Table of contents for Feb/Mar 2017 in BeanScene

As of 1 January 2017, the unification of the Specialty Coffee Associations of America and Europe (SACA and SCAE) has taken a significant step forward with the unveiling of its new title, Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). The new SCA will bring together the functions and activities of the SCAA and SCAE to promote the growth of the specialty coffee industry around the world. “Built on foundations of openness, inclusivity and the power of shared knowledge, we act as a unifying force within the specialty coffee industry – invested in creating a worldwide circle of like-minded professionals,” SCA said in a statement. “Representing a global pool of experience and talent, we are our members and together we work towards a better, more sustainable future for each and every one of us…

“THE BEST BARISTAS ARE THOSE WHO WANT TO GET TO THE CORE OF THEIR PROFESSION, BE WILLING TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, BE SELF DRIVEN. YOU CAN’T TEACH THAT.” As a young child, Melissa Caia would watch her father prepare his morning coffee before he went to work at the family fruit and vegetable market. “I would smell the aroma of coffee at 2am when dad would wake up. He would put the coffee pot on the stove, have a shower, then you’d hear the moka pot brewing. He had the same routine each morning – stir the coffee, tap the spoon, then sip it,” Melissa says. She was too young to critique her father’s coffee preparation skills, but little did she know that one day her sensory abilities…

For businesses such as Stand Up in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, installing a slimline point of sale (POS) system such as the Square Chip Card Reader, rather than a traditional Eftpos machine with till attached, has been an operational decision more than a financial one. Dan Chrystal’s café is on the small side, located in a former wheelie bin storage room. “It looks tiny, but we designed it to incorporate maximum functionality. It just fits two people behind the counter, a fridge and a two-group La Marzocco on the bench top,” Dan says. Because of the café’s tight space at just 10 square metres, Dan says finding a credit and debit card reader that took up minimal space was a key consideration. So when Square set up head office…

“TRY AND MAKE A HABIT OF THINKING ABOUT FLAVOURS WHENEVER YOU EAT OR DRINK SOMETHING THAT STANDS OUT. MENTALLY TAG IT AND LOCK IT AWAY.” Over a year ago, I faced my first proper cupping table. Twenty cups with freshly ground coffee and aromatics filling the room. Daunted doesn’t quite cover the feeling. Even after being in the industry for so long, I felt like all my knowledge counted for nothing. Sure, I’d played at tasting in countless training classes and judged coffee competitions, but this was the real frontline with nowhere to hide my lack of professional cupping experience. Those first weeks cupping with Cofi-Com’s Andrew Mackay, Elizabeth Barry, and Dariusz Lewandowski – all incredibly knowledgeable and experienced individuals – made it look so easy. Their descriptions flowed easily and…

At this point in our series, we’d like to introduce a framework we think is very useful when it comes to brewing and tasting coffee. You might have heard the term “signal-to-noise ratio” (often abbreviated to SNR). With a SNR framework, the world can be thought of as containing stimuli we are interested in (signals) mixed with stimuli we are not interested in (noise). SNR is the ratio of signal power to noise power. In our last column (December 2016), we mentioned a concept of optimal extraction, where the ratio of extracted compounds from a coffee particle results in the subjectively deemed “tastiest brew”. We can label this tastiest ratio our desired “signal”. Deviations from our target ratio lead to a less desirable or muddled signal — so under or…

Jared Chapman is the National Team Leader for Mocopan Coffee. He has an extensive background in coffee, training, and consulting, working with cafés of all shapes and sizes. These include independent cafés to corporate coffee chains. Jared’s passion is sharing this experience to help others in the industry run their businesses successfully. Adeline Teoh is a writer and content developer specialising in tea and tea culture. She has a background in small and international business, and manages tea events through Sydney Tea Tastings. She loves high mountain oolongs and wild ancient Yunnan teas. Finding many tea resources too serious, she started www.teashirts.com.au, which focuses on the irreverent side of tea drinking. Ben Morrow is the 2016 ASCA Pura Australian Latte Art Champion, a 2016 World Latte Art Championship finalist, and intercontinental…

“ANY TIME I’VE HAD A REALLY GOOD COFFEE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM WAS BECAUSE AN AUSTRALIAN OR NEW ZEALANDER WAS BEHIND THE MACHINE.” Peter Gilmore works in what is arguably one the best office settings in Australia, if not the world – the Sydney Opera House. Each day he looks out over Sydney Harbour at Bennelong restaurant with a “strong” piccolo latte in hand, and marvels at how lucky he is. “It’s pretty cool,” Peter says. “I get to work in one of the most recognisable and beautiful buildings in the world – it’s certainly a great motivator. I try to do justice to the building and represent how great Australian cuisine is, so you do feel a weight of expectation, but it’s a great honour.” As Executive Chef of Bennelong…

“I SEE COFFEE MACHINES STRUGGLE TO COPE WITH THE VOLUME OF STEAMING. REGARDLESS OF A MULTI OR SINGLE BOILER, THE STEAM ARM IS THE ONE PART OF A MACHINE THAT DOES THE MOST WORK.” Many designers and architects have their best ideas in the shower or on a long drive. For technician and Coffee Machine Technologies (CMT) Director John Colangeli, his best idea took place at La Botte Pizza House in Melbourne. “I was sitting down in the restaurant with my wife and kids and I started scribbling on the paper tablecloth. The design for the Viper took shape before my eyes – first I sketched the under-bench counter, then the boiler and head on top,” he says. He took a photo of his machine sketch, and kept the concept…

Hey again. I thought it would be interesting to explore placement and harmony of a pattern using the Hungry Hummingbird as an example. This is an extremely important aspect of latte art, definitely in regards to creating an effective pattern for application in a café, as well as high point scores in competition – I used this design for my 2016 World Latte Art Championship routine. Here is how I like to look at it, and break down what to consider when creating a new pattern. First, break your pattern into four quarters. See image 1. The idea is to put around the same amount of material into each quarter. In doing so, you should end up with a pattern that, even though it could be abstract, would have harmony…

“DON’T BE AFRAID TO WALK IN AND HAVE THE ENTIRE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE – ORDER A COFFEE, SIT DOWN, ENJOY IT.” It’s that time of year again – everyone is starting to wonder how they’ve already broken their New Year’s resolution in just a month when it’s meant to last a year. While it may be notoriously hard to keep your personal goals, it’s a good time to start thinking about your business objectives for the year ahead. Creating a plan is an important part of starting a business but reviewing that plan and aiming to get even better each year will help you stay relevant and grow into the future. The first step in looking at the future is to learn from the past – what has worked well and what…

NSW Allpress Espresso 58 Epsom Rd, ZETLAND Austin’s Coffee & Tea 62 Broadmeadow Rd, BROADMEADOW Campos Coffee 193 Missenden Rd, NEWTOWN Coffee Warehouse Cafe 17-35 Parramatta Rd, HOMEBUSH Don Campos 2/21 Fountain St, ALEXANDRIA Double Roasters 199 Victoria Rd, MARRICKVILLE Grinders Coffee 204 Norton St, LEICHHARDT Pablo & Rusty’s 161 Castlereagh St, SYDNEY Pablo & Rusty’s 1 St Johns Ave, GORDON Pablo & Rusty’s 13 Burns Bay Rd, LANE COVE Pablo & Rusty’s Jacaranda Sq, Cnr Dawn Fraser & Park St, SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK Pablo & Rusty’s 3 Plassey Rd, NORTH RYDE Toby’s Estate 32/36 City Rd, CHIPPENDALE Toby’s Estate 129 Cathedral St, WOOLLOOMOOLOO Tulipshi Cafe Suite 307, The San Clinic Bldg, 185 Fox Valley Rd, WAHROONGA White Horse Coffee Shop 2/137 Flora St, SUTHERLAND QLD Emjays Coffee Shop 6, Zanzibar…

These days there seems to be three key elements bringing roasters, café owners, and baristas together to mingle and imbibe: kegs of beer, workshop talks, and barbeques. On 1 December La Marzocco and the NZSCA hosted the Barista and Roasters Guilds’ Christmas BBQ (aka Sausage Fest). It’s an annual event and one like no other on our calendar events for the year. It’s fun, informal, and brings together our coffee community to catch up, drink beer, learn, and eat plenty of the best sausages we can find. Looking at the numbers, on a super-hot Auckland afternoon we drank two kegs of beer, and the 90-odd people who attended consumed 300 sausages. People talked coffee and nonsense and typically had a pretty good time. This event also had something specifically for…

CaféSmart has finalised the grants from its 2016 event, which helped raise $160,523. All funds were combined with substantial funds raised through the StreetSmart Collective initiative, and other one-off gifts to make a total $223,000 to distribute to 118 community grants. “These grants support people who are homeless or at risk in communities where cafés have raised the funds,” says Streetsmart Australia CEO Adam Robinson. The CaféSmart grants fund a wide variety of responses to homelessness, including Pets in the Park to run outreach clinics, Coast Shelter to refurbish a shower and laundry, Sherwood Neighbourhood Centre to provide hygiene packs, Hobart City Mission to support homeless young mums, Merri Outreach to provide intensive support for young children, and My Friends Place Womens Refuge to build storage for women’s belongings. Of the…

LIQUID EDUCATION: COFFEE Market Lane Coffee Co-Founder Jason Scheltus has released the ultimate educational read for coffee lovers. Liquid Education: Coffee, from bean to the perfect brew is a comprehensive guide that teaches readers everything from growing conditions, bean varieties, picking, drying, and roasting, to extraction, brewing, milk selection, and drink types. This book is the perfect guide to navigate the multitude of beans, blends, and equipment available to make the perfect cup. What’s more, the beautiful illustrations by Daniella Germain are worth a look in themselves. They bring the story of crop to cup to life. Available for A$24.99 and NZ$29.99 at discerning bookshops and Market Lane Coffee stores. For more information, visit marketlane.com.au DREAM MACHINE Designed and handmade in Barcelona, the Ascaso Dream is a true artisan coffee…

Katherine Galatola of Jacob Douwe Egberts (JDE) had stared at Piazza D’Oro’s coffee packaging many times before. She’d held it, read the description, and appreciated its simplistic design, but had never really thought about the effort that went into the colours staring back at her. It wasn’t until she visited the printing plant of flexible packaging solutions company Jet Technologies that Katherine’s eyes were opened to a whole new industry of colour production, which like JDE, takes a hands-on and passionate approach to the craft. “I was blown away by the scale and professionalism involved in colour production,” Katherine says. “In my mind I had always thought that coloured coffee bags were produced at some sort of printing press, but what Jet Technologies presented was a first-hand look a large-scale…

Cafés have so many responsibilities to consider on a daily basis: staff rosters, supply orders, upholding high service standards, driving new business, and brand awareness. Thankfully, Impos understands the daily grind. “We appreciate that café owners are hard workers, putting in long hours and getting their hands dirty – it’s what we do here at Impos too,” says Impos Founder Sean O’Meara. For more than 10 years, Impos has grown to become one of the industry’s top point of sale (POS) providers, but it wants its customers to know it’s more than just a traditional cash register – much, much more. “A POS system is one of the biggest investments in business technology a venue owner can make – aside from a coffee machine, of course,” Sean says. “Today’s POS systems are…

Cold drip, ice brew, iced drip, cold brew, kyoto drip, cold extract coffee, Japanese drip, the list goes on. With so many names for these two different brew methods, it’s no wonder there can be confusion about what the difference is, and most importantly, which do I want to drink now? For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to refer to the two styles as cold brew and iced drip. The origins of both find themselves in debate. It seems plausible that cold brew, with is rudimentary design and refreshing quality, originated from Latin America. Iced drip stems from the 1600s, while Japan was trading coffee among other things with the Dutch. The two different methods are often confused because they both sound similar, are black, and served cold. To differentiate…

With the growing popularity of entire months devoted to sobriety – FebFast, Dry July, Ocsober – you could be forgiven for thinking temperance was a beverage trend to watch. That observation wouldn’t be too far from the truth according to Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (EMMA). “Around half of people aged 18 and over say they’re drinking less now than they used to. Yet the move to premium beverages means Australians are actually spending more per head for their favourite tipple,” states EMMA’s alcoholic beverages trends and insights report. What does this have to do with your café? There are a lot of parallels between specialty tea and the specialty alcohol market, and hence much to learn about how to leverage the cachet alcohol has enjoyed without the stigma attached to…

Last year ASCA and myself started the inroads to creating a Roasters Guild that was not only meaningful but also valuable to the roasting community. Within the first few meetings we had as a community I realised that among the roasting crowd there was a true thirst for knowledge about roasting that was never really available. We were looking for education, opportunities to test our mettle, and – most importantly – community. One of the things we have never been able to do here in Australia is to set up a roasting competition to World Coffee Roasting Championships (WCRC) rules. Understandably, the idea of setting up a gas burning machine in a public spaces has never been met with a great deal of enthusiasm. This has been somewhat of a…

GAVIN AND PENNY ACOTT The Crema Cruiser is what we like to call “The Swan Valley’s Mobile Café”. We live in the Swan Valley in Western Australia, and love all there is to offer from this beautiful region. There is plenty of history and lots of locals willing to share their stories, which makes every day at ‘work’ not feel like work at all. Three years ago, we decided to bring our passions together: the Valley, great coffee, and good food. With a family history in catering and coffee going bac k generations, we bring to our business a modern take on good old-fashioned service, and with our fantastic coffee and range of wholesome foods, we feel we have brought a winning combination to our customers. On weekdays we are located…