s corporate world. For The Bean Cartel Managing Director Stacy Visser, that contrast showcases the dramatic change that has spurred his roasting company to new heights. Stacy says he faced a fork-in-the-road decision several years ago: continue supplying coffee to major corporate, officebased clients, or find a way to concentrate on Melbourne’s highly competitive café scene. “We started [working in the office coffee space] 12 to 14 years ago, and that was a slow grind,” he says. “We were working with [large financial institutions] – we’d look after 40 floors, put automatic machines in, clean them three times a week and replace the stock. I pivoted away from that because I didn’t feel like it was healthy or sustainable to have all our eggs in one basket, and it was capitalintensive for the return. “At one stage we thought, ‘let’s diversify a bit more,’ and we dove into the café market,
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The roaster’s packaging features a skeleton caricature. Image: The Bean Cartel.
while still continuing with the office coffee side of things.” The Bean Cartel started to supply more cafés, and Stacy realised just how emotional the tie is between coffee and cafés in the marketplace. A key turning point was Stacy’s decision
to refresh and update the company’s brand into something bolder and edgier. “We changed our name from Organico Prima to The Bean Cartel and it made a massive difference,” he says. “The coffee was exactly the same but we became a little bit more sexy. Prior to that, it was a bit boring.” At the end of 2021, The Bean Cartel undertook a website overhaul, redid its whole strategy and moved into the specialty coffee space, one which Stacy had always wanted to be in. “In the last 12 months, we’ve really found how sticky [an informal measure of how well a brand resonates with consumers] our brand has become,” Stacy says. A major reason behind this change has been the eye-catching visuals splashed across The Bean Cartel’s website, packaging and merchandise. The company put out a tender for artists to help create new graphics and discovered Alejandro Giraldo, a Colombian artist who, in Stacy’s words, “understood the crazy stuff in my head”. Alejandro’s creations, featuring striking
images of a colourful cartoon skeleton, has allowed The Bean Cartel to stand out from the crowd, according to National Sales Manager Melissa Glentis. “I came on when the rebranding was happening [and when I saw the imagery] I thought ‘this is amazing’,” she says. “Initially we were worried the graphics would be polarising. However, this was far from the case – the positive comments and acceptance took all our anxiety away. It allowed us to have more conversations [with potential customers] and was a far cry from our standard original black and white branded bags. “There are great coffees out there, and we certainly produce some amazing coffees ourselves, but what makes us stand out is our branding.” Stacy says the graphics have been such a hit with clients that some have asked to work with The Bean Cartel without tasting their coffee. “We’ve never had cafés or business owners say, ‘we want to work with you’ without even tasting the coffee,” he says. “Historically, it was all about the coffee first and everything else was secondary, but we’re getting some reversals in that area. “Some cafés have even approached us to produce co-branded clothing with their café on the front, and our designs on the back. That’s when you know you’re getting sticky
The Bean Cartel produces blends, and showcases around 18 to 21 single origins at any one time. Image: The Bean Cartel.
Head Roaster Alan Chan leads regular blind cuppings. Image: The Bean Cartel.
and starting to get some traction. It gives us more confidence to keep going.” While Stacy and his team are thrilled at the way their updated look has been received, coffee is still the most important element of the business. The company has clients throughout Australia. The Bean Cartel produces capsules, sells coffee machines and merchandise, and holds barista training courses in its roasting facility in Notting Hill, Melbourne. Stacy sources beans from across the globe. The company produces blends, showcases around 18 to 21 single origins at any one time, and recently purchased three microlots in Colombia. Staff regularly perform blind cuppings to assess new blends and beans, led by Master Roaster
Alan Chan, who has won multiple national roasting awards. Stacy met Alan by chance and quickly realised he needed the experienced roaster on his books. “A café Alan used to own was getting towards the end of its lease, and he didn’t know what he was going to do once it wrapped it up,” Stacy says. “I was doing the roasting here, and the packing, and pretty much everything really, and one of my green bean suppliers said at one point ‘you can’t do this by yourself’. They knew [Alan’s previous] café was about to close and knew about Alan. I asked, ‘where’s the café?’ It was just around the corner, literally 80 metres from where we were located. “I went and saw him the next day and I asked, ‘can you come in and do maybe two or three days a week roasting?’ He said ‘no, I need to work full-time.’ I got him in for a trial and trained him on our machine, which he learnt to use in two days. I’d seen enough, and said straight away ‘you’re on full-time. Let’s just go’. That was six years ago the rest is now history.” Stacy and Mel consider Alan and all of their staff part of one big family, which displays the brand’s commitment to operating with what their website claims is ‘cartel-like intensity’. “The term ‘cartel’ has got this terrible stigma about it but really, a cartel is just an organisation and our cartel is about fun, playfulness and being a little bit cheeky, a bit sexy,” Mel says. “Our intensity is what constantly drives every single one of us – we’ve all got this huge personal investment in the business, which makes us want to drive harder and faster towards our goals.” Stacy agrees and says, “once you are a part of the cartel, you never leave”. “That’s our philosophy, whether you’re a staff member, café or a client, we don’t want you to ever leave, in a good way,” he says. “It’s a play on the fact that cartels don’t let you leave. We’re the same but only with good intentions.” For more information, visit thebeancartel.com.au
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PACKAGING FEATURE
The perfect package How Trimatt is solving a market need for coffee companies wanting to save time, effort and money on packaging options. t took Espressology Chief Operating Officer Ged Ryan about 10 seconds to understand how Trimatt could, in his words, “supercharge” the private label roasting company. In mid 2023, Ged’s attention was caught by an email from Trimatt, which led to further research about the Melbourne-based packaging company. “Quick printing on coffee bags has always been something that we’ve wanted to solve,” Ged says. “We could never quite solve the shortrun, short-turnaround, instantaneous print on a coffee bag, in a way that was A) economical and B) high quality. “The email [from Trimatt] had a link to a video on their website, which showed me the bags going through the printer and the bags even had valves, which has always been an issue for the coffee industry.” After Ged touched base with Trimatt, he was soon on a plane from Sydney to tour the facilities and meet staff. He says a strong relationship was quickly formed, and he discovered that Trimatt’s ColourStar AQ printing machine was perfect for Espressology’s needs, primarily to print short-run, customised coffee bags, packaging cartons, and takeaway bags for wholesale and contract roasting customers. “We don’t buy machines unless we meet the people behind them, and [Trimatt] had a good feel to them,” he says. “The fact that they are Australian-based [is important]. In our industry, [if you buy from overseas businesses], there’s less local support. All machines break down occasionally, so being local was important to us – and the fact they built machine themselves was even better.” The ColourStar AQ is one of Trimatt’s flagship machines. It won the 2023 Product
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Ged Ryan is Espressology’s Chief Operating Officer. Image: Trimatt.
Innovation Award for Coffee Accessories at the 2023 Melbourne International Coffee Expo and is also a finalist in the Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association Awards of Excellence, with winners to be announced on 13 March 2024. The machine features an automated feeder, an angle-adjust print head for valved bags, and its organic pigment inks are waterproof and lightfast. It can print 120, one-kilogram bags per minute, at 1200 dots per inch print quality. “It has helped us cut down a ton of labour, cut down on costs, and it has improved our product offering – they’ve supercharged us,” Ged says of Trimatt. The name ‘Trimatt’ stems from the founder’s name – Matt (Johnson), while Tri represents the three product platforms Trimatt offers: Product handling, product identification and product inspection. Matt, now Systems Director, started the company in 2005 and says the relationship with Espressology is a prime example of Trimatt’s ability to solve clients’ problems. “The main problem we solve [with clients in the coffee industry] is the long lead times that customers were facing when they wanted to order personal branding of their products,” he says. “We take great pride in helping businesses come up with a better way to do things. For example, the ColourStar AQ gives Ged and his company the reach and capacity to meet what their clients need – that’s what we’re all about, coming up with solutions that fill a particular void that clients have.” Sustainability is another major focus for Trimatt and Matt says the company can help coffee roasters and cafés that are trying to be more environmentally responsible. “What we’ve brought to market is the ability to reduce waste – we don’t
overpackage things, we can still make packages attractive, but our machinery contributes to a better [more sustainable] way of living,” he says. “With coffee roasters, there’s a huge supply chain involved with getting a printed paper bag – the cost and logistics involved are huge compared to giving businesses the flexibility to print something on demand, without the long and often tedious, expensive, and [environmentally] damaging process that they are used to. “There’s a growth in businesses that are prepared to make their packaging more environmentally friendly. We will continue to develop our existing products to be more suitable, flexible, and sustainable.” For Ged and his team at Espressology, the ColourStar AQ’s ability to print high-quality graphics on eco-friendly bags has been a game-changer. “We’re now printing on eco-friendly bags,” he says. “We’ve got some that are yellow-bin recyclable, so it’s great that we can print on curbside-recyclable [material]. “It’s mind-blowing really. It gets rid of the need for [putting] stickers [on bags or boxes] and the labour associated with it, which has been big for us and our clients.” Matt adds that Trimatt continues to review and experiment, with some innovative developments in store. “We have some new technologies coming out in the marketing and branding space that the industry will find interesting. We’re really excited to launch at [Australasia’s Processing and Packaging Expo] this March the new ultra-wide ColourStar AQ BoxPro designed for customising boxes and shippers,” he says. For more information, visit www.trimatt.com
PACKAGING FEATURE
Paving the way
Roastar introduces a recyclable coffee bag with an innovative vent, intended to preserve the aroma and quality of beans without compromising shelf life. or centuries, wine bottles used corks to protect wine from the elements, until the screw cap was invented to provide an alternate solution to maintaining product quality and consistency. According to Australian-based coffee packaging company Roastar, this is the kind of innovation it is looking to bring to the coffee industry. Roastar, a subsidiary of Australian family-owned network MPM Marketing, was founded with the goal of manufacturing and developing new products for the coffee sector. Roastar General Manager Clive Jacobs describes the company’s new coffee bag as a “game changer” that has been in development for more than three years. “This structure is unique, and it’s processed entirely in Australasia,” says Clive. “What we aimed to achieve was a coffee structure that could be recycled through the most common form of recycling: the standard yellow kerbside paper recycling bin.” Achieving sustainability with the new bag was one goal, but Clive says Roastar’s mission was to also ensure there was no compromise on quality when it came to preserving the coffee’s flavour and aroma. “Many people only think about the oxygen barrier when it comes to packaging, but because the beans are hydroscopic (prone to attract moisture), and moisture can transmit through oxygen barriers, this can shorten the shelf life and have an effect on the final product, especially in the humid Australian climate,” says Clive. “We want to ensure that consumers experience the product in its optimal state, preserving its quality from the day it was packaged.” To address this challenge, Roastar has introduced a new vent as part of the company’s innovative BeanShield technology. Collaborating with a laser company in the United States and using medical industry technology, Roastar spent three years perfecting the patented BeanShield vent. The vent weighs 0.04 grams, has no moving parts, and employs a slow-release microchannel for its degassing process. This design allows for customised carbon dioxide degassing rates according to different roast profiles. “We refer to it as the ART (Aroma
The Good Cup received the People’s Choice award at the 2023 MICE Innovation Awards. Image: James Thomas Photography/Prime Creative Media.
Retention Technology) of coffee packaging,” Clive says. “With ART, customers will not only enjoy an unprecedented out-of-pack experience, but our extensive field testing has revealed that integrating ART can elevate coffee flavour to new heights.” Roastar also offers the option of receiving pre-vented tolls for high-volume packers utilising Vertical Form Fill and Seal (VFFS) machines. The rolls can run through any VFFS machine without requiring modifications. The company’s vents can be applied to various substrates, including foil, VMET, and mono CEFLEX material. The vent employs a patented design at a molecular
Roastar can supply rolls prevented to work on any VFFS machine. Image: Roastar.
level. This ensures that, for degassing purposes, smaller carbon dioxide molecules can escape through microchannels while larger aroma molecules are retained, preserving the quality within the bag. Roastar’s latest coffee bag with BeanShield technology is just one of the company’s recent innovations. It has also launched The Good Cup, an award-winning paper cup featuring an integrated top flap that folds and locks into place, eliminating the need for a separate lid. The design of The Good Cup allows for an up to 40 per cent reduction in storage space, transport volume, and carbon footprint. “We take great pride in The Good Cup,” says Clive. “The coffee industry can now offer a truly sustainable cup to customers by eliminating plastic or PLA lids.” Clive also emphasis Roastar’s commitment to local manufacturing in Australia. The company produces half of its more than 1200 products locally, from its coffee cup plant in New South Wales to its coffee bag, paper products, and board plant in Queensland. He says this model ensures a swift turnaround for customers and minimises the carbon footprint of its products. “Keeping things local is an integral part of our business, and our new coffee bags have been made for Australian sustainability thresholds,” he says. For more information, visit www.roastar.au
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PACKAGING FEATURE
Leader of the pack Jet Technologies explains its sustainable coffee packaging options and why it’s committed to finding the most environmentally friendly solutions for the Australian and New Zealand coffee industry. Jet Technologies offers machinery and packaging options. Image: Jet Technologies.
or years now, roasters and café owners across the country have reassessed the environmental impacts of their processes and products. For many, this has involved buying organic coffee, changing paper cup manufacturer, or collecting leftover coffee grounds for composting. But what about the packaging materials used to sell wholesale bags of beans? “Sustainability is something we’re very passionate about. It’s our mission to ensure our clients don’t compromise on quality or productivity when adopting more sustainable packaging materials. We want to bring the world’s best packaging innovations in a convenient manner to their doorstep,” says Daniel Malki, General Manager of Jet Technologies. Jet Technologies’ Managing Director Albert Malki founded the company in 1980. It remains a family-owned Australian company that services the coffee sector with packaging materials and related filling machinery. “We pride ourselves on our strong familybased values, which we translate to our staff and our culture; investing in our staff to build long-lasting relationships with our customers, and striving to deliver genuine and expert service at all times,” says Daniel. “Jet Technologies has grown and diversified significantly, now employing over 50 staff and operating from locations across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Singapore. We work with many big coffee brands such as Grinders Coffee, JDE, Toby’s Estate, Seven Miles, Campos, St. Ali, and others. Some of our customers have bought machinery from us to form, fill and seal their coffee bags. To others we supply flexible packaging, either in a roll form or pre-made bag. Many of our clients have purchased both machinery and packaging options, and we take responsibility for the complete line in those cases.”
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In 2023, the Australian Packaging Covenant (APCO) established 2025 targets aimed at driving significant and sustainable changes in packaging design and disposal. According to Jet Technologies, this included ensuring 100 per cent of all Australia’s packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025, a move that marks a significant step towards a circular economy. The targets also include an increase in the recycled content within packaging to 50 per cent, aiming to reduce the reliance on virgin materials and enhance the value of recycled materials. There is also a strong focus on phasing out single-use plastic packaging, reflecting growing environmental concerns and consumer demand for sustainable practices. “The APCO targets represent a concerted effort across government, business, and the community to collaboratively reshape and improve Australia’s packaging ecosystem,
Packaging can be customised to suit individual business needs. Image: Jet Technologies.
emphasising sustainability and responsible resource use,” says Daniel. “With the deadline to meet these targets fast approaching, we expect to see more and more coffee brands actively assessing and updating their coffee packaging in the near future.” Jet Technologies aims to provide the best material available that adheres to the highest designation within the APCO criteria to being “recycle ready”. The choices were either mono materials Mono Polypropylene (PP), Mono Polyethylene (PE), or a Polyolefin material composition. “Polyolefins are mixtures of PP and PE. These materials can achieve high recyclability designations similar to those achieved using mono materials. This is because they are derived from the same family of compounds and their melting points are very similar,” says Daniel. “Also available are packaging options that are paper-based and/or industrially compostable. When choosing which type of flexible packaging is right for the brand, there are often competing variables that need to be considered. Our role is to present the options available in terms of productivity, costs, shelf life, embellishment potential and sustainability profile, and for the client to decide what’s best for them.” According to Daniel, Jet Technologies’ portfolio is carefully crafted specifically for coffee application in mind, no matter which material the client chooses. “We’re of the belief that there’s a demand for environmentally friendly products, and we think the profile of roasters is in line with our strong environmental conscience too,” Daniel says. “I’m proud to be part of the Australian coffee industry and providing products we believe can make a big impact.” For more information, visit www.jet-ap.com
PACKAGING FEATURE
Own it SammyBags Co-Founder David Durrant unveils one of the world’s first fully washable and reusable coffee pouches, offering an alternative to single-use packaging. The coffee pouches are made from washable kraft paper. Image: SammyBags.
chance meeting between Pilgrim Espresso Bar Owner David Durrant and “troubled teen” Sammy Barker has formed a gratifying side project called SammyBags. “My wife Pieta and children met Sammy down at our local park on the swings. Sammy was in a dark place at the time, and Pieta reached out to her. Our relationship grew from there. As we were toying with the idea of developing reusable bags, it just seemed to make sense that we would invite Sammy to be a part of it,” says David. David was inspired to create a reusable bag after noticing a regular to his café would always bring her own bag for food she purchased. “We started with our standard flat bags, but because I have experience making clothes, I quickly realised you could make any type of packaging with the same washable kraft paper, made up of 60 per cent cellulose, and 30 per cent synthetic latex. We now have a range of six different handmade products in multiple sizes, including flat bags, lunch bags, coffee pouches, stand up pouches, everyday grocery bags and sandwich wraps. Our coffee pouches are the most popular in New Zealand,” he says. “The washable paper is the same material as what the back label panel is made from on a pair of Levi’s jeans. The bags can be washed in a washing machine on any cycle, but the coffee pouches don’t need to be washed at all unless you want to.” David says while SammyBags seal well, they aren’t airtight. However, he says what might be airtight isn’t necessarily sustainable, and what might be convenient may not be reusable. “Coffee essentially begins to age from the date it’s roasted. From that moment on
the quality of the coffee able to be extracted, increases over a few days, peaks, and then decreases. During this time the factors that contribute to protecting the coffee beans are keeping them in a cool, dry, dark, and sealed environment. However, no amount of coolness, dryness, darkness or airtightness will prevent the beans from ageing. The way to improve the quality of the coffee you drink at home is to buy freshly roasted coffee in small amounts more often, what you’d estimate to consume within one or two weeks,” says David. Customers can choose from 250-gram, 500-gram, or one-kilogram coffee pouches. “Our coffee pouches are designed with the KeepCup model in mind. Customers purchase, own, and care for their bags. They’re great for people who place a high value on zero waste and reusable options,” says David. “They’re convenient because they fold down flat when empty, which is perfect for slipping into your pocket, bag or for cyclists when heading for a top-up back to the roastery. They’re well made, durable, and long lasting.” David says the product’s life span is estimated to be about five years but could
Each bag features the #ownthesolution slogan and origami crane logo. Image: SammyBags.
very well exceed that depending on how well a customer looks after it. “That is a lot of single use waste avoided. We want people to put value in everyday functional items, use them, enjoy them and be proud of how long they last for. The paper softens and ages over time similar to that of leather,” he says. David says the coffee pouches are stylish and unique. They can be customised according to each client’s needs, and are available in four colours. “The pouches avoid coffee companies putting their names on bags that end up in landfill and also saves money on packaging the more loyal customers use them,” he says. A portion of the price of every bag sold goes towards supporting mental health in the local community. “The tag on each bag has the phrase ‘Own it’ which draws parallels between environmental and mental health, encouraging pro-active personal responsibility,” says David. He says customers who buy the coffee pouches are supporting a small, local, independent business committed to creating products that help move habits towards environmentally friendly outcomes. “We’re a very small family business, plus Sammy, and handmake the bags ourselves at home. The largest order we’ve had so far from one business is about 2000 bags, so it’s something that I can keep up with at the moment. Hopefully, if we can break into the Australian market, we can start getting some bigger orders and grow while at the same time have a significant impact on reducing waste by providing people with a cool reusable option,” he says. For more information, visit sammybags.com
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Image: Maipac
PACKAGING FEATURE
House of Excellence
Maipac introduces its state-of-the-art capsule packaging facility, and explains why now is the time for roasters to prioritise capsules. fter more than 20 years of experience in the Australian specialty coffee industry in building relationships with world market leaders, coffee machine sales and service provider Coffee Complex, led by the Maione family, saw the market moving towards capsules at a rapid speed. “Because of our knowledge of the domestic market, we can detect market trends as they happen,” says Maipac General Manager Paul Maione. This led to the creation of Maipac in 2014, a subsidiary of Coffee Complex that specialises in capsule packaging solutions that support coffee roasters of various sizes across Australia and New Zealand. “Building on the expertise we’ve acquired, we decided to invest significantly in a new state-of-the-art, scalable, dedicated co-packing facility in 2021,” says Paul. “Since then, capsules have become a staple for coffee companies as a product offering.” The facility, named ‘Australia’s Single Serve House of Excellence’, is a climatecontrolled building centrally located in Pooraka, South Australia. Paul says the conditions of the new facility allow for the highest quality of coffee to be packaged. “We have worked quite closely with cutting-edge international suppliers to have our packaging machines configured to suit our specific requirements, now and into the future,” he says. Maipac is committed to walking clients
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through the entire capsule-packaging process. “With sustainability always at our forefront, we offer aluminium capsules which are 100 per cent recyclable as well as certified home compostable capsules,” Paul says. “With a full colour range of capsules, formats, retail box sizes and personalised branding of the packaging, we have it all covered.” Maipac estimates that about three million coffee capsules are consumed in Australia every day. It’s for this reason Paul says any coffee roaster who isn’t looking to be present in the capsule space is missing out. “One in four households use coffee capsules, which makes this too big of an opportunity to ignore for roasters,” he says. “We are supporting and guiding these roasters in the capsule space, working with them hand-in-hand as partners.” Maipac’s capsule packaging machines have been custom built to suit any requirements, specifications, flexibilities, and emerging trends with equipment sourced from around the world. “We work on a one-on-one basis with customers to make sure each roast profile is suited for what they are looking for to achieve a superior end result,” Paul says. Maipac also uses customised roller mill grinding technology to assist roasters in finessing the right coffee particle for capsule packing, which Paul says uses a superior method and delivers a better result to a standard flat burr grinder.
“With our customised roller mill grinding technology, we can increase Total Dissolved Solids extractions by up to 30 or 40 per cent,” he says. “It delivers a sharper and more uniform partial distribution profile, allowing a solids extraction yield using the same amount of coffee with consistent brew times.” The new facility includes a nitrogen flushing system, where inert gas is used throughout the filling process to preserve freshness and aroma from bean to capsule. One service Maipac also provides in its commitment to innovation is its flavour dosing system, where roasters have the option to dose syrups or flavours into the coffee during the packing process. Options include hazelnut, vanilla, and chocolate. “We make sure that we work as partners to deliver a product that will perform in the market with what we have here in the facility,” says Paul. Maipac’s dedicated capsule service has grown through trust, as Paul believes the company has an even brighter future ahead. This includes expanding its singleserve space as well as looking into overseas operations as he remains confident that single serve coffee, including capsules, is here to stay. “The goal for Maipac is to continue to grow alongside the coffee companies we work with as partners,” he says. For more information, visit www.maipac.com.au
PACKAGING FEATURE
Image: Tetra Pak
At the ready
With Ready-To-Drink beverages gaining in popularity, Tetra Pak is offering a suitable packaging solution for roasters ready to partner. he coffee industry has been shaken up by the rise of ReadyTo-Drink (RTD) beverages, and according to Tetra Pak Oceania Marketing Director Jaymie Pagdato, Australia has become one of the newest countries to jump on the trend. Jaymie says coffee roasters who have not yet invested in RTD options could be missing out on a substantial market share. “You should want to be driving innovation,” she says. “Someone else is going to do it, so it may as well be you.” Tetra Pak analyses trends globally and has identified RTD coffees as a more popular and accessible drink among younger generations. “We have read plenty about Generation Z who are always on the go and can sometimes prefer cold coffee over hot,” says Jaymie. “With RTD coffee, it’s about functionality, flavour, and innovation all coming together in the one solution.” Jaymie says roasters looking to take advantage would benefit greatly from the RTD packing solutions that Tetra Pak has to offer. “We can help you through your innovation journey,” she says. “We have product development centres where we can help create the right formulation alongside the brand owner.” Jaymie adds that RTD coffees are a great way to enhance the true flavour of a blend, which the Tetra Pak team are determined to showcase to a larger Australian market. “Depending on the taste profile you are after, we have the right solution in
our processing equipment to achieve that flavour,” she says. Tetra Pak’s Product Development Centre specialises in smaller batch runs, which gives the team enough time to test and tinker with recipes to ensure the final product matches the vision of the roaster. “What we don’t want is to have a whole factory run before deciding the flavour is not quite right. So, we run smaller batches that give enough of a sample size to test and evaluate the product,” says Jaymie. The look of the final carton package for the RTD beverage is also customised to the needs of the roaster. “Design is completely owned by the customer,” Jaymie says. “We’re all about supporting the personality of the brand, and our cartons allow brand owners to utilise 360 degrees of the package to tell Tetra Pak offers carton packaging for readyto-drink beverages. Image: Tetra Pak.
their brand story so they can stand out on the shelf.” Tetra Pak works with partners from around the world, including in the fast-growing RTD coffee markets in the United States and Japan. Jaymie says coffee roasters of any size are welcome to reach out to start the collaboration process, even if the world of RTD coffee seems foreign at first. “We are excited to work with both existing and emerging brand owners. We see opportunities wherever they may come from,” she says. Each RTD package option has the same sustainability goals in mind, with every step of the production process taken into consideration, right down to its recyclability after use. Used beverage cartons that are collected may be redirected to the saveBOARD recycling facility in New South Wales. The site has been in operation since December 2022, and is a product of collaboration between Tetra Pak, saveBOARD, and other industry partners. “All materials of the carton, including the cap, are recycled into low-carbon building materials,” says Jaymie. “saveBOARD is a proven technology.” Jaymie says that plans are in place for additional recycling facilities to open in Australia from 2024 onwards. “We want to make recycling easy for consumers,” she says. For more information, visit www.tetrapak.com/en-anz
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PACKAGING FEATURE
Together at last
Australian roasters can now benefit from a new partnership between Wipf AG and Close the Loop Group for coffee packing solutions. s more consumers are becoming interested in the end-of-life coffee packaging process, more packaging companies, like Close the Loop Group (CtL) Flexible Packaging Division, are committed to finding best solutions for their customers, and the environment. On examination of traditional coffee packaging practices, Co-Founder and Director Brendan Yee says aluminium foil barriers have been used to maintain freshness. This means using three or more different kinds of materials: polyester, polyethylene (PE), and the aluminium foil itself, for example. “We have re-engineered the polyethylene to be able to ensure there is heat resistance on the outside while preserving the moisture and oxygen barriers that roasted coffee needs,” he says. CtL’s coffee packaging is classified as mono-material due to this change. Brendan says the ease in which such packages can be recycled has become the basis of the company’s packaging operations, particularly in coffee. “Sustainability is one of our key drivers, and has been for a long time,” he says. CtL was formed in 2021 after a merger between recycling company Close the Loop and packaging business O F Packaging. The group works across a range of industries, which Brendan says provides an advantage in coffee packaging. “We’ve gained plenty of knowledge on how to make flexible packaging that is more sustainable, and we’re hoping to bring that to the coffee industry,” he says. CtL has commissioned a new soft plastics recycling plant, taking its commitment to sustainability and recycling to a new level. “What we see in the traditional coffee market is a lot of conventional, non-mono based materials that cannot be recycled,” he says. “We can manufacture a more recyclable mono-base soft plastic for the coffee market, while our business also recycles soft plastic packaging into other tangible products after use. This mass balance approach can bring additional value to our customers.” A new partnership with Swiss packaging solution provider Wipf AG has brought forward CtL’s latest offering to the coffee industry. Wipf has provided one-way degassing
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Wipf’s degassing valves have been added to Close the Loop’s coffee packages. Image: CtL
valves since the 1970s through its WICOVALVE brand, in addition to supplying high-barrier packaging laminates and pouches for a range of food and pharmaceutical industries in Europe. Wipf provides degassing valves with recyclable versions for both PE and polypropylene, as well as a certified bio compostable option. “Close the Loop are proud and excited to partner with Wipf in Australia, as we believe there is great benefit to Australian brands in our centralised domestic sourcing option for coffee valves and packaging,” says Brendan. CtL will incorporate Wipf’s WICOVALVE degassing valves into its customers’ coffee packaging, giving coffee an added layer of protection from the elements. Brendan says the partnership will help provide streamlined supply opportunities for packaging solutions to the Australian market. “We’re now able to provide a single point of contact where we can distribute Close the Loop has developed a monomaterial coffee package. Image: CtL.
Wipf’s valve technology with our packaging solutions,” says Brendan. The partnership allows for Australian roasters to connect with two globally operating companies at once, with each providing plenty of expertise. “Even though we operate in multiple continents around the world, we’re always looking to connect with Australian businesses,” says Brendan. He says the key to finding the right partner was imperative for CtL, and that Wipf shared similar values that helped facilitate the union. “In 2022, Wipf were looking to enter the Australian market and wanted a suitable partner. The more we talked, the more we found there was a great synergy between the two businesses,” Brendan says. “Their attention to customer service and providing the best product without compromise lines up well with our beliefs. “The combined focus of Wipf and CtL on more sustainable outcomes provides great value to coffee roasters and brands, especially with upcoming packaging design mandates on the horizon.” Wipf Head of Strategic Projects Malte Jonsson adds that the shared commitment to enhance the level of sustainability of the coffee industry has helped form a strong partnership with CtL. “Wipf builds on sustainability in all areas: ecologically, socially, and economically,” says Malte. “Our business has taken of the challenges in the coffee packaging space, developing a number of more sustainable solutions for different laminates and valves. “This is our contribution to positive change.” For more information, visit www.closetheloop.com.au
PACKAGING FEATURE
Striving for sustainability EcoBarista Founder Zac Fryer explains the company’s passion for the environment, and how it keeps striving for new solutions in coffee packaging. ong before sustainability and recycling became a hot topic in the coffee industry, one packaging manufacturer in Queensland got ahead of the curve. Zac Fryer founded EcoBarista in 2013, and has made the roasters the company works with a top priority from the very beginning. “Around 10 years ago, I saw the need for a sustainable packaging solution in Brisbane that gave specialty coffee roasters something that suited them,” he says. “I felt as if the coffee scene in Brisbane was moving ahead in leaps and bounds, but they didn’t have much packaging support.” It was at this point that Zac began reaching out to coffee roasters independently to discuss new ideas for packaging that prioritised the need for a compostable and recyclable solution. “I had a keen focus on sustainability back then, which not many people were talking about at the time,” he says. “The market was just throwing bags and cups at coffee roasters that weren’t always suitable for what they were trying to accomplish, and we wanted to change that.” In the early days of EcoBarista, the focus was never about marketing or cost-cutting, but providing customer-led sustainable solutions to coffee packaging through offering bags, cups, or other packaging needs for cafés and roasters. “We really grew through word of mouth while providing a high level of service and support for our early customers,” says Zac. “It was one coffee roaster talking to the next about what we could bring to the table.” Zac credits the relationships built with
early customers as the basis for EcoBarista’s continued success, saying that a shared belief helped build a strong foundation. “The specialty coffee community has always had a drive to be more sustainable,” Zac says. “By building relationships and spending time with roasters, they eventually become your mouthpiece within the industry, and we believe that organic growth like that is longer lasting.” Zac says this long-term commitment to sustainability is one of the defining factors of the company. “We didn’t just jump on the sustainability bandwagon a couple of years ago,” he says. “It has been a part of our core ethos from the very start.” This commitment begins with the planning process, when EcoBarista’s team works with roasters to identify the right kind of packaging option for that business. “We start at the end, and we work our way back,” Zac says. “We want our packaging to have end-of-life value.” EcoBarista’s range of packaging solutions varies in terms of material structure, with each option offering different levels of shelf life and end-of-life disposal. It includes a recyclable, compostable and, in the future, reusable range. Customers can also choose between a 3-side seal, stand-up pouch, or even try and invent a new kind of packaging design, all with customisable print options. In the decade following its inception, EcoBarista has helped serve roasters from across the country package their carefully roasted product in a way that upholds its quality and intended flavour profile. “We’re not a small company anymore, but we’ve kept that small company mindset
EcoBarista’s range of packaging solutions varies in terms of material structure. Image: EcoBarista.
where we check in on our customers regularly,” says Zac. Throughout the years, EcoBarista has kept searching for new packaging solutions. Zac says mono-material packaging is significantly easier to recycle, making it a good solution for roasters prioritising environmental efforts. “With the challenges around soft plastic recycling, we’ve been working hard to develop and build more kerbside recyclable options for our customers,” says Zac. “We have just released our heavy duty kraft paper bag, and our mono range will be available in early 2024.” Its compostable range, which includes a bag structure named Compostable Plus, is derived from natural resources. It is made from renewable materials, with a plantbased lining for an increased oxygen barrier. “We spent years testing with our roaster companies to come up with a solution that offers a high oxygen barrier to keep coffee fresh while also meeting home compostable certifications,” Zac says. “This product has been popular with our customers because it delivers on both.” Zac says EcoBarista plans to continue innovating to find better, more sustainable packaging solutions while supporting its customers. “The customers we work with are bold customers that want to push the boundaries of sustainability,” he says. “When you work with a company like us, you get a unique solution and a level of service that understands the world of coffee.” For more information, visit www.ecobarista.com.au
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COMMUNITY NOTES
Each year CafeSmart takes place around Homelessness Week. Image: CafeSmart.
Brewing up support Coffee roasters and cafés are brewing up a new edition of CafeSmart and hoping to reach more people in need than ever before. he coffee industry can be as competitive as any, but when it comes to responding to homelessness in Australia, all differences are left aside. Last year, 717 cafés and 44 roasters joined forces to support people doing it tough via not-for-profit organisation StreetSmart’s CafeSmart event, raising $147,585 for local grassroots charities and community partners. This year, for the 14th event, the organisation is hoping to reach even more people, says CafeSmart Head of Partnerships and Fundraising Cynthia Mac Caddon. “Last year was a massive success, but in 2024, we’re hoping to produce a bigger and bolder event,” she says. “We have already received lots of expressions of interest from brands, coffee roasters and cafés that want to get involved. “CafeSmart serves as a strong testament to how the Australian coffee industry unites to make a significant difference in the lives
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Veneziano Coffee’s West End café supports CafeSmart. Image: CafeSmart.
of those in need. Participants can expect a fun event that will bring the entire country together in a yellow hue, showcasing the transformative power of a cup of coffee.” This year CafeSmart will run in August around Australian Homelessness Week, and unite hundreds of roasters, green bean suppliers, cafés, and consumers around the country. “Roasters help us connect to their networks – they help to inspire cafés to get on board and in many cases, they help their cafés by giving them free beans. They fundraise through their own retail shops if they have them, or if not, then through bean sales online,” says Cynthia. “Each café that’s involved is the one activating the event at their venue – so when cafés sign up, we see them become enthusiastic champions of their local community in need, raising awareness among their customers, and raising funds.” Cafés donate $1 per coffee sold on one day during Homelessness Week, and also encourage their customers to get involved
via in-store collection boxes, QR codes on stickers, or posters on-site. “It really is the Australian coffee industry bringing the event to life,” Cynthia says. She adds the fundraising efforts over the years have showcased the generosity of the Australian coffee industry. “For us, it feels like the industry came together as a family. There was real generosity from all the roasters and cafés that wanted to collaborate and participate,” she says. “I think everyone loves coming together ‘to do good’ – there’s no ego or competition. “These roasters and cafés are really champions of [the event]. They want to know who their local charities will be and how they can contribute more, and they all do it in different ways. “For example, there’s a café in Brisbane which always has a fundraising goal. They talk to their customers about matching any donations dollar-for-dollar and try to reach a $5000 fundraising goal. For them, it’s a great opportunity to connect further with their customers, asking: ‘We’re giving back to our local community – will you help us’?” Cynthia says making connections and getting businesses to know more about their local charities is so valuable. “We have seen so many relationships grow over the years – sometimes it results in someone at the café volunteering [at a local charity or service], or maybe the café commits to doing more fundraising at a different time of the year,” she says. The money raised is used by CafeSmart to support grassroots charities and community partners. In 2023, donations were dispersed to 133 frontline organisations, with 5500 people given access to food relief, safe housing, crisis accommodation, emergency aid, medical support, training and employment opportunities, and wellbeing support. Cynthia says the organisation has a key focus on keeping things local, with CafeSmart researching the needs of each area that is involved, then liaising with community groups and services to work out how to best contribute to the local population. “What that means is, for example, when a café joins [the campaign] in Ballarat, then more funds are raised for community services in the Ballarat area,” Cynthia says. “The same goes for any parts of Australia where participating cafés are located. [In 2023], we had an amazing café partner in Geraldton, Piper Lane Cafe — who was the only participant in their area — and thanks to them we managed to provide funding support to homelessness services in Geraldton. “We really love the fact that participation has come from all around Australia, and as more cafés join the campaign, the more we can support services in those areas.”
In 2023 CafeSmart raised $147,585 for local grassroots charities and community partners. Image: CafeSmart.
CafeSmart even makes sure any online contributions reach the local area of the person donating money. “For any online donations, there’s a step where the donor nominates their local café, or simply enters their postcode, so our team knows where the funds should be allocated,” Cynthia says. Cynthia adds last year’s fundraising effort came during a period when services have been inundated with a spike in requests for assistance from people experiencing homelessness, poverty, food insecurity, and struggling to meet the escalating expenses of daily life. The Hobart Women’s Shelter, which received a grant from CafeSmart, says the contribution is a welcome relief for those needing support during difficult times. “Meeting the increasing demand of our clients who are escaping domestic violence is such a challenge, so these CafeSmart grant vouchers will make such a difference. Providing individuals and families with vouchers to basic material aid [such as] groceries, fuel, and transport gives people the dignity of choice in meeting their own unique needs,” the shelter says. Similarly, the Hut Community Centre in Adelaide says cost-of-living struggles have affected many within the local area. “The increase in the cost of living is having a significant effect on all our communities. Housing instability, increased
cost of rent and unavailability of rentals is causing stress amongst many of our clients,” the centre says. “We are extremely grateful to StreetSmart as a recipient of this Community Grant, as we intend to use it to purchase fuel and supermarket vouchers which will give us the ability to assist people who are in crisis.” Cynthia says she hopes even more businesses will support future campaigns. “We want to continue to increase the number of participating venues in order to be able to extend our support to more charities and areas across the country,” she says. “We also want to focus on encouraging coffee lovers to match their local CafeSmart café donation, which is the easiest way to double the impact. “Our team will work on updating our donation platform for quick and smooth online transactions, strong marketing promotion, and we will also make sure our printed collateral are eco-friendly and compostable, which we know is something all our coffee partners really care about. “A café may never know how many coffees they are going to sell on one day, but you know that at the end of the campaign, it’s going to make such a massive difference.” For more information, visit streetsmartaustralia.org/cafesmart/
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MICE Masterclass
ife is busy, but when making a decision to attend the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) as a café owner, planning is required: the day or hours to attend, staff to cover shifts, and in some cases accommodation, transportation fees, ticket expenses, the list goes on. At MICE, we understand and appreciate the level of effort required to attend the largest dedicated coffee tradeshow in the Southern Hemisphere, and thank you for your support. It’s for this reason that we want to make the expo more attractive than ever. Sure, we could pitch you the spiel that it’s a one-stop-shop to obtain all the necessary industry connections to set your business up for success; from machine and dairy suppliers to green bean traders, and ancillary equipment. We could pitch that it will be the biggest and best annual catch up with industry buddies, but that’s already a given. We want MICE to be more. More about you, more about your profession as a barista, and your business as a café owneroperator. As such, the 11th edition of MICE,
The expo is the largest dedicated coffee tradeshow in the Southern Hemisphere.
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Images: James Thomas Photography / Prime Creative Media
The 2024 edition of the Melbourne International Coffee Expo will include a new presentation series to further educate the Australian café community on topics that matter.
MICE will add more value in 2024, talking to café owners about the issues that matter.
taking place from 12 to 14 May, is proud to announce it will be hosting a series of educational sessions that will take place on the show floor to target the café market. “We want this series to speak directly to café operators about the information that matters to you. Want to know
practical information on how to manage staff rosters, create leadership positions in the workplace, or simply to better track accounting documents and invoices? Want to understand what biosecurity laws are in place to import your own green beans, or how to take the next step from café owner to roaster? Want to learn how to market your product better, manage your social media without stress, or connect to your audience in new ways? These are the sorts of discussion topics we think matters, and want to help facilitate at MICE2024,” says MICE Show Director Lauren Chartres. “MICE matters, but so do you, and as an expo entering into its 11th edition, we want to make every concerted effort to know that your visit will deliver more than a free coffee.” The series will take place each day of the expo, with hour-long sessions taking place in the morning and afternoon. In each presentation, a panel of guest speakers with the guidance of a moderator will dissect one key topic pertaining to the coffee industry, with attendees of the expo welcome to follow along and ask questions to the panel. “The key is to open things up for discussion, which isn’t something you can get when it’s just one person giving an address to the crowd,” Lauren says. “This
is about the sharing of information and the transfer of knowledge for everyone to not only survive, but thrive in this testing economic time for small business operators.” One discussion topic will analyse how to create an efficient workflow, featuring speakers from the café and restaurant sectors to educate attendees on tips to pump out high volumes of coffee. “It’ll be an in-depth look at the importance of workflow and how to create an efficient set-up while remaining consistent when it comes to making coffee,” says Lauren. “For those Australian cafés looking to grow even further, this should be an eyeopening discussion.” Also on the menu is a panel discussion featuring advice on how to properly clean and maintain coffee equipment. “If a café has dirty equipment, it’s a clear indication that it never gets cleaned, other that at a six-month preventative maintenance appointment. This comes down to a lack of confidence and knowledge from baristas about the equipment. It’s always good to be able to self-diagnose a problem, especially during peak periods, and we want to provide MICE attendees with this confidence,” says Lauren. Another presentation will explore the best ways to grow a café business with multiple locations. Small-scale café owners can learn how to go from one or two venues
MICE2024 will host a series of educational sessions.
to a dozen, even across state borders. “Growing a business can be difficult, so we’ll be looking to get some of Australia’s success stories to come share their secrets of expansion,” Lauren says. The fourth presentation will invite speakers to talk about managing café waste, such as milk and coffee grinds; what to do with it, how to utilise it sustainably, and how to reduce unnecessary waste. “Each presentation will have practical and useful advice that café owners can use to grow their businesses,” Lauren says. “We’re proud to be including this series into our next edition. We’re always looking to evolve MICE in a way that can benefit and grow the industry we serve.”
The presentation series will not be broadcasted online, meaning anyone interested in attending the educational series will have the fee included in the price of a MICE ticket. The talks will also be hosted on-site with no need to go anywhere other than the floor space of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. “Australia has a really engaged coffee market, and we’re looking forward to giving them something new this year,” Lauren says. To get involved with the education series or to buy a ticket, visit internationalcoffeeexpo.com
The educational series will take place each day of the expo.
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CAFÉ SCENE HOMESICK 337 Military Road, Henley Beach, South Australia, 5022 Open Monday to Friday 7:30am to 3:30pm, and Saturday and Sunday 7:30am to 2:30pm 0478 752 801
Homesick opened its Henley Beach doors in November 2023. Image: Homesick.
Homesick has already created a name for itself in seaside Henley Beach after opening in November 2023, attracting customers looking for silky-smooth coffee, tasty toasties and a home away from home. “The opening two days were crazy with support from family, friends and a lot of the locals. We went through about 10 kilograms of coffee and made about 80 sandwiches,” says Co-owner Yaz Sudic. The café’s name was inspired by Yaz and his co-owner wife Jas Sudic’s frequent visits to local coffee shops. Once Yaz started working seven days a week, they began to experience withdrawals from not visiting the places they considered a second home. The couple decided to extend their passion for comfortable cafés to locals in Henley Beach by creating Homesick. The café’s homely presence is reflected in its design with bright, pastel colours lighting up the space. Yaz says they make the most of the 40-square-metre space by using pop-up tables in the alfresco dining area to accommodate more customers. “It’s very warm and welcoming,” he says. To cure any caffeine cravings, Homesick serves Veneziano Coffee Roasters’, rich and fruity Soar blend on a customised all-white La Marzocco Linea PB two-group espresso machine, to match the café’s vibrant colour palette. “I wanted to give people a coffee that I like. It’s been a real big hit,” he says. 70 beanscenemag.com.au
The café’s name was inspired by the owner’s frequent visits to local coffee shops. Image: Homesick.
Having worked with Veneziano Coffee Roasters throughout his 12 years in the hospitality industry, Yaz says his relationship with the company is strong. “They come out every day just to make sure things are well. They’ve just been awesome to deal with,” he says. To pair with the coffee, the café serves rolls, sandwiches and a crowd-favourite toasted ham and cheese croissant with Dijon mustard and pickles. “It’s like a cheeseburger but in a croissant. It’s surprisingly tasty,” says Yaz.
Yaz plans to expand the business with Homesick 2.0, which he says will be more like a restaurant. “[We’ll] hopefully get a liquor licence as well. That’s definitely something I look at doing in the next year and a half,” he says. For Yaz, making and serving consistent quality coffee is the focus of his new café. “[I] love when people walk through the doors and have a good time, relax and get treated to a nice coffee and nice food,” he says.
BILLY’S BAR ESPRESSO K3 737 Anzac Parade, Maroubra Junction, New South Wales, 2035 Open Monday to Saturday 5:30am to 6pm, Thursday 5:30am to 7pm, Sunday 6:30am to 6pm 0412 686 981 Those looking for an alfresco café experience with great coffee, grab-and-go food, and a strong sense of community should head to Billy’s Bar Espresso in Sydney’s beachside suburb of Maroubra. Named after the owner, Billy Toskas, the café has attracted a mass of loyal customers from new mothers to students on their way to school looking for a morning pick-me-up. “We’ve had people that have been coming in since day one,” Billy says. Billy and his wife have built the business over 16 years with their three sons also helping out in the café regularly. “Everything we do is family orientated. Every customer [we] know by name and not just by order,” says Billy. “We’ve made some great friends that have gone on to become family as well.” To keep customers caffeinated, Billy’s Bar Espresso has partnered with Paradox Coffee Roasters since 2019. The roaster created a unique and exclusive blend for the café, aptly
named The Maroubra Blend to celebrate the café’s location. Billy says the coffee pairs well with milk and also tastes great as an espresso. “I think coffee drinkers these days want a really strong coffee to cut through the milk but [is] not as harsh as a black [coffee],” he says. Billy says the relationship with Paradox Coffee Roasters has been incredibly positive for his business. “Whenever there’s an issue, either because of machinery or anything else that goes on in the business, they’re on it straight away,” he says. “They use their social media to help [draw attention to our café] as well.” The café uses a Kees van der Westen Mirage coffee machine and three grinders including a Mahlkönig EK43, Mahlkönig X54 and Mazzer Super Jolly, all of which Paradox Coffee Roasters provided. Food is served at the café in a ‘grab-andgo’ style with a large selection of readymade sandwiches, take-away breakfast options, burgers, bowls and souvlakis. With early starts and evening closes, Billy is prepared to serve customers at any time of day. “We’re ready to go until 6pm so at least that way you get your caffeine fix anytime you want,” Billy says.
7 Beans serves Campos Coffee’s Superior Blend. Image: 7 Beans.
7 BEANS 144 Allan Street, Kyabram, Victoria, 3620 Open Monday to Friday 7am — 2pm and Saturday — Sunday 7am – 1pm 0433 836 820 Old wooden ladders and upcycled pallets decorate the warm, inviting space known as 7 Beans. “[It’s] a very welcoming, small and cute coffee shop,” says 7 Beans Owner Kyle Bartlett. “The café is full every day and it’s just a good vibe.” The coffee shop is one of three 7 Beans’ locations in Victoria, with another opening
in early 2024 and more stores opening in the future. “I definitely want a minimum of seven cafés, just because of the [brand’s name],” he says. Kyle says the most fulfilling part of starting 7 Beans has been watching his business expand. He says the Kyabram store is currently the busiest. “We built the Kyabram store to basically just fit me in there. Now I wish we actually had a bigger one,” he says. For Kyle, maintaining strong customer relationships is a priority. This is emphasised by the boards covered with loyalty cards and photos of locals’ dogs that are
The café is located in Sydney’s beachside suburb of Maroubra. Image: Billy’s Bar Espresso.
peppered along the café walls. “We go that extra mile to create a connection with our customers rather than simply operating a coffee shop,” he says. Kyle says while customers are drawn in by the café’s rustic country vibe, it’s Campos Coffee’s Superior Blend that entices them to stay. He says the coffee’s rich, chocolatey flavour profile perfectly reflects the bright pink neon signage behind the counter that reads ‘life is too short for bad coffee’. “We’re well known for our coffee. It’s one of the best around,” says Kyle. Kyle has worked closely with Campos Coffee for five years. He says the Sydneybased roaster has assisted him by providing equipment such as a La Marzocco Linea PB three-group espresso machine, and sending out technicians to fix any issues that occur with the machine. “I honestly wouldn’t be able to do what I do without Campos. They’ve supported me from the get-go,” he says. Hungry customers can choose from a variety of ready-to-go menu options including toasted sandwiches and croissants as well as homemade pies and sausage rolls. A selection of sweets such as cakes, slices, yoghurts and muesli can also be savoured. “Everything’s just grab-and-go but customers are still welcome to sit-in if they want,” says Kyle. beanscenemag.com.au 71
CAFÉ SCENE
The coffee machine is a XLVI Steamhammer custom painted lilac. Image: Nelly’s Cafeteria.
NELLY’S CAFETERIA 16 The Avenue, Midland, Western Australia, 6056 Open Monday to Friday 6am — 2pm When Nelly Celima’s dream café location became available for lease in the heart of Midland, Perth, she knew she had to start a business there. “It was a little café that I’d been watching for years thinking, ‘that’s such a beautiful building. If that ever came up for lease, I’d jump on it’,” says Nelly. An Italian family constructed Nelly’s Cafeteria in 1937 before it was renovated by Nelly and opened in June 2022. “We’re really proud to be maintaining all that Italian history. That was special for us,” she says. Keeping its Italian roots, Nelly’s Cafeteria is a modern take on an Italian corner deli serving Italian pastries, continental rolls and cannoli made fresh to order as well as Monte Carlo slices, an Aussie favourite. “It’s very Italian influenced but also with a bit of an Australian twist,” Nelly says. When designing the café’s interior, Nelly took inspiration from her Nonna, who encouraged her passion for cooking, food and hospitality at a young age. “I wanted [the café] to look like a modern take on my Nonna’s house. I’ve got lots of decorations that she would have,” she says. Nelly says the majority of the café’s customers are workers in the area 72 beanscenemag.com.au
looking for an early morning or lunchtime caffeine fix. “It’s a very corporate area, so customers want their coffee fast,” she says. Locale Coffee Roasters provides the coffee for Nelly’s Cafeteria. Nelly describes her relationship with the roaster as “incredible”.
“The whole Locale team has been fantastic, from the technicians to the delivery people to the barista trainers. They were essential to our set-up,” she says. Nelly uses Locale Coffee Roaster’s Ultimate Wingman blend in her café. She says customers love the chocolate and hazelnut flavour of the coffee. “It’s that stronger Italian sort of blend, perfect for the theme of the café,” she says. Coffee is prepared using a Mazzer Luigi coffee grinder and XLVI Steamhammer espresso machine custom painted lilac. “We’ve got a lot of mustard yellows in the café and earthy colours, so the [lilac coffee machine] matches it really nicely,” she says. For black coffee, Nelly’s Cafeteria uses a Moccamaster Classic coffee brewer. In the future, Nelly says she’d like to work with more producers in Perth’s food and beverage industry and potentially add gelato to the café’s menu. “There are a lot of new up-and-coming people that have a really creative take on Italian food and drinks,” she says. Having worked in the industry for 25 years, Nelly says the most rewarding part of opening her business is the freedom that comes with making her own decisions. “I’ve been able to curate all the things that I love about the industry and put them all together which is really nice. If I want to put something new on the menu I have the ability to just do it without having to consult anyone,” she says. Nelly says her working relationship with the team at the café is also a highlight. “I work with a really good group of people and I wouldn’t be able to do it without them. I’m very lucky,” she says.
Nelly’s Cafeteria is a modern take on an Italian corner deli. Image: Nelly’s Cafeteria.
VOLK & CO COFFEE BREW BAR 5 Boon Street, City Centre, Whakatāne, New Zealand Open Monday to Friday 7am – 5pm and Saturday 7:30am – 3pm +64 27 266 3141 Those close to Tasha Dimitrof were shocked to hear she was opening Volk & Co Coffee Brew Bar two weeks after a major lockdown due to COVID-19 in October 2021. “My argument was that there weren’t a lot of people opening businesses at the time. It seemed like the ideal time to launch a café,” says Tasha. Located in the coastal town of Whakatāne in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, Volk & Co Coffee Brew Bar has won over locals and tourists looking for a unique coffee experience. “I wanted to open up a specialty coffee business specialising in cold brew, filter coffee, manual brewing and a lot more precision in regard to espresso,” says Tasha. Tasha previously worked for Excelso Coffee as a barista trainer for three years and a head coffee roaster for another two years. Now her roasting partner, Tasha
says Excelso Coffee feels more like family to her than a business partner. “They educated me on the ins and outs of specialty coffee, invested in me as a person and helped me grow,” Tasha says. Excelso Coffee provided Tasha with a Mazzer Robur S and a Mahlkönig EK43 grinder, as well as a La Marzocco Linea Classic AV three-group espresso machine when she opened her café. She says the coffee machine is perfect for rushes when large volumes of coffee need to be prepared quickly. “We decided to go for something that would be super consistent and robust,” says Tasha. The café offers a range of cabinet items including sweet slices and maple bacon croissants made by Tasha’s partner Nathaniel Jones. “[Our maple bacon croissants] are probably one of our best-seller savoury items,” she says. Since opening Volk & Co Coffee Brew Bar, Tasha has found joy in watching her café grow despite her initial hesitations in starting the business. “I get this welling sense of pride that all my work has eventuated into something
important,” she says. Tasha adds that connecting with the community over coffee and food has also been rewarding for her. “My proudest accomplishment so far is that I got a tea drinker, after 25 years of tea drinking, to switch back onto coffee,” she says.
space designed by Summer and Georgie that offers a fresh, all-inclusive environment to the quiet coastal town where people can relax, socialise and enjoy their favourite beverages. “Everyone seems to love spending their holidays here in Coolum,” says Georgie. “We’re right next to a caravan park, so we get a great mix of people, with a fairly even split of tourists and locals with different stories.” Georgie says the first few weeks since opening have been a lot of hard work, but they remain thrilled with how the business has started. “It’s working out how we hoped it
would when we first thought about having our own coffee bar,” she says. Georgie says Toby’s Estate has been a big help getting Everyday Coffee Bar wellequipped to bring delicious coffee to the local community. Both co-owners have had a relationship with the coffee roaster for some time and knew they would collaborate once they opened their first coffee bar. “Everyone from Toby’s Estate has been incredibly inviting and helpful to us,” she says. “We have a wonderful relationship with the whole team. They are a great company to collaborate with, and we are grateful to be working with such a dedicated and experienced company.” The coffee bar houses a range of single origin batch brews from Toby’s Estate, providing new and exciting blends to the local community. “We’re looking towards adding more unique ways of brewing coffee in the future,” Georgie says. Georgie hopes that Everyday Coffee Bar can blossom into a favourite location among the Coolum Beach community that not only offers quality coffee but also fresh daily pastries and breakfast bowls. While the coffee bar is still in its infancy, Georgie and Summer are excited to see Everyday Coffee Bar develop throughout 2024 and beyond. “We can’t wait to see what the future holds,” says Georgie.
Everyday Coffee Bar first opened its doors in November 2023. Image: Everyday Coffee Bar.
EVERYDAY COFFEE BAR Shop 3B/1806 David Low Way, Coolum Beach, Queensland, 4573 Open daily 6am – 1pm When Georgie Bridges and partner Summer Dickson returned to the world of hospitality after pursuing other interests, they had big plans to bring a morning brew to customers in the heart of Coolum Beach, every day. “Running our own coffee bar is something that we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Georgie says. In November 2023, The pair opened Everyday Coffee Bar, a cosy and inviting
The café serves coffee from Excelso Coffee. Image: Volk & Co Coffee Brew Bar.
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ESPRESSO YOURSELF
Amy Zhang of The Maillard Project is the 2022 ASCA Australian Latte Art Champion.
Pumbaa Amy Zhang shares her latte art design of the iconic Disney character that won her the 2022 Australian Latte Art Championship title. ave you ever heard the lyrics “Hakuna Matata, it means no worries”? This is the song Pumbaa, from the film The Lion King, loves to sing. It translates to facing difficulties with positivity and without worry, embodying the philosophy of living carefree. This concept deeply touched me and inspired me to create the Pumbaa latte art design. The character of Pumbaa has an optimistic spirit that seamlessly integrates with this philosophy. I introduced him into the world of coffee competitions because he represents a positive way of life that aligns perfectly with coffee culture. Through my artwork, I aim to inspire others in the competition, encouraging them to
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pursue excellence in the realm of coffee, just like the characters in the film who bravely face life’s challenges. Simultaneously, it’s a way for me to infuse more positive energy into my own presence on the competition stage, reminding myself not to worry about the outcome but to enjoy the moment fully. In crafting this design, I will employ techniques involving six rosettas, dragging foam, and etching skills. The challenge lies in creating Pumbaa’s face symmetrically. To embark on this creative endeavour, meticulous preparation with an etching pen and black edible pigment is essential. I hope this design inspires you to maintain a positive attitude throughout the year ahead.
With a clean base and the handle to 12 o’clock, pour a six-leaf rosetta in the middle of the cup to create the bridge of the nose.
Turn the cup handle to 11 o’clock and pour two, five-leaf rosettas in a semi-circle shape to create Pumbaa’s cheek.
Turn the cup handle to 2 o’clock and repeat the motion to create the other cheek on Pumbaa’s face with two, five-leaf rosettas.
Turn the cup handle to 3 o’clock and pour the last curved rosetta to create the top of Pumbaa’s head.
Drag the milk foam in a heart shape to create Pumbaa’s snout.
Grab your etching pen and draw a small curved line to create Pumbaa’s mouth.
Draw two wavy lines on the side of the nose, then draw two ears and two tusks.
Finish by etching small dots with black food dye to complete the eyes.
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ACTA
Joe Taweel is the Chairperson of the Australian Coffee Traders Association.
Biosecurity in the spotlight The Australian Coffee Traders Association Annual General Meeting celebrates a devoted team, an active social schedule, and a commitment to informing members with information that matters. nce a year, the Australian Coffee Traders Association (ACTA) gathers for its Annual General Meeting, Forum and Luncheon to reflect on achievements for the year past, elect a new Committee, highlight leaving and joining members, and hear from guest speakers that will help guide decisions for the year ahead. On 23 November, members from around the country gathered at the Park Hyatt Sydney – The Guest House, on a rainy day overlooking the Sydney Opera House, but inside, a large group of participants were happy to catchup and enjoy an afternoon together. We began the event by honouring two long-standing Members who had decided to step down from the Committee: Nick Chronis, formerly of Seven Miles and now Schibello Coffee Roasters, and Paul Mannassis of Mocha Coffee. We thanked both for their great contributions. We also welcomed new committee member Dominic Musumeci of Seven Miles, and look forward to his ongoing participation and support. We recognised all the notable activities throughout the year, including our Adelaide and Brisbane meetings, Sydney ‘golf day’ and Mid-Year Networking and Presentations event, Melbourne meeting with the key theme of ‘Women in Coffee’, alongside exhibiting for the first time at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE). On reflection, we have been able to connect this year with more members than ever before, and our stand at MICE gave us a platform to be heard by an entirely new audience we hope to welcome into the Association. After formalities and during a delicious three-course lunch, we heard from three guest speakers from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF): Bo Wang, Andrew Allsop, and Todd Murdoch. The gentlemen spoke about coffee imports and biosecurity measures, and
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provided a snapshot of current import conditions. They noted the necessary phytosanitary certificate, clean and new packaging, and inspections needed for the successful import of green coffee beans; as well as import conditions for decaffeinated green beans and vacuum sealed green coffee trade samples, where officially no phytosanitary certificates are required. We heard about the threat of the Khapra beetle and the staged action that has been implemented since September 2020 to help protect the threat of all plant products. As such, prior to export, goods must be inspected and certified with phytosanitary certificates with the additional declaration that green coffee samples have also been inspected and found free from any evidence of the Trogoderma granarium species, whether live, dead, or exuviae. The DAFF team explained how its analysis of green coffee bean entries for the month of October 2023 eligible for DAFF’s Highly Compliant Importer scheme had shown an average clearance turnaround time of 3.5 days. Inspection failure of any biosecurity risk material (BRM) in green coffee beans were identified as insects, plant debris such as coffee fruit pulp, contaminant seeds and other fungi, soil, or animal material. In June 2023, it was noted how the Khapra beetle had been detected from a consignment of green beans from Brazil. Interestingly, 12 per cent of BRM found in green coffee beans have been found to be actionable, where the required steps would include the re-export of any load with Khapra beetle, local treatment for other insects, and cleaning or processing of plant debris and contaminated seeds. Of the top 10 countries with actionable BRM identified, Vietnam was the highest at 228, with 29.8 per cent actionable BRM, followed by Brazil at 172 BRM identified and 11.1 per cent of actionable BRM. “If a biosecurity risk material is found from coffee beans from Vietnam, you have
ACTA’s AGM in Sydney. Image: Prime Creative Media.
around a 30 per cent chance that it will be actionable,” Bo said. It was also interesting to hear the top 10 countries with green coffee entries, with Brazil and Colombia ranked the highest. “The biosecurity failure rate is only 1.3 per cent which is pretty low and we’re pretty happy with that,” Bo said. “The pathways levels of compliance is pretty satisfying. However, we are a bit concerned about Vietnam and Honduras. If you look at look at their biosecurity failure rate, it’s about three times higher than the pass rate average. Those two countries are also a bit higher in inspection failure rate compared to other countries (at 10.4 and 9.2 per cent respectfully).” It was an insightful afternoon and we look forward to more opportunities that add value to our community, beginning with ACTA’s Adelaide event to be held 25 or 26 March in tandem with next year’s Royal Adelaide Coffee Show in South Australia. For more information, visit acta.org.au
NZSCA
Emma McDougall is the Communications and Administration Co-ordinator of the NZSCA.
Carbon cutting NZSCA’s Emma McDougall explains how the association is helping New Zealand coffee roasters reduce carbon emissions and its ongoing commitment to a sustainable future. ack in 2022, the New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association (NZSCA) and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) collaborated to accelerate the decarbonisation of coffee roasting, a commitment stemming from the government’s adherence to the 2015 Paris Agreement. This partnership aims to guide coffee businesses in minimising energyrelated emissions, facilitating a transition to sustainable practices, and sharing global and local innovations in the coffee sector. New Zealand coffee roasters can now access tools that have been endorsed by the NZSCA to reduce carbon emissions. A passionate nationwide working group has developed a checklist that serves as a starting point for assessing emissions. Aoraki Coffee Roaster Director Ken Shi successfully implemented the checklist and achieved 25 per cent energy savings by optimising roasting profiles, minimising downtime, and planning an efficient energysaving schedule based on the moisture content of green beans. “The changes that we have seen have immediately impacted on our bottom line. Our team is engaged in this kaupapa. As a result, we have been able to roast more coffee for less in the past, even though the gas bill has gone up,” Ken says. Adam Kyne-Lilley, Head Roaster at L’affare in Wellington, is incorporating changes like LED lighting to reduce electricity consumption. L’affare is also expanding its sustainability efforts beyond the factory to address shipping emissions. “Switching to LED lighting from fluorescent has saved two months equivalent electricity per annum” says Adam. NZSCA has reached the fourth step of its project and has hired a consultant with support from EECA to conduct a worldwide search for innovative solutions that can help reduce energy emissions,
Aoraki Coffee Roaster Director Ken Shi achieved 25 per cent energy savings thanks to NZSCA. Image: NZSCA.
both locally and globally. The draft report, which is expected to be completed by February 2024, will focus on exploring new technologies and upgrades that can help reduce energy consumption. We will be sharing information from coffee roaster manufacturers who are working on improving odour and particulate elimination systems. We’ve also reached out to various independent providers of such systems, including catalytic afterburners, water wet scrubbing, and electrostatic precipitators, to gather feedback. Information has generously been provided on energy and natural gas consumption data, enabling us to start establishing a baseline for energy usage during coffee roasting and odour elimination. Observations thus far include the prevalence of small to mid-range batch sizes among New Zealand coffee roasters, with the largest roasters being 120-kilogram and 240-kilogram units. With the comprehensive report in progress, expect to see a focus on reducing energy-related emissions and
technological innovations in coffee roasting. The NZSCA will be identifying carbon reduction technologies, assessing their readiness and cost-effectiveness, referencing global experts, and presenting successful case studies. The study will be presented at the NZSCA AGM at Toitoi Hawke’s Bay Art’s and Event’s Centre, Hastings on 24 May 2024, marking a significant step toward a greener future for New Zealand’s coffee roasting sector. The Hawke’s Bay area was decimated by Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023. The NZSCA hopes that by holding the AGM there, we will boost the area’s hospitality industry, thereby backing the ethos of the Paris Agreement including supporting areas affected by climate change. If you have any relevant information, get in touch with the NZSCA at info@nzsca.org For more information on the New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association, or to join, visit www.nzsca.org
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GET TO KNOW
Suzy McGhee
Suzy McGhee of Villino Coffee has been crowned the 2023 Australian AeroPress Champion. She talks to BeanScene about her first job, supporting the Tassie coffee community, and the self-confidence you need to progress on the world stage. Name:
Suzy McGhee
Nationality:
Scottish
Instagram:
@suzybloo_coffee
Company: Villino Coffee Competition: 2023 Australian AeroPress Championship Q: What and where was your first job in the coffee industry? A: I started working at Starbucks when I was 17. It was my first full-time job and I worked there for seven years. I actually hated coffee when I first started working there, but I was transformed once I learnt about the specialty coffee world.
Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in coffee? A: I was always really intrigued by the sensory aspects of coffee and identifying the specific aromas and flavour notes.
Q: What’s your favourite part of being a barista? A: Trying to make each coffee the absolute best. I also love converting customers from typical coffee drinkers to coffee nerds. I find it quite exciting educating people on what is available to them.
Q: What’s your go-to coffee order? A: I absolutely have to have what you Aussies call ‘a magic’ in the morning. In the United Kingdom, we’d just call it a standard flat white. Then I’ll get a batch brew and a piccolo. I remember a time I recited that order to a barista and because of my accent, they brought out a batch brew and a side of pickles!
Q: What made you enter the AeroPress competition? A: It was a last-minute decision. It was a big deal for us having the [state] competition in Tasmania, because we haven’t had one in such a long time. I hadn’t really competed in a coffee competition before, and it sounded like fun. I also wanted to support the coffee community here.
Q: How did you feel after you were announced the winner of the 2023 Australian AeroPress Championship? 78 beanscenemag.com.au
A: I was very surprised. It’s not that I don’t think I’m good or anything, I just didn’t expect to win. I was surrounded by so many talented baristas, which is also such a great thing about the competition, being around so many other coffee geeks. I’m so grateful for all of the support from Villino Coffee and everyone online.
Q: What was your biggest takeaway after competing in the World AeroPress Championship? A: That I should plan to get further than I think. The same thing happened in the Tasmanian AeroPress Championship in that I assumed I wouldn’t get past the first round. I literally only brought enough water to compete once.
Q: How did you celebrate after the Worlds? A: I called my partner straight away. He’s not crazy about coffee like I am but he’s very supportive. He watched the whole thing on YouTube. Then we went to an afterparty that AeroPress organised. It was nice to have a debriefing with the rest of the competitors and get to chat to them again before we all parted ways.
Q: Will you compete again next year? A: Yes. I will need to defend my Australian title.
Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of in your coffee career? A: Winning the Australian competition. I also have a Specialty Coffee Association Coffee Skills Diploma which I’m really proud of.
Q: What advice do you have for any baristas looking to compete in the AeroPress competition? A: In the wise words of Nike, just do it! AeroPress is anyone’s game, and it’s a lot of fun.
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