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MICE
MICE announce Product Innovation Award finalists for 2020/21
While the Melbourne International Coffee Expo was postponed until 2022, the Product Innovation Awards are proceeding in order to recognise outstanding innovations. Adam McCleery writes.
The Melbourne International Coffee Expo is recognising outstanding innovations from 2020 and 2021.
While MICE may not have been able to take place over the past two years due to disruptions from COVID-19, the innovations have not stopped. “We know that companies from across the coffee industry have been working hard behind the scenes to both keep their businesses afloat during various periods of restrictions, as well as continuing to ensure they are at the forefront of technology and innovation,” said MICE show director Lauren Winterbottom. “It’s really important to us that this hard work is recognised.” The Product Innovation Awards are designed as an avenue for exhibitors to demonstrate the newest product innovations available to the market.
The finalists for the 2020/21 awards were recently announced for each of the three categories.
Ancillary electrical equipment
In the category of Ancillary Electrical Equipment, Simonelli Group/DaVinci, a company that develops high-performance, innovative, and sustainable machines has been nominated for the Helix flow coffee temperature system.
Helix is the result of a threeyear collaboration.
It’s designed to enable baristas to make and develop their own beverage syrups instore, increasing creativity and creating new beverage limited time offers (LTO) to the store without having to use an additional syrup.
The helix machine also delivers a sustainability message for the customer by reducing the plastic consumption of the store
The Barista Group Co, a specialist in coffee machinery, was nominated for the Markibar IZAGA coffee grinder, which comes with an isolated grinding chamber for smarter ventilation higher performance.
The IZAGA is purpose built for speed and consistency with two operating modes that deliver instant doses, allowing baristas more time to continue the workflow elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Barista Technology Australia was nominated for its flow coffee telemetry system, which creates a more accurate process for consistent quality, increased value, and sustainable propositions.
The product has real time gauges and an analytics dashboard with simple integration, real-time capture and wi-fi capabilities.
The innovation awards cover a host of categories from accessories to equipment.
Accessories, JOCO Cups, a company that creates innovative reusable drinking cups, has been nominated for the JOCO Aroma Lid while Keep Cups, another sustainable drinking vessel company, has been nominated for the newly released KeepCup Thermal product.
Rounding out the finalists for Coffee Accessories is Made by Fressko, which also manufactures sustainable and reusable cups and flasks, the company has been nominated for its new Fressko leather sleeve product.
Coffee Preparation Equipment
In the final category, Coffee Preparation Equipment, coffee machine manufacturers Franke Kaffeemaschinen Ag/Franke Coffee Systems was nominated for its Speciality Beverage Station (SB1200), which promises advanced modularity.
Some of the key functions of the SB1200 include IndividualMilk technology, an accounting system for various payment methods and a fully automatic cleaning process.
Franke Coffee Systems will be in competition with cold brew system specialist Toddy LLC, who is nominated for its Cold Brew Cupping kit, which boasts single-use, compostable filters rather than the standard metal variety.
Finally, Disave Espresso Equipment Suppliers, experts in coffee equipment, received its nomination for the new ONE by Crem coffee machine, a new product to the market that boasts an array of features.
ONE by Crem has highperformance, quality control off the back of PID link boilers, a removable 1.8l water tank and a smart-tech drip tray. All four models that are available to the market use dual pressure gauges on top of quality control.
The announcement of the finalists comes after MICE organisers were forced to make the difficult decision to postpone the 2021 event after a concerning spike in local COVID-19 cases forced the State Government to impose strict lockdown orders.
“We were devastated that we couldn’t proceed with our plans as we had hoped,” said Winterbottom.
“We wanted nothing more than to get back to business and bring the industry together again. While expo plans were delayed, we’re excited to be recognising some fantastic companies in the 2021 MICE Product Innovation Awards.”
Winners for the 2021 MICE Product Innovation Awards will be announced in the MICE newsletter and on the MICE website, www. internationalcoffeeexpo.com. F
The coffee industry has a long list of innovative products to showcase Coffee preparation equipment is always undergoing innovation.
It’s the first time in three years that MICE has been able to go ahead.
