Beanscene Feb 2021

FEBRUARY 2021

A World-Class Coffee Magazine

A pillar of strength Navigating a year with confidence A RTDÂ revolution Fleur Studd carves her own lane

Why Fairtrade coffee costs more Infrared technology to change the game

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PRE-GRIND OR GRIND ON DEMAND DESIGNED FOR WORKFLOW AND PURPOSE BUILT FOR SPEED AND CONSISTENCY. MARKIBAR’S IZAGA COMBINES EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICALITY AND FUNCTIONALITY. Built with two operating modes Pre-Grind and Grind On Demand. In Pre-Grind mode the IZAGA delivers an instant dose, allowing baristas to allocate time spent grinding elsewhere in their workflow, saving up to 7 seconds per double dose. The IZAGA’s traditional workflow setting Grind On Demand will cater to off-peak pe periods. The IZAGA also features an isolated grinding chamber with an intelligent ventilation system enabling cooler grinding and consistent dosing.

It’s efficiency without compromise on quality.

Barista Group is the exclusive importer of Markibar Coffee Grinders in Australasia

sales@baristagroup.com.au www.baristagroup.com.au

SCAN THIS BARCODE FOR A DEMO

A NEW STANDARD IN CONSISTENCY WITH THE SIMPLE TOUCH OF A BUTTON, THE INNOVATIVE ÜBERMILK DELIVERS CONSISTENT MICRO FOAM MILK AT THE IDEAL TEMPERATURE, STREAMLINING BARISTA WORK FLOW, REDUCING CAFÉ TRAINING TIME, AND DECREASING MILK WASTE. It further ensures baristas are able to concentrate on perfecting espresso shots and latte art, while allowing them to better engage with customers. Übermilk is distributed exclusively in Australia and New Zealand by Barista Group.

For additional information or to schedule your trial, Please email sales@baristagroup.com.au

SCAN THIS BARCODE FOR A DEMO

sales@baristagroup.com.au www.baristagroup.com.au

NITRO

THE PLUG & PLAY SOLUTION

The TONE NITRO incorporates an integrated cooler and uses nitrogen from the air instead of high-pressure nitrogen cylinders to deliver maximum performance and space efficiency in the workplace. The addition of nitrogen enriches your beverages by giving them a smooth, velvety texture with a foamy surface no matter whether iced coffee/ tea or sophisticated cocktail creations.

Nitro has a 5 liters plug & play canister and works in unison with Touch 01 to deliver a total solution that generates a wow factor.

TOUCH 01

MULTIFUNCTIONALITY AT ITS BEST

One device, delivering coffee and tea, hot and iced at the touch of a button with a bulk brewer 2-4 liters. The TONE IBS – Intelligent Brewing System - allows the barista to adjust the key brewing parameters and find the optimal extraction. The intuitive interface facilitates programming and total control of water volume, temperature and time of extraction. Perfect for the barista’s daily operations.

TOUCH

03

THE FIRST BOILERLESS BATCH BREWER The most revolutionary brewer on today‘s market. TONE boilerless Touch 03 features a state-of-the-art brewing system that sustainably channels brew water through a highly innovative heating element that eliminates the need for a traditional heating phase. Touch 03 can reach 94°C / 201° F within 2 seconds after powering on and brew batches from 250 ml to 2 liters.

The Touch 03 offers two working mode, basic and advanced. In basic mode, the Tone 03 comes with four pre-defined temperature and pulsation built-in and labelled as mild, medium, bold, and xbold. In advanced mode, the barista is empowered to easily adjust brew recipes to profile various coffee and tea beverages by controlling (via tablet) at different stages of brewing (blooming-, turbulence-, development-) the temperature, brew time, delays, volume flow and pulse patterns.

sales@baristagroup.com.au www.baristagroup.com.au

FEBRUARY 2021

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contents UPFRONT

12 NEWS 18 STUFF ON THE SCENE INDUSTRY PROFILES

20 KNOWLEDGE LEADER

Market Lane’s Fleur Studd on the power of storytelling and making coffee for the city that loves to drink it

24 CELEBRITY CHEF

Josh Niland talks rock star coffee encounters and breaking the barrier to sustainable fishing

48 GREAT SOUTHERN LAND

Rancilio Group Australia discusses its new strategy and structure

50 THE NEW PACK

Wolff Coffee Roasters launches redesigned and recyclable coffee packaging

52

A ROASTING REVOLUTION

Espressology talks daggy coffee making and the country’s respect for locally roasted produce

54 TIME TO WORKSHOP

WKSHOP is committed to helping businesses reach their potential with a suite of services

56 ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

Cafetto’s MD Christopher Short discusses behavioural changes on the back of the global pandemic

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FEATURE NEWS

29 THE COST OF A CUP

Why Fairtrade certification coffee costs more and how that price is reflected in the cup

33 RTD REVOLUTION

Why the industry is embracing ready to drink coffee as more than a sugary caffeine hit

GREEN BEAN FEATURE

58 A REGIONAL SAGA

The South American Growers Alliance presents five regional coffees that celebrate Brazil

60 GLOBAL REACH

41 A NEW STANDARD

Why the Victoria Arduino E1 Prima is more than just a domestic machine

44 A SMART APPROACH

How the Wega WBar will see baristas work quickly, smoothly and vertically

SKILL BASE

74 ESPRESSO YOURSELF

Australian Latte Art Champion Jibbi Little gets festive

76

TRAINING TACTICS

Mocopan Coffee explores the variables of grinder calibration

Coficom talks green bean innovation and supporting the new wave of producers

CAFÉ SCENE

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BULLET SPEED AHEAD

The Bullet R1 roaster with infrared technology finally achieves CB Certification

64 FARMER FIRST

First Crop Coffee on why sustainable buying means forming long-term relationships

66 RUN OF THE MILL

Southland Merchants commits to smallholder Brazil farmers with the launch of a processing mill

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

37 SETTING THE TONE

Barista Group unveils the next generation of boilerless brewers

68 CAFÉ SCENE

Around Australia

72 TECH TALK

Service Sphere on how to navigate a year without fear and why communication is key

78 WATER WORKS

BRITA explores the water cycle and how it influences coffee

80 ASCA

National barista competitions are set to make their digital return

81 NZSCA

Full steam ahead for a year of onand off-line events

82 E SCENE

Fans of the magazine

CREAMY SOY FOR COFFEE JOY Backed by the pioneers of plant-milks in Australia, we took a decades-old soy milk recipe and perfected it for coffee. It works with a variety of coffee blends for a balanced cup without the beany aftertaste.

#ALTERNATIVEBYNATURE @altdcbarista /altdcbarista altdairyco.com

vershoot o c e n e c S n Bea

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

The Penny Drop 913 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill VIC 3128

ART DIRECTOR Blake Storey

Welcome to the first edition of BeanScene for 2021. Following a year of restrictions, challenges, and unpredictability, (knock on wood) Australians and their vibrant coffee industry are finally starting to feel a sense of normality.

The BeanScene team saw this firsthand when it visited The Penny Drop in Box Hill, Victoria, for the covershoot of the February edition.

“There was real buzz to the place, and the warmth and hospitality from The Penny Drop staff was on full display,” BeanScene Editor Sarah Baker says. “The café was gorgeous, and the coffee was brilliant, but what really warmed our hearts was the practically full dining area, with people enjoying their coffee, food, and conversation. It was amazing to see a representation of Melbourne’s café scene back to its vibrant self.”

Together with the team from Fairtrade and dc Specialty Coffee Roasters, the covershoot aimed to embrace an image that connected cup quality with the café’s role and responsibility in the supply chain.

“What better way to celebrate this than with a cupping that’s usually done behind closed doors in a roastery, and bring it to life in a café environment,” says Fairtrade Marketing Manager Kim Greenstone. “Cupping communicates quality, and it’s a great way of inviting people into the world of coffee.”

Jayne Dulson from dc Specialty Coffee Roasters was on hand to facilitate cupping as BeanScene photographer Blake Storey captured the cupping in stages from the initial pouring of water to the breaking of the crust. We used dc’s Allcity Espresso, the Fairtradecertified house blend of The Penny Drop.

Owner of The Penny Drop, Steven Liu, says customers are intrigued when they see the Fairtrade Mark on the bag.

“When we’re talking with customers about the coffee, we’ll start with the coffee itself, then the region, and tell them we’re using Fairtrade beans,” he says. “The customer is engaged, they want to learn more, and the best way to educate is just communication.”

The Penny Drop is located on the ground floor of the Australian Taxation Office building and provided the perfect background for this shoot with its high ceilings, warm and earthy tones, and contrasting accents. It opened five years ago and has since become a staple of the Box A pillar of strength Hill coffee scene.

Thanks to the day’s collaboration, the result of the February cover is a fresh and artistic display of a cupping that more cafés should celebrate with consumers to connect them with cup quality – and in this case – Fairtrade certified coffee.

FEBRUARY 2021

A World- Class Coffee Magazi ne

Navigating a year with confidence

A RTD revolution

Fleur Studd carves

her own lane

Why Fairtrade coffee

Infrared technology

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02

costs more

to change the game

DESIGN Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Courtney Walker courtney.walker@primecreative.com.au CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Zelda Tupicoff zelda.tupicoff@primecreative.com.au DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au CLIENT SUCCESS TEAM LEADER Janine Clements janine.clements@primecreative.com.au PHOTOGRAPHY Blake Storey, Rob Palmer, Jon Gazzignato, Armelle Habib, Kristopher Paulsen, C. Cornu, CIRAD CONTRIBUTORS Jibbi Little, Babin Gurung, Maurizio Marcocci, Christopher Short, Richard Padron, Emma McDougall, Kieran Westlake HEAD OFFICE Prime Creative Pty Ltd 11-15 Buckhurst Street South Melbourne VIC 3205 p: 03 9690 8766 f: 03 9682 0044 enquiries@primecreative.com.au www.beanscenemagazine.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 03 9690 8766 subscriptions@primecreative.com.au BeanScene magazine is available by subscription from the publisher. The rights of refusal are reserved by the publisher.

ARTICLES All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format.

COPYRIGHT

BeanScene magazine is owned by Prime Creative Media and published by Christine Clancy. All material in BeanScene magazine is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published. The opinions expressed in BeanScene magazine are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by, the publisher unless otherwise stated.

The new black

CONTRIBUTORS In each issue of BeanScene we profile a few of our talented contributors.

Kieran Westlake is the current President, past Treasurer, and past Vice-President of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA), Australia’s peak industry body dedicated to promoting and growing the specialty coffee industry. In his role, Kieran is excited to create opportunities and pathways for ASCA members. He is also a member of the Specialty Coffee Association and a certified food service professional.

Babin Gurung is the Suntory Coffee New South Wales Barista Trainer. With a Masters degree in accounting from the University of Southern Queensland, the only numbers Babin crunches these days are extraction and dose times. He came to Australia from Nepal 11 years ago to study, fell in love with coffee, and hasn’t looked back. Babin has worked at many different cafés in Sydney, and now enjoys sharing his coffee knowledge and skills to help build a new generation of baristas.

Rawirat Techasitthanet, also known as Jibbi Little, is originally from Thailand and lives in Sydney, Australia. She is a barista, latte artist, and roaster at Jibbi Little Roasting Co. She is also the designer and creator of the Jibbijug milk pitcher. Jibbi has worked in the coffee industry for the past 10 years. She is a five-time Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) NSW Latte Art Champion and the 2019 ASCA Pauls Professional Australian Latte Art Champion.

Jibbi is also a Q Grader, competition judge, and founder of the Jibbi Academy.

Maurizio Marcocci lived in Milan and attended the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, where he completed a Masters of Economics and International Relations. He has distinct qualifications from Italy as a Certified Coffee Taster with an Espresso Specialist Certificate. Now, as the Managing Director of Service Sphere, Maurizio has grown the business to become an industry leader in the sales and service of coffee equipment in just 10 years.

Emma McDougall is the Communication and Administration Coordinator for the NZSCA. After gaining a degree in hospitality management, Emma has worked in Sydney, Dublin, Auckland, London, and most recently, Wellington. She has owned and managed cafés and tech-judged the New Zealand Barista Championship in 2015 and 2016. Now, she gets to help run them. One of the greatest joys she gets from the coffee industry is watching young people progress through their coffee journey.

A word from the Editor

THE LITTLE THINGS

L

ast year tested most people’s strength and resilience, but it also taught us to “stop and smell the roses”.

More than just a slogan illuminated in a restaurant bar, the words became a mantra when I focused on what really mattered and sidelined the ‘extras’ during the Victorian lockdown.

I had never noticed the willie wagtail birds cleverly weaving a nest in my backyard before. I never knew my neighbour’s name until she stopped to give me a freshly cut rose, and I never knew my local barista went to the same high school as I did. It’s the little things.

It’s also the simple yet powerful values of community and culture that allowed people like Market Lane Coffee Co-Founder Fleur Studd to keep her commitments to producers, entire team employed, and coffee shops open throughout lockdown. As she reveals in our interview, one customer living alone reached even out to thank her for providing a place to connect with another human each day.

For many people, understandably, fear controlled a lot of their decision making: fear of safety, fear of social interaction, and fear of losing hospitality as we know it. What’s needed now is to overcome that fear in order to move forward, so that our industry can get back to the capacity and vibrancy it once had.

It’s life, but not as we know it. Some things may never be the same. We may see a permanent shift to automation, continued use of QR codes to ‘check in’, and online ordering, but what I believe will never be erased is our love for human interaction and conversation.

Australia’s coffee industry has always pushed its own agenda, we lift our own bar, and we do it together. That’s why I’m excited by the anticipation of new technology to hit our market in the coming months, including the Wega WBar, Aillio Bullet R1, Tone Touch 03, and Victoria Arduino Prima.

I’m also excited by the passionate green bean traders featured this edition who show such determination to advocate for farmer livelihoods, education and sustainable practices. Organisations like Fairtrade continue to bridge the gap between roasters and producers, and help cooperatives use the Fairtrade Premium to address their most pressing needs. What’s needed now is to engage more café owners in meaningful conversations as to why the premium exists, and why they should pay above commodity coffee prices.

After all, ‘hoping’ your coffee is doing good is not the same as ‘knowing’ it is.

So as we start our year afresh, let’s pledge to make the little things count.

SARAH BAKER

Follow us on Twitter @BeanSceneEd ‘Like’ us on Facebook @BeanSceneCoffeeMag Follow us on Instagram @beanscenemag

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AUSTRALIA’S

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#1 FOODSERVICE EXCLUSIVE PLANT-BASED BARISTA MILK FOR COFFEE

the best coffee deserves a better milk

NEWS

EAT DRINK DESIGN AWARDS REVEALS AUSTRALIA’S MOST BEAUTIFUL CAFÉ

There Café’s pared-back interior celebrates the site’s industrial character.

There Café in Footscray, Victoria has won Best Café Design in the 2020 Eat Drink Design Awards.

Housed in a 19th-century wool store, previously known as the long-time headquarters of book publisher Lonely Planet, There Café’s pared-back interior celebrates the site’s industrial character while softly layering new interventions.

“There Café makes dramatic yet sensitive use of its heritage location.

Executed with impressive restraint by Ewert Leaf, this buzzing inner-west meeting spot is a place where our jury

could happily imagine settling in for a long afternoon to drink coffee with friends,” reads the jury citation.

“Premium finishes share a subtle, uniform colour palette, with steel beams, leather banquettes, polished concrete and industrial light fittings accentuating the soaring, almost floorto-ceiling windows that draw in waves of natural light. There’s a softness to the design that plays off the grandness of the original building. The rich textures and discoverable layers feel unforced, giving an easy sensibility

and sophistication to the venue. While many café fitouts can quickly feel dated, There [Café] has a patina that will age well into the future.”

Commendations were given to Mr Frankie, The Beach House, and Café La Fayette in Victoria, and Dopa by Devon in New South Wales.

Dopa was awarded Best Identity Design, recognising the individuality and identity of the donburi café and milk bar, which incorporates elements of manga culture among other flourishes.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED IN FIRST NGORONGORO TANZANIA AUCTION Geisha coffees from Acacia Hills Coffee have taken the top two places in the first Ngorongoro Tanzania Private Collection Auction.

The Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) held the event on 2 February in partnership with the Ngorongoro Coffee Group. The 27 winning coffees from the auction represent five farms, six processes, and 11 varieties.

The first-place winner, a Peaberry grade, earned the only Presidential Award with a score of 90.31. Acacia Hills Coffee Estate, which took six of the top 10 spots, has the highest altitude farm in the region, reaching 6500 feet (about 1900 metres). The third-place winner was an AA washed Kent from Ngila Estate, located on the edge of a cloud forest of the northern highlands next to the Ngorongoro Crater.

The Ngorongoro Coffee Group is the originator of the annual Cupping at the Crater event. Formed by coffee farms surrounding the Ngorongoro Crater in northern Tanzania, the association’s goal is to advance the 12

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promotion, quality, and awareness of coffee in the surrounding area, which represents one of the highest altitude coffee growing regions in East Africa.

The competition had 38 coffees pass to the international stage, which

The 27 winning coffees from the auction represented five farms, six processes, and 11 varieties.

represented eight companies from around the world.

Limited quantities of samples are available. Lot sizes range from two to 660 kilograms. Opening prices start at US$4.50.

Champion Milk!

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Please contact us for a free trial of our award winning milks and creams Call: 1800 993 081 | Visit: riverinafresh.com.au

@riverinafresh

NEWS

JET TECHNOLOGIES CELEBRATES 40 YEARS OF SUCCESS IN PACKAGING Jet Technologies has celebrated 40 years of service, innovation, and expertise in the Australian and global industrial printing and packaging industries, including coffee packaging.

“Jet Technologies is proud to be celebrating its 40th anniversary as a leader in the industry, and to be showcasing the hard work of its industry expert staff who continue to deliver their customers in Australia and globally,” says Jack Malki, Director of Jet Technologies.

The story of Jet Technologies began when Managing Director Albert Malki and his family made their journey from Italy to Australia back in 1980.

When difficulties faced in assimilating into the Australian culture, Albert decided to start a company called Jet Overseas Trade to facilitate trade of a varied range of products between Australia and Europe. Industrial products were added over the years, including surfactants and aluminium.

By the late 1980s, Amcor requested the assistance of Jet Overseas Trade in working with the Cerutti group, an Italian manufacturer of gravure printing presses, and from there, grew the print division of the company.

“We pride ourselves on our strong family-based values, which we translate to our staff and our culture; investing in our staff to build long-lasting relationships with our

Jack Malki (left) Albert Malki (middle), and Daniel Malki (right).

customers, and striving to deliver genuine and expert service always,” says Albert Malki, Managing Director of Jet Technologies.

Working originally from offices in Sydney’s Bondi Junction, the team quickly expanded, and in 2001, moved to a larger location in Alexandria and became Jet Technologies. With further growth, including the addition of new team members and larger locations in other states.

“Today, we have grown and diversified significantly into the divisions of industrial, packaging, and printing – now employing over 70 staff and operating from locations across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Singapore,” says Daniel Malki, General Manager of Jet Technologies.

Albert continues to lead Jet Technologies and is supported by the second generation of the family business, Jack and Daniel.

on 9 December, before climbing back up to 116.98 on 17 December.

The ICO say prices in December were supported by sustained demand, as well as the depreciation of the US dollar.

Additionally, while exports from Brazil have surged due to the

sizeable 2020/21 crop, the ICO says this was partially offset by a decline in shipments from other Arabica producers, reducing the downward pressure on prices.

Global exports in November 2020 reached 10.15 million bags, which represents an increase of 5.7 per cent compared to November 2019. In the first two months of coffee year 2020/21 (October and November), total exports were 6.5 per cent higher at 20.2 million bags compared to the same period last year.

Likely due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, imports by ICO importing members and the United States decreased by 4.5 per cent to 129.98 million bags in coffee year 2019/20.

While both green and roasted imports declined in coffee year 2019/20, imports of soluble coffee increased by 1 per cent to 14.4 million bags.

COFFEE PRICES RISE IN DECEMBER The International Coffee Organization (ICO) composite indicator increased in December by 4.6 per cent to 114.74 US cents per pound, as prices for Arabica group indicators increased.

The daily composite indicator fell to a low of 110.35 US cents per pound

Coffee prices have been on a positive trajectory over the past two years, despite significant instability.

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NEWS

WORLD COFFEE RESEARCH TRIALS VARIETY PERFORMANCE IN AUSTRALIA Australia is one of 22 countries in the World Coffee Research (WCR) International Multilocation Variety Trial (IMLVT), but as the only one not in the Tropic of Capricorn belt, it stands as an outlier.

Professor Tobias Kretzschmar of Southern Cross University in Northern New South Wales says Australia, a recent addition to the trial, earned its place in the IMLVT thanks to its long history with coffee, research, and science.

“IMLVT participation allows us to assess a range of international coffee

cultivars which are likely to be highquality [and] high-yielding (and some of them rust-resistant),” Tobias says.

“Since our trial site is established right in the centre of the subtropical coffee-growing regions, it will allow us to evaluate which of these varieties further display a growth habit and architecture that is suitable for machine harvesting.”

WCR, in turn, is excited to see how varieties perform in Australia.

“Adding a subtropic region to our IMLVT data adds nuance that we

Australia has joined the World Coffee Research International Multilocation Variety Trial.

wouldn’t have otherwise had, and we’re excited to see how our 31 varieties do in this new environment,” says Solene Pruvot-Woehl, WCR’s IMLVT Program Coordinator.

“We see opportunity for the derived data to have impact in the greater Asia Pacific region, where coffee is often a significant source of income.”

Another unique element of Australia is that the country is relatively free of coffee-specific diseases and pests that plague other growing areas.

After spending over half a year under quarantine at Southern Cross University, as part of Australia’s strict biosecurity measures, the IMLVT trees were planted in the summer of 2019.

“The public interest in the trial and the industry engagement in helping establish this trial have been exceptional,” Tobias says.

“Many people who are interested in coffee cultivation or in the larger coffee value chain are very motivated by the fact that an international trial is ongoing in their neighbourhood. Australians love coffee [and] are very proud to be able to be part of this big WCR endeavour of the IMLVT.”

Leading European coffee cuppers met on 10 December, in the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) sensorial analysis laboratory in Montpellier and remotely, for a worldfirst tasting of three coffee species from the Coffea biological resource centre.

CIRAD says the advantage of using these new species lies in their capacity to resist a warmer climate and coffee leaf rust. But it adds the expert jury was required to determine if they come up to scratch in terms of taste.

The three wild coffee species were Coffea stenophylla, which could adapt to higher temperatures and appears to have good gustatory quality, and Coffea brevipes and Coffea congensis, which are more vigorous and could rival Robusta in terms of taste.

All three species are also apparently resistant to coffee leaf rust, a widespread disease throughout the coffee production zone.

“Adopting new species for general consumption is not a trivial undertaking.

First of all, science has to demonstrate their merits in terms of productivity and quality. The next step is ensuring that industry and consumers take them on board,” says Benoît Bertrand, a breeder 16

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Credit: C. Cornu, CIRAD

EUROPEAN CUPPERS ASSESS THE ‘FORGOTTEN’ WILD COFFEE SPECIES

A world-first coffee tasting was held at CIRAD’s sensory analysis laboratory in Montpellier, France.

at CIRAD and Coffee Value Chain Correspondent.

These new coffees, prepared and roasted at CIRAD, were tested by a jury of 12 coffee tasters, including cuppers from Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Nespresso, Starbucks, Supremo, AST Sensory Skills, l’Arbre à Café, La Claque, and Belco.

The blind tasting session in CIRAD’s sensory analysis laboratory followed a strict protocol. A red light was used to

mask the different colours of the coffee, to ensure that the tasters focused on their sense of smell and taste.

“The aroma profile of new coffees looks promising,” says Morgane Daeschner. A juror and Q Grader, who is also trained as an agronomist, identified hints of elderflower and lychee in one of the new species.

CIRAD says it is now up to its researchers to demonstrate the agronomic merits of these new species.

Whether you own three cafÊs or run a chain – we focus on roasting coffee to your custom specifications, so you can focus on building your business.

STUFF ON THE SCENE

Stuff on the scene 99TH MONKEY NUT BUTTERS

99th Monkey exists to spread the joy of simple, delicious food. That’s why it makes its products in small batches, carefully sourcing only the finest minimally processed ingredients and hand filling every jar.

99th Monkey’s best-selling Unsalted Natural Peanut Butter includes just one ingredient – roasted peanuts, created using the freshest peanuts and ground with love. Its Salted Natural Peanut Butter also turns tasty peanuts into a creamy yet crunchy consistency with a sprinkling of natural salt.

99th Monkey’s Natural Almond Butter spread is made with 100 per cent roasted almonds. It’s smooth, creamy, and naturally full of protein.

These healthy alternative nut butters are ideal for cafés to use as a spread, in smoothies, or in cooking.

All butters are vegan, GMO free, gluten free, and contain no palm oil.

For more information, visit 99thmonkey.com.au

SSP GRINDING SOLUTIONS Barista Group Co Specialty Coffee Products is the exclusive Australian and New Zealand distributor of grinding tool manufacturer SSP Grinding Solutions.

Family owned and operated since 1991, SSP Grinding Solutions began as one of the early manufacturers of grinding tools in South Korea. Barista Group calls them leaders in offering high quality cutting and specialty tools.

SSP Grinding Solutions features a complete line of flat coffee burrs suitable for many popular grinders, including the Mahlkönig EK43, Anfim SPII and Scody, Ditting 804, and EK43s, Mythos One, ODE coffee grinder, and several Mazzer units.

The burrs come made with several different high-performance materials, including in tungsten, Red Speed, and Silver Knight coating.

For more information, visit www.baristagroup.com.au/collections/burrs

CAFETTO HOME RANGE Domestic coffee consumption is higher than ever, and Cafetto has responded with a range of its most popular products in sachets for the home user. These convenient, single-use sachets provides consumers with a simple, easy-to-use solution for cleaning coffee machines.

The sachets contain a measured dose to prevent wastage and overdosing of products and offer easy handling with no risk of contamination.

The Cafetto Home Range offers a variety of products to clean home coffee equipment, from traditional and automatic machines, capsule machines and grinders, to crockery and milk jugs. The range includes sachets of EVO, Espresso Clean, Grinder Clean, MFC Powder Blue, MFC Powder Red, Spectra, and Inverso.

For more information, visit www.cafetto.com

ELEKTRA VERVE Elektra Verve is a sleek, compact designed semi-commercial coffee machine that is ideal for home use.

One of its many highlights is the saturated group for unparalleled thermal stability and amazing extractions. This is the same group that is used on Elektra’s high-end commercial espresso machines.

It also has a five-litre built in water tank making it completely self-contained. It is also equipped with a commercial rotary pump, giving the ability to plumb in.

Other great features include programmable brew temperature, pre-infusion times, and smart phone compatability.

The Elektra Verve features wooden side panels that bring a natural warmth to a machine that produces outstanding coffee. This machine embraces sophisticated engineering, beautiful design, ultimate performance, and exceptional value at $5900, inclusive of GST. For more information, contact Coffee Machine Technologies on +61 3 9335 2293 or visit www.coffeemachinetechnologies.com.au

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RIVERINA FRESH LACTOSE FREE MILK

Riverina Fresh is known for its award–winning fresh milks and dairy products and is pleased to announce that its Lactose Free full cream milk was awarded Champion White Milk at the Dairy Industry Association of Australia NSW awards 2020. It is the first time in the awards history that a lactose-free milk has been crowned overall Champion White Milk.

Riverina Fresh’s Lactose Free milks, available in Full Cream and Light, have been carefully developed to deliver the same great taste, mouthfeel, and consistency of the wider Riverina Fresh range. Coffee connoisseurs, and consumers in general, now have a great tasting dairy milk for those who suffer from lactose intolerance. Riverina Fresh’s Lactose Free milks are perfect to pair with coffee and particularly complement iced coffees in summer with their slightly sweeter note, despite having no added sugar.

For home use, you can find Riverina Fresh Lactose Free milks at Woolworths stores in Victoria and New South Wales, leading independent retailers, and local cafes.

For more information or for a free trial* in your café, please call 1800 993 081 or visit www.riverinafresh.com.au *Maximum of two mixed crates per store.

EUREKA MIGNON SILENT RANGE

Service Sphere is now an official distributor of Eureka grinders, including the new Mignon Range.

The range features an anti-vibration solution that reduces grinding noise by approximately 20 decibels compared to conventional grinders.

The Specialita model features 55-millimetre burrs with excellent grind dispersion, speed, and performance. A new touchscreen and control panel allows for two programmable doses, with total control of grinding time, or an extra dose continuous mode.

The Silenzio model, with Eureka’s patented stepless micrometric regulation system, guarantees incomparable grinding performance in terms of quality and precision.

Both models feature an anti-clump and electrostaticity system and all-purpose hands-free fork suitable to many types of portafilters. Both grinders are available in black, white, and chrome.

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KNOWLEDGE LEADER

Fleur’s own lane

Credit: Kristopher Paulsen

Melbourne Coffee Merchants and Market Lane Coffee Co-Founder Fleur Studd talks to BeanScene about the power of storytelling, a year of innovating and making coffee for the city that loves to drink it.

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Credit: Armelle Habib

T

here’s often a place or memory that provides inspiration for a bigger purpose, and for Fleur Studd, that was a visit to Monmouth Coffee Roasters in London’s Borough Market.

“I started drinking coffee in high school but I didn’t think of it as a differentiated beverage. I thought all coffee was the same. That was until I went to London in 2003 and was introduced to Monmouth Coffee,” Fleur recalls.

“Monmouth has an awesome line-up of diverse coffees, and their staff are experts at explaining how they taste and what makes them special. I was blown away as I began to appreciate how things like the variety, origin, or processing could impact the cup.”

When Fleur briefly returned to Australia at the start of 2008, she visited the St Ali café and roastery to see the venue Mark Dundon had just opened.

“Mark is a true pioneer. His café was one of the first to roast on site and talk about the provenance of coffees. We got chatting and I learnt that, at the time, Mark was finding it difficult to source traceable, high-quality, and fresh green beans,” Fleur says. “The scene was very different back then. Australian importers focused on commercial-grade coffee and things like traceability and seasonality weren’t valued. I told Mark about this amazing coffee shop in London bringing in their own coffee, and suggested we find out more about their sourcing.”

Fleur returned to the United Kingdom and started talking with Monmouth owner Anita Leroy. She learnt that they worked with UK importer Mercanta to source their coffee and arranged for a mixed pallet of green beans to be sent to Melbourne.

“We had no idea if the coffee would clear customs or how long it would take,” Fleur says. “We hoped that people would taste the difference and get excited. As it turns out, they did. Mark ordered coffee, and other roasters came on board, including Mecca and Coffee Alchemy. Local roasters and coffee friends tasted our coffees and liked them.

They told their coffee friends and slowly our volumes grew, until we were able to bring our first full container from origin – then another and another.”

That was the start of Fleur’s coffee importing journey. Around the same time she quit her job in marketing and began to learn as much about coffee as she could. Fleur signed up to every course available at the London School of Coffee to learn how to brew, roast

Market Lane opened in 2009 and continues to be a destination that celebrates the quality and provenance of coffee.

and cup coffee. She also worked at Monmouth for six months. Owner Anita allowed Fleur to see all parts of the business, from roasting and packing coffee to working in the shop.

It was behind the bean counter where Fleur experienced her own “coffee breakthrough”.

“I fell in love with coffee at that point.

I loved talking to people about coffee, tasting it with them, and seeing them get excited about it,” Fleur says. “I also began to understand why building a market and appreciation for specialty coffee was so important and necessary to ensure better and more sustainable prices were paid to the producer.”

Fleur returned home to Australia in November 2008 and established Melbourne Coffee Merchants (MCM).

“I was so lucky to be embraced by the coffee community in Australia, and to gain their trust so quickly. The specialty coffee industry was in its infancy and very open, curious, and eager to learn.

It was an exciting time to work in coffee, and to play a part in redefining what

coffee was and could be,” Fleur says.

A year later, she opened Market Lane Coffee with Jason Scheltus, who had also worked at Monmouth.

“Jason and I shared a vision for what we wanted Market Lane to be, and our values were aligned. We wanted to set a very high standard for coffee in Melbourne and, at the same time, make specialty coffee accessible and easy to understand and enjoy,” Fleur says.

“One of the first things we did was introduce a Seasonal Espresso blend.

This was fairly novel – most roasters didn’t provide transparency about what was in their blends because they believed the consumer would be worried about variation and mostly just wanted consistency. We wanted to celebrate this seasonality in coffee, and to use it as a tool for helping educate people about coffee.”

Fleur and Jason decided to open their first coffee shop at Prahran Market.

Similar to Monmouth, the market location provided the perfect opportunity for the Market Lane team to connect

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KNOWLEDGE LEADER

Credit: Kristopher Paulsen

Fleur Studd says the relationships that have been formed through Market Lane and MCM are what she values most from her coffee career.

with a community of shoppers who were seeking out quality produce, and cared about seasonality and provenance. These days, Fleur, Jason, and Jenni Bryant coown Market Lane, which has six coffee shops across Melbourne, as well as an office and roastery space.

Fleur had an appreciation for quality produce from an early age. Her father, Will Studd, is a specialty cheese importer and writer, and has worked hard to educate people about the provenance of high-quality cheese.

“His work had a massive influence on my direction with coffee. There are a lot of parallels you can make. We both focused on building a market for high quality, artisanal produce, and are passionate about agitating for positive change in our respective industries,” Fleur says.

Quality, transparency, and sustainability are core values for both MCM and Market Lane. Helping to educate the industry and the consumer has also been central to each business’s mission. “The more demand there is for quality coffee, the better off the producers will be, and the more sustainable the coffee supply chain will become,” Fleur says.

MCM and Market Lane now partner directly with producers and passionate exporters on the ground at origin. Fleur’s commitment to producers and ability to maintain buying volumes year on year were her first concerns when COVID-19 made its presence felt in Australia.

At first, she went into “panic mode”.

She felt terrified for the future of the businesses and staff, and perhaps most crucially, the producers she works with.

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Thankfully, as most coffee shops and roasteries were able to trade through the pandemic, the entire team has remained employed, and commitments to producers have not changed.

“We’ve been extremely lucky to remain open during this period, and had incredible support from our suppliers and customers alike,” Fleur says. “Market Lane’s shop staff had to adapt to often rapidly-changing rules and protocols during 2020, and always managed to do so with awe-inspiring grace, warmth, professionalism, and care for both their customers and each other.”

Fleur recalls a “magical moment” post-lockdown talking to a customer who thanked her for having a place to come each day.

“She told me she lived and worked alone and that coming to our shop was the one way she could connect with another human during the day,” Fleur says. “Our processes had to change, and we relied a lot more on online orders and postal delivery, but I’m so grateful that even in deep lockdown, people could maintain the small, consistent pleasure of a coffee ritual.”

Over at origin, many producers got inventive with the way they sold their coffee and communicated with buyers, setting up Zoom calls and even webcams so that Fleur and the team could watch the coffee being processed, dried on patios, and cupped.

Despite the odd container delay, Fleur says the business has thankfully come out of the pandemic remarkably well, however she is deeply concerned about the impact on the communities overseas who have been hit hard by

lockdowns and unemployment.

Fleur is desperate to travel and connect with producers in person again, but appreciates that last year’s travel ban allowed more of the team to participate in the buying process.

“Usually, it would be one or two of us going to buy coffee, but in 2020, eight of us stood – socially distanced – around a table, buying coffee together, which was actually meaningful for our team,” she says.

“Still, we miss connecting with producers on the ground. It’s easy to sit around a cupping table and assign a coffee with a score and tasting notes, but you’re not talking to the farmer about the challenges of labour or weather or seeing the improvements they’ve made on the farm. Zoom has been a great way to stay connected, but we gain a more intimate understanding of the complexities, challenges, and opportunities when we are able to travel to origin.”

The tumultuous year has further cemented what Fleur and her business partners are most grateful for: its longstanding relationships.

“We have been lucky to work with many of the same producers year after year. These producers are like family, and their dedication, hard work and unwavering commitment to quality – and to supporting their local communities – blows us away every time we visit them and reinforces all the reasons why we do what we do,” Fleur says.

“It makes us even more determined to celebrate and showcase their coffees, and continue to share their stories.

Across both businesses, we know we’re doing our job when a customer gets excited to see a specific coffee available, or asks us when it will be back.”

It’s been a year of consolidation and reflection in all sectors of the businesses, from sustainability goals, including the installation of solar panels on the roastery, to searching for ways to further reduce packaging. Fleur hopes 2021 will be about maintaining “the new norm” and keeping a sense of community and culture within the MCM and Market Lane families.

“The thing I appreciate most in this journey is the people and the relationships that have been formed through both of our businesses,” Fleur says. “Those relationships are so precious, and the friendships and community we’ve built is something I will always cherish, whether we are socially distanced or – hopefully soon – connecting over our shared passion for coffee together, both in Australia and abroad.”

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THE FISH BUTCHER A proud Australian, Josh Niland’s favourite fish to work with are King George whiting followed by coral trout because of how incomparable they are to anything else in the world. He says they stand toe-to-toe with Scottish Salmon and English Turbot fish. Learn more in Josh’s second cookbook, set for release later this year.

Credit: Rob Palmer

sgds

CELEBRITY CHEF

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Star of the sea Josh Niland talks to BeanScene about his rock star coffee encounter, the power of online learning, and breaking down the barrier to sustainable fishing. and experiencing its jittery after-effects in the kitchen.

“Now, I just have two a day – a strong three quarter latte – usually one in the morning and another mid-morning, and that’s it,” Josh says. “For a while I drank filter coffee. I really enjoy the actual characteristics of coffee without being diluted by the milk.”

Josh serves Artificer Coffee on batch brew at his restaurant, Saint Peter, a seasonal filter blend of 60 per cent Colombian and 40 per cent Mexican beans. Josh also enjoys visiting local Sydney cafés for different purposes: Room 10 in Potts Point for the ambiance, Double Cross Espresso Bar in Crows Nest for his morning ritual, and Bonython to “wheel and deal” for the restaurant and write his daily menu.

Aside from an occasional Instagram post for connectivity, Josh credits social media and the rise of YouTube and online masterclasses as one of the greatest developments in education.

“Thanks to educational videos you can get very good or as good as the best. I think when anyone gets good at a craft or focuses in, there’s a sense of pride, and that’s the feeling a lot of people get when they make coffee themselves rather than buying it all the time,” Josh says.

“Coffee is very single focused, as in it’s just about one product, much like fish is fish. Whenever there’s a lane you can drive in that has a one dimensional focus, you can get very good at it and understand it quicker and become more creative with it.”

Josh’s drinking habits have come a long way since the days of eating the milk froth off the top of his mother’s cappuccino and running the year 10 hospitality class café.

His kids just bought him a Breville coffee machine for his birthday and he treated his wife to a coffee dripper so she always has coffee to enjoy first thing in the morning.

“Coffee has been made a priority to a lot of Australians because of the joy it brings, the bit of relief it gives you, especially for a generation that has more parameters around what’s good for us. I feel like coffee still sits within the boundaries of being healthy yet helpful. I just love it,” Josh says.

When Josh made his guest judge

Newcastle Bugs and Carolina Reaper Thousand Island dressing served at Saint Peter.

Credit: Josh Niland

M

ost home cooks and aspiring chefs have industry icons they idolise, but for Josh Niland, it was 2003 World Barista Championship winner Paul Bassett.

“I used to worship Paul. I’d only ever seen him in magazines like BeanScene, which was literally one of the first magazines I started reading. I used to buy it all the time when I started working in a café at age 14. I’m meticulous for details, so I got really heavily invested in coffee.

I was aware of Paul’s coffee skills and his famous milk set. He was a rock star in that sense,” Josh recalls.

“It wasn’t until I opened Saint Peter a bit over four years ago that Paul became one of the first people to come to the restaurant.

I didn’t even have to look at the booking name, I knew it was him with his very recognisable black bob [of hair]. At one point, he walked past the kitchen and was quick to have a chat. He’s been a regular ever since.”

Josh has been curious about coffee since the day he undertook work at a local café in East Maitland, New South Wales.

He started washing dishes and running food until he turned 14 and was “finally” allowed to make coffee.

Josh took a shine to a guy at the café called Mike, who had just completed the Paul Bassett coffee course and encouraged Josh to watch his educational coffee videos.

“I thought it was brilliant and easy to follow. I was trying really hard to get better at texturing milk and perfecting shots. I had a good six to eight months of training on the coffee machine,” Josh says. “It’s a bit like riding a bike. Yes there are certain people who can ride better than you and probably faster than you, and have shinier bikes than you, but jumping behind a machine and making a coffee for myself or someone else is one of those things that still brings me joy.”

Josh found his coffee calling. He was warned to not drink too much or suffer the consequences. He found his limit during his third and fourth-year chef’s apprenticeship, consuming up to 18 piccolos on shift

By Sarah Baker

debut on MasterChef in 2020, he demonstrated how to scale, gut and butcher a large kingfish. He resembled a surgeon conducting an operation he’d done a hundred times before. Donning black gloves, every movement of his knife was precise, every step calculated, and the entire country was mesmerised.

“We filmed the week we also shut down the restaurant due to COVID. I was quite nervous on the flight over with everything going on. The morning of the MasterChef filming, my wife told me to smile a lot because it would air during lockdown. It was pretty extraordinary that a big brand like MasterChef and Channel 10 were brave enough to want to show me filleting a fish on national prime time TV. I could finally show people what I do on a commercial level.”

Josh started his chef’s apprenticeship at just 16 years of age after finishing year 10.

One year later, he moved to Sydney by himself to work with Luke Mangan at Glass Brasserie and Peter Doyle at est. restaurant.

But it was perhaps his work at Fish Face with chef Steve Hodges for several years that planted Josh’s career into seafood.

“Steven gave me so much trust, so much so that I was allowed to fail. Not many young chefs are given the ability to fail and exceed and feel both forms of emotions. It

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CELEBRITY CHEF

Credit: Rob Palmer

Josh Niland is passionate about sustainable fish farming and the fin-to-scale movement.

was quite extraordinary to be so completely in control with Steve’s guidance,” Josh says.

“I was 18 when I was proficiently running the kitchen. Steve was a demon in the kitchen, but so technically proficient and a perfectionist when it came to cooking fish. I felt that with the amount of time I

spent with Steve and the amount of his brain that he unpacked into mine, it would be disrespectful to him and the people that trained him if I didn’t use that acumen and progress it further.”

Josh was 28 when he opened his own fish restaurant, Saint Peter, in 2016.

In doing so, he’s started a conversation about the ‘fin-to-scale movement’.

He backed it up in 2018 when he launched Fish Butchery, Australia’s first sustainable fishmonger.

Josh credits his own style and creativity to his overseas experiences including development work with Heston Blumenthal, the balance of skills from Peter Doyle, and the handling of fish from Steve Hodges.

“I feel that I’ve won out in terms of direction. Fish for me has remained untapped for a long time globally. It’s been seen as very one dimensional. The reason why everything has moved so quick for me is because my wife Julie and I own the business and can do what we want,” Josh says. “Not many people would agree to put four-week old fish on the menu. Having the confidence to do our own thing has been the pinnacle of our career so far.”

The interest in Josh’s craft saw his first

commercial cookbook, The Whole Fish, fly off the shelves. His second cookbook is set for release in 2021.

“The first book started the conversation with so many new concepts no-one had ever heard of. The new one is far more blueprint, more colourful, more encouraging, and is a summary of where my head is at,” he says.

Last year was a turbulent one for so many in hospitality, with Josh managing the restaurant and home schooling of his three kids. He hopes 2021 will bring more opportunities on MasterChef, team building at Saint Peter, and a “head down bum up” approach.

“What gives me most joy at the moment is the general camaraderie of the industry and how open it is. When I started, the message was ‘these are our recipes, our processes, don’t look in’. The only way to look in was to experience the food and buy cookbooks. As an apprentice, every pay cheque was invested in food,” Josh says. “Cooking still brings me a huge amount of joy. It’s not something I do every day because I wear a few different hats now, so any opportunity to cook – for my kids or customers – is when I go into my own element.”

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

The cost of a cup BeanScene asks why coffee from a certification and development model like Fairtrade costs more and how that price is reflected in the cup.

W

hen café owners face their own business and financial challenges, it can be difficult to see the value of serving certified coffee. However, Molly Harriss Olson, CEO at Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand and former chair of the Fairtrade International Board, says it’s important to know that Fairtrade is the only globally scaled alternative trading system that is half owned by the farmers.

“From tree to cup, Fairtrade has a profound impact across 75 developing countries on sustainability practices, quality, and farmer livelihoods – because the Fairtrade farmers own it,” Molly says.

Farmers selling Fairtrade-certified coffee are paid a minimum of US$1.40 per pound. Will Valverde, Fairtrade ANZ Producer Support quality and productivity lead and former member of a Costa Rican Fairtrade cooperative, says this is

broadly recognised as the sustainable cost of production, though this changes from country to country and farmer to farmer.

On top of that, a Fairtrade Premium of US 20 cents per pound is paid to reinvest in the farm and the community.

“Coffee prices have only been above the Fairtrade sustainable cost of production for roughly three months in the last five years. That’s incredibly challenging if you’re a farmer,” Will says.

“The next generation of coffee farmers know the cards are stacked against a fair go, and without Fairtrade, will their kids think it’s a fantastic business to invest in?”

While the specialty coffee industry will often discuss how and why they pay above commodity coffee prices, Stephen Nankervis Fairtrade ANZ’s Commercial Partnerships Manager says this represents a fraction of coffee consumed in Australia.

“The specialty coffee market occupies the hearts and minds of the coffee drinking community, but it doesn’t occupy the volume,” Stephen says. “Commodity prices go up and down. In 2019, it went as low as 88 US cents.

If you were a Fairtrade farmer, you were

selling coffee for about double that.”

However, he adds that “there is a lot of confusion in the industry about how the Fairtrade Minimum works. The base price payable for Fairtrade-certified coffee is US$1.40 per pound, it’s not a set or ceiling price. Like non-certified coffee, better quality requires higher prices.

“It’s frustrating when I see roasters say ‘we pay more than Fairtrade’ for a 90-pointplus Geisha out of Panama. If you had bought that coffee under Fairtrade terms, you’d be paying exactly the same price, plus 20 cents premium.”

At least a quarter of the Fairtrade Premium paid to farmers is required to be reinvested in farm quality and productivity.

Fairtrade also invests in liaison and quality officers on the ground to train farmers and cooperatives in good farming practices.

“The last thing Fairtrade wants is for coffee to be sold at Fairtrade Minimum prices. That’s why it’s important to us we help producers invest in their quality and production, so it achieves those higher points and gets a better price,” Will says.

“One of the first things a cooperative will do when they become Fairtrade certified is buy their own set of scales, so they know how much they’re selling and can’t be taken advantage of anymore. At the end of the day, Fairtrade isn’t a charity.

It’s a development model that says to farmers: ‘you’re in control of your own destiny’.”

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SEEING THE DIFFERENCE

With a relationship going back at least 15 years, Bennetts was one of the first coffee importers in Australia to partner with Fairtrade. Over that time, Managing Director Scott Bennett tells BeanScene he’s watched the development of Fairtrade cooperatives, producers, and their communities.

“For farmers, there’s no doubt in the benefits of being in a Fairtrade cooperative and the help and technical assistance that Fairtrade offers,” Scott says.

“But it really goes back to the Fairtrade social premium and what the cooperative wants to do with it. If they want to spend it on a new school, that’s where the money goes. If they want a new hospital, that’s where it goes. It’s different horses for different courses, and the beauty of the Fairtrade system is that it allows that flexibility.”

Though he’s seen the benefits of Fairtrade for himself, Scott admits it can be tough educating the coffee community, especially if they don’t understand the challenges farmers faced before joining the development model.

“You can read as much as you’d like in an email, but until you actually get there and see what they’re dealing with – that people need to walk for hours up the hill every day to get to their coffee trees – that

The Allcity Espresso blend from DC Specialty Coffee Roasters uses Fairtrade-certified coffee from Indonesia and Colombia.

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you get an appreciation for the work involved,” Scott says.

One of the Fairtrade cooperatives Bennetts works with in Colombia started with two containers in the 1990s. Now, it produces 80 containers per year.

“If you want to better the world and these growers’ outcomes, paying that social premium, about 50 to 60 cents per kilogram, is a small price,” Scott says.

“If you want to lift 1000 people out of the bush and help them produce something that will sustain them for the next 20 years, setting up a Fairtrade cooperative is probably the first thing you’d want to do.”

While Bennetts is passionate about supporting Fairtrade, Scott says they wouldn’t be able to buy the coffee if it didn’t sell, so the quality has to match the price.

“We’ve been working with various cooperatives since they’ve become members of the Fairtrade system. They might start with a low cup quality, but that always improves as a by-product of them managing their farms and processing better,” Scott says.

“Now we’re bringing in these coffees because they’re fantastic in their own right and just happen to be Fairtrade. We’re willing to pay that premium because the coffees stand out that much.”

Fairtrade’s global system is 50 per cent owned by producers, representing farmer and worker organisations.

THE PENNY DROPS

DC Specialty Coffee Roasters is another longstanding Fairtrade collaborator.

General Manager Rob Stewart says Fairtrade has been open to involving and engaging DC as much as possible in the system.

“The more we put into Fairtrade, the more we get out of it,” Rob says.

“It’s important to have that third-party validation because consumers recognise and trust it. But there’s more to it than a logo and I’ve seen the difference it can make.”

He says a crucial part of the Fairtrade model is having people on the ground, helping cooperatives and communities identify their most pressing needs and how best to address them. A few of the cooperatives DC works with found the best use of the Fairtrade Premium was to upgrade their skills.

“We’ve seen that in Sumatra Ketiara [in Indonesia], where most of their Quality Assurance staff have been trained as Q Graders and the cup quality is just fantastic,” Rob says.

“It’s not lost at the top either. They’re even enabled to share this knowledge with the next generation to come through and pick up what they’re putting down. It’s encouraging the young coffee farmers, so we’re not losing this talent because they want to go live in the city.”

Fairtrade has served as a bridge between DC and many producers, taking

“IF YOU WANT TO BETTER THE WORLD AND THESE GROWERS’ OUTCOMES, PAYING THAT SOCIAL PREMIUM, ABOUT 50 TO 60 CENTS PER KILOGRAM, IS A SMALL PRICE.” them to the farms and cooperatives and enabling direct contact over WhatsApp. This way, Rob can share his firsthand experiences of Fairtrade and origin with DC’s customers.

He says the Fairtrade Mark is most valuable when dealing direct to consumer, or you have the opportunity to sit down with a customer and discuss the difference it makes.

“The value plan is extraordinary.

When you see the whole chain of how it works and how they reinvest the premium back into their quality, it benefits so much to the community,” Rob says.

“The proof is in the cup at the end of the day.”

DC Coffee Roasters uses Fairtradecertified coffee in its Allcity Espresso blend, which The Penny Drop in Box Hill, Victoria, runs as its house blend.

Owner Steven Liu says serving Fairtrade coffee provides him with reassurance as well as a consistent cup.

“As café owners at the end of the chain, if we go for the cheapest coffees, it’ll work in the short-term, but it won’t be sustainable in the long-term. Farmers will give up growing coffee and that will actually push the prices up,” Steven says.

“I don’t want to have sleepless nights worrying about how the coffee arrived at my café.”

coffee is a thriving business for the future,” Molly says.

In 2018, Larry Fink, CEO of American investment fund BlackRock said in his annual open letter to CEOs, “a company cannot achieve long-term profits without embracing purpose and considering the needs of a broad range of stakeholders”. Molly says this was a turning point for many large global corporations, which have readjusted their

values accordingly, and that the same rings true for small business.

“Fink conveyed that without purpose, you won’t get profit because you’ll lose your social license to operate. In a social media world, you’re judged before people have even left your premises and access to information sits within their hands, so it will be critical to provide a level of transparency,” Molly says.

“Relying on something not Fairtradecertified is relying on someone’s word, but who’s measuring that? One of the challenges with ‘self-certification’ is that there’s very little data you can trust and that means a lack of accountability.”

Or, as Steven Liu says: “It’s important as a café owner that you don’t just hope that your coffee is doing good.

With Fairtrade, you know it.”

For more information, visit www.fairtradeanz.org

BOUNCING BACK BETTER COVID-19 has provided many governments, businesses, and people with an opportunity to analyse how and why we make certain decisions and see the real impacts of our choices. Fairtrade ANZ’s CEO Molly says in order to function long-term, the coffee industry must look at how it can do things better to sustain the livelihoods of the coffee farmers, as well as the markets.

“People say ‘we need to return to normal’, but COVID has shown us that ‘normal’ wasn’t working. Coffee supply chains – in the absence of Fairtrade – unwittingly contribute to grinding poverty, and expect more and more from the people who have the least.

A ‘new normal’ can create sustainable livelihoods for all, and ensure quality

Café owners are encouraged to support Fairtrade and the long-term sustainability of coffee farming.

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FEATURE NEWS

RTD revolution From bottles to cans and cartons, the coffee industry is embracing ready to drink coffee as more than a sugary caffeine hit.

T

he iced coffee carton is a supermarket and convenience store staple, and serves as many people’s first step into the wonderful world of coffee.

The classic ready to drink (RTD) coffee is probably more notorious for its sugar content than the quality of its coffee. But that’s changing.

Many Australian specialty coffee roasters – Seven Seeds, Code Black, and Industry Beans to name a few – have tossed their hat into the RTD ring, adding pre-made cans, bottles, or even casks, to their arsenals.

St Ali has also embraced RTD coffee, which Owner and Creative Director Salvatore Malatesta says gives the roaster full control over its coffee quality.

Ciel in South Melbourne bottles its own RTD coffee recipe, the Neapolitan.

“Being able to offer a consistent flavour profile as we reach further afield is really important,” Salvatore says.

“RTD means we can have our coffee in a random petrol stop on the way from Port Macquarie to Byron Bay, with the customer still able to drink a delicious iced coffee or canned brew.”

St Ali has sold bottled ice lattes and filter at its South Melbourne café for years. In 2020, it started experimenting with other formats, including casks, cans, and cartons.

“We’ve done RTD at a cottage-industry scale in the [South Melbourne] café for about 10 years, but the cans and cartons are completely new. They’ve been years in the making,” Salvatore says.

The RTD cans come in two varieties,

using the traditional, chocolate-caramel Wide Awake or fruitier Feels Good blends as their bases. Salvatore says the cans had an instant reaction from customers.

“We made 30,000 cold brew cans in the first batch and they sold out online in three days,” he says.

“It’s been interesting watching people buy them, because they’ll pick up two slabs – with 24 in each – then come back in a few weeks and buy two more. The good thing about cold brew you can buy a slab and put it in the pantry. All you need at home is shelf space.”

Cold brew can also serve as an alternative to other types of beverages, in occasions when someone wouldn’t typically go for a coffee.

“What’s cool is you could treat it as a pre- or post-workout, pre-exam energy drink replacement,” Salvatore says.

“Or, when you want to have a cocktail or something alcoholic, but it’s not the right time, you can knock back a cold brew with an ‘adult’ mouthfeel to it.”

The iced coffee cartons, on the other hand, harken back to classic styles of RTD coffee. Made with espresso coffee and milk from Riverina Fresh, Salvatore says it was important to use fresh milk for the best possible flavour, even if it meant a shorter shelf life.

“The iced coffee in a carton is nostalgic to the days of drinking a Big M on a hot day,” Salvatore says.

“The most important element for us was the right dairy partner, because we can’t do it without them. We’ve been working with Riverina for close to a decade and they believed in our idea.”

St Ali began sampling the iced coffee cartons in November, with a full launch across Australia planned for March. In future, the roaster plans to introduce an oat milk variant too.

“The cartons will start off in the independents, but we’re not hiding the fact we’d like to see them on major shelves. If you’re going into your Woollies to do your weekly groceries, we want you to be buying our iced coffee,” Salvatore says.

“Like Stumptown in the United States, we think we can roast great specialty coffee and have our iced coffee on shelves in supermarkets.”

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FEATURE NEWS

St Ali’s new coffee cartons evoke the nostalgia and style of classic iced coffees.

MADE FOR SUMMER

Veneziano Coffee Roasters has also seen potential in the RTD space, revamping its cold brew cans with new formula and packaging ahead of summer 2020.

Research and Development Consultant Pete Licata tells BeanScene it’s important these products combine quality with convenience.

“We want people to be able to have a great tasting coffee experience and to be able to take it with them,” Pete says.

“A lot of people might also walk into a café, be exposed to our coffee and want to take something home. But they might not necessarily want to buy beans or make the coffee at home. There’s definitely a demographic of people that want something easy like an RTD.” Veneziano’s cold brew uses the Elevate blend as a base and was released in two flavours – Straight Up and Blood Orange. A third variant combined with oat milk was added to the roster in early 2021.

“We want something approachable – sweet, chocolatey, and strongly reminiscent of some of our coffees,” Pete says.

“That kind of flavour profile works in general for RTD. It’s really hard to can and preserve the beautiful floral, berry, or citrus notes you might get from some single origins because the aromatics tend to change over time. It might taste like mandarin when we can it, but it may shift to grapefruit in a couple of months.”

Blood Orange uses additional citrus and tonic flavours to create that kind

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of experience instead. Pete says this bright and fresh profile works well for a flavoured drink.

“You can pour the blood orange cold brew from the can, throw a shot of gin or vodka in it, and you’ve got a really tasty cocktail,” Pete says.

As well as selling these cans online and through its flagship venues, Veneziano is also encouraging some of its café partners to add the RTD offering to their menus.

Michael Taylor, National Sales Manager at Veneziano, says RTD options offer many benefits to a café, from speed of service to low barrier to entry to sell.

“If you have an RTD in your beverage range, it takes pressure off other aspects of your business with little to no extra input.

You stick it in the fridge and it’s ready to go,” Michael says.

“But you don’t have to stop with just serving the can. We’ve experimented with the product and how people can use it in their beverage range and bring it to life in something else, whether that be as a cocktail or signature drink.”

The Veneziano team see RTD as one of many new trends in the specialty coffee scene – joining instant coffee, single serve drippers and bags, and capsules – to make it more accessible and convenient to a wider range of drinkers.

“There are a lot of people out there who just want a cup of coffee and the word ‘specialty’ doesn’t resonate with them. A

Veneziano has developed different recipes for its Straight Up and Blood Orange cold brew cans.

product like RTD gives those customers an introduction into the specialty space without taking them too far out of their comfort zone,” Michael says.

“There’s always been a compromise in RTD. You’ve got the convenience, the speed, but you’ve traded something for that, and generally in the past it’s been flavour. We’re moving to the point that specialty is getting that balance right.”

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE

RTD is not only the domain of roasters, with some cafés bottling and selling their own cold coffee drinks. For Ciel in South Melbourne, Manager Glenn Low says the decision to start offering pre-made iced lattes and filter back in 2017 came down to workflow.

“As the weather warms up, people come in looking for a cold, but also quick beverage, so we needed to reduce the wait time for customers, without compromising the quality of the product” Glenn says.

“Serving the beverage is as simple as popping the lid and passing it to the customer, so you can really use your time better during peak hour and spend downtime preparing for the next day.

This actually simplifies and improves the overall RTD coffee experience for the customer, with the side benefit of improved workflow.”

The RTD bottles have been successful for Ciel, with demand usually lasting well

Many in the specialty coffee industry are seeing potential in the overlooked RTD market.

into winter. Ciel orders the lids and bottles in bulk, with restocking its RTD supply a regular part of its routine.

While Ciel has traditionally sold iced lattes and filters, in 2020, it replaced these with a new distinctive recipe of its own, the Neapolitan.

“We taste our coffees every morning and train our baristas to relate their tasting notes to a particular experience they’ve had.

Neapolitan ice cream is something that came about frequently as we came together and tasted the Raspberry Candy blend [from Ona Coffee],” Glenn says.

“That sparked the idea. The Raspberry Candy blend was perfect for a Neapolitan flavour profile. With a few little tweaks to our recipe, we were able to highlight chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla in a way that we felt accurately represented the classic ice cream combo.”

COVID had a big impact on foot traffic passing through Ciel through much of 2020. While this was difficult for the café, Glenn says they were able to use this time to prepare for a strong return.

“This idea was born out of the physical downtime we had over COVID. We used that time to pivot, brainstorm, and think about what we could launch as a celebration once restrictions were lifted,” Glenn says.

“I had this idea in July, cold and gloomy in the middle of lockdown, but we didn’t launch until early November.”

The Neapolitan bottles have minimal labelling, with one brown, white, and pink sticker each to evoke the look and flavours of Neapolitan ice cream. Encouraging Ciel’s customers to share the bottles and their opinions on social media has also helped to draw more attention to the café.

“We’ve had customers who saw the Neapolitan on their friend’s social media and travel in from different suburbs to try it themselves,” Glenn says.

“At the beginning, even though we were confident in the flavours, we were unsure of how the market would receive the Neapolitan, but it brings back the childhood memories of having a big ol’ scoop of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry in your mouth. Having that aftertaste in your mouth from a bottle of coffee is mind blowing.”

While RTD is still a small pocket of the specialty market, Glenn thinks with increased interest in take-home options across hospitality, people will look for the same in coffee.

“You can get your commercial iced coffee from the supermarkets, like Big M and Dare, but there is a niche crowd that appreciate what we do in the specialty coffee industry,” Glenn says.

“This specialty grade RTD coffee fulfils a small pocket of customer demand right now, but in the long run, I think people will be able to see the value of specialty coffee, knowing they can enjoy it cold and in a bottle.”

Southland Merchants deepens its commitment to the origin.

Launching our own processing mill in Brazil.

TRANSPARENCY • TRACEABILITY • SUSTAINABILITY • RELIABILITY • EXCELLENCE

TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Setting the tone Barista Group has partnered with Swiss company Tone to bring the next generation in recipe development and boilerless brewing technology to Australia.

T

he are many variables that influence the flavour notes and profile of a coffee.

Control of these elements – like brewing time, temperature, and water flow – is a big part of why specialty coffee shops have embraced filter brewing.

But the time and attention it takes to consistently brew single cups of filter coffee can pose a challenge to the workflow of a café.

“If you go to a bar and request an expensive $15 coffee, you know it’s going to take time to brew,” says Joe Chalhoub, General Manager at Barista Group. “From the café side, you want to be as efficient as possible, but that’s not often the case when brewing manually.”

Barista Group’s mission is to find and supply products that actually improve and progress the operation of a café. Seeing the challenges cafés faced when it came to filter brewing, Joe set out to find a product that could make the brewing process more efficient and found it with the Tone 03 single serve brewer.

“The Tone 03 opens avenues to draw more flavours out of coffee by controlling the temperature, flowrate, and different stages of brewing throughout the extraction,” Joe says. “We don’t take on any product unless it meets certain criteria, and I believe this machine will breed champions.”

Baristas can play with brew recipes using the machine’s intelligent recipe development system – accessible via a WiFi-connected tablet.

In Basic mode, the Tone 03 comes with four built-in settings labelled as mild, medium, bold, and xbold. These have pre-defined temperature and pulsation.

Baristas simply need to input the volume of water and filter type – v60 or Kalitastyle flatbed – into the tablet.

In the Advanced mode, baristas can set the temperature of each extraction phase

– bloom, turbulence, and development – and characteristics of the water pulse, like quantity, flow ratio, duration, and interval.

“More is extracted from the coffee at higher temperatures. In some cases, you might want to set your bloom at 96°C, then drop the temperature throughout the pulses and development,” Joe says.

“Let’s say your brewing recipe is 15 grams of coffee and 250 millilitres of water. For the bloom phase, you can tell the machine ‘I want a slower rate of 30 millilitres for the first 30 seconds’. Then, ‘I’d like a pause of 30 seconds and two pulses of different water flowrate of the remaining water’. But you can create up to nine pulses at lower volumes of water, so it’s really up to your imagination.”

The Tone 03 uses an electronic continuous slow heating system to ensure water is at the right temperature as it leaves the machine, making a traditional boiler unnecessary.

Joe says this is a game changer for those that are limited on space and conscious of their carbon footprint.

“Being boilerless, you can simply place the Tone 03 on the bench, connect it to a water supply and electricity, and it will only take two seconds to heat up the water to 94°C,” Joe says.

“Traditional brewing devices have boilers with a heating element that kicks in from time to time to keep their water within the temperature range.

The Tone 03 uses a completely different mechanism so there’s huge savings on energy over time.”

The Tone 03 produces batches from 250 millilitres up to two litres in size, making it optimal for single cups or more high-end coffees. Barista Group’s partnership with Tone includes the latter’s

The Tone 03 can brew filter coffee without the use of a boiler.

full range of brewing products for venues that want the same degree of control over their batch brew or filter at higher volumes.

The Tone 01 is a multifunctional brewing solution that also allows baristas to brew iced and hot coffee or tea in batches up to four litres.

“The Tone 03 is the ultimate machine for customers that come in and take a seat at the bar for an experience, or want to enjoy a brew with their friends,” Joe says.

“But a lot of coffee in Australia is sold as takeaway. If you know you’ll have a line of 20 people waiting for filter coffee every morning, you might want to go with a batch brewer like the Tone 01.”

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

“I CAN’T SEE ANY COFFEE SHOPS SURVIVING OR BEING SUSTAINABLE IN THE FUTURE WITHOUT HAVING THE RIGHT COFFEE, THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT, AND AN OFFERING THAT IS UNIQUE TO THEM.” The Tone 02 is like a decked-out version of the 01. The main brewing chamber delivers bulk brew coffee and tea, while a side arm extended with two waterspouts jutting out the right of the machine makes it possible to brew Chemex-style coffees.

Rounding out the Tone line is the Nitro, a plug and play unit that uses an integrated cooler and nitrogen pulled from the air, instead of a canister, to produce nitro cold brew.

“The Nitro is a game changer. Space is crucial in cafés and having a nitro unit you can plug and play is awesome,” Joe says.

“It’s a very simple device that you can fit on any counter. You can even regulate the temperature and amount of nitrogen brought into the coffee from the back as well.”

But what excites Barista Group most about the new partnership with Tone is

Baristas can use four premade settings, or create their own unique brew recipes on the Tone 03.

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its focus on boilerless brewing technology that started with the Tone 03. Joe first discovered Tone at Host Milano in Italy in 2019. It wasn’t until he had a conversation with Tone CEO Holger Welz in 2020 that he realised the company’s potential.

“I had a great conversation with Holger that was meant to only be half an hour but ended up going for three.

He talked about his philosophy, how everyone wants to reduce their carbon footprint, and how the boiler contributes a lot to that in the café,” Joe says.

“That’s how [Holger] came up with the idea to challenge the status quo: to go boilerless, reduce their footprint, and advance sustainability.

Although Australia is still an espresso and milk coffee heavy market, Joe sees potential for filter to grow exponentially, especially with brewers like those from Tone making it much easier for a busy

The Tone 03 can brew coffee in volumes from 250 millilitres up to two litres.

café to deliver a filter option.

“I can’t see any coffee shops surviving or being sustainable in the future without having the right coffee, the right equipment, and an offering that is unique to them – like a diverse menu of single origins,” Joe says.

“Australia isn’t a big market for filter coffee, so we’re going to create that demand, like Sony did in 1979 with the Walkman. There wasn’t a market for [portable music players] until they created one.”

In 2021, Barista Group is aiming to host brewing workshops, courses, and competitions called Man Vs Tone Touch 03 to raise awareness of filter coffee.

Within only a few weeks of revealing the Tone brewers, Joe says there’s been a strong interest and demand from the barista community.

“All of the enquiries we’ve had so far are from serious ‘coffee geeks’. They have worked as baristas in cafés, so they know how hard it is to brew manually and consistently in a busy environment,” Joe says.

“They look at Tone and see a sophisticated machine that brews coffee exactly how they want it to and is as simple as hitting a button. It’s a champion brew every time.”

For more information, visit www.baristagroup.com.au

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For every bag sold, Coficom is contributing to a fund for his wife and young children.

TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

A new standard Why the Victoria Arduino E1 Prima’s compact size and high-end functionality make it more than just a domestic machine for coffee professionals or enthusiasts.

A

fter 30 years working in the Australian coffee industry, Victoria Arduino Australian Sales Manager Brett Dedman is proud to admit the new E1 Prima has cured him of something he’s never been shy to admit – his craving for instant coffee.

“I am currently the only one in the country with the Victoria Arduino E1 Prima sitting on my kitchen bench, and I’m never looking back,” Brett says.

“The thing I love most is that this machine’s performance is identical to a professional Eagle One two- or three-group.

It produces the type of quality you’d expect in a café. I’ve made lots of coffee for family and friends on it, and not one person left saying it wasn’t good. My wife Nat doesn’t want it moved from the benchtop, and neither do I.” The E1 Prima one-group espresso machine made its global debut on 18 September, with an online video that, at time of print, was watched by more than 20,000 people.

In a year that saw more people working

from home, the retail market advance, and home barista needs excel to another level, Brett says the machine’s launch was perfect timing.

“I think interest in domestic models is set to continue. The Prima is a high-end single group machine that’s suited to anyone wanting to extract the best from their coffee at home, in a restaurant, an office, a coffee cart, or roastery,” he says.

“A roaster needs a precise machine to profile their roasts. They may already have an Eagle One in the field and could be guaranteed the same experience on the onegroup Prima back in the roastery.”

Already, Victoria Arduino Australia distributor Espresso Mechanics has 50 units of the E1 Prima coming into Australia by the end of January, in matte black, white and steel.

The 10-amp machine is SAA Approvals certified, the highest certification standard in Australia for domestic machines. It can be plugged straight into a wall with an in-built water tank or plumbed water supply both available in the one unit.

The E1 Prima offers a sustainable

alternative that considers the machine’s environmental impact in terms of energy and economic savings. It incorporates Victoria Arduino’s New Engine Optimization (NEO) technology that represents a new approach to heating water for coffee extraction. NEO technology was first developed for Victoria Arduino’s Eagle One commercial espresso machine. The technology proved to be so compact that it is easily adapted into the E1 Prima without compromise because only the required water for extraction is heated.

As such, the E1 Prima features a small stainless-steel boiler. Because it’s separated from the NEO technology, users can extract espressos and steam milk without losing power at either end.

This steam-by-wire system is electronically controlled through new and improved ergonomic levers. It maintains high pressure levels to allow a greater dry and saturated steam production with an elevated power/speed ratio to reach a superior cup quality.

To control the extraction, the E1 Prima has an interface to display shot time, but

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Via the app, Prima users can create recipes and share them with friends or colleagues to replicate.

Victoria Arduino has also created a mobile app to fully engage with “the magic” of an extraction. Via the app, users can set the temperature, pre wet the coffee, program the steam pressure and hot water volume, and see extraction time.

The best part, Brett says, is the ability to create recipes and share them with friends at home or colleagues in a professional setting to replicate using an iPhone or Android with Bluetooth capabilities.

“Imagine that I’ve just been to my favourite café. I bought a bag of beans and asked for the extraction recipe: 19 grams in, 38 grams out, and a 27-second extraction at 93.5°C. I put those details into the app, make any volumetric adjustments I want, upload any parameters – I can even select to pre-wet the coffee, and the machine picks up the instructions and makes the recipe within five seconds of receiving the data. It does the hard work for you,” he says.

“If you want to explore the app’s capabilities and go totally crazy with recipes, you can. And if you don’t want to play and just want a super tasty coffee, take the machine out of its box, switch it on, and let it do its magic. It’s fully functional without the app too.”

Users can also join the community of Victoria Arduino users and follow the recipes of baristas champions such as 2007 World Barista Champion James Hoffmann, 2014 Champion Hidenori Izaki, 2018 winner Dale Harris, and 2007 Swiss Barista Champion and General Manager of Victoria Arduino Australia, André Eiermann.

“I was invited to work on the Prima when my travel plans to Australia got delayed thanks to COVID-19. I remember going into the Simonelli Group headquarters in Italy and was directed into a room that no one outside the ‘Simonelli family’ was allowed to enter,” André recalls.

“Simonelli Group Vice President Marco

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Feliziani and CEO Fabio Ceccarani were there. They tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘we are going to show you a secret’.

They took me through the production area into another tiny room, and that’s when I understood the significance of what they were doing.”

In addition to his contribution on the Prima and NEO technology, which was first installed in the Eagle One, André also had the idea to integrate the World Barista Championship (WBC) sensory score sheet parameters into the app.

“I think this feature suits the Australian market perfectly for users who want to be specific about the taste balance and flavours they want to achieve from their coffee and the tactile,” he says.

André was also invited to demonstrate the first official unboxing and installation of the E1 Prima in an online video, shot on location in Fabio’s kitchen.

“When I spoke to Brett about how Australians make coffee at home, he told

The Prima has the same technology, boiler, and high performing ability as the much larger Eagle One thanks to the NEO engine.

me to ‘think how a high-end barista works’.

He assured me 100 per cent I’d need scales to weigh my shots, so I did,” he says.

That’s not the only advice that came from the Australian market. Brett was also influential in having live pump pressure added to the app for users to monitor, opposed to the small percentage of people who would have access to a Scace device.

The machine also comes with a knob to manually change the pump pressure for the extraction.

Users can thereby extract a shot at the pressure they want, and read the actual pressure on the screen of the App. Also catering to the Australian market is the inclusion of two steam tips – the WBC version with large holes to enable faster steaming for large volumes of milk, if needed.

The steam tip with smaller holes is ideal for steaming smaller volumes of milk for a single cappuccino, flat white or latte, for example.

“The Italians really do listen to the needs of the Australian market,” André says. “But to think that the Prima has the exactly the same technology, boiler, and high performing ability as the much larger Eagle One thanks to the NEO engine is an incredible engineering feat.

“What I really like about the Prima is that it’s a totally professional machine for home use. It’s small and compact, and by now, everyone knows that I’m an extraction geek, so the fact that you can do whatever you want to the profile but still have full control is amazing. I can’t wait for others to geek out over it too.”

For more information, visit www.victoriaarduino.com/ eagleoneprima

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

A smart approach Wega is set to launch the WBar, a compact and intuitive espresso machine to allow baristas to work quickly, smoothly, and vertically.

W

hen we think of ‘smart baristas’, a sophisticated knowledge of coffee, origin, craft and equipment come to mind.

When we think of a ‘smart machine’, however, it’s about an intelligent device that allows a barista to brew and serve coffee easily, and that’s exactly what Italian espresso machine manufacturer Wega has created with the WBar. “WBar recognises the needs of everyday baristas who work in small environments and are faced with high volume and the need for an intuitive machine,” says Cinzia Pietrobon, Brand Manager of Wega.

“Coffee can be complex, but preparation should not. That’s why the WBar is designed for baristas to use it in an easy and fast way.”

First glance of the machine attests visual

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and operational attributes that cater to these needs.

Cylindrical groups provide a distinct point of difference with their orange colour. Each group features verticallyarranged control consoles. The button panel is back-lit and offers the option of programming up to four doses. The combination of two navigation keys gives access to the automatic wash cycle. A spot LED is positioned between the groups, creating an elegant strip of light on the work area.

“We collaborated with Delineo Design, looked at the shape of traditional coffee machines and thought about the way a barista uses a coffee machine. Our designers studied the barista’s hand configuration as they work around the machine to see how they could speed up their workflow,” Cinzia says.

“Eventually, it was decided that vertical

configuration on the cylindrical group heads could be an exciting new feature that improves barista workflow.”

This new vertical configuration is set to allow baristas to interact better with the machine and could set a new standard for control panels.

For a company with 35 years of manufacturing experience, Cinzia says the completely new design is “extremely innovative” and “dynamic” for the Italian brand, but is something that drives Wega to stay relevant in the market.

“The barista and their needs are always at the centre of our decision making on machine development. We consider their feedback seriously and it’s important for them to know that we take this barista-eccentric approach. At the end of the day, they are the end user of our machines. It’s necessary to involve baristas in the development phase and study their

ergonomic needs, their design opinions, and functionality requests,” she says.

Another request was to avoid additional clutter on the group control panels. As such, Wega’s Riccardo Ferrari says four function service buttons are positioned separately to the principle control buttons, on the sides of the groups. These include two emergency keys, a cup warmer button, and a hot water dispensing button.

“This way, the barista has direct control over the doses they wish to serve on the main vertical control panel and can still access the additional features when they need,” Riccardo says. “This is a very new strategy for Wega. All our other machines use classic horizontal control panels, so we’re excited to hear about its reception on the market.”

The WBar is considered a traditional machine, with its technology attributed to “the best parts of Wega’s professional models”.

“The technology inside the WBar is from our expert know-how. In this way, baristas can set the perfect temperature for each group head,” Riccardo says. “It’s not a multi-boiler but it is a machine for busy professionals and is very adaptive.”

With continuous workflow in mind, even the space between the group head and steam wand has been enlarged for a barista’s hand to easily transition between devices. What’s more, only two fingers are needed to activate the traditional steam wand for continuous flow of steam, or single stream ondemand.

“Once again, ergonomic use and ease of operation are considered even in the smallest of details. Our audience is one that loves milk-based coffees like the classic cappuccino or flat white, so we’re confident this will be a popular

and functional machine in Australia,” Cinzia says.

With its headquarters in Susegana, Treviso, Wega currently operates the largest single factory in the world producing traditional espresso machines at 40,000 square metres. To date, more than 70,000 units of Wega’s professional coffee machines have been made, with each one promoting the company’s passion for excellence and in-cup quality that captures the authentic essence of Italian espresso.

Australians are set for a further taste of Wega’s professionalism when the WBar makes its debut mid-2021.

Natalie Kollar from Coffee Works Express, Australian distributors of the WBar, says this model is just what the Aussie market needs.

“Australian cafés have experienced a challenging year, but what it’s proven is that café lovers treasure their baristamade coffee, the environment in which they get to consume it, and the quality that’s delivered in their cup,”

Natalie says.

“The WBar is an efficient model that will not only deliver this quality but give baristas the control and consistency they need to move promptly when times are busy and engage more with consumers.”

Wega is eager for Australians to put the machine to the test and is looking to obtain market feedback so that it can continue to do what it does best: understand the needs of the market, improve its offering, and make “new and better machines”.

“The development of new machines is always about collaboration,” Cinzia says. “In the case of WBar, it’s a novelty design which we think will be popular, but also because of its functionality.”

The WBar will be sold through Australian distributor Coffee Works Express.

For more information, visit www.cwe.com.au

The Wega WBar features an innovative and dynamic design to improve barista workflow.

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Great southern land A new strategy and structure will provide Rancilio Group with the means to better service its partners in the Australia and New Zealand local markets.

L

oyalty is important in the coffee business, especially when you have as much history and as many relationships as espresso machine manufacturer Rancilio.

“Rancilio has been in Australia and New Zealand for more than 30 years now. It’s been a great history with a number of business partners over the years,” says Rancilio Australia General Manager Paul O’Brien.

“We are grateful for a number of partnerships over the years, who introduced and built the brand in Australia.

Mocopan, Grinders Coffee, and United Supplies are now icons of the coffee industry and have played a pivotal role in the Rancilio brand. These people have held the baton for the brand all these years and our first mission is to support them directly.”

While Rancilio has been a part of the market for a long time, Paul says it has used a primarily “ex works” business model. “We are grateful for a number of partners that have successfully distributed Rancilio Group Australia will provide the manufacturer with more resources to support the Australian market.

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our products over the years, however, Rancilio’s expertise, equipment, and spare parts came from overseas,” he says.

But with demand from the market growing, Paul says it became clear that Rancilio needed a more solid base in the region. Thanks to an exciting partnership with the food service equipment importer/manufacturer the Moffat Group, Rancilio Group Australia and Rancilio Group New Zealand came into reality in November 2020.

“The world is changing and our speed to market has never been more important.

We needed to rise to that challenge and serve the market locally. That means increased local stock, parts and technical support in Australia, each and every day, Paul says.

“We’re a little late to develop the market in some ways, but that’s intentional – we don’t rush into things. When we do things, we want to do them right. Now, we finally have full control over the brand to serve the market directly.”

Rancilio will maintain its relationshipdriven approach, and Paul stresses Rancilio

Group Australia will support its partners and distributors, not compete with them.

Keeping stock in the country will also make it possible for Rancilio to form new partnerships, particularly with smaller businesses who previously couldn’t carry that burden of importing and storage.

Showrooms and training centres will form part of this new strategy.

“We’re here to support the Australian market, from equipment dealers and service partners to your ‘mum and dad’ coffee roasters. Being here locally, open, and available means everyone can have the same level of service,” Paul says.

“A salesperson for a coffee roaster or equipment dealer can go into a café and talk with confidence knowing that if they win an account, they’ll have the machine they need the next day.”

Over in New Zealand, it is a similar story of loyalty and partnership.

Altura Coffee Company has been a pivotal supporter of Rancilio for over two decades.

Now that Rancilio has a firmer footing in the country, the manufacturer is better placed to service and support its partners

Rancilio has been a staple of the Australian market for more than 30 years.

and customers.

For the Moffat Group, the new partnership offers an entry way into a new part of the market.

“They have a very large stable of foodservice brands, but they’ve never done coffee before, so there’s great synergy with their extensive customer base,” Paul says.

“Their reach and resources are outstanding. It’s exciting where they can help take the Rancilio brand. In such a short time, we’ve achieved some amazing things.”

The Moffat Group sits with Rancilio under the wider Ali Group umbrella and Moffat has manufactured and distributed foodservice equipment throughout Australasia for more than 90 years. Paul says he is thankful for the shared values and priorities between the two brands.

Since the establishment of Rancilio Group Australia, the business’s main priority has been to continue servicing its existing partners through the transition.

Paul says Rancilio’s partners have welcomed the new business model with open arms.

“It’s been a quicker transition than I expected. People understand that we are now here in the country as Rancilio Australia, and we’re seeing a lot of positive comments and opportunities coming out of the market,” Paul says.

“Every day we get stories about people’s Rancilio machines that are decades old.

That shows us the love and loyalty for the Rancilio brand within our following, that’s still there after all those years.

“I had a call today looking for spare parts for a Z machine, which is over 25 years old. They’re still clinging onto that brand. It’s a buyer’s market right now and they could go out there and buy any brand, make or model, but people are staying loyal.”

One such long time Rancilio fan is

Gary Mehigan, celebrity chef, former MasterChef judge, and Founder of Gary Mehigan Specialty Coffee, who has owned his Rancilio Lucy for 17 years.

“The first time I spoke to Gary, he was the one telling me about Rancilio. That is exactly the people we love to work with, that passion is what it’s all about,” he says.

As a newly appointed brand ambassador for Rancilio, Gary will help to promote the new Silvia Pro domestic coffee machine. Paul says Rancilio has seen constant interest in the reimagined Silvia since it was unveiled at Host Milano in 2019.

Rancilio will strengthen its wide portfolio of coffee machines over the next year with a series of new innovations and products.

From the flagship Rancilio Specialty RS1 to its entry level Classe 5 models, Paul says everyone will benefit. Steady Brew, for example, will provide Rancilio’s traditional single boiler models with a new degree of temperature control and stability.

“Steady Brew technology takes the humble heat exchanger single boiler machine and takes it so much closer to a multi-boiler performance,” Paul says.

“That will be available on all commercial single boiler machines at no additional cost to the market. So overnight, that is a massive lift in thermal stability and coffee quality.”

Paul calls research and development a pillar of the business, with Rancilio investing 6 per cent of turnover into new projects and technologies every year.

“We’ve got a constant and full pipeline of innovations coming through over 2021,” Paul says.

“Another big thing for us will be Rancilio Connect, launching online connectivity so you can push and pull data from across the full range, whether you’ve got an RS1, Classe 5, or an Egro fully automatic.”

Paul expects 2021 to be a return to form for Australia’s coffee and hospitality industry, moving past COVID-19 while learning from the events of 2020.

Moffat Group has extensive experience in foodservice that it now shares with Rancilio.

“The Silvia is the number one selling domestic machine ever. A dual boiler model has been in demand for such a long time, and with the Silvia Pro, it’s finally arrived,” Paul says.

“It’s taken a lot to innovate such an iconic piece of equipment. It may seem like an obvious thing to do, but there was actually quite a lot of discussion over whether or not we should do it, since it is such a revered name. But we’re really happy with the results.”

For the coffee and foodservice channels,

“I anticipate getting back to basics, with people enjoying being out and about and how lucky we are in Australia to be able to go out and eat and drink in such wonderful places with such wonderful people,” Paul says. “We’re passionate about growing and supporting the Australian market and now, with our new and existing partners, we can do that directly.”

For more information, visit www.ranciliogroup.com.au or follow @ranciliogroup_au on Instagram

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

The new pack Wolff Coffee Roasters has launched redesigned and recyclable coffee packaging that embraces what customers love about the roaster.

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lassic, bold, and trustworthy are just a few of the frequent words that came up when Wolff Coffee Roasters asked its customers how they would describe the brand. They are also how you could describe the roaster’s new packaging, which hit shelves in January 2021.

“We really value the people across our business, from the farmers and employees to our wholesale partners and customers, so it was important for us that the rebrand be a collective effort,” says Penny Wolff, Cofounder of Wolff Coffee Roasters.

“We put some samples together of what our new bags could look like and took it out to research groups, including our

The new packaging features the Wolff logo, proudly spreading its wings across the bag.

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customers, to gather some feedback. That helped us to think about what Wolff stands for, what our partners think, and to evolve the brand further.”

The new packaging continues Wolff Coffee Roasters’ classic colours scheme of black and white with red accents, but with a fourth “latte” light-brown shade thrown into the mix. Penny says the little addition represents their connection to the local coffee scene.

“Black and white have always been our core colours, with a pop of red to represent our passion, our heart, and our love of coffee and what we do,” she says.

“Now we’ve introduced the latte colour paying homage to our Australian coffee culture and its love for milk-based coffee.”

Wolff Coffee Roasters’ blends feature a black façade, white lettering and details, and a different colour along the gusset for each product in the range. Its single origins feature a white backdrop with highlights of a colour unique to that origin.

While the roaster’s recognisable eagle logo was a small element of its previous packaging, on the new bags it’s front and centre.

“Our previous bags were all about showcasing farmer details and flavour notes. During the research phase, some of the feedback we received was that our brand and own identity weren’t as prominent as they could have been,” Penny says.

“The new bags are quite bold in how we’ve made the logo and other aspects of the brand more prominent. The eagle now spans across the top of the bag as a nice motif, though the imprint keeps some subtlety, becoming clearest as you move the bag through the light.”

Wolff Coffee Roasters presented various designs and options to sample groups. Penny says the winning concept overwhelmingly connected with those who were familiar with the brand, and even those who were not.

“Many of the descriptors were repeated by the sample group – it’s recognisable, bold, sleek, sophisticated, trustworthy, speaks to quality, and has that classic edge to it,” she says.

“Our previous branding was

Wolff’s new packaging features a black background for blends, and white for single origins with different accents for each origin.

a little more quirky. This takes a professional edge.”

The rebrand was also an opportunity for Wolff Coffee Roasters to embrace a more sustainable option for its packaging, moving to a soft plastic recyclable alternative.

“Everyone in the industry is recognising that our practices have to be carefully thought through. We need to play our part in ensuring we’re doing the least amount of damage possible,” Penny says.

When the team consulted with its customers and sample groups, Penny says they were surprised there wasn’t more demand for sustainable packaging. That is, until people learnt sustainable options were available.

“As time went on and they understood the benefits of this environmental component, it became clear it was something we needed,” Penny says.

“Not only does the packaging look nice, it feels nice holding the bag in your hands, knowing that you’re doing something better for the environment.”

The work behind the rebrand began around the start of 2020, but really kicked into gear as COVID-19 set in. The process went deeper than just designing new coffee bags. It also identified the pillars that hold up Wolff Coffee Roasters.

The first is a focus on quality, summed up with the tagline “Masters of our Craft”.

“Peter [Wolff, Co-founder and Master Roaster of Wolff Coffee Roasters] is often referred to as ‘the Godfather’ of coffee and Masters of our Craft is about showcasing that,” Penny says.

The Wolff Pack serves as the second pillar – a focus on the people, giving back to the community, and social responsibility.

Penny says this value played a huge role in the rebrand, from involvement in the design to the sustainability of the packaging.

“We’re recognised as local roasters with a big heart, and our social responsibility drives that,”

Penny says. “It’s important to us we be seen as not just a coffee roaster, but as people making a positive impact where we can.”

Since opening its doors in 2010, Wolff Coffee Roasters has played an active role in supporting the local Queensland community, from donating coffee to OzHarvest to raising money for Women’s Legal Services Queensland. In 2020, Wolff Coffee Roasters was awarded the Queensland Community Foundation 2020 SME Philanthropist of the Year Award for its wide reaching philanthropic support.

The new packaging will serve as an additional environmental credential of the business.

“The new recyclable bags contribute to social responsibility, with our footprint being front of mind. But it goes well beyond that. There’s the volunteering our team does with numerous charities and the work we do with our coffee farmers that goes beyond just purchasing coffee. At Wolff, we dearly value directly supporting our coffee producing communities

through our Creating Coffee Connections Initiatives and our Farmer Residencies,” Penny says.

It’s also important to Wolff Coffee Roasters that it shares its knowledge with the wider coffee community. The Wolff College of Coffee – the third pillar of the business – boasts more than 84,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel and thousands of alumni from its courses.

“Education and knowledge sharing are incredibly important to us, and so is being inclusive in how we provide that, whether it be our in-person classes or free and accessible YouTube channel,” Penny says.

Like many in the coffee industry, Wolff Coffee Roasters’ fourth pillar of retail has become more important than ever due to COVID-19. The company has reinforced this pillar with more visually striking and identifiable retail packaging for its coffee.

Finally, and Penny says most importantly, the fifth pillar of Wolff Coffee Roasters is its wholesale partners that brew and serve its coffee each day.

“Supporting our customers and ensuring the quality of the brand is seen through all of our partners is crucial to us,” Penny says. “That’s why, while putting together our new look and feel, we talked to our customers about what they really see our brand to be and taking those feelings onboard.

“When we display our coffee, we continue to be very proud to showcase the collective efforts of what we’re putting out.”

For more information, visit www.wolffcoffeeroasters.com.au

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ESPRESSOLOGY

A roasting revolution Instaurator of Espressology talks to BeanScene about daggy coffee making, the impact of the World Barista Championship, and the country’s respect for locally roasted produce.

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hen Instaurator first started his journey in the Australian coffee industry in 1981, tea had been a more highly consumed beverage than coffee until two years prior. It progressed to a 50-50 split, and now, the situation is reversed, with tea representing just 5 per cent of Australia’s beverage market in many cafés – or around 1 per cent if you remove chai from the mix, according to Instaurator.

“Back in the day, it wasn’t just Twinings on the menu, it was Taylors of Harrogate and Melrose of Edinburgh, and around 15 different types of imported tea. That was a standard tea offering in a coffee shop. Coffee was served instant, and Italian imported coffee reigned supreme,” Instaurator says.

Vittoria Coffee was one of the main brands to start a national presence of coffee roasting, which found its way into the supermarket channel. Then there were labels that roasted for the Italian community, but still, roasted

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coffee represented just 5 per cent of the market and mainly revolved around instant consumption. Roasted beans were considered “niche”.

“I still remember people serving instant coffee out of big bulk percolators, especially in the outback. Then the 80s happened and the wedding gift of choice was a drip filter – Breville offered a 12-cup and a 15-cup.

That later got replaced by plungers as we became a bit more sophisticated, all the while fuelling the growth of coffee in the market,” Instaurator says.

“Then, all of a sudden, it became socially embarrassing and daggy to serve plunger coffee at home. We brought in stove top espresso machines like Bialetti, which became cool, and in the meantime, cafés were in a period of transition. In the 90s, it was common to order pre-ground coffee, and that was a nightmare to prepare. If a café used whole beans they’d have to get a technician to come in and adjust the grinder constantly. Thankfully, skill level has increased and that drove consumption up and made the café

culture more competitive.”

But what continued to struggle, Instaurator says, was the perception that Australian roasted coffee could be anyway near the standard of imported products.

“I distinctly remember going into cafés and even offices using imported coffee thinking, ‘there’s no way of introducing Australian roasted coffee’. Even when I started roasting there was real pushback in the market. I would tell people our coffee was fresh, roasted yesterday, and they would say: ‘‘well, you can’t be better than Italy.’ Now, I would argue, that’s completely reversed,” Instaurator says.

One of the biggest catalysts for change in terms of Australia’s appreciation for good quality coffee, Instaurator says, is the World Barista Championship (WBC), which made its mark in 2000. Baristas would go to the international competition and come back realising that Australian coffee wasn’t quite where it needed to be. He credits David Makin of Axil Coffee and Paul Bassett of Bassett Espresso as two guys who saw this need for improvement firsthand.

“I went to the first WBC in Monte Carlo and met George [Sabados], Australia’s first barista competitor at Sydney International Airport. We checked in at the counter and noticed this new coffee shop near the department lounge called Grinders. I’ll never forget it. I had a beautiful, old-school, rich Italian espresso. I could see all the airline staff making a bee-line for the shop.

It put Grinders on the map in Sydney. It wasn’t internationally roasted coffee. It was Australian roasted, and it turned out to be the best coffee I had that entire trip – a coffee from the airport,” Instaurator says.

“When we got to Paris airport on a layover, I thought, ‘I’m bound to get a good coffee here’, but it was worse than instant. Then I got to Côte d’Azur on the Mediterranean coast of France and thought I’d get a good coffee there, but no. It was awful too. Even when we got to Monte Carlo itself all the coffee was Italian roasted thanks to its geographic location.”

When George was preparing his coffee for the WBC, three Italian businessmen came up to him wanting a coffee. He served them espresso. The men asked where the coffee was from and George told them it was roasted in Australia. They asked again, “no really, where’s it from?” They refused to believe it was Australian roasted. To them, coffee only came from Italy.

Instaurator says the competition allowed Australian baristas to appreciate what they didn’t know about coffee, such as how to do a professional coffee tasting, and gave

them the motivation to learn more. He says those who have gone through the experience and explored the variables of roasting, discovered new flavours, and applied it to their own venues, such as Paul Bassett, Dave Makin, and Sasa Sestic of Ona Coffee, have vastly contributed to the growth of the Australian market.

“Each are competitive and confident individuals. They know what they’re talking about and their knowledge is imprinted in their businesses,” Instaurator says.

“Thanks to these guys and countless others, Australian baristas have gone out into the market, bursting with talent, and have set the pace. Then we have the second tier of roaster trainers like Anne Cooper who is helping push the quality of roasting, so there’s a constant flow of healthy talent that’s continuing to help represent Australia as a quality coffee nation. We’re front runners, and certainly no longer on the backfoot when it comes to roasting.”

Instaurator credits the 2000s as a significant decade of growth for Australian roasters. Single Origin, Toby’s Estate and Campos all started at this time in Sydney, as did his own business, Espressology, in 2008. The company offers contract roasting opportunities and private label services, and works closely with industry professionals to help identify goals and deliver it to market.

Thirty years ago, the mere thought of operating a locally roasted business

would have been easily dismissed, but now, Instaurator sees a market of thriving cafés and roasters who pride themselves on offering customers a locally-roasted product, delivered straight to their door.

“What we’ve seen in the year of COVID, is café operators keen to have a crack at starting their own business or growing their existing business without being so hands on, and that’s where Espressology can help. It’s an exciting time to be in coffee and an exciting time to be a business that can cater to the needs of our thriving market,” Instaurator says.

What’s also developed is consumer preference, which has come a long way since the days of picking up a tea bag over a cup of instant coffee.

“The Australian coffee market has certainly evolved, but it’s still interesting to remember that specialty coffee is only 20 per cent of our market. The other 80 per cent are blending coffees,” Instaurator says.

“But what’s interesting about our market, is that it’s buoyant and focused on quality. Coffee is not onedimensional. Good coffee is lively, stimulating and interesting – and Australian coffee consumers embrace that. They are much more discerning and the fact that they appreciate a locally roasted product now, is what stands out to me. We’ve come a long way.”

For more information on how Espressology can help achieve your roasting goals, visit espressology.com

Instaurator of Espressology credits the 2000s as a significant decade of growth for Australian roasters.

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Time to workshop WKSHOP is a roastery committed to helping businesses reach their potential, providing specialty coffee solutions with a suite of services and professional support to bring each brand to life.

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he year 2020 saw some businesses thrive, and others struggle to survive, making WKSHOP’s business model as a one stop shop for coffee businesses one of the most valuable in the market.

“We have seen a transition in the Australian coffee industry where smallto medium-sized cafés, franchises, and roasteries are now seeking support to help grow their business. They are looking for a contract roaster who can partner with them on their growth journey,” says WKSHOP Sales Director James Rodger.

“When they visit our roastery and get to know our WKSHOP team and the expertise we have in a range of services, including contract roasting, training, custom packaging, technical support, and marketing assistance, it’s like a feeling of relief because we understand what it takes to achieve their business goals.

WKSHOP is about taking the pressure off businesses and watching them thrive.

They fall in love with what WKSHOP is about because we are more than just a supplier.”

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Since its inception in 2019 between James, his wife and Creative Director Danielle Saleh, and sister-in-law and Marketing Director Nicole Saleh, the company has devoted its efforts to becoming an extension of its customers’ businesses.

“Our vision is to supply, create, educate, and innovate your coffee business. When we started in 2019, we wanted to build something unique and different for the industry that went beyond supplying coffee to our customers,” Nicole says.

“We started with an understanding that every customer is different. What one customer needs may be very different to the next. We have a strong foundation with specialty contract coffee roasting, but we wanted to work in partnership with our customers and support them on their growth journey to help them fulfill their goals and dreams.”

To do that, WKSHOP unpacks each business to understand its vision and provides tailored solutions to help reach the next stage of its growth.

WKSHOP is passionate about six core pillars of support to ensure

ongoing growth and success. The first is its dedication to contract roasting.

WKSHOP works closely with each customer to develop roast profiles based on a considered selection of premium green beans. Its use of Italianmanufactured Brambati roasters ensures it can create micro batches through to large volumes of custom blends to suit customers’ needs.

“First and foremost, you need to ensure you have a great product. If the quality of your product isn’t up to scratch the brand will fall quickly. Once coffee quality is secured, then you can move onto other important touchpoints of the business,” James says.

The second pillar is the WKSHOP Academy, where the team takes a holistic approach to business development. It works with partners to improve business strategy and establish plans to thrive.

The Academy offers baristas and café owners a range of practical training courses and pathways in espresso and alterative brewing methods, cupping sessions, equipment training, and company induction programs to empower baristas with the tools to

execute coffee of the highest quality.

Nicole adds that training doesn’t just reflect how well a coffee is made, but how businesses can make small changes to the way they operate to improve their efficiencies, which can impact profitability.

“We have developed training programs and tools for business owners to provide them with cost effective solutions to streamline their operations.

It’s amazing to see the results once they have implemented what they have learned into their business,” she says.

With the need to adapt during COVID-19, the WKSHOP Academy will expand its online training and launch a digital training platform this year.

WKSHOP’s third pillar of support is custom packaging. It helps customers with packaging design and solutions for retail packs to takeaway cups to ensure products look as good as the coffee tastes.

Marketing and social media is also considered. Thanks to WKSHOP’s vast experience working with local and international brands, it can advise customers on a marketing strategy, as well as photography services and social media techniques to bring their brand to life.

“The more brands can engage with clientele the more likely they are to build trust. It’s important to focus on social media engagement and start conversations by using this cost effective marketing tool that can really enhance a brand,” Nicole says.

WKSHOP also has a wide range of machinery to fit the needs of each customer, from espresso machines and grinders to milk dispensing devices, accessories and parts. Machine customisation is available to match brand and café design aesthetics. Equally as important is the technical support

available to ensure equipment is running at peak condition. WKSHOP’s team of technicians provide preventative maintenance schedules to ongoing servicing and after sales support.

The last of WKSHOP’s core pillars is its ability to look beyond its coffee offering to other products that can complement and add value to the growth of a business. This includes WKSHOP’s own range of tea, chocolate, and bottled water.

“We are delivering holistic experiences and tailored solutions to help businesses grow and thrive.

Whether it’s a franchise, café, restaurant, or a completely new venture, we work together to understand their goals, then work in partnership to get them to where they want to be,” Danielle says.

“We’re not only looking at their product needs but their overall strategy and the opportunity to take their business to the next level.”

One such company to benefit from WKSHOP’s support is a franchise group who sought out the company to help improve its coffee offering. Once achieved, WKSHOP expanded its services to include an overhaul of the franchise’s packaging, the upgrade of equipment, curated capsules, and staff training.

“We ended up enhancing all segments of the business which evolved from a simple conversation about coffee into a much bigger relationship,” James says.

An established café also partnered with WKSHOP to develop its own custom blend of coffee and help evolve the brand in the marketplace. The shop went from using 110 kilograms to 150 kilograms of coffee each week, and that’s during the peak of COVID-19.

“We had a number of customers that WKSHOP Academy Training Manager Melita Ferraro works with customers to design and deliver specialised training.

WKSHOP can help customers enhance their market presence with social media strategies.

grew their businesses during COVID, some by 30 per cent, and others by 40 and 50 per cent, which was a real surprise. It was exciting to work with these customers to meet their demand and supply growth, and train their teams online,” he says.

“On the other hand, some customers during the COVID climate had their business fall by 50 per cent [in sales], and we continue to help rebuild these businesses one step at a time. Let’s look at how we can evolve your business to adapt to the changes and see you survive.

Let’s work on marketing, online concepts, safety procedures in the café, how to achieve workflow with reduced staff, how to sell more product. You have to adapt to the marketplace during these times.”

WKSHOP services new and established businesses nationally and has recently expanded its customer reach to Malaysia. Guiding each company on their own succession path is a team of around 20 experienced staff including Head Roaster Paul Golding, National Sales Manager Nicholas Naso, National Commercial Manager Malcolm Bible, Technical Manager Paul Martin, and Academy Training Manager Melita Ferraro, among many others.

At the helm is the leadership team that continues to inspire and lead staff to uphold the company vision.

“We have a wealth of experience in the WKSHOP team. How we use that to help our customers succeed is a thrill to watch unfold, and something that excites me on a day to day basis,” Nicole says.

“We’re passionate about delivering a complete brand experience. It’s this passion that drives business growth and helps evolve WKSHOP in the market too.”

For more information, visit www.wkshop.com.au, call 1800 849 335 or email hello@wkshop.com.au

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Christopher Short is Managing Director of Cafetto

Onwards and upwards Cafetto Managing Director Christopher Short discusses permanent behavioural changes on the back of the global pandemic and plans to meet growing consumer demand.

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elcome to another year. Another year of adventure, opportunities, and challenges.

When I look back at the year that was, I think how lucky we were to survive – as individuals and businesses.

The hospitality industry was so fortunate to have government support schemes like JobKeeper to keep it afloat during our darkest times, and to see so many

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businesses weather the storm and come out stronger on the other side is nothing short of amazing.

None of it was easy. Hospitality businesses did their best to reflect, rethink, and refocus on what needed to be done, even us at Cafetto. After all, 2020 was a game of ‘survival of the fittest’.

When the pandemic first hit, I cut my Europe trip short by a month, fearful of flights being grounded and stuck in a foreign country. I raced home on one of

the last international flights before the COVID calamity could catch me. I landed in Adelaide on Friday 15 March, just as borders were starting to close, and I haven’t been out of South Australia since.

Adelaide went into its own lockdown for an extended period of time, and like so many others, I was concerned about the impact this virus would have on Australian coffee businesses and those around the world. The café industry is Cafetto’s lifeline.

We have been providing coffee

equipment cleaning solutions since 2003 after seeing a gap in the market for these types of products. Seventeen years later, Cafetto distributes to more than 50 countries, with our head office in Adelaide and sales office in Melbourne, The Netherlands and Singapore.

To be completely honest, I thought the impact to the business would be catastrophic, foreseeing an impending national lockdown and the closure of café businesses for who knew how long.

But to my surprise, Cafetto product sales in Australia and New Zealand were sustained while our overseas sales increased considerably thanks to new business developed in the year prior.

Watching the situation unfold from our base in Adelaide, we really did see a mix of results. Lockdowns and restrictions placed on the hospitality industry saw dine-in coffee consumption slow rapidly.

Now forced to work from home, café customers who would traditionally frequent city venues decided to become their own home barista. Just as they sought the same quality coffee experience in the leisure of their own home, they took the care of their equipment just as seriously. This was music to our ears. It meant not only was the education on clean coffee equipment getting through but being practised.

As a result, Cafetto’s Home Range grew dramatically along with the sale of home barista machines. It provides customers with simple solutions for cleaning domestic machines and helps coffee lovers make the best at-home coffee possible.

It includes high performance cleaners in convenient single-use sachet packs to ensure correct dosing, easy product handling, and eliminate the risk of contamination.

Such was the expansion of home coffee sales that demand for single serve products rose dramatically, challenging our manufacturing capacity. As a result, we’re excited to announce that a new purposebuilt portion control production facility for single serve products is now under construction.

I believe permanent cleaning and sanitation structures will continue to be enforced in all hospitality businesses. I don’t think anyone will ever question a bottle of hand sanitiser on a café table or office reception bench ever again. And for that reason, we believe a clean and healthy coffee machine is just as important and will become just as habitual, even at home.

On an industry front, I think 2021 will still see the after-effects of a challenging 2020. I anticipate Australia and New Zealand to continue as ‘business as usual’ thanks to our relatively high yet dispersed population. The fact that we are island

Cafetto’s Home Range provides customers with simple solutions for domestic machine cleaning.

countries has allowed us to isolate from the world, relatively free of Coronavirus.

But not every country has been as lucky. It’s likely Korea, Europe and the United States will continue to go through their own versions of lockdowns. And as Victoria knows too well, a severe lockdown could mean zero or very limited trade, with a heavy impact on the local market and economy.

Until there is a vaccine that works, and is rolled out efficiently throughout the world, I think there will still be a shadow on companies opening up to full capacity let alone jet setting the skies again. We need confidence to feel safe again.

I’d love to be travelling again and visiting some of our customers, but sadly Zoom or Microsoft Teams will have to remain a little while longer.

These applications have been integral

to maintaining relationships throughout the pandemic, but perhaps a little too restrictive to building new business.

There’s definitely something to be said for the value of an in-person conversation, and the value of print media, which is where magazines like this one and Global Coffee Report have proven even more trusted resources in times like these.

Australia has always been referred to as “the lucky country”, and we’ve seen that definition ring true.

Australia and New Zealand have both been very fortunate in their efforts to control the virus, and for this reason I believe society’s passion for coffee will see the industry revive and renew once more.

For more information, visit www.cafetto.com

Cafetto believes single dose products will be a big and continuing trend of 2021.

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Green Bean Feature

As the market evolves, so should green beans The South American Growers Alliance offers five regional coffees from Brazil that provide an accessible entryway to the diversity of the country.

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very coffee growing region has its own story to tell, and the South American Growers Alliance (SAGA) is sharing the unique coffees and narratives of five areas of Brazil with the Australian community.

“I founded SAGA in 2020 in order to showcase the different terroirs – the flavours and natural beauty – of Brazil while giving the market access to a range of coffee that was traceable, consistent, and of a high quality,” says Founder Marcelo Brussi.

Through green bean trader Minas Hill Coffee, Marcelo has formed close relationships with some of Brazil’s top producers, sourcing their best micro lots and signature crops. With SAGA, Marcelo sees potential to broaden and deepen these partnerships.

The five coffees available through SAGA were developed and selected to be perfect components of a blend, with

cupping scores in the early-to-mid 80s, reliable volume for roasters, and affordable price for their quality level.

SAGA has warehouses set up in six Australian cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, and Townsville.

Marcelo is excited for roasters to experience the unique elements of different parts of Brazil.

“The terroir is the most important thing in coffee production. It’s what gives it unique flavours. Like in grapes and wines, terroir is why you can recognise a Barossa from a Margaret River wine,” Marcelo says.

“There are more regions where coffee will grow in Brazil than any other country in the world. Each one produces coffee with different flavour profiles and Brazil has some incredible, strong, and recognisable terroirs.”

CERRADO

The coffee SAGA has chosen to represent Cerrado, is the natural processed Cerrado Primero from 2018 Cup of Excellence winner and long-time Minas Hill partner Ismael Andrade.

The soil, climate, planted varieties, and cultivation systems of Cerrado Mineiro give a unique identity and terroir to coffee from the region. It has a perfect definition

of the climatic seasons, with hot and humid summer and mild and dry winter.

With an altitude ranging from 800 to 1250 metres, temperature between 18°C and 23°C, and rainfall of 1600 millimetres per year, the region is free from frost, one of the main threats to coffee plantations in other producing regions. Its flat topography favours the mechanisation of crops, whose main differentials are intense flowering and uniform grain maturation, which allows concentrated harvesting.

Intense aromas, with notes ranging from caramel to nuts, the delicately citric acidity, moderate to full-bodied and long-lasting chocolate flavour, are characteristics of the coffee produced in the region.

“However, our Cerrado Primero was designed by Ismael and myself to satisfy the needs of the Australian market. For the last three years, we’ve been working exhaustively on a coffee that suits espresso blends in particular, with a low acidity, full body, very intense sweetness, and chocolate notes,” Marcelo says.

MOGIANA

From the Mogiana biome, in the southeast of Brazil, SAGA will offer the aptly named Terroir from producers Gabriel and Flavia Oliveira.

SAGA showcases five regional coffees from Brazil, with good quality at an accessible price.

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Mogiana’s coffee plantations are at an altitude that varies between 900 and 1000 meters, with a very mild annual average temperature, around 20ºC. These climatic characteristics are ideal for the slow and uniform ripening of the grain, determining the quality and flavour of the drink.

It produces an intense, full-bodied coffee, with medium roast grains and balanced acidity, with a striking, fruity aroma and soft notes of chocolate and caramel with a hint of toasted almonds.

While Marcelo feels a strong attachment to Brazil and all of these coffees, he says Alta Mogiana holds a special place in his heart.

“My grandfather was born in a city near Mogiana called Ribeirão Bonito and he himself worked in a coffee farm there,” he says. “I have a profound attachment to this region.”

RIO GRANDE

Located in the Rio Grande Valley, bordering the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, farmers in this region have produced coffees that exceed 85 points, according to the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association.

Approximately 400 kilometres from the capital of Minas Gerais, the Rio Grande coffee hub is located in the southwestern portion of the state.

It has a privileged terroir due to its average altitude – between 900 and 1300 metres – and the tropical climate, with an average temperature of 20ºC and a hot and humid summer. These factors favourably interfere in the maturation of the fruits and allow the production of Arabica coffee on a large scale.

“The region, its scenery, and its landscapes are beautiful. These coffees are grown in the mountains, not plateaus like Cerrado and Mogiana, so most of the coffee is picked by hand in smaller farms,” Marcelo says.

“Rio Grande is a typical Brazil coffee, with chocolate, nuts, full body, and a medium acidity. We have chosen the cleanest and boldest possible. [It’s] a beautiful example of a regional coffee.”

Cerrado Primero was developed to suit preferred Australian flavour profiles.

SUL DE MINAS

Another coffee SAGA sources from a prominent producer is Sul de Minas, from Pedro Gabarra of the same-named region.

Sul de Minas is the largest coffee producing region in the world, with a wide-ranging altitude of 850 to 1400 metres. Marcelo says it was difficult to find one coffee that could represent such a big landscape but did so by “working with the best farmer from Sul de Minas”.

The micro-region of the state closest to São Paulo is the largest coffee producer in Brazil and represents more than 70 per cent of Minas Gerais production.

There, the climate and the relief are favourable for the production of Arabica, which has balanced acidity, good body, and floral and citrus notes, in addition to characteristic sweetness.

“Everyone knows Pedro’s coffees are amazing. The characteristics of Sul de Minas are milk chocolate with other complex flavours,” Marcelo says. “The microclimate plays an important role in developing those characteristics, but it all comes down to the process Pedro puts into the coffee.”

He adds that Sul de Minas will be a good option for roasters who consider sustainability a priority. Pedro was awarded the Most Sustainable Coffee Farm in Brazil two years in a row and is in the process of having his farms certified carbon neutral.

“We’re seeing roasteries going neutral and Pedro is at the front of this initiative at origin, installing solar panels and planting [biodiverse] trees,” Marcelo says.

MANTIQUEIRA

Perhaps the best regarded, and most

Marcelo (centre) visits Gabirel Oliveira’s (left) farm in Mogiana.

awarded, producing region of Brazil, Mantiqueira is a mountain range in Minas Gerais, largely represented by smallholder producers.

“Mantiqueira coffee is highly sought after, and coffee roasters have recognised the region for its quality,” Marcelo says.

SAGA works directly with five farmers in the region to create a coffee that could truly showcase Mantiqueira.

“Independently, they couldn’t provide the quantity of coffee needed in Australia, so they worked together to create this special coffee,” Marcelo says.

“This is the most premium coffee available through SAGA. It’s red and yellow Bourbon, with fruity and floral notes. It’s the microclimate of the Mantiqueira region that makes everything so special.”

Mantiqueira de Minas coffees are produced with care and have outstanding citrus, floral and fruity notes, creamy and dense body, intense citric acidity, evident sweetness, and long finish.

Marcelo says even with the quality of the Mantiqueira, or any of the coffees in SAGA’s range, it was important to keep them as accessible to the community as possible.

“I don’t recall coffees like these, showcasing regional single origins, at this price and quality, ever being available in Australia before,” Marcelo says.

“Coffee supply should evolve, and SAGA was born to present the market with options that can be, at the same time, quality driven and affordable. Since we launched SAGA, several roasters who used to use commercial grade coffee are now finding in SAGA’s coffee an interesting option, without compromising their budget.

For more information, visit www.sagacoffee.com.au

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Green Bean Feature

A better way The Volcafe Way sustainability strategy provides green bean trader CofiCom with an avenue to support coffee producers across the globe.

In Costa Rica, Volcafe and its producing partners are particularly focused in climate change.

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here are many threats to the sustainability of coffee production and according to John Russell-Storey, Marketing Manager for CofiCom, farm profitability is the root problem and the solution to supply chain stability.

“Coffee growers face fluctuating pressures — from market volatility to pest outbreaks and climate change — and those who aren’t consistently profitable are the most vulnerable,” John says.

“When producers see their incomes improve, however, they’re encouraged to improve farm practices, increase productivity, deliver higher quality, and keep farming.”

CofiCom is the Australian representative of global coffee supply network Volcafe, which in 2014, undertook a two-year initiative to research and develop a global approach to sustainability while sourcing high-quality coffees.

“We drew on the expertise of our field teams, pooling their collective knowledge and experience, to document best-practice strategies at origin,” John says.

“We then developed a farmer support organisation to provide direct technical assistance to farmers, helping them to improve — and to continually improve —

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their coffee quality, farm productivity, and yields. We named this new sustainable sourcing strategy the Volcafe Way.” The Volcafe Way is now active in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The network of field technicians and agronomists work directly with coffee farmers to assist and train them in sustainable production techniques and good agronomy practices, making the best use of their land for future generations.

New coffee trees have been developed and grown in Tanzania to replace unproductive ones.

“Think of the support coffee companies provide to cafés: onsite training, advice, and personal support. It’s a similar support program. The field teams are truly dedicated and passionate about what they do,” John says.

“Our farmer support teams help producers to manage risks, improve outcomes, gather data, and focus on measurable results that any of our customers can monitor and verify.”

One of Volcafe’s flagship training methods is creating “business-model farms”, which provide local learning hubs where surrounding communities can exchange best practices so everyone can learn and benefit. John says even then, farmers are under no commitment to sell their coffee to Volcafe, that it’s all about earning their respect and working in partnership.

“By sharing knowledge, providing practical advice, and assistance, the aim is changing the perception of farmers to them being small businesses owners. Better yields and quality mean more revenue.

This can mean better housing, money for school fees, and being able to afford improved health care,” he says.

“All this comes from our field teams working as the farmer’s partner. It can often take a couple of seasons for the

farmers to see the results and it takes a lot of patience and trust from both parties to achieve this.”

Volcafe has its own operations in 11 origins, where it supports farmers with more than 250 agronomists and field technicians.

“They’re constantly on the road, by vehicle or motorbike, visiting farms no matter how remote to offer a wealth of advice on pruning, nutrients, tree spacing, yields, and, most importantly, climate change,” John says.

“Have doubts about climate change?

Talk to coffee growers. They see it in reduced rainfall, increase in pests, varietals not performing, and rainy seasons that seem to keep changing.”

John and CofiCom Operations Manager Dariusz Lewandowski, have seen the impact of Volcafe Way firsthand in five origins and came away impressed and proud of what it achieves.

In Papua New Guinea, farmers who had adopted recommended practices and increased yields through pruning/ plant care and focussing on harvesting red cherries became Volcafe Way trainers and ambassadors.

“No one had more credibility than these farmers, which is critical when trying to implement changes against generations of old practices,” John says.

He adds that Uganda provided another eye-opener in what can be achieved through developing programs with the involvement and advice from the farmers themselves.

“Volcafe Way’s aim is that farming be not just a business but a partnership.

And it’s not just coffee the Field Support Officers advise on. Support is offered on water storage, sanitation pits, and efficient mud stoves that cuts down on wood usage,” John says.

Farmers are heavily involved in the programs Volcafe Way carries out in Uganda.

Peru is one of 11 countries where Volcafe Way improves the stability and livelihoods of coffee farmers.

“When training days or sessions are carried out, one rule is that both husbands and wives attend, something that has had a profound effect on the information being put into practice.”

Volcafe Way has worked to break several age and gender barriers in the country. Twenty-four per cent of its Field Support Officers are female, compared to 4 per cent seven years ago.

“Some of the most efficient farms we saw were owned and managed by women,” John says.

“Technology has also played a huge part, with farmers paid by credits through their mobile phone, eliminating the need for cash. This makes budgeting easier and more manageable.”

Over in Tanzania, almost 95 per cent of farmers are smallholders, requiring Volcafe field staff to work directly with the individual growers and the co-operatives.

“Constant advice to farmers is to focus on picking red cherry [same as Uganda] to earn a premium price,” John says.

“A huge program has been the supply of new coffee plants to replace trees that are unproductive. The new plants have been developed to be more resistant to disease and cope with the changing climate.”

Costa Rica is focusing hard on climate change and its effects, as well as

innovative social programs.

“The country relies on pickers from Nicaragua and Panama, who bring their whole family during harvest. The children go into the fields with their parents, not to work but just so they’re not left alone in the accommodation provided by the farms, something no parent would do,” John says.

“One of Volcafe Way’s projects is to create childcare centres on the farms, a major undertaking that involves staff who can speak the right languages and even down to meals that the children are used to eating.”

However, John says his “standout moment” experiencing Volcafe Way took place in Peru.

“High in the mountains outside Jaen, we were shown a farm run by a gentleman in his late sixties. One of the young Volcafe Agricultural Specialists had been working with him for a couple of years. The farm had been suffering from bouts of coffee borer disease and the specialist had advised the farmer to re-space his trees – increasing the distance between plants meant the borer moth found it difficult to fly between the trees,” John says.

“The farmer took the advice, removing trees on a small patch of the farm as a trial.

The results were startling. With healthier trees, the yields were substantially higher than before. To see the trust and bond between the young specialist and the farmer was incredible. What made me smile was that, during lunch, the specialist was served an extra piece of chicken; he’d become part of the family.”

John says knowing farmer support and the on the ground sustainability strategy is behind every bag of Volcafe coffee is important. Despite COVID-19 and its impact ay origin, the support network remained fully active: “For all of us in the CofiCom team, being part of this dedicated, knowledgeable and passionate origin network has a value way beyond dollar terms. It’s also personal at every relationship level – from us to our origin colleagues and the growers.”

For more information, visit www.volcafeway.com

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61

Green Bean Feature

Bullet speed ahead One of the world’s smallest and most advanced roasters is finally accessible to Australians, giving users a first-hand experience of the infrared technology that’s taking the guesswork out of roasting.

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hen Charles Stephens woke to a message from Aillio Co-Founder Jonas Lillie telling him the Aillio Bullet R1 V2 roaster had finally achieved CB Certification after five gruelling years, his reaction was one of euphoria.

“The significance of the CB certification cannot be underestimated.

It now makes the Bullet R1 ‘bulletproof’ by probably being one of the most rigorously scrutinised pieces of coffee equipment anywhere on the market,” says Charles, CEO of Espresso Company Australia (ECA).

The Aillio Bullet uses induction heating to bring one kilogram of green beans to first crack in under 12 minutes.

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The Aillio Bullet went through multiple rounds of tests to become CB/ CE certified, passing all international and Australian standards of electrical compliance and safety. The compliance means that ECA, distributors of the Aillio Bullet, can legally bring the roaster into the country.

“This project has been close to our hearts. We’ve shared an exciting yet agonising few years with the team at Aillio. We are very grateful for the loyalty and detail Aillio have always shared with us and could not be happier for [Bullet inventors] Jonas and Jacob, and their team for this momentous occasion,” Charles says.

Back in 2016, the Aillio Bullet R1 made its mark on the coffee scene as the first one-kilogram roaster to use induction heating. Despite its small footprint, this technology brings one kilogram of green beans to first crack in under 12 minutes on any standard electrical outlet.

With more people discovering a passion for coffee or enhancing their home barista skills, Charles muses that it begs the question: “What’s stopping more people from exploring coffee, not just through a coffee grinder and brewing apparatus, but from the processed green bean?”

“With a compact, adjustable and accurate device like the Bullet, you’ve got the perfect piece of equipment for beginners and home enthusiasts to start their roasting journey. With the keen interest and growth of home espresso machine sales we are sure there will be a similar demand for home roasting equipment, which for many could be the final piece of the coffee puzzle,” Charles says.

“At the other end of the spectrum in the professional and commercial sense, this best in class model is perfect as a sample roaster for batch roasting or testing in a roastery, lab, or café. The Bullet is efficient, accurate and offers more data to the second.”

Charles is eager to watch the performance of the Bullet in cafés and espresso bars after being approached for years by such venues wanting to go the “extra mile” to complete the customer experience and roast on site.

Salvatore Savarino, National Sales Manager at ECA, agree this would promote the maturity of the local coffee industry and increase awareness and respect down the supply chain.

“The Australian market is incredibly sophisticated with the engagement between customers, the barista, and the wider coffee industry. To physically roast on site and share the process with customers offers accessible education of the roasting process and a great opportunity to explain the journey from growing origins to the cup of coffee in

their hand,” Salvatore says.

“Single origin coffees are offered in most cafés as a staple for espresso or black coffee options. With filter and batch brew offerings also on the rise, the Bullet gives café owners flexibility to roast and keep up with customer demands.”

With stock arriving in March, Charles says the timing of the Bullet’s arrival is “a gift” to start the new year. The other, is knowing how easy the machine is to set up, utilise and access help or information if required. Full set-up instructional how-to videos are available on the ECA website, including how to unbox, clean, and maintain the Bullet.

Aillio’s RoasTime roast profiling and management software also allows users to automatically repeat their favourite roast profiles and share and compare them with other Bullet R1 users.

“Knowledge is power. Data-driven roasting is going to make education easier than ever before. Through RoasTime, users have access to a fun international community via the Roast.World online platform to share their experience as they swap and discuss profiles and recipes,” Charles says.

“Throughout the roast, RoasTime will log power, drum and fan speed, rate of rise and first crack. You can map the data, save it, repeat it via the playback function, and send it interstate or overseas to someone within your business. You can even send it to another roaster or home enthusiast in the international Aillio community via

Via RoasTime, users can log and record power, drum and fan speed, rate of rise, and first crack.

Roast.World. And if you make mistakes, that’s fine too. Share it and allow others to learn from it.”

Running off 10 amps, the Bullet has nine power levels, 12 fan speeds, and nine drum speeds, with a preheat range from 160°C to 310°C to allow for finercontrol of the roasting process.

Home roasters can choose to keep things simple as they learn the craft, while professionals can explore limitless possibilities, such as producing sample profiles in batches small enough to be cupped, scaled up, and shared with others to experience. This saves hours of work nailing down the best roasts for both espresso and filter.

Over the years, Jacob and Jonas have continued to refine their product. The biggest upgrade is Aillio’s patent-pending

The Bullet V2 includes Aillio’s infrared bean temperature probe that records temperature 10 times per second.

infrared bean temperature (IBTS) probe, now a permanent part of the V2 Bullet and compatible for retrofit or upgrade on V1 models.

This device records the amount of light of a specific wavelength (infrared) emitted by an object and is not influenced by batch size or weight.

“A traditional temperature probe can only plot the bean probe’s temperature, leading to lag and all sorts of inaccuracies,” says Salvatore.

“Now with the IBTS, we get real time temperature data and zero [thermometric] lag. The sensor samples the temperature around 10 times per second. Zero lag means we receive accurate data of the surface temperature of beans and get a more consistent profile and roast curve reading.”

Salvatore adds that the IBTS allows users to confidently scale profiles for production.

“The outcome of receiving such accurate information of bean temperature is the ability to make adjustments to a roast based on real time variation and evidence, opposed to just a ‘gut feeling’,” he says.

For this reason, Salvatore and Charles see the infrared probe as a “breakthrough” in terms of data accuracy and overall roast control.

At time of print, the Lillie brothers were busy in production of the new power PCB to make the CB Bullet compliant.

Now, all that’s left to do is watch and wait for the Aillio Bullet R1 V2 to hit Australian shores with CB certification, and start making a permanent home for it on benches throughout the country.

The Bullet R1 is distributed via Espresso Company Australia.

For more information, visit www.espressocompany.com.au

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63

Green Bean Feature

Farmer first

The Mwika Co-operative opened its own wet milling station with help from First Crop in April 2020.

To First Crop Coffee, sustainable green bean buying means forming long-term relationships, commitments, and conversations with coffee producers.

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hen Tony Strickett and Celina Lazarus established First Crop Coffee in 2014, they did so with the intention of giving back to the hardest working, and sometimes least appreciated people in the coffee supply chain.

“Something we really wanted to build into First Crop is the idea of helping farmers and farming communities,” Tony says.

“People in coffee use the word sustainability a lot, and for us, sustainability is saying to a community ‘we’re going to buy your coffee this year, next year, and the year after that’. It gives them the confidence their product will be sold, and as a result, they can budget against that, make investments, and the quality naturally improves.”

Tony says this model has been really successful for many of the farming communities First Crop works with, particularly in Central America. Selva Negra in Nicaragua send their produce to First Crop without agreed volumes in advance.

“When they have coffee ready, they

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send it to us and it’s our job is to find the buyers,” he says.

This means First Crop also needs to maintain ongoing dialogues and conversations with its producing partners so they are aware of what’s happening on the ground, challenges they’re facing, and how it can help.

GUATEMALA RELIEF FUND 2020

In November, Tony was talking with Vilma, one of the producers he workswith in Guatemala, on WhatsApp and asked her if she was OK after the hurricanes.

“She said, ‘I’m fine, my family is fine, everything in my life is fine, but there are families in this region [Quiché] who are completely cut off, with no food or water’.

I asked if there was anything we could do and she said: ‘I know everyone is doing it tough because of COVID, but anything you can do is going to help’,” Tony says.

Tony and Celina reached out to First Crop’s network of roasters, and within a few days, raised $2200. First Crop matched the donation and sent the money to Vilma to buy food, water, barrels, and sacks for the 130 impacted families. She will also be able to provide the families with coffee

seeds, fertiliser, and resources to help rebuild their coffee farms.

“We managed it all in seven days, which is phenomenal. We’re not a registered charity, so our customers weren’t getting a tax break. There were people in need, and they gave purely out of the goodness of their hearts,” Tony says. “The only thing I could offer everyone who contributed is an after-action report to see the difference they made.”

Tony says First Crop has created a strong customer base of businesses that appreciate its people-driven approach and believe in what they do.

“We’ve built that by taking people with us to origin and through the projects we work on and involve them in,” he says.

MWIKA CO-OP PROJECT, TANZANIA 2019

A recent example Tony gives is when First Crop visited the Mwika Co-operative in Tanzania with Wide Open Road and Inglewood Coffee Roasters.

“Last year, Tanzania changed its laws so smallholders can’t sell their coffee directly to dry mills anymore and have to work with co-ops. For the 900 families in the region, Mwika was the closest place

they could go, but they didn’t have the equipment set up to process that much coffee,” Tony says.

The government had provided certain co-operatives, including Mwika, with the necessary equipment, but Tony says the installation of a wet milling station was another US$20,000 (about $27,000) they didn’t have.

“While we were visiting the co-op, they showed us a breakdown of costs and were planning it for the future. That night at the hotel, Celina and I asked everyone if they’d be interested in helping us raise money to get the washing station installed,” Tony says.

Mwika told First Crop they could afford half of the installation, so it set out to raise the other 50 per cent. With 3000 kilograms coming in from the co-operative, they started with a US$1 per kilogram premium on the coffee.

Next, Wide Open Road designed t-shirts, First Crop had them made, and they sold them alongside Inglewood and DC Coffee – another long-term roaster of Mwika’s coffee, with all money from the sales going towards the project. Inglewood also hosted a fundraiser and auction at its roastery. All up, Tony says First Crop and its customers raised about US$13,000 (about $17,000). Mwika was able to gather the rest of the funds and the washing station officially opened in April 2020.

“Mwika is now able to help 900 families in that region to get their coffee processed, and the co-op itself can sell a lot more coffee,” Tony says. “At their current volumes, we’re buying pretty much all of their coffee, but ideally they can produce so much coffee now that they’ll be able to sell it to others too.”

RWANDA HOSPITAL AND SCHOOL FUNDING, 2017 – PRESENT

First Crop has also worked on several projects in Rwanda with the Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company (LOTH) since 2017. During the early-2000 coffee price crisis, many washing stations in the country were abandoned. LOTH bought several of these and started exporting Rwandan coffee to the United States in 2008.

“In Rwanda, the government sets the price for coffee cherries and it’s actually illegal to pay premiums, so no matter who is importing Rwandan coffee or how much they or a roaster pays, the same price goes to the farmers,” Tony says.

“LOTH knew what the international market will pay for Rwandan coffee and decided the best way to bridge the gap legally was to create community services

Celina Lazarus with orphans at the Forgiveness School in Rwanda.

that help the farmers.”

It started by employing farmers to work at, maintain, and manage its washing stations, so they received more of the value from their coffee.

When First Crop began working with LOTH, they had just finished building a school in the Ruli Mountains, about 40 minutes from the local washing station.

While the Rwandan government would start staffing the school once it opened, income from the coffee is still needed to provide children with books, clothes, food, and other resources.

In the Kivu Lake region of Rwanda, money from the coffee First Crop sources was used to build a hospital for the local community.

“There are also a large number of women in the area, so LOTH started the Nziza Womens Coffee Project, entirely staffing the washing station with women, who own a lot of trees in the area,” Tony says. “Kivu is about an eight-hour drive from Kigali [the capital] and to get to the nearest hospital was a two-day walk. We were able to buy a lot of their coffee with

funds going into the hospital. We could go and see it when it was under construction and it opened at the end of 2019.”

While these kinds of projects are beneficial, Tony says the true difference First Crop makes is the longstanding commitment it makes when buying coffee.

“When we are talking pricing and payment with producers, we ask them what they need to be a profitable business. We have a minimum price and won’t pay less than US$2 per pound, but we’ll ask what they need and work with them from there,” Tony says.

“We try to be 100 per cent transparent with the producers and roasters we work with. The roasters know when they’re buying coffee from us, they’re buying coffee that means the farmers are profitable, looked after, and that the business will continue to grow. And they’ll reap those benefits, knowing they’ve invested into a structure that is supporting everyone along the way.”

For more information, visit www.firstcropcoffee.com

Hospital Construction in the Kivu Lake region of Rwanda.

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65

Green Bean Feature

Run of the mill

Southland Merchants is increasing its commitment to smallholder Brazilian farmers with the launch of a processing mill in the Mantiqueira de Minas region that will give producers greater ownership over their coffee.

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o Brazil-focused coffee trader Southland Merchants, transparency and traceability are crucial to making a meaningful and sustainable impact at origin.

“Coffee is an interesting commodity in how there’s a lack of ownership producers have over the product. Generally, they have little say in where their coffee goes or what’s done with it. That’s not the way we want to trade,” says Andre Selga, Co-owner of Southland Merchants.

“If there’s no transparency, it’s really hard for growers to thrive while producing specialty coffee. If you hide information, like the quality of a coffee, the likelihood of them producing the same crop the next year is very low.”

Andre and his wife, Nadia Moreira, formed Southland Merchants in 2017, with the goal of not only sharing the great coffee of their native Brazil with the Australian community, but supporting and empowering families and producers back home.

“I visited Brazil in November last year and caught up with a few small growers. I

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asked them what their biggest needs and challenges were, and one of the topics they pointed out was access to the international market. As Brazilians, we can make this better because we understand their struggles and mind-set,” Nadia says.

“They also face the challenge of not fully understanding their product. Many can’t cup coffees, so they can’t put a price on it and have to believe what the buyer or middleman says it’s worth, which is hard sometimes.”

Andre adds that being a smallholder in a large producing country can also make it difficult to access services that would add value to their coffee.

“Some of the big co-ops in Brazil will process two to three million bags of coffee per year. If you’ve only got 20 bags, it can be pretty hard to get a slot, so they end up selling the coffee locally because they can’t afford to process their coffee and sell it ready to export at a higher margin,” he says.

While Southland Merchants has its own team on the ground, maintaining relationships with and supporting producers, the trader has long looked

at how it could deepen its involvement on the ground. Andre and Nadia saw an opportunity to do just that. When one of their long-term producing partners in the Lambari region told them they had built a warehouse and invited Southland to join them, due to the synergy of their values and business proposition.

Southland Merchants is turning that warehouse into a coffee storage and milling facility, where small producers will be able to access services that add value to their coffee.

“Our partners are fourth generation farmers, with a deep understanding of their neighbours in the Mantiqueira de Minas region,” Nadia says. “Southland Merchants will add our expertise and experience of the very mature Australian specialty coffee market to the project.”

Andre hopes for the site to start processing coffee for 2021’s crop.

“On the farm, producers pick, dry, and process their coffee, but it’s still not ready to be traded as specialty coffee. They need a warehouse to store their coffee and process it further to meet the requirements of the international market,” Andre says.

“The closest milling warehouse facilities was around 70 kilometres from the region.

We want farmers to be able to go and see where their products are being sold. They’ll decide what they want to do: if they want to process it or sell it as unprepared coffee to export businesses to prepare. It’s all about the decisions they can make. At the moment, a big chunk of producers can’t make that call.”

The warehouse will be equipped with silos, a destoner, dust and impurities exhaust, bean density and screen size grader, optical (colour and shape) sorter, and other equipment to make sure the coffee meets international quality standards and is export ready. Nadia says Southland Merchants has made sure these services will be accessible.

“We’re thinking of local, small, and medium growers and making sure they can do this at a small scale. Our equipment will be ready to process as little as one bag of coffee if needed,” she says.

“It’s not just about ourselves but empowering producers in whatever path they take and bringing high quality coffee to the local or international market. After processing their coffee, if they would like to do business with us, that’s great, and if not, they’ve at least learnt more about how and what they are capable of.”

Helping producers, particularly those Southland Merchants sources from, at the milling stage will also provide the trader, the farmers, and their customers with greater transparency and traceability.

Southland Merchants has partnered with a blockchain start-up that will help track the history of a particular lot of coffee and make this information available to the supply chain as a whole.

“Right now, merchants collect information from farmers and make that

The new processing mill will offer services to the smallholders of Mantiqueira de Minas.

available to roasters. We want to give more ownership to the farmers, who can start collecting their own data and put that into a system that roasters add to, which everyone can share and access,” Andre says.

“That’s going to be the next focus in the specialty coffee industry. Taste and flavours are key, but people will start turning down coffees that taste really good but don’t have traceability or transparency. We want to take a progressive approach and be that bridge between growers and roasters so they can benefit from each other.”

Nadia adds that this encourages smallholders to track their processes that they hadn’t previously, resulting in a better understanding, and consequently, a better crop, business, and price.

“Some small growers produce a good coffee but they do not know what they did to achieve that quality. With this traceability and transparency, they can empower themselves to grow with us and with

Nadia (second from left) and their business partners in Brazil, during her visit to the processing mill site in 2020.

our roasters,” she says.

“They start to think about their process, how they can replicate what they’re doing right and do better things in areas they’re not. Nowadays, this is happening with big producers, but not yet with the smallholders.”

The new facility will provide a location for Southland Merchants and other organisations in Brazil to provide training and education programs to smallholders.

“There’s little education at a farm level, so producers are working off the past experiences of their parents and grandparents. They know how to farm, but sometimes they don’t know why they do what they do, or how they can improve,” Andre says.

“We want to fulfil that lack of education at farm level. That goes from soil nutrition up to farm management – how to treat the farm as a business, something they need to run, be profitable, and make decisions of what to produce.”

Nadia says helping producers improve their farming techniques could have a massive impact on their livelihood and results in greater flavours and coffee quality.

While greater transparency and education will not necessarily have an immediate effect on a producer’s livelihood, Andre says these small steps form a long path to a healthier coffee industry.

“When a producer sees their face or name on a roaster’s pack, it makes a huge difference in how they seem themselves and run their business,” Andre says.

“It’s tangible and they can see the result of their work, a whole year’s struggles.

They start being proud of what they do.”

For more information, follow Southland Merchants on Instagram at @southlandmerchants

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CAFÉ SCENE

My Little Kitchen celebrates coffee in an area renowned for quality food and wine.

MY LITTLE KITCHEN 274 Maroondah Highway, Healesville, Victoria, 3777 Open seven days 8am to 3pm (03) 5611 3686 The Yarra Valley may be best known for its many restaurants and wineries, but My Little Kitchen in Healesville makes sure the region’s locals and visitors can have a great café and coffee experience too.

“What we’ve tried to do since opening is create something a little more urban than what has generally been out here,” says owner Ben Arnold. “We steer away from that country feel of pies, sausage rolls, and cabinet food and offer a substantial à la carte menu.”

My Little Kitchen blends the classic visage and framework of its 120-year-old building with modern and graffiti detailing, creating a unique atmosphere that’s inviting to many different types of people. Ben and

The zucchini and mint fritters are one of My Little Kitchen’s most popular dishes.

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his wife chose the name My Little Kitchen for the same effect.

“We wanted something that represented our space and would not alienate anyone. Quite a broad group of people is attracted to the name, from your grandmothers to your hipsters,” Ben says.

My Little Kitchen serves the Brunswick blend from Toby’s Estate as its house blend alongside rotating single origins. Ben says Brunswick fits with many people’s coffee preferences as it’s bold, sweet and structured with delicious flavours of caramel, hazelnut and praline.

“There’s 15 cafés in the area, so we wanted something that would fit in nicely in terms of flavour profile, but it also has to stand up against the competitors in the area,” he says.

“Toby’s Estate have been huge supporters of ours. They’re amazing with training and education and the support provided during COVID was excellent.”

When Victoria first went into lockdown last March, My Little Kitchen pivoted from coffee to groceries. During the second shutdown, the café launched its own delivery service keeping customers around Healesville fed and caffeinated.

“That was insane. We were trading over takeaway and delivery as well, if not better, than pre-COVID numbers,” Ben says. “We’ve heavily focused on our community and through COVID, we spent a lot of time producing meals for a local charity. Over six weeks we sent out about 600 meals.”

Over the period, My Little Kitchen also got licenced to serve alcohol and now carries a selection from local suppliers.

“We’re pushing into more wine friendly food and launched a tapas menu with 10 items all under the $15 mark and encourage people to have a beer or wine with lunch,” Ben says.

Highlights on the My Little Kitchen menu include the zucchini and mint fritters, served with grilled halloumi, baba ghanoush, dukkah, mojo verde, and garden shoots.

“At the moment, we’ve got a really cool play on a chicken souvlaki,” Ben says.

“It’s a spiced chicken kofta, served on a housemade flatbread with hummus and a Tunisian carrot salad.”

Before opening My Little Kitchen near the end of 2018, Ben and his wife spent a long time finding the right place to bring their vision to life.

“This site used to be a live music venue – I had my 28th and 30th birthdays here – and it was up for lease, so we basically converted a bar into a café,” Ben says.

“Number two is on the cards, and again, we’re just waiting for the right space.”

After fire tore through Pilgrim Coffee in 2018, gutting the 200-year-old heritage building, the iconic Hobart café has reopened its doors.

Despite a lengthy clean-up process and tedious heritage protocols to overcome, Owner Will Priestly is thrilled to welcome customers back to the shop he started 10 years ago.

“Opening day was very emotional,” Will says. “Out of the 10 employees we have working with us, eight are employees from when we burnt down two and a half years ago. It was extremely touching to see that these staff members wanted to be involved again.”

The silver lining in starting again, however, has been the chance to refresh the venue design, including a central positioned bar and designated areas of coffee production.

“We used to have just one three-group machine and now we have two – a Modbar gravimetric and custom-painted La Marzocco KB90 gravimetric model coming,” Will says.

“A lot of customers just want their coffee, so to give them a better experience, we have one

KOPI STOP 1/2 Harriet Place, Darwin, Northern Territory, 0800 Open Monday to Friday 6:30am to 2pm, Saturday 7:30am to 1pm, Sunday 7:30am to 12pm 0467 708 255 When Jules Mou took over Kopi Stop five and a half years ago, she saw it as a chance to introduce a Singaporean bend to the Darwin café.

“For me, it’s about bringing a bit of my background and culture to Darwin,” Jules says.

“It brings people a bit closer to home, whichever part of Asia they come from.

They can have an Asian style breakfast as opposed to normal bacon and eggs you could find at any café.”

One of these dishes is the Singapore Set, toast with butter and kaya (coconut jam) served with two soft-boiled eggs.

Another is the Chinese-influenced Congee porridge.

But at Kopi Stop, coffee is the real focus. The café serves St Ali beans for its espresso style coffees, prepared with a Victoria Arduino Black Eagle, Mythos One grinder and Puqpress tamper.

Jules says there is a strong demand for dairy alternatives at Kopi Stop, to the point the café carries two almond milks, a

Credit: @jon.gazzignato

PILGRIM COFFEE 54 Liverpool Street, Hobart, Tasmania, 7000 Open Monday to Friday 6.30am to 4pm, weekends 7.30am to 2pm (03) 6234 1999

Pilgrim Coffee is back, showcasing the best of Australian-roasted coffee.

set of baristas focused on takeaway coffee being quick and efficient. On the other side of the counter is the Modbar, where we have six to seven single origins running each day.”

With up to 10 different brands of roasters available at any one time, Will says Pilgrim’s own point of difference is its ability to showcase the best of Australian-roasted coffee in the one spot. “Our model is ‘send us what’s best from the best’, nail each extraction, and really explore what everyone in the industry is doing,” Will says.

He has a great relationship with Melbourne’s St Ali, whom he uses for the house blend. Other roasters to have their time in the hopper include Ona Coffee, Marvel

soy milk, and its most recent addition, oat milk from The Alternative Dairy Co. “One of my baristas took out the prize in an Alternative Dairy Co latte art competition and that helped us introduce oat milk to our customers,” she says.

“We were probably one of the first cafés in Darwin to use Alternative Dairy Co oat milk, but a lot more have picked it up.”

Kopi Stop also imports roasted beans to serve the Singaporean-style kopi coffee it takes its name from.

“Kopi uses Robusta beans that were roasted in butter and sugar, and is usually served with condensed milk. It’s similar to Vietnamese coffee, but is extracted and brewed differently,” Jules says.

“We mostly serve espresso coffee, but a lot of customers can relate to and love to drink a kopi. They miss going to Singapore or Malaysia for holidays and this is not served anywhere else in Darwin.”

Kopi Stop has connected with the Darwin community, even being voted as having Darwin’s best coffee in a poll by The NT News. This support led to Jules expanding the café at the end of 2020.

“We’ve had loyal customers since day one who come in every day,” Jules says. “Making good coffee and providing good service brings our customers back again and again.”

Street, Proud Mary, Reuben Hills, Market Lane, Maker Coffee, and many more.

Due to COVID-19 precautious, Pilgrim is currently serving takeaway options with locally-sourced produce for its pork belly sandwiches and freshly baked focaccia bread daily.

The 2010 Australian Latte Art Champion hasn’t competed for a number of years but Will says Pilgrim provides the perfect platform to continue to learn and talk about topics he’s passionate about.

“Day by day we’re getting back on our feet, growing, and sharing our passion for coffee with customers, and that’s what it’s all about,” he says.

Kopi Stop’s Singapore Set offers a classic breakfast option from the country.

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CAFÉ SCENE

The Wired Owl has a long and strong partnership with Wolff Coffee Roasters.

THE WIRED OWL 227 Rainbow Street, Sandgate, Queensland, 4017 Open seven days 6am to 2pm 0413 849 814 Aaron Leck didn’t think hospitality was for him while working in cafés during his school day. But after some time working in an office environment, he felt unfulfilled.

“I was missing the customer and human interaction you get in hospitality,” Aaron says.

“I went to a couple of cupping sessions at Dandelion and Driftwood [a flagship café of Wolff Coffee Roasters].

That reignited my passion for coffee and made me realise maybe there would be something in it for me long term.”

Aaron and his wife purchased a second-hand coffee cart and The Wired Owl was born. Initially only setting up and serving coffee on the weekend, an opportunity for Aaron to take a redundancy from his office job came up. He used the opportunity to go into coffee full time and invest in a permanent location.

For the past five years, The Wired Owl has worked out of a small shop in Sandgate, gaining a reputation for its coffee quality.

“I think customers found it a little weird at first when we were weighing shots and discarding those that weren’t quite up to our standard or extracting the way we’d like,” Aaron says. “But after tasting that quality, customers started to appreciate it.

We’ve been very lucky to be embraced by the community exceptionally well from the start.”

The Wired Owl serves a custom blend and rotating single origins from Wolff Coffee Roasters, a partnership Aaron says

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has been key to the café’s growth since the very beginning.

“When we started out with the trailer, we were pretty sporadic with our orders and they were willing to work with us in those early days. Hopefully, we’ve repaid their support by continuing to grow,” he says.

“When I first mentioned to Peter [Wolff] my idea of starting the shop, he provided assistance, advice, and encouragement, and has done so ever since.”

On the bar, The Wired Owl uses a

The Wired Owl has become a fixture of the Sandgate community over the past five years.

Mythos One grinder, Puqpress automatic tamper, San Remo Café Racer, and a Perfect Moose milk steamer. Aaron says the Perfect Moose has been particularly useful when working with different dairy alternatives during rush hour.

“Space is really limited in our shop and we can’t always have an extra person pouring. The Perfect Moose is like having an extra set of hands to help us keep pace,” Aaron says.

With such high volumes of coffee and little room for food prep, The Wired Owl has formed a unique friendship with the brunch restaurant next door, The Witchin Kitchen.

“We do the coffee and they do amazing food. It’s an arrangement that’s worked well for both of us,” Aaron says.

“People might be a little surprised when they find out they have to go next door to order their coffee or food, but at the end of the day, it allows us both to focus on what our passions are, so the customer gets a better result.”

It was the relationships and interaction that drew Aaron back into coffee, and he says it’s what has helped The Wired Owl to flourish.

“We’ve become a part of the community. Some of our staff have been with us for years, so people get to know them as well as me,” he says.

“Some customers tell us we’ve ruined going to other places for them. I love that we get to provide them with amazing coffee every day.”

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NOW

TECH TALK

Maurizio Marcocci is the Director of Service Sphere.

A pillar of strength Maurizio Marcocci of Service Sphere on how to navigate a year without fear, and why innovation and communication will be key to longevity in a ‘COVID normal’ world.

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hroughout the tragedy and stress of 2020, one thing that can’t be denied is how much our community values coffee – as a beverage, craft, and ritual during what was one of the most challenging years our industry has endured.

At Service Sphere, circumstances changed overnight. As the pandemic took hold of our city, many of our food service customers had their work put on hold. Office closures and that of big entertainment complexes, supermarket chains, and cinemas meant our

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preventative maintenance work was put on pause. Staff that could work from home did and on-road technicians came back into the workshop to help keep up with the growing demand for domestic machine sales and repairs.

We’ve been “pivoting” online for years, but this pandemic was the impetus that forced people to finally make the shift.

As a result, we saw an uplift of online purchasing. People were enthusiastic to purchase or upgrade their home coffee grinder, espresso machine, and the gadgets involved to ensure they had the equipment necessary to develop their craft as well as their local barista. This was an indicator that despite hospitality and offices being closed, people still saw coffee as “an essential service”. They were prepared to invest and use the downtime to elevate

their skills with new equipment or update their home setup to continue to be part of that ‘illusive coffee culture’.

We also set up the online Bean Bottega coffee portal as a one-stop-shop for customers to access some of the best local and imported coffee roasts with 5 per cent of sales donated towards the My Room Children’s Cancer Charity.

We engaged with customers and those in the supply chain to understand how the pandemic was impacting their businesses and how we could best assist. On a global scale the situation looked harrowing. We had to question our methods, determine how to best engage with our peers and colleagues, and learn how to do the work and get through it.

What was also important was the need to protect the welfare of our staff, which can

be so easily taken for granted. Victoria’s first lockdown was treated like a novelty.

The second was much more impactful and hard hitting on our demeanour. In some cases, two incomes became one with the unemployed member of the household left without a utility or purpose to get through the lockdown. In other instances, resources were stretched with two people working from home, and many had to manage home schooling with their kids. It was tough, and there was a lot of fear involved in decision making based on one’s concerns for their family’s safety.

Our suppliers shared the same challenges as we did: relying on other manufactures in the supply chain, manufacturing factories closing down with COVID-19 outbreaks, orders starting to slow, shipments staggered, air freight pricing quadrupled, and customers waiting months for stock. We still kept engaged with our suppliers and encouraged training for new machines. We’d normally commit to hosting or travelling to meet our international suppliers, but on this occasion, Zoom had to suffice.

AN ADAPTABLE WORLD

In the early days of COVID-19, it was easy for fear to put doubt in our minds and think: ‘Is this the end to hospitality as we know it? Will food only ever be delivered to our door? Is it the end to social interaction? Will there still be an appetite for hospitality and to eat out like we used to once this is all over?

But as we have seen, time and time again, Australians are a resilient bunch.

We are social, and we are still the leading international market when it comes

to utilising coffee as an experience.

Australia is synonymous with coffee culture – it’s not just about the machines we use. It’s about providing good hospitality and great products presented in the cup or on the plate in a consistent and meaningful way.

Hospitality may not be back to the way we knew it, but it’s clear there is a need for our cafés and the experience it brings. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think coffee fairs very well via UberEats. As such, expect to see more QR codes in use with the government and café owners doing everything they can to keep us safe. We can’t forget the training, level of commitment, and investment in technology business owners have had to endure to make their venues “COVID safe”.

The lockdown has also taught us about the value of tourists. Melbourne in particular is typically a popular tourist hotspot and the nation’s sporting capital, but in fact, we haven’t been an appealing destination since October 2019 when bushfires wreaked havoc on regional towns and blanketed our city in a thick fog. Then COVID-19 arrived in March, cancelling the Motor Grand Prix, and we were convinced 2020 was cursed.

But what we’ve realised, is that we need the support of tourists to fill our hotels, restaurants, and stadiums. We need more people, more mouths to feed, more international students and labour to jump into hospitality jobs. We need to get the fear factor out of the market so that customers can enjoy themselves once again, and one day, we invite those international workers back.

Without them, I really do think we’ll see a greater push for automation in coffee shops. With a great number of baristas lost to restrictions on international visas, business owners are looking at super automatics as a way to produce coffee consistently without the skills of an experienced barista. All of the machines launched at Host Milano 2019 are yet to make their way to the Australian market.

For this reason, what excites me about 2021 is the innovation coming our way with a strong push towards automation, fully automated machines, and even vending machines and brewers that unskilled operators can use.

In a case of ‘paint by numbers’, people will turn to super automatic machines and integrating automation into their coffee making process to maintain in-cup quality with less labour and skilled staff.

We have seen a trend from our customers who have integrated and automated their tamper process and milk heating/texturing

process with technology. Now, these same customers are upgrading to super automatic machines like the Eversys Enigma or Cameo along with considering traditional espresso machines that are “clever”, such as the LaCimbali M100i espresso machine.

This model dispenses espresso coffee and heats/textures milk at the touch of a button, coupled with the LaCimbali elective grinder, which tamps the coffee in the portafilter and “talks” to the machine via Bluetooth. It makes micro adjustments from shot to shot.

Throughout lockdown we saw a high volume of super automatic machines ordered and installed. Just the other day, we had a Sydney café owner purchase two super automatic machines as city foot traffic resumes and he saw a need for machines that could deliver the quality of coffee people expect, without the skills of a World Barista Champion.

If you’ve made your way back to a restaurant to enjoy a hospitality experience like I have, you would have noticed the immediate difference compared to having your meal delivered to your door. It’s not as we remember, with time constraints, online check-in and masked servers, but it is where hospitality can shine again around the story telling of their products. You can hear about the story of the farmer, the coffee, its origin, the barista, the machine and manufacturer over a cup of coffee. It’s not just a conversation for coffee, but for all food service.

I think 2021 will be a year of stop starts and uncertainty. I think we’ll see a lot of questions around the COVID-19 vaccine with an attempt to get back to “business as usual”. This virus has created a lot of disruption but when it comes to business strategies, what we’ve learnt is that communication is key. We still need to be consistent with our service levels and marketing to have our voice heard, and we need to be adaptable to the needs of our customers. Whether we’ll see a V-shaped recovery or an enduring one, only time will tell. Currently it still feels like the chess board is tipped over and we need to start the game again.

Pre-COVID, life was all about transactions, and now, we take the time to enjoy the little liberties of life. In testing times people rose to the occasion and supported one another. We won’t forget the year we’ve had, but we will begin 2021 with a renewed strength, and start again without fear, with a good cup of coffee.

Coffee is good alone, but I think coffee shared is even better.

For more information, visit servicesphere.com.au

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ESPRESSO YOURSELF

Jibbi Little of Jibbijug is the 2019 ASCA Pauls Professional Australian Latte Art Champion.

Seasonal Santa

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Jibbi Little celebrates the festive season with a pattern you’ll have all year to practise.

or many of us, Christmas is a time for giving, reflection, and sharing what we’re thankful for. Last year may have been difficult for many of us, but I think it’s fair to say we ended it in Australia in a safer and healthier position than many other countries.

While I know Christmas has been and gone, I thought I’d still use this chance to share a design that’s fun, festive, and challenging. For this edition’s pattern, I’m proud to share with you my take on the jolly old man in red himself, Santa Claus.

Practice it for Christmas in July or perfect your pour for the rest of the year. It’s sure to put a smile on your customer’s dial or invite a confused look of wonder and awe. Either way, let’s give it a go together.

Many elements of Santa Claus are iconic, from the thick red suit and big belly to the black belt and boots. But zooming in on

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his face and profile, there are many features uniquely Santa-esque.

In particular, the big bushy beard and stocking cap.

It’s details like these that bring patterns to life, and in this instance, we’ll use not one, not two, but five rosettas in total.

Spacing these correctly and understanding how they interact with each other are crucial to perfecting this design.

While the other techniques used are simple on their own – pouring lines and spirals or dropping foam – you’ll again need to have a good idea of how these will look in and impact the final cup. You’ll also need to make sure there is room in the cup for all these elements. You’ll struggle if your canvas is too small.

Scroll through my Instagram at @jibbi.the.littles to watch me pour this design from start to finish life using oat milk from The Alternative Dairy Co, and for many more inspirational designs to get you thinking creatively.

1.

Build you base, and with the handle at three o’clock, pour a long rosetta (14 leafs if you can) along the edge of the cup from nine to six o’clock.

3.

Slightly higher and to the right of the starting point of the first rosetta, pour a seven-leaf rosetta to the right edge of the cup.

5.

Pour a curved line from the second-last leaf of the top rosetta until it’s in line with your middle rosetta from stage 2. Drag through to connect the lines, forming the nose.

7.

Drop a bit of foam at the back of the cap to form the tassel.

2.

Pour three shorter, six-leaf rosettas, each connecting to the bottom point of the first one.

4.

In the same movement, pull through along the top edge of the cup until just past your starting point.

Drag a small, curved line to connect with the rosetta, forming the hat.

6.

Pout a small spiral in the centre of the cup, starting from the tip of the rosetta mentioned in step 5.

8.

Drop a tiny amount of foam for the eye of Saint Nich.

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TRAINING TACTICS

Babin Gurung is the New South Wales Barista Trainer of Suntory Coffee Australia.

The daily grind Mocopan Coffee’s Babin Gurung goes back to basics to explore the variables of grinder calibration and how to adjust a grinder.

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afternoon. To learn more, refer to hat first cup of coffee in Dr. Monika Fekete’s BeanScene June the morning after dialling in your grinder is often 2019 article on how grind temperature the highlight of many impacts extraction. Humidity plays a people’s day. If you’ve ever similar role. High humidity wondered why your afternoon coffee means the beans will doesn’t taste the same, you are not alone. absorb more moisture, There is a reason why coffees taste better making it harder in the morning. Having fresh beans, a to extract while clean machine, and a well calibrated drier conditions grinder makes all the difference. As cause coffee the day progresses, you may not have to easily over all these variables in check. Beans go extract. This stale if you leave them in the hopper change is more for more than two hours, which is why prominent in maintaining a minimum amount of cafés that have coffee is the best practice. Your coffee coffee machines machine can collect a lot of oil and facing outside grime from overuse, and if not cleaned regularly, can add unpleasant flavours in the cup. The best practice is to purge the group head and rinse the handle between use and backflushing after rush periods.

But what about grinder calibration?

How often do we need to calibrate? Before I answer that, let’s look at what causes calibration to fluctuate.

Weather conditions: this one may seem odd, but changes in the weather have an immediate impact on grinder calibration.

Coffee is a natural product and responds to environmental factors Maintaining a minimum level of coffee such as heat and moisture. in the hopper keeps constant pressure This is why you will often and encourages beans to pass through see change in extraction the grinder blades. time from morning to

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where temperature is inconsistent.

Coffee age: this refers to the batch or roasted date of coffee.

Fresh coffee is high in moisture and carbon dioxide gas, making it harder to extract while older coffees are more porous and thus easier to extract.

The ideal time to use a bag of coffee is between seven to 28 days from roast. When you switch from one batch of coffee to another, you will notice a change in extraction time.

This is simply due to difference in moisture and carbon dioxide level. We don’t use coffee from the day before for calibration due to the same reason.

Hopper level: maintaining a minimum level of coffee beans in the hopper is important as it keeps constant pressure and encourages beans to pass through the grinder blades. Anytime the hopper is close to being empty, you will notice the grind will come out coarser, giving you a quicker extraction. This can be avoided by keeping the hopper about half-full.

Similarly, over heating of the grinder from repeated use, fluctuation of water pressure in your espresso machine, and inconsistent tamping can cause calibration to fluctuate.

So, the answer to the question of ‘how often should you calibrate the grinder?’, is any time these variables change. The ultimate test is the taste itself. You should be able to recognise change in flavour these variables may cause. Refer to BeanScene’s article ‘What makes a

“OVER HEATING OF THE GRINDER FROM REPEATED USE, FLUCTUATION OF WATER PRESSURE IN YOUR ESPRESSO MACHINE, AND INCONSISTENT TAMPING CAN CAUSE CALIBRATION TO FLUCTUATE.” coffee strong?’ from the August 2019 edition for further information on how flavours work.

Here is a breakdown of three flavour profiles you may encounter: Under-extracted: if the shot runs faster than the ideal extraction time, it is considered under extracted. This means the water hasn’t fully absorbed all the desired flavours. You will mostly get acidic and sour flavour with a thin body. It may not necessarily taste unpleasant but there will be an obvious lack of sweetness.

Visually, the crema will look pale and thin and may not hold for too long.

Over-extracted: this is the opposite of under-extracted where the shot runs longer than expected, allowing water to draw intense and harsh flavours.

This can cause the coffee to taste bitter and leave your mouth feeling dry and hollow. Visually, it will look darker with thicker crema.

Well-extracted: This is when all the flavours come together making the coffee rich in aroma and flavour. This coffee should have higher sweetness and a well-rounded aftertaste. Visually, it should have deeper colour and the crema should hold for longer.

Now that we understand the variables

of grinder calibration, let’s look at how to adjust the grinder.

Macro adjustment: this refers to the grinder adjustment we make once or twice a day. Let’s break this down into steps so it’s easier to follow: Step 1: check your dose using a scale.

Dose refers to the volume or grams of ground coffee that goes into a double group handle. This is dictated by your coffee recipe. For now, instead of fixing the dose button on the grinder, adjust the dose manually by adding or removing coffee by hand until you achieve the desired dose weight.

Step 2: check extraction time. Once the handle is loaded with the correct dose of coffee, press the double button and check the extraction time.

There are two things that can happen here. If the shot runs: •F aster: it means the grind size is too coarse.

•S lower: it means the grind size is too fine.

The solution is to turn the dial towards fine to slow down the extraction time and coarse to speed the extraction time. The rule of thumb is every one line/notch creates two to three seconds change in extraction time. This is dependent on the

If grinder blades are wide apart, they produce coarser coffee. If blades are close together, they produce finer coffee.

age and condition of the grinder blades.

Let me explain how the grinder blades work. Underneath the hopper, there are two blades (burrs) which rotate to produce coffee grind. If the blades are wide apart, they produce coarser coffee and if the blades are close together, they produce finer coffee. The dial allows us to move the blades to produce the desired consistency of coffee. What’s notable is that every time you move the blades, it also impacts the amount of coffee that can pass through, resulting in an increase or decrease of dose amount. Since most automatic electronic grinders measure dose by grind time and not weight, going finer will result in a lower dose, and coarser will result in increased dose.

Therefore, it is always advisable to adjust the dose button last once you achieve the correct grind consistency.

Step 3: a grinder holds some coffee in its chamber between the hopper and blades.

For you to see the changed extraction time, you will need to flush some coffee first. This is dependent on the type of grinder you use but generally it’s between one to two shots of coffee. This will ensure the new grind setting is applied.

Next step: go back to step 1. This means, re-checking your dose amount to ensure you have the correct dose in the basket before checking extraction time again.

Repeat the steps until you achieve the desired extraction time.

Final step: adjust the dose button on your grinder. Every grinder is different but, in most cases, every 0.2 seconds of adjustment on the grind time results in a change of one gram of coffee.

Micro adjustment: These are a series of small changes we make throughout the day to maintain grinder calibration.

You may not necessarily use a scale for this, but making minor adjustments to the dial can help keep the extraction time within the parameters, ensuring the coffee tastes great all day, and not just in the morning.

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WATER WORKS

Richard Padron is the National Technical Sales Manager for BRITA.

Cloud to cup There’s more to water than meets the eye. Richard Padron of BRITA explores how the water cycle influences and reacts with coffee.

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ou might know all about the bean-to-cup journey, but have you thought about how the other pivotal ingredient of any coffee – water – makes its way into the brew?

Water may seem pretty straightforward, but there are many steps along the water cycle and plenty of factors that can influence its chemical composition.

Let’s start with precipitation. Clouds fill with water until they get too heavy to stay afloat and rain down onto the ground or ocean below. Water that falls on land runs off until it’s absorbed into the soil, where it joins groundwater sources that flow into trees or larger water bodies. Then, the sun evaporates the water, vapour rises into the sky and forms clouds, and the cycle continues.

Water is often called the universal solvent, as it dissolves more substances than any other liquid.

Rainwater absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it falls to the ground, becoming slightly acidic. It then seeps into soil that contains limestone. The solid limestone dissolves into the acidic water and forms calcium and hydrogen carbonate ions. The water is now hard as it contains a high volume of dissolved ions. We call this the “lime-carbonic acid equilibrium” because the two almost balance each other out.

Leaching can also occur when minerals like limestone and dolomite, components from fertilisers and pesticides, and industrial pollution like oil residues and solvents, are absorbed into the soil and mix with groundwater.

Drinking water has strict limits on what it can contain. To make it safe, water passes through treatment plants that remove anything dangerous to our health. But they don’t take everything out, and the

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water can be exposed to more materials on the way to our home or cafés.

PIPE UP

Rust and scale particles can be picked up from piping after water leaves the treatment plant. The majority of these particles are harmless and not even visible, ranging in size from one to 200 micrometres. For reference, a strand of northern European human hair has about a 50-micrometre diameter. These are harmless when you drink them, but the same can’t be said for your coffee machine. These nasties can build up in mains-fed equipment, causing faults. This can mean increased equipment downtime and higher energy and maintenance costs.

SOMETHING IN THE WATER

Many natural minerals are also left in the water and treatment plants add other substances like chlorine to disinfect it.

These minerals consist of cations (positively charged ions) – calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium – combined with anions (negatively charged ions) – hydrogen carbonate, sulphate, nitrate, and chlorine.

The concentration of dissolved calcium and magnesium in water is referred to as total hardness. The portion of this combined with carbonate, bicarbonate, or hydrogen carbonate is called carbonate hardness.

When water is heated, like in a coffee machine, hydrogen carbonate decomposes into carbonate and carbon dioxide. As the carbon dioxide gas is released, the pH level rises (a measure of acidity), making the water more alkalic, disrupting the lime-carbonic acid equilibrium mentioned earlier. This carbonate combines with calcium to form limescale in the boiler.

When the anion is something other than carbonate, bicarbonate, or hydrogen carbonate, it is called “permanent hardness” because it remains in water post-boil.

Carbonate hardness can make up anywhere between 25 and 90 per cent of total hardness. Scale water contains higher levels or carbonate hardness than permanent hardness, while the opposite is called Gypsum water. Gypsum deposits can build in a coffee machine over time too.

Because the total and types of hardness can vary widely, water filters have to

be able to meet diverse requirements – and provide the right water treatment for regional conditions.

One of the aims of a water filter is to remove particles that could lead to equipment downtime and prevent mineral and limescale deposits from forming. Another target is to achieve an ideal mineral composition and prevent unintended reactions between water and the ingredients in a beverage like coffee.

EXTRACTION

The water used in coffee is important. It is, after all, the main ingredient. Even once it has left the boiler, remaining chemicals or materials can create an unpleasant taste or aroma. They can also impact what is extracted from the coffee grounds.

Moreover, substances introduced during water treatment like chloride can cause unpalatable chlorine, corky, or musty tastes – some can even influence how coffee smells. Plus, organic contaminants in water can lend an off-flavour to coffee. In particular, water with these types of solutes can produce coffee with a distinctive earthy or musty taste.

A few years ago, BRITA worked with the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) to develop the SCAE Water Chart, which provides an in-depth look at how water composition impacts coffee. Reach out to your BRITA representative for the full paper.

As a rough guide, when it comes to water drinking composition, cations like calcium and potassium extract bitter flavours, magnesium tends to bring bitter/sweet tastes, and sodium draws out sweet/salty compounds.

Anions like sulphate can make a chalky

“THE WATER USED IN COFFEE IS IMPORTANT. IT IS, AFTER ALL, THE MAIN INGREDIENT. EVEN ONCE IT HAS LEFT THE BOILER, REMAINING CHEMICALS OR MATERIALS CAN CREATE AN UNPLEASANT TASTE OR AROMA. THEY CAN ALSO IMPACT WHAT IS EXTRACTED FROM THE COFFEE GROUNDS.” profile while chloride draws out bitter flavours. Hydrogen carbonate can even react with coffee acids, resulting in a flat/ dry profile.

I might be making it sound like you should use mineral-less water for your coffee brewing, but that’s far from the case.

If you look at coffee competitions like the Brewers Cup, you will see competitors purify their water and add minerals that will extract compounds they are looking for in their coffee. Generally, you want a low level of hydrogen carbonate and just the right amount of calcium and magnesium to bring out desirable flavours in the cup.

The exact composition of water – including hardness, chlorine levels, aroma, and taste – can even differ from city to

city and state to state, so the same coffee brewed in two different parts of the country can taste completely different. Or, a roaster could be testing their coffee with a water composition completely different to the café that serves it.

To ensure cafés have the best possible water to make the most of their coffees, BRITA offers a broad range of filters to tailor H2O to their goals and preferences.

The activated carbon PURITY C Fresh filters, hydrogen exchange PURITY Quell ST and PURITY C Quell ST, and sodium exchange PURITY C Finest are each developed to work best in different situations, and the BRITA PROGUARD Coffee is able to infuse the desired minerals.

Like coffee, water goes on a long journey to get to the café, picking up flavours and compounds that give it a unique terroir. Using a simple filter solution, you can choose how that is expressed in the final cup.

For more information, visit www.brita.com.au

Agricultural pollution, minerals such as limestone and dolomite, industrial emissions, and leaching can impact the composition of H20 along the water cycle.

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ASCA

Kieran Westlake is the President of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association.

Going digital

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2020 was a year of challenges, but it provided an opportunity for growth and new ideas.

t was heartbreaking when we had to yet again postpone the 2020 Condesa Co Lab Australian Coffee Championships, but the decision left us with the time to plan a 2021 Nationals like never before.

With the next World Barista Championship and World Brewers Cup scheduled for Greece in June 2021, we knew we had to leave our competitors with enough time to prepare, so we set ourselves a window of four days over the first two weeks of March. By the time you’re reading this, official dates may have been announced, so check the ASCA website, Facebook, and Instagram for more information.

We knew we wouldn’t be able to host the events with the kind of crowd and audience capacity they’d usually attract, so we decided the safest and most accessible way to hold the nationals would be to initiate a digital event.

The first ASCA national competition of its kind will be livestreamed online, opening the competition to a wider audience.

Inspired by the Olympics, the livestream will feature the competitor’s warm up, routine, and post-performance interview. We will package these presentations post-comp as showreels, providing the 2021 Nationals with a new longevity that showcases our competitors and sponsors to general and international audiences.

What I really like about this competition concept is that it will provide viewers with the best opportunity to actually hear and watch what the competitor is saying and doing.

Competitors in the Vitasoy Barista Championship and Brewers Cup put so much time and effort into developing their routines, but sometimes their words and actions can be missed over the noise and

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ASCA is planning a virtual Australian Coffee Championships in 2021.

size of the crowd.

The livestream will provide viewers with a better than ever look at baristas from around the country and their routines, with a vantage point and audio quality that only the judges usually experience.

It will be great for the Barista Championship and Brewers Cup, but just imagine the difference it will make for Latte Art. Viewers will be able to watch the competitor’s hand movements and see the design in the same condition the judges do.

Or Cup Tasters, where not only coffee people but the general community can witness the speed, accuracy, and skill of our competitors, followed by an exciting unveiling ceremony.

This could build a connection to the competitions that ripples through the viewership of future regionals and nationals.

For the Australian Roasting Championship, we’ll do something similar with a few changes to suit the format.

While it won’t be livestreamed, we’ll

film and condense the competition in a way that explores the competitors’ green bean sorting, development of roast profiles, and sensory checking. It will be more educational than watching someone roast coffee, where unless you have a high level of insight, you’re not going to see the difference.

Beyond the streaming day, these videos will remain accessible post-event for anyone to watch and learn from online, with the hope that more people will build an appreciation for what our baristas, cuppers, and roasters do each day.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

We have a few contingencies in place should another outbreak occur and borders again lock up.

Remember to routinely check the ASCA website, subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on social media for updates as they happen.

Sign up for our FREE newsletter at www.australianspecialtycoffee. com.au

NZSCA

Emma McDougall is the Communications and Administration Co-ordinator of the NZSCA.

Full steam ahead into 2021

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Emma McDougall of the NZSCA prepares for a busy year of events on and off-line.

nspired by the people in our community such as the women who roast, our educators, green bean buyers and technicians, we are aiming to keep the momentum going into 2021. We’re eager to learn more about the great visionaries, how our Kiwis overseas are flourishing, and who we would like to adopt, are the topics for our next set of interviews.

Our online Ultimate Fluffy Challenge, 3DFestive Chino, and colouring competitions add to the fun of connecting online and will be adapted further in 2021.

How wonderful was it to end 2020 with our Tasters Series and Sausage Fest events around New Zealand in person?

After successfully running eight safe, fun, tasty evenings with our community, we asked for eight hosts around the country for round two. Within 24 hours, we had all the hosts signed up and even had to turn some away in duplicate cities for our Tasters Series.

Thanks goes to the strength of our collaborative industry and the coffee loving attendees who showed they are excited about attending events again

NZSCA board members Megan Wyper, David Burton, Emma Markland Webster, Nic McClean, and John Cole.

by snapping up tickets.

Tasters Series V2 is scheduled for Monday 15 February and Thursday 18 February in eight centres around New Zealand. Member company L’affare is sourcing tasty fruity green beans and we think a ticket would be a great gift for a coffee loving friend. Open to all, our hosts commented on the diverse, friendly nature of the last series.

Tickets are on sale for the Coffee in Good Spirits Throwdown in Wellington on Thursday 18 March before the 2021 Meadow Fresh NZ Barista Championship takes place over the weekend of 20 and 21 March. With competitors, and spectator tickets available now, the uptake thus far has been very positive. After the longest year, it feels like March will be here before we know it.

Creating time and space for a Train the Trainer specialised instructor course in mid-April continues the great work of our Education Portfolio, developed and run

by Emma Markland Webster. Emma said the last course run in October featured “a cross section of our members”. From small to large, we encourage anyone looking to upskill, build their knowledge base, and teach effectively to attend.

The online Annual General Meeting was successful in 2020, but there’s nothing quite like meeting, networking, and sharing experiences over the breakfast table. Returning to our regular hosts, Sherwood in Queenstown will offer a chance to get away from business as usual but still talk coffee with contemporaries.

Sherwood is creating delicious menus and we’ll be celebrating with our Recognition

The Taster Series proved a hit for the NZSCA at the end of 2020.

Awards, and an AGM designed to continue to build on our current projects.

With a slightly later date of Thursday 27 and Friday 28 May, all members are invited to attend. Gathering to support, celebrate, and plan safely is more imperative than ever. For those overseas, or unable to attend, we are looking to incorporate an online/live element.

With a close eye on World Coffee Championship events overseas, we have decided to set the date for our Latte Art and Cup Tasters Championships around September to November. Another exciting weekend to look forward too.

We are encouraged with news of plans in place in regard to borders opening up between New Zealand and Australia.

MICE is on the calendar and we look forward to seeing our Trans-Tasman neighbours once again, it’s been a long time between drinks.

Stay safe, be kind, drink coffee.

For more information on the New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association, or to join, visit www.nzsca.org

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E-SCENE

Every edition we highlight BeanScene’s digital coffee community, hearing from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram followers.

For more information, visit www.beanscenemag.com.au ‘Like’ us on Facebook/BeanSceneCoffeeMag

KHUSH KOTHARI Hi, my name is Khush and I am the head barista at The Hardware Societe.

My coffee journey started about eight years ago when I bought my first espresso machine and got basic “how to make an espresso” training. I was already a coffee lover but after that, I started appreciating coffee even more and decided to pursue a career in the coffee industry. Since then, I have worked in various cafés in Melbourne and even got an opportunity to judge the Australian Specialty Coffee Association Southern Region Latte Art Championship.

At work, I am mostly behind the Slayer espresso machine but on weekends at home, I like to experiment with filter coffee. My favourite method is v60 using Tetsu Kasuya’s recipe.

My partner and I both love travelling and whenever we visit a new place, we like to try the local cafés and explore their coffee culture.

My favourite coffee moment is when we visited a coffee farm during our trip to Colombia. We got a chance to see how the coffee is grown, picked, processed, and finally roasted ready for us to consume. I would love to continue my coffee journey and learn more about these magical beans.

SHIGEKAZU YAMAWAKI

My name is Shigekazu and I live in Ballarat, Victoria. I was just a casual coffee drinker, but my visit to Ethiopia in 2015 has changed my view of coffee (see the photo below. I’m second from the right). I was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn about the coffee export process from cherry harvesting through to the shipment phases. Seeing is believing. To see how many unsung heroes are working hard behind the scenes to make one shipment of coffee possible has made me a coffee industry admirer, who values every cup of coffee.

I am now engaged in a local coffee project in Sidama, Ethiopia working closely with Tsegab Ayele, my Ethiopian project partner. Heleph Coffee (Ethiopia) Asia & Oceania (heleph. com) is part of the project.

I post photos daily on Instagram @heleph_coffee_ethiopia_ jpn_aus. I am now learning the coffee scene in Australia and rely on BeanScene as an essential source of information. The more I learn about coffee in general, the more I appreciate every single mouthful.

Follow us on instagram.com/beanscenemag

LATHA KOTHARU I moved from a small town in India to Melbourne about 14 years ago.

The Melbourne coffee scene is so different from India, and yet so similar.

I grew up in a house where I woke up to the aroma of a perfect homemade filter coffee made from fresh milk straight out of the farm, with no processing involved. Hence, the first coffee [of the day] was so special. I rarely had a coffee outside home. When I moved to Melbourne the coffee scene slowly took me in and made me fall in love with coffee. I eventually started exploring different coffees around the city and my journey in search of the best coffee began. I started reading about the life cycle and journey of coffee. I learnt how to make a perfect cup.

I learnt a lot about specialty coffees, brews, blends, and roasts. The more I learned I realised the less I knew.

When I plan my travel, I make a list of cafés to visit. I would love to continue my journey in different countries when world gets back to normal. Follow my journey on Instagram @Girlwithacoffeecup

Follow us on @BeanSceneEd

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WE WANT YOU! Have a coffee passion you’re dying to share?

We’d love to see it. Email a 150-word bio about your love of coffee, your favourite coffee moment, and a little about yourself with a high-resolution image (1MB or greater) to BeanScene Editor Sarah Baker: sarah.baker@primecreative.com.au

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