tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-326469442024-03-14T21:20:24.374+11:00Pour QualityA Melbourne-based ex-barista's ramblings about coffee: news, descriptions and experiments.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-78793484547659478232010-07-28T13:28:00.008+10:002010-07-31T20:39:36.531+10:00Shuttle Espresso Machine Review<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Introduction</span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Times; font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Domestic e61 heat exchanger machines have been on the market for quite some time now and for all of that time, they have been quite expensive. Lately, with the rise and rise of specialty coffee, we have seen an increased interest in these machines, part of which has coincided with an increase in prices of these machines as a consequence of the Australian dollar's fluctuation against the Euro. All of this has created a climate where there is a business case for sourcing out decent machines made in a country with a lower cost of labour and a more favourable exchange rate and bringing in a pricing model where the importer sells direct -as opposed to adding a markup to support a reseller network - in order to deliver a cheaper machine to the consumer. This is exactly what <a href="http://www.e61.com.au/">e61 </a>has done in bringing the Shuttle into Australia from China. Of course, whilst this might be a recipe to cry "knock-off", none of these things<br />actually gives any indication as to the quality of the machine and the coffee that it creates. For this reason, I was interested and grateful to Matt from e61 to be given the opportunity to explore the machine.</span><div class="im"><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This review is written with people who might be interested in buying this machine in mind. This means that I will make reference to other domestic espresso machines that I have used and even a few commercial machines. These references will be comparisons to tease out a little more about the Shuttle, seeing as this machine falls to be evaluated against a market of competing products, but are not intended to give any sort of insight into those other machines.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, I want to touch on the issue of reviewer independence in this review. To Matt's credit, from the outset he accepted that I am only interested in writing this as a totally independent review and that I might not have anything nice to say about the machine. I have sent Matt a copy of the text of this review in advance so that he could comment on it; that resulted in one amendment, which was to correct my original error in saying that the machine was manufactured in Taiwan and not China. Our arrangement was basically this: I get to use the machine free of charge to me, but get nothing else. I cover all costs of coffee.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /></div><div class="im"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Espresso</span><br /> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Espresso is the most difficult part to get right in any espresso machine. If I were in the market for an espresso machine, I would give the most weight to this part and little weight to the rest of it. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Espresso - Taste Test</span><br /> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To evaluate the machine, I tasted a few different coffees that I am fairly familiar with. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first was a commercial espresso blend comprising Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Kenyan and central american coffees at a medium to light roast level. This is a fairly difficult blend to work with, but is capable of delicious results. I chose this blend because the result in the cup would give me the most information about how the machine was functioning. The espresso was thin, sour, metallic and dominated by grapefruit flavours (presumably from the Kenyan component) at all dose levels, with the contribution from the yirgacheffe overwhelmed. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second that I chose was a commercial espresso blend that was slanted more towards heavy body and chocolatey sugar browning flavours. I chose this because it is a coffee that has proven itself to have mass appeal. The espresso was a little bitterer and ashier than I expected, even at coarse grinds, high doses and fairly fast flow rates. The coffee also seemed to blonde out towards the end of the pour (but I note that this is something that I have noticed with a lot of domestic espresso machines). </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /></div><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried a few other coffees and struck gold with some home roast Tanzania Blackburn Estate Shade of September Microlot. This was a failed filter roast that went slightly too far. Too light for most espresso machines, on the Shuttle it produced a sweet, rich shot with loads of berry goodness and a lively acidity. The fact that this coffee performed well illustrates a good point about domestic espresso machines and most commercial espresso machines; seeing as people don’t tweak brew temperatures, people will tend to gravitate to blends that suit their machines, which is always a consideration to take into account when reading reviews and posts online.</span><div class="im"><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These taste tests, together with the steam flashing from the group, made me suspect that the machine was running too hot.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Espresso - Numbers</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I borrowed a Scace device and portafilter pressure gauge from Craig at 9 Bar Espresso Services in order to test out the machine. The first thing that I did when the machine arrived was to run the pressure gauge and see it settle at around 9 bar brew pressure. I used the brew pressure gauge before packing the machine up and got a reading of 11 bar. I should note that this was using a blind gauge.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzSFd0WPI/AAAAAAAAAc8/auhGDIonAJM/s1600/11bar.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzSFd0WPI/AAAAAAAAAc8/auhGDIonAJM/s320/11bar.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500007061979945202" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />The Scace device read brew temperatures between 104C and 99C. For reference, the Giotto at work put out brew temperatures between 94C and 89C. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzTGsrBdI/AAAAAAAAAdc/h7ZSJXvEJYc/s1600/Scace.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzTGsrBdI/AAAAAAAAAdc/h7ZSJXvEJYc/s320/Scace.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500007079490553298" border="0" /></a><br /></div><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Temperature measurements should be taken with a grain of salt, in that there are a myriad of factors that can give rise to inaccuracies. The Scace device does a fantastic job in creating a platform for repeatable measurements, but it is still important to be aware of sources of error, such as probe and multimeter error. In this case, the actual value of the reading may be out by a few degrees. For what it's worth, boiling water read 104C on the particular multimeter that I was using, which implies that the “true” brew temperatures were in the range of 100C to 95C. As an aside, the difficulty in measuring brew temperatures is something that people should consider when reading espresso machine reviews that give a passing reference to “temperature stability” or similar without giving any insight into their measurement process. Similarly, brew pressure measurements need to be taken with a grain of salt, as measurements taken from the gauge built in to the machine will vary depending on where the gauge sits in the internal plumbing on the machine - so two different models displaying the same brew pressure on the internal gauge might actually have different brew pressures when measured at the head. Measurements at the group head depend a little bit on the measurement device; I seem to remember that the rule of thumb is to subtract about one bar from the gauge reading for blind gauges.<br /><br />In terms of how these numbers scrub up, I think that we can infer fairly safely that the brew temperature is on the high side. I should note that there is no "correct" brew temperature; most espresso blends will perform well somewhere between about 89 and 96C, depending on roast levels. I'm a little more hesitant to draw conclusions about brew pressure; I think that this is not a variable that has been well explored, seeing as most machines are set at the "holy grail" pressure of 9 bar ... using whatever gauge is most handy! That said, I suspect that lower brew pressures might be a little more forgiving for the domestic e61 HX market.<br /></span><div class="im"><br /> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Milk - Use</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In contrast to espresso, milk performance is fairly straightforward and easy to evaluate. To test out the milk, I tried frothing on a few 350mL jugs in a row. There was certainly enough steam available, such that I actually found it a little difficult to control. My housemate, a professional barista, thought that the steam was great, which suggests that it might just be a matter of spending the time to get the right<br />technique.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I did notice that the "no-burn" steam wand got uncomfortably hot after steaming a few jugs in a row. This is consistent with the performance of other steam wands with inserts that I have used on domestic machines, such as the Giotto that I have at work.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Milk - Numbers</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /></div><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Shuttle was able to steam enough milk for a single milk drink, using a 350mL jug, in 16 seconds. In comparison, the Makin Espresso Maver machine also takes 16 seconds and the Giotto that I have at work takes about 26 seconds. A La Marzocco FB-80 can do it in 10.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my review of the Makin Espresso Maver machine, I noticed that a good predictor of steam performance is the amount of time that it takes for the steam boiler to drop to 0.7bar, seeing as at this boiler pressure the milk isn't being moved around enough to be worthwhile. When the steam valve is fully opened, the Shuttle drops to 0.7 bar boiler pressure after 33 seconds. In contrast, the Makin Espresso took 85 seconds last time I checked and the Giotto at work takes about 28 seconds. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Machine</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This section is just some brief notes on the build aspects of the the machine.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Good:</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stainess steel frame </span>- won't rust as compared with a powdercoat steel frame, which can rust where the powdercoat chips off. That said, I have to note that the courier dropped the machine that I used and as a result the section of the frame holding the drip tray had bent.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stainless steel tank </span>- makes sense, given concerns over the past few years of materials leeching from plastic. The tank has a valve fitted to the bottom so that it can be pulled out, filled and dropped back in, though the over pressure hose must be maneuvered back into place.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzf0jAy8I/AAAAAAAAAd0/VGDBXPmuT-k/s1600/Water+Tank.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzf0jAy8I/AAAAAAAAAd0/VGDBXPmuT-k/s320/Water+Tank.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500007297956498370" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Wire grill over drip tray </span>- you don't get as much crap collecting on the top of it and transferring to the bottom of the cup. Of course, the tradeoff for this is that you can see more of the muck that collects in<br />the drip tray. The opposite extreme is the metal plate drip tray cover of the giotto; see the photo below to see how much mess collects on top of it after a few shots. At work, I have to wipe the drip tray after<br />every use.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzS0ZE3TI/AAAAAAAAAdU/7ZPFzxUyGRY/s1600/Giotto+Tray.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzS0ZE3TI/AAAAAAAAAdU/7ZPFzxUyGRY/s320/Giotto+Tray.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500007074576522546" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Internal components</span> - whilst the machine is made in China, the components all seem to be components that have been used in other machines. The brain box is from gicar and the pressurestat is from CEME. I note, though, that I didn’t get to strip the machine down - instead, this is based on the tear-down photos sent to me by Chris.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stainless steel body </span>- seemed to polish up very easily.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzfPx_s9I/AAAAAAAAAdk/PolQez5cjMs/s1600/Shiny+Back.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzfPx_s9I/AAAAAAAAAdk/PolQez5cjMs/s320/Shiny+Back.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500007288087229394" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Boiler is insulated </span>- presumably a good thing in terms of energy savings, but query whether in this instance it isn't another factor making the machine run hot. Nonetheless, having the machine come with a boiler insulated from the factory means that there shouldn’t be any need to consider embarking on this task yourself.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Bad:</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Double portafilter spouts</span> - these sit forward and, so, make it impossible to wedge the portafilter against the bench for tamping; they are also a little wide for pouring two both streams of a double shot into a single espresso cup. The Giotto has the same issue. See photo below.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzSavyPJI/AAAAAAAAAdE/ZYrXGiLqEIg/s1600/Double+Spouts.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzSavyPJI/AAAAAAAAAdE/ZYrXGiLqEIg/s320/Double+Spouts.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500007067692448914" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Drip tray </span>- the drip tray is far too small, particularly if you want to flush a large amount of water through it - I was emptying every shot or two, which is basically totally impractical unless you have your machine right next to the sink, in which case it is still annoying. I keep a bucket under the bench to empty the giotto drip tray into.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Water tank cover </span>- the water tank cover has two holes punched into it for handles. Things like dust, dirt and ground coffee can fall through these holes. Again, the giotto has the same problem.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stainless steel tank </span>- the fit and finish on this was somewhat poor, in that some of the edges were fairly sharp. To my mind, this is a bit of a problem on the part of the machine that your fingers are going to get near the most often.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzfRr3CQI/AAAAAAAAAds/WWO60J775JA/s1600/Tank+Edge.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzfRr3CQI/AAAAAAAAAds/WWO60J775JA/s320/Tank+Edge.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500007288598366466" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Drip tray grate</span> - as great as it was to see a wire drip tray grate, it was irritating that the drip tray grate did not sit flat in the drip tray.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzSvVjnGI/AAAAAAAAAdM/QCj1oRqX0lQ/s1600/Drip+Grate.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/TFPzSvVjnGI/AAAAAAAAAdM/QCj1oRqX0lQ/s320/Drip+Grate.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500007073219583074" border="0" /></a><br /> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No brew pressure gauge.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Boiler pressure gauge</span> - I found it somewhat hard to read, as the markings are not at the numbers that I am used to; eg 0.9 bar instead of 0.1 bar</span>.<br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conclusion</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I flagged before, for me an espresso machine purchasing decision should come down to espresso performance. In this case, I can’t honestly say that I was thrilled with most of the espresso produced by the machine. It may be that this is simply due to the machine running too hot, which is something that can be cured in a number of ways. I understand that E61 has requested modifications to the machine to address this problem. If these work, this machine might be worth revisiting as a good value<br />proposition.</span><br /></div>Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-80456571401293470442010-04-25T22:07:00.004+10:002010-04-25T23:20:07.395+10:00An Aeropress Recipe Collection (And Why It Doesn't Matter)<span style="font-weight: bold;">Introduction</span><br /><br />My espresso machine has been with <a href="http://www.9barespressoservices.com.au/">some dude</a> having some modifications done to it and <a href="http://www.espressorun.blogspot.com/">my housemate</a> has been convincing me of the virtues of the aeropress. I was pretty sceptical of it initially because of the<a href="http://www.aerobie.com/Products/aeropress.htm"> infomercial type advertising</a> (snuggie eat your heart out) and the rave reviews from people brewing hyper-concentrated brews and re-using the paper filters 15 times (I kid you not), bu it's pretty hard to argue with it on the convenience front and it is true that it allows you to control pretty much all of the variables, so I have been experimenting with it a bit over the past few months. One of the things that I found irritating about it was finding info on how to use the thing. So, without further ado, I present you ...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">An Aeropress Recipe Collection</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.aerobie.com/Products/AeroPress%20Instructions%20for%20Web%20G.pdf">Manufacturer's Instructions (pdf)<br /></a><br /><a href="http://timwendelboe.no/resources/brewing-guide/aeropress/">Wendelspro<br /></a><br /><a href="http://timwendelboe.blogspot.com/2008/10/aeropress-recipe.html">Wendelblog (I think the above is updated)<br /></a><br /><a href="http://timwendelboe.blogspot.com/2008/11/last-batch-of-gatundu.html">Varney's Kenyan Brew<br /></a><br /><a href="http://timwendelboe.blogspot.com/2008/02/first-unofficial-world-aeropress.html">Anders Valde, 1st Aeropress World Champion (Woo! Yay!)<br /></a><br /><a href="http://timwendelboe.no/2009/06/top-3-aeropress-methods/">2009 Aeropress World Championships Top 3</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.tristanstephenson.com/wordpress/2009/03/20/how-to-make-aeropress-coffee/">Tristan Stephenson<br /></a><br /><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/scottmarquardt/invertedaeropressingforbettercoffee">Scott Marquand<br /></a><br /><a href="http://coffeecollective.blogspot.com/2010/01/updated-aeropress-brewing-method.html">Klaus Thomsen<br /></a><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/sweetmarias#p/u/1/AtD8u9oSG4A">Tom Owen (You Tube)<br /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why It Doesn't Matter</span><br /><br />If you read through all of the above, you will find that they are pretty different. I'm sure that a big part of the difference is due to the difficulty in communicating grind size. (And the <a href="http://vstapps.com/extractmojo/">associated extraction info</a>.) That, and the massive variety of taste preferences - people often put forward their preferences as the best without explaining why. Actually, that's a good point, so I might reiterate:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">People often evaluate without describing.</span><br /><br />For example; <a href="http://coffeereviewaustralia.com/2009/06/28/article-japanese-syphon/">I was suprised</a> at the strength of one Japanese siphon champ's preferred brew. <br /><br />In other words, at the end of the day you have to adjust coffee based on taste, which brings us to ...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Gold Cup</span><br /><br />As with any other brew method, aeropress brewing follows the gold cup fundamentals. The gold cup has an interesting history, which is well summarised by Paul Stack <a href="http://marco.ie/uberproject/?p=252">here</a>, but it basically comes down to something like this:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Good Coffee = Extraction of the right compounds to the right strength</span><br /><br />Extracting the right amount of stuff basically means not underextracting (and having a cup that lacks flavour) and not overextracting (and having a cup that is bitter), but rather getting the right amount of flavour. The range 18-22% has become canonical; this means that, for example, if you grind 20g of coffee, 3.6 to 4.4g of it should end up dissolved in your cup. From memory, the number seems to have come from the early experiments (read Paul's post) and now that we can very easily calculate extraction using a nice refractometer and calculator, I think that we should all be repeating these experiments. From memory, for example, I think that Mr Howell likes to extract <a href="http://www.terroircoffee.com/">his delicious coffee</a> to a narrower range within that 18-22% range.<br /><br />The right strength is the other main matter of taste. From memory, the SCAE standard is about 1.3% TDS, whereas the SCAA standard is a bit lower. This means, in the case of the SCAE gold cup standard, that 1.3% of the volume of liquid should be coffee extract.<br /><br />Got it? Simple? Should be.<br /><br />(As a side-note, I did the SCAA gold cup certification <span style="font-style: italic;">last year</span> at the Atlanta expo. Repeating the name "E. E. Lockhart" a million times made it feel a bit much like a remedial primary school history class for my liking, so I hope that my certificate arrives soon. A friendly follow up email is in order, methinks.)<br /><br />(As a further side-note, Mark Pendergrast's book Uncommon Grounds mentions that initiatives such as the Coffee Brewing Institute, which did the research for the Gold Cup standard, was backed by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau. In other words, whilst the major US coffee roasters were busily squabbling amongst each other in the face of decreasing share of the beverage market, it was coffee farmers footing the bill to improve the standard of coffee consumption in a land far distant from them and to consequently increase market share for their customers.)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Variables</span><br /><br />The whole point of the Gold Cup is to learn how to change strength and extraction to improve your cup. Doing so requires you to change variables. Fortunately, the Aeropress gives quite a lot of control:<br /><ul><li>steep time</li><li>stirring</li><li>grind</li><li>water temperature</li><li>coffee/water ratio</li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">My Recipe</span><br /><br />So at long last we come to my recipe. I imagine that this will be useful for no-one, seeing as it is very specific to my setup. To start off with, we noticed that the cups we were getting were quite bitter. It turned out that the culprit was the grinder that I was using. Big conical burr grinders might be the bees-knees for espresso, but aeropress proved to be a challenge for my Kony. The problem was solved by removing the finer particles using a drum sieve. The resultant grind was then not yielding enough per gram, so the weight had to be increased from a standard 55g/L ratio. All of which means that the following is probably fairly useless, but I'm going with more or less:<br /><ul><li>22.5g coffee (post-sieving)</li><li>~200mL water (a few minutes off boil)</li><li>stir coffee one or two times<br /></li><li>1 min 50 sec steep time (inc 30 sec plunge time)</li><li>dilute to taste.</li></ul>Works for me at the moment. At a guess, I'd say that I'm probably at about 1.25% TDS by taste. Extraction is probably on the lower end, but I do notice bitterness if I let it steep much longer. Yes, I'm looking at getting a better grinder for filter. The ceramic burr hand grinders that I have tried so far have been pretty woeful.<br /><br />I have been using the inverted method, though Tom Owen points out that if you fit the bits together, a vacuum forms to stop more coffee leaking out anyway, so I might try that. As a practical matter, it depends if you're comfortable with the risk of catastrophe if you can't fit the filter properly with the press inverted. As a taste matter, I suppose it depends if you want your coffee sitting up against a bit of rubber or a bit of paper - neither of which sounds attractive. I will probably have a go at making some cloth filters at some stage.<br /><br />Of course, the absolute best thing about it is that clean up takes 2 seconds!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Updates!</span><br /><br />It may be useful to keep a collection of Aeropress recipes, so if you have any links that you would like me to add, let me know ...Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-4891896714659934962009-11-21T21:56:00.005+11:002009-11-21T23:22:07.266+11:00Summer and the Brown MenaceOK, so I know that my legions of regular readers have been missing my contributions to this blog, so I wholeheartedly apologise to both of them.<br /><br />There are a few things that I should probably talk about here, like meeting <a href="http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/">Geoff Watts</a> and the lovely speech he gave at <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.stali.com.au">St Ali</a> recently (it doesn't take a genius to predict that a bunch of people are going to try to pass off crap bought through brokers as "direct trade" over the next six months), the opening of ten million nice cafes around the place, the great performance of <a href="http://meccaespresso.com/?page_id=11">the</a> <a href="http://www.sevenseeds.com.au/">usual</a> <a href="http://www.coffeesupreme.com.au/">suspects</a> (<a href="http://www.melbournecoffeemerchants.com.au/"></a><a href="http://www.thesourceespresso.com/">need more </a>links) at this week's <a href="http://www.cupofexcellence.org/CountryPrograms/Bolivia/2009Program/AuctionResults/tabid/652/ctl/FarmDetails/mid/1000/ItemID/1344/Default.aspx">Bolivian COE Auction</a> and, let's not forget, the amazing work of Aida Battle's fincas Mauritania and Kilimanjaro being showcased by <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.squaremilecoffee.co.uk">Square Mile</a> ... but I'm not going to.<br /><br />We're unfortunately entering that time of year that is traditionally a wasteland for good coffee. The heat just kills coffee so quickly. Some dudes have come up with some really cool ideas - no pun intended - to address the problem. Andrew at <a href="http://www.malingroom.com.au/">the Maling Room</a> came up with a great idea after we got sick and tired of having a window of two days to use our deliveries at Maltitude and Maling Room; wine fridges. Nolan has put some in at Proud Mary and I'm guessing that they will become more popular. Nim came up with the great idea of using a tiny esky at home. Whilst <a href="http://www.riocoffee.com.au/">Rio Coffee</a> was supplying Mecca, Tony shipped coffee to them in polystyrene boxes. I have a few at home from orders from Tony and I'm using them to store wine. Surprisingly, when the ambient temperature was about 24.5C, it was about 6C lower inside the box. Not bad for a "cellar" that cost me ... nothing, and therefore possibly a feasible solution for cafe owners whose space and budget won't allow the extravagance of a wine fridge.<br /><br />The effect of heat is magnified with those unsealed brown paper bags that seem to be really popular now. Sealing coffee in the gases that it gives off after roasting seems to me to make a real difference in preserving flavour and, of course, brown paper bags don't really do a good job of sealing it in ... really, the only thing that's worse is buying coffee from an open basket. Valve bags seem to do a better job, but we need to remember that those valves apparently fail quite a lot. In any case, I wonder if the plastic is permeable - at Coffeelab, the oxygen meter showed that these bags seem to vary. If we're talking about 250g, vacuum packing it in valveless bags after roasting would probably be an affordable and sensible option, but I imagine that you'd feel like a moron selling prepackaged coffee bags that had puffed up like a football. Not to mention that for some reason vacuum packaging seems to have developed a bad reputation, possibly because it is associated with stale coffee in many people's minds.<br /><br />I have had great success with brown paper bags by adaptin a technique from <a href="http://www.venezianocoffee.com.au/">Mr Wolff</a>; once I buy coffee in a brown paper bag, that brown paper bag lives inside a cheap 750mL takeaway container, which seems to be the ideal size for storing 250g bags of coffee. At $12 for 50 at a restaurant supply store, they won't break the bank and it's surprisingly convenient to have that many containers with lid. Presumably they aren't airtight, but I think they certainly make a difference in the shelf life of the coffee. Now before you go saying that they run contrary to any sort of environmental reason for using paper, these containers are dishwasher safe and recyclable. The only downside is that the edges can crack.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SwfVA5XmR2I/AAAAAAAAAb4/ZvIxBvaEOWo/s1600/photo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SwfVA5XmR2I/AAAAAAAAAb4/ZvIxBvaEOWo/s320/photo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406524089058084706" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.deadmanespresso.com.au/">Deadman</a> blend; not dead coffee! Speaking of which, this coffee is absolutely delightful; one of my favourites of the past six months. A shining example of the convergence of clever blending and clever sourcing of truly spectacular green coffee. It also runs contrary to the idea that blends hide the farmer: you can clearly taste the acidity and berry of the kenyan element, the more fermenty berry of the Aricha, the body of the El Sal and the sweetness of the Colombian element. <a href="http://www.sevenseeds.com.au/coffee/deadman-blend">Buy it</a>!</span><br /><br />Finally, with filter brewing on the rise, this post seems like a good place to vent my hatred of brown filter paper, too. Most of the brown papers that I have used have been garbage - heaps of rinsing required to get a cup that tastes like coffee and not like paper. If you're opposed to bleached paper for environmental reasons, spare a thought for the litre of water that you might need to throw away in the middle of this drought ... oxygen bleached paper might well be more environmentally friendly. That said, Chemex paper is bleached and seems to be pretty unimpressive - see <a href="http://www.squaremileblog.com/2008/12/27/videocast-3-chemexpourover/">the Hoff on the subject</a>. Fortunately, the bleached Hario paper and the bleached stuff with MCM's filters seems to be pretty good.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-63616829065993718762009-07-26T15:30:00.005+10:002009-08-09T17:35:29.621+10:00New RulesSo Starbucks finally opened a store to try to go toe-to-toe with the high-end coffee crowd. The signs were there all along; from half way across the world, even I knew that they had bought the company that manufactures clover and remember people complaining about how Starbucks had apparently gone and bought up all the Blue Batak so that it was difficult for the little independent dudes to get any?<br /><br />Read <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/24/AR2009072402093.html">the Cho's article</a>, take a look at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshc/sets/72157621674139075/">the photos on flickr</a>: from a five minute glance it looks like the new store is a cold and calculated attempt to jump into the little independent dude space. Take a look at the bolts sticking out of the back of the LM, the old-school kettles, chalkboards and enough recycled timber to take on even <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.sevenseeds.com.au">MD</a>. This is grunge manufactured with decimal point precision.<br /><br />Naturally, I think that the gut reaction of anyone interested in high end coffee will look at this venture with cynicism. I mean, they can't really be cool if the process by which they create the image of being cool is detached, calculated and analytical ... can they? These guys are just stepping into the little independent space and presumably regurgitating all the same messages about "single origins" and other buzzwords that the high-end coffee movement has been all about; any bets the coffee won't actually be all that good ... will it?<br /><br />But let's take a step back for a minute. It's not as though putting together a funky looking cafe, presenting the public with a beguiling array of buzzwords and information about coffee and still selling a pretty crappy product is something that Starbucks has a monopoly on (if, indeed, that is what they are doing here). There are any number of little independent roasteries out there that are free-riding on the work of the good guys. I think that many of us have been to a cafe or roastery where the barista behind the expensive multi-boiler wundermachine has waxed lyrical about the fantastic properties of the coffee of the day, only to serve something that was disappointing, if not defective, but in no way lived up to the hype. Similarly, I think that many of us have been sold coffee accompanied by a whole page of information about it, but that two seconds of research will show is actually one of the cheaper, commodity type coffees right off the offer sheet of a large broker. (Sidebar: I'm in no way bagging the large brokers; they have stunning coffees as well as crappy coffees - the challenge for the roaster, as always, is to find them.)<br /><br />The good news for the consumer is that Starbucks will hopefully mop the floor with independents who talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. Starbucks has the cash, the marketing brains and the clout to beat these guys at everything that they do. The only advantage that the independents have in wining the marketing "war of words" is that they are not associated with the Starbucks brand and can position themselves free of the baggage that that entails. Hopefully competing with this new entrant will mean that independent little guys will have to deliver better quality. The news is good for those that do; hopefully this new Starbucks store will act as a stepping stone to get consumers in the USA moving towards the best coffee.<br /><br />So overall, I'm quite optimistic about the impact of this new venture on the <span style="font-style: italic;">consumer</span> (as opposed to on little independent roasteries) - more competition is usually better. I do have one gripe, though - whilst the "inspired by Starbucks" tagline obviously does the job of getting the consumer to understand that it is a Starbucks store, it is a bit of a slap in the face to all of the independent stores that would seem to have been the real inspirations for it.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-48660223179846499652009-07-21T21:54:00.003+10:002009-07-21T23:48:17.353+10:00The B WordOK, so it has been a while since I last updated, but it hasn't exactly been hard to get your fix of Luca coffee rants. <a href="http://coffeereviewaustralia.com/2009/06/28/fair-trade-certification-and-coffee-quality-a-very-brief-exploration/">My last article</a>, on Fair Trade coffee, was published in <a href="http://www.beanscenemagazine.com.au/">BeanScene</a> #3 and is on my other web page, complete with copious footnotes and the full reviews of the featured coffee. My recent article in <a href="http://www.cafebiz.net/page/cafe_culture_magazine.html">Cafe Culture</a> gave a very brief overview of the wonderful coffee tasting course that I did in the USA earlier this year. And there is much more in the pipeline ...<br /><br />The one thing that is decidedly missing in the above is controversy and opinion. After all, what is the bloggosphere if not a virtual soapbox?<br /><br />There was a tiny bit of controversy in response to my last post, where I dared to use the word "best," albeit with half a billion disclaimers, including prefacing the word with "one of" as opposed to "the". The person who posted the comment since deleted it. I kind of wish that that person hadn't because the comment raised a very good point. From what I remember, the comment was something along the lines of "don't use the word best; can't we all get along and appreciate everthing that everyone is doing without comparing and whilst singing kumbaya." Obviously I'm paraphrasing. The poster of that comment is welcome to take exception and correct me, but is welcome to stay silent, safe in the knowledge that I won't reveal his (or her) name ;P<br /><br />I certainly agree that the B-word is used indiscriminately online in relation to coffee and its presence often indicates unreliable information. In the past, I have been careful not to use that word where possible. That said, all coffee, all coffee machines and all coffee roasters are most certainly not created equal. I don't think that it's controversial to recognise that some things are better than others and having spent a lot of time exploring the world of coffee I'm happy to mention some things that I like. (I'm even more happy to do so against a background of a disturbing rise in coffee roasters using buzzwords over substance, but that's a rant for another rant!)<br /><br />In that spirit, let me point out that our good friends at <a href="http://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/">Square Mile</a> have to be amongst the world's best coffee roasters. (Stick that up your pipe and smoke it, anonymous commenter!)<br /><br />On a more serious note, I have now had the pleasure of tasting coffee from Square Mile on multiple occasions and in each instance I have been quite amazed at the care taken to select different coffees and roast them to present vastly different sensory experiences, which mostly match up pretty closely with the description of the coffee.<br /><br />Now, there are a few really top notch coffee roasters around and whilst the shelves at Square Mile groan under the weight of many trophies, that's not really enough to merit my dragging my lazy hide to the keyboard for this blog post. What merited this post is that Square Mile seems to be a happy convergence of an abundance of coffee talent and a dearth of accounting talent leading to a <a href="http://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/products/twelve-month-subscription-world">ridiculously cheap subscription</a> for us Aussies. Long story short, we can get a 350g bag of coffee delivered to our door from merry old London every month for about $20/month (roasted for filter brewing). That's about $60/kg <span style="font-style: italic;">delivered</span>. I actually wrote an email to Anette to check that this price was correct for Australia, given that postage of anything to Australia from practically anywhere is usually enough to impoverish all but the six richest kings of Europe. To be fair, though, this is also in part due to the AUD being the strongest that it has been against the GBP for a long time.<br /><br />There's always a catch and this time around it is quarantine. It seems that AQIS has now decided to inspect anything and everything. Green coffee imports quite clearly require a permit, but I have never had a problem having roasted coffee shipped in until a few months ago - presumably because nothing nasty can survive the 200C+ temperatures that coffee is exposed to when it is roasted. The first time around, my order arrived a mere week after it was posted, but this time around it was delayed two. Here's hoping that we return to the situation where roasted coffee is acknowledged to be as low risk as it clearly is.<br /><br />Great coffee every month and reprieve from the agony of choice. Lovely.<br /><br />Anyway, with my obligation to put something on this blog fulfiled, I bid you adieu!Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-46069646285841506992009-06-08T15:33:00.005+10:002009-06-08T16:58:49.204+10:00USA - FINAL POST ... and then some ...OK, so the old blog hasn't gotten much of a workout in the last month, so time for a whirlwind update ...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">USA Trip - The LAst Leg</span><br /><br />OK, so after Atlanta, I headed over to LA for a few days of hanging out with Em, Scott and Saxon from AIR and the various Intelligentsians ...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siylto1aj-I/AAAAAAAAAas/2uGdcMdcjh0/s1600-h/P1040277+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siylto1aj-I/AAAAAAAAAas/2uGdcMdcjh0/s320/P1040277+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344829061256089570" border="0" /></a><br />Deaton gives us a tour of the Intelly roastworks.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siylt5lpA2I/AAAAAAAAAa0/XbKYsGLy8eA/s1600-h/P1040301+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siylt5lpA2I/AAAAAAAAAa0/XbKYsGLy8eA/s320/P1040301+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344829065753330530" border="0" /></a><br />Kyle and Tim showed us the training room, where the staff for Venice beach were hard at work in their intensive training program. Terry Z's GS2 looked pretty schmick.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siylt9tYiuI/AAAAAAAAAa8/NMV72G4zSGE/s1600-h/Intelly.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siylt9tYiuI/AAAAAAAAAa8/NMV72G4zSGE/s320/Intelly.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344829066859547362" border="0" /></a><br />Intelly Silverlake. This store was like a magnet; I was in LA for two days and I think that we made about four trips to Silverlake!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SiyluNkc3GI/AAAAAAAAAbE/iYGBAUF0Exk/s1600-h/P1040269.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SiyluNkc3GI/AAAAAAAAAbE/iYGBAUF0Exk/s320/P1040269.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344829071117048930" border="0" /></a><br />Gorgeous layout in the front patio; I really should have also taken some shots of the inside of the store. The store is set out to give the staff heaps of room to work, but nonetheless looks beautiful. Great coffee offered in a number of brewing methods.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SiyluSL2ziI/AAAAAAAAAbM/kZeMDI-5tZc/s1600-h/Thunguri.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SiyluSL2ziI/AAAAAAAAAbM/kZeMDI-5tZc/s320/Thunguri.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344829072356068898" border="0" /></a><br />Kenya Thunguri brewed as a clover. An absolute stunner, in the league of the Mamuto. Personally, though, I find a whole mug of brewed coffee to be a bit of a hard slog. Not only is it a helluva lot of coffee, but it also takes forever to reach a nice drinking temperature. I much prefer BBB's way of brewing it into a pot and serving it with a small cup, which allows you to pour a small amount into the cup at a time in order to have it at the perfect drinking temperature.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siynihx5WmI/AAAAAAAAAbU/gMnI4MxzpYw/s1600-h/P1040312+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siynihx5WmI/AAAAAAAAAbU/gMnI4MxzpYw/s320/P1040312+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344831069406976610" border="0" /></a><br />We also took a trip to Venice Beach to see how the new store is progressing. It is going to be pretty phenomenal. I'm tipping this to become an iconic photo for the area once the sign is lit up.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Home Again</span><br /><br />Of course, there have been a lot of interesting things on at home, too. Looking back, I have actually done a heap of cuppings over the past few months. And good ones, too - good coffee, good roast levels, multiples of each sample.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siyw2ey-OvI/AAAAAAAAAbc/524S_bYVb_4/s1600-h/Cups.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siyw2ey-OvI/AAAAAAAAAbc/524S_bYVb_4/s320/Cups.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344841307808217842" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siyw2jCy8LI/AAAAAAAAAbk/5zhHiRMjC8g/s1600-h/Quality+Pour.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siyw2jCy8LI/AAAAAAAAAbk/5zhHiRMjC8g/s320/Quality+Pour.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344841308948328626" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siyw2tkxVEI/AAAAAAAAAbs/MvUakwtENeU/s1600-h/Paper+Cups.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Siyw2tkxVEI/AAAAAAAAAbs/MvUakwtENeU/s320/Paper+Cups.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344841311775183938" border="0" /></a><br />(Conclusion: you can't cup with paper cups. I'd better add cupping bowls to the shopping list.)<br /><br />I also feel that we're on the up-side of the Melbourne coffee cycle. Not only are we getting in a lot of new green coffee at the moment, but the cold weather allows for much better storage and ageing. I think that it will get better over the next few months as the stuff that is now new becomes an old acquaintance to the people roasting it, following which, as it starts to heat up several months down the track, things will start to decline. That said, there's every reason to be optimistic that the down side of the cycle won't be as bad as it has been in years past. For one thing, the past year seems to have seen a lot more competition come to the green coffee market, with a few Aussies starting up agencies for overseas importers. For another, I think that the better roasters are now starting to think about green storage and will be better able to manage their inventories towards the end of the year. The question is how much these best practices will actually spread; getting people to spend more time, money and effort on coffee is always an uphill battle. George Howell puts it very succinctly; to paraphrase him, good green storage only costs a few percent of the overall price - everyone in business believes in insurance, so why not pay the tiny amount for good green storage so that you don't end up having to try to sell green that has gone bad?<br /><br />Finally, I suppose that I should briefly mention Seven Seeds. I suspect that the guys probably want to keep it under wraps a bit so that they can have a slow start, but that's simply not going to happen. Needless to say, it is extremely well fitted out and there are a few really clever ideas that I'm sure will be copied, such as the nursery. Taking a walk around the green room is really quite confronting; there's a lot of very expensive and very good coffee in there. Frankly, this place has nearly everything to be one of the best coffee roasteries in the world. And I don't say that lightly.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-69968488893797999342009-04-27T21:52:00.004+10:002009-04-27T22:27:52.972+10:00USA Trip 09 - Days 9 Through Whatever ...<span style="font-weight: bold;">New York</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWdsAaM2kI/AAAAAAAAAZk/imS6fiy6qhs/s1600-h/P1040215+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWdsAaM2kI/AAAAAAAAAZk/imS6fiy6qhs/s320/P1040215+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329339113412549186" border="0" /></a><br />So after Coffeelab I didn't do too much coffee stuff in New York. Apparently there's stuff there that you can do other than coffee.<br /><br />I did make it down to Cafe Grumpy and 9th St Espresso. Grumpy delivered service true to its name and coffee true to its reputation. Everything seemed to be very driven by Ethiopian coffees; more stuff of the IMV Ilk. The espresso and clovers were pretty good, but I have to say that I found their in-your-face IMV type flavour to be rather unsatisfying after the balance of the espresso that Mane busted out on our last day at Coffeelab. Fantastic cappuccino at both Grumpy and 9th St, with Grumpy pulling off a rather amazing transmogrification as the berry flavour of their coffee gave way to dark choc in the last few sips. But what's with the milk? Coarse bubbles at both places.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">SCAA + Atlanta</span><br /><br />The Specialty Coffee Association of America Expo was always going to be jam packed ... add the World Barista Championships and it was a very, very, very packed few days ...<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">WBC</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWffenMLcI/AAAAAAAAAZs/yDEde8sHvN8/s1600-h/P1040224+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWffenMLcI/AAAAAAAAAZs/yDEde8sHvN8/s320/P1040224+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329341097205050818" border="0" /></a><br />Team Australia in their run through time; Tim, Wolffy and JP. I really wanted to spend more time with team Aussie and more time watching the WBC, but had too much stuff to try to squeeze in at the expo. In fact, I only ended up watching one performance - Mike Philips from the USA (who I thought definitely had a winning performance). Tim's run through went well; his espresso tasted really sweet and I can't wait to stream his performance, already knowing full well that he will have done us proud.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWffTFmoNI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/phowZMIs3BI/s1600-h/P1040225+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWffTFmoNI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/phowZMIs3BI/s320/P1040225+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329341094111387858" border="0" /></a><br />Grinders provided by Espresso Parts. Tshirts provided by latteart.net.au.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWffouxXyI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/KxrXdv4rRRQ/s1600-h/P1040226+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWffouxXyI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/KxrXdv4rRRQ/s320/P1040226+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329341099921202978" border="0" /></a>The WBC espresso bar; fancy being able to get great coffee at a barista competition!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Labs</span><br /><br />OK, so in a nutshell, I did four labs - two brewing labs and two farming labs. The farming labs were absolutely awesome, with some guys at the cutting edge taking us through all of the various processes and correlating the many goings on at the farm with the result in the cup. Money well spent.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Show Floor</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWff4g0FHI/AAAAAAAAAaM/U7WU-GyIZW4/s1600-h/P1040244+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWff4g0FHI/AAAAAAAAAaM/U7WU-GyIZW4/s320/P1040244+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329341104157627506" border="0" /></a><br />Me using the new time machine. At least I think it was a time machine; every time I came near it I lost half an hour!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWffkDHcWI/AAAAAAAAAaE/WhJJMBF17Mc/s1600-h/P1040238+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWffkDHcWI/AAAAAAAAAaE/WhJJMBF17Mc/s320/P1040238+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329341098664358242" border="0" /></a>The machine that everyone was talking about. Utterly amazing. Brew pressure profiling via a new lever group. Critics correctly point out that brew pressure profiling via a lever is impractical in a busy bar operation. Except when you can record the pressure profile and play it back! There were also a bunch of other cool things, including SS portafilters and teflon coated steam wands. I'll go out on a limb and say that I reckon this prototype is the best machine on the planet at the moment.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWj8wdC3NI/AAAAAAAAAac/klCdSBYKr5A/s1600-h/P1040254+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWj8wdC3NI/AAAAAAAAAac/klCdSBYKr5A/s320/P1040254+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329345998257052882" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWj8iegVQI/AAAAAAAAAaU/nnkGcGCqlp0/s1600-h/P1040245+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWj8iegVQI/AAAAAAAAAaU/nnkGcGCqlp0/s320/P1040245+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329345994505082114" border="0" /></a><br />You can get an idea of the front of the machine from the photos above.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWj87xuP5I/AAAAAAAAAak/AjM-yvjbMEs/s1600-h/P1040252+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SfWj87xuP5I/AAAAAAAAAak/AjM-yvjbMEs/s320/P1040252+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329346001296572306" border="0" /></a>LM are popular dudes. Every man and his dog gave them coffee.<br /><br />So how did the coffee taste? Pretty amazing.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-9673592948225516172009-04-09T10:07:00.003+10:002009-04-09T10:14:11.003+10:00USA Trip 2009 - Day 5Some images from Coffeelab for your viewing pleasure ...<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08jRCb5BI/AAAAAAAAAZc/RFdwsC7CiL4/s1600-h/P1040147.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322476911188501522" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08jRCb5BI/AAAAAAAAAZc/RFdwsC7CiL4/s320/P1040147.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><em>Jen grading coffee before passing it through the screens</em><br /><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08d3cGoRI/AAAAAAAAAZU/0XPkzpLDMng/s1600-h/P1040140.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322476818417492242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08d3cGoRI/AAAAAAAAAZU/0XPkzpLDMng/s320/P1040140.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><em>My coffee grading table</em><br /><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08d57hNII/AAAAAAAAAZM/bDBZ7Agvth0/s1600-h/P1040138.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322476819086128258" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08d57hNII/AAAAAAAAAZM/bDBZ7Agvth0/s320/P1040138.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><em>Aroma tests - note the red light; used during the aroma tests and triangle cuppings so that you can't tell the difference in the colours of the ground coffee, solutions, etc</em><br /><br /><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08d_dd5YI/AAAAAAAAAZE/U1Xz3MUBtLQ/s1600-h/P1040132.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322476820570695042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08d_dd5YI/AAAAAAAAAZE/U1Xz3MUBtLQ/s320/P1040132.JPG" border="0" /></a> </div><div><em>Mane pushes forward the odd one out - I think he got this one right</em><br /><div><br /><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08dtcqnmI/AAAAAAAAAY0/nClsAUAnmtA/s1600-h/P1040128.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322476815735496290" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sd08dtcqnmI/AAAAAAAAAY0/nClsAUAnmtA/s320/P1040128.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><em>Preparing for a regular cupping - an activity that takes place very quickly and efficiently with many people and Mane's awesome cupping lab</em><br /><br /><div>Today's Indonesian cupping featured a few pretty mindblowing coffees. Delicious.</div></div></div></div></div></div>Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-21903341410757201082009-04-07T12:24:00.006+10:002009-04-07T12:45:54.204+10:00USA Trip 2009 - Day 3A picture's worth a thousand words ...<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321773169818603346" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq8gII-D1I/AAAAAAAAAX8/6YIjUR_jDVg/s320/P1040101.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br />Mild, inoffensive. Surprisingly good, actually.<br /><div><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq8h_td6yI/AAAAAAAAAYc/gaJaUXtu45Y/s1600-h/P1040102.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321773201915505442" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq8h_td6yI/AAAAAAAAAYc/gaJaUXtu45Y/s320/P1040102.JPG" border="0" /></a>Gibraltar + Idido Misty Valley from the lever machine.<br /><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq8haX8ojI/AAAAAAAAAYU/Q-8qsHqiEa0/s1600-h/P1040107.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321773191893131826" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq8haX8ojI/AAAAAAAAAYU/Q-8qsHqiEa0/s320/P1040107.JPG" border="0" /></a> Pourover bar for Fleur.<br /><br /><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq8g7hoGmI/AAAAAAAAAYM/g5CAEhmNppE/s1600-h/P1040106.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321773183612230242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq8g7hoGmI/AAAAAAAAAYM/g5CAEhmNppE/s320/P1040106.JPG" border="0" /></a>Lever machine. Tasted like it burnt the coffee a bit, but, still, nice coffee.<br /><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq8gQNEP9I/AAAAAAAAAYE/wcuzhiXyrd0/s1600-h/P1040105.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321773171983269842" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq8gQNEP9I/AAAAAAAAAYE/wcuzhiXyrd0/s320/P1040105.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />Kyoto brewer + syphon bar.</div><div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321773565332690130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/Sdq83Ji4FNI/AAAAAAAAAYs/2bYdFs1SpuA/s320/P1040104.JPG" border="0" /><br />Syphon of the IMV.<br /><br /><div><div>Right, so great coffee from Blue Bottle, but missed out on Ritual. I am currently writing from Waterbury, Vermont, taking the Coffeelab course with Ben and Jen from Five Senses. One of the questions that I'm hoping to answer is exactly how much Australian coffee in general sucks compared with what's possible. The first day has proved to be a great calibration with the SCAA calibration form ... and I'm pretty zonked ...</div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-73597984888928358542009-03-31T21:36:00.002+11:002009-03-31T21:51:09.497+11:00SCAAExcuse the lameness of this post, but I just thought that I'd let y'all know that I'm off to Coffeelab, then to the SCAA conference and WBC. Agenda is as follows:<br /><br />Waterbury for Coffeelab<br />New York<br />Atlanta for SCAA/WBC<br />LA<br /><br />So get in touch if you'll be around for any of that.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-82568433030960639582009-03-09T17:01:00.005+11:002009-03-09T23:17:32.510+11:00MCM/Mercanta @ St Ali + More Ethiopian CrazinessFirst of all, let's just get this out of the way. In breaking news, Lloyds of London have insured a coffee taster's tongue for ten million pounds: <a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,25158666-20501,00.html">check it out</a>. Pretty cool stuff.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Enter MCM</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.melbournecoffeemerchants.com.au/">Melbourne Coffee Merchants</a> recently started trading as a green coffee importer that is the exclusive Australian agent for <a href="http://www.coffeehunter.com/">Mercanta</a>. Last week, Mercanta's MD, Stephen Hurst, visited the country to meet and greet. The whirlwind tour netted a fairly good <a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,25140734-36418,00.html">article in The Australian</a>, which is worth a quick skim.<br /><br />For me, the main event was the presentation by Stephen + cupping at St Ali. Not only has Stephen been running Mercanta for over a decade whilst being a Cup of Excellence board member, but before that he was a commodities trader specialising in coffee. Needless to say, it was a rare treat to be able to pick his brains on a wide number of topics.<br /><br />I guess that the elephant in the room, as always, was the issue of whether or not the public will actually respond to better coffee. Stephen painted a rather rosy picture of the possibilities of the market for high end coffee in Australia, which certainly made me feel a lot better about it. There are some truly spectacular coffees out there and, in an ideal world, I would really love to see Australian roasters shelling out for some truly spectacular lots and, by the same token, informed consumers demanding that roasters lift their game when they try to charge premium prices.<br /><br />One of the stats that came up in response to the aforementioned point was that Australia's per capita coffee consumption has room to expand, at least when compared with a number of other markets. Stephen was able to draw a number of links between countries with high per capita coffee consumption and the countries to which much of the better quality coffee in the world goes. It seems that quality drives increased consumption, so on the whole consumers do seem to be able to vote with their feet and tongues. Anecdotally, this fits perfectly with my experience - Maltitude constantly got busier and busier, with its neighbours selling less and less coffee. Once Cafenatics opened in Church Lane, Hydra across the street started to look almost empty in the mornings. BBB is constantly packed for coffee during the day, whilst other cafes stay empty. I also checked Michael Sivetz' book today and he mentioned the converse relationship - per capita coffee consumption dropped in the USA last century when a higher proportion of robusta was imported. When you consider that against backdrop of the lipstick index (ie. people buy more cheap treats in times of recession), there's definitely an argument that now is a good time to be a coffee roaster investing in great coffee. The question is, as always, how great? What level of awesomeness is worthwhile buying? I have my own thoughts on that, but I'd love to see some comments on it.<br /><br />Of course, as one would expect, the night also involved lots of interesting conversation about coffee sourcing and some interesting tastings. Steve from Hasbean in the UK did a great job roasting all the samples and there were definitely a few standouts that would be very interesting in an espresso-dominated market. I'm hoping that some people put their hands up to buy them. I also ended up walking away with a bunch of loot - leftover samples and a nice ceramic drip cone from Fleur @ MCM. These ceramic drip cones have the advantage of being non-porous, whereas my plastic ones are starting to get a little skanky after about a year's use.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SbUFdeSRCrI/AAAAAAAAAX0/5Vezrvk7fLE/s1600-h/P1040079+%28Medium%29.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SbUFdeSRCrI/AAAAAAAAAX0/5Vezrvk7fLE/s320/P1040079+%28Medium%29.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311157339457391282" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">More Ethiopian Craziness<br /><br /></span>I don't even know where to begin with this one; it's just so crazy. So apparently Ethiopia has passed legislation that mandates that all coffee sold in Ethiopia be identified by region. That's not a problem, except that it can <span style="font-style: italic;">only</span> be identified by region. This means that you won't know if you are buying IMV, Beloya, Aricha or total crap. No longer will you be able to get Sidamo Dale; it will all be called Sidamo. Now, you might still be able to pick the Dale or whatever out of the blind tasting lineup and bid for it at auction, but, obviously such a system makes it impossible to invest time, expertise, money and equipment back in the producers to get them producing the best quality stuff that they can for our consumption. In other words, we are potentially looking at the extinction of IMV, Beloya, Aricha, Shakiso, etc, as we know them. <br /><br />People on the ground have commented that they think that there will be some workaround. I certainly hope so. For the moment, though, the knee-jerk, seat of the pants legislation and regulation seems to be continuing. George Howell reported that it was mandated that some coffee that he was interested in be processed on the standard equipment in Addis, as opposed to the state of the art equipment that foreign buyers had invested in. The latest report is that coffee exporters have been told that they must sell all of their 2008 crop within a week. <br /><br />Craziness.<br /><br />I hope that the Ethiopian government is able to find a way through this, but, frankly, if this turns out to be a strategic attempt to focus on the lowest-common-denominator commodity crop dollar at the expense of the cutting edge of quality, I will not be buying Ethiopian coffee. After gorging myself on all of the super-duper stuff that I can get my hands on, that is!<br /><br />There's a workshop being run as part of the SCAA symposium on this issue and hopefully something will be done about it. I simply can't afford to go to the symposium, but there are some very talented folk going and I hope that they are able to sort out something sensible.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Esmeralda</span><br /><br />Finally, I'll just throw this out there: best Esmeralda through the clover ever at BBB last weekend. Apricot jam bombshell with powerful overtones of mandarin and bergamot. Superb.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-47928299282037795702009-02-06T18:46:00.008+11:002009-02-06T19:34:53.393+11:00The Big WeekendI spent last Thursday through Sunday at the Australian coffee championships weekend, so I suppose that I really ought to do a quick recap on this blog. Many of my regular readers were actually there, but for the benefit of the overseas guys, the non-coffee industry guys and the sorely missed Tony, here goes nothing ...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Before we begin</span><br /><br />We live in the communication age; this entry isn't here to reinvent the wheel, so you might want to refer to a few other sites as well.<br /><br />Video: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/gun-barista-challenge<br /><br />Photos: http://syd-low.com/09aascachamp<br /><br />Entry forms/rules: http://www.aasca.com/<br /><br />Barista comp rules: http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com<br /><br />Latte art rules: http://www.world-latteart-championship.com/<br /><br />Cup tasting rules: http://www.world-cuptasting-championship.com/<br /><br />Coffee 'n' booze rules: http://www.world-coffee-in-good-spirits-championship.com/<br /><br />... and also take a look at the gagillion blogs that will cover it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Introduction</span><br /><br />I guess that I have been around all of these competitions for so long that it's getting a bit ho-hum. Every year, the difference between first and second place shrinks and the overall standard improves. The change to the Nuova Simonelli machines from our beloved La Marzoccos might not have met with universal approval, but at least it shook things up. Meanwhile, everyone involved gets better and better at running these events every year, so it was set to be a good weekend.<br /><br />I lazed around the gold coast for half a day taking in some sun and polishing off a novel before Nim arrived and we checked in to our apartment. I owe Nim a great deal of thanks for organising a lot of the trip, including taking a whole bunch of coffee stuff in checked baggage so that I only had to worry about a backpack and suit bag. Thursday night was time for the judges' calibration and then a nice, overpriced, italian meal.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Barista Competition</span><br /><br />Three gruelling days and a lot of wonderful performances. I was privileged to sensory judge four competitors and walk away having enjoyed some very yummy espresso, indeed. I also got to be a timekeeper and see a number of performances close up, including that of the champ, Tim Adams. The competition keeps on getting better and better organised each year - check out the nifty AASCA branded stuff in the photo below! Major props to everyone involved, especially Emily Oak and Dave Makin.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvxlC_ukQI/AAAAAAAAAXA/6IbC-yJkuWw/s1600-h/AASCA+Gear.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvxlC_ukQI/AAAAAAAAAXA/6IbC-yJkuWw/s320/AASCA+Gear.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299595005293138178" border="0" /></a><br />Given that overseas competitors may be looking to this post, I'll make only general observations to preserve the competitive advantage of our guys overseas! There were a number of interesting labour, time and mess saving devices that were employed by most competitors and most competitors also realised that the competition can be won and lost on setup time. The transition to a more taste-focussed scoring system didn't really result in more informal and sloppy presentations, but it certainly did make it harder to work out how well people had done if you were anyone other than a sensory judge. I suppose that the most valuable information as a spectator came from watching the pours very closely; generally speaking, the kinds of pours that the simonellis favour seemed to do well and the kinds that the simonelli punishes were presumably also punished on the sensory score sheets. The new format requires the competitors to prove themselves in an additional semi-final and most of the competitors whose performances I watched - fewer than I would have liked - delivered strong, polished performances on both days. For this reason, I suspect that some competitors may have found that their coffee peaked on one day and died the next.<br /><br />Tim delivered an amazing performance on the day and before the results were announced, the phrase 'dark horse' followed his names in many of the 'whaddayareckon' conversations that I had. As Wolffy said, Tim really put the work in himself to win this competition. I hope very much that all Australian competitors will volunteer to lend a hand for his WBC training.<br /><br />At this point, I'll just pause to mention a dilemma that I face in writing this post - there are lots and lots of competitors and volunteers whose efforts I would like to praise or point out. Too many. Unfortunately, the only thing that I can think of doing is just listing a few and not mentioning others - so please don't take offence if I haven't mentioned you here.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Latte Art</span><br /><br />I think that the past three Australian world championship victories have really increased the seriousness with which people take this competition. Consequently, the audience seemed to be pretty tense and on the edge of their seats for both the opens and the finals. I had to laugh when Will from Maling Room beat both Habib and Kirby to win the opens by pouring a pacman eating a ghost, given that I got laughed off the machine with my attempt at the same thing a few months ago at the caffenatics competition ... might have been something to do with my crappy latte art skills. Nonetheless, given that I can't find the ustream vids of the latte art comp, I'll post up a crappy attempt here:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvvmoMGa0I/AAAAAAAAAWo/_Hlc90N5RFE/s1600-h/Pacman.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvvmoMGa0I/AAAAAAAAAWo/_Hlc90N5RFE/s320/Pacman.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299592833433758530" border="0" /></a><br />Kirby and Habib were both on 23 points in the open, so there was a countback. This only makes sense if you understand how the latte art comp works; you are scored for various categories, then the scores from those categories are matched up to a band. The points listed in that band are added together to give you the final score. So the countback procedure for breaking ties is the addition of the raw scores, rather than the scores in each band. Confusing? Read the score sheets!<br /><br />Anyhoo, the finals were a clash of the titans, with Erin and Habib on the same number of points and spectators biting their nails as the countback procedure was used. Erin was eventually declared the champ by 8 points after countback to be immediately congratulated by Habib. Given the amount of training that Erin has put into the various comps over the years, I think that we have a great chance at this year's WLAC.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Coffee 'n' Booze (Coffee In Good Spirits)</span><br /><br />I didn't really watch too much of this, but was amused to find out that Kirby had won. Kirby was a late substitution for another competitor and put her routine together in the 45 minutes before the competition, with the help of CS member Mark!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cup Tasting (Cupping)</span><br /><br />OK, so if you have never seen a cupping competition before, you should know that it is an awesome competition to watch. This is what it looks like from the audience's perspective:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvwXw9LscI/AAAAAAAAAWw/XIS-f_CAtA0/s1600-h/Cup+Tasting+Competition.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvwXw9LscI/AAAAAAAAAWw/XIS-f_CAtA0/s320/Cup+Tasting+Competition.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299593677600698818" border="0" /></a><br />24 cups of filter brewed coffee are placed on the table. These are divided into 8 groups comprising two cups of one coffee and one cup of another. The competitors' task is to taste through all of them and pick the odd one out. The cups are then emptied and the bottoms of the cups selected are revealed to the audience to see if they have been marked as the odd ones out. Though it takes a few hours of coffee grinding and brewing and many volunteers to set up the competition, it is done and dusted in a matter of minutes. Dave Makin had cleverly worked out the dimensions of the stage so that a whopping six people could compete at a time. The videos should be pretty good; I loved the soundtrack for the first open heat!<br /><br />Anyhoo, I originally started competing in these comps because the game plan was always to keep in touch with the coffee industry by setting up a coffee review (<a href="http://coffeereviewaustralia.com/" target="_blank">http://coffeereviewaustralia.com/</a>) and I wanted to see if I could have some objective measure of credibility. I haven't yet managed to win one yet, but I have had an irritating five podium finishes. Nim and I did a bit of training for the event and I was very proud to see him win the open heat, though I probably wouldn't have minded if I had come first and him second ;P<br />As for the finals; fantastic performance by Ben nailing 8/8 within cooee of Casper's time last year! Ben finished a few seconds faster than me, so the competition was clearly over before my last cup was revealed. Nonetheless, I'm glad that Ben and I were able to keep the revealing of the cups interesting until the end! A big thankyou to Mick Kiely for roasting and brewing the coffee - no small undertaking.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvwiETtd1I/AAAAAAAAAW4/dL9FJoYpwT4/s1600-h/Cup+Tasting+Trophy.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvwiETtd1I/AAAAAAAAAW4/dL9FJoYpwT4/s320/Cup+Tasting+Trophy.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299593854594152274" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Rest</span><br /><br />Other than the competition, the whole weekend was absolutely frenetic. Nim and I thought that we could save some cash by cooking at the apartment that we booked -- wrong; we didn't even have time to buy groceries!<br /><br />The guys from BeanScene seemed to really get behind the event; they printed a bunch of rather nifty stickers and programs for AASCA <a href="http://www.aasca.org.au/" target="_blank" title="Aust. Specialty Coffee Ass."><span style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;color:orange;" ></span></a>and I think that they even delayed printing the bulk of the magazines to do so. It was a shame that Steve was sick, but Brad and John seemed to really get into the whole event. The magazine looked fantastic, but I haven't been able to read it yet.<br /><br />The coffee companies exhibiting at the show put all other food shows that I have been to to shame; it was utterly ludicrous to be able to get excellent coffee at a trade show ... that doesn't even happen at so-called coffee festivals! I walked over to Campos and got a shot from John Ronchi, JP at Veneziano and Anne Cooper at Di Bella ... craaazy stuff. A big thankyou to Di Bella for the book and t-shirt, Campos, Veneziano and Emanuele from ristretto for the coffee beans.<br /><br />A nice highlight was eating out each night with a bunch of cool people from around Australia - so much for saving money by getting a serviced apartment!<br /><br />Unfortunately I had booked flights home on the assumption that I would be needed at work on Monday, so I missed out on the afterparty and the trips to Mountain Top, but overall it was a great weekend.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvynz-izXI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/-JiNv_OOsWE/s1600-h/Veneziano.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvynz-izXI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/-JiNv_OOsWE/s320/Veneziano.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299596152312876402" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Veneziano Booth: A bunch of awesome baristas kick it on the Synchro.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvyj7L1ExI/AAAAAAAAAXI/kUZxK7lldGo/s1600-h/Campos.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SYvyj7L1ExI/AAAAAAAAAXI/kUZxK7lldGo/s320/Campos.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299596085528171282" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Campos booth: John Ronchi and Co keep deliciousness flowing with two lineas. No photos of the Di Bella booth, unfortunately.</span>Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-41820719771114167112009-01-19T23:08:00.006+11:002009-01-19T23:46:51.845+11:00Comfort FoodThings are pretty stressful at the moment, what with the "GFC" (as the knobs that use TLAs call it), general uncertainty over what this year will hold and bad vibes hanging over from the holidays (yes, I'm a bit of a grinch). The last thing that I needed was for my espresso machine to break down. My fault, really; I always say that pressurestats should be regarded as disposable parts and I didn't have a spare on hand. My <a href="http://www.makinespresso.com.au/">friendly local supplier</a> had a spare sitting around for me, but, of course, in a spectacular convergence of bad luck, inattention and stupidity, I managed to over-tighten the nut and break the fitting, which fit in nicely with my shocker of a week last week. Fortunately, it was Makin to the rescue again, cannibalising a spare machine to give me yet another part for what would otherwise be a two and a half grand paperweight.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SXRw7DXA3LI/AAAAAAAAAWM/F4FRyys0cPw/s1600-h/Inside.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SXRw7DXA3LI/AAAAAAAAAWM/F4FRyys0cPw/s320/Inside.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292979621883600050" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">I can only presume that <a href="http://images.google.com.au/images?q=mc%20escher&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi">MC Escher</a> started drawing as a way of making notes on an espresso machine that he had dismantled.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Seriously, though, it doesn't get much easier than this.</span><br /><br />I knew the instant that I perambulated over to the machine this morning that my luck had changed. I love most forms of coffee and have been enjoying heaps of brewed coffee of late, but it's easy to <a href="http://coffeereviewaustralia.com/2008/12/29/kenyan-coffee/">over-analyse</a>. Cappuccino is a totally unique form of coffee; comfort food for any barista. There's something soothing about taking five minutes out to make a cappuccino, half-asleep, with brain still in the 'off' position as your arm rocks back and forward in a pattern rehearsed a million times. No need to try and sort out malic acid from lactic, TDS 1.2% from TDS 1.4%, atitlan from huehuetenango. No need to think about who I need to chase up about what. For a few minutes, I just sit back and enjoy the warm, chocolatey foam and pretty pictures.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SXR0X2pYWyI/AAAAAAAAAWU/Wyh5rYleIxE/s1600-h/Cap.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SXR0X2pYWyI/AAAAAAAAAWU/Wyh5rYleIxE/s320/Cap.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292983415222065954" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Come to think of it, there's something oddly soothing about late-night blogging, watching with amusement as my stream of consciousness sprawls, whilst my sentences grow ... and grow ... and grow, attaining nightmarish numbers of commas (and, let's not forget, the occasional parenthesis) ... damn I need a cappuccino!</span>Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-44481127151777849722009-01-09T23:54:00.003+11:002009-01-10T00:20:10.247+11:00Is the cafe's decor 'distressed,' or ought I be as a customer?So Melbourne has developed a rather cool style of cafe that I guess you would call 'distressed.' You know the kind; heaps of recycled timber furniture, exposed brick, chipped paint, concrete floors, big old communal table; that kind of thing. A lot of places carry it off well. Really well. See: BBB, St Ali, Auction Roooms, for example. Props to MD for making it cool at his bar. The question is where, exactly, does 'distressed' become dilapidated?<br /><br />I think that I found the answer earlier in the week. I turned up to a cafe that shall remain nameless and ordered a coffee; to give the barista a bit of slack, I even ordered a milk-based drink. I went to help myself to a glass of water and noticed that the cheapass duralex glasses were utterly filthy, with so many scratches that they started to move beyond being beaten up and towards almost looking like they had been scratched in a regular pattern. As I tilted the glass to take a drink, the light caught it and I noticed a definite brown tint and some dried milk stains on it. These glasses had clearly been in the game for several years and had clearly never been looked after. I looked around the cafe and it continued the theme. The floor was filthy, the glass cabinets scratched and the wall speckled with milk spittle. Finally, my coffee arrived, with an extra helping of attitude. I took two sips. It was ashy and acrid. I got up to pay for the coffee and leave. $3.50. Tightarses always try to gouge that extra thirty or forty cents out of you, but refusing to spend fifty or sixty cents on new duralex glasses every now and then really is going above and beyond.<br /><br />You know, I'll go to pretty much any cafe if the coffee is decent, but in this case, I don't see the maths working out:<br /><br />Undrinkable coffee + unpleasant staff + unhygenic glassware + dirty surrounds = premium price?<br /><br />An extreme example, to be sure, but at least I have established my own answer to the difference between distressed and dilapidated. Clearly, though, the market thought otherwise - the place was packed.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-24169197806040508942009-01-04T22:24:00.003+11:002009-01-04T23:04:03.072+11:00HumbugWith some of the coffee that I had bought to tide me over Xmas turning out to be quite bad, it was out with the heat gun and dog bowl again for laughs. I home roast every now and then and can't really profess to have had great results, though I imagine that if I were to invest some serious time in it, I'd get there.<br /><br />The half dozen batches that I have had varied from garbage to acceptable, due to a combination of bad technique and bad beans in my stash. The sometimes-maligned Nicaraguan Maragogype from ARC that I won in the Victorian Cupping Competition turned out to be the pick of the lot; not a complex coffee, but definitely soft, smooth and sweet as a brewed cup. In the past, it has been nutty and mild as an espresso, but my machine has been disused for the past few weeks. <br /><br />I will keep on experimenting for my own amusement and education, but will likely try to scam my way on to some commercial equipment, which I have found easier to handle in the past.<br /><br />In the meantime, I continue to appreciate the hard work that my favourite roasters put in to their green selection. I bet that if you were to walk in to any roastery and check out their stash you would actually have a fair idea of how cluey the roaster is.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SWClHQ9bb8I/AAAAAAAAAWE/ICav9l06vBk/s1600-h/blingbowl.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SWClHQ9bb8I/AAAAAAAAAWE/ICav9l06vBk/s320/blingbowl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287407506763247554" border="0" /></a>Perhaps my dog bowl just doesn't have enough carats ...Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-84523900002266095382008-12-22T17:43:00.006+11:002008-12-22T23:59:05.030+11:00Books, books and booksA quick roundup of some of the coffee books that I have read this year:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.professionalbaristashandbook.com/scott-rao.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Professional Barista's Handbook, Scott Rao</span></a><br /><br />This book was the inspiration for this post; Shaughan from <a href="http://www.fivesensescoffee.com.au/">Five Senses</a> kindly sent me a copy of this book to get my opinion on it. So if you want to buy this book as a result of this blog post, kindly point your web browser <a href="http://www.fivesensescoffee.com.au/shop/associated-products/category/barista-resources/the-professional-barista-handbook">here</a>!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.professionalbaristashandbook.com/images/professional-barista-handook.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 293px; height: 422px;" src="http://www.professionalbaristashandbook.com/images/professional-barista-handook.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Scott Rao is clearly a gifted trainer; <a href="http://www.home-barista.com/tips/learning-latte-art-with-steamed-soapy-water-t7248.html">watch this clip</a> to see him teach a total newbie how to steam milk and pour latte art in ten minutes. Rao has some rather cool innovations, such as a cheap way of leaning to steam milk (watch the video) and a clever way of affixing thermometers to milk jugs (buy the book). Rao is also not above making reference to the work of others, and it is this that raises Rao's book above being just another training book. The concise and snappy description of the espresso process makes the thinking of the likes of Schecter, Schulman and Petracco - to name a few - accessible to people who don't want to wade through the original articles. The book also includes thoughtful chapters on drip coffee (bulk brew), french press, water and tea. Extracts from the book are available to sample <a href="http://www.professionalbaristashandbook.com/sample-pages.html">on Rao's site</a> and <a href="http://www.home-barista.com/professional-baristas-handbook.html">on H-B</a>.<br /><br />Rao's book has received a lot of praise, but little attention has been brought to its shortcomings. The two most glaring omissions are cleaning and the relative contributions of the factors covered (eg. maybe using one group at a time results in a marginally better shot, but is this book seriously advocating that one should never use more than one group at a time on their cafe's three group machine?). The chapter on science and theory of espresso extraction is interesting, but not ultimately useful in terms of improving the quality of your cup. A better inclusion would have been some more extensive data on how grind, dose and brew temperature can be manipulated to change results in the cup -- such knowledge currently resides only in the heads of experienced baristi.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it:</span> People who want the steps to great espresso laid out in a concise, succinct and comprehensive manner.<br /><a href="http://www.espressoquest.com/"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Espresso Quest, Instaurator</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://www.espressoquest.com/images/bookMedium.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 229px; height: 312px;" src="https://www.espressoquest.com/images/bookMedium.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Inny's book is an engaging narrative that takes the reader through some of his experiences over twenty or thirty years in the espresso game. The book makes no pretences towards being an exclusive reference on any of the topic covered, but it does provide a lot of interesting information that might otherwise be hidden from the coffee consumer. Stellar photography paired with engaging narrative.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it:</span> Anyone who is interested in the coffee industry and, in particular, the Australian espresso scene.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">God in a Cup</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/godincup.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 231px; height: 350px;" src="http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/godincup.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Apparently both this book and Espresso Quest shared the same title; Weissman's book beat Inny's to the presses by half a length, so the title of Espresso Quest was changed. Weissman brings both the skills and ethics of a professional journalist to bear in writing this impressive book. Set out in novel style, the book chronicles Weissman's immersion in coffee culture as an outsider meeting some of the US's great roasters and travelling to origin. Panama Hacienda la Esmeralda features heavily in the book and I can say from experience that coffee nuts will enjoy reading this book with a cup of that coffee in hand! This book is highly US-centric, as one would expect, and that perhaps makes it an even better read for an Australian audience. You can listen to an interview with the author in <a href="http://coffeegeek.com/forums/articles/podcasts/371210">CG podcast #62</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it:</span> Anyone who is interested in what goes on behind the scenes in bringing a cup of coffee to the table.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.scaa.org/shop/product_detail.asp?productid=R200100"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Coffee Cupper's Handbook, Ted Lingle</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.scaa.org/shop/images/products/H201.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 164px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.scaa.org/shop/images/products/H201.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />This is a 'must have' for anyone who cups on any semi-serious level. I would be shocked - shocked - if anyone who purported to call themselves a professional roaster did not own a copy of this book.<br /><br />The book itself is unashamedly technical and dry. It isn't a thrilling read, nor does it have Promethean tendencies to illuminate the art, but it does make for an extremely useable reference.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it:</span> Serious cuppers. And, to borrow a phrase from Derryn Hinch, if you call yourself a professional roaster and you don't own a copy - shame, shame, shame.<br /><br /><a href="http://members.scaa.org/store/default.aspx"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Coffee Technology, 2nd Edition, Sivetz et. al.</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://scaa.org/shop/images/products/R1020.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 349px;" src="http://scaa.org/shop/images/products/R1020.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>Published in the 1970s, from memory, this unashamedly dense and technical book is still ahead of the curve. Coffee enthusiasts and professionals constantly lament that 'someone should do a technical study on' the differences in packaging, effects of certain factors on roast, etc, etc. I haven't yet devoured the entire tome, but I would not be surprised if many of the questions facing the current crop of specialty coffee professionals aren't addressed to some extent in this book.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it:</span> Professional coffee roasters.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.espressomadeinitaly.com/en/enrico_maltoni/index.asp"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Espresso Made in Italy 1901-1962, Enrico Maltoni</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.espressomadeinitaly.com/graphics/negozio-libro-mini.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 259px;" src="http://www.espressomadeinitaly.com/graphics/negozio-libro-mini.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>Enrico Maltoni has what must surely be the most jaw-droppingly awesome collection of perfectly restored vintage espresso machines in the world. This bilingual book is light on words, but heavy on photos. For the price, though, buyers should beware that it is soft cover.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it: </span>Vintage espresso nuts.<br /><a href="http://www.lamarzocco.it/lmeshop/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=44"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">La Marzocco History, Piero Bambi</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lamarzocco.it/lmeshop/images/la_marzocco_products/Y-020-H.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 410px; height: 512px;" src="http://www.lamarzocco.it/lmeshop/images/la_marzocco_products/Y-020-H.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Ron Cook kindly gave me a copy of this book when I made the pilgrimage to the factory in Florence a few years back. This bilingual book is a surprisingly great read, giving some insight into what it was like to be in the business of espresso machine manufacture in the early days.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it:</span> Serious La Marzocco nuts.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lamarzocco.it/lmeshop/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=66"><span style="font-weight: bold;">La Marzocco 80th Anniversary Collection Book, La Marzocco</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lamarzocco.it/lmeshop/images/la_marzocco_products/Y.020-80.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 427px;" src="http://www.lamarzocco.it/lmeshop/images/la_marzocco_products/Y.020-80.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />This is La Marzocco's equivalent of the Maltoni book; gorgeous photos, light on text, but hardcover. The photos are also available in the <a href="http://www.lamarzocco.it/lmeshop/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=65">80th anniversary poster set</a> and I put many of them up behind the bookshelves at First Pour, Melbourne.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it:</span> La Marzocco and vintage espresso machine tragics. (If you're putting in an order on the LM E-Shop, please let me know - I'd like to get some stuff, but am too stingy to do it without splitting postage!)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hacienda La Minita, Bill McAlpin</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.terroircoffee.com/images/CoffeeBookmd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://www.terroircoffee.com/images/CoffeeBookmd.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />This book has some great photography from the famed <a href="http://www.laminita.com/">Hacienda La Minita</a> in Costa Rica, together with a few speeches from the farm's owner, Bill McAlpin.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it:</span> A coffee table book for coffee enthusiasts.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Connecting Worlds - The Coffee Trail, Olaf Hammelburg</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.terroircoffee.com/images/FOTO_BOOK_THECOFFEETRAIL.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 208px; height: 250px;" src="http://www.terroircoffee.com/images/FOTO_BOOK_THECOFFEETRAIL.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Another book with fantastic photography and relatively little text; this one follows Peruvian coffee from seed to cup, from Peru to the USA and Canada.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who should buy it:</span> People who like great coffee related photography.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-51020116570971725732008-12-11T22:58:00.003+11:002008-12-11T23:23:11.508+11:00Not raining ... pouring!Regular readers will notice that I sometimes go through droughts in which I haven't tasted much worth mentioning. Well, the last week has been the reverse. Let's skim over it:<br /><br />Brewed coffee:<br /><br />Kenya Gethumbwini from Hazel: Grapefruit, creamy mouthfeel, dry.<br /><br />Kenya Kitamaiyu from the Source: Tea, lemon sherbet.<br /><br />Kenya Muchoki Peaberry from Square Mile: Crisp, strawberry, citrus.<br /><br />Esmeralda from BBB: Mark NAILS the roast and it actually lives up to all of the ludicrous overseas tasting notes; floral, perfumed, peach ... can't even remember what it tasted like ... it just threw everything at us and stood out in the blind cupping by a mile.<br /><br />Dale Sidamo from BBB: Peach, from memory.<br /><br />Nicaraguan Natural from BBB: As always, mega clean coffee with natural process blueberry superimposed on top of it.<br /><br />Espresso:<br /><br />Kopi Luwak from Instaurator: Can't remember in much detail, but it was pretty ordinary, at best.<br /><br />Devon Estate SL-795 from Instaurator (the monkey picked coffee): Black pepper up front, quite heavy in body, whilst it had a fair bit of acidity at the same time. Very heavy in body at the bottom of the cup ... wonder if the monkey spit was still left on it. A number of us agreed that the espresso machine must have been running cold, though. (Inny had gotten ECA to send down a Giotto Premium Plus for the event, as he isn't a fan of LM/Synesso ... ironically, I suspect that we could have gotten a lot more out of the coffee on the Synesso ... should've mentioned it whilst we were there. Actually, Inny had bought some new mountain top down to feed the Synesso ... totally didn't twig that it was there and taste it. Damn.)<br /><br />... so that's ... like ... seven pretty good coffees in less than a week ... craaazy ...<br /><br />I have to say that I feel almost swindled by the Kenyan coffees that I have tried this year. The stereotypical and much loved berry flavours seem to have been transmogrified into crisp citrus flavours in practically everything. Still some great coffee, to be sure, but I'm still hoping to get something in the same genre as the Mamuto, let alone in the same ballpark taste-wise. Anyhoo, this will be the subject of the first article on my new web page and I'll probably syndicate that to the new mag that's being launched.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-65446485367277042822008-11-30T18:06:00.008+11:002008-11-30T21:28:16.866+11:00November Grab Bab: Midali Espresso, Cafenatics Opening, BBB Insider<span style="font-weight: bold;">Cafe Reviews And This Blog</span><br /><br />My avid readers will note that this blog is all about coffee, but seldom contains cafe reviews. There are two main reasons for this. First, I have a greater interest in exploring <span style="font-style: italic;">coffee</span> than in exploring <span style="font-style: italic;">cafes</span> - to some extent, I view the latter as a way to do the former. In this regard, I think that it's a bit of a misnomer that in Australia <span style="font-style: italic;">cafe</span> reviews invariably use the word <span style="font-style: italic;">coffee</span> to describe their subject matter: eg. <a href="http://www.melbournecoffeereview.com/">one</a>, <a href="http://www.thecoffeeguide.com.au/products.php?id=5">two</a>, <a href="http://www.aromacoffeereview.com/review_browse.php?Order=review.OverallRating&Asc=&Select=All">three</a> cf. <a href="http://www.coffeereview.com/">overseas</a>. Before Steve Agi and co hasten to break my legs, I should point out that this has nothing to do with the usefulness or lack thereof of those sites; just pointing out that <span style="font-style: italic;">cafe</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">coffee </span>are not synonymous. Second, I prefer to leave it to others, given that any sort of online review seems to have a relatively strong impact on cafe owners, regardless of what they may say.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Breaking With Tradition</span><br /><br />On Friday I decided to take a trip to Carlisle St to replenish my dwindling stock of filter papers at <a href="http://www.coffeecompany.com.au/">Coffee Company</a>. Carlisle St has long been regarded as one of Melbourne's coffee hot spots, so I decided to celebrate completing my final exam by gorging myself on espresso from four of the spots that are commonly mentioned as having a decent reputation. In some respects, it was a nice wake-up call. Enthusiastic coffee dudes world over state as a matter of pride that they make better coffee at home than they can get at most cafes. My experience has usually been that the bulk of cafes that I go to produce coffee on par with, or better than, what I produce at home. Of course, I'm pretty selective in the cafes that I go to. I don't want to single out any cafes in particular, but I have to say that I wasn't overwhelmed with the quality of what I was served.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJgXscobUI/AAAAAAAAAVc/pKE0pps_3oY/s1600-h/Midali.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJgXscobUI/AAAAAAAAAVc/pKE0pps_3oY/s320/Midali.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274384073788779842" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I do think that it's legit to point out cafes that are doing a good job, so check out <a href="http://www.midali.com.au/">Midali Espresso</a>. I had an espresso that was reasonably short, had a lot of body and was very sweet. Sweetness is always the hardest thing to get into the cup, so big props to them. I have no doubt that this will be a fantastic base for their milk drinks, as a few cognoscenti have confirmed. My pick of Carlisle Street.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Unstoppable?</span><br /><br />A big thankyou to <a href="http://www.cafenatics.net/">Cafenatics</a> for hosting a barista jam by way of launching their fifth store, at QV. Cafenatics head honcho Joseph brings a great laid-back sense of humor to the Melbourne coffee scene and it was nice of Cafenatics to host an event where the usual suspects got a chance to chill out and enjoy some coffee together. There were cameras-a-plenty, so I didn't bother to take photos of the latte art smackdown - I'm sure that Simon or Amy will oblige in good time. Save to say that Toshi's triple rosetta beat my pacman eating little white dot to take the trophy.<br /><br />A few photos:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJi_8rpfNI/AAAAAAAAAV8/7uSQYz0zkEg/s1600-h/Joseph+Pours.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJi_8rpfNI/AAAAAAAAAV8/7uSQYz0zkEg/s320/Joseph+Pours.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274386964364754130" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Joseph pours, surrounded by smackdown participants.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJisRFQedI/AAAAAAAAAVs/3YSkO9n2Vn4/s1600-h/Machines.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJisRFQedI/AAAAAAAAAVs/3YSkO9n2Vn4/s320/Machines.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274386626243492306" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">We decide that it's better to have a FB80 on the bench than a cash register.</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJilhrj1uI/AAAAAAAAAVk/vRnE40bAu38/s1600-h/Vase.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 180px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJilhrj1uI/AAAAAAAAAVk/vRnE40bAu38/s320/Vase.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274386510440027874" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Simon asks Joseph if he can borrow his vase for a barista competition.</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJiyWxClZI/AAAAAAAAAV0/oYbApPWl87M/s1600-h/RB.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/STJiyWxClZI/AAAAAAAAAV0/oYbApPWl87M/s320/RB.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274386730848523666" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I finish up the day up one <a href="http://www.coffeetamper.com">Reg Barber tamper</a> - thanks!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Coffee?</span><br /><br />Just a quick note, for readers who would otherwise be disappointed in this post. Saturday saw an extraordinary cupping lineup at <a href="http://www.brotherbababudan.com.au/">BBB</a>, with <a href="http://www.cupofexcellence.org/CountryPrograms/Rwanda/2008Program/AuctionResults/tabid/591/ctl/FarmDetails/mid/936/ItemID/1058/Default.aspx">Rwanda CoE #13</a> (think the number is right) stealing the show, for me. Many of the new Rwandan coffee farms have been set up with the Bourbon varietal, which is particularly well suited to espresso. CoE #13 did not disappoint in this regard; it was heavy in body and very sweet. With the $AUD tanking against the $USD, which I understand to be the default currency of the global coffee market, I expect that this one will not come cheap. But boy do I expect that it will be worth it!<br /><br />I get the impression that coffee that makes phenomenal espresso doesn't cup up as extraordinary; it's necessary to do some work to figure out how the flavours in cupping will translate to the espresso cup. Hence, the <a href="http://www.haciendaesmeralda.com/">Esmeralda</a> and the washed and natural Sidamos were probably more exciting on the cupping table. I'm pleased to say that BBB's Esmeralda seems to be closer to the <a href="http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2007/09/hacienda-la-esmeralda-especial.html">2007 Paradise roast</a> that I had than the <a href="http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2008/08/emerald-in-coffeebloggospheres-crown-or.html">2008 Terroir roast</a>, although the mandarin flavour of yore emerged closer to orange. The sample roast might have been a tad dark, illustrating the importance of sample roasting and cupping to any commercial roastery; no doubt MD will be on top of this tricky bean for production roasts. The Sidamos were an interesting lot; from memory both were from Dale, the difference being that one was natural and one was washed. I liked the washed Dale, which, I seem to remember, was pretty sweet and tasted of peach. Dale + Esmeralda for drip, anyone? The natural Dale superimposed your standard natural blueberry on top of it, with a touch of quinine. I imagine that people will be interested to try the natural and washed head to head.<br /><br />Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about BBB's offerings and I continue to be astounded that (a) they offer their cuppings for free and (b) relatively few people turn up.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-52904140872099138682008-11-16T18:07:00.014+11:002008-11-17T19:59:40.688+11:00Golden Beaches, BeansAs I alluded to <a href="http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2008/11/november-events.html">last entry</a>, I headed up to Port Macquarie for the <a href="http://www.cafebiz.net/page/equal_golden_bean.html">Equal Golden Bean</a> coffee roasters' competition and conference over the weekend, run by <a href="http://www.cafebiz.net/">CafeBiz</a>. Day one comprised a number of workshops run by various industry types and the actual competition took place on the second day.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day One</span><br /><br />Unfortunately, disaster struck a number of the initially scheduled speakers. My condolences and well wishes, as appropriate, go out to <a href="http://www.tobysestate.com.au/">Toby Smith</a>, <a href="http://www.dibellacoffee.com.au/">Phil Di Bella</a> and <a href="http://www.hab.com.au/">Scottie Bennett</a>, whose sessions I was looking forward to. Fortunately, a number of other speakers were able to take their places and day one ran smoothly.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Session One - Visiting Origins - Ross Bright - </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.spinellicoffee.com/">Spinelli Coffee, Singapore</a><br /><br />My flight arrived at around 10, so I missed Ross' session, finding out to my chagrin that it was very well researched and contained a bunch of great video footage. It was great to have a bit of a chat with Ross and Ibrahim from <a href="http://www.berocoffee.com.sg/home">Bero Coffee</a> during the weekend. There's certainly a tremendous amount of stuff happening origin-side to learn about. We agreed that developing greater understanding of what happens to coffee at both extremes of the supply chain amongst both industry consumers (ie. roasters, baristi) and industry suppliers (ie. farmers, buyers, brokers) is key to increasing the quality of specialty coffee available in the market. This is especially true for espresso, for which green coffee with different attributes to coffee bound for filter use may be desirable. Ross hopes to make some interesting origin-side video footage available to the public at some stage or other.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Session Two - Agtron Roasting - Mick Kielty - <a href="http://www.michels.com.au/pages/espresso/index.htm">Michel's Espresso</a></span><a href="http://www.michels.com.au/pages/espresso/index.htm"><br /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEWs8FXHhI/AAAAAAAAAUU/ntlucHtav60/s1600-h/Micktron.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEWs8FXHhI/AAAAAAAAAUU/ntlucHtav60/s320/Micktron.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269518000298860050" border="0" /></a><br />I came in half-way through Mick's session, to a room full of engrossed roasters. Mick had brought in an <a href="http://www.agtron.net/Coffee1.html">Agtron abridged spectrophotometer</a> and explained how it could be used to maintain coffee quality in a commercial roastery. I gather that the Agtron gives a reading that basically tells you what colour the coffee is, but it's actually a measure of the absorbance of some organic compounds in the coffee - Mick mentioned quinones - that correlates with the progression of the roast. When asked how much an Agtron costs, Mick said that he wasn't sure. The crowd chimed in that they thought they were around $20K, to which Mick replied "Oh, I probably shouldn't have just chucked it in the boot without a box, then."<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Session Three - Global Trends in Specialty Coffee - Oliver Broster - <a href="http://www.berocoffeejapan.com/home">Bero Coffee Japan</a> and <a href="http://www.berocoffee.com.sg/home">Singapore</a></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEaW-9o7OI/AAAAAAAAAUc/iWpQWo1SsiI/s1600-h/Oliver+Bero+Coffee.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEaW-9o7OI/AAAAAAAAAUc/iWpQWo1SsiI/s320/Oliver+Bero+Coffee.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269522021161168098" border="0" /></a><br />Oliver is the MD of two subsidiaries of the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe. In 2007, NKG handled <a href="http://www.nkg.net/aboutus/factsandfigures">7% of global coffee exports and 15% of global coffee imports</a>. NKG does not operate in Australia, but supplies quite a lot of coffee in Singapore and Japan.<br /><br />Oliver explained that there are a lot of difficulties in gathering information on the coffee trade, but nonetheless was able to deliver some very interesting statistics, courtesy of NKG's dedicated <a href="http://www.nkgstat.com/the_group">statistical unit</a>. There were a number of interesting statistics, from memory, I think that Australia consumes about 0.7% of the 2008 coffee production. For reference, Nestle Japan will consume about 1.2%! The various coffee certifications represent an extremely small proportion of all coffee traded, but demand has been increasing quite a lot over the past few years. If you want more info - go to the conference!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Session Four - Installing and Maintaining Your Roaster - Greg Clubb (did I spell that right?) - <a href="http://www.appliancemaintenance.com.au/">Appliance Maintenance Company</a></span><br /><br />Greg stepped up at the last minute to run a session instead of Scott Bennett. Greg covered a number of technicalities involved in installing and maintaining a coffee roaster, which turned out to be of great interest to the many roasters around. Topics included how to obtain the correct certification for your roaster - without which your insurance won't pay up if something goes wrong, overlooked maintenance areas and correct ventilation of roasters and afterburners. In conversation afterwards, many of the roasters attending the session mentioned that they had learned something that they were going to put into practice as soon as they get back.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Session Five - The Re-emergence of Brewed Coffee - Chris - <a href="http://www.tobysestate.com.au/">Toby's Estate</a>, Melbourne</span><br /><br />With Toby unable to deliver his session, Chris jumped on the first plane in the morning, delivered his session and jumped on the next plane back! I was looking forward to hearing from Toby, but it was nice to meet our local TE dude all the same. Regular readers will recall that in <a href="http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2008/11/lucatech-industries-unveils-ghettomax.html">my last entry on filter coffee</a>, I queried why on earth Toby's were running this session, given that they seem to like the sort of gloopy, thick and rich ristretto shots that are about as far from a thin and delicate brewed cup as you can possibly get. I put that question to Chris and he answered that the roasters really love their filter coffee precisely because it does allow the origins to stand out in a way similar to cupping, but that their baristi will require some convincing! No doubt, customers will, too. At the moment, the only successful way that I have seen of getting cafe goers to pay for brewed coffee is to brew it through some sort of gimmicky gadget like a Clover or a Siphon. There is most definitely still a perception that all filter coffee is garbage and I very much hope that roasters work on that.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Session Six - Coffee Machine Maintenance and Cleaning - Chris Short - <a href="http://www.cafetto.com.au/">Cafetto</a></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEhGC4pwKI/AAAAAAAAAUk/XZ0DhzzQSyk/s1600-h/Chrisfetto.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEhGC4pwKI/AAAAAAAAAUk/XZ0DhzzQSyk/s320/Chrisfetto.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269529426737610914" border="0" /></a><br />Cafetto has always been a great supporter of the coffee industry and the session delivered at the Golden Bean was no exception. Chris covered a number of topics, such as what actually builds up where in your espresso machine, the necessity for descaling and the results of a soon-to-be-released study on the effect of regular espresso machine cleaning in the cup. I had never really thought about the role of scale in backflushing the group as opposed to maintaining the boiler, but I couldn't see why it wouldn't decrease the effectiveness of espresso machine detergent in the same way that it interacts with other surfactants. Chris answered that it is probably a good idea to do an occasional backflush with a descaler; all espresso machine detergents must be alkaline, so they will not remove scale from the group.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Session Seven - Judges' Calibration - <a href="http://www.justinmetcalf.com/">Justin Metcalf</a> </span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEkoJ3GP2I/AAAAAAAAAUs/IHMxsXTz_DU/s1600-h/Justin+Calibration.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEkoJ3GP2I/AAAAAAAAAUs/IHMxsXTz_DU/s320/Justin+Calibration.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269533311260573538" border="0" /></a><br />Not much to say; just a calibration session run by Head Judge extraordinaire Justin Metcalf, of WBC fame. A definite highlight for me was the opportunity to taste the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kape_Barako">kape barako</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffea_liberica">liberica coffee</a>, brought in from Singapore by Ross. Even in milk, courtesy of <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.makinespresso.com.au">Makin</a>, it was garbage:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEk3QV0NBI/AAAAAAAAAU0/8VQ_qGYdkow/s1600-h/Liberica.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEk3QV0NBI/AAAAAAAAAU0/8VQ_qGYdkow/s320/Liberica.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269533570698064914" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day Two</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Competition</span><br /><br />Not much to tell; a bit of a blurr, really. Heaps of time on the machines with Zoe and Makin. Tasted some coffee. That's about all I remember!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEl1fsFGRI/AAAAAAAAAU8/2UNJcnvg8Ag/s1600-h/Makin+A+Mess.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEl1fsFGRI/AAAAAAAAAU8/2UNJcnvg8Ag/s320/Makin+A+Mess.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269534639969868050" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Awards Night</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEmDPNM0vI/AAAAAAAAAVE/GwFmPoP3PRE/s1600-h/Awards.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEmDPNM0vI/AAAAAAAAAVE/GwFmPoP3PRE/s320/Awards.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269534876063552242" border="0" /></a><br />Well, you can see the results <a href="http://www.cafebiz.net/page/equal_golden_bean.html">on the golden bean web page</a>. As you can see, there were a gagillion medals to give away and I must admit that sitting next to <a href="www.coffeesnobs.com.au">Andy</a>, who got up every few minutes to claim a total of four medals, made me think of entering something next year ;P Unfortunately, I don't think that I tasted any of the gold medal winners, so I guess I'm going to have to order some coffee! Massive props to Kamran at <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.fioricoffee.com.au">Fiori Coffee</a> for being the overall winner. If you check out the pdfs, Fiori got a bronze medal for their espresso and a silver for their milk-based - wonder if some of the other silver medal winners simply didn't enter in both categories?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEn28EHc5I/AAAAAAAAAVM/oFmKuJLj4fY/s1600-h/Sean.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEn28EHc5I/AAAAAAAAAVM/oFmKuJLj4fY/s320/Sean.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269536863790003090" border="0" /></a><br />Sean also took the opportunity to present the <a href="http://www.cafebiz.net/page/cafe_of_the_year.html">Sugar Australia Cafe of the Year Awards</a>. The overall winner was <a href="http://www.alensespresso.com.au/">Alen's Espresso</a> in Brisbane. A shout-out goes to my former boss Andrew Lew, as <a href="http://www.malingroom.com.au/">The Maling Room</a> won the Victorian category.<br /><br />You'll note the not-so-subtle positioning of sponsor ECA's banner. ECA are running a great little ad campaign for their Domobar Super machine, in which they basically get endorsements from some of Australia's top coffee dudes (check out their <a href="http://www.espressocompany.com.au/how-to.htm">how-to-videos</a> with <a href="http://www.scottiecallaghan.com/">Scottie C</a>). I ribbed Charles a bit for being so Sydney-centric and not including any Melburnians; hopefully some will get a go on the new ad for the Giotto. Speaking of which, you've gotta admit that it's a pretty cool looking piece of kit:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEpzu1RbUI/AAAAAAAAAVU/9RX4cVZbVaw/s1600-h/Giotto.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SSEpzu1RbUI/AAAAAAAAAVU/9RX4cVZbVaw/s320/Giotto.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269539007721729346" border="0" /></a>Given that the Giotto is one of the few domestic machines with separate side panels like that, as opposed to having a wrap-around shell, I wonder why we haven't seen anyone with one knock up some cool <a href="http://www.keesvanderwesten.com/">mirage-style</a> painted glass panels?<br /><br />Anyhoo, looking forward to trying out some of the winners and next year's Golden Bean.<br /><br />A big thankyou to Sean and Justeen for their hospitality, too.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-32838400715837036932008-11-13T22:40:00.005+11:002008-11-13T23:28:20.837+11:00November = EventsDon't ask me, why, but there seems to be a bit on this November.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Barista Comp Wrapup</span><br /><br />The Victorian Barista and Latte Art Championships were held over the weekend. I did the judging calibration purely out of interest, but intended to study rather than judge. Turned out that there was a bit of a shortage of judges, so I sidelined studying to get the opens judged and happening. The obvious changes this year were the new machines and the new faces - who, without exception, displayed a very good level of technical competence. It would be impossible to remember or list all of the home runs that the competitors hit, so I'll just mention one - Simon James absolutely nailing the description of his espresso. It was nice to see Nim step up to judge, adding another experienced palate to the Victorian pool of judges.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SRwWICePYXI/AAAAAAAAAUE/KQBwUa-olQ8/s1600-h/judging.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SRwWICePYXI/AAAAAAAAAUE/KQBwUa-olQ8/s320/judging.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268109991475110258" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Talor judged by HJ Ross, Myself, Mel, Tom and Jeff.</span><br /></div><br />As usual, Syd has put up his <a href="http://thelows.org/09VicBarChamp/">amazing photos</a> of the events. Emily Oak's idea to fly him up to Atlanta to be the official WBC photographer is brilliant.<br /><br />I was furiously footnoting an essay on Sunday, but it was nice to see a well-deserved latte art comp win from Erin, who I am sure will win the Australians and the Worlds, but might lose the Intergalactics to the seven-handed Florgostillians and their legendary 'galaxy of rosettas.' Big props to Kirby from Maling Room and Dave Seng for their placings. Jesse 'Iceman' Hyde took out the Barista comp, leaving <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/epicure/the-baristi-of-your-dreams/2008/11/09/1226165385513.html">the press</a> with the immortal one-liner:<br /><br /><blockquote>"I used to play guitar full-time for a living," Hyde said. "Coffee geeks will never be rock stars. Slash (former lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses) is way cooler than David Makin."<br /></blockquote><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Golden Bean</span><br /><br />So I've got a 5am flight tomorrow to the <a href="http://www.cafebiz.net/">Equal Golden Bean conference + coffee roaster competition</a>. Should be fun; really looking forward to tasting the best that Australia has to offer. Many thanks to Mr Makin for the lift and Cafe Culture for the whole thing.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Drinking?</span><br /><br />Why yes, yes I am drinking coffee. I have a nice drip roast kenyan coffee generously sent down to me by the boys at Mecca in Sydney. Thanks guys!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Siphon:</span> With a high dose, surprisingly full-bodied, with apple-juice like acidity and mouthfeel. Relatively low on the classic winey/raspberry flavour - for a Kenyan - but definite orange overtones. Wierd. Dry finish, owing to the hot weather that the parcel has been exposed to.<br /><br />Seriously. Lightish roast kenyan coffee, for brewed methods, has to be as close to shooting fish in a barrel as you can get in coffee. It's usually very impressive and this one is no exception.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-38855475322972170942008-11-01T15:56:00.012+11:002009-01-27T02:28:49.115+11:00LucaTech Industries Unveils the GhettoMax 2000 and Filter Coffee in Australia<span style="font-weight: bold;">Enter Mr Callahan</span><br /><br />A few months ago, Adelaide espresso savant Ian Callahan <a href="http://bluechipespresso.blogspot.com/2008/10/ghetto-drippour-over.html">threw down the challenge</a> during conversation:<br /><br /><blockquote>So here are the rules. Who can find the best/funniest/cheapest/most ingenious piece or pieces of crap to either<br />A) Chuck Norris (read, brake beat or crush) or<br />B) McGuyver (read, manipulate or engineer in some way) into a Drip station.<br /><br />Single drip is okay, bonus points awarded for multiple cup drip/pour-over station, as well as practicality or sheer impracticality.</blockquote><br />I feel that we need to set important boundary on the competition - you have until, say, December 14 to enter and you may enter as many times as you wish. (Selected so that my exams will be out of the way and I can have another go.) Your entry must disclose everything necessary to make your pourover station in such a way as to spoil the prior art base for anyone who might wish to patent such a device in future ;P Once all entries have been rounded up, Ian will collate them into a post on his blog and we can vote for a winner, to whom Ian will forward a prize by Xmas ;P<br /><br />Given that Ian has a blackberry, I expect that he will be aware of what he has signed up for slightly before I publish this blog entry.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What the heck-a-roo?</span><br /><br />So, if you're not up to speed on the uber-glamorous world of professional pourover brew stations, you might want to check them out:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.trubru.com/">4 Cup Station truBru from Taylor Maid Farms - $330 USD<br /></a><br /><a href="http://www.espressoparts.com/product/DRIPSTATION_DS-4/DRIPSTATION_DS4__Drip_Station__4_Cup_Coffee_Brew_Station__Single_Cup_Coffee_Brewing_Experience.html#reviews">4 Cup Station from the genius tinkerers at Espresso Parts $595</a><br /><br />The latest Cafe Culture also features a 4 cup station called the 'terror bar' from <a href="http://www.highlandsnsw.com.au/factordesign/index.html">Factor Design</a>. Looked expensive - does anyone have a price?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The LucaTech Industries GhettoMax 2000 2 Cup Pourover Filter Station (EXXXTREEEEME)</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SQv7XS0du0I/AAAAAAAAAT0/t8ISJIyHgqY/s1600-h/GhettoMax2000.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SQv7XS0du0I/AAAAAAAAAT0/t8ISJIyHgqY/s320/GhettoMax2000.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263576967120010050" border="0" /></a><br /><span>As you can plainly see, the GhettoMax 2000 has a number of features unparalleled by any filter station on the market:<br />*<span style="font-style: italic;">Portability </span>(TM) - suitable for catering, you can take the action to your customer and you can save valuable bench space when not in use.<br />*<span style="font-style: italic;">BrewGuard </span>(TM) technology - owing to the wire guard on the side opposite the brewer, customers cannot touch the streams of filter brewing coffee<br />*<span style="font-style: italic;">Adjustulon</span> (TM) saucer stands to get the brew vessels at the height of your choice<br />*<span style="font-style: italic;">PrecizoSize</span> (TM) - the entire modular unit can be washed in a standard commercial dishwasher<br />*<span style="font-style: italic;">IKEA friendly</span> (TM) - by utilising componentry from IKEA, this station will naturally blend in with the decor of any cafe ... that also uses a lot of stuff from IKEA<br /><br />And the total cost is ... drumroll ... $5 per unit for the <a href="http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/70093307">GORM clip on basket</a> and you probably have everything else lying around anyway. To assemble, just buy one of the cheapass baskets, pull out the tin snips and make the necessary bends and cuts to get this:<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SQwDP3c8YAI/AAAAAAAAAT8/nH7jrPwNaEc/s1600-h/GhettoMax2001.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SQwDP3c8YAI/AAAAAAAAAT8/nH7jrPwNaEc/s320/GhettoMax2001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263585635607535618" border="0" /></a><br />OK, so it's a total piece of crap. But at least it's a cheap piece of crap.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Part II: Filter Coffee in Australia</span><br /><br />Compared with the rest of the world, Australia is truly upside-down when it comes to coffee. We are close to unique in having a retail brewed coffee market that is almost 100% espresso. Until recently, that 'almost' was the nasty drip brewers at McDonalds. You know, the ones where the coffee would sit in glass carafes, baking on a hotplate for days because no Australian would actually buy it? The irony is that standard coffee scoring systems rate coffee for use as brewed coffee. Many is the time that I have had an 80something pointer outperform a 90+ coffee on the espresso machine. That said, brewed coffee is a fantastic way to appreciate the best that the world has to offer. The USA and Japan seem to buy a lot of the world's top coffee for consumption as brewed coffee. We could do worse than develop a fantastic brewed coffee culture in Australia to sit alongside espresso.<br /><br />Enter the Clover. A few years ago, no-one in Australia had the slightest inkling of interest in brewed coffee aside from roasters, ex-pat yanks and <a href="http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2006/08/yauco-selecto.html">random nutcases</a>. A few brave <a href="http://www.brotherbababudan.com.au/">cool kids</a> bought a machine that produced coffee with a similar taste profile and - bam - people start to show some interest. Never mind the control that it gives you over the brew; people seemed to be more interested in the price tag and the fact that it was a complicated machine more like an espresso machine. Interest continued to gather for a few years and some of the cool kids overseas praised it to high heaven and built up the buzz. It looked like we were at a tipping point.<br /><br />Out of the blue, checkmate - <a href="http://www.starbucks.com/clover/">Starbucks bought the whole friggin' company, patents, kudos and all!</a> A very clever move on their part. Starbucks has phenomenal buying power and reports are that they have been starting to snaffle up a lot of lots that specialty coffee roasters would otherwise like to buy. Is it possible that we could start seeing great coffee coming out of Starbucks? I can't see Clovers being rolled out in Australia for quite some time, if ever. It looks like Starbucks are doing OK, but not brilliantly with their Clovers overseas, with part of the problem being an <a href="http://manseekingcoffee.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/starbucksclover2/">inappropriate roast level</a>. Still, it's only a matter of time until they get it right ...<br /><br />Meanwhile, the snapping up of the Clover by Starbucks makes it unavailable to specialty roasters and cafes who might be interested in it. A similar level of control is offered by siphon brewers, but they are a total PITA to clean. You would have to be <a href="http://laughingsquid.com/blue-bottle-cafe-opens-features-20k-siphon-bar-coffee-machine/">nuts</a> to try to use one in a cafe ... how do the Japanese do it? Commercial filter brewing machines can produce a great result, but brewing two litres at once probably won't go down well with a public where those that are interested in coffee expect it to be brewed on demand and those that are not won't order it. French press/plunger is gritty and hard to clean. Aeropress doesn't have the clarity of flavour of filter. So, funnily enough, we are left with a renewed interest in single cup, pourover filter brewers - originally laughed out of the room as an alternative to clover. And why not? It's easy. Wet the filter paper, grind coffee, pour over water at the right temperature, serve up the brew and dump the leftovers in the bin. The amazing thing is that pourover filters actually do a much better job of brewing at a decent temperature than some crappy filter machines.<br /><br />With a nice article in this issue of <a href="http://www.cafebiz.net/page/cafe_culture_magazine.html">Cafe Culture</a>, it looks like <a href="http://www.tobysestate.com.au/">Toby</a> is trying to take up the charge for pourover filter in Australia. Frankly, I was surprised. I have always pigeon-holed Toby into the high brew ratio, slow dripping, gloopy, chocolatey ristretto camp. After all, legend goes that Toby was critical in helping PB to develop the high brew ratio technique known as 'updosing', which has become as intertwined with the Australian identity in international coffee circles. Everything that I have tasted from Toby's Estate has been consistent with this approach and the TE stores seem to be kitted out with equipment geared towards it. This style of coffee is about as far from the light brewed cup as you can possibly get. Well, in recent years PB has been experimenting with 'downdosing', so maybe this is Toby's equivalent? Maybe Toby's interest simply arises from the similarity between filter brews and the cupping that all roasters enjoy? I'm looking forward to Toby's session on filter coffee as part of the <a href="http://www.cafebiz.net/page/equal_golden_bean.html">Golden Bean</a> and will endeavour to find out the answers - if I remember!Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-84491803041614041932008-10-27T11:19:00.004+11:002008-10-27T12:11:55.638+11:00PNG Elimbari, Market Leaders and Blog FollowersSometimes you've gotta laugh. I went to buy some coffee a few weeks ago and ended up getting some PNG Elimbari that I was told was roasted by Five Senses' recently set up <a href="http://blog.fivesensescoffee.com.au/2008/09/09/were-finally-in/">Melbourne branch</a>, though it was in another bag. So I'll attribute this coffee to them!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br />When it comes to PNG coffee on the Australian market, there is a broker that is basically the authority and there is a roaster that is the authority. That roaster is Five Senses. Dean set up the company <a href="http://www.fivesensescoffee.com.au/about">after working in PNG</a> and getting to know the local farmers. They <a href="http://www.fivesensescoffee.com.au/news/2007/05/04/the-beginning">started</a> their <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a href="http://www.fivesensescoffee.com.au/coffee/affiliations/direct-trade">direct trade program</a> years before the phrase came to be <a href="http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/origin/directtrade">prominent</a>. And while we're talking about direct trade, I'll take this opportunity to point out <a href="http://intelligentsiacoffee.com/about/bios">Watts'</a> <a href="http://greenlagirl.com/2006/06/19/an-intelligentsia-email/">take on it</a>, if you haven't read it already.<br /><br />A better name for 'direct trade' would be 'fair trade', seeing as the former results in the exchange of a sum of money that the farmer is happy with for coffee of the quality that the purchaser is happy with, whereas the latter results in the exchange of a fixed sum of money for coffee of unspecified quality. Pity about that whole 'fair trade' movement having the 'fair trade' name - maybe we should think about calling it 'fairer trade' or 'fairest trade'!<br /><br />The point is that Five Senses' direct trade relationship has enabled them to get <a href="http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2007/05/missed-it-by-this-much-png-psc-aa.html">spectacular coffee from PNG</a> in the past and <a href="http://blog.fivesensescoffee.com.au/2008/09/17/kongo-coffee-will-get-even-better/">the same is true for the Elimbari</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Brewed: </span>Good body, mid level acidity, hints of tomato.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Espresso:</span><span class="message" style="overflow: auto; float: left; width: 99%;"></span> Decent body, long finish, clean, sweet, hints of apricot.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cappuccino:</span> Average ability to cut through milk, but, amazingly, on a few occasions I was able to coax the fruit flavours into the cappuccino.<br /><br />To date, I haven't dabbled much in trying to score coffees on this blog, preferring to describe and get acquainted with the various numerical score systems in my own time. However, I will mention that I tasted this coffee soon after a cupping of Costa Rican <a href="http://www.cupofexcellence.org/">Cup of Excellence</a> coffees at <a href="http://www.brotherbababudan.com.au/">BBB</a>. The Elimbari clearly trailed behind the top two, but was up there with numbers 3 through 9. On this basis, I think that it would be fair to say that this is a mid to high eighties coffee on the SCAA cupping form, which is a bit of a rarity on the Australian market.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span><span class="message" style="overflow: auto; float: left; width: 99%;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">And Another Thing ...</span><br /><br />I must be like - totally - the best person in history or something. My "followers" list has tripled! To three!<br /><br />I guess that I should add the "followers" watchumcallit, but to do that I'd have to switch to templates ... and the last thing that I want to do is to lose all of the links on the right-hand-side that I have spent an eternity cultivating for the benefit of y'all, dear readers. Help?Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-41695770704890631682008-10-12T14:47:00.007+11:002008-10-12T15:27:30.884+11:00The Supremes<span style="font-weight: bold;">The company:</span> <a href="http://www.coffeesupreme.com.au/">Coffee Supreme</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The blend:</span> Supreme.<br /><br />Following discussions about Coffee Supreme on the <a href="http://www.melbournecoffeereview.com/">Melbourne Coffee Review</a> facebook group, I decided to wander on down to supreme and pick up half a kilo of the supreme blend to try it out for myself. Back in the day, this blend was a light, clean and acidic blend with a relatively low body. I liked to think of it as being similar to <a href="http://www.camposcoffee.com.au/">Campos</a>' <a href="http://www.camposcoffee.com.au/">superior blend</a> and you can bet your bottom dollar that Campos would start sweating if Supreme decided to put supreme up against superior. (Supreme vs Superior ... seriously.)<br /><br />Unfortunately, my enjoyment of this blend was interrupted by the <a href="http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2008/10/palate-training-and-sensory-analysis-of.html">palate training course that I did recently</a>, so, with considerable irony, I apologise that my descriptions of this blend will be incomplete and based on recollection.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Drip/Siphon/Cupping:</span> A classic cup; flawlessly clean, somewhat sweet, mild acidity, medium body.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Espresso:</span> High in acidity, low in body when young, but improving after several days' rest.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cappuccino:</span> As expected, no presence in milk whatsoever at 3 days resting time, improving considerably at 7 days.<br /><br />So there you have it. Not very useful, but it's something.<br /><br />Supreme clearly put excellent coffee in the blend, but I think that a lot of people expect their espresso to be very high in body and very low in acidity. Here, Supreme demonstrates why a company has multiple offerings - try their <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a href="http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2008/06/coffee-supremes-fair-trade-organic.html">FTO blend</a> instead.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SPF4_RXnknI/AAAAAAAAAPw/BMu2mJzJb2U/s1600-h/Supreme.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SPF4_RXnknI/AAAAAAAAAPw/BMu2mJzJb2U/s320/Supreme.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256115268507636338" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A clean cup in a dirty world</span>.<br /><br />As a quick addendum, I got to have the briefest of plays with a new WBC spec NS Aurelia. As with the other NS machines, the steam lever is totally awesome. Beyond that, I think what my tastebuds and my thermocouple readings told me are best summarised by the following photo:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SPF5ig9uGxI/AAAAAAAAAP4/8CF5VpmFfEI/s1600-h/The+Dragon.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SPF5ig9uGxI/AAAAAAAAAP4/8CF5VpmFfEI/s320/The+Dragon.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256115873989401362" border="0" /></a>Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-6760102417726390292008-10-05T18:08:00.014+11:002008-10-05T21:54:31.249+11:00Palate Training and Sensory Analysis of Coffee - A Course at William Angliss<a href="http://coffee.angliss.vic.edu.au/">William Angliss Coffee Academy</a> not only <a href="http://coffee.angliss.vic.edu.au/coffeemaking.htm">covers the basics</a> in one of the most well set out training rooms that I have ever seen, but also affers a selection of courses covering <a href="http://coffee.angliss.vic.edu.au/advanced.htm">more advanced topics</a>. Jill Adams' latest brainwave has been to rope <a href="http://www.latrobe.edu.au/agriculture/staff/lindsay-corby.html">Lindsay Corby</a> from La Trobe University into making the leap from viticulture to coffee culture. Having done the basic 'prepare and serve espresso coffee' course at the academy about a million years ago, I decided to give this course a whirl. Simon James - dedicated latte artist, barista competitor, coffee trainer and somewhat less dedicated coffee blogger - was also in on the action. You can see the flier <a href="http://sdotjames.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/palate-training-sensory-analysis/">here</a> on <a href="http://sdotjames.wordpress.com/">Simon's blog</a> and I'm sure that he will have something to say about it at some stage in the future - be it forseeable or distant.<br /><br />The entire course involved a good amount of smelling, tasting and spitting. By the end of the weekend, I could hit a pinhead from a mile away. The first day, run by Lindsay, covered some of the myriad of compounds found in coffee. The second day consisted of three sessions in which we cupped coffee.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day One</span><br /><br />The wine world seems to be pretty far ahead of the coffee world in terms of recognising the role that individual chemicals play in the final product and deliberately trying to maximise or minimise said chemicals. Lindsay was enlisted to muster up some relevant chemicals and to guide us through tasting them separately, in combination and in coffee. Part of this involved painstakingly working out the levels to which said chemicals should be diluted and bottling them; a job that I'm glad I didn't have to do:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOhx3D_hopI/AAAAAAAAAO4/Tt0eiHxfTBo/s1600-h/Lindsay%27s+Stuff.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOhx3D_hopI/AAAAAAAAAO4/Tt0eiHxfTBo/s320/Lindsay%27s+Stuff.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253574156106179218" border="0" /></a><br />The chemicals that we covered included acids, sugars, phenols, alcohols and aromatic alcohols and the session was structured around identifying the differences between each and what each does on one's tongue. For example, I found citric acid to have a sharper and brighter presence than malic acid, which, in Lindsay's words, dragged across the tongue.<br /><br />The later brackets included combinations of the earlier brackets. Finally, the various compounds were tasted in coffee:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOhzNGg8kVI/AAAAAAAAAPA/7CDk-30i10U/s1600-h/WA+Glasses.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOhzNGg8kVI/AAAAAAAAAPA/7CDk-30i10U/s320/WA+Glasses.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253575634251977042" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Day Two</span><br /><br />This session involved three cuppings. It was amusing to see the anxiety and trepidation of those who hadn't cupped before give way to delight as they realised - 'hey, I can actually pick the differences.'<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The first session</span> was a totally unique opportunity. A dude by the name of Tony Marsh is running a project in Aceh to determine which coffees should be planted and how they should be processed. The project involves planting a number of different varietals at different elevations (800m to 1500m), processing them in different ways and sending the samples to a number of coffee buyers for feedback. Our first session involved tasting five pairs of varietals; one fully washed and the other wet hulled. The difference between the two is that fully washed is dried in parchment, whereas wet hulled is dried with the parchment removed, giving the coffee its distinctive dark green colouring:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOh3QIPuuDI/AAAAAAAAAPI/zg6-cQ6VlNo/s1600-h/Tony+Marsh%27s+Samples.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOh3QIPuuDI/AAAAAAAAAPI/zg6-cQ6VlNo/s320/Tony+Marsh%27s+Samples.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253580084302755890" border="0" /></a><br />The session vividly illustrated the futility of using origins alone as an indicator of flavour or quality - my cupping scores showed a spread of 18 points across the maximum of 55. (I digress to note that I didn't score in any particularly standardised way - I simply allocated the first sample middle-of-the-road scores and scoring everything else relative to it ... which was kind of odd, because the first ended up being my most highly rated.) The fully washed coffees, which I have usually referred to as 'wet processed' on this blog, generally had higher acidity and lower body than the wet hulled coffees. The group generally felt that the body on the wet processed coffees was quite good and that the wet hulled coffees were slightly dirtier or muddier.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The second session</span> involved <a href="http://www.coffeesnobs.com.au/">Andy Freeman</a> stepping everyone through different roast profiles of the same bean, taken to the same finishing temperature and roughly the same colour/agtron/colorette reading:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOiTE29R3QI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/rh20aHZPHdA/s1600-h/Professor+Freeman.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOiTE29R3QI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/rh20aHZPHdA/s320/Professor+Freeman.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253610677008981250" border="0" /></a><br />In a nutshell, the fastest roast produced a much brighter cup than the bitterer cup produced by the slowest roast. At the end of the day, Andy and I pulled some shots of these two coffees for people to compare head-to-head.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The third session </span>was a bit of a grab bag, people having been asked to bring along their own coffee to see if they could pick it out of the lot. Jill provided a number of African coffees; two harrars, a sidamo, two roasts of the same yirgacheffe and a baggy tanzanian.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOiYPcYQWUI/AAAAAAAAAPg/ZIaVX0w_FEQ/s1600-h/Baggy+Tanzania.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOiYPcYQWUI/AAAAAAAAAPg/ZIaVX0w_FEQ/s320/Baggy+Tanzania.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253616356411070786" border="0" /></a><br />Simon and I agreed that the aroma of the harrars made promises that they failed to keep. The yirgacheffes actually tasted totally different, one having been roasted on a sample roaster and one roasted on a shop roaster. I took along the infamous <a href="http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2008/09/ugh-bad-coffee.html">coffee number two</a>, now twelve or so days old, and <a href="http://www.cupofexcellence.org/CountryPrograms/Guatemala/2007Program/AuctionsResults/tabid/381/ctl/FarmDetails/mid/688/ItemID/742/Default.aspx">Guatemalan CoE #3 of 2007</a>, kindly sent along to the session by <a href="http://www.brotherbababudan.com.au/">Mark</a> for the purposes of comparing with the notes on the internet. #2 was not as potently objectionable in cupping as it was in espresso and had mellowed in its old age. I missed it on the first pass, but caught it later on after Jill gave me the tip that it was next to the CoE; it cupped up exactly as my notes for drip recorded. I hadn't tasted CoE #3 before, but it was roasted for cupping and, so, wasn't hard to pick against a field of espresso roasts. Most people thought that it tasted clean and of citrus.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOiYHQfbQ3I/AAAAAAAAAPY/F7lE-fy4bKg/s1600-h/Cupping+Room.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kKTMpB7il88/SOiYHQfbQ3I/AAAAAAAAAPY/F7lE-fy4bKg/s320/Cupping+Room.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253616215780967282" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Closing Thoughts</span><br /><br />The session certainly provided some in-depth and specific tasting experience that is seldom found elsewhere. The first session of day two was my highlight.<br /><br />In conversation with others, it became apparent that people live up to the stereotype of Australia being 100% espresso, so I will predict a rash of enrolments in the <a href="http://coffee.angliss.vic.edu.au/advanced.htm#cm">masterclass</a>. This course appears to have subsumed the espresso-focussed 'pulling shots' course that <a href="http://www.talkcoffee.com.au/">Chris Natoli</a> ran whilst he was at the Academy and also appears to be pretty good value.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32646944.post-19394065796402103342008-09-28T21:20:00.008+10:002008-09-28T21:49:39.348+10:00Ugh. Bad Coffee. And On My Birthday.I am not immune from getting crap coffee. Over the past few weeks, bad coffee has made its way to me from a number of sources. Lest anyone think that I have lowered my standards, I thought that I should share some of my disappointments:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Coffee Number One</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Espresso:</span> This coffee ticked a number of boxes to achieve an astounding level of complexity. Unfortunately, those boxes were sour, bitter, rubber, dirt and an astringent finish. No amount of barista-fu could remedy this one.<br /><br />I think that this coffee must have been a blend of roasts that had a variety of problems.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Coffee Number Two</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Aroma:</span> Incredibly strong aroma of raspberry, tending towards vinegar.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Drip/Siphon:</span> Slightly dry, bitter and with a small amount of raspberry. Not incredibly bad, actually.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Espresso/Cappuccino:</span> Vinegar. Ferment. Garbage water. Aftertaste as though someone had sprayed floral toilet deoderiser in one's mouth.<br /><br />The aroma made promises and the espresso delivered. Unfortunately, I was not clever enough to remember what that promise was.<br /><br />I think that this was simply a batch of defective coffee.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Coffee Number Three</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Espresso:</span> Thin. Carbon. Hardly surprising, given that oil came to the surface a day after roasting.<br /><br />I think that this one was burnt.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Coffee Number Four</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bin:</span> The only thing that this coffee was suitable for, just from its appearance.<br /><br />I know that this one was roasted badly by some hack using a newly purchased popcorn popper. I know because I was that hack.<br /><br />Names withheld to protect the not-so-innocent.Lucahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055161321391952084noreply@blogger.com4