GCR Mar 2020

MARCH/APRIL 2020

THE NEXT BATTLE

Former Colombian combatants trade in rifles and fatigues to cultivate coffee

THIRD TIME’S A CHARM

Domestic consumption and specialty market help reverse Cameroon’s production decline

BLOCKCHAIN REACTION

Tracing coffees and raising awareness

LESS IS MORE

New research challenges the most efficient way to brew espresso coffee

COMPLETE

CONTROL

GRUPPO GIMOKA BOARD MEMBER MARCO PADELLI ON HOW THE ITALIAN ROASTER EXECUTES ITS SUSTAINABLE RESPONSIBILITIES IN A COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE www.gcrmag.com

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CONTENTS March/April 2020

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COVER STORY

Gruppo Gimoka Board Member Marco Pardelli on why singleserve remains an international phenomenon, and why product innovation in industrial processes remains one of its greatest obstacles.

IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES

10 THE COMPLETE PICTURE

Marco Padelli of Gimoka Coffee on how it controls and promotes sustainable initiatives across its production chain

15 THE NEXT BATTLE

Former Colombian combatants trade their rifles and fatigues for the challenge of cultivating coffee

18 LESS IS MORE

Research from an international team of scientists and baristas suggests a more efficient way to brew espresso coffee

22 BLOCKCHAIN REACTION

A new app is using blockchain to link consumers with farmers and promote coffee transparency

PROFILE

24 COOL CHANGE

Marco Beverages Systems makes its transition into the cold-water space with the release of FRIIA

26 SAFE PASSAGE

How GrainPro is using hermetic technology to eliminate avoidable losses in the storage and transportation of coffee

32 A ROASTER FOR ALL SEASONS

Brambati on why it invests

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COMPLETE CONTROL

in R&D to push the limits of technology and provide its customers with flexible solutions

48 AN ORGANIC ODYSSEY

Shifting perceptions on organic products and Cafetto’s focus on economically-viable and high-performing products

34 BREAKING BARRIERS

Why Bellwether Coffee is committed to making roasting sustainable and accessible to anyone

50 A PRETTY PENNY

Innovation, design, and education set to shape the 32nd Specialty Coffee Expo in Portland

36 SMALL BUT MIGHTY

Probat’s new sample roaster scales down its commercial machines without compromising performance

ORIGIN

28 THIRD TIME’S A CHARM

How domestic consumption and the specialty market could help Cameroon reverse its steady production decline

38 THE BEAUTIFUL SISTERS

Neuhaus Neotec combines the romance of drum roasting with hot air roasting to launch Le Belle Sorelle

OPINION

52 THE WISDOM OF PERSPECTIVE Eversys Chief Commercial Officer Kamal Bengougam on how our point of view often defines our choices

40 GOING GREEN

MICE2020 goes sustainable with a range of initiatives to reduce waste created during the show

42 SUSTAINABILITY FROM A TO Z

How the Ima Coffee Hub is working with material suppliers to improve customers’ environmental footprints

46 THE AUTOMATED STATES

Egro sets its sights on the US and growing its superautomated market

Marco Padelli

Gruppo Gimoka Board Member

34

LAST WORD

58 THE NEW COFEFE CAPITAL

Edinburgh is Europe’s most coffee obsessed city, according to a high number of coffee shops per capita

44 UNTAMPED POTENTIAL

The growth of Puqpress and its impact on baristas and businesses

“THERE’S A TRADITION OF SMALL ROASTERS WHO ARE STUCK IN THEIR WAYS. WE WANTED TO BE AN EXAMPLE OF A PROGRESSIVE ITALIAN COMPANY.”

REGULARS 04 07 54 56

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EDITOR’S NOTE NEWS DRIP BY DRIP DIARY DASHBOARD MARKETPLACE M A R C H/A P R I L 2 0 2 0 | GCR

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EDITOR’S NOTE Global Coffee Report

PUBLISHER Christine Clancy christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au EDITOR Sarah Baker sarah.baker@primecreative.com.au JOURNALISTS Ethan Miller ethan.miller@primecreative.com.au

MAKE YOUR MARK IN AUSTRALIA, SUMMERS are best enjoyed with family and friends at the beach. We treasure the extended hours of daylight, iconic barbecues, and cold beers overlooking striking sunsets. This year’s summer, however, was stolen from many. As the world ushered in the new year, many Australians faced their worst nightmares as the popping sounds and glow of traditional fireworks were replaced with the roar of bushfires. Day turned to night as blue skies became black.

The ferocity of the fires decimated forests and an estimated one billion wildlife, hundreds of homes, and in some cases, human lives. A permanent scar on the country remains while many begin the long journey of recovery.

If there’s one thing the past months have taught us, it’s that the world’s extreme weather outbursts are not within our control.

In some parts of the world, winters abandon snow and summers brace for 50°C. So what do these uncertain patterns mean for our coffees farmers? It means more efforts are needed to protect coffee crops from the impact of climate change as conditions continue to worsen in producing regions. It also means we need to be proactive in our decisions, and we need to take responsibility for what we can control.

For companies such as Gruppo Gimoka, having a short and long-term sustainability plan is a permanent structure. It was a consideration when Marco Padelli’s father Ivan started the family business in the 80s, and one that remains engrained in the company’s operations. Marco says companies

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G C R | M A R C H/ A P R I L 2 0 2 0

can no longer afford to be dismissive about a sustainable vision. Everything from energy consumed and transparency of coffee to social initiatives must be considered to face whatever challenges lies ahead, from pricing downfalls and trade problems to drought and the spread of disease.

Coffee leaf rust destroyed Sri Lanka and Java’s flourishing coffee farms in the late 1800s and later Central America and the Caribbean starting from the 201112 harvest year. We can’t afford to go there again, but if we did, or succumbed to another environmental blow, what would our contingency plan be for the world’s coffee supply? Pesticides can halt the spread of disease, much like people wear face masks to stop the spread of Coronavirus, but preventative rather than reactive measures are key.

Former Starbucks President Howard Schultz once said that in times of adversity and change we really discover who we are and what we’re made of. Many have learnt this lesson the hard way in the past few months, but human strength and resilience will always drive us forward to tackle whatever comes next.

Sarah Baker Editor, Global Coffee Report

Peter Papoulias peter.papoulias@primecreative.com.au DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au ART DIRECTOR Blake Storey blake.storey@primecreative.com.au DESIGN Madeline McCarty, Kerry Pert BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING ACCOUNT MANAGER Camilo Molina camilo.molina@primecreative.com.au CLIENT SUCCESS MANAGER Janine Clements janine.clements@primecreative.com.au CONTRIBUTORS Lindsay Holloway, Simon West, Kamal Bengougam HEAD OFFICE Prime Creative Pty Ltd 11-15 Buckhurst Street South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia p: +61 3 9690 8766 f: +61 3 9682 0044 enquiries@primecreative.com.au www.gcrmag.com SUBSCRIPTIONS +61 3 9690 8766 subscriptions@primecreative.com.au

Global Coffee Report 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

Global Coffee Report is owned and published by Prime Creative Media. All material in Global Coffee Report 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 Global Coffee Report are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated.

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NEWS In brief

NEWS DRIPBYDRIP AFRICA Since German colonists introduced coffee to Cameroon in 1884, it has played an important role in the country’s development and economy, particularly since 1960 when Cameroon gained independence from Europe. But since a record high of 2.2 million 60-kilogram bags in the 1986-87 harvest season, production has been on a steady decline. The Cameroon government and other organisations are now looking to domestic consumption and the specialty market to boost production.

See page 28.

AMERICAS Since 2003, Colombia’s Reincorporation and Normalization Agency has helped those who have resigned from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and other illegal armed groups to retrain and

start businesses in areas such as agriculture.

Acopaz, a cooperative made up of 47 former FARC members, struck a deal with Lohas Beans to export 200 tonnes of coffee grown in central Tolima department to the United States, while Ascafe won the Best of the Best category at last year’s Ernesto Illy International Coffee Awards in New York.

See page 15.

New research from the University of Oregon suggests cafés could reduce their coffee usage by as much as 25 per cent while improving extraction yields and reproducibility, possibly saving the United States coffee market as much as US$1.1 billion per year.

See page 18.

Farmer Connect announced the release of Thank My Farmer in January 2020, a web application that uses a blockchain to link the coffee supply chain from farmer to consumer.

Early contributors to the app include

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The Bellwether Coffee commercial coffee roaster makes instore coffee roasting possible for a number of venues.

traders Itochu Corporation, RGC Coffee, and Sucafina, roasters Beyers Koffie, The JM Smucker Company, Hummingbird Coffee Roasters, and Bluestone Lane, and the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation.

See page 22.

GrainPro has operated within the international agriculture sector since 1992, focusing on cocoa, rice, spices, and other dry organic commodities, but over the past 10 years, has shifted more of its attention towards the coffee industry.

The signature technology used in GrainPro bags allows dry commodities – such as green coffee – to be stored for long periods without being affected.

See page 26.

The Bellwether Coffee commercial coffee roaster – at roughly the size and shape of a home refrigerator – makes it possible for any café, grocery store, or coffee retailer to roast inhouse. The system is also emissions-free thanks to an internal afterburner that combusts the volatile organic compounds present in coffee smoke.

See page 34.

Egro, the fully automatic arm of Rancilio Group, is firmly established in Europe. Now, the Swiss manufacturer is setting its sights on the United States as the next major market for super-automated espresso machines.

See page 46.

After a successful 2019 event in Boston, the Specialty Coffee Expo will return to Portland from 23 to 26 April at the Oregon Convention Centre. Last year’s expo attracted more than 14,000 attendees, a figure which show organisers are expecting to exceed in 2020.

See page 50.

14K+

The number of people who attended the 2019 Specialty Coffee Expo in Boston, New York.

M A R C H/A P R I L 2 0 2 0 | GCR

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NEWS In brief

ASIA PACIFIC

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Cameroon’s high-quality Arabicas grow in the western highlands among rich volcanic soils and ample rainfall.

The Melbourne International Coffee Expo will showcase its dedication to a sustainable future from 4 to 7 May 2020. Australian born waste diversion service Reground, reusable cup manufacturer HuskeeCup, and eco-friendly packaging solution company Detpak will all operate modified versions of their services at the trade show.

See page 40.

Cleaning solution specialist Cafetto is bringing coffee’s sanitation sector into the spotlight of sustainability with the growing success of its organic product range. The organic collection includes 11 products designed to clean espresso machines, brewers, grinders, capsule machines, and tea makers to improve their performance and longevity.

See page 48.

EUROPE Family-operated coffee roaster Gruppo Gimoka’s successful business dynamic comes down to trust and a lot of control.

As the second-largest Italian company in volume of roasted coffee, Board Member Marco Padelli says another significant aspect of its competitive edge is the care Gimoka has for primary and secondary packaging systems, such as FSC, through 27 filling lines for single-serve and traditional coffee.

He adds that single-serve remains the fastest growing market in the world. For Gimoka, this market has seen double-digit growth in Italy over the past four years, largely attributed to the export market, without any loss in the internal market.

See page 10.

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To allow coffee shops to seamlessly introduce more variety to their menus, Marco Beverages Systems has released the FRIIA, its first venture into the cold-water market. The compact under-counter system is able to deliver hot, cold, and sparkling water, all from a single tap.

See page 24.

Italian food service equipment manufacturer Brambati has been present for much of the modernisation of coffee roasting since its launch 75 years ago.

In 2018, invested in its facilities to create the Advanced Food Lab, a cutting-edge research and development centre.

See page 32.

To meet the needs of its various markets, Probat started from scratch with the development of a new sample roaster just as adept as its larger shop and industrial models.

The new model features a

convection heating system and can transfer roast profiles to larger machines.

See page 36.

German manufacturer Neuhaus Neotec has integrated drum and hot air roasting into one system.

Le Belle Sorelle provides the romance of drum roasting and the versatility of hot air roasting, while minimising costs thanks to a single production line.

See page 38.

The Ima Coffee Hub has taken several steps to accommodate increased demand for sustainable alternatives. First and foremost, it has focused on supplying machines that can run environmentally friendly materials, such as aluminium or compostable capsules.

See page 42.

When the Puqpress automatic tamper was released in 2013, it had a lukewarm introduction to the coffee market. After a lot of talking,

feedback, and improving, Puqpress finally saw a turn of opinion in 2016. The company is now active in 47 countries.

See page 44.

Eversys Chief Commercial Officer Kamal Bengougam says in the coffee realm, people often pigeonhole automatic machines a less authentic, but new generations will bury false assumptions and automation in coffee will be no exception.

See page 52.

Self-service retailer Selecta has analysed several data points including the price of coffee, number of coffee shops, search interest in “coffee”, and coffee imports, and compiled this information in a European Coffee Index.

Edinburgh, Scotland stood out from the other cities as it had by far the most amount of coffee shops per capita.

See page 58.

COVER STORY Gimoka

The complete picture GRUPPO GIMOKA BOARD MEMBER MARCO PADELLI ON HOW THE ITALIAN ROASTER CONTROLS ITS VALUE CHAIN AND COMMITS TO SUSTAINABLE RESPONSIBILITIES IN A COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE.

S

ome of the world’s most successful businesses are family owned. There’s supermarket giant Walmart, candy master Mars, media conglomerate News Corporation, and car manufacturer Ford Motor Company, to name a few.

Perhaps it’s their natural family dynamic, or ability to be completely honest, but in the case of family-operated coffee roaster Gruppo Gimoka, located in Valtellina in the Italian region of Lombardy, Board Member Marco Padelli says the company’s success comes down to trust – and a lot of control.

“We grew up in a harmonious way, so working together with my family is easy. Of course, we have our opinions and many important discussions on strategy and vision, but my father also puts a lot of trust in me and my brother, and together we follow one goal. We are a team,” Padelli tells Global Coffee Report.

“In this family organisation, there’s certainly a big sense of responsibility toward a company of 230 employees, but I must say that the glue that sticks us together is our shared love for the job.”

In today’s competitive and sometimes punishing market, that responsibility also extends to the thousands of consumers who use Gimoka’s 2500 different products under its umbrella of brands including Galleria CaffèSi, Gran Caffè Garibaldi, and Espresso Italia.

Gimoka is one of the largest Italian companies in volume of roasted coffee, second only to Lavazza which Padelli says is 15 times bigger and “playing its own game” against Jacobs Douwe Egberts and Nestlé. The gap between Gimoka and the next 10 companies is extremely tight.

Padelli says Gimoka’s overriding advantage is its control of the supply chain, starting with the purchase of green beans and transformation of its modern systems, which not only arms the company with the industry’s cutting-edge technology, but it does so with minimum environmental impact.

MACHINERY MATTERS Gimoka’s two Neuhaus Neotec’s RFB400 roasting machines demonstrate this sustainable commitment, roasting up to 10,000 kilograms of coffee per hour through fluid bed technology.

“Gimoka pioneered fluid bed roasting technology in Italy. We were the first to buy Neuhaus Neotec’s RFB400,” Padelli says. “In Italy, there’s a tradition of small roasters who are stuck in their ways. We wanted to be an example of a progressive Italian company. We installed the first roaster in 2012, then a second in 2019 because we’re processing 27,000 tonnes of green beans and we realised how much this technology could improve our end product. Since then, we’ve seen other roasters such as Nestlé and illycaffè change to this style of roasting too.”

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G C R | M A R C H/ A P R I L 2 0 20

Brothers Davide and Marco Padelli with father Ivan help operate Gimoka, Italy’s second largest coffee roasting company.

Gimoka’s latest investment comes in the form of a new Opem filling machine for the production of Nespresso professional compatible disks and two Cama packaging machines.

Cama’s IF318 monobloc robotic arms works like an experienced conductor. The monobloc system separates and positions the filled capsules at a precise distance apart in set configurations. In a continous and repetitive

motion, the capsules are placed in formed and open packaging boxes. They are then weighed for accuracy and checked for defects. Those that are given the tick of approval are transferred to Cama’s FW749 wrap-around case packer for shelf-ready shipment. The cycle is constant.

Gruppo Gimoka’s single-serve plants contain three active Cama packaging lines including Dolce Gusto, Caffitaly and Nespresso-compatible capsules (these registered trademarks do not belong to Gimoka or any of its affliliated companies). These Cama lines give Gimoka the ability to manufacture its products continually and at high speed, increase efficiency, and decrease packaging wastage.

Padelli says over the past three years since the commencement of Gimoka’s formal partnership with Cama, the packaging solutions provider has been flexible to the company’s evolving needs.

Cama offers full support for any installation or commissioned work, and its designers offer technical advice on the best types of carboard to use for packaging options.

SINGLE-SERVE STAYS STRONG Gimoka invests a lot of resources into the development of its domestic and professional equipment across the HoReCa, office, and vending industries, for which Gimoka

M A R C H/A P R I L 2 0 2 0 | GCR

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COVER STORY Gimoka

Cama Group supplies Gimoka with closed loop packaging line machines, including this FW749 wrap machine for pre-glued coffee tubes.

more experimental and break down cultural barriers, as testified by the recent successful opening of Starbucks Reserve in Milan,” Padelli says. “Single-serve is a winning system for many reasons: it assures the consumer a good and stable result in the cup, its preparation is fast and practical, it is up with the times on a worldwide point of view, and it is economically affordable. It is certainly an international phenomenon.”

GREATEST CHALLENGE

participates as a shareholder in two of the biggest vending operators in Italy: IVS and Dai group. It also partners with international supermarket and retail chains around the world as their main roaster supplier.

However, it is the home market where Gimoka sees its largest growth, absorbing 60 per cent of company sales, with capsule exports reaching more than 100 countries.

Padelli says the single-serve market has seen double-digit growth in Italy over the past four years, largely attributed to the export market without any loss in the internal market.

“In Italy, there’s still a lot of that old moka pot tradition, but over time it will decrease as the new generations become

The home market absorbs 60 per cent of Gimoka’s sales, of which it exports its capsules to more than 100 countries.

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Climate change and its impact on the future production of coffee remains one of the industry’s greatest challenges.

At a local level, Padelli says Gimoka’s greatest obstacle is investing in product innovation in industrial processes, which now more than ever needs to be addressed in a sustainable way and contribute to a reduced environmental impact.

“We are really satisfied of the results we have achieved until now, but we can’t certainly consider the process done – our business comes from the ground, and we are all called to preserve and defend it for the future generations,” Padelli says.

He adds that Gimoka has accepted its responsibility to the environment and circular economy across its value chain from the procurement of raw materials to roasting and grinding. As such, it prescribes the recycling of materials, use of renewable energy sources, and promotes compostable products and packing solutions across its product range.

“We aim to strengthen our leadership between the main Italian roasters, growing both of our two divisions – single-serve, and roasted and ground whole beans – by proposing innovative solutions with added value in terms of our product and care for the environment,” Padelli says.

In January 2020, as part of Gimoka’s three-year investment plan of €35 million (about US$40 million), it revised its Nespresso-compatible capsules, which now contain 50 per cent less weight of plastic thanks to its co-injection process. Gimoka will roll out this new capsule from March.

“Innovation is certainly a challenge because we are not a worldwide recognised brand, so to be in the market and compete with the other players with these new smart capsules is key. If we can continue to innovate new products and processes, I’m sure we’ll continue to play our competitive role in the market,” Padelli says.

Gimoka also offers two plastic and compostable Nespressocompatible capsules, one aluminium capsule, and bio-based industrial packaging that is oxygen-tight to retain peak freshness and easily compostable in organic trash.

Thanks to a team of internal engineers, Gimoka is committed to working with mono materials for its capsule body and lids to make recycling easier in accordance with the European Union’s 852/2018 directive that will be implemented within 2025.

“We don’t have to demonise plastic: if it is correctly managed as trash and recycled, it represents a type of accessible, functional, and sustainable material,” Padelli says. “This is the same for aluminium capsules.”

He says while each of Gimoka’s products are unique in their own right, its internally developed GM2 dual compatible “smart capsules” are a particular favourite. These capsules have seen great growth in Australia under St Remio, a brand built on transparent relationships between the grower and consumer, and a sustainable philosophy.

MORE THAN A NAME Padelli’s father Ivan started Gimoka in the early 1980s with the help of his father, who owned a small coffee shop in the city centre of Lecco. Eventually, Ivan had the intuition to transform the little family activity into a thriving business.

“Ever since my brother and I were young, we knew we wanted to keep the family business going.

We never had any doubt,” Padelli says. “We grew up in the company. As kids, we would play on the 70-kilogram bags of coffee beans. Our house was located on the same site as the factory and any time we wanted to go out, we had to pass through the roastery.”

After high school, Padelli moved to Milan to study economics, and then to Lugano, Switzerland to study economics and finance. It was only on an internship placement at a New York green bean trader followed by a company in Miami that Padelli got his first glimpse into what coffee as a business entailed. He later travelled to Colombia, Brazil, and Honduras to further learn about green beans and the different methods of coffee harvesting and processing.

“Travelling to origin is the best experience you can have in the coffee business,” Padelli says. “If you don’t appreciate raw product and where it comes from, we can’t do our job properly as roasters.”

Padelli officially joined the family company in January 2016 as a business analyst, later becoming a shareholder and a member of the Board of Directors. He coordinates commercial relationships while his brother Davide is in charge of industrial operations and the financial department. His father

Ivan is Group President. He supervises the purchase of green beans and maintains client relationships throughout the supply chain, a value instilled by his father.

At just 29 years of age, Padelli says he has a lot to learn, but is proud of what the company has achieved and the direction it’s headed.

“Success to Gimoka is the ability to grow, respond to the business expectations of our partners and customers, and offer a wide range of blends and complete packaging solutions, not only on current trends, but on future ones,” Padelli says.

“2020 is going to be our year. We will consolidate the acquisition of Univerciok, a powder manufacturing company that will complete our product range, and we will open in new markets, as well as two new branches abroad in Australia and Poland.

Entering these markets will be our next challenge, but we’re ready for it. The best thing about coffee is that it has no borders and no boundaries.” G C R

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FEATURE Colombia

The next battle

AFTER DECADES OF ARMED CONFLICT IN COLOMBIA, FORMER COMBATANTS ARE TRADING THEIR RIFLES AND FATIGUES FOR THE CHALLENGE OF CULTIVATING COFFEE.

D

riving down the steep, rugged slopes from the town of Abejorral in Colombia’s northern Antioquia department towards the El Picacho coffee plantation is no easy task, even in a four-wheel drive.

Deep potholes that litter the mountainside track act as booby traps designed to rattle bones, while great sand-coloured rocks slow the descent to barely a crawl.

Ever Anaya Osorio knows the route better than anyone. The independent coffee farmer and founder of El Picacho makes the trip several times per week, delivering his Maria Camila arabica brand to customers in Abejorral and the nearby town of La Ceja, about three hours from Medellín.

“The roads are shocking,” Anaya says on the terrace of his El Picacho farmhouse. “It is something that coffee farmers are always complaining about to mayors, to governors, but nothing gets done.

And not only in Abejorral – this is nationwide.”

Like most coffee farmers in Colombia, the 55-year-old is feeling the strain.

Roads aside, the slump in prices last year to less than 100 US cents per pound has left him struggling to make ends meet, with the cost of buying fertilisers and employing up to 30 workers to harvest his 5.6-hectare plot weighing heavily on his balance sheet.

Meanwhile, Anaya says the coffee borer beetle, known as the broca – “coffee’s number one enemy” – is tenacious enough to wipe out his entire crop.

Unlike most other farmers, though, Anaya has had to face another, more personal challenge: readjusting to civilian life after three

M A R C H/A P R I L 2 0 2 0 | GCR

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FEATURE Colombia

years in the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), the country’s most feared right-wing paramilitary group.

Active from 1997 to 2006, the 20,000-strong AUC was one of several armed groups engaged in Colombia’s five-decade civil conflict that left more than 260,000 people dead and millions displaced from their homes.

Often working alongside regular army units, the AUC was set up to fight the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and other left-wing insurgents, but was deemed a terrorist organisation by the international community because of its involvement in the narcotics trade and other criminal activities.

The conflict was officially brought to an end after a peace accord was signed in late 2016 between the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the FARC, although hostilities in many parts of the country continue.

Anaya insists that in 2002 he had little choice but to join the paramilitaries.

The FARC, which at the time controlled vast swathes of rural Colombia, was extorting 10 per cent of the profits of his family-run cattle-ranching business, leaving him and his relatives struggling to survive. After the guerrillas killed his uncle and cousin, and then levelled death threats against his mother, he fled with his family to the sanctuary of a nearby town. Seeking revenge, he enlisted as a logistics expert with a local unit of the AUC. “Those that criticise often do not know the full story or why one would end up there (in the AUC),” says Anaya, who left the group in December 2005 after it struck a demobilisation deal with the government. “Sometimes it is the lack of opportunities, the lack of education, or just not really knowing what one is getting into.”

The job of reintegrating tens of thousands of ex-fighters like Anaya into civilian life has been one of the biggest challenges of the ongoing peace process.

Many former members of the FARC, in particular, were recruited in their teens, and have spent their entire adult life holed up in remote jungle camps, learning few of the necessary skills for a livelihood outside of the guerrillas.

Since 2003, Colombia’s Reincorporation and Normalization Agency (ARN), a government unit set up to oversee reintegration, has helped those who have resigned from the ranks of the FARC, the AUC, and other illegal armed groups to retrain and start businesses in areas such as ecotourism, fashion, and sustainable agriculture.

In 2019 alone, the government approved 869 individual or collective productive projects involving more than 3200 one-time members of the FARC, each granted eight million pesos (about US$2300) by the ARN to help with setup costs.

Many are developing their new skills in 24 government-approved transition zones designed to facilitate the reintegration program.

“It is incredible the number of ways that they have found to work productively,” says a representative from ARN. “There is an emphasis on territorial development, so these productive projects often involve part of the local community where they live. It is an integrated approach that pushes these projects beyond just income generation.”

Some coffee ventures, profiting from the agency’s technical assistance and support in accessing markets and land, have already tasted success.

Acopaz, a cooperative made up of 47 former FARC members, struck a deal with Lohas Beans to export 200 tonnes of coffee grown in central Tolima department to the United States, while Ascafe, another cooperative from southern Cauca department, won the Best of the Best category at last year’s Ernesto Illy International Coffee Awards in New York, seeing off some 5000 challengers.

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According to the ARN, successful reintegration is vital to ensuring that excombatants in Colombia are discouraged from rejoining illegal armed groups.

For the most part, demobilisation in Colombia has worked well, but some former fighters – including several high-level commanders – are abandoning the peace effort and taking up arms again, posing a grave security risk.

Since the 2016 deal with the FARC, 20 to 28 splinter groups have emerged, boasting more than 3000 members or a quarter of those guerrillas who signed up to the ARN’s reincorporation process, according to Bogotabased think tank Ideas para la Paz. Figures for ex-paramilitaries who rejoin armed groups are more difficult to come by.

Many who rearm are driven by ideology or disillusionment with the government’s handling of the peace process, while others are tempted

Ever Anaya Osorio is readjusting to civilian life after three years in the United SelfDefence Forces of Colombia.

by the financial rewards offered by criminal activities such as cocaine production, extortion, and illegal gold mining.

“The underlying conflict and the illicit economies that fuel that conflict have not been resolved,” says Nicolas Urrutia, senior analyst at security firm Control Risks.

“Despite the fact that individual groups may have found or may have been able to get to negotiated agreements for demobilisation with the government, the black market for combatants and people that know the terrain and know how to handle themselves persists.”

Others choose to rearm amid personal security concerns. According to Ideas para la Paz, in the three years to October 2019, 147 ex-fighters were killed in suspected reprisal attacks.

“And that is no longer something that is only happening in remote areas or places where they have gone to resettle and reconnect within families in their places of origin far away from the transition zones, but it has also started to happen – although for the time being in smaller numbers – close to and even in the transition zones themselves,” Urrutia says.

“That sends a very chilling message to combatants and creates an additional incentive to rejoin an underground group.”

A decade and a half on from his own demobilisation, and with a business to expand, Anaya has little time to dwell on the past.

Having arrived in El Picacho almost a decade ago, Anaya has set up the only fully equipped coffee-producing farm in the local area, with units for washing, depulping, threshing, drying, toasting, and packing the beans.

On peak harvest days, the plantation produces about 2500 kilos of cherries, yielding 500 kilos of dry coffee. It is tough, meticulous work, often carried out in 30°C heat.

Finding new channels to market his coffee is fundamental for the future of his business, but the low returns restrict his options. A recent uptick in prices has brought some respite.

“New markets do exist, but you need to get out and look for them, and how do you do that?” Anaya says. “Right now I do not have the means to travel to Medellín; I cannot just abandon the farm for two or three days. And the costs are high. It all adds up.”

Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers has supported Anaya through free training courses and technical advice. Amid the price slump, the trade group has been encouraging farmers to cut costs and focus on the quality of their beans. However, the challenge is not straightforward.

“It is true that profitability depends largely on reducing production costs,” says a representative of the Antioquia Coffee Growers Committee.

“But cost cutting has its limits, because the price of fertilisers and labour depend on external factors that cannot be controlled by us or the farmers.”

As the clouds begin to descend on the lush green slopes surrounding El Picacho, it is hard to believe the region was once the backdrop to some of the most intense fighting of the conflict.

Anaya, like most Colombians, prays the violence has been confined to the history books.

“I may be wrong, but we all have the right to make mistakes,” he says.

“But we do what we want to do, and I chose to change. With the little measure of help that I have received, well, I have made that change.” G C R C

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FEATURE Espresso model

Less is more NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS CAFÉS COULD REDUCE THEIR COFFEE USAGE BY AS MUCH AS A QUARTER WHILE IMPROVING EXTRACTION YIELDS AND REPRODUCIBILITY.

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he old espresso adage goes “20 grams in, 40 grams out”. However, according to recent research from an international team of scientists and baristas, this may not be the best nor most efficient way to brew espresso coffee.

Scientific journal Matter has published ‘Systematically Improving Espresso: Insights from Mathematical Modeling and Experiment’, which suggests baristas could achieve more consistent espresso shots by lowering water pressure, reducing coffee dosage, grinding coarser, and running subsequently faster shots.

“What that means for a café is, if they have a recipe that uses 20 grams of coffee, they can hit an approximate recipe or flavour profile using up to five grams less coffee. Figuring out the economic implications just takes a bit of math,” says Michael Cameron, lead author of the paper and Special Projects Manager at St Ali Coffee Roasters in Australia.

“If you serve 400 coffees per day, using five grams less coffee, you save two and a half kilograms daily. Multiplied over a week, month, or year, that’s a lot of money you’re saving without seeing a reduction in coffee quality.”

With the United States coffee industry serving about 124 million espresso-based beverages

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per day, the paper estimates a 25 per cent drop in dosage could save cafés across the country a combined US$3.1 million per day, or US$1.1 billion per year.

The idea for the paper began four years ago. Cameron, at the time a barista and Café Manager at Frisky Goat Espresso in Queensland, discussed online with the University of Oregon’s Prof. Christopher Hendon different ways to make tasty coffee.

Hendon, author of Water for Coffee among other coffee-related works, suggested he simply reduce the water pressure of his coffee machine from nine bar to six bar.

“I went and dropped the pressure and it was amazing coffee. I talked to Chris about it a few days later, and he suggested we write a paper,” Cameron says.

“It started with the idea of testing if you can make high-extraction coffee on a consistent basis by dropping your line pressure. We thought the finer that you grind, the more surface area you expose to the water, so the higher your extraction yield would go, and that it would be a higher extraction yield at six bar than nine bar.”

Hendon tells GCR he hoped the study could shed light on how espresso coffee could be brewed more consistently.

“A persistent problem in the coffee industry is that, anecdotally, we knew that variation was part of coffee. Minimising that variation is sort of an interesting problem for a scientist,” Hendon says.

“We assumed that you could just grind finer and get more out of the coffee, so we could fit an easy mathematical function to this and make predictions based on grind setting, mass of coffee, and mass of water.”

Hendon developed a mathematical model which predicted how these factors would affect extraction yield (EY), the percentage of coffee grounds dissolved into the water.

On weekends when Frisky Goat Espresso was closed to the public, Cameron would go

in to carry out experiments in a controlled setting that were then compared to the model.

Variables from roast dates to total dissolved solids transferred from the cup to the coffee were monitored and kept consistent from shot to shot.

Espresso was prepared using 20-gram baskets fitted into a San Remo Opera threegroup espresso machine. The coffee was ground on a Mahlkönig EK 43 at grind setting (GS) ranging from 1.3 to 2.3. Tamp force was controlled using a Puqpress automated tamper. The mass of coffee in the basket and the mass of the outgoing liquid coffee were measured on an Acaia Lunar scale. Cameron determined a tasty point of 22 per cent EY where that particular coffee, an espresso roast from Supreme Roasters in Queensland, was at its best.

While the mathematical model predicted finer grinds would result in higher EY, in practice past the 1.7 setting on the EK43, EY decreased as clumping began to occur in the coffee puck. This resulted in certain areas

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FEATURE Espresso model

being over extracted, others under extracted, and some untouched by water.

Hendon says one of the possible contributors to this phenomenon was the relationship between the boulders and fines created during grinding. Boulders are larger pieces that pass through the grinder blades while fines are smaller particles created by the cracking of the bean.

“All coffee grinders produce fines, and they produce way more fines than they do boulders. If you grind finer, than the boulders get smaller, and the fines increase in population, but they don’t get smaller,” Hendon says.

“The relationship between fines and boulders is quite a complicated one, because we don’t really know whether it’s a critical number of fines or the size of the boulders that cause clumping.”

On a graph of GS compared to EY, this created a “volcano” shape where EY peaked in the centre of GS. Once this was determined, Hendon says they realised there was two points 22 per cent EY could be achieved, on either side of the maximum EY.

Grinding coarser and reducing coffee mass may improve the consistency of espresso extractions.

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In the case of the experiment, this meant the GS could be shifted from 1.3 to 2 and achieve the same EY. While the percentage of compounds extracted by the two shots is the same, Hendon stresses they flavour may not be.

“They’re going to taste different because they’re different types of extractions. One of them is even throughout the bed – or as even as possible – and the other one is 22 per cent made up of some components extracted to 25 per cent, some extracted to 24 per cent, all the way down to zero per cent,” Hendon says.

“If you’re happy with the flavour of these unevenly contacted coffee grounds, then you have to accept that you’re going to have shotto-shot variation because of the mechanics of Michael Cameron water passing through a bed made of those Lead author of the paper and Special particle sizes.”

Projects Manager at St Ali Coffee Roasters Two other methods of reaching the same EY are identified in the paper. One involves determining the maximum EY and reducing water mass to achieve the desired EY. Reducing dry coffee mass also resulted in a higher max EY, and 22 per cent EY could be achieved using an even coarser grind on a smaller amount of coffee. In the case of the study, 15 grams at a much coarser grind consistently achieved the desired result.

“We’re talking coarser than you would for an espresso grind. We’re not suggesting a grind as coarse as you’d use for a French press,” Cameron says.

Flavour profiles and results will differ from coffee to coffee, but Cameron says he consistently achieves flavours that he enjoys using this method.

“Every morning at home when I have a coffee, I use a 15-gram basket and am getting tasty espresso. That’s my subjective opinion, but it’s an even extraction and it brings out the flavours that I want, and it tastes as good as if not better than a ‘20 gram in, 40 gram out’ recipe,” Cameron says.

“The difference is that I can do that shot again and again and it’s going to reasonably hit that flavour profile I want every single time.”

The recipe used in the experiment is 20 grams in, 40 grams out and targeted a 22 per cent yield; however, Hendon says this is only one possible starting point and the results are translatable to other brew ratios.

“Our recipe is arbitrary. You could be using 19 grams in and 55 grams out and still be on the wrong side of the volcano. Now we have a way to quantify which side you’re on,” Hendon says.

“Let’s say you’re on the side of uneven extraction.

You can grind coarser and get higher extraction

“THE IDEAS OF GRINDING COARSER, LOWERING PRESSURE, AND REDUCING COFFEE MASS ARE STRATEGIES. THEY DON’T HAVE BE USED IN COMBINATION.”

yields. Or if you’re on the side of evenly extracting and if you grind coarser, you get lower extraction yields.”

Cameron adds another key takeaway of the study that relates to its original hypothesis is that lowering pump pressure will result in higher extraction yields that are more reproducible.

“That was something statistically significant from the very first data set that I gave to Chris. It’s almost so obvious and certain from the data now that it almost gets overlooked,” Cameron says.

“If you want reproducibility and higher extractions, and if you believe that those higher extractions also equal tasty coffee, then lower your pump pressure.

“The ideas of grinding coarser, lowering pressure, and reducing coffee mass are strategies. They don’t have be used in combination. The question is ‘does it still taste good?’ That’s where individual preference and experimentation comes in.”

If using this method meant cafés reduced their doses by as little as one gram per drink,

Prof. Christopher Hendon of the University of Oregon has published several coffee-related works.

Hendon says it would still save almost US$1 million per day.

“If you grind coarser to get a more even extraction, you use a little less coffee, and the shots are going to run really fast, but you’re going to get really high extraction yields. Then you save money, you save time, and you get higher reproducibility,” Hendon says.

“That’s the trifecta for coffee.” G C R

FEATURE Thank My Farmer

Blockchain reaction THANK MY FARMER USES A BLOCKCHAIN TO LINK THE COFFEE SUPPLY CHAIN, ALLOWING CONSUMERS TO TRACE THEIR COFFEES TO ORIGIN AND SELLERS TO RAISE AWARENESS OF PROJECTS ON THE GROUND.

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he world is connected now more than ever. The internet allows people on different continents to communicate instantly and smartphones have made it possible to do so from the palm of your hand. And almost any question can be answered with a quick Google search.

Thanks to this wealth and speed of information, consumers are more conscious about what they purchase and the sustainability and ethics behind their buying. But in some ways, coffee is lagging behind when it comes to traceability.

The supply chain is complex, with mountains of paperwork required to ship a container of coffee, which often passes through many hands from farm to roaster. To address this, Dave Behrends, Managing Partner and Head of Trading at Sucafina, looked at how blockchain technology, digital identity, and different database systems could be used to streamline the coffee supply chain.

This led him to found Farmer Connect, a separate entity to Sucafina, that announced the release of Thank My Farmer in January 2020. The web application uses a blockchain to link the coffee supply chain from farmer to consumer.

Consumers can scan QR codes on certain coffee products, which will take them to a webpage detailing information on that coffee. This includes where it was grown, processed, and exported, when it entered the country, the date and location of its roast, and can go from the café or store where it was purchased.

Consumers can also view projects run at origin by the traders or roasters and donate money directly towards such initiatives.

Farmer Connect Chief Operating Officer DJ Bodden tells Global Coffee Report that Thank My Farmer invites consumers to learn more about the coffee they’re drinking.

“By and large, everyone who operates in origin realises that without the coffee farmer, there is no coffee supply chain.

That results in a lot of really good, impactful projects being done on the ground, whether that’s teaching farmers financial awareness, making sure they have access to inputs, or teaching them good agricultural practices so they get more out of the farm,” Bodden says.

“A lot of that information is actually not winding up as part of the brand message. People invest their time, talent, and resources, Thank My Farmer allows consumers to but that message doesn’t always get to the consumer. That’s kind donate directly to projects at origin.

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of a shame for the companies and employees doing that work, but it’s also a shame for the consumer who doesn’t get to participate in that story.”

The app takes the IBM Food Trust model – the blockchain system used by the likes of Walmart and McDonald’s – with tweaks to accommodate the more fragmented nature of the coffee industry.

“You might have anywhere from two to 12 participants handing coffee before it reaches the roaster. People need to know the information they’re uploading is not only safe from a security standpoint, but that they can choose how and what is shared,” Bodden says.

“Some companies might want to only share information about traceability with specific partners, some might decide that they don’t want to expose their supply chains, and some might want to go the ‘full monty’ and share the traceability, pricing paid to farmers, and information about certification. We want to give these companies that choice, because everyone’s business model is different.”

During development of the app, Farmer Connect knew that it couldn’t only be accessible to roasters and consumers. Coffee producers across the world with different resources had to contribute information to the system.

“We needed to make sure that Thank My Farmer was accessible to the smallest players at the very tips of the supply chain.

For that, we made an application without a complex integration or requiring the filling

out of spreadsheets on a computer, which isn’t something always accessible to a farmer,” Bodden says.

“We developed a system that pushes that same transaction information to the blockchain using either a smartphone app or a simple flip phone sending text messages. While smartphones are not that common in rural areas like in East Africa and some parts of Asia and Oceania, a flip phone is something that most farming households will have access to.”

While Thank My Farmer began its life at Sucafina, the green bean trader ultimately decided this system needed to be shared throughout the industry.

“We wanted Farmer Connect to be something that was inclusive of not only the farmer and the consumer, but also players throughout the supply chain,” Bodden says. “The value of a blockchain initiative scales exponentially based off its number of participants.”

Early contributors to Farmer Connect have included traders Itochu Corporation, RGC Coffee, and Sucafina, and roasters Beyers

Koffie, The JM Smucker Company, Hummingbird Coffee Roasters, and Bluestone Lane. The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation also took part in development.

“I think different companies are going to come to this with different mindsets. In the specialty world, this is a continuation of the drive to be more transparent and traceable, and to share that information with the consumer. Knowing more about the coffee is part of the experience of being a specialty coffee drinker,” Bodden says.

“On the commercial side, I think it’s a recognition that in general, but with younger generations in particular, the demand from consumers for traceability is only increasing.”

He adds that Thank My Farmer can allow companies from every segment of the industry to learn about what matters most to their customers.

“Customers can show their interest by simply visiting the page. Or they can donate as little as $1 to express their strong support for particular projects, to inform the brands of where their priorities are,” Bodden says.

“By that, we can actually give the consumer a pretty strong voice in the sustainability work done on the ground, in terms of what they want to know about, what they want communicated to them, and what types of things they want brands to participate in.”

With greater access to information across the board, Bodden says soon, a larger number of consumers will have an expectation of knowing where their products came from.

“Imagine if you picked up a food product off the shelf and it didn’t have an ingredients list.

Your reaction would probably be of surprise and suspicion. This will be the same for traceability of agricultural products within the next couple years,” Bodden says.

“We want to tie consumers back to the people, supply chains, and work that’s being done in order to allow these products to be available in a store. A traceable cup of coffee should not be the outlier. Within the next few years, it should be the norm that people expect when they walk into a store.” G C R

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PROFILE Marco

Cool change MARCO BEVERAGE SYSTEMS DISCUSSES ADAPTING TO THE CHANGING TASTES OF CONSUMERS AND ITS TRANSITION TO THE COLD-WATER SPACE.

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s fast food chains and restaurants introduce design-your-own options and retailers offer personalised packaging, choice is becoming more important to and expected from consumers.

To allow coffee shops to seamlessly introduce more variety to their menus, Marco Beverages Systems has released the FRIIA, its first venture into the coldwater market. The compact undercounter system is able to deliver hot, cold, and sparkling water, all from a single tap.

“As experts in the hot-water market, it was an obvious choice to expand into the cold-water space. Our distributors and customers wanted to offer complete water solutions to their end-users so we developed FRIIA to facilitate this need,” Kiernan says.

“FRIIA was developed as a sleek, energy-efficient and multi-purpose solution to changing global and industry trends around plastic, sustainability and healthy beverage choice.”

She tells Global Coffee Report that Marco has seen an increasing demand for healthy beverage choices and overall decline in the consumption of sugary drinks.

“We also saw how single-use plastic and sustainability were becoming a key issue for consumers and companies alike,” Kiernan says.

“From an industry perspective, we saw how consumers’ understanding and evolving tastes

FRIIA produces hot, cold, and the option of sparkling water, all from a single tap.

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led to a proliferation of choice in the out-ofhome beverage market. As demand for high quality, healthy and sustainable beverages grew, we saw how new sectors began to meet these needs. Offices, convenience stores and retailers upped their game in providing quality beverage choice.”

In particular, Kiernan says the demand for cold beverages has reached new levels.

“We have seen a decrease in alcohol consumption and a rise in low or no alcoholby-volume alternatives,” she says. “Similarly, in the coffee and tea industries we see cold and iced drinks as standard menu items. Kombucha, iced teas, and water infusions are also highly in demand as customers seek healthy, refreshing drinks.”

While developing its first foray into the cold-water market, Marco Beverage Systems consulted a range of customers from within and out of the coffee industry.

“Knowledge is a core brand pillar of ours and it played a huge role in developing FRIIA. At Marco, we’re lucky to have exceptional relationships and networks within the coffee industry and the FRIIA system was developed with our customers in mind,” Kiernan says.

“Using our contacts within the coffee and foodservice industries, we were able to identify the pain points and needs for our customers and incorporate solutions into our FRIIA system.”

This consultation gave rise to the issues many cafés, offices and hospitality businesses face with space limitations, above and below the counter.

“We recognised that design and space are still crucial considerations for any fit-out.

Traditional point-of-use water systems not only took up space, they relied on plastic drums and often didn’t align with the overall space aesthetic,” Kiernan says.

“FRIIA incorporates the same sleek design, precision control and user-friendly settings as the rest of our Marco equipment. Like the Marco MIX, FRIIA is a system that gives users control, flexibility, and consistency in their menu offering.”

Space taken up above the counter was also carefully considered.

“We wanted our fonts to be as sleek and minimal as possible. We also wanted to ensure the systems were easy-to-use, install and service,” Kiernan says.

Through consultation, Marco Beverage Systems determined the different requirements of a hot and cold-water tap, and how these can both be accommodated in one unit.

“Hot and cold-water systems are used differently. Water boilers are used to fill kettles or cups whereas a water chiller will need to fill higher volumes of water. This means that the application of the systems needs to be considered before installation,” Kiernan says.

“For chillers, one must take into consideration things like incoming water temperature, which will impact the output

whereas this is not a consideration when using our water boilers, which rely on a heat-fill process.”

The FRIIA incorporates Marco Beverage System’s existing hot water technology with a chillerblock cooling system. The undercounter chiller uses aluminium block technology to chill incoming water by an average of 10˚C. The boiler contains a vacuum insulated tank to ensure temperature accuracy and energy-efficiency. Kiernan says using Marco’s existing boiler equipment as a base improves the energy use of the new system.

“FRIIA is up to 23 per cent more energy-efficient than competitors and this is mainly due to the award-winning boiler. The boiler has a vacuum insulated tank that maintains water temperature and reduces heat loss. This means that not only does water temperature remain stable and precise, the system does not consume excess energy,” she says.

“Sustainability is a key social and economic topic and for businesses, this can have a significant impact on their operating costs and bottom line.”

FRIIA also allows venues to offer a variety of beverage options that don’t require outsourcing or single-use packaging, further improving its sustainability footprint.

“Roasters, cafés, or coffee chains would hugely benefit from introducing FRIIA for two important reasons. One is beverage choice. From a single system, they can make hot drinks such as tea, americanos, or hot chocolate, and cold or sparkling drinks such as lemonade or iced tea,” Kiernan says.

“Second is customer value. Retail sites can give their customers added value by offering cold, fresh water on tap, without adding to their single-use plastic consumption.”

With different venues possessing different requirements, Kiernan says Marco Beverage Systems intends to roll out a range of FRIIA variants in the coming months.

“We will be launching one-button cold and sparkling-only variants as well as two-button cold and sparkling or hot/cold variants,” Kiernan says. “[Venues] need a system that can deliver hot water, cold water, and sparkling water from a single tap. This is not just about capitalising on their investment, it’s about ensuring they make the most of their space.” G C R

PROFILE GrainPro

Safe passage GRAINPRO’S PRODUCTS ARE SPECIALLY DESIGNED TO KEEP COFFEE FRESH USING MODERN HERMETIC TECHNOLOGY, ELIMINATING AVOIDABLE LOSSES THAT OCCUR DURING BASIC STORAGE AND TRANSPORT METHODS.

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raditionally, most consumers paid little attention to the crop-to-cup process. However, a recent cultural shift towards sustainability is driving many end-users to show more interest in the products they purchase and where they come from.

In 2017, United States-based NGO Natural Resources Defense Council released the second edition of its in-depth report titled Wasted: How America is Losing Up to 40 per cent of its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill. The report revealed packing and distribution are among the key drivers in the supply chain that lead to food wastage.

“There are a lot of factors that can impact the quality of produce during transport and storage.

For coffee, the biggest is moisture,” says Laurelyn Concepcion, Brand and Content Supervisor at GrainPro. “In shipping containers, moisture builds due to condensation, and re-wetting coffee often leads to mould growth.”

GrainPro specialises in packaging, storage, and transportation of agricultural goods. Its products are designed to eliminate losses and ensure protection against insect infestation, mould growth, oxidation, and rancidity. The business offers storage options ranging from 500-gram bags to solutions that hold up to 300 metric tonnes.

GrainPro has operated within the international agriculture sector since 1992, focusing on cocoa, rice, spices, and other dry organic commodities, but over the past 10 years has shifted more of its attention towards the coffee industry.

“We knew that coffee producers and traders were facing problems that were solvable using our hermetic bags, so we saw a major opportunity to promote our cost-effective, easy-to-use products to this market,” Concepcion says.

“The primary product our coffee customers use is the GrainPro Bag. It features hermetic technology which means the coffee retains its freshness, aroma, taste, and colour. The atmosphere inside the bag is preserved, so it is completely airtight and moisture-free.”

The signature technology used in GrainPro bags is polyethylene with a special blend, allowing dry commodities to be stored for long periods of time without being affected. The bags were initially co-developed with Hohenheim University in Germany, but a majority of GrainPro research and development is in-house.

“We’ve done all sorts of testing to make sure the produce inside of the bag retains its integrity.

The feedback we’ve had from customers is extraordinary. They have told us our bags have been a game changer for their businesses.”

While the bags are the most popular solution for GrainPro’s coffee customers looking to store and transport coffee, GrainPro’s Collapsible Dryer Case is also proving valuable for growers at origin who need to dry crops after harvest.

“It’s really effective for crop-drying and it keeps contaminants and other debris away from coffee

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GrainPro Bags utilise advanced hermetic technology to protect coffee from moisture.

Solberg & Hansen, Oslo

or other produce,” Concepcion says.

The drier is quick to set up or collapse in case of rapid weather change and is low cost due to using solar energy.

Its low energy demand fits in with Grainpro’s growing emphasis on environmental and economic sustainability.

“Sustainability has always been in our vision and mission and one of our core pillars, but we are really looking to take it up a step in the future. We’re looking forward to the rest of 2020

with high hopes. We want to work with a lot more NGOs and governments to help farmers,” Concepcion says.

She adds that reducing post-harvest losses for farmers through climate-smart solutions is an important way to achieve this goal.

“We help farmers’ preparation and to secure their crops against the unexpected. We want to help make sure food retains its peak quality and doesn’t go to waste due to rain or floods,” Concepcion says.

Among GrainPro’s current partners is Guatemalan coffee farm El Injerto.

The farm started as a sugarcane, wheat, and corn plantation before moving into coffee. GrainPro’s solutions have helped El Injerto to preserve the quality of its beans and receive better prices, which it then invests into the community and helps stimualte its economy.

“El Injerto is committed to growing not just the best coffee beans but also their community. The business has helped to establish electricity lines, schools, and health clinics in the surrounding area,” Concepcion says.

“Small-scale farmers are the foundations of our economies and our countries. They are very important to agriculture in general, so we want to strike up partnerships with as many of them as possible.”

As well as working towards a more sustainable future, Concepcion is optimistic that GrainPro can grow its presence in major coffee producing regions in the world.

“We have three major divisions around the world, in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. All of them have huge potential, but we have particularly identified Brazil as a potential growth opportunity as it’s the world’s biggest coffee producer,” she says.

“We are really hopeful of tapping into the coffee industry further as our products are perfectly made to store and transport it around the world.” G C R

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SOLUTIONS FOR COFFEE ENTERPRISES

ORIGIN Cameroon

Third time’s a charm CAMEROONIAN ORGANISATIONS AND GOVERNMENT ARE LOOKING TO DOMESTIC COFFEE CONSUMPTION AND THE SPECIALTY MARKET TO REVERSE LOCAL PRODUCTION’S DECLINE.

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ince German colonists introduced coffee to Cameroon in 1884, it has played an important role in the country’s development and economy, particularly since 1960 when Cameroon gained independence from Europe. But not unlike many other coffee-producing countries – where farmers live in poverty as coffee prices hit all-time lows, where climate change and plant disease are slashing production, and where crops and farmers are ageing while youth move to the city – Cameroon has a lot stacked against it. It’s also one of many African coffee-producing countries where political turmoil, such as land ownership changes, government intervention (or lack of), and armed conflict, particularly the current Anglophone Crisis, has affected the local coffee industry over the decades.

Coffee growing expanded in the 1920s, particularly in 1929 with the arrival of Frenchman René Coste, an agricultural engineer who ran the agricultural station in Dschang, Cameroon.

According to the International Coffee Organization (ICO), he gave impetus to the rapid growth of this cash crop, helping form the country’s first coffee co-op and build its first mill.

“At the economic level, coffee was one of the main sources of the foreign currencies required to equip the country with productive investment, while in social terms it was virtually the only source

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of monetary income of rural populations,” reported Michael Ndoping, General Manager of the National Cocoa & Coffee Board (NCCB), in the ICO’s latest country profile on Cameroon. “To some extent, coffee governed the life of these communities. Coffee was, therefore, of particular interest to the state, which ensured its operation by means of input distribution, price support, and various forms of participation.”

From independence through the early 1990s, Cameroon saw production skyrocket and became the 12th largest producer globally. But since a record high of 2.2 million 60-kilogram bags in the 1986-87 harvest season, production has been on a steady decline.

“Unfortunately, low coffee prices and the withdrawal of the state during the past three decades have deprived farmers of all the advantages that made the sector so attractive, bringing about a gradual decline in activity,” reported Ndoping for ICO. “This situation gradually undermined interest in this crop that provided work for the populations of whole regions, causing a virtually irreversible loss of dynamism.”

In 1991, liberalisation of the coffee sector began, causing the state to withdraw from the sector as well as the creation of NCCB. Liberalisation was completed by the 1994-95 harvest season, leaving producer prices susceptible to the global market and causing marked reductions in purchase prices to growers and the quality of products for exports, according to the ICO. “Sector stakeholders agree that the withdrawal of the state during the liberalisation of the sector is at the origin of several of the problems that exist The Circle of Excellence invites small groups of farmers to follow common standards and peer review coffee to improve quality. today,” according to the Cameroon Coffee Sector Development Strategy, developed by the International Trade Centre in collaboration with NCCB and the Inter-Professional Cocoa & Coffee Council. tells Global Coffee Report . “Its main “State withdrawal from the marketing [in particular] placed the producers in front of a plethora objectives were to move from a subsistent to of buyers who are not very professional.” a more professional and sustainable coffee “Without the protection of the marketing board, farmers and their cooperative groups economy for all key stakeholders, and to were exposed to the price fluctuations of the commodity markets, which were trending toward reposition the Cameroon origin in the historically low levels,” says Matti Foncha, Founder of Cameroon Boyo Coffee. “Farmers have international market.” been growing coffee in this region for close to 100 years, during which time it provided for Unfortunately implementation of the the economic well-being of the producing families. But following the decline of coffee market Coffee Sector Development Strategy faced prices in the 1990s, many farmers replaced coffee with other crops.” numerous challenges, says Ndoping, so the In the 1992-93 harvest season, the year after liberalisation commenced, Cameroon’s high-quality Arabicas grow in the western highlands among rich volcanic soils and ample rainfall. coffee production plummeted 85 per cent to an all-time low of 260,000 60 -kilogram bags. A lthough it rebounded somewhat in the latter part of the decade, production volumes have been on a steady downward trend since.

Over the decades, a number of initiatives have been launched, but many, unfortunately, have not been fruitful.

When production dropped and quality deteriorated following liberalisation, the European Union and International Trade Center, with others, developed the Coffee Sector Development Strategy (2010-2015) in hopes of rebuilding the sector.

“It was designed to create a synergy among operators in the private sector, government establishment and key ministries involved in coffee,” Ndoping

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ORIGIN Cameroon

Cameroon government developed a followon initiative, the Cocoa & Coffee Sector Revitalisation & Development Plan (20142020), that would focus on all facets of the sector: production, quality, trade, promotion, research, and local consumption. Adopted in September 2014, the plan had lofty goals of producing 125 million kilograms of robusta and 35 million kilograms of arabica by 2020.

But once again, the well-intentioned initiative has fallen short. In the 2018-19 harvest year, Cameroon recorded only 270,000 60-kilogram bags. Similar to those encountered with the first initiative, challenges included lack of interest due to coffee’s low profitability, unavailability of seeds, high cost of inputs and aging plants and farms. The ongoing civil war also continues

to impact farmers and production.

Ndoping also blames a lack of financing: “We didn’t succeed in raising sufficient funds to fuel the plan and so this had a negative impact on the plan’s execution.”

He says an internal evaluation of the plan’s performance has been carried out and most of the challenges raised will be addressed this year.

Operating on the receiving end of initiatives like these, Foncha sees the efforts being made but admits that they rarely make it to the coffee farmer masses. “The government support structure for agriculture in general

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is quite extensive. However, in practice, very little meaningful support gets to the farmer,” he tells GCR . “This is a major limitation of the ‘top down’ system of support. Supplies such as fertilisers and pest control products meant for farmers are shared or distributed among a minority of farmers, at best.”

This reality is what motivated Foncha to take matters into his own hands and launch Cameroon Boyo Coffee in 1996. “The project came to life when I offered to take Cameroon coffee to quality markets in North America on behalf of farmers willing to entrust their coffee to me for export,” he explains, noting that Cameroon Boyo Coffee is exclusively Arabica with quality commitments from contributing farmers.

Though Foncha knew superior-quality coffee would bring farmers the greatest value, resources remained limited and third-party certifications were too expensive. So through Cameroon Boyo Coffee he established the Circle of Excellence (CoE), whereby small groups of farmers follow common standards, peer review each other, and then combine each season’s production.

“The CoE groups idea evolved from the accumulation of efforts we were making to improve quality and transparency,” he says. “We recognised from the start that micro-producers needed to organise into groups in order to achieve production volumes that could be taken cost effectively to markets. So with a good understanding of the quality parameters our market partners sought, we adopted [a] systematic approach toward developing and sustaining our market segments.

“Because quality at the point of sale is an important factor in the pricing of our coffee, the farmer-owners have a strong incentive to respect desired quality standards,” Foncha adds. “The CoE program encourages collective work and knowledge and resource sharing, and ensures that the farmer-owners get the best out of the market and the market partners get the best out of the farmers.”

With the focus on quality and, thus, higher earnings for farmers, Cameroon Boyo coffee is exclusively produced for the specialty market, which is still only a minor category within Cameroon’s coffee industry. Foncha estimates arabica represents only 10 per cent of the In the 2018-19 harvest year, Cameroon country’s total production, robusta makes up recorded only 270,000 60-kilogram bags of coffee. the rest.

The 475,442-square-kilometre West African nation is unique in that it is home to vast climates and vegetation, ranging from mountains and desert to rain forest and savanna grassland to ocean coastland. Its highlands, however, are where its high-quality arabicas grow in the rich volcanic soils with ample rainfall. These conditions contribute to the coffee’s full-bodied, well-rounded, sweet profile with notes of chocolate.

“Because we produce some of the best arabica and robusta coffees in the market, we are in the process of developing the specialty coffee segment in Cameroon,” Ndoping tells GCR . “This, of course, is a niche that offers better remuneration to farmers, so measures are ongoing to explore this untapped potential.”

As part of this move, Cameroon participated for the first time at the African Fine Coffees Association Specialty Coffee Expo in Zanzibar in October, where some of its coffees were ranked among specialty coffees.

Meanwhile, this year will be the eighth annual Festicoffee expo, held in capital city Yaoundé in April. The annual event launched in 2012 by Inter-Professional Cocoa & Coffee Council as part of a big push for domestic coffee consumption. In hopes of ultimately boosting local

coffee production, Festicoffee aims to increase awareness of Cameroon coffee and convert some of its 24 million people into coffee drinkers.

While coffee consumption in Cameroon is not yet widespread, the domestic market is slowly expanding. There are about 30 local brands of roasted or ground coffee in the market that some public offices, private companies, and households are buying on a regular basis, according to the ICO, and domestic coffee consumption is up about 11.4 per cent since Festicoffee started.

Although Cameroon still exports the majority of its green coffee, largely to Italy, Belgium, and Germany, Ndoping sees this as another promising avenue for the struggling industry. “It was clear that local consumption was very low, so [boosting it] was one of the corrective measures envisaged,” he explains. “Roasting at source is relatively feasible, and if this is accompanied by a robust promotional strategy, local consumption can pick up.” Currently, most coffee processed in Cameroon is exported to Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and other North African countries.

Despite the opportunities in the specialty market and domestic consumption, Ndoping remains wary of coffee’s fate in Cameroon. Aside from the aforementioned funding issues, he stresses that a shift needs to happen among farmers, which is related to one of the main objectives of the original Coffee Sector Development Strategy.

“Coffee is a colonial crop and, as such, there is a need to change the perception of Cameroonian farmers into viewing coffee as a lucrative business venture,” he says.

On a smaller scale, Foncha already sees this happening among Cameroon Boyo’s farmers and others in the region. An increasing number of farmers not currently registered in the CoE program have seen the potential among their peers and have expressed interest in participating.

This means that this group’s outlook is much brighter than the greater industry in Cameroon.

“We continue to project strong growth of our CoE program,” Foncha says, “and, therefore, strong growth in the amount of specialty coffee available [under] the Cameroon Boyo brand.” G C R

The government is looking to specialty coffee and domestic consumption to boost the industry.

OUR DELTA ROBOTS ARE PERFECTLY SYNCHRONIZED. JUST LIKE YOU AFTER YOUR MORNING COFFEE. Cama Group is a leading supplier of advanced secondary packaging systems in the coffee industry, continuously investing in innovative solutions. www. camagroup.com

Hall 13 - Stand A33

BRAMBATI Roasting Equipment Feature

A roaster for all seasons BRAMBATI CONTINUES TO INVEST IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TO PUSH THE LIMITS OF TECHNOLOGY AND PROVIDE ITS CUSTOMERS WITH FLEXIBLE ROASTING SOLUTIONS.

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n a period historians consider the late middle ages and early Renaissance, roasters once used shallow pans held over hot coals to transform small portions of green beans to brown. Over time, the demand for coffee increased and technology grew rapidly, leading to cylindrical-style roasters around 1650.

Roasting equipment has evolved a long way since the times of hand-held apparatuses and hot coals. The craft of roasting has morphed into a scientific artform where almost every

Brambati builds equipment to roast all types of coffee, including finer ground Turkish and Greek styles.

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molecular variable can be measured to adjust and optimise flavour.

Italian food service equipment manufacturer Brambati has been present for much of the modernisation of coffee roasting since its launch 75 years ago.

“The business was born shortly after the Second World War but has been making coffee roasters for about 40 years. Technology has evolved over time and to be competitive in the market, it’s important to evolve with it,” says Fabrizio Brambati, Owner of Brambati, which is also involved in manufacturing equipment used in pasta, confectionary, plastic, and chemical industries.

Brambati’s headquarters are located in Codevilla, approximately 60 kilometres from Milan, Italy. In 2018, it heavily invested in its facilities to create the Advanced Food Lab (AFL), a cuttingedge research and development centre.

The AFL, with its complete pilot plant, was designed to increase the brand’s scientific capabilities so it can continue to push the limits of technological advancements. It features a laboratory, 3D scanners, dedicated graphics software, and the infrastructure to conduct rigorous testing.

“We moved our headquarters from Voghera to Codevilla to exponentially increase our production capacity. Our company has plants operating in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania, so we needed to upgrade our facilities to match our ambitions,” Brambati says.

“The AFL is a result of Brambati’s continuous commitment to search for innovation, where theoretical tests and trials are not enough, but instead, there is a need to test, confirm and support results with laboratory analysis.”

With the AFL and a specialised technical division putting Brambati at the forefront of roasting expertise, the company believes its competitive advantage lies in the flexibility of its catalogue.

“Innovation and flexibility are two of the core pillars that this brand is built on. We are constantly seeking to develop our processes and technology,” Brambati says. “We take pride in our products being adaptable and consistent.

Our machines today are suitable for every kind of green coffee and are able to obtain results that every professional roaster wants.”

The flexibility of its roasters and equipment options cover all styles of coffee including espresso, mocha, filter, or the finer ground Turkish and Greek varieties.

The Brambati range varies from specialty coffee style roasters that process 20 kilograms of beans per hour to commercial quantity machines that process up to 3000 kilograms per hour.

“Our machines of all capacity are highly sought after due to their mechanical quality and also their style and aesthetic appeal. They are built to be highly efficient and reliable,” Brambati says.

“Our customers vary from multinationals to shop roasters. We have machines that can provide the solutions to any roasting needs.”

According to Brambati, the BR Model is the company’s most successful product. The fully-automated BR collection gives customers complete control

BRAMBATI Roasting Equipment Feature

over the roasting process, with the ability to adapt the roast profile to alter specific characteristics and flavour highlights.

“The BR Model is very sophisticated. It uses state-of-the-art technology and is fully automated. We showcased our BR5 roaster and BR6000 at HostMilano at our interactive stand, where visitors could sample the software and collect a sample roast batch the next day,” Brambati says.

“The user has a lot of tools to work with, both during the roasting process and the analysis phase to understand which parameters require adjustments to increase the quality of the final product. This fine-tuning can be performed in real-time during or after the roasting process.”

In addition to the automated BR line, Brambati has designed the more traditional-style KAR series.

KAR and BR series can be purchased as an ECO model, which means the machine is supplied with a high efficiency afterburner that reduces emissions. There is also an option for a catalytic converter, a device that reduces gases generated by the roasting process.

“We tried to create a machine with the highest possible energy efficiency that would save energy for end-users and reduce damage to Brambati has manufacturing plants in five continents.

the environment,” Brambati says. “Energy consumption, sustainability, and the environment are major issues. It’s important for companies like Brambati to support this and move towards an eco-friendly future.”

Brambati adds sustainability is a major goal for the company moving forward, as is continuing to explore new trends, advance its technology, and expand its reach further.

“We have sold roasting equipment all around the world and will continue to do so. In recent times, new espresso and capsule markets continue to grow,” Brambati says.

“The Asian market has been a particular focus for us, but we will maintain our focus on research and innovation.” G C R For more information, visit www.brambati.it

BELLWETHER COFFEE Roasting Equipment Feature

Breaking barriers BELLWETHER COFFEE MAKES COFFEE ROASTING SUSTAINABLE AND ACCESSIBLE TO ANYONE.

The Bellwether Coffee commercial coffee roaster is roughly the size of a domestic refrigerator.

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hy don’t more people roast their own coffee?”

This was the first question wine and tech entrepreneur Ricardo Lopez asked when he turned his attention to the coffee industry in 2013. In answering it, he discovered the many barriers to starting a roastery, from the costs of space, equipment, and permits, to the high level of knowledge and skill required.

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To address these factors, Lopez decided to build a compact and easy-to-use roaster so more people could enter the world of coffee roasting. He achieved this with the Bellwether Coffee commercial coffee roaster.

Operators can load batches of green coffee up to three kilograms at a time into the roaster’s hopper. The coffee is roasted in a drum – with a glass window providing an unobstructed view – for nine to 12 minutes. Afterwards, the coffee is sent to an enclosed cooling tray, preventing unnecessary emissions, before dropping into the bucket below.

An iPad on the front of the unit provides access to roast profiles, inventory management, and Bellwether Coffee’s curated green coffee marketplace. It allows for easy operation of the machine.

Bellwether Coffee Regional Sales Manager Liz Pachaud tells Global Coffee Report the commercial coffee roaster – at roughly the size and shape of a home refrigerator – makes it possible for any café, grocery store, or coffee retailer to roast inhouse.

BELLWETHER COFFEE Roasting Equipment Feature

“It frees you from the bottleneck of having to babysit the roaster to get your coffee roasted to the right specs,” Pachaud says.

“I’m a roaster of 15 years, and in my company, I was the bottleneck. I had a specific way that I roasted, a thumbprint I wanted on every bag of coffee, and I was the only person who knew how to coax those profiles out of the roaster. That really limited the amount of other business that I could do.”

She says the Bellwether Coffee roaster makes it possible to save profiles and allow any staff member to roast coffee to set specifications.

“We see Bellwether as a tool to liberate roasters and café owners from the parts of roasting that are prohibitive to the efficiency of a workday and allow them to focus exclusively on the parts of roasting that a machine can’t do,” Pachaud says. “The craft of roasting is 10 per cent creativity and 90 per cent managing failure points. A machine is not going to know why your profile looks the way it does, or why for a certain coffee you want to roast it a certain way, but it’s absolutely possible to hand over some of the drudgery of that management to the machine itself.”

This functionality also reduces the amount of work it takes to roast a batch of coffee.

Bellwether won a Best New Product Design award at the “On passive labour, you can roast a significant volume of coffee 2019 Specialty Coffee Expo. in a day. A barista can walk over to the machine and queue up a roast in about the time it takes to brew a batch of coffee,” Pachaud says.

“But for users who want a more customised experience, there’s the ability to add your own green coffees to your inventory, create your own roast profiles, and alter the profiles we’ve supplied.”

Bellwether’s preset profiles are designed for coffees purchasable through its green coffee marketplace, where customers can order boxes of green coffee the company has carefully curated for quality and sustainability.

“If you’re buying roasted coffee, you should be able to buy green coffee. But the way green coffee is currently bought in our industry is not very accessible. Not everybody has the skills or desire to learn the complex nature of coffee contracts and cupping,” Pachaud says.

“We also co-pack coffee from big burlap sacks into smaller boxes, so they can be shipped through the mail, stacked, and put away easily. When I first started my own roasting operation, one 60-kilogram bag of coffee at a time was too much. It would have changed the game for me at the time if I could spend just $50 on what I needed instead of $500 on huge bag.

We’re finding that’s true for other cafés as well.”

Accessibility was not Bellwether Coffee’s only consideration in the development of its commercial coffee roaster. Sustainability was also front of mind. The system is emissions-free thanks to an internal afterburner that combusts the volatile organic compounds present in coffee smoke. In combination with filtration, this ensures only clean air leaves the machine.

“Not a lot of people know that coffee roasting can be pretty dirty. As an industry, we have latched onto the concept of sustainability but have made farmers and café owners the most responsible for its enactment. Both are misplaced,” Pachaud says.

“Farmers are drowning in the problem. They’re fleeing their land, their trees are suffering from climate-related diseases, and fermentation temperatures are changing drastically. The assumption they owe us something about sustainability before we buy their product is wrong.”

She adds café owners are largely disempowered because when the coffee arrives at their café, the vast majority of its carbon footprint is already behind it.

“By the time a product reaches the end of its lifecycle, it’s already too late to start talking about major gains in sustainability,” Pachaud says. “Roasters, with the only machine in the world that can turn this inedible cash crop into the most consumed beverage in the world, need to look inward at how they can be more sustainable. It was very important for us to change the roaster’s responsibility and to highlight the obligation we all have to make coffee more sustainable.”

Roasting instore also allows cafés to improve their quality and sustainability thanks to the freshness of the coffee.

“In order to be fresh and shelf stable for long enough to travel from a roaster to a café or grocery store – and then to someone’s home – you need to make sure your coffee is the freshest it can be. This requires packaging of a certain calibre so that your coffee doesn’t lose freshness in transit,” Pachaud says.

“That means we end up with a lot of coffee packaging that’s not recyclable, compostable, or reusable. As more people adopt Bellwether

and roast onsite, we’re seeing it eliminate the need for such non-sustainable packaging. It’s also much easier to roast on demand in small quantities, instead of bulking up on roasts, which depletes freshness over time.”

With its improvements to usability and sustainability, Pachaud says Bellwether Coffee is succeeding in opening the doors for anyone to enter the roasting industry.

“Some people want to roast because the romance of roasting is alive. Others want to roast because as café owners, they realise buying and reselling roasted coffee is a very small-margin way of conducting their main business,” Pachaud says.

“The number of people who would like to be coffee entrepreneurs is so much greater than the coffee industry believes exists.” G C R For more information, visit www.bellwethercoffee.com

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PROBAT Roasting Equipment Feature

Small but mighty WITH ITS NEW SAMPLE ROASTER, PROBAT HAS SCALED DOWN ITS CONVECTION HEATING SYSTEM AND SOFTWARE TO THE SMALLEST SIZE POSSIBLE WITHOUT COMPROMISING PERFORMANCE.

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sample roaster has many uses. Industrial-sized roasters carry out constant quality control, green coffee traders sample countless coffees per week, and some producers are even able to test their harvests. More smaller specialty roasters also require a machine capable of tiny batch sizes to develop various

profiles for different coffees.

To meet the needs of these various markets, Probat started from scratch with the development of a new sample roaster just as adept as its larger shop and industrial models.

Jens Roelofs, Head of Sales and Service for Shop Roasters at Probat, tells Global Coffee Report demand has increased for sample roasters and for what they’re capable of.

“As always, roasters are looking for consistency and reproducibility in their roasts. Now, they’re also looking for greater flexibility when it comes to creating new profiles,” Roelofs says.

“We have been seeing the increase in lightly roasted and specialty coffees, which are quite costly when it comes to the purchase of green bean. Roasters don’t want to waste too much of this expensive coffee, so they need a device that roasts really small batches to get an idea of how they should approach roasting more on a larger machine.”

Launched in June 2019 at World of Coffee Berlin and first reaching customers last December, the Probat sample roaster can roast batch sizes from 150 to 200 grams in three to 20 minutes.

The compact machine sits at 25 centimetres wide and only just over half a metre tall and deep.

Probat Head of Product Management Andreas Rinke says the German manufacturer’s biggest technical accomplishment with the sample roaster was introducing convection heating into such a small system.

“We took what we’d done in our larger roasters, primarily with the Probatone shop roaster line, and scaled it down to a small size capacity,” Rinke says.

“We wanted to design a physically smaller roaster with all the functionality of the bigger models. Simply reducing the size would compromise on this, so we had to find other ways to implement these features.”

Information collected from the Probat sample roaster can be collected and transferred to larger models.

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PROBAT Roasting Equipment Feature

An electric hot air unit generates heated air which is used to roast the coffee, rather than contact with a hot surface.

“The high-performance electrical heating of the sample roaster improves the system of our previous model, providing the operator with flexibility with their roasts and supports any ideas they might have while developing their coffee,” Rinke says.

“While the machine and batch size become smaller, individual beans remain the same size.

Maintaining a reasonable airflow to get enough heat to the bean and remove chaff was only possible thanks to access to new parts and components.”

Probat has the sample roaster set up in its showroom at its headquarters in Germany.

The design of the sample roaster also took usability into account. Several sample roasters can be installed side by side and share external equipment such as cyclones. In terms of safety, the unit complies with regulations and features full casing with low heat conductivity, reducing surface temperature. Roelofs says the machine was also kept simple to operate.

Beans are loaded in the drum and the operator decides how much energy and heat to use in the process. A sampler lets them monitor the beans during roasting. Once the roast is complete, beans are discharged into a cooling tray where constant airflow cools them down.

Information on these roasts is collected and stored using Probat’s software, which can be accessed later or transferred to larger models.

“Customers are looking for more control over the roasting process. This means they need more information and data collected from a roast,” Roelofs says.

“Old sample roasters were manually operated. You had a thermocouple and that was it in terms of control, data collection, or information. This new sample roaster features a control system which saves history data, can show, store, Jens Roelofs and recall profiles, and analyse Head of Sales & Service for Shop Roasters it and all the data from the at Probat roasting process afterwards.”

These controls will be installed in every new Probat model from the sample roast up to the 25-kilogram shop roaster.

“We’re going to use the same software and hardware concepts for all of these roasters, meaning they are compatible with each other and can exchange data,” Rinke says.

Collecting this data from the roaster provides an opportunity for the operator to make a “more sophisticated” analysis of their coffee roasts.

“Many customers are taking a scientific approach to developing profiles. It’s not that old craftsmen [on-the-fly] style of roasting anymore. It’s more data-related and structured,” Rinke says. “Roasters also want to differentiate themselves from others. They want to get the best out of the green bean, and we help them as much as we can with the data and support we provide.”

The user interface of this software was optimised through consultation with a wide variety of Probat’s customers.

“We visited some of our customers and talked to them to see how they operate their machines day in, day out. This gave us input into what our customers think is important in a user interface,” Rinke says.

“There is also the possibility to connect any third-party device with a browser to the roaster. This allows you to operate the machine remotely and view current roast, recipes, history, batch protocols, and so on.”

Roelofs says the new features of the sample roaster have been particularly appealing, but not limited, to the specialty market.

“There is a certain interest from customers that were not looking for a sample roaster before due to the limitations that old models had,” he says. “Though we didn’t put a focus on any one market while developing the sample roaster. The idea was to produce a unit that was easy to use for any type of customer. We also sell sample roasters to some customers who have only just stepped into coffee, and it can act as an entry way into roasting.” G C R

“CUSTOMERS ARE LOOKING FOR MORE CONTROL OVER THE ROASTING PROCESS. THIS MEANS THEY NEED MORE INFORMATION AND DATA COLLECTED FROM A ROAST.”

For more information, visit www.probat.com

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NEUHAUS NEOTEC Roasting Equipment Feature

The beautiful sisters WITH LE BELLE SORELLE, NEUHAUS NEOTEC HAS COMBINED TWO ROASTING PROCESSES, PROVIDING THE ROMANCE OF DRUM ROASTING WITH THE POSSIBILITIES OF HOT AIR ROASTING.

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ust as siblings have their own identities but are still part of a larger family, drum and hot air roasting are two different concepts that still fall under the same roasting umbrella.

This is why when German manufacturer Neuhaus Neotec integrated the two roasting methods in one system, it named this concept Le Belle Sorelle, Italian for “beautiful sisters”.

“The idea came more or less from our customers. We were working with a German customer who wanted a drum roaster we had in our portfolio. We recommended our more versatile hot air roasting system, but he wanted to stay with the drum roaster because that’s what he was familiar with,” says Lars Henkel, Head of Marketing at Neuhaus Neotec.

“We thought to ourselves, ‘how could we convince this type of customer to choose a new system, which produces a wider range of coffees and aromas?’ We came to the conclusion that we can combine both roasters in one system, where they can share components.”

The Le Belle Sorelle roasting line features a joint receiving point and green coffee bins with blending scale that directs green coffee into one of the two roasters. The drum roaster L’Affascinante and hot air roaster La Selvaggia share a cooler and gas burner.

Once coffee is roasted and cooled, it passes through one destoner into roasted coffee bins with a discharge unit.

Henkel says this single line reduces the cost of installing two machines and later, the price of operating them.

“If you want a drum roaster to produce the same quality each time, you have to run it continuously, or it needs to be preheated

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Le Belle Sorelle features a drum roaster and hot air roaster in one production line.

before each batch. If you have separate roasters and are switching between the two, you switch the systems off and on, and it’s a lot of wasted energy or downtime,” he says.

“Here, you can run the system continuously and switch between the roasting chambers.

Its reduced energy consumption compared to two separate roasters and the lower investment cost is particularly important for small or specialty roasters.”

L’Affascinante, Italian for “the fascinating”, was named for its elegance, artistry, and the charm of traditional roasting. It can accommodate batch sizes of 10 to 70 kilograms with roasting times of 10 to 30 minutes, totalling a capacity of 240 kilograms per hour.

“People trust drum roasters and there is a demand for them because of the philosophy of doing it the traditional way. Additionally, often the roast master has known drum roasting for many years and understands how to achieve the flavours they want on one,” Henkel says.

“Some roasters also believe you can get a darker or smokier roast with a drum roaster.

While this can be achieved with a hot air roaster, it is trickier.”

As the burner is removed from the drum rather than sitting underneath it, Henkel says L’Affascinante is capable of a more even heat distribution than is typical for drum roasters.

“There’s no hotspots at the bottom of the drum and you have a homogenously distributed heat,” he says. “It brings in hot air from outside the drum, so, in a way, it follows the idea of a hot air roaster.”

While L’Affascinante makes traditional roasting possible, “the wild” sister La Selvaggia opens the door for experimentation. The machine can roast batch sizes of five to 33 kilograms in four to 30 minutes, with a capacity of 240 kilograms per hour.

Using Neuhaus Neotec’s signature rotational flexible batch (RFB) technology, La Selvagiga’s roasting chamber contains no moving mechanical parts and instead uses jets of hot air to keep

NEUHAUS NEOTEC Roasting Equipment Feature

beans in motion.

“We are well known in the market for the RFB system. We’ve honed it for more than 40 years and it’s used worldwide,” Henkel says. “For the last few decades, we were focused on industrial coffee production.

But as the specialty coffee industry grows, we see potential for RFB technology in this segment.”

As newer generations of roasters enter the industry and look for new opportunities, Henkel says they realise they are limited with what they can do with only a drum roaster.

“They hear more and more about hot air roasting and if you visit exhibitions, you see more small hot air units in the market,” Henkel says. “People who follow the ideas of high-quality, special roasting developments and flavour are gravitating to hot air roasting.

“We see all the advantages of using a hot air roasting system and our industrial customers follow the understanding that if you can roast faster with a wider range of profiles, you have better energy efficiency. Now the small players are finding out too.”

La Selvaggia also possesses a low heat storage, allowing for quick temperature changes throughout a roast profile.

“You want to accelerate certain moments in the roasting curve, for example, the drying period. This has no effect on aroma development, because it’s before the Maillard reaction.

You cannot accelerate this process with a drum roaster, so with a hot air roaster, it’s much faster,” Henkel says. “Then at the Maillard reaction you can play with the profile and go to the limits of roasting. That’s what the younger generation of specialty roasters understand.

They’re looking for new opportunities to get more flavours from the green bean. Hot air roasting provides this with better results and homogeneity of colour and taste.”

Both roasters are operated with a programmable logic controller with touchscreen interface.

The controller stores recipes and displays roasting curve information during a roast. Henkel says this system allows for as much manual or automatic control as the operator prefers.

“You can work manually, as most roast masters do with the drum, or go fully automatic with hot air roasting. Our larger customers only require one operator for the complete roasting plant. They develop the profile, then trust the roasting system to follow it for every batch and that the quality will be the same,” Henkel says. “This applies to our smaller units too. We have a Russian customer who runs their NeoRoast RFB roaster fully automatically at full batch sizes seven days a week and trusts that the coffee will always be consistent.”

Henkel hopes combining the approachability of drum roasting with the versatility of hot

Le Belle Sorelle provides roasters who are experienced with drum roasting with an entryway into hot air roasting.

air roasting will allow more companies to broaden their horizons.

“We showed the concept for the first time at HostMilano and it was a fantastic eyecatcher for the booth. Everybody knew the drum but there were many people who asked about the other roaster. This let us introduce hot air roasting and people were fascinated,” Henkel says.

“This is why we have both systems. If you like traditional slow roasting, you can do it here with the drum roaster, but the hot air roaster opens up a world of possibilities.” G C R For more information, visit www.neuhaus-neotec.de/en

Sharing pre- and post-roast equipment reduces the cost of implementing and operating two roasters.

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EVENT MICE2020

Going Green TO MEET RISING CONSUMER DEMAND FOR SUSTAINABILITY, MICE2020 WILL FEATURE A RANGE OF ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY INITIATIVES TO REDUCE WASTE CREATED DURING THE SHOW.

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world leaders that urgent change is required to safeguard the world’s future.

The Australian coffee community will also showcase its dedication to a sustainable future at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE), from 4 to 7 May 2020.

Australian born waste diversion service Reground, reusable cup manufacturer HuskeeCup, and eco-friendly packaging solution company Detpak will all operate modified versions of their services at MICE to optimise efficiency and effectiveness for the trade show’s setting.

“The coffee industry is going to be heavily affected by climate change. Countries that grow coffee will be under threat, so we all need to be doing our part to protect them,” says Kaitlin Reid, Commercial Director of Reground.

“There will be a lot of eyes on MICE this year. It’s a great opportunity for the expo to take a stance and announce that sustainability is a core pillar in the coffee industry.”

Reground launched in Melbourne as a waste collection and education service. The business implements a simple yet highly effective strategy. Partner cafés fill their Reground-branded bins with coffee waste and the company’s van collects the bin, swapping it with a fresh one. The full bin is then taken directly to a local compost garden.

“The compost isn’t kept or treated. It gets taken to a garden generally within 30 kilometres of where the coffee is produced and used to grow food. That way we are keeping everything hyper-local within the community,” Reid says.

“We also use a van instead of a truck because coffee grounds are a resource, not waste. We want to shift that perception.”

2020 will be the first year that Reground will have a solidified partnership with MICE. Several of its café partners used its bins at MICE2019, but after experiencing strong growth and successfully partnering with Lavazza at the 2020 Australian Open, the business feels it is well-positioned to tackle such a large trade show.

“Our team will collate data on how much coffee has been diverted and how much methane gas has been saved from being released into the atmosphere. We will also convert the final figures into how many lattes that equates to, so people can gain a clearer understanding of what a difference it makes,” Reid says.

While Reground is tackling coffee waste, HuskeeCup is aiming to eliminate the footprint single-use cups leave at events like MICE by implementing its HuskeeSwap initiative.

“When we exhibited at MICE2019 we were instantly inspired by the opportunity to demonstrate the impact on waste reduction that Commercial Director of Reground Kaitlin Reid and Founder Ninna Larsen have led we can have through our swap system, HuskeeSwap,” says Nicole Reground to divert more than 500,000 kilograms of coffee grounds from landfill.

Barnes, General Manager at Huskee.

n September 2019, people around the world united in what is widely considered the largest call-to-arms against climate change in history.

British newspaper The Guardian reported roughly six million people from 185 countries took part in the protests. The volume and passion of the demonstrations sent a clear message to

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cleaned and go back into circulation,” Barnes says.

“We’ve kept it simple – we will approach exhibitors, and they just need to say ‘yes’ and we will supply them.

All attendees have to do is ask for their sample to be served in a HuskeeCup.” MICE2020 will be the first major trade show to implement HuskeeSwap after a successful trial at the smallerscale Stockholm Coffee Festival in November 2019.

“We have a very simple vision and goal and that’s to reduce as much waste as possible from the coffee industry.

With tens of thousands of international visitors coming to MICE, it’s a perfect opportunity to showcase a working system that was birthed Down Under and is having a global impact,” Barnes says.

Saving the environment from unrecyclable single-use plastic cups Detpak successfully showcased its RecycleMe system at MICE2019. has also been a mission of Detpak. The packaging solution expert has focused on its RecycleMe program at previous MICE events, a system where its recyclable cups are HuskeeSwap leverages the idea of a shared collected and converted into printing paper. economy. Consumers can go into participating Detpak has been a long-time supporter of MICE and this year will debut its recyclable cafés and swap their used HuskeeCup with wholesale coffee bags. a fresh, commercially cleaned one, creating a constant flow of reusable cups changing “Our range of wholesale coffee bags have mineralised lining instead of the regular hands. polyethylene plastic lining. Unlike traditional coffee bags they can be easily recycled through “As a company, we are contributing kerbside collection or through our RecycleMe system,” says Tom Lunn, Group General Manager thousands of cups to be used at MICE. After of Marketing and Innovation at Detpak. using their cup, consumers can drop them “The industry is heading towards reviewing all of the packaging coming in and out of cafés into one of our bins and our team will do as they are the most visible waste streams in the industry.”

Lunn has been involved with Detpak for 15 years and is proud of the coffee industry’s all the work. They will be professionally willingness to embrace conservation efforts.

“In my early days in coffee, all the focus was on ethical sourcing. It’s Huskee will contribute cups and setup cleaning stations at MICE2020 with its changed over recent years, and now there’s a real focus on all aspects of the HuskeeSwap initiative. business. People in coffee are really cognisant about the environment, and I think consumers are a large part of that,” he says.

“MICE is a globally renowned trade show. It’s great that the event is showing leadership and setting an example to the international specialty coffee industry.”

With increasing education influencing consumer behaviour, Reground’s Kaitlin Reid also believes it’s important for major events to act as protagonists for change.

“Our research showed that if given a choice, around 86 per cent of consumers would prefer to support a sustainability-focused business over one that wasn’t,” she says.

“There’s been a lot of talk about the war on waste and the recycling crisis, it’s mobilised people to start talking about it, and major events like MICE can be a real driver for change and sustainability.” G C R For more information, visit www.internationalcoffeeexpo.com

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PROFILE Ima

Sustainability from A to Z THE IMA COFFEE HUB IS WORKING WITH MATERIAL SUPPLIERS TO ENSURE ITS CUSTOMERS CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NEW DEVELOPMENTS AND IMPROVE THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT.

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f the many recent developments in coffee, none have permeated the industry quite as deeply as sustainability.

Coffee processing and packaging solutions provider Ima Coffee Hub has seen this firsthand. While the hub was only launched in 2019, its five specialist brands boast a wealth of experience in the coffee industry.

“Sustainability is becoming important overall in the world and most business segments. In coffee, it is very much in the heart of things. It started in a different part of the industry to where we operate, the ethical sourcing of coffee and long-term sustainability of coffee production,” says Nicola Panzani, Sales Director of Ima Coffee.

“From there, we became aware of problems with pollution and plastic waste in the environment and ocean. Coffee has taken a lead among different industries to improve on this topic.”

Ima Coffee Gima, Ima’s first coffee-specific brand, is a forebearer in the coffee capsule market, providing machines for cartoning and high-speed packaging of single-serve capsules for more than a decade, and of paper pods for 20 years.

The Coffee Hub’s green handling, processing, roasting, and grinding specialist, Ima Coffee Petroncini, celebrated 100 years in operation in 2019.

Ima Coffee Spreafico brings expertise in medium-to-high-speed packaging machines for coffee capsules and soluble products. Ima Coffee Mapster caters to customers with lower volume requirements and with Ima Coffee Tecmar, produces machines for dosed filling of ground or whole bean coffee bags.

The coffee knowledge of these five brands provides the Ima Coffee Hub with the ability to identify trends in the coffee industry and address them across the production line. In the past year, Panzani says the Ima Coffee Hub has seen a surge in demand for more sustainable alternatives, particularly in packaging.

“The industry is very much moving and changing. It started in capsule packaging, where most of the demand we received for machines and upgrades was related to newer systems that could accommodate environmentally friendly capsules,” Panzani says.

“More than 70 per cent of requests were related to these types of systems. This is not just in the capsule market. It’s not as pronounced, but there is a growing demand for sustainable packaging in soft bags for ground and wholebean coffee.”

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The Ima Coffee Hub has taken several steps to accommodate this increased demand for sustainable alternatives. First and foremost, it has focused on supplying machines that can run environmentally friendly materials, such as aluminium or compostable capsules.

“Our goal is to provide machines to our customers that create products with a lower environmental impact. This is our target and

The Ima Coffee Gima CA3 packages coffee in single-serve paper pods.

commitment, and we believe it is something that resonates with our customers,” Panzani says.

“There is a need for new types of packaging which have a reduced environmental impact.

This is coming from pressure from the market – consumer demand – and the industry is very much focused on satisfying this demand.”

To further its own commitment, Ima has begun collaborating with the companies

that supply the environmentally conscious materials that will run through its machines.

“We are in touch with material suppliers to understand their new developments and to ensure our customers will have machines able to run these materials when they are ready for the market. As a company, we are very focused on this aspect,” Panzani says.

“The suppliers have the competence to develop new materials, but then we need to make sure these materials can work on our machines. We need to work together to make sure the industry can take advantage of new developments.”

When it comes to sustainable packaging, Panzani says a balance must be achieved between its performance and end-of-life options.

“Recyclability and composability are musts for the future, but it’s not always easy to combine these traits with packaging performance,” he says.

“New packaging was created for a reason, to reduce waste by keeping coffee fresh for the longest time possible. This need of packaging still exists and we need to combine these two aspects. It’s not impossible, but it requires work. Talking with material suppliers provides us the opportunity to improve the sustainability of the materials that run through our machines.”

While Panzani says the packaging stage

has led demand for sustainable options, the rest of the production line is catching up.

“There’s constant upgrades on the processing and roasting side. This is the part of the plant with the highest energy usage and biggest carbon footprint. So there, our main focus is to reduce energy consumption, especially of gas,” he says.

“We offer high-efficiency roasters that operate with only one burner to reduce energy consumption.”

Panzani says the industry is also shifting toward higher optimisation, control of profiles, and roasting of single origins and specialty coffee.

“The processing side of the industry is more traditional than packaging. However, there are still trends towards new ideas like efficiency, automation, and complete control,” he says.

“Industry 4.0 is another wider focus of Ima, and we are applying artificial intelligence to our roasters to improve the The Ima Coffee Spreafico SR6N fills and seals Nespressocapability of the machines to control themselves without compatible aluminium capsules. the need of human intervention. There is a strong demand for this from our larger customers, but we see it growing with medium-sized business and expect it to apply to even smaller roasters in the near future.”

As a full-service provider, from green bean handling to end of line, Panzani says the Ima Coffee Hub is in a unique position to cater to the evolving demands of the industry.

“We believe very much in our approach that we have established as a strategic goal. Being a supplier from the A to Z of coffee production, we gain a 360-degree view of the market and are able to see the entire process. We know that in some cases, changes in one part of the process might affect stages later on or vice versa,” he says.

“With this wide view, we can work as a consultant for our customers, not just as a machinery supplier but a provider of knowledge, so they can decide what’s best for them to satisfy demand and reduce their environmental impact.

“Sustainability is not just a trend, it’s a reality. It will continue and increase in the future.

I don’t see any chance of going back to non-sustainable packaging. The industry will have a complete shift to environmentally friendly types of packaging.” G C R The Ima Coffee Hub offers solutions from processing to packaging, including the Gima FTB577-C nested capsules cartoner.

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PROFILE Puqpress

Untamped potential GLOBAL COFFEE REPORT LOOKS AT THE GROWTH OF PUQPRESS AND HOW THE AUTOMATIC TAMPER REDUCES STRAIN ON BARISTAS AND BUSINESSES.

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any great inventions and discoveries are made without being the creator’s intent. Christopher Columbus discovered America while looking for a new route to the Far East. Play-Doh was created as a cleaning product. Viagra was intended to treat chest pain.

When mechanical engineer Laurens Pluimers built the first Puqpress automatic tamper in 2011, his goal was not to improve tamping consistency.

It was to impress a girl.

“The first Puqpress was used in Laurens’ brother’s café. There was a pretty girl working there who complained to Laurens about her sore arm from tamping all the time,” says Tjeerd Schravendeel, The Puqpress automatic tamper has seen a rapid growth in popularity since it launched in 2013.

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Chief Marketing Officer at Puqpress.

“Laurens worked on jackup rigs. These are insanely big boats that lift themselves out of the water and have to stand firm and stable at all times. His job was to design the stilts for these rigs, so basically responsible for stabilising the entire ship. He could see a comparison between stabilising a boat and stabilising a coffee bed.”

The next day, Laurens came in with a machine half a metre high that tamped automatically.

“It was big, it was bulky, but it worked brilliantly. The girl was happy because her arm wasn’t sore anymore, all the employees liked working with it, coffee was tasting the same from different baristas, and the bar was moving faster,” Schravendeel says.

“I still think it is pretty funny that Laurens can literally lift boats that weigh more than 10,000 tonnes out of the water, but decided to build a career out of tamping coffee beds.”

After receiving such positive feedback, the first Puqpress line, which only consisted of 100 models, was released to cafés around the Netherlands.

“You’re limited in what you can do with the production methods you have available at that low quantity, but the first thing we wanted to get right was gearing and stabilising. It had to function brilliantly before we would sell the first one to a real customer. Once we had that right, we could improve other elements after field testing,” Schravendeel says.

“After about 18 months, some of the machines in that first batch started to break down. The café owners were calling us, saying ‘our Puqpress broke down, can you fix it?’ or ‘can you make a new one?’ So, we knew that until that point, they were happy with it and the demand was there. We started over from scratch with greater investment

for the real model.”

While it’s hard to imagine now, Schravendeel says Puqpress had a lukewarm introduction to the coffee market.

“The tamper was like the holy grail for the barista. It was such an icon of the craft that no-one in the industry could image it’s not the best way to do the job. It needed an outsider’s perspective to see how tamping could be improved,” he says.

“As Laurens had little knowledge about coffee, he just noticed that tamping is quite labour intensive. It’s a weird task that requires heavy force with high precision and a soft touch. A machine is just more capable of doing this repeatably than a human.”

After a lot of talking, feedback, and improving, Puqpress finally saw opinion turn in 2016.

“It just clicked. The market was ready at that point and the growth went quite fast,” Schravendeel says. “People become happy with Puqpress once they discover it. We didn’t expect this when we started, but we are now active in 47 countries.

“We still produce everything inhouse and each machine is made by hand. That’s where Laurens’ engineering background really helps. When we designed the Puqpress, we thought about the entire cycle. It’s easy to build and also check or maintain it. There’s also an extremely low fault rate which has made expansion easier.”

The Puqpress first found success in the specialty coffee industry and with venues producing large amounts of coffee, where

Puqpress improves tamping consistency, providing better working conditions for staff and baristas.

consistency was a key consideration. However, the commercial side of the industry has also warmed to the automatic tamper, as consistency becomes more achievable from venue to venue or employee to employee.

“The main thing we hear is that the job just gets easier. ‘I have room left in my head to prepare other tasks’ is one of my favourite quotes,” Schravendeel says.

“Every person working behind the bar knows hospitality stress. The line starts to form, printers rattle, and it keeps going. You have all these variables, people want their coffee in different ways, and things can always go wrong. The more pressure there is, the harder it becomes to maintain quality. Now you have a little friend at your side does the heavy labour for you. So that’s less fatigue not only in your

arm, but mentally too.”

Schravendeel adds that many employers say the Puqpress has improved their ability to retain reliable staff.

“A lot of people who buy Puqpress also just want to take care of their personnel and create good working environments. Finding and training good staff can be challenging, so you want to keep them for as long as you can and reduce strain to them physically and mentally,” he says.

With the target audience for Puqpress widening, the company has introduced several models to meet different requirements. The Q1, now in its fourth generation, caters to small- or mediumvolume venues while the Q2 is designed for high-volume usage. By the end of 2020, Schravendeel says they will introduce the Puqpress mini, for low-volume shops that still want the perfect tamp.

The company also collaborated with several grinder manufacturers to develop models that sit below the grinder. The M1 is compatible with the Mahlkönig Peak and K30 Vario Air while the M2 fits with the Victoria Arduino Mythos 1 and 2, aiding workflow as coffee is ground and tamped in one swift movement. More models will be launched at the 2020 Melbourne International Coffee Expo, including units compatible with the Mahlkönig E65s and E80 and Fiorenzato F64 and F83.

“A lot of places have very limited space on their bar and a lot of equipment already installed, so where they could put the Puqpress became an issue,” Schravendeel says.

“We had good relationships with Hemro and Simonelli, and they are strong players in the grinder field. They could see the benefits in Puqpress is now active in 47 countries. automatic tamping and were very open to working with us.”

With automation a growing trend in coffee service, Schravendeel says Puqpress offers an opportunity to improve speed and consistency without compromising on quality or control.

“There’s a divide between super-automatics, which are fast but offer baristas less influence, and semi-automatics, which have a lower capacity per hour but allow you to control everything cup by cup,” he says.

“We’re believers in semi-automatic solutions, mainly because we believe customers are influenced by a lot more than just their mouth when ordering coffee. It is all part of a ritual and we try to find the sweet spot on the thin line between craft and efficiency.”

Schravendeel says Puqpress will follow with further innovations.

“We are working on some ideas, but we only want to pursue them once we’re convinced they not only make the process more efficient, but add to the craft.” G C R

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PROFILE Egro

The automated states EGRO, THE FULLY AUTOMATIC ARM OF RANCILIO GROUP, IS FIRMLY ESTABLISHED IN EUROPE. NOW, ITS SIGHTS ARE SET ON THE UNITED STATES AS THE NEXT MAJOR MARKET FOR SUPER-AUTOMATED ESPRESSO MACHINES.

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ne of the key themes to emerge from leading industry tradeshow HostMilano in 2019 was the growing influence of automation.

Technology is impacting many facets of the coffee industry, which, for espresso machines, has manifested in the rise of super-automatics.

While bean-to-cup machines are firmly entrenched in the European market, in the United States, automation is still finding its feet.

“Most of the coffee consumed in America has traditionally been filter coffee, but that’s changing,” says Shelley Viola, Project Manager at Rancilio Group North America.

“Super-automation in the European market is saturated and highly competitive, whereas in the US, it’s very young. There is so much potential and people are starting to recognise the benefits that bean-to-cup machines bring.”

Egro’s Next Touch Coffee is the latest addition to its super-automatic range. The machine was showcased at HostMilano and is now being used to spearhead Egro’s push into the American market.

According to Viola, Next Touch Coffee is already gaining rapid popularity in American convenience stores for its ability to produce little waste and reduce cost of labour.

“Cost of ownership is very important. Constantly having someone brewing fresh coffee and cleaning coffee urns takes time and produces waste. Next Touch Coffee solves this issue by being completely bean-to-cup, preparing drinks on demand without any staff assistance,” Viola says.

“It’s also extremely low-maintenance. The machine only needs one preventative service per year and is self-cleaning. Every morning you pop a cleaning tablet in and in three minutes it’s done.”

One of the only manual tasks the operator needs to do is refill the coffee beans. The machine has four bean hoppers, providing consumers up to eight choices of beverages, as beans can be blended.

Next Touch Coffee also features an intelligent algorithm-based patented Self-Adjusting Grinder. The grinder acts as if it is barista-controlled, changing its settings based on factors like temperature and bean freshness to consistently produce high-quality espresso.

“The machine produces premium-tasting coffee. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from consumers, people from the industry, and competitors,” Viola says. “Everyone in the industry wants consistency, [and] it’s one of the biggest advantages that our machine provides. Once

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the operator dials in their coffee, the machine will continue to adjust itself to deliver that time and time again.”

Next Touch Coffee is built to be compact yet powerful. The main unit is 30 centimetreswide and has the capacity to deliver 200 cups per day.

“Store owners are putting multiple machines in their shops because of their size.

They are stacking three or four machines together to create these high-quality coffee stations which people are drawn to,” Viola says.

“Having great coffee helps them to sell other things too so it’s a real win-win – a customer will come in to buy a coffee and end up walking out with chips, jerky, and gas as well.”

While Egro Next Touch Coffee is becoming firmly established in the convenience store sector, Viola is optimistic that its innovative design can lead to widespread success in the greater American market.

“It’s the natural progression of coffee

in the US. Consumers today want premium coffee that’s freshly brewed and ethically sourced,” she says. “College campuses, offices, senior living facilities, and hotels are just some examples of key growth opportunities.”

For the hotel sector, Egro is in the early stages of adapting its technology so guests can use their hotel room keys as a tool to buy coffee from its Next Touch Coffee machines.

“It fits in with the idea of ‘hydration stations’ that hotels are moving towards. This is the idea of having a coffee and snack station on each hotel floor that is fully automated.

Guests can step out of the room and buy a coffee using their room key so it’s really convenient,” Viola says.

Next Touch Coffee features an Android integrated interface and a 10.1-inch touchscreen.

Next Touch Coffee is compact, leading to some store owners stacking multiple together.

Complementary to the coffee itself, Next Touch Coffee boasts an Android integrated interface and 10.1-inch touchscreen. The screen is built to be highly customisable for operators and easy to use for consumers.

“We’ve won a few key accounts here in the US purely because of the machine’s customisation options and ability to be branded so easily,” Viola says.

“Egro is a highly technology-focused company. We are at the forefront of app integration.”

Operators can change wallpaper, add branding imagery, and use promotional videos on the touchscreen. It can also be set up to display useful information about the coffee, such as bean origin and beverage calorie count.

“A technician is required to adjust the screen on most super-automatic coffee machines, but with the integrated Android technology, doing this on the Next Touch Coffee is as easy as using your phone,” Viola says.

As well as using the machine’s advanced technology for marketing and display information, Egro is working on adapting the Android system for specialised purposes across niche industries, such as aged care and people living with disabilities.

“There is also work being done to make the great coffee accessible to elderly Americans and people with disabilities. For people who may have difficulty physically operating the touchscreen, we have a designed an additional external touchscreen which is easier to reach and control.”

Egro and other likeminded espresso machine manufacturers are contributing to the growth of super-automation in the American coffee market, and according to Viola could shift the boundaries of coffee shop operation.

“I personally think the future of super-automation in coffee will be alternative points of sale. Things like an unmanned kiosk at the airport or coffee stations that require no human presence,” she says.

“It all fits into the wider concept of frictionless stores and retail centred around self-service and self-checkouts. There’s endless potential to where it can go, which will create tremendous opportunities for us and the rest of the market to explore.” G C R

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PROFILE Cafetto

An organic odyssey CAFETTO IS CHANGING PERCEPTIONS SURROUNDING ORGANIC PRODUCTS, PROVING THAT FORMULAS USING NATURALLY SOURCED INGREDIENTS CAN BE ECONOMICALLY VIABLE AND HIGH-PERFORMING.

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leaning solution specialist Cafetto is bringing coffee’s cleaning sector into the spotlight of sustainability with the growing success of its organic product range. The range forms part of Cafetto’s strategy to promote a green future for the coffee industry and abolish the stigma that organic products are more expensive and less effective than their traditional counterparts.

“Cafetto has always been environmentally conscious. We decided very early in the business’ life not to only produce traditional products but also add organic products into our range,” says Doug Bolzon, CEO of Cafetto.

Cafetto’s organic range is designed to be high-performing and available at a similar price point to its traditional products.

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“In the last two to three years, we’ve really expanded that angle and made it a strong focus for our business. Sustainability is what everyone in the industry is talking about and is what the market is demanding.”

The organic collection includes 11 products designed to clean espresso machines, brewers, grinders, capsule machines, and tea makers to improve their performance and longevity.

In September 2019, the Australiaborn company was accredited with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification 14001 Environmental Management System. The ISO is made up of 164 national standards bodies and confirms that Cafetto’s packaging and formulations, waste and energy management, and reporting and monitoring all meet or exceed global standards.

“We’ve always been ISO-accredited for Quality Management and Food Safety, and now we have upgraded our portfolio. Adding the Environmental Management System certification shows that we are always pushing the boundaries as far as possible to ensure we are at the forefront of sustainability in the industry,” Bolzon says.

“There are a lot of companies within the coffee business who are really respected for their work in this field but as far as we’re aware, there’s no-one else in our [cleaning and sanitation] industry who has received this accreditation. We want to continue to protect the environment and be at the cutting edge of preservation initiatives.”

To continuously seek improvements, Cafetto conducts daily internal checks on its processes and welcomes multiple external audits multiple times per year.

“Because we deal with chemicals, things like a stormwater system, which

challenges for the company moving forward is finding biodegradable solutions to store and transport its cleaning products safely.

“Biodegradability is our ultimate goal but, right now, options are limited.

Packaging chemicals into biodegradable plastics is a significant challenge.

Some products can be transported locally in small quantities, but when they are on a ship for months going to the other side of the world, it creates issues, as those materials just don’t hold up over travel,” Bolzon says.

“Having said that, we are optimistic that rapidly advancing technology will lead to options in the near future.”

Bolzon adds that Cafetto is always on the look-out for brand new developments, so it has people attend tradeshows and talk to suppliers regularly.

“People everywhere see the benefit of going organic. Europe is leading the charge and it’s filtering through to the rest of the world.

“We have ensured that our organic range is available at a very similar price point to our other products, so that any barriers to being more environmentally conscious can be removed. It’s been a very successful strategy so far.”

In addition to bridging the gap between price points, the other common hurdle Cafetto is working to remove is the idea that organic products lack performance. To overcome this stereotype, the company has heavily focused on research and development, and conducts rigorous testing to ensure its organic products are as, or more effective than traditional versions.

“Evo is the perfect example of this. It’s our first product and still growing in demand. Its organic and outperforms anything else we’ve tested,” Bolzon says.

Among the benefits of Caffetto’s Evo being created organically is that its ingredients are odourless and rapidly biodegradable.

“One of our missions is to prove that the traditional, deep-seated idea that Cafetto Evo’s ingredients are these products don’t perform as well is entirely untrue. Once people see how odourless and biodegradable. effective they are, they are usually more than happy to switch over,” Bolzon says.

With sustainability driving the coffee industry forward, Bolzon eventually flows out to the ocean, needs to believes it’s important for more businesses to adopt an eco-friendly approach to meet growing be monitored carefully. We ensure that our consumer expectations. waste management process is constantly being “Over the next 12 to 18 months, the sustainability space will be the most important place to be in. Everyone is talking about it and it’s only going to continue. If you want to secure a future reviewed,” Bolzon says. in coffee, you need to embrace it,” he says. G C R As well as being accredited, the company’s organic range has been certified via international NGO, the Organic Materials Cafetto’s products are designed to improve the Review Institute and its domestic equivalent, longevity and performance of equipment.

Australian Certified Organic.

To earn this classification, Cafetto’s organic range contains ingredients that are sustainably sourced and free from genetically modified organisms and phosphates. The products are all certified for use in organic systems, which can help to satisfy consumers who value an end-to-end organic experience.

“All of our ingredients are sourced from naturally occurring products and elements,” Bolzon says.

“From raw materials to using recyclable packaging, the most important thing for us is to minimise our environmental footprint.”

While Cafetto has used recyclable packaging since its inception, one of the key

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PROFILE SCA Expo

A pretty penny

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AHEAD OF THE SPECIALTY COFFEE EXPO’S 32ND EDITION, SHOW ORGANISERS SPEAK TO GLOBAL COFFEE REPORT ON HOW INNOVATION, DESIGN, AND EDUCATION WILL SHAPE THE INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRY EVENT.

n 1845, American pioneers Francis Pettygrove of Portland, Maine and Asa Lovejoy of Boston, Massachusetts owned an undeveloped settlement in Oregon referred to as The Clearing. They agreed the land had great potential, but one thing they couldn’t agree on was a name, for both wanted to pay homage to their hometown. The men decided to settle the dispute with a coin toss and when Pettygrove emerged victorious, the tale of the ‘Portland Penny’ was born.

Almost 175 years later, Portland has grown to be far more similar to Boston than the city it was named after. The cities are almost identically populated, are known for their progressive political values and commitment to sustainability, and both have thriving specialty coffee scenes.

As of April 2020, the two cities will also share the distinction of being two-time hosts of the Specialty Coffee Expo. After a successful 2019 event in Boston, the Expo will return to Portland from 23 to 26 April at the Oregon Convention Center.

“The show is the largest of its kind in the US. Boston was fantastic last year and there’s a lot

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of excitement about the Expo being back in Portland. The city and its people are big on specialty coffee and big on sustainability,” says Cindy Cohn, Chief Exhibitions Officer.

Last year’s Expo attracted more than 14,000 attendees, a figure which show organisers are expecting to exceed in 2020.

“The Expo has something for everyone.

All facets of the specialty coffee business are represented. There are exhibits, competitions, and plenty of educational opportunities,” Cohn says.

“It’s grown over the years to the point where 25 to 30 per cent of our attendees are coming from outside the country, so it’s a brilliant opportunity to network with people from all over the world.”

She adds that due to the Expo’s size and the exposure it can generate, winning one of the show’s competitions has become extremely coveted. For this reason, many businesses use the Best New Product Competition as a platform to launch their products.

“The winners of each category earn the ability to use the official Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) Best New Product seal to market their products. They can use the seal for 12 months – it’s a huge competitive advantage. The exposure it generates is invaluable,” Cohn says.

Over three days, the Expo will host 62 lectures, 32 workshops, and four skills programs.

The Best New Product Competition has grown to feature 10 categories, each of which is adjudicated by a panel of volunteer judges who are experts in their respective category.

“Bellwether Coffee is a great example of a competition winner making the most of an award. Last year the team put a lot of time and energy into its new electric commercial roaster and it blew the judges away. Since then, it has heavily marketed the product using the SCA seal and has received enormous attention from media and the industry.”

Another passionately contested element of the Expo and major drawcard for attendees,

due to its aesthetic value, is the Design Lab – a competition that celebrates creativity and design within the coffee industry.

“The Design Lab started about four or five years ago and I absolutely love the concept. We wanted the Expo to look and feel different to other trade shows, so we decided to create this museum-style area that was dedicated to beautiful designs in the coffee industry,” Cohn says.

The Design Lab has evolved to feature four categories: Vessels, which comprises anything that can be used to drink coffee from, Spaces, which showcases retail, educational, or production environments dedicated to coffee, Packaging Designs, which rewards visual appeal and sustainability, and lastly Branding, which encompasses promotional assets and logos.

“Showing off the latest and greatest designs really makes the Expo special and it’s a rich visual exhibit for attendees. We’ve taken this concept to our European show and had success there too,” Cohn says.

Like the Design Lab, the educational component of the Specialty Coffee Expo has grown exponentially in recent years.

Over three days, 62 lectures, 32 workshops, and four skills programs are scheduled to take place.

“We have something for everyone. There were more than 200 submissions of people wanting to present lectures, which shows how eager people in the community are to pass on their knowledge,” says Heather Ward, Content Strategist at the SCA. The lectures are a series of hour-long sessions which cover a broad range of topics while the workshops are more hands-on and run over several hours. The four skills programs are the most specialised of the courses and are taught by industryleading experts. They run for more than half a day, with participants earning a certificate of completion at the end.

To add to the many established initiatives at the Specialty Coffee Expo, the SCA will be trialling its new Career Connect program in 2020. The aim of Career Connect is to aid people looking for work in the industry to find employment while also giving businesses the opportunity to seek suitable employees.

“We are the largest network in the coffee industry, so we thought it was a natural fit to help people connect to find meaningful employment,” Cohn says.

For those eager to start early and learn about the industry on a higher level, the annual Re:Co Symposium will lead into the Specialty Coffee Expo, taking place from 21 to 23 April.

“Re:Co starts two days prior to the Expo. It brings CEOs, senior executives, researchers, and other influential people together for a high-level overview and discussion of issues affecting the specialty coffee industry,” Ward says “It’s designed to create a call to action to help move the industry forward. This applies to attendees too. We encourage them to focus on networking to collaborate and make change.”

Prominent initiatives like World Coffee Research have been born from previous Re:Co Symposiums.

CEO Jennifer “Vern” Long will be one of the guest speakers headlining the event along with economist Luis Samper, and Senior Beverage Analyst at Rabobank Jim Watson.

“We like to highlight the speakers right off the bat – it builds the excitement. We have some of the brightest minds in coffee presenting,” Ward says.

The 2019 Re:Co Symposium was strongly themed towards the coffee price crisis but according to Ward, this year will focus on a broader range of topics. They include macroeconomics, value distribution, cost of production, environmental sustainability, coffee prices, and research into the labour and livelihood of the banana and cocoa industries.

“They are just some of the highlights. There will also be things like sensory experience research, which will leverage research from the wine and cheese industries as well as consumer perception sessions. It’s going to be extremely exciting,” Ward says. G C R

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OPINION Kamal Bengougam

The wisdom of perspective EVERSYS’ CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER KAMAL BENGOUGAM ON HOW OUR POINT OF VIEW OFTEN DEFINES THE CHOICES WE MAKE, AND WHY THOSE CHOICES CAN ALTER OUR DESTINY. “Looking at life from a different perspective makes you realise that it is not the deer that is crossing the road, rather it is the road that is crossing the forest.” – Muhammad Ali.

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grew up in Paris, France. When I revisited my childhood neighbourhood, I recognised absolutely everything, except that it looked much smaller than the picture in my mind from 25 years ago.

We live in a world that is driven by opinions. With the abundance of information around us, we must understand that judgement is often clouded, distorted, impressed, and driven by perspective. Perspective could be used as an excuse. It can create a world where there is no absolute truth, an environment in which there is no black and white, just grey.

Perspective is defined as “a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something, a point of view”. It can also be defined as “the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a twodimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other”. I prefer this second interpretation as it sounds more precise and analytical than a mere point of view.

Today’s management gurus often use the terminology of a 360-degree view, having the ability to observe something from multiple angles prior to making a decision. Greater clarity can also come from clear thinking, analysing real issues without corrupted filters.

A while ago, a businessman was asked to make a speech at a local business event, in a town facing severe economic issues. He proceeded to take a large canvas of white paper and place a red dot in the centre of it. “What do you see?” he asked the audience. The response was unanimous: “I see a red dot.” The speaker then said, “you have overlooked the most important thing. You have missed seeing the huge white canvas”.

Life is a bit like that. We tend to focus on the small red dots, things like setbacks, failures, successes, rejections… and often miss out on seeing the big picture, the solution, the hope. The French had a cure for all things to do with the head, a panacea for all ills – they called it the guillotine. This is what I call perspective.

All we need to start making sound decisions is to take a little step around an issue, think outside of the famed box, and start “seeing” as opposed to just “looking”. Scientists and inventors have this innate skill, the power to observe and look for patterns. They analyse them over time and come to their conclusions. Isaac Newton was able, with his feet firmly planted on terra firma, to define mathematical formulas to do with gravity, interplanar distances, and speed around our solar system. If the sky was the canvas used in the first story, Newton ignored the potential dot of the moon and focused instead on what lay behind, the real scientific story.

Truths can be glaringly obvious at times. But, like common sense,

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“seeing” may not be such an easy talent after all. Our past often provides clouds of pollution that stop us from looking beyond our current predicaments with clarity or objectivity. Reality, being a cartesian truism, could not possibly remain hidden behind a thin veil of fears. But how do we remove this curtain of deception, invite the light into our choices, and begin to move in tune with the universe? Albert Einstein said that there are only two ways to live your life: “One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

In our coffee world, perspective can also play a big part. Since I wrote the Global Coffee Report article called ‘The Misery of Choice’ in 2018, the whys and wherefores of the emergence of new coffee shop concepts, I have noticed a myriad of projects being launched at increasing frequency. The question is what makes those new manifestations of age-old concepts compelling? What is the product differentiator – the coffee bean, the brewing method, the machine, location, décor,

When making sound decisions, Eversys’ Kamal Bengougam says it’s important to start ‘seeing’ rather than just ‘looking’ at the issue.

atmosphere, people? How many permutations can we have of this never-ending pursuit of the “ultimate café”, this mythical place where everybody knows your name?

In our coffee realm, people often pigeonhole automatic machines in the less authentic box.

These are the same people who use emoticons/ emojis to portray their feelings. If these symbols are gleefully accepted as valid descriptions of deep human engagements, how could an automatic machine be deemed as lacking in authenticity or soul? Each new generation buries the false assumptions of the previous one and this will be no exception. At the turn of the 20th century, those who wanted faster horses ended up driving cars.

In a recent speech I gave in Kiev, Ukraine, I utilised music to describe coffee making. In my words, coffee was the music, the machine the instrument, and the barista the maestro – the virtuoso whose role was to interpret the music through the medium of his/her instrument. I like this analogy very much as the machine becomes the tool, the object which facilitates, empowers the “human” to become more precise, more productive.

The late Mahatma Gandhi, in his amazing wisdom, said that “we should refrain from judging a man lest we had walked a mile in his shoes”. This is so true. It is only when we share the same perspective as others, that we can truly appreciate what they see, how they feel, and might understand the decisions they make. In his song Man in the Mirror, Michael Jackson was speaking to the “Man in the Mirror”, asking him to change his ways. Even mirrors are nothing more than a mere reflection, a factice, a reversed reflection of who we are, a perspective devoid of soul. Speaking to an image never changes anything.

Prior to making decisions and forming opinions about things and people, we must elevate our consciousness, develop the ability to not only look at but see the subtleties and nuances that permeate creation, and render it this amazingly complex yet fabulous spectrum of untold possibilities.

If you do not like what you see, just move. Shift your prejudices and alter your perspective. G C R

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DIARY Dashboard COFFEE COFFEE AROUND AROUND THE THE GLOBE GLOBE

GLOBAL COFFEE EVENTS

NCA ANNUAL CONVENTION 2020

COFFEE

AUSTIN, UNITED STATES

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

The National Coffee Association Annual Convention is a premier event for professionals and executives in the US coffee market.

With so many challenges facing the industry – from coffee and health to sustainability and the continued struggle of coffee farmers – collaboration, conversation, and education matter now more than ever. www.ncausa.org

Co-organised by Coex and Korea Coffee Association, Coffee Expo Seoul, which started in 2012, showcases the entire coffee industry under one roof. As the largest coffee-related exhibition held in the first half of the year, Coffee Expo Seoul is the ideal platform where exhibitors and buyers can find new products and upcoming trends prior to the beginning of summer coffee season. www.coffeeexposeoul.com

WORLD BARISTA CHAMPIONSHIP AND WORLD BREWERS CUP

THAIFEX – ANUGA ASIA BANGKOK, THAILAND

5-7 M A R C H

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

4–7 MAY The World Barista Championship is the preeminent international coffee competition produced annually by World Coffee Events.

The competition focuses on promoting excellence in coffee, advancing the barista profession, and engaging a worldwide audience with an annual championship event that serves as the culmination of local and regional events around the globe. www.worldbaristachampionship.org 54

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EXPO

SEOUL

2020

9 – 12 A P R I L

2 6-3 0 M AY Officially rebranded as Thaifex – Anuga Asia, this trade show presents stronger global recognition for exhibitors, visitors, and buyers. By bringing the Anuga brand to Asia, the stage is set to propel the food and beverage community into the future of food and unrivalled market connectivity.

In 2019, Thaifex saw more than 67,000 attendees from 134 countries visit the event. www.thaifex-anuga.com

SPECIALTY COFFEE EXPO

PORTLAND, UNITED STATES

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COFFEE EXPO 2020

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

23–2 6 APR I L

4–7 MAY

The Specialty Coffee Expo was designed to be the coffee professional’s one-stop-shop for everything they need to succeed. The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) has built a solid reputation over the past 30 years of providing its members with the most up-to-date, qualified information. Roasters and retailers have the opportunity to exhibit their products on the show floor, network with decision makers, and participate in the SCA’s numerous lectures, labs, or certificate programs. www.coffeeexpo.org

Now in its ninth year, the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) is known throughout the Asia-Pacific as the largest and most exciting dedicated coffee event. Each year, café owners, roasters, baristas, equipment manufacturers, service providers, and more gather at this trade-oriented event to network and do business. MICE2020 will take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. www.internationalcoffeeexpo.com

WORLD OF COFFEE WARSAW

EUVEND & COFFEENA COLOGNE, GERMANY

WARSAW, POLAND

18–20 JUNE Travelling to a different European city each June, World of Coffee is an essential event for coffee professionals, drawing a loyal audience from the global specialty coffee community. Organised by the Specialty Coffee Association, this year’s event will host hundreds of exhibitors and feature Best New Product and Design Lab awards, and the World Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits, and Cup Tasters Championships. www.worldofcoffee.org

2 9–3 1 O CTO B E R Euvend & Coffeena is a meeting place for key players in vending machines and coffee. Euvend & Coffeena provides a unique platform for automated sales solutions, professional coffee systems, coffee, hot and cold beverages, snacks and filling products, multi-payment solutions, cups, and services. Event organisers say the most important innovations and trends in office coffee service, unattended retail, and micro markets are presented here. www.euvend-coffeena.com

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PRODUCTS Marketplace

CAMA FW746 MINI WRAP MACHINE Cama has introduced its mini wrap FW746 machine as part of the evolution of the Cama BreakThrough Generation machines. New doors guarantee better machine visibility and improved cleaning options. The machine frame has been restyled in order to achieve better dynamic performance.

Main features include carton magazine ergonomics and improved machine visibility, independent carton transport frames, centrelining, TPM for format change, a cleaner design, and compact size, with a footprint of 350 millimetres.

Auto regulations include magazine height stepper IO-Link, height of front glue stepper IOLink, height of closing head stepper IO-Link, and servo regulation of carton transport width and depth.

For more information, visit www.camagroup.com

SCHAERER BARISTA Combining the craftsmanship and aesthetics of a portafilter machine with the simple operation and process reliability of a fully automatic coffee machine, the Schaerer Barista has been living up to this standard since it was launched. From coffee bars to Italian restaurants, the machine is helping restaurant owners create the perfect environment for coffee culture, both visually and technically, while also providing consistent quality.

In order to better unite customised requirements and efficiency, the Schaerer Barista is being supplemented to include extension and adaptation options. While the grinding level and brewing time are automatically monitored and independently readjusted as needed, the second optional Supersteam quickly prepares milk foam creations of consistent quality with its fully automated technology. The new external bean hoppers are particularly interesting for places with high beverage output. With a capacity of more than one kilogram per hopper, consistent operation without constant refilling is ensured, even if there is a high volume of guests. Individuality is also considered in the design, which is why many external parts can be covered in colourful foil.

For more information, visit www.schaerer.com

PLI-VALV BY PLITEK For more than 25 years, Plitek’s industry-proven one-way degassing valves have enabled coffee roasters to eliminate bulk degassing from their operation and preserve the freshness and quality of their coffee. With billions used worldwide, Pli-Valv valve technology is shown to allow freshly roasted coffee to naturally degas inside of hermetically sealed packaging while providing an effective barrier to environmental oxygen, moisture, and contamination. The Pli-Valv line of products provides reliable and cost-effective degassing solutions for a wide range of packaging sizes and types. Plitek custom engineers and fabricates specialty equipment to support package degassing systems including custom applicators to fit onto existing fill equipment, custom web splicing equipment, custom punching units, and quality assurance systems.

Plitek offers complete system design, installation, service, and full support for the coffee degassing process.

Visit Plitek at the Specialty Coffee Expo in Portland, Oregon, at booth 2336.

For more information, visit www.plitek.com

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PUQPRESS AUTOMATIC TAMPER The Puqpress is an automatic tamper. Period. It is not going to replace staff nor do your taxes.

It does not give massages either, but it does magically increase workflow and makes baristas happy and productive.

Does it tamp flat? Yes. Does it tamp well? Perfectly level at the perfect pressure.

Every time? Every single time, no matter who the barista is.

Can you control the pressure? Yes. So, what does it do? It makes your team more productive.

In other words, it handles the pressure.

For more information, visit www.puqpress.com

GRAINPRO BAG The GrainPro Bag, also known as SuperGrainbag or SGB, is a widely used solution that effectively protects coffee during transport and storage.

This bag is most commonly used as a liner for jute bags, as it protects the green coffee beans from loss of quality and damage through moisture. The GrainPro Bags allow for peak quality preservation and locking in aroma, freshness, colour, and taste for up to a year in storage.

This solution comes in two types, each with a different sealing method. The GrainPro Bag Zipper has a two-track zipper seal, while the GrainPro Bag Twist & Tie requires a cable tie to be sealed.

These hermetic seals maintain a gas-tight and moisture-tight environment to secure green coffee beans.

The GrainPro Bag is the leading coffee storage used worldwide, from the mountains of Guatemala to the heights of Sumatra and reaching even Ethiopian highlands.

For more information, visit www.grainpro.com

WMF ESPRESSO The award-winning WMF Espresso embodies all the barista flair and quality of the traditional portafilter machine while at the same time delivering the simplicity and consistency of fully automatic machines. Its classic look and sensory cues – like hissing, steaming, and knocking – evoke the emotions of the espresso bar, but the trickier parts of the process are automated to ensure reliable results. Innovative features like integrated grinders, automatic tamping, and Dynamic Coffee Assist technology guarantee the versatility, usability, and all-round performance of this machine. Built for total reliability and coffee consistency, it’s a flawless way to offer customers the traditional espresso experience they love today and far into the future.

Recommended for venues with an average daily requirement of 300 cups, the WMF espresso bridges the gap between two worlds and offers the best of both.

For more information, visit www.wmf-coffeemachines.com

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LAST WORD Edinburgh

The new coffee capital DUE TO A HIGH NUMBER OF COFFEE SHOPS PER CAPITA, SELECTA HAS NAMED EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND AS EUROPE’S MOST COFFEE OBSESSED CITY.

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ilan is often touted as Europe’s coffee capital.

However, a recent study from self-service retailer Selecta suggests Edinburgh in Scotland

deserves the title.

Selecta analysed several data points including the price of coffee, quality and number of coffee shops, how many offered free Wi-Fi, Google search interest in “coffee”, and coffee imports in proportion to gross domestic product and population, and compiled this information in a European Coffee Index.

“Coffee is a big part of European culture.

The European Coffee Index was designed to allow us to find out which place, that we operate in, was the most obsessed with coffee, giving us a different perspective on where to target for potential new coffee products,” says Emily Stoten, Marketing Director for Selecta UK. “Edinburgh stood out from the other cities as it had by far the most amount of coffee shops,

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with and without Wi-Fi, per capita. In comparison to some of the other cities on the list, Edinburgh is relatively small in terms of population, so to have as many shops regardless is a key indicator as to why it topped the overall rankings.”

Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Florence in Italy, Dublin in Ireland, Antwerp in Belgium, Sarajevo in Bosnia, Bratislavia in Slovakia, Bologna in Italy, Prague in the Czech Republic, and Lisbon in Portugal ranked second to 10th respectively.

Most of the cities to reach the top 10 are the capitals of their countries. These cities all performed well – apart from Sarajevo – for the average price of coffee versus the daily wage. Milan’s relatively low placement of 17th was mainly due to having the worst average Google review ratings for its coffee shops.

“In the index, we found a lot of Italian cities in the bottom positions for average Google reviews,” Stoten says.

“The daily price of a coffee versus daily wage was also surprising with Zurich, Switzerland coming top. As Switzerland is usually an expensive place to live, we would’ve thought this would rank much lower.”

The least affordable location was Thessaloniki in Greece, where a single coffee made up 15 per cent of the daily average wage.

According to Google search volumes for “coffee” in English and the country’s native language, the people of Amsterdam were most interested in coffee, whereas those in Minsk, Belarus were least enthused.

Most of eastern Europe was ranked low on the list of number of coffee shops per capita, with Ukraine and Russia not having many coffee shops compared to other nations. Italy, meanwhile, had four cities feature in the top 10.

“Having lots of coffee shops per capita is a good indication that a city likes coffee as it is readily available,” Stoten says. “Moreover, a country which is importing a lot of coffee per capita indicates a high demand.”

Belgium imported the most coffee per person, whereas Bosnia spent the most on coffee importation compared to growth domestic product.

While Edinburgh topped the list overall, Cluj-Napoca in Romania had the highest quality coffee shops, according to Google reviews.

“This could highlight how new cities are emerging that have an underlying coffee culture as opposed to the more well-known cities,” Stoten says.

“The result of the index could give the coffee industry some interesting knowledge as to where it might be good to go for coffee outside of the traditional cities you might automatically think of.” G C R To view the index, visit www.selecta.co.uk/european-coffee-index

GRAINPRO STORING THE FUTURE

www.grainpro.com