Beanscene Dec 2020

DECEMBER 2020

A World-Class Coffee Magazine

Anything but ordinary Why it’s time to break the mould

Café culture in a COVID world Genovese Coffee’s golden years

Untapped cold brew potential Sasa Sestic on life after the WBC

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WOW, what a year.

20, As we come to the end of 20 our we wanted to say thanks to and customers for all your support of a friendship. It’s been one hell ns, but ride, many ups and some dow the most of all we got through to other side together. e ups Let’s hope that 20 21 has mor ralia, than downs. All the best Aust ve from all the Mocopan team. Ha Year. a great Christmas and New See ya in 20 21.

Cheers, n team Steve Wrightson & the Mocopa

DECEMBER 2020

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contents UPFRONT

12 NEWS 16 STUFF ON THE SCENE INDUSTRY PROFILES

18 KNOWLEDGE LEADER

Sasa Sestic on life after the WBC and his commitment to the next generation of champions

22 CELEBRITY CHEF

Jock Zonfrillo reveals his coffee obsession and heavy heart for the hospitality industry

27 LIFE IN COLOUR

Mocopan Coffee breaks the mould on its 66-year history

47 70

FEATURE NEWS

47 THE GREAT OUTDOORS

A look at Australia’s café culture in a COVID world

50 FIRST CRACK

58 TASTE TESTED

How De’Longhi’s La Specialista Maestro is designed to suit the palate of Australian consumers

60 SIGHTS SET ON APAC

Using drone technology to deliver coffee to the hands of eager customers

Cimbali Group strengthens its strategic presence in APAC

EDUCATION SPOTLIGHT

39 KEEP IT CLEAN

66 THE FILTER EFFECT

Brita on the importance of water filtration for coffee flavour and machine protection

68 LEARNING CURVES

SKILL BASE

Matthew Lewin demonstrates a daily cleaning schedule using Cafetto product

80 ESPRESSO YOURSELF

Jibii Little shares the magic of Mary Poppins

31 SPREADING ITS WINGS

Equilibrium Master Roasters supports roasters with decisive training

35 HEART AND SOUL

Nestlé Professional shares its knowledge and expertise on hot and cold coffee segments

CAFÉ SCENE

72 DOWN TO BUSINESS

Victoria Arduino gets set to open its Experience Lab in Melbourne Why The Alternative Dairy Co has partnered with Soul Origin and the FCA

43 THE GOLDEN YEARS

Family-owned roaster Genovese Coffee turns 50

62 LOCALE GROWN

Locale rebrands its packaging with a focus on sustainability

64 RIDING THE WAVE

Coffee Port and Doppio or Northing Espresso on why they leave the roasting to the experts 6

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70 A PROFESSIONAL TOUCH

Toby’s Estate unveils its new training program

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

54 UNTAPPED POTENTIAL

The Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew system broadens a café’s menu

56 BUILT TO TASK

Why the Mazzer Kold S represents the future of coffee grinding engineering

82 TRAINING TACTICS

Mocopan Coffee on navigating training in a virtual world

74 CAFÉ SCENE

Around Australia

78 TECH TALK

Service Sphere on how to get coffee equipment ready for the ultimate industry comeback

84 ASCA

Why hospitality needs support if the economy is to recover

85 NZSCA

How one bizarre year has created the new (ab)normal

86 E SCENE

Fans of the magazine

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

Affinity On Errol 116 Errol St, North Melbourne, VIC 3051

ART DIRECTOR Blake Storey

The December covershoot of BeanScene is special in more ways than one. It was the first time the team had been inside a café to conduct an in-person shoot since April thanks to the Victorian lockdown. To mark the occasion, we visited Affinity on Errol in North Melbourne.

“What a great way to conclude the last edition of BeanScene for the year by honouring Melbourne’s café owners and small businesses in particular. There was a real buzz at Affinity On Errol,” says BeanScene Editor Sarah Baker. “The coffee is delicious, the food is next level, and the vibe owners Linda Chen and Jessica Bee bring to the table is why I love Melbourne cafés so much.”

Linda and Jessica took ownership of the venue in August 2019.

Linda was working long hours and driving long distances in a different industry and thought operating a café with chef Jessica would be a good idea.

Together, they’ve slowly steeped Japanese influence into the previously Italian café. Arancini balls have been swapped for Bento boxes, and the locals are loving the free range approach to food. Produce is sourced from Belmore biodynamics, including its biodynamic pork from Mount Mercer in Victoria, with all items made to order.

“The COVID-19 lockdown actually pushed us to shed the image of the old café and put our own stamp on Affinity. Our rule is simple, we serve food that we would want to eat, and it seems the locals do too,” Linda says.

“We’ve been lucky to keep working through the lockdown. The local community has been so supportive, but in the last week since we’ve opened back up, we’ve really loved seeing our customers again – one guy has been in every day since we reopened.”

The coffee is from Mocopan Coffee, with Linda and Jessica preferring a blend "with a bit of strength", and say the Roast '54 blend is just that. “One customer told us the coffee was the best in Melbourne, so we’re happy with that,” Linda says.

For this edition’s cover image, BeanScene photographer Blake Storey was put to task to represent Mocopan Coffee in a new light – something that would symbolise the quality of its coffee in a way most wouldn’t expect from the brand of 66 years.

Anything but “The brief was to be ‘disruptive’ ordinary and we tried a range of setups to achieve this,” says Blake. “What we’ve ended up with is a really cool representation that will hopefully make people take notice of one of the longest-standing espresso brands of the Melbourne coffee culture.”

DECEMBER 2020

Why it’s time to break

A World- Class Coffee Magazi ne

the mould

Café culture in a

COVID world

Genovese Coffee’s

golden years

Untapped cold brew

Sasa Sestic on life

72

8

beanscenemag.com.au

potential

after the WBC

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, Josh Griggs CONTRIBUTORS Jibbi Little, Babin Gurung, Maurizio Marcocci, 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.

AUSTRALIA’S

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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 YEAR THAT WAS

T

his year, I got used to the sound of silence. As the city of Melbourne went into lockdown, there was less traffic, less people, and less chatter on the streets, as businesses closed and faces became hidden by a piece of material.

Hospitality businesses did everything they could to survive, ticking off this year’s most used and hated words: social distancing, sanitising, pivoting, and unmuting. Did I mention this year was “unprecedented?” Call it what you will, but it was tough, extremely tough.

Around the country, life resumed to ‘COVID normal’ in the north and west, while regional cafés and suburban regions saw coffee volumes increase and retail sales rise thanks to consumers working from home. Supermarket shelves expanded their coffee offerings, and more people invested in equipment to become their own home barista. Whether these consumer behaviours continue beyond the pandemic is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure – coffee has been the companion we all needed this year.

The easy option was to push pause and recluse, but companies took the time to reflect on their brand strategies and training initiatives. Many undertook a complete overhaul to ensure their vision and methods aligned with the needs of the evolving market. Some even thanked COVID-19 for giving them the push they needed to activate plans sooner rather than later.

On 28 October, Victorian cafés finally got the reprieve they were after, opening the doors to dine-in customers in restricted capacity. For the first time in a long while, the silence was filled with the sounds I love most: a friendly greeting by a barista, laugher of friends catching up, the tapping of a group handle on a knock box, freshly grinding coffee, the hum of an extraction, and the steaming of milk. You may not have been able to see me smiling under the compulsory face mask, but I was.

Melbourne is slowly rebuilding the coffee culture the world knows and loves.

Oddly enough, the last person I saw for an espresso pre-lockdown was Grinders Coffee Founder Giancarlo Giusti outside the original site of his beloved shop in Lygon Street in Carlton. On my first outing back into the world after four months, there he was in exactly the same position I’d left him, in his flat cap and yellow jacket. When I asked him where he’s been all this time, he said, “bella, I’ve been here the whole time”, and that’s exactly how I believe Melbourne cafés feel – like a sleeping giant ready to wake and welcome back customers with open arms.

SARAH BAKER

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

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NEWS

YEAR OF FIRSTS FOR COLOMBIA AND PERU CUP OF EXCELLENCE Eighteen of the 24 winners in the 2020 Colombia Cup of Excellence were first time participants in the coffee quality competition, including the first placed Feilpe Henao Triana of the Antioquia region.

His Chiroso variety coffee, from Los Tres Mosqueteros farm, scored 90.03 points and earned the competition’s only Presidential Award.

“I still can’t believe it. I was already happy with the fact that we managed

to be in the international round and I’m so grateful to God, my family, my wife and my children,” says Felipe.

The awards were live streamed on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram with producers waiting to hear the results while Colombian coffee supporters tuned in around the world.

The winners represent five regions and nine varieties. Three coffees were washed anaerobic processed, two were honey processed, three were

Hilda Leguía Gonzales placed first in the Peru Cup of Excellence.

RANCILIO AND MOFFAT GROUP ESTABLISH RANCILIO GROUP AUSTRALASIA The Rancilio and Moffat Groups have announced a combined strategic partnership, establishing Rancilio Group Australasia.

The companies say joining Moffat’s market leadership in Australia and New Zealand with Rancilio Group’s global expertise in the coffee industry, Rancilio Group Australasia will guarantee the highest customer care for roasters, distributors, key accounts, and baristas, improving the dedication and attention its team already offers.

Moffat Group has extensive distribution, service, and dealer relationships, supported by corporate offices in major cities across the region.

Rancilio says it’s now in the position to further develop its portfolio of products across Australia and New Zealand with extended local sales, service, and parts support.

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

Paul O’Brien will continue to lead the business as General Manager of Rancilio Group Australasia, based in Melbourne.

For more information, visit www.ranciliogroup.com

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The Rancilio Specialty RS1 on display at Paradox Coffee Roasters in Surfers Paradise.

naturals, and 16 were washed.

Over in Peru, Hilda Leguía Gonzales won the nation’s Cup of Excellence with her half washed Geisha, half SL-09 entry from the Cusco region, scored exactly 90 points.

Due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions, Cup of Excellence incountry partners have adapted the different phases of its competition for judging at Global Coffee Centers (GCCs).

For the South American competitions, additional GCCs, representing China, the United Kingdom, and the United States, were added to existing sites in the US, Japan, Korea, Norway, and Australia.

Yunjie He, International Judge and Coffee Buyer for Latorre & Dutch in China, took part in judging the Colombia Cup of Excellence.

“First, we are so glad and honoured to have GCC here in Nanjing. It is a wonderful experience to have the chance to taste these amazing coffees, which enriched my idea of Colombian coffee and its potential,” Yunjie says.

“It is a special and difficult year for all of us and the efforts behind all these coffees are worthy of the appreciation.”

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NEWS

MELBOURNE CAFÉS REOPEN Melbourne cafés were given the green light to reopen from 11:59pm on Tuesday 27 October, following Melbourne’s first day with zero new COVID-19 cases on 26 October.

“The last time Victoria had zero cases was 9 June, 139 days ago. Even more incredibly, it’s zero cases off the back of a huge testing drive,” said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

“Because of that effort, we’ve been able to get the results faster than we thought. These results give us confidence – confidence that even if we do identify positive cases in any further tests – we are firmly on top of this virus.”

After two weeks of consistently low-to-no case numbers, metro Melbourne venues’ capacities were increased to 40 inside and 70 outside diners, though four-square-metre-perpatron density limits, record keeping,

Melbourne cafés were restricted to takeaway only during the second wave of COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria.

and COVIDSafe Plans also apply.

“We want to reach COVID Normal by Christmas and right now, we’re on track to do that,” Premier Andrews says.

“As we take these steady steps towards reopening, the message remains the same: please, stay safe. And if you have symptoms, you must get tested.”

SYDNEY ROASTER CERTIFIED CARBON NEUTRAL

Climate Active has certified Pablo & Rusty’s as carbon neutral.

Rablo & Rusty’s next step towards sustainability is transitioning all of its packaging towards being recyclable or compostable.

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New South Wales coffee roaster Pablo & Rusty’s has received Carbon Neutral certification from Climate Active.

Climate Active is the Australian Government’s carbon-neutral certifying body, and Pablo & Rusty’s is the first coffee company in Australia it has certified.

Abdullah Ramay, CEO of Pablo & Rusty’s, says the company couldn’t have achieved zero emissions without the support of its customers.

“We really have been in this together.

The coffee industry spans almost every continent in the world. We are not just on the frontlines of the battle on climate change, our growers and their families are also particularly vulnerable to its impact. We must start doing something today,” says Ramay.

“We’re excited to continue our journey of positively impacting people and the planet through coffee.”

Saxon Wright, Founder and Executive Director of Pablo & Rusty’s, says becoming carbon neutral is a launchpad towards more green initiatives.

“We still have so many things we want to do and improve on. We are going through an overhaul of our packaging to ensure it’s either compostable or recyclable, and looking at other ways to get our organic waste back to the land to improve our soils,” says Saxon.

“We want both our staff and customers to feel good about drinking our coffee and partnering with us, knowing they are helping drive positive change.”

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 COFFEE BY COOPS

Introducing a specially curated retail collection by coffee roasting consultant and educator Anne Cooper, aka Roastress Coops.

Often asked by roasters, “where can I taste your coffee?”, Anne was prompted to produce her own retail product for roasters to taste, enjoy, and learn from.

Launching soon, this retail product is about much more than fancy packaging – it’s about sharing Anne’s roasting knowledge and philosophies as an educator and consultant.

Each specially curated roasted product comes with roasting machine specs, green bean properties and measurements, detailed roast profile information with reasoning and data, and roast colour measurements. Brewing recommendations, tasting notes, and links to educational video content are also available.

With this collection, Anne offers her experience, roasting approach, skill, knowledge, and understanding, so that roasters and enthusiasts alike can taste, learn and easily apply any elements of the roast profile to their own roasting.

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

PUQPRESS M SERIES Barista Technology Australia says the all new Puqpress M Series offers the best workflow solution in the automatic coffee tamping business, full stop. Its unique under-grinder designs are suited to a great range of grinders, including the Mythos 1 and 2, Mahlkönig E65S and E65S grind by weight, E80S, and Fiorenzato models.

Call Brett Bolwell and his team at Barista Technology on 1300 582 443 to discuss great wholesale deals.

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

VIPER STEAMER Designed by Coffee Machine Technologies in Australia and awarded Most Innovative New Australian Made Product Award 2015 by Fine Foods Australia, the Viper is an independent steamer separate from the coffee machine. It provides flexibility and increases output by constantly being able to steam milk with its dedicated under-bench boiler, eliminating the necessity for another big bulky coffee machine on the bench. The Viper ensures that pressure is not taken away from the coffee machine, promising perfect extractions and allowing any single boiler heat exchange machine to be used.

Any business – from franchise to boutique roaster – that demands the very best from its equipment and strives for success benefits from the Viper. The Viper is customisable with a range of standard finishes and colours, just like a coffee machine, to suit your brand or fit out.

For more information, contact Coffee Machine Technologies on +61 3 9335 2293, or visit www.vipersteamer.com.au or www.coffeemachinetechnologies.com.au

CHOBANI OAT The Chobani Oat Barista Edition was crafted with baristas in mind, to help them deliver a topnotch oat coffee, every time.

This plant-based dairy alternative textures well and has a creamy mouthfeel that has been likened to real milk. With a superior taste and amazing versatility, it’s a barista’s new best friend.

Oat is on the rise in Australia as a dairy milk alternative choice, but it can have its challenges: watery, thin consistency, or an unfrothable texture that leaves a lot to be desired. That’s why Chobani set out to create the ultimate oat drink that will have baristas producing oat coffees that look, and taste, amazing.

Chobani Oat is made by using whole, organic oats and crafting each batch individually for added richness and flavour.

The Chobani Oat Barista Edition is currently available exclusively through the foodservice channel and is set to take the coffee world by storm. Buyers in the café and hospitality industry can get in touch by contacting foodservice@chobani.com.au For more information, visit www.chobani.com.au

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URBAN BARISTA CRAFTED ARTISANAL BLENDS Maltra Foods has added five crafted artisanal blends to its gluten-free and vegan-friendly Urban Barista range of specialty syrups and powdered drinks. The new drinking chocolate powder is developed using 40 per cent West African cocoa, creating a rich and luxurious blend.

Urban Barista Natural Chai is an exotic blend of real ground spices, black tea, and panela sugar for a complex flavour – easy to make and tastes as good as sticky chai.

On the syrups front, Maltra Foods has introduced Urban Barista Hazelnut, Vanilla, and Caramel to cater to the most popular flavours for customers to add to their coffees, milkshakes, and smoothies.

The syrups are made with raw Australian sugar, all-natural flavours, and no added colours.

The new products pair well with the Urban Barista power lattes – Matcha, Turmeric, Beetroot, Hojicha, and Black Sesame – to offer baristas full flexibility in the beverages they offer.

For more information, visit www.arkadiabeverages.com.au or contact 03 9543 3113

CRAFT YOUR BLEND Crafting the perfect coffee blend is a lifetime labour of love.

Wolff Coffee Roasters loves mastering just that: roasting beans that vibrate at your level and speak deliciousness to your personal palate.

The roaster wants you to love the crafting process even more and is giving people the chance to create their own unique personalised coffee blends.

Simply go to wolffcoffeeroasters.com.au and start crafting your blend, from flavour to label.

Wolff’s Master Roasters will skilfully roast your unique, tailored blend selection, using only ethically sourced specialty grade beans from around the world.

Craft Your Blend is an exclusive and creative gift for family and friends this Christmas.

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

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KNOWLEDGE LEADER

Coffee hero Sasa Sestic tells BeanScene how he found himself again after becoming the 2015 World Barista Champion, and his commitment to guiding the next generation of champions.

COMPETITIVE STREAK Before starting Ona Coffee, Sasa Sestic was a professional European handball player, representing Australia in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He competed almost annually from 2008 before winning the 2015 Australian and World Barista Championships.

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W

inning the World Barista Championship (WBC) seems like a dream for many, but for Sasa Sestic of Ona Coffee, it was one he was determined would come true.

“Coffee competitions have definitely helped me push myself, in depth, to find the reason why I love coffee,” says the 2015 World Barista Champion.

“I started competing in 2008 in the Australian Capital Territory. In the first year, I didn’t make it to nationals. I then won in the ACT three years in a row, going to nationals, competing at that level, and not making it to the finals. By going to nationals and being involved, even if I didn’t get the placement I was hoping for, at least I could learn from my colleagues and taste the best coffees in the countries from other baristas.

This helped me to understand what the benchmark is.”

Sasa took a year off from competition in 2012, using that time to improve, travel, and gain more experience on the farm processing coffee – what he loves about coffee.

Returning to competition in 2013, Sasa not only progressed to the finals of nationals but placed third. The next year, he placed fourth. Sasa says what took him to the next level for his 2015 WBC crowning run was having a team with him, including 2014 World Barista Champion Hidenori Izaki as his coach.

“I decided I couldn’t really work by myself anymore. Up until 2015, I would roast my own coffee and even grow it myself on the farm. I had Hidenori as my coach and [Ona’s Director of Coffee] Sam Corra roast my coffee, which allowed me to dig deeper into my routine, extraction, and work with my coffee,” Sasa says.

“It’s important to have a coach or mentor when competing. But it doesn’t have to be a World Barista Champion like Hidenori, it needs to be someone to help bring the best out of you. If you’re surrounded by fans, all you hear is praise.

You need a coach that will challenge you and make you uncomfortable but has a clear understanding of what you’re aiming for or where you’re heading to get the best out of you.”

Since Sasa won the WBC, Ona Coffee expanded its team and entered several new states. Sister company and green bean trader, Project Origin, began working in more countries and continents, including the Middle East and Asia.

“None of this would have happened this fast without the WBC, but we’re not just going around the 2015 roundabout.

The WBC gave us the confidence we needed to take risks and keep experimenting,” Sasa says.

“The WBC opens many doors for you. As a professional, it helped me to dig deeper in coffee and meet different people all over the world who feel similarly about coffee.”

Sasa says “everything changed” when he won the WBC. While mostly positive, it came with downsides.

“I definitely lost a sense of myself.

‘Who am I? What am I supposed to do?’

I picked some opportunities I normally wouldn’t and maybe drifted more than I should,” he says. “I travelled about 200 days a year for three years, which had a negative impact on my family and watching my kids grow. I lost myself as a parent and as a person a little bit.

“The first three years were like a strong, rapid river. It happened in a flash, and I’ve talked to other World Barista

told him I have this competition coming up and he asked if he could follow me to Seattle. I won, and on the flight back he told me, ‘I’m going to make a movie about you and your journey to becoming a champion’,” he says.

“After The Coffee Man was finished, we asked Jeff about returning to the original project, going to farms to tell the stories of coffee producers. We travelled to Ethiopia and a few different countries, with Aga and some other competitors too. World Coffee Events also asked Jeff to do some recording and photography at the 2018 WBC. “I remember it like it was yesterday.

After Aga won, I had to rush to the airport that night. Hidenori and Jeff were there. We were just talking and Hidenori goes, ‘so boys, what’s the next movie going to be about?’ We knew it had to be about Aga.” When deciding which competitors

Coffee Heroes depicts Sasa and Aga visiting the Ethiopian farm where she sources her 2018 WBC winning coffee.

Champions afterwards who said similar things. I’m glad I found myself again.”

Sasa’s journey to the 2015 WBC was documented in the film The Coffee Man

by Jeff Hann, a title shared by Sasa’s first book and podcast. Jeff has now brought Sasa’s experiences post-WBC to the screen in the recently-released documentary Coffee Heroes.

The film depicts Sasa’s journey as a competition coach, from taking Ona’s Hugh Kelly to the 2016 WBC to working with 2018 champion Agnieszka ‘Aga’ Rojewska. However, Sasa says neither movie set out to focus on coffee competitions.

“This is typical Jeff style. When we made The Coffee Man, Jeff asked if he could follow me on the farms to make a film about the farmers. While travelling, I

to work with in the 2018 competition season, Sasa wanted to find someone without a large team behind them and that was from a country that had never been represented in the WBC finals.

Project Origin Green Bean Buyer Yanina Ferreyra recommended Aga from Poland.

“The purpose of a coach is to help the competitor find their own way. When I coached Hugh Kelly in 2016, I feel that I failed. I tried to copy and paste a mini version of Sasa Sestic into Hugh Kelly and that doesn’t work. His presentation was about fermentation and processing.

It’s everything I love about coffee, but it’s not what Hugh loves,” Sasa says.

“When I started coaching Aga, she told me, ‘Sasa, I’ve never been on a coffee farm. I don’t know about processing like you do.’ I said ‘don’t

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KNOWLEDGE LEADER

Sasa works with many farms across the globe through coffee trader Project Origin.

focus on what you don’t like. Why do you like coffee?’ She loved the service, the people, being in the coffee shop.

That was how her presentation was born: ‘come to my coffee shop: past, present, and future.’ For some people, it was ground breaking. For Aga, it was just delivering what she is about. I was just there to guide her to be the best version of Aga she could be.”

After working with Aga, Sasa has continued to coach, including the 2019

Kenyan Barista Champion Martin Shabayawinner. While COVID-19 has limited his ability to travel and coach in-person, Sasa says the skills he has learned and developed working with Aga and other competitors – like New Zealand’s John Gordon and the United Arab Emirates’ Ibrahim Al Mallouhi – have improved him as a business leader.

“Most business owners are like teachers because they just show people how to perform their job. Being a coach

or mentor, you don’t tell people what to do or show them how to do it. You try to understand their path and help them down it,” he says.

“By doing that, your employees start becoming leaders and bringing new or different ideas. A lot of new initiatives in our company don’t happen because Sasa Sestic came up with them. They come up because we’ve nurtured our team to become leaders. They have this freedom and come up with so many initiatives, which especially with COVID-19, has helped us sustain the company.”

Despite COVID-19 cases on the rise in Europe and the United States, Sasa is positive about the future of the global coffee industry and is excited to see another barista bring their dream to life at the next WBC. “On a bigger scale, the WBC is a platform for new ideas and innovation,” Sasa says.

“I want to see this industry progressing, getting better, evolving from day to day, and I feel like I can do my part by inspiring young, talented, special baristas that need that a small push to take coffee further in their own way.”

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CELEBRITY CHEF

CONTRASTING CULTURES Scottish-born with Italian heritage, Jock Zonfrillo is passionate about shining a light on Australia’s 60,000-year-old Indigenous food culture. He started the Orana Foundation to protect and preserve thousands of years of cultural heritage through research, innovation, and enterprise.

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My island home Scottish-born chef Jock Zonfrillo speaks to BeanScene about his coffee obsession, heavy heart for the hospitality industry, and unexpected fascination with Indigenous culture.

W

hen Jock Zonfrillo answers BeanScene’s Zoom call from Victorian bushland with birds chirping in the background, he comes into focus with the same beaming smile and thick Scottish accent viewers have come to love from the MasterChef Australia judge.

It’s only 11.10am in the morning and Jock is out to impress when asked if he’s had his morning brew.

“Do you want the honest answer or the ‘don’t embarrass myself’ answer?” he says.

“I’ve had four double macchiatos. Yes, I drink a lot of coffee. On a standard day I have between four to six double macchiatos then I switch to espresso in the afternoon.

I’m a coffee lover.”

For a real kick, Jock suggests a sommelier’s breakfast, a shot of Campari and a strong shot of espresso mixed together. “Straight down the hatch. It’s the perfect afternoon pick me up,” Jock says.

His introduction to coffee, however, was a lot more traditional than this concoction.

Half Italian, half Scottish, Jock always loved the smell of coffee but never the taste.

“I was captivated by the aroma growing up. Going around to visit the Italian side of my family – Nonna, Nonno, and Uncle Tony – there was always coffee. They had that espresso machine with the eagle on top of it [an Elektra],” Jock says.

“My Nonno used to drink quadruple shots of espresso with heaps of sugar in it.

It was so thick you could stand a teaspoon in it. Then I tried my dad’s coffee and it wasn’t so sweet, and I was a little put off. It’s a funny thing, coffee. It’s like beer in a way.

As a kid, you don’t really like the taste of it, but you drink it anyway because you think it makes you a man.”

Jock eventually found his peace with coffee, drinking copious amounts in commercial kitchens to withstand the long hours and level of concentration required. That was just the culture, he says.

But now, the culture Jock enjoys most, is Melbourne’s, which he has been forced to experience since filming his first season of MasterChef. Due to COVID-19 boarder restrictions, Jock hasn’t been permitted to

By Sarah Baker return to his home state of South Australia.

“I’m half Italian so I enjoy drinking good coffee no matter where I happen to be.

In true Italian fashion, I’ll drink at the bar rather than sitting down for four hours, but I do love that I can do that without feeling like a coffee nerd,” Jock says.

“It’s an accepted fact that there’s a passion for coffee here in Melbourne.

You’re not singled out for having that

“I CAN GET DOWN WITH THE THIRD WAVERS AND TALK ABOUT DIFFERENT TYPES OF VARIETALS AND EXTRACTION METHODS. I LOVE TASTING SINGLE ESTATE BEANS AND THE CONNECTION YOU FEEL.” passion, it’s just the norm, and that’s what I love about the Melbourne coffee scene.”

At home, Jock uses a single group La Marzocco GS3, which is adored as much as his children.

“I love La Marzocco and I’m obsessed with their machines. Holy mackerel they are such good quality. I love everything about it – and if you’re like me, you’ll want to pimp it out with timber paddles, toggles, group caps, side panels etc. The guys at Specht Design can make your GS3 or any machine look and feel like the machine you’ve always dreamed of,” Jock says. “Like driving a beautiful car, a coffee machine can really make a difference to your coffee experience.”

Jock is a Lavazza ambassador. He has always been a fan of the Italian brand and family-owned company,

and more importantly, was a Lavazza coffee drinker long before becoming an official ambassador.

“I love the Lavazza range. I don’t always stick to the same coffee, sometimes I enjoy the Kafa [single origin from Ethiopia], or the Espresso Barista range, which Lavazza launched in July and provides extreme consistency,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong, I can get down with the third wavers and talk about different types of varietals and extraction methods. I love tasting single estate beans and the connection you feel. But I also love Lavazza. It’s such a consistent brand that has so many varieties of beans and blends. It’s a flavour that’s embedded in my brain and one I look forward to every morning.”

While happy to be his own barista, when Victoria’s lockdown lifted on 28 October, Jock ducked into Carlton’s DOC for an espresso and panini.

“How good was that day, seriously?

Walking up Lygon Street and hearing people eating, sharing, laughing, noise, the coffee machine going and the smells – that’s the way it should be,” Jock says.

“To see smiling faces behind counters of hospitality businesses again really did take a bit of the weight off my heavy heart.

It has been a devastating year for everyone connected to hospitality.”

Jock has experienced his own personal battle, forced to close Restaurant Orana, his three-hatted Adelaide restaurant of seven years, in March.

“We packed up thinking we might shut for a couple of weeks or months, but sadly, while we didn’t know it at the time, we wouldn’t reopen. Unfortunately, we were in a situation we couldn’t reopen with the restrictions in place. We have a small venue, so with social distancing, like for many people, it meant we couldn’t reopen and breakeven,” Jock says.

“It was devastating to see – seven years of doing some great work and drawing attention to Indigenous culture through food – it was a really sad end, not just for me but our staff too. We’re all devastated.

It’s a real bitter pill to swallow.”

Jock has long been fascinated by

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CELEBRITY CHEF

Jock indulges in the Italian way of life on the Amalfi coast with coffee in hand.

Australia’s Indigenous culture. He had a vision of it being the oldest surviving culture in the world with an interesting cuisine to explore. But when Jock arrived in the mid-90s, he instead saw a “multicultural mix-up” of Asian and European cuisines he didn’t expect.

He worked at Forty One restaurant in

Sydney for 12 months before going back to London. When he immigrated to Australia permanently in 2000, Jock was determined to explore the Indigenous culture. He had a four-hour conversation with an Indigenous busker named Jimmy at Sydney’s Circular Quay and says the conversation changed his life.

“I am spellbound by the Indigenous culture, not just as a chef but as a person.

It’s one of the most fascinating cultures in the world, so complex and beautiful.

I thought if I could uncover it and represent it in food in some way, then I was determined to do it,” Jock says.

While the Orana menu was one way Jock shared his love and respect for food with the Australian community, the other, has been his debut as one of the three new judges of MasterChef alongside Andy Allen and Melissa Leong.

“MasterChef was just amazing. We had such a great first year and there’s a great friendship between Andy, Mel, and myself. To be so warmly received by viewers in Australia and globally, has been fantastic. We feel super grateful it went down so well. And then we did Junior MasterChef – the cutest, most amazing show. I’m a father of four. I love

kids – so to film with people with the same level of immaturity as me was the best because it meant I could be a clown all day and get away with it,” Jock laughs.

Jock will end 2020 filming his second season of MasterChef. Following production, Jock has his fingers crossed international travel will resume sometime in 2021 to see family and friends in Scotland and Italy. He’d normally spend the summer months on the southern coast of Italy in the towns of Scauri and Santi Cosma e Damiano, or in the Dolomites in winter.

For now, he’s happy to indulge in Australia’s warmer climate and share his love for the outdoors with his kids.

“My kids value their time on country land. They love learning about Indigenous culture and have appreciated it from an early age. Sure, it might take you half a day to get to The Kimberley or Arnhem Land, but my God when you do, you’ll be a better person for the experience,” Jock says. “To have that diversity here in Australia is one of the main attractions for me as a chef and a person. And the bonus is that Australians love coffee as much if not more than any other country in the world.”

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Better Everyday

INDUSTRY PROFILE

Life in colour Mocopan Coffee explains why it’s time to be disruptive in the market and prove why the brand is anything but ordinary.

B

ack in the 1950s, hair was bigger, skirts were longer, and some may argue the parties were wilder. It was the decade Italian migrants cemented the tradition of coffee drinking in Melbourne culture, with Mocopan Coffee founders Agostino Monici, Sergio Coperchini, and Vic Panatieri helping disrupt the nation of tea-drinkers and instant coffee lovers with espresso coffee.

Fast forward 66 years, and the Mocopan name continues to be celebrated, but the company is ready to break its mould and share more of itself than ever before.

“We’ve got all our ducks in a row. Over the past three years, Mocopan has worked hard to ensure its coffee is at the highest standard it can be. We’ve built a whole new roastery and overhauled our facilities in Melbourne, up-skilled our quality control processes, and invested in the training and support of our café partners,”

says Jason Clapperton, Head of Marketing at Mocopan Coffee.

“We’re doing everything we can to ensure that what we deliver is a consistent quality cup, and we’re confident we do.

We’ve also come to terms with who we are and what we represent, and we want our branding and messaging to reflect that.”

When the Mocopan team took a trip down memory lane, it discovered it’s branding and packaging material – and largely that of the industry – was heavily draped in black, a colour Jason says no longer connects to the Mocopan brand.

“We reflected on the origins of the company in the 1950s and its marketing material, and we saw how much energy, fun, and cheekiness they had – our missing ingredient,” he says.

“So, expect vibrant, bright colours in our packaging relaunch. It’s not what you would expect from Mocopan, and that’s the point. We don’t want to be like

everyone else. We don’t want to copy the cool kids. We just want to share happiness with our use of colour, stand out from the crowd, and give people an impression that we are a quality brand they can emotionally connect to.”

Jason says it’s that emotional connection that can impact a customer’s buying decision in 2.5-seconds flat.

“There is so much emotional and functional complexity in the coffee buying process – from the stories behind the beans to the people working through the supply chain,” he says.

“We also know that the reason customers visit a café is not just for a delicious cup of coffee. It’s a means of escapism. Customers want to take five minutes out of their day just to detach, relax, and immerse themselves in an environment they can feel comfortable in.”

Another realisation has been the understanding that Mocopan is a ‘special’

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

“THERE IS SO MUCH EMOTIONAL AND FUNCTIONAL COMPLEXITY IN THE COFFEE BUYING PROCESS – FROM THE STORIES BEHIND THE BEANS TO THE PEOPLE WORKING THROUGH THE SUPPLY CHAIN.”

Mocopan Coffee is committed to high levels of quality control, including screen size sorting of its beans.

brand and not a ‘specialty’ brand.

“Someone I once spoke to in the specialty industry said that mainstream brands weren’t ‘special’ in any way. And no, we’re not ‘specialty’ as such – which to me is about having smaller cup sizes and more complexity of flavour in the cup – but we are ‘special’ in our own way. In fact, I’d argue that with our new roastery and the quality control we’re doing behind the scenes, we are more ‘special’ than ever,” Jason says.

“The quality of our coffee is as good as we can make it. There is nothing wrong with appealing to a lot of people, and the reason we do, is because we have a product people want and enjoy.”

Mocopan Coffee National Café and Distribution Manager Hannah Fielding

says it’s exciting to share Mocopan’s personality with consumers and help them appreciate the brand in a new light.

“There’s more to this brand then people realise,” Hannah says. “At one point, we did consider whether it was worth continuing the Mocopan brand. But who are we to let it die on our watch? It’d be a tragedy. We have a responsibility to the founding fathers and our team who represent the Mocopan brand daily. The bottom line is, we just want to make it better, and that’s what we’ve been busy doing.”

Behind the scenes is a brand committed to extreme levels of quality control. Hannah says most Mocopan baristas wouldn’t know about the premium the company pays to ensure its

beans are positioned “not too far left or right” on the shipping container to avoid moisture exposure, or the way the roaster holds “the exact volume of stock” in its warehouse based on turnover.

They’re also probably unaware of various detection systems including destoners and use colour sorters to remove foreign matter before roasting, such as sticks and stones, or the Colombian bullet once extracted from the destoner. It’s this level of detail, Hannah says, that the Mocopan team is determined to share.

“Disclosing such information hasn’t been a focus, we’ve just gone about our business but there’s so much more to roasting than just buying, roasting, and selling beans,” Hannah says. “It’s only

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Sample roasting ensures each blend matches the consistency and high quality Mocopan demands.

since talking to people like Peter Stathos (Mocopan Coffee Operations Manager) that I discovered all these unknown facts.

Now is the time to be triumphant about the many people and processes working hard behind the scenes.”

Mocopan will recognise its talented team with each bag of whole beans depicting the type of roast, origin, processing method used, flavour descriptor, and the name of the person who roasted the beans.

“It’s time to dial up the personalities of our brand and bring our people to the front. We have some of the most talented people in the industry working with us, such as veteran Peter Stathos, and it’s time to let everyone know.”

While there have been some critiques against the power of large brands over the years, Jason says it’s this power that ensures the Mocopan brand continues to produce a quality product.

“When you’re a small business, quality fluctuations can happen, but that’s not what customers want. Consistency is key.

Apple computers are everywhere but that doesn’t mean they’re a bad product,” he says.

“We’re just a bunch of Aussies making quality coffee in a fun way, and we hope

more cafés will see that. It’s important that our consumers know that there are humans behind the Mocopan brand and things are done with a personal touch.”

At the start of the year, like so many others, Hannah wished she could press “pause” on life to reflect on key priorities and take the time to complete unfinished tasks. Just a few months into the year, COVID-19 restrictions afforded Hannah and the Mocopan team time to step back, address the brand’s core needs, and find ways to address them.

As such, Mocopan will reveal its new website, branded takeaway cups, packaging and marketing strategy by the end of the year to ensure the brand remains “playfully disruptive” in the market, with a cheeky spirit Australians will continue to love.

“We’ve done so much behind the scenes and now it’s time to pull back the curtain, step out, and be proud of who we are as a ‘special’ brand, and we’re dam happy about it,” Jason says.

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

Mocopan Coffee’s new-look vintage packaging, featuring the name of the person who roasted the beans.

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Spreading its wings Melbourne is renowned for its quality coffee, boutique cafés and talented baristas, but the city has been without a dedicated Victoria Arduino knowledge hub, until now.

I

n late 2020, Italian espresso machine manufacturer Victoria Arduino will open the doors to its new Experience Lab in Melbourne, with the venue set to become one of the industry’s go-to locations for training, events, and handson experiences.

“The time is right. We had initially intended to open in April to coincide with the city hosting the World Barista Championship (WBC), then COVID-19 happened and opening during that time would have been disastrous. We’re grateful we’ve had more freedom to take our time with the design and launch at a time when the city is ready for this dedicated knowledge hub,” says Victoria Arduino Sales Manager Brett Dedman.

“Between the equipment Victoria Arduino has launched this year and what’s to come in 2021, this Experience Lab really is going to be an amazing display.”

Located in Breeze Street in the vibrant inner-city suburb of Brunswick, Victoria Arduino’s new Experience Lab is in fine company. Close by are roasters Ona Coffee Melbourne, Market Lane, Code Black, Founder Coffee Co, Coffex Coffee, Wood and Co Coffee, and Wide Open Road.

Brett says the Melbourne suburbs of Richmond, Carlton, and Toorak were all considered for Victoria’s Arduino’s first

dedicated Australian Lab, but in the end, there was no looking past Brunswick’s “cool, urban vibe”.

“Melbourne is the coffee hub of the world, so it makes total sense to launch the Experience Lab here. It seems that Brunswick is the newest, up and coming coffee suburb, so I think we’ve nailed the location,” Brett says.

Victoria Arduino Experience Labs are also established in Shanghai and Jakarta, but according to Brett, Melbourne’s will be the “most advanced and sophisticated” to date.

The design of the 100-square-metre venue is thanks to Native Design, a local studio that focuses on sustainably-built environments. The fit-out uses raw materials including polished concrete, exposed blockwork, recycled hardwood and brick, and brushed steel. Tasmanian oak timber is used in the raised seating and meeting area, with the brand’s iconic wings symbol backlit and visible at night.

A Victoria Arduino display wall, similar to the one at the Italian headquarters in Belforte del Chienti, will be full of memorabilia and historic machines. Nearby, a 75-inch television screen will display product presentations, competitions performances, and videos on origin and coffee research.

Dedicated training areas will be available to use, as will cupping benches and a replicate WBC modular bench,

which will be accessible to any barista wanting to practice to competition standard.

Down the track, Brett will introduce a reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration system and a traditional filter system to take its water quality to the “next level”.

The team will work with different water qualities and use it as an educational tool to demonstrate how much water quality can impact cup quality.

“It is 100 per cent not office space.

This space will be super cool and a place to welcome all members of the industry,” Brett says.

“We want our customers to bring their customers to this venue and come down to touch, feel, and play with the machines in person. If you’re considering how Victoria Arduino machines can work for you – bring your milk, jugs, scales, baristas, everything you need to make yourself comfortable. We’ll tune the machine into your specifications, then take an hour or two to play with it. From history, everyone who does so can’t walk away without buying one of our machines. We truly want customers to try before they buy.”

On display in the new Experience Lab will be the new Victoria Arduino E1 Prima one-group espresso machine.

Launched in September 2020, this machine will take pride of place in the venue’s purpose-built kitchen to display

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

“where it belongs” in its intended home or office environment. Prima offers a sustainable alternative that considers the machine’s environmental impact in terms of economic and energy savings.

It incorporates Victoria Arduino’s New Engine Optimization (NEO) technology that represents a new approach to heating water for coffee extraction. At the time of print, Brett said 50 units were already on their way from Italy.

Also on display will be the Eagle One, which Brett says has performed extremely well in Australia, in particular due to its energy saving ability and minimal environmental impact.

Already, Brett says three customers have shown him their energy bills with reductions between $100 to $200 per quarter, and the only thing that’s changed, is the machine.

Joining the product portfolio will be the White Eagle as an entry-level machine to the market, as well as the Black Eagle Gravimetric model with Mythos 2 Gravimetric grinder. The original Mythos One and Mythos 2 grinders will also be available.

One machine that’s expected to turn heads is the Victoria Arduino 388 Black Eagle 2020 WBC

edition. Unseen until now, the Lab will unveil the painted design that would have celebrated the host city should the WBC have proceeded in Melbourne.

“You don’t need to have Victoria Arduino running through your veins to come to our Experience Lab. But the more people who engage with our product and walk away thinking ‘wow that place was really cool,’ or ‘those machines were memorable’, then the experience will always be front of mind should they want to make a purchase down the track,” Brett says.

In the meantime, the team is hopeful the easing of COVID-19 restrictions will allow the industry to enjoy the new venue in person. Until then, they will dream about hosting latte art competitions with competitors going head-to-head on two VA E1 Prima machines. They look forward to hosting cupping classes on targeted origins and masterclasses on espresso extraction and the science of coffee. They also hope to host industry experiments, occasional domestic classes, and educational talks on the VA range with guest speakers.

“This is a knowledge hub for the industry. It will be a fun place to celebrate industry engagement and sharing knowledge with anyone and everyone,” Brett says. “We really don’t have anything like it.”

Joining Brett at the new Lab will be André Eiermann, General Manager Victoria Arduino Australia, who despite being delayed one year upon arrival into the country, is hopeful of ditching Zoom meetings for real-life interaction with Brett and the extended Victoria Arduino team soon.

“I’m really happy to be working alongside Brett. He’s very humble, he knows the industry and its people.

Coffee is about connecting with people, so I’m excited to learn from him, including all his technical knowledge about Victoria Arduino machines, which he knows inside out,” André says. “I’m a former barista competitor so I know specialty coffee well and have a good understanding of the technical workings of machines, but I know that moving to Australia will be great for knowledge exchange.

“Brett’s role isn’t maintenance work but it’s good to know that should any machine need attention he can easily take it apart. Even the global R&D team lets him play around with ideas.”

In fact, André says the 20-gram filter basket on the Eagle One machines is a direct result of Brett’s input.

“So yes, the Eagle One has a little Aussie touch in it,” Brett says. “We’re in a fortunate position where the Italian team are really receptive to hearing about what Australians want and need.

Even for the Eagle One professional version they’ve changed the hot water figuration so the water doesn’t flow so fast – another of our little ideas that’s since been adopted into the machine.”

Likewise, Victoria Arduino is proud to have adopted André into its Aussie team. As they countdown to his longawaited redeployment from Basel in Switzerland to Melbourne to start his transition into Aussie life, André says more than anything he’s excited to see the town’s reaction to the Experience Lab and immerse himself in Melbourne’s coffee culture.

“If it’s anything like the reputation the city has for quality coffee, the venue will soon become a destination for any coffee fan too,” André says. “I can’t wait to experience it myself.”

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

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Heart and Soul

The Alternative Dairy Co is taking its business to the next level, thanks to partnerships with Soul Origin and the Franchise Council of Australia.

I

n a year as unpredictable as 2020, there’s at least one thing people can be sure of: the need to support local. With borders closed, planes grounded, and travel limited, consumers have been encouraged to explore their own neighbourhoods and are seeking products that support the community.

Based in New South Wales, The Alternative Dairy Co has felt this support ripple through the café industry. Boosted by the launch of its Barista Oat Milk about a year ago, the Australian owned plant-based milk supplier has gone from strength to strength in 2020.

“Because of the lockdown, consumers are increasingly supporting local companies and products, and we’ve got a beautiful Australian owned, grown, and made story,” says Marcus Fehlberg, Café Trade Marketing Manager for The Alternative Dairy Co. “We have data that shows even preCOVID, [being made locally] was the

third priority in the decision making process. Now, it’s number one, even above price.”

With strong uptake in independent cafés, The Alternative Dairy Co was encouraged to look into other segments where it could make its mark, seeing potential in the franchise market. With coffee chain Soul Origin, it found a kindred spirit with shared values.

“The café culture is strong in Australia and it’s only going to grow. A lot of franchises are picking up their coffee game and we want to support them to develop a product offering that is best in class,” Marcus says.

“Soul Origin are really ahead of the curve here and have a quality coffee and café offering with a trendy aesthetic.

Since they’re an Aussie success story and we’re one in the making, we saw Soul Origin as the pinnacle nationwide franchise to work with.”

Since September 2020, Soul Origin has stocked The Alternative Dairy Co

Barista Oat and Almond milks in all of its coffee shops across the country. Soul Origin will officially add Alternative Dairy Co’s Soy Milk in early 2021, although Marcus says some stores have already made the switch.

The Alternative Dairy Co began conversations with Soul Origin about its almond and soy milks in early 2019, but Soul Origin Ambassador and National Coffee Coach Sam Taylor says the addition of an Aussie-grown oat milk turned that talk into action.

“Over the last 12 months, with oat milk becoming a more prevalent player in the coffee market, The Alternative Dairy Co has done some really cool things in that space,” Sam says. “We were one of the early adopters of oat milk in the mass market and we feel like the partnership with The Alternative Dairy Co is only going to strengthen that position for us.

“Almond milk is also a significant player in the Australian consumer

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market and its version with Australian almonds really complements our coffee.

It puts us in a strong position moving forward.”

Sam agrees that the local connection was an important factor in the partnership, but adds it was one of many things that aligned the brands.

“Given the year that is 2020, it’s never been more relevant to the consumer to support Australian and it was a great opportunity to partner with an Australian based company that produces its milks using Australian ingredients,” he says.

“But we’ve always partnered with the suppliers and producers we feel will give us the best product outcome.

The Alternative Dairy Co has done a lot of work on the flavour profiles and formulations of its milks to get them to a point where they are coffee perfect.

Both companies have product quality front of mind, then comes providing the Australian consumer with a product they can connect to.”

Finding a single supplier for its dairy alternative range has also given Soul Origin a consistency across its stores.

“Plant-based milks are a rapidly growing category and the mix of alternative and traditional dairy is shifting in favour of alternative dairy milks,” Sam says.

“As the options have evolved, people have picked up new dairy alternatives as they entered the market. We saw this as an opportunity to consolidate that range with one partner, to offer our consumers the best option moving forward.”

The Alternative Dairy Co is supporting the FCA as its preferred dairy alternative supplier.

While the Soul Origin partnership is The Alternative Dairy Co’s first step into the franchise space, it won’t be the last. The brand has partnered with the Franchise Council of Australia (FCA) as its first preferred dairy alternative supplier to its members.

“We want to work for and with the industry. That’s where this idea came about, ‘how can we better support coffee chains?’ Working with independent cafés is our bread and butter, but working with franchises is a whole other kettle of fish,” Marcus says.

“Forging this partnership with the council was the first step in that process.

The Council has put a lot of work

Soul Origin has partnered with The Alternative Dairy Co across its more than 100 coffee shops.

into establishing franchising as a valid business opportunity in this country, working with the government to maintain fairness in the industry.”

Mary Aldred, CEO of the FCA, says the partnership was a natural step for the council, with demand rising for plantbased products.

“Franchisors in the food and beverage space are increasingly responding to rising consumer demand for plant-based and sustainable food options,” Mary says.

“The FCA’s partnership with Alternative Dairy Co is designed to provide members with access to quality Australian-grown plant-milk products to service this growing market.”

But The Alternative Dairy Co’s new focus on franchise businesses will not detract from its services to the independent coffee market, with education playing a key role going forward.

The brand launched its new website in November, including blogs and information for and from the coffee industry on topics including training with plant-based milks and pairing the right milk with the right coffee.

“We want to work with baristas and café owners on initiatives that help them progress in the industry, run their businesses better, and improve their bottom line,” Marcus says.

“We’re looking to develop more strategic partnerships with key players in the industry. With everything that’s been happening this year, we all need to be there and support each other. That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

For more information, visit www.altdairyco.com/barista

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LO C A LLY R OA S TE D S U P P O R T I N G S U S TA I N AB LE CO F F E E P R OJ E C TS ยกTierra! emerged in 2002 from a social responsibility project, to improve the social and environmental conditions and production techniques of some coffee producing communities.

In Australia, we are proud to support the work being done in Lambari, Brazil and Meta, Colombia with our locally roasted food service range.

INDUSTRY PROFILE

Keep it clean Australian Barista Champion Matthew Lewin explains why a daily cleaning schedule is just as important as serving fresh coffee.

W

hen customers visit an Australian café, they have high expectations that the service will be friendly, the environment inviting, and the coffee exceptional. But they should also expect the venue to engage in a daily cleaning routine. Not only does an unclean machine impact the functionality and longevity of equipment, it can severely impact the taste profile of your coffee.

Matthew Lewin, reigning Australian Barista Champion and Ona Coffee State Wholesale Manager has experienced the benefits of “clean” coffee, on and off the competition stage. He says the first thing baristas need to realise is that cleaning is not a “lengthy process”.

“Cleaning should be considered as important as the coffee you serve your customers. Just like a Formula One car that pits for fuel and changes its tyres within seconds, a barista’s cleaning action should be swift and precise so that you’re not wasting time and can get back on the racetrack doing what you do best,” he says.

Matthew shares the following cleaning criteria to help staff achieve the best result from each cup. Make it part of induction training for new staff, and a daily priority for managers to adhere to. That way, no matter who is working on the machine, customers can be guaranteed every coffee will be delivered to the highest – and cleanest – standard.

Matthew Lewin says a cleaning ritual must be swift, precise and practised daily.

GET PREPARED

You need the right equipment. The most basic requirements are a dark cleaning cloth, cleaning brush, and your Cafetto product. This could include Cafetto Tevo Tablets, Espresso Clean or EVO, which you can use for traditional espresso machines, one of Cafetto’s MFC milk cleaner products, a descaler, and Grinder Clean for your trusty grinder. Cafetto even has an extensive organic cleaning range. Make sure you visit its website for a full breakdown of products to suit your equipment: www.cafetto.com

EVERY MORNING

Go to your water filter and purge one litre of cold water out of the system. We want

to remove any sediment from the filter left from the day before. Use a container to collect the excreted water and use it to hydrate any nearby plants.

Then put the same container under your group heads with the group handles locked into position. Extract 500 millimetres of hot water from each group head. This activates the whole system and flushes out any stale coffee particles from the day before.

Use this hot water for your dishes tub for rinsing/washing cups prior to putting them in the dishwasher.

Pull one shot from the group head

and discard it. We do this to season the machine and ensure no traces of chemicals remain from the day before.

Now you’re ready to dial in.

DURING THE DAY

Aim to clean your equipment every two hours. Set a timer that’s not your phone so you don’t get interrupted and forget.

It doesn’t need to be an extensive clean.

When the timer goes off, here’s what you’re going to do: 1. Prepare each group handle with a basket ready to make coffee, and one additional portafilter per handle with

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

a blind filter. The idea is that when you get a break during service, quickly swap the well-oiled portafilters that have been busy making coffee with ones that have blind filters in them, ready to go. Clean all group heads with hot water at the one time (no chemical product needed). You don’t need to move from the vicinity of the espresso machine. Just use the water from the group heads of the machine.

2. Complete three rounds of back flushing at 10 seconds each. We leave the handles/blind baskets in the machine to push out any residual coffee mater from the shower screens and group heads back through the system. After the third round of back flushing, use a group head cleaning brush in a circular motion to clean around the group head.

3. Use your dedicated cleaning cloth to wipe out the baskets and handles of your portafilter. Don’t run them under hot water, it takes heat out of the system. Simply use your cloth so that there’s no drop in temperature.

4. Then, every hour, taste your coffee to ensure it’s “clean” and “sweet” in the cup.

END OF DAY

Once service is complete, take your group handles from the machine out and run hot water over them from the group head.

Swap them out with portafilters with blind filters. Add a Cafetto tablet or power and put the handles directly under the group head to add a bit of hot water. This helps the product dissolve easily within two minutes. It’s important the tablet or powder breaks down first before putting it in the group head to back flush, otherwise tiny clumps of the chemical powder risk getting stuck in the restrictors or flow

Cafetto has a full range of products specially designed for cleaning espresso machines, grinders and coffee tools.

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metres. Once dissolved, simply put the portafilter into the group head and begin the cleaning cycle on your machine or backflush using the instructions on your Cafetto packet.

Use Cafetto Restore, an effective powder descaler for removing hard water lime scale and calcium build up from espresso machine boilers, tanks and

“A BARISTA’S CLEANING ACTION SHOULD BE SWIFT AND PRECISE SO THAT YOU’RE NOT WASTING TIME AND CAN GET BACK ON THE RACETRACK DOING WHAT YOU DO BEST.” coffee brewers. Simply dilute a 25-gram sachet per one litre of water and follow packet instructions. To go one further, use Cafetto Spectra, an eco-friendly powder descaler, which visually indicates whether a descaling cycle has been successful using pH-sensitive dye compounds.

Soak your steam wand in Cafetto’s MFC range of products to clean and sanitise the steam wand. Follow Cafetto

instructions and purge correctly to flush out any residual chemical solution.

Soak your milk jug and milk jug rinsers in Cafetto Inverso for 30 minutes with warm water for a thorough clean (one scoop per 10 litres of hot water). A good tip is to put a coin over the hole in your milk jug rinser to help drain the solution through gradually. Rinse with fresh water once complete and dry.

GRINDER CARE

Grinders are just as busy throughout your daily service therefore need as much attention as your espresso machine. Clean your grinder daily at the end of a shift. It should only take seven to 10 minutes to clean comprehensively. To do so safely, turn the power off and take the hopper off. Spoon out as many coffee beans as possible to minimise waste. Use a tool pick to remove anything stuck in the groves.

This will ensure the blades spin easily.

Then, reattach the hopper and turn the power back on and add one capful of Cafetto Grinder Clean into the hopper to get rid of any residue or oils. Follow Cafetto instructions for correct usage.

Empty the grinder dosing chamber and brush out any dust with a grinder brush. Think of your grinder like an orange juicer. You need to get all the stubborn little coffee particles out, and you need to do it every day. If you let it build up, more problems are likely to arise. Cleaning is all about efficiency, minimal water usage and looking professional. If you’re confident with your actions and always use Cafetto cleaning products, your coffee equipment will thank you for it, and so will your customers.

For more information, visit www.cafetto.com

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

The golden years Genovese Coffee, one of Australia’s oldest family owned coffee roasters, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2020.

F

ew names are as synonymous with coffee in Australia as Genovese, and that’s with good reason. From humble beginnings in 1970, Genovese Coffee has grown from a small roasting outfit into one of the country’s largest and most influential roasters.

Managing Director Adam Genovese says while much has changed over the years, the business has held onto its family values.

“It makes us all feel very proud to still be a family and Australian owned business 50 years later. There’s a few still left in our industry, but not many,” Adam says.

“My grandfather [Genovese Coffee Founder Alfio Genovese] really wanted to do things – introduce European-style Italian coffee to the market – in the way he thought it should be done. We’ve remained true to that style and heritage.”

Alfio and his family migrated from Sicily, Italy, to Western Australia in 1950, before moving to Sydney five years later where he worked for an Italian food importer.

Around that time, other roasters like Mocopan, Coffex, and Grinders had started up and found success in Melbourne, so in 1958, the company sent Alfio to help establish a roastery in the city.

Towards the end of the 1960s, Alfio and his wife Maria discussed creating a business that could involve their children and leave them a legacy.

“In 1970, the roaster arrived, was set up [in a small factory on Lygon Street], and off they went,” Adam says.

“The market was very European and Italian focused. Only four or five roasters existed in Melbourne at the time. Almost all had an Italian background, and they mostly served that community in the northern suburbs. There wasn’t a lot of demand for espresso style coffee because most people were using traditional stovetop percolators and Moka pots.”

Despite the small market, Genovese Coffee was able to build enough of a following that it needed to expand to its current site in Coburg in 1975. Adam says it wasn’t long before espresso coffee culture became more mainstream across Australia.

“We saw a massive growth in espresso-

Danny and Ray Genovese in 1976, when the business went by the name Genrex Coffee.

based coffee in the 80s, so the family decided to just focus on really good espresso coffee,” Adam says.

“We drink a lot more milk coffees here, so we made our coffee more suited to the Australian palate than traditional Italian roasting and blending.”

The mid 1980s saw Genovese Coffee not only rework its roasts but rename its business. Up to that point, the coffee brand had been known as Genrex Coffee, but it was time for the business to embrace its Italian roots and puts the family name front and centre.

Another huge milestone the brand reached around that time was exporting its first bags of retail coffee to Singapore.

“Being able to export coffee to another country was a big achievement for a small family business,” Adam says. “Our export opportunities grew from there. We started

exporting to individual cafés in Paris, the United States, even to Sri Lanka.”

At the time, coffee roasters imported the majority of professional grinders and espresso machines, with few if any thirdparty service and equipment specialists.

Genovese Coffee worked with an equipment manufacturer called Eterna up until production closed in the mid 1980s.

Since then, Genovese has held a long and fruitful partnership with Italian espresso machine manufacturer Wega.

“Wega had just started up and my grandfather actually knew the person who designed the first Wega machine, inspired by the Faema E61 model. The opportunity came for us to be their distributor in Australia and we have been since 1987,” Adam says.

“That model of inhouse service and technicians within a roaster is not that

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Genovese Coffee has been roasting in Melbourne for 50 years.

common these days, but it gives us an added level of service to our customers. If they need a new machine, we’ve got access to it straight away. We hold a warehouse full of espresso machines and grinders and we’re not relying on stock availability of a third-party importer.”

Adam grew up with the roastery as part of his life. So, it was a natural fit when he started working directly with the business after finishing school in the early 90s.

“While I was studying at university, I’d take every opportunity to work in the business, whether that be sales or production,” Adam says. “I was never told I have to go into the family business, but I loved it so much.

“A lot of my best memories with my father and grandfather are tied to the business. Whether that’s with my grandfather on Saturday mornings in the roastery, or cross-country road trips with my father to see clients.”

Until the late 90s, Genovese Coffee had been a very Victoria-centric business, with a small handful of clients in other states and territories. As these numbers continued to grow, the family had to look at how it could better cater to other markets.

“Melbourne was known as the place you go for great coffee – now it’s all over Australia – and there was a lot of attention on Melbourne coffee roasters over that period,” Adam says.

“Through word of mouth, we were getting more and more interstate clients approaching us and the time came to set up an office is Sydney. Now, we also have a strong business in Brisbane and a national distributor.”

Genovese Coffee expanded its Coburg roastery in 2002 to facilitate this new demand, automating much of the process

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while keeping full control of how the team liked to roast.

The number of roasters in Australia has exploded over the last two decades. Adam says there’s been a lot more competition, but also demand to go with it.

“Specialty coffee and that whole area of the market pushed a lot of existing businesses to try and change their style to suit that space,” he says.

“We love specialty coffee and what it’s done for our industry, but we also really focused on keeping to our traditional methods and styles. We added a specialty division to our brand rather than change everything we already do.”

Adam says there is still – and always will be – a huge portion of the market that love the good quality, full bodied coffees Genovese is known for. But shared values and practices have helped Genovese to fit in and work well with the emerging specialty market.

“We’re so focused on service, support, and education in the coffee space, and sustainability and ethical trading with our coffee partners around the world,” Adam says.

“We’ve always done that in the same way, the right way, and the way specialty coffee says it should be done.”

In the last year, COVID-19 has impacted a large section of the industry.

But it has also widened access to a part of

Emilio Genovese (left) keeping the family traditions alive with the Head of Genovese Specialty Division, Ben Toovey (right).

the market that Adam thinks has long been underserved: the home.

“COVID has changed the landscape.

We’ve seen a large increase in our online sales. Since March, it’s pretty much doubled and stayed there, and it was healthy beforehand,” Adam says.

“There’s still a lot of instant coffee drunk in Australia and there’s a good opportunity to deliver ethical and sustainable espresso coffee to more people at home.”

Adam’s father Danny retired several years ago, and Adam now runs the business with his uncle Ray and cousin Emilio.

He says he will know he’s made his mark on Genovese Coffee when he passes the business on to the next generation.

“Remaining family owned has allowed us to be flexible. We don’t have corporate governance from above and we’ve kept a team approach. A lot of our team have been with us for 10 years, some as long as 30. Our customers feel that inclusiveness as well,” Adam says.

“I’m third generation, but it’s more like a half step, because I was quite close to the second. What I hope I brought to the business is the ability to stay family owned and not have to look for outside ownership or divestment because I’ve bridged that gap.”

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

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FEATURE NEWS

The great outdoors BeanScene looks at how different Australia’s café culture could look heading into summer with a renewed focus on outdoor dining.

T

he sun is out and so are Victorians. With the state joining the rest of the country out of lockdown, the worst of COVID-19 is hopefully

behind us.

It’s been a year of change for the coffee industry – from closures and takeaway to face masks and pivots – but cafés can finally start to build a sense of normalcy.

That doesn’t mean they can expect a similar summer to last year. Venues need to watch how many patrons they have indoors, names and phone numbers of guests must be recorded, and the threat of an outbreak still looms.

But not all changes have to be bad.

Tight restrictions on indoor guests are encouraging many cafés and restaurants to utilise their outdoor space, and for the most part, governments and councils are keen to make this possible.

The City of Melbourne in particular has voiced its intention to support these

businesses, even putting forward six key precincts it wants to transform into al fresco dining areas.

Tables and chairs lining the streets might be nothing new, but Dr. Quentin Stevens, Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Urban Design at RMIT University, says extending this to footpaths or carparking space opens up new opportunities for many cafés.

“Melbourne already has a strong tradition for this kind of European café culture. Unlike Europe, we have a better climate for it and can do those things more of the time,” Quentin says.

“The necessary infrastructure – from power built under the ground to frameworks that shade feature can be added on to – already exists. It already happens. This is just a wake up to those who haven’t seized that opportunity to get into it.”

Quentin’s field of research involves temporary and tactical urbanism. The

former refers to putting up something temporary, like a market or circus, with looser restrictions than permanent infrastructure. Tactical urbanism, however, is work done outside normal planning and regulatory processes. As Quentin puts it, “not breaking rules, but working creatively with them to get the solution you want when the normal processes won’t help you deliver it”.

He says these concepts create a chance for cafés to experiment with how they offer outdoor dining. On the extreme end, the Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar designed for the 2013 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival demonstrates what is possible with temporary or tactical use of a public space.

The project used forklift pallets, shipping containers, and actual coffee trees to transform Queensbridge Square in Southbank into a café and ‘coffee jungle’.

“Although that dominated the space more than most cafés will be able to, it

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FEATURE NEWS

Suburban Social in Queensland decorated its wind barriers with a mural also found inside the venue.

shows how you can create an atmosphere with minimal expense that can change people’s perception of how to use the space,” Quentin says.

More practically, cafés could implement ideas that have already been road tested in other countries, like the United States or in Europe and Asia.

These range from communal benches with glass panelling to separate diners to plastic bubbles suspended over tables.

“There’s not a one size fits all answer, and there’s different things venues can do depending on their atmosphere, character, and space available to them,” Quentin says.

“It’s less risky in a way to do these things short term, because you’re not tying yourself down and making huge investments. There’s also more goodwill from other parties, whether that’s the local government, neighbours, or pedestrians and drivers. Everyone realises the circumstances are different and vendors have to take that onboard and take small risks to see what can be done.”

Quentin says the City of Melbourne is well placed to expand capacity for outdoor dining and public space, with already wide streets, a focus on public transport over cars, and existing outdoor dining. But suburbs and cities across Australia are primed for evolution too.

“In the suburbs, there’s a lot of spare land and many untapped opportunities.

The inner city has to make strategic choices and trade-offs, but Australian cities are very low density and there’s really room for everything,” Quentin says.

“I was doing field work in Perth last year and they had installed parklets onto streets, to encourage more people to

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do things outside. Although they have a benign Mediterranean climate there, people would habitually dine and have their coffee indoors. They had everything they need for outdoor dining, they just had to build that culture.”

“THE MELBOURNE CBD IS IN THAT KIND OF MOMENT WHERE WE CAN SEE – AT SCALE – A SHIFT IN WHAT THE STREETS CAN BE AND WHAT KIND OF LIFE PEOPLE COULD HAVE IN THE CITY.“ At time of writing, Australia has just celebrated its first day with zero community transmission in almost five months. Though the country seems to be recovering from COVID-19, Quentin says some of these changes are likely to be permanent, and venues, councils, and communities should make the most of it.

“One of the main shopping strips in Yarraville [in Melbourne’s western

suburbs] was recently voted the fifth coolest suburb in the whole world. A few years ago, they closed off Ballarat Street in front of the Sun Theatre and laid down fake grass and extra seating,” Quentin says.

“When it was first put in, the traders were fierce opponents of it. They said it’s going to stop people coming through and make it harder to park. It was only temporary, for a few months, and by the end of that time, traders were the strongest advocates for it. The saw the value and uniqueness of what they had.

“The Melbourne CBD is in that kind of moment where we can see – at scale – a shift in what the streets can be and what kind of life people could have in the city.”

BEST FOOT FORWARD

An emphasis on outdoor dining will also provide cafés and hospitality businesses with greater exposure and branding opportunities than they may have had before.

Mark Star of outdoor branded products specialist Star Outdoor says cafés that are smart but practical with their outdoor dining will be the ones to succeed.

“In Melbourne, when you walk down those alleyways, there’s business after business and it can be hard to remember where you’ve been to before. Getting that brand recognition out there is very important,” Mark says.

“It can be done in a number of ways.

We did a job recently in Queensland, where this bar had a beautiful mural inside the venue they wanted reproduced on their wind barriers. It brought the inside out. Thinking about the laneways

FEATURE NEWS

in Melbourne with all the graffiti, a plain black wind barrier and umbrella with a white logo misses the opportunity a little bit.”

Star Outdoor has seen increased demand across Australia, not just Melbourne, for outdoor items like umbrellas and wind barriers.

“Here in Brisbane, it’s almost business as usual, but even so, people don’t want to be around each other in a high density. At the same time, we’re spending more time locked away at home and are really seeking out the opportunity to talk to someone. I think al fresco dining will play into that,” Mark says.

Business owners also need to think practically and safely when branching out onto the street. If not permanent, outdoor fixtures need to be easily deployed or removed.

Mark says councils may be lenient for now, but that won’t last if set-ups pose a liability.

“They need to think about it from a workplace occupational health and safety and public liability point of view. Knowing Melbourne, a nice sunny morning can turn into a pretty ordinary afternoon, so they need make sure they have the right amount of securing. Otherwise, an umbrella is a huge parachute waiting to take off,” he says.

“You’re also going to need to partition off seating or space, so you don’t have randoms just turning up. COVID-19 has changed the nature of what we call a wind barrier. In the past, it was a branding opportunity that also cuts down on a bit of breeze. Now, it’s a safety mechanism, keeping control of customers so only those that have been registered can come into the space.”

Many coffee roasters and suppliers may also offer branded products like umbrellas and wind barriers to a café, and Mark says it’s important to weigh up whether it’s more beneficial for them to promote their own brand or play off someone else’s.

“If you own a business like a café, you’re likely to sell it one day.

If your brand is the one the customer remembers, that increases your intellectual property (IP). If you have a coffee brand plastered all over the front of your café, you don’t get the same bonus to your own IP,” he says.

Like Quentin, Mark sees there being a permanent change in how people behave due to COVID-19, and cities and businesses will need to accommodate.

“People are still reluctant to use public transport and are sticking more local. Little community-type cafés and restaurants are going to be the real winners when people choose to walk rather than drive,” Mark says. “Having these cafés come out onto the street is the next big thing.”

FIRST CRACK

Coffee takes flight

Delivery service Wing is using drone technology to get coffee and other valuable items into the eager hands of customers.

M

Extraction Artisan Coffee embraces drone delivery in Logan, Queensland.

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any people wish they could open their front door to be greeted by a hot coffee first thing in the morning, but for those in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, and Logan, Queensland, it has come true.

Drone delivery service Wing touched down in Canberra in early 2019, extending to Logan a few months later, offering merchants – from cafés and food makers to hardware and clothing stores – a new way to do business.

Terrance Bouldin-Johnson, Head of Australian Operations at Wing, tells BeanScene the app’s coffee merchants are its most popular in both cities.

“Australia having the coffee culture it does, we’re not surprised,” he says.

“Overall, Australians are early adopters when it comes to technology. We had several conversations going with different aviation regulators around the world and the ones in Australia came to fruition just as we were ready to launch.”

All orders through the Wing app are dispatched from its delivery facility. For coffee, it has partnered with Kickstart

Expresso in Canberra and Extraction Artisan Coffee in Queensland, which operate coffee bars inside the Wing facilities in both states.

A new customer just needs to download the app and register to order.

When an order comes in, the barista is notified, makes the coffee, and loads it onto a drone, which is sent on its way.

Once the drone arrives, it gently lowers the package into the customers front or backyard before flying home. Terrance says from placing the order to receiving it can take as little as six or seven minutes.

“I remember hearing from a mum with a newborn and two-year-old who wanted to get some coffee beans. She was getting ready to pack everybody up in the car, happened to check her app, and we’d just onboarded a coffee bean merchant, so she didn’t have to go to the trouble of leaving the house,” he says.

While working parents have been Wing’s core demographic, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen many more people jump onboard with the service.

Use of Wing’s drone delivery service increased more than 500 per cent worldwide from February to April,

including thousands of deliveries in Australia in that timeframe. Its number of deliveries doubled from February to March, and again from March to April.

“COVID-19 is changing the way people do business. Instead of visiting a brick and mortar store, they’re transitioning to online, and our contactless service has really connected,” Terrance says. “It extends the merchants’ reach, especially the smaller ones. We have a chocolatier on the app, for instance, who only ever sold their goods at farmers markets. If you weren’t at that farmers market on Saturday or Sunday, you wouldn’t experience it. We opened their goods up to four new suburbs.

“These are sales that wouldn’t have otherwise happened in most cases. Where we give the biggest benefits is to smaller, family-owned businesses, like Extraction Artisan Coffee and Kickstart Expresso.”

Between March and April, orders through the app to Extraction Artisan Coffee increased by 372 per cent. Owner Alex Milosevic says the partnership with Wing meant he could guarantee work for his baristas through COVID-19 restrictions.

“I did one shift where someone on the Wing app got two coffees delivered.

Within minutes, we had another five or six orders to the same address come in because their neighbours must have seen it and were getting coffee delivered too,” Alex says.

“That started from one household.

As they realise the convenience of it, everybody is going to jump onboard.”

Extraction Artisan Coffee’s relationship with Wing began when the delivery service came to Logan and asked the local community which businesses it should collaborate with.

Kickstart Espresso was the first coffee shop to partner with Wing in the ACT.

“WHERE IT’S EXCELLING IS PEOPLE GETTING REALLY EXCITED

BY THE IDEA OF BEING HOME ON A SUNDAY MORNING AND HAVING A COFFEE SHOW UP ON THEIR DOORSTEP.” “We always try to be innovative in the way we operate as a business and interact with the community. If you look at the way technology is headed, drone delivery

is going to happen. I’d rather be part of the process from day one,” Alex says.

“As a business, we want to deliver a great customer experience, and with drone delivery, it’s the exact outcome we’re looking for.

“Where it’s excelling is people getting really excited by the idea of being home on a Sunday morning and having a coffee show up on their doorstep.”

While Wing doesn’t have current plans to expand to other areas, instead focusing on perfecting its existing service, Terrance envisages the service flying further.

“By drone is the most efficient, greenest, and safest way to deliver something,” Terrance says.

“For now, we’re really just concentrating on the areas that we’re in, getting it right, taking community feedback on board, and making sure our offerings are meeting what the community wants. It’s early days, but at some point, we see ourselves servicing as much of Australia as we can.”

For more information, visit www.wing.com

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Untapped potential The Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew Coffee system from Nestlé Professional broadens a café’s menu while making nitro and cold brew more accessible.

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ustralians may love their lattes and flat whites, but their cold counterparts have seen an undeniable surge in popularity, driven by demand from the younger demographics.

In particular, cold brew has become a popular alternative, with a naturally sweeter and fruitier taste than iced coffee. According to independent data by StudyLogic Group, sales of cold brew in Australia grew 19.7 per cent between 2016 and 2017. Nitro cold brew, which is cold brew that has been infused with nitrogen for a creamier mouthfeel, grew a whopping 23.6 per cent.

Elisa Lau, Assistant Brand Manager, is leading the cold beverages platform within Nestlé Professional and says the trend has only grown since then.

“For both cold brew and nitro, we know that it’s still relatively niche, but we’ve seen a growing demand for it because it’s a nice, chilled and refreshing alternative to

the hot coffees we usually get in Australia,” Elisa says.

“But the process of making cold brew is traditionally long and painful and can take up to 24 hours to brew. The pain point for operators looking to serve this is that they’re either brewing too much and have to throw away what hasn’t sold, or not making enough and are losing out on sales.”

In addition to that, nitro cold brew typically requires a nitrogen tank. The operational maintenance it brings with it, as well as the extra cost and logistics to refill the tank may put off many cafés from venturing in this space and profiting off this trend.

In fact, its popularity will become even more prominent as we approach summer months and temperatures soar into the 30s.

“Coffee is such a staple in the Australian landscape and with summer coming, having a cold offering is definitely important,” Elisa says.

“In the general out-of-home market, we know that 60 per cent of beverages sold are actually cold, and that’s something coffee shouldn’t miss out on.”

With all this in mind, Nestlé Professional looked at how it could make nitro cold brew accessible to more cafés and businesses, and consumers as a whole. Thus, the Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew Coffee system was born.

The compact tabletop machine roughly occupies the space of an A3 sheet of paper, making it easy to fit in any coffee bar or service area.

No plumbing is required. Instead, a pre-brewed cold brew concentrate is supplied for the operator to mix with water into a container. The coffee strength of the concentrate mix can be dialled up or down based on the operator’s liking. The container is then plugged into the Nescafé Nitro machine, ready for dispensing.

Rather than an external tank, the system then draws in air from the atmosphere

Nestlé Professional’s take on the affogato, using the Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew Coffee system.

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and filter outs everything but nitrogen gas, which is infused into the cold brew before being dispensed out of a beer-like tap.

Fun fact, nitrogen gas actually makes up the majority of the air we breathe.

“Nitro has a smoother finish and a thicker mouthfeel, with a rich and creamy head on top. When you get a cup of nitro, you’ll see a mesmerising cascade from of the microbubble movements in the cup.

It’ll then break out into layers of different colours,” Elisa says.

“The way it’s dispensed is kind of like a beer, so even the pour of a nitro becomes part of an experiential coffee moment for the end consumer. Of course, the taste profile is different as well – it’s less acidic than your hot beverage and is naturally sweeter without adding any sugar.”

The Nescafé Nitro system allows cafés to serve both nitro and pure cold brew from one machine with the flick of a switch, catering to their consumer needs and improving their menu range without compromising on space.

With such a high level of flexibility, it is easy to find a fit for both cold brew and nitro coffee drinks in your menu with Nestlé Professional’s solution.

“Cold brew is a great base for so many recipes and there’s so many avenues to customise the drink with,” Elisa says.

“You can serve it straight as a nitro or cold brew, or simply add a dash of syrup to make a whole new drink. Vanilla, macadamia, and flamed orange nitros or cold brews are some of the flavours we’ve played with recently. The last one tastes really nice for Jaffas lovers.

“We’ve also worked within the mixology space and see a great fit for this system. We’ve created recipes that businesses can use or be inspired by to create their own – alcoholic or not. With a

Bubbles will move through a glass of nitro cold brew, giving it a mesmerising cascade effect.

The Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew Coffee system makes nitro cold brew an option for any café.

novel drink like this and so many different applications, operators would also be able to make a premium margin for that nicer experience they provide.”

The Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew Coffee system launched in Australia in early 2020, with New Zealand to follow shortly.

However, due to its popularity, Nestlé Professional has ran a soft launch on the back of 2019 to accelerate the project.

“We’ve had such strong demand that we decided to move the launch a little forward,” Elisa says. “Most customers are really shocked they don’t need a nitrogen tank, because that removes a big operational limitation and amount of time spent on upkeep.

“Another thing that has been really well received is the concentrate. Not only does the product taste great, it is also a huge time saver so the venue can focus more on customer service and optimising their menus.”

With every installation, Nestlé Professional provides training on how to operate, maintain, and make the most of the machine – though Elisa says it is fairly straight forward.

As a national foodservice and total beverage solutions provider, Nestlé Professional continues to support its Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew Coffee when it comes to promotions, activations and insights on upcoming trends.

“Serving a cold brew, nitro in particular, shows that you’re really leading that trend, and it helps differentiate you from the

competition,” Elisa says.

“It particularly appeals to younger adults and millennials who aren’t just drinking their coffee for functionality and want a more exciting sensorial experience and coffee moment. That’s where the strength of nitro cold brew plays within the coffee business.”

With young drinkers most drawn to cold beverages – coffee included – and the Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew Coffee system offering so much variety, Elisa sees it as a great gateway into getting more people to experiment with their coffee.

“The average coffee drinker journey starts with an iced coffee, whether that be an iced latte, iced mocha, or a cold brew.

The shift to drinking more hot coffees occur as they mature up,” Elisa says.

“But Nitro cold brew fits really well with that market, and with the right promotions and consumer messaging, Nitro and Cold Brew will most definitely help build and shape up the next generation of coffee drinkers.”

Once the Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew Coffee system is settled in the market, Nestlé Professional plans to take its functionality even further, so more business can jump on the nitro trend. With a lot more plans and innovation on the horizon for 2021, Elisa says to get ready for the trend to ramp up.

For more information, visit www.nestleprofessionalbeverages.com.au /cold-beverages/nescafe-nitro-cold-brew

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Built to task The Mazzer Kold S represents the future of coffee grinding engineering. This high-volume model is set to be a prominent feature at the newly established The Coffee Commune, with its ability put to the ultimate test.

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ach day, more than one million Mazzer grinders help over one million baristas prepare their best coffee. For the past 72 years, the Italian manufacturer has focused its capabilities on crafting the perfect coffee grinding device.

Considered the “unsung hero” of coffee equipment, choosing the right grinder for any coffee shop must be a strong consideration. For Raihaan Esat, General Manager of International Coffee Traders at Queensland’s newest coffee hub, The Coffee Commune, one brand is synonymous with reliable grinding technology.

“Mazzer is one of those names in the industry that has a lot of trust behind it.

Everyone knows the name Mazzer – and has more than likely used them during their career,” Raihaan says.

As a coffee professional, Raihaan says the most important considerations when making a new grinder purchase for him, are “reliability, speed, and consistency”.

“The last thing you want is to be fighting with the grinder when your shop is busy, when you could be dedicating your time to

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serving your customers,” he says.

“Without the right grinder paired to the machine, workflow, flavour, and efficiency can suffer.”

So, when equipment supplier Coffee Works Express asked Raihaan to put the Mazzer Kold S to the test to see if it met his strict criteria, his first reaction said it all. “It’s an impressive bit of kit,” he says.

For Raihaan, the Mazzer Kold S is well suited to the needs of a high volume coffee shop. The Coffee Commune is expected to go through 80 to 100 kilograms of coffee per week, making the Kold S an ideal choice.

This model is the latest heavy duty grinder from Mazzer since the original Kold was released in 2013.

At The Coffee Commune, Raihaan says the aim will be to represent many different coffees and deliver them reliably and quickly with minimum of ‘damage’ done by overheating the grounds.

The Kold S prevents the coffee from temperature exposure thanks to its tailorbuilt extra cooling system that also helps preserve the aromas of the coffee. Even if the motor is kept running, the beans will stay safe from overheating thanks to a belt-

driven transmission system.

“Having a Mazzer Kold S on the bar will be an asset to the barista team because we believe the belt driven system effectively reduces heat transferred from the motor to the grounds. It’s also quick – very quick.

Our testing has shown accurate dosing for a 20-gram dose in around three seconds, and it just keeps going all day long,” Raihaan says.

The Kold S is available in an automatic and electronic version with conical burrs.

At its maximum speed with 420 revolutions per minute (RPM) at 50 hertz, the grinder is expected to produce more than five grams per second or six grams per second with 500 RPM at 60 hertz thanks to Mazzer’s reduction gear mechanism.

The head and body of the grinder are kept separate to guarantee better dispersion of the heat from the motor. A double fan system also helps keep heat far from the grinding chamber.

Thanks to improved geometries and new technical solutions, the Kold S reduces coffee retention in the grinder chamber by 50 per cent, compared to the previous Kold model. In turn, this means less purging

“MAZZER GRINDERS ARE PROVEN OUT IN THE FIELD, AND BECAUSE SO MANY BARISTAS HAVE USED THEM, THERE IS A CERTAIN LEVEL OF FAMILIARITY ALREADY THAT ALLOWS YOU TO JUST STEP ON AND MAKE ADJUSTMENTS QUICKLY ON THE FLY.” when changing the grind setting, saving coffee and time.

“Our understanding of how much grinding really matters is always improving.

Many years ago, no-one was talking about particle size or dosing accuracy. Those conversations are becoming much more common now and manufacturers like Mazzer seem to be consistently releasing new designs that speak to the new industry standards,” Raihaan says.

Mazzer’s grind flow control (GFC) system solves four common issues found in grinders. It reduces static charge, which causes the coffee powder to disperse on trays and counters. It avoids clumping or agglomerates of grinders. It improves dose consistency and the result in the cup, and allows ease of cleaning thanks to an easy, removable system.

The GFC’s removable aluminium outlet insert is equipped with three extractable interchangeable wire dampers to allow users more control over the flow of coffee grinds through the entire chute.

Raihaan says servicing and maintenance are also well thought through on the Kold S. On first use, he was able to get to access “all the important parts” for cleaning and return the grinder to operational format very quickly.

Mazzer’s new micrometrical grinding adjustment knob with lap counter.

The Kold S’s new design is sleek and inviting for café operators. It features a die casting aluminium body with sleek lines and aluminium knurled knobs that are functional and resistant. The portafilter holder is adjustable and allows users to grind hands-free and centre the flow of grinds into the basket.

“Mazzer grinders are proven out in the field, and because so many baristas have used them, there is a certain level of familiarity already that allows you to just step on and make adjustments quickly on the fly – no nonsense, just relentlessly fast and accurate dosing,” Raihaan says. “I like the new grind adjustment dials on it as well, a nice change from the older style adjusters that were a little less accurate.”

An electronic control panel is ergonomically designed with a wide viewing angle. It can display grinding statistics, alerts on service needs, and the ability to set-up a maximum dose cap.

In the old model, a standard single and double dose were programmable, but now a triple dose button is included.

The power of knowledge continues to be a demand for café operators. While espresso machines feature telemetry systems to monitor peak times of use and total volumes per day, Mazzer has its own version of Internet of Things (IoT) connected in its grinders.

In the Kold S, users can monitor any and all of the grinders’ output, keep up with maintenance needs, and improve the quality of coffee in a scientific way by using data tracked by the grinder.

“In the past, monitoring your output and servicing needs was such a manual process, and to some degree involved a lot of guess work. I believe IoT compatibility is the future,” Raihaan says. “I was guilty of often letting the grinder go too long before servicing. That would be a thing of the past now.”

When The Coffee Commune opens its doors to the coffee community in early 2021 – with the Mazzer Kold S sitting on the café bench – it will be a celebration of industry collaboration.

The brainchild of Phillip Di Bella, the

The Kold S prevents coffee from temperature exposure thanks to its tailor-built extra cooling system.

new venue will be a “coffee wonderland” for anyone interested in developing their skills, expanding their knowledge, and growing their coffee business.

The purpose-built The Coffee Commune will feature a café, shared roasting space, training room, cupping labs, warehouse, and packaging facilities.

“Our vision is to ensure the coffee community remains sustainable, profitable and able to operate with efficiency, and we can do that with The Coffee Commune,” Raihaan says. “We have seen people open shared roasting facilities and establish their own cafés and training centres, but never has it been put altogether.”

One of the key features will be a dedicated showroom, where equipment supplier CWE will display its range of products. CWE will also supply its equipment to one of the training rooms and have the Mazzer Kold S front and centre on the main café bar.

There, Raihaan hopes even more people in the coffee community will appreciate Mazzer’s latest model and consider how the Kold S may suit their own needs.

“Every café is different, so it’s important to establish what you value most in your grinder,” he says. “I believe [the Kold S] would suit a café that wants a no-nonsense grinder that can go all day every day, without sacrificing grind quality.”

Coffee Works Express is an Australian distributor of Mazzer products.

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

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Taste tested

According to De’Longhi Australia and New Zealand CEO, Mr Paolo Albertoni, the newly launched La Specialista Maestro machine has been crafted to specifically suit the Australian coffee consumer palate.

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a Specialista Maestro premiered in Australia on International Coffee Day as a world-first. It is the Italian coffee-maker’s most advanced domestic manual machine to date, with parameters and settings that will appeal to both baristas and coffee-making novices.

“We are very proud of this machine because it has been designed with the Australian consumer in mind,” Paolo says.

“We are the first market in the world to launch La Specialista Maestro, which is the evolution of our hero manual machine, La Specialista. From the grinding, dosing, brewing and texturing, consumers have creative freedom as to how they make their coffee, whilst benefiting from cutting edge De’Longhi technology for precision and best extraction of flavour.”

Paolo explains that the uniqueness of the machine was epitomised in the marketing tagline ‘A Coffee Symphony Crafted In Science’ because it empowers consumers to master the coffee and milk preparation the same way a professional barista does.

The La Specialista Maestro offers a manual texturing option and the fully-automatic LatteCrema System.

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“As we know, delivering a great coffee depends on so many variables. It depends on the coffee beans, the coarseness of the grind, the quantity of the coffee, the tamping, the pre-infusion, and the water temperature – even the consistency of the water temperature,” he says.

“La Specialista Maestro, as in a symphony, maximises each of the stages of the coffee preparation to transform the coffee experience. The machine embraces the artistic craft and science involved in producing every cup through its settings and allows users to choose their level of automation and interaction with the machine.”

Three-time Australian Barista Champion and De’Longhi Ambassador, Craig Simon, echoes Paolo’s comments, noting that La Specialista Maestro has been fashioned to extract the best flavour profiles of beans – honouring the journey from plant to roast to cup.

“There are many impacts along the chain of coffee that determine whether we realise the maximum potential of the beans from the beginning of their journey to our cup,” he explains. “What I love about this machine is it takes away some of the tricky skills involved in defining what those parameters are.”

To clarify his point, Craig says that making great coffee is essentially a chemistry experiment of solubility, with the objective being to achieve a balance in sweet, acid and bitter compounds. He notes that in an espresso machine, dosing, grind size, tamping and temperature will all influence how water will pour through the coffee and that La Specialista Maestro simplifies each of these stages in the process.

“It basically assists people through every stage so that you don’t have to spend thousands of hours practising like I have with traditional manual equipment,” he says. “I have seen numerous consumers buy manual machines and soon realise they did not have the skills to make a great coffee. This machine gives you manual

controls but simplifies the stages so that you can quickly achieve great results – it’s very smart.”

The features that Craig refers to includes the Sensor Grinding Technology, Active Temperature Control, Dynamic Pre-Infusion and Smart Tamping Station.

Additionally, La Specialista Maestro has six Automatic One Touch Recipes.

While Paolo credits the collaborative work of coffee scientists around the world in creating the machine, he notes that antipodean feedback and preferences significantly influenced its development – particularly the technology La Specialista Maestro incorporates for making milk coffee beverages.

De’Longhi Australia’s Product Trainer Cheryl Bosworth elaborates further by explaining that the machine’s settings for making a milk coffee, such as a latte, always ensure the coffee is poured first – a distinctively Australian trait.

“It will automatically pour coffee first because that’s what Australians love. This has been a big part of the feedback we’ve provided to the De’Longhi headquarters in Italy and they’ve not only listened but developed certain machine settings to suit our preferences,” she says. “Having a coffee pour first for a milk drink is

The De’Longhi La Specialista Maestro is a manual machine with automatic functionality for the ultimate home barista experience.

STIRRED NOT SHAKEN STRAWBERRY ESPRESSO SODA

Don’t just use the De’Longhi La Specialista Maestro for your morning coffee. It’s the perfect machine to help create a refreshing summer drink, such as the delicious De’Longhi Strawberry Soda Coffee.

You could even add alcohol to turn it into a cocktail.

Ingredients: - 20mls Monin Strawberry Fruit Puree - 7UP Soda - Chilled Espresso (light to medium roast blends with fruity notes work well) - Crushed Ice

desirable because the milk will mix in more consistently, so you’ll get a better balance of flavour as a result.”

A key feature of La Specialista Maestro is that it includes both a manual milkfrothing option as well as De’Longhi’s world-renowned automatic milk texturing technology, the LatteCrema system.

“The LatteCrema technology produces perfectly textured milk every single time – the right density, the right creaminess, and the perfect industry standard temperature into your cup,” Cheryl says.

“One of the best features of this machine is that you have this automatic option.

Which is fantastic, particularly if you want to make a quality coffee fast. Of course, the manual option is available as well, allowing you to create your own latte art. Both are delicious options, it just depends on the level of convenience you need.”

In fact, convenience is an apt word to use when describing the benefits of La Specialista Maestro. It’s essentially a manual machine that includes automatic functionality so that consumers can enjoy a home barista experience without having to go through years of professional barista training. This is not just reflected in the advanced features, but in the machine’s specialised coffee guide and settings table.

“To get the best out of your beans, you look for information on the packaging about the variety and type of roast, then you just open the coffee guide and the settings provided to work out your dose, grind size and temperature settings,” Cheryl says.

“Usually, as barista with a traditional manual machine, you will have to experiment according to the extraction rule to get those settings right. But what De’Longhi has provided with this coffee guide and settings table is an excellent starting point. This makes it a lot easier – it might only take two or three shots of coffee for you to achieve that perfect result.”

Again, the settings table is the result of De’Longhi listening to the feedback of their Australian customers.

“De’Longhi takes the feedback seriously.

Especially from Australians, who are so passionate about coffee, the global R&D team have listened and put these innovations into the La Specialista Maestro machine as well as into the coffee guide and settings table. This enables consumers to create an at-home barista style, quality coffee each and every time,” Cheryl says.

Method: 1. Layer the Fruit puree on the bottom of the glass 2. Cover the puree with crushed ice to half fill the glass 3. Pour the 7up slowly down the side of the glass to float over the ice 4. Using a spoon and the inside of the glass, pour chilled espresso over the top of the 7up 5. Stir before consuming and top with any berries. Bonus tip: Dip the berries into the espresso and eat before mixing the drink.

For more information, visit www.delonghi.com/en-au

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TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Sights set on APAC Cimbali Group strengthens its strategic presence in Asia and Australia, driven by its ability to innovate.

Slayer joined the Cimbali Group in 2017 and now benefits from its strong network.

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imbali Group, representing brands La Cimbali, Faema, Slayer, and Casadio, is a world leader in the design and production of professional espresso machines.

The group has strengthened its position in the fast-growing Asia market and Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Oceania region, reaching two important milestones.

The first is the opening of the new Gruppo Cimbali hub in Singapore. The hub will primarily serve Southeast Asia, Oceania, and the North Asian markets of Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Macau, China, and Taiwan.

“Asia as a region with sustainable growth has immense potential for the group. As such, Asia plays a strategic role in our plans and will be a bigger focus for the group going forward,” says Enrico Bracesco, Chief Commercial Officer of Gruppo Cimbali.

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Regional Director Millie Chan, who joined Cimbali Group in March, will lead Singapore’s new hub.

Millie’s experience includes over a decade in commercial foodservice equipment sales across the Asia Pacific (APAC), which Cimbali says will help grow the business, as well as working with networks of professional distributors to provide after-sales service and support.

“The entire Cimbali Group Asia Pacific organisation is working together to maintain and further develop the group’s leading position. It’s my great honour to lead this initiative and I look forward to introducing the Cimbali brands to coffee professionals across Asia,” Millie says.

To show the group’s strong interest in the APAC, Cimbali Group is focused on increasing its investments in Singapore and across the continent. This will result in the growth of its offices and training centre,

and an expansion of the organisation that will allow the group to engage with the market at a deeper and broader level.

Cimbali’s second milestone in the APAC region is the appointment of Angelo Caruso as Cimbali’s new Branch Manager for the ANZ Oceania region, considered a very important and strategic market for the group.

Angelo will oversee the Oceania office in Melbourne. With 20 years’ experience in the ANZ coffee industry, Angelo’s role will offer strong support to the group’s partners, representing Cimbali, Faema, Slayer, and Casadio.

Angelo says Gruppo Cimbali has always been at the centre of the attention for new trends and technologies in the sector.

“A pioneer within the Australian coffee industry once told me how Gruppo Cimbali was leading the coffee machine industry with their forward thinking and pushing of boundaries to constantly

innovate. ‘Try an espresso out of a Cimbali – Faema’ he said, ‘and you will understand all’,” Angelo recalls. Those words have resonated with him until today.

“It is so surreal, and I am deeply honoured [to oversee the Oceania division of Cimbali]. I am especially looking forward to introducing more of the ANZ coffee industry to our wonderful and innovative products that span from traditional machines and fully automatic solutions right through to grinders,” he says.

Innovation is at the heart of Cimbali’s products. The group says its renowned Mumac Coffee Academy in Milan, Italy, is a testament to this, leading the industry in training for coffee lovers and professionals.

Cimbali’s desire to constantly improve is represented by never before seen features in its coffee machines.

One example is the Smart Boiler, which improves the overall thermostability of its machines and, ultimately, the result in cup.

Another is the Perfect Grind System, whereby Cimbali machines use an algorithm to send instructions to its coffee grinders to self-adjust grind settings when required.

Thermodrive technology in Cimbali’s mid-to-top-of-range heat exchange machines also allow baristas to set different coffee group temperatures without the need to invest in multiboiler technology.

With more than 60 patents to its name, Gruppo Cimbali says the innovative spirit at its core means the company is always searching for new groundbreaking technologies, even in a year marked by a global pandemic.

Cimbali’s range spans from traditional machines to fully automatic solutions.

Gruppo Cimbali includes the La Cimbali, Faema, Slayer, and Casadio brands.

“A PIONEER WITHIN THE AUSTRALIAN COFFEE INDUSTRY ONCE TOLD ME HOW GRUPPO CIMBALI WAS LEADING THE COFFEE MACHINE INDUSTRY WITH THEIR FORWARD THINKING AND PUSHING OF BOUNDARIES TO CONSTANTLY INNOVATE. ‘TRY AN ESPRESSO OUT OF A CIMBALI – FAEMA’ HE SAID, ‘AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND ALL’.”

In ANZ, Gruppo Cimbali is proud and humbled to have formed very strong and strategic relationships with partners that it considers friends.

The La Cimbali and Casadio brands are represented in Australia by a very dedicated and highly capable team at Service Sphere, while the iconic Faema brand boasts a very rewarding 60-year association with Vittoria Coffee.

In New Zealand, Bean Addicted represents both La Cimbali and Faema.

In addition to the La Cimbali, Faema, and Casadio brands, Gruppo Cimbali has recently decided to vertically integrate the Slayer brand into the rest of its business.

Handcrafted and geared around ‘making coffee better’, the Slayer brand has remained independent of Gruppo Cimbali’s other brands since joining the group in 2017. However, Cimbali says the integrations will allow Slayer to continue to flourish under the group’s guidance with broader support.

“We owe a lot of our early success to Australia, a market we recognise as a

leader in specialty coffee and an early adopter of new technologies,” Millie says.

“Slayer is about being different, taking risks and making coffee better. The Australian coffee industry shares similar values and that is probably why Slayer has been well received.”

Slayer partners in Australia include Coffee Works Express in New South Wales, Specialist Espresso in Victoria, Complete Café Services in South Australia, and Espresso Works in Western Australia.

In New Zealand, Auckland’s Machines Limited represents Slayer.

“Our optimism about the ANZ region has driven us to increase our investment with the appointment of a Slayer Brand Ambassador who will be based in Melbourne and our belief is that Slayer will continue its vibrant growth in ANZ and across Asia,” Millie says.

For more information, visit www.cimbali.com or for enquiries outside ANZ, contact asia@gruppocimbali.com

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Locale grown Locale has relaunched its brand and packaging with a focus on identity and sustainability that goes beneath the surface.

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ackaging says a lot about a brand. Do you go with a simple look that shows you’re cool or refined? Or bright, colourful graphics that are eye catching and full of personality?

For Locale Coffee Roasters, Brand Manager Kristin Jackson says revaluating its packaging was about more than a skin-deep change.

“We have had a strong focus on sustainability for a really long time, but we were using so much packaging, like foillined coffee bags, that wasn’t sitting with our ethos,” Kristin says.

“We didn’t want to go ahead and just throw it all out, so in the background we’ve been trying to plan how we can roll out new packaging and source sustainable options as well.”

Locale found its solution in Caspak’s recyclable plastic coffee bag. But the team was also aware that most councils don’t offer a solution for soft-plastics recycling, so set out to close its own packaging loop.

“We’ve always wanted to make sure we are doing anything we can to have a better impact on the environment,” says Locale National Manager Josh “Pace” Jackson.

“We do a majority of deliveries to our café partners ourselves and we’ll be encouraging them to hold onto their used coffee bags. Every week when we drop off new stock, we can pick up those bags and

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get them processed ourselves, so they’re turned into products that will have some use in the world.”

Locale has partnered with Reground to guarantee this collection service for its recycling partners and ensure the bags end up in the correct recycling stream. Consumers can do the same by placing their bags in Redcycle collection bins. With the bags turned into essential resources that would otherwise require virgin materials to make, Locale says the switch could divert 1.5 tonnes of waste from landfill each year.

“We’re excited to join the Reground community. All our soft plastics will go back to Reground to be recycled locally. Our bags will then be turned into pellets and used on our roads here in Australia,” Kristin says.

The new coffee bags are just one in a long line of steps Locale has taken to improve its environmental sustainability.

Locale has replaced its cardboard packaging with 100 per cent recycled material. In 2018, Locale moved all of its production to its solar powered Coburg roastery, a move that saw the Carbon Reduction Institute certifying it’s coffee as carbon neutral. Carbon emissions from Locale that can’t be reduced are offset by ‘carbon credits’, investments in sustainable renewable energy projects.

“This covers the production of the coffee, including transport and packaging,

but we wanted to make sure we’re ticking all boxes from an emissions standpoint.

Very soon, the certification will cover everything that we do as a business,” Kristin says.

“The Carbon Reduction Institute provides us with an itemised report where we can see where our emissions are coming from and allows us to dig down into those areas to get down to zero emissions or limit it as much as we can in areas like transport.”

One way Locale has reduced its transport emissions is to buy blend components in bulk direct from producers to reduce the number of shipments.

Locale also contributed socially and economically to origin countries through long-term partnerships with producers and investments in several projects.

Locale supports the Orangutan Coffee Project in Indonesia, paying an additional $1 per kilogram of green bean bought through the initiative. Half of this goes to the farmer as a premium for complying with organic and environmental standards.

The other half goes to the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program, to support their conservation efforts. In 2019, 27 orangutans were rescued, 56 were treated at the rescue station, and 19 were re-introduced into the wild.

The roaster has also made an ongoing commitment for one of its major blend components, Bobolink from Brazil. The

coffee is sourced direct from FAF Coffee (Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza) whose philosophy is to produce the highest quality product while taking social and environmental responsibility into account.

Bobolink coffees are all family produced and emphasise balanced rewards for people, profit, and the planet.

“Partnering with FAF made complete sense for us from a quality and consistency perspective but also from an ethos standpoint,” Pace says.

“Every area has its own challenges with the environment, infrastructure, or social problems. Having continual relationships with our producing partners allows us to have a better understanding of what they’re dealing with in their communities, the solutions they’re looking for, and how we can contribute.”

Locale’s Organic blend, previously known as No. 142, has always contributed to these types of initiatives, but the Locale team felt the name and packaging failed to convey the correct message to the consumer. That was true across its blends, which didn’t capture the character of the brand.

“We weren’t involved in a lot of the original creative decisions for Locale. The new packaging was an opportunity to make the brand our own,” Kristin says.

“We went around the team and asked them to describe each of the blends in 10 words. We ended up with a big list of descriptors that were almost like personality traits. We put those on the back of the bag like bios, rather than just including your standard coffee notes.”

These descriptors influenced the new names of the Locale range. The classic No. 141 became Original Gangsta, the environmentally conscious No. 142 became Eco Warrior, and the bold all-rounder No. 143 became Ultimate Wingman. Locale

Locale has replaced its cardboard packaging with 100 per cent recycled material.

Locale’s new packaging is intended to show off the personality of the brand, its coffee, and its people.

also added a fourth premium blend to its roster, The Real MVP. “I was the only one on the team who knew the origin of the blends being named after numbers, and it wasn’t a very exciting story,” Pace says.

“From a retail perspective, the consumer might not necessarily understand elevations, regions, and varietals of a coffee, but they might be drawn to something more relatable. By having these different colours, names, and personalities, as well as flavour traits, you’re hitting multiple bases to attract customers buying coffee off the shelf.”

Each blend retains its classic colour scheme, while The Real MVP features purple tones and single origins are depicted with black. The new packaging features a mountain-inspired design, evoking many coffee growing regions as well as the growth or elevation of the brand.

“The initial concept was around

‘levelling up’ the branding and what we’re putting out. That idea evolved into the gradient mountain design,” Kristin says.

“We were also getting illustrations done for our merchandise and ended up with these little caricatures of the personalities for each of our blends, which is something that will hopefully appeal to a wider group of people.”

Alongside the new coffee bags, Locale is releasing reusable coffee cannisters to encourage consumers to buy coffee from its café partners without generating waste.

Locale will be launching a store locater on its website featuring participating cafés.

“We’d already built up a base of online and direct-to-consumer sales and it’s increased quite a bit this year. It’s been good to create a solution targeted toward consumers, that appeals directly to them, rather than ‘retrofitting’ old ways to go to that market,” Pace says.

“This rebrand gives us the opportunity to make changes like this across the whole business. We felt we’d outgrown our old look and feel, particularly as we’ve expanded and built a bigger customer base and partnerships in different states.

It was about finding that next step to be a little more efficient, effective, and increase that service level.”

This approach is summed up in the new tagline, ‘Coffee For The People’, which Kristin says is “Locale in a nutshell”.

“Whether it’s our quest to make specialty coffee more approachable, the relationships we’ve built, our initiatives at farm level, or the support we provide within our communities, bringing people together over a coffee is what it’s all about for us,” she says.

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

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Riding the wave BeanScene speaks to Espressology customers Coffee Port and Doppio or Nothing Espresso on the advantages of growing their business while leaving the variables of roasting to the experts.

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hen Jeff Weber is interested in something, he dives in headfirst, wanting to know everything he can about the subject. When he bought his first Breville coffee machine, he jumped on YouTube to learn everything about making coffee. And when he thought seriously about starting his own coffee business, he spent three months planning how it could work, nine months perfecting the location, and 10 months on his business model.

Formerly a personal trainer of six years, and a marina manager for two, Jeff sent a survey to friends and family before making his café debut, asking what they liked and didn’t like when they ordered coffee. The responses favoured quality and consistency, so when Jeff found his ideal 20-square-metre shop front in Terrigal, New South Wales, he implemented procedures and techniques to minimise such variables.

To help achieve an even higher coffee standard, Jeff was introduced to Espressology Founder Instaurator or “Ini” as he’s more widely known. The pair stayed in contact. Jeff read Instaurator’s

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books, and they would catch up at least once a week to talk about their love for coffee and business.

“Ini and I have spent a tonne of time together. He’s been a mentor in helping me get my business off the ground,” Jeff says.

So when it came to managing his coffee roasting, Jeff knew there was only one person to handle that side of the business.

“I went down to the Espressology premises and met the team. It really did feel like I was entering my own roastery,” Jeff says. “There are so many variables with coffee, which is what I love about it. It’s an infinite subject, but I decided to leave the big job of roasting to the experts and focus on the business side of things. I simply order my volume of beans for the week ahead. It takes me two minutes, and I know what turns up from Espressology will always be consistent and reliable.”

Espressology Client Services Director Rob Murrell calls Jeff regularly to check in and discuss customer feedback and the monthly single origin program.

The other advantage, Jeff says, is the freedom to buy his own equipment and build his own blend recipe without a

lock-in contract.

“I still have control over the product I serve my customers,” Jeff says. “For instance, many cafés in the area use twobean Arabica blends, so I’ve got Robusta in my private blend, and this really gives our customers the kick they’re seeking. It’s a bold flavour profile that’s punchy and complex, and it really sets us apart.”

And Jeff needs to. There are 16 coffee shops in the 200-metre radius of Coffee Port, however it’s the only one that is “coffee centric”, serving coffee and only coffee. The point of difference is working.

Since Coffee Port opened its doors in 2019, it’s gone from using eight kilograms of coffee per week to 32.

“Because of our location we’ve been incredibly lucky. Sales have increased month on month, which has been a benefit to us and Espressology,” Jeff says. “I’m loving the technical side of the business and the amazing people I get to meet. I don’t think I’ll get bored any time soon.”

Someone else who never tires from his day job is Stewart Clark of Doppio Or Nothing Espresso (DONE). Stewart works to live, and at the core are relationships determined by who Stewart can enjoy a

Espressology roasts private label for Coffee Port, creating a unique blend for the Terrigal-based café.

laugh, beer, surf, great meal, or camping trip with – or all combined if time permits.

Thankfully, the team at Espressology made the cut. When it comes time for a corporate meeting with the roasting team, there’s no office setting or structured agenda. Instead, the team pack their cars for a camping trip to Point Plomer near Port Macquarie – with their surfboards and fishing rods always on top – and talk coffee.

“The support, knowledge, and flexibility the Espressology team has given me is just amazing. In fact, we recognise them as part of our business. They are our roasting team,” Stewart says. “Some people may partner with Espressology to help them grow financially, but why I did, is because I wanted more time – time to spend with my family, friends, and doing the things I love such as surfing and fishing.”

Back in 2004, Stewart was teaching at a local TAFE where he’d set up a coffee academy, the only one on the NSW/ Queensland border at the time. He attended a coffee roasting competition and watched a man break down a roast profile just by looking at the physical characteristics of the bean.

“I thought ‘wow, I’ve got a bit to learn’.

That was Ini. I knew he was in the top 10 in the world for coffee tasting. I knew he had trained Paul Bassett to win the World Barista Championship in 2002, and I knew he liked surfing – three things that sparked my interest,” Stewart says.

“I was looking for a company to do private label roasting for us and got in touch with Ged [Ryan, COO at Espressology]. At the time I was going to Hawaii to help a mate open a café in Honolulu called Arvo. I told Ged, ‘I’ll be gone for 10 days’, and when I got back, there was Ini with his paddle board to see me.”

Their mutual love for the surf got the relationship off to a great start, followed

by Espressology’s guarantee for a quality roast that would allow Stewart to manage his increasing volume and give him the support he needed.

The real test came when Stewart was given the opportunity to provide a coffee station at the QuickSilver Pro surfing championship on the Gold Coast in 2011.

With staff arriving at 5.30am, Stewart had the cart operating by 5am, and Ini and Rob from Espressology travelled up from Sydney to give Stewart a hand. Before long he was making coffee for his childhood surfing heroes Mick Fanning, Kelly Slater, Tom Carroll, and Martin Potter. This dream continued for eight years.

“We had supported Surfing NSW for five years previous, in their regional events, but this was DONE’s first introduction to a surfing championship, serving coffee to 25,000 people. It really was a dream event, the who’s who of surfing,” Stewart says. “That same year I got invited by Samsung to do the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach in Torquay, Victoria, and Ini drove all the way to support us.

It’s that level of customer service that goes all the way.”

With the roasting left into the hands of Espressology’s “world class crew”, Stewart has the confidence to focus on providing his own DONE customers with

customised hospitality solutions, including consulting services, training, and day-today operations.

“We always say to our customers ‘we grow as you grow’. We offer them what we’ve always done from day one – consistent coffee and top-notch service.

People always ask us what our marketing strategy is, and we just say ‘we get it done’,” Stewart says.

“We want to get the best yield for our customers so that they can deliver a consistent product with more dollars in their pocket, so we have blends designed that provide both flavour, balance and increased yield per kilogram.”

Underneath the surface is a dedicated team with plenty of hospitality experience and skills from different segments of the market, including IT, finance of global operations, beer brewer, bartenders/ café managers, surveyor, wedding photographer, and a chef that worked on the oil rigs.

“We can’t do what we do alone, and we can’t grow without our team and the customers who believe in us,” Stewart says.

Despite a challenging year with bushfires, floods and COVID-19, DONE made it through 2020 with the support of its partners and community.

“We are only as good as our customers and we strive to be the best support for them, hence our motto ‘customised hospitality solutions’,” Stewart says. “I’ve travelled all around the world, but I reckon we still live in the best part of the world for surfing, lifestyle and coffee.”

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

Stewart Clark of Doppio or Nothing Espresso (second from left) partnered with Espressology to allow him more time to do the things he loves.

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TRAINING & EDUCATION

The filter effect Brita is committed to teaching the coffee community about how water filtration will bring the best out of their coffee and protect their machines.

The flavour of coffee is influenced by the minerals found in water used to brew it.

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o much work goes into making a good cup of coffee. Producers grow and process the best beans possible, roasters roast and blend them to bring out the right flavours, then baristas grind and brew them to bring the vision to life. But coffee is only a small portion of what actually ends up in the cup.

Water makes up about 98 per cent of an average cup of coffee, and the minerals and alkalinity, or water hardness, found in it impacts what’s extracted from the beans.

That’s why Richard Padron, National Technical Sales Manager at Brita, says it’s crucial a café controls the water that goes into their coffee.

“You really need the right water chemistry to give you the desired cup.

Especially here in Australia, baristas do a fantastic job understanding what the customer’s drinking taste is and varying the style of water and coffee to marry up with that,” Richard says.

“Calcium and magnesium play the biggest roles in flavour transfer. There’s a delicate balancing act of how much of both we leave in the water solution to carry those taste profiles and aromas we want from the coffee.”

But coffee quality is only one reason to embrace water filtration. Using a good filter will reduce mineral build-up in the boiler – limescale – leading to the longer life of the espresso machine.

“If you were to take standard tap water in Perth and use that in your espresso machine, it will probably break down within a week. Filtration takes the lead in machine protection,” Richard says.

From humble beginnings in Germany more than 50 years ago, when Heinz Hankammer made the first Brita water jug,

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Brita has taken leaps and bounds in the world of water filtration, now operating in 69 countries across five continents.

Working with the coffee and tea industries for much of that time has given the water filtration company insight into how best to cater to those markets, with information from each country fed through to Brita’s research and development team.

“We hold regular meeting with our German team to give them an understanding of what’s happening in Australia and New Zealand so they can develop a product to suit our changing water conditions,” Richard says.

Water hardness and quality differs across Australia, from state to state and even from town to town, meaning the best water solution in one case could be completely different to another.

“If we take Melbourne for example, where the water is fantastic, you can run a relatively soft filter and exchange that every six to eight months,” Richard says.

“If you compare that to a state like South Australia or Western Australia, where it’s very hard water, we’ve designed stronger filters that can be changed as infrequently but have different components that can deal with that water hardness.”

Brita tests different water supplies on

The difference between an espresso with unfiltered (top) and filtered (bottom) water.

a regular basis to make sure cafés are well equipped as the seasons change.

“That gives us the right information to take back to the marketplace to make recommendations about what filters will work best on a particular machine, or area, to make the right coffee. We keep all that information and share it with our business partners so they can make the right decision,” Richard says.

“Australia has gone through bushfires last Christmas, flooding in some areas, and excessive droughts in others. The water condition has changed so much, especially through Sydney and some places have needed new filter setups every month or so.

We share that information with our dealer partners to make sure the café community is balancing their water in the right way.”

Brita offers three main types of filters for professional use – the activated carbon Fresh filters, hydrogen exchange Quell, and sodium exchange Finest – each tailored to different levels of water hardness and types of machinery. Brita has also developed a reverse osmosis system, called Proguard, that filters out unwanted minerals and chemicals in the water before infusing the desired minerals for maximum coffee flavour.

A big part of finding the best solution is Brita training its partners and distributors, so they have the knowledge and resources to make the right call.

“Our dealer partners are essentially an extension of Brita. They have often provided the coffee machine – and sometimes the beans and accessories – and play a critical role in understanding where that machine is going to be placed and how it’s going to be used,” Richard says.

“We do a lot of training with our dealers so they can go directly to site, test the water, know which filter they’re going to need, and marry that up with the machine.

They’re usually trained baristas themselves, so they can even drop by a café, get behind the bar, brew and taste the coffee, and make adjustments to the filter or machinery for an even better cup.”

This relationship and share of education and information goes both ways. Brita works with its roasting partners, locally and globally, to find out their intentions and how to help bring those to fruition.

“We learn where they’re getting their beans from, how they’re roasting the coffee, and how they’re going to take it to market, so we have a better understanding of what flavour profile they want to produce and what water condition they’ll need,” Richard says.

“We can provide a tailored multi-filter system to give them the right amount of calcium and magnesium in that water solution for a more robust flavour.”

Brita offers a range of filters for different environments and effects on water.

Education has also been an important element to how Brita approaches the retail and at-home market, with additional information on water hardness and filtration also available online. Richard says many people are trying to replicate the café experience at home and realising the role water quality plays in that.

“You can buy a really good coffee machine for your own home, but if you don’t have the right information, you won’t get the best out of your coffee, or the machine could break down from limescale build up,” he says.

“Consumers are really smart these days. Everyone is online and knowledge is power. If we can give our consumers the right information from the start, they’re able to make a very simple decision on what’s the best value for them, how they can look after their machinery, and give them the cup they deserve.”

This focus on education and sharing of

information will continue to be a key pillar in Brita’s service to the coffee industry and consumers going forward.

“Globally, we have educational days where we do coffee and water tasting, and it’s something we want to bring to Australia post-COVID,” Richard says.

“We are embarking on a different form of training and education formatting for next year. We’ve got some really good tools our R&D team has produced, and we’ll be expanding our online training area with useful information the general public or our dealer network can log into.

“The coffee community is very tightknit and becomes very personal. Until we can bring back that learning and communication face to face, we’re looking at online platforms and how to bring that community together in a virtual space.”

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

Scale and gypsum deposits can build in pipes and the boiler if hard water is used.

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TRAINING & EDUCATION

Learning curves Coffee roasting is an art form, a skill, science, and to Anne Cooper, known as “Roastress Coops”, a craft and industry that needs more decisive training.

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nne Cooper first learnt how to roast on a 60-kilogram Petroncini machine doing high volume commercial roasting. She would follow the same structured roast curve over and over again, never straying from the set recipe. But over time, the one word Anne wanted to explore further, was “why”. Why did I do that? Why does the roast taste the way it does? Why is it right or wrong?

After years doing production roasting in Brisbane and then in New York, along with regular travel to Brazil to consult and teach roasting, Anne landed back in Melbourne. After some time as head roaster at reputable roasting companies, she recognised a demand from Australian roasters for good roasting education and training. That’s when she thought, “why not put yourself out there and start your own roasting course and consulting service?

Why not draw on and offer the vast range of connections, experiences and skills I’ve built after more than 20 years (at the time) in the coffee industry?”

As such, Equilibrium Master Roasters (EQMR) was born in 2015 to give upand-coming and established roasters an opportunity to better understand the many “whys” in coffee roasting.

“We often get swept up in the dreamy, romantic pictures of roasting, but there’s so much more those pictures don’t convey. I wanted to be the person that guides roasters and gives them the right understanding of what coffee roasting is all about,” says Anne, also a certified Arabica Q Grader and official Cropster Ambassador.

“It’s important I teach roasters the ‘reality of roasting’– to know their green [coffee], know their machine, and know their flavours and profiles. Once they connect with that, everything else falls into place.”

Anne hosts roasting classes and conducts onsite and online training and consulting.

Post course and consultation, roasters can also join the exclusive EQMR Networking Group where they can

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Anne Cooper is using more than 20 years of industry experience to help roasters become more confident with their craft.

continue to learn from and support their EQMR roasting buddies.

With so much subjective information about roasting and techniques out there, Anne says it’s harder than ever for emerging roasters to know what’s right and what’s not.

“The barrier to entry into roasting is quite low. Besides the Specialty Coffee Association pathways and industry experience, it’s really hard for people to access good, reliable information on coffee roasting. There’s no apprenticeship program. Anyone can buy a roaster, invest in equipment, and try to teach themselves how to roast,” Anne says. “It’s too easy to jump on the internet and go down a rabbit

hole of information that causes doubt and indecisiveness. That’s why I want to help people break down the barriers to learning the right information about the wonderful craft of coffee roasting.”

At the EQMR roasting course, students at all levels of ability learn about roasting on Probat equipment. They discover how to manage the equipment, build a roast profile, and understand industrydriven taste profiles and preferences for commercial and specialty-grade coffees.

In the roasting course, especially during Victoria’s COVID-19 lockdown, Anne has welcomed a lot of students from other industries who have turned their attention to coffee roasting. For some,

it’s a new hobby, and for others, a new business venture.

“I encourage beginners to come along, learn, and see if they like the world of coffee roasting. It’s my job to give them the right perspective of roasting, which includes lots of calculations and decision making. There’s more to roasting than just pushing a button and letting the equipment do the work and turning beans brown. It’s about empowering them to be decisive and using my experience to help them know how and why,” Anne says.

For more experienced roasters, Anne’s roasting course is about validation. She says most established roasters want to know if they’re on the right track. Many are self-taught or have been taught by someone else who was also self-taught, with information and skills passed on that they begin to question and try to understand ‘why’, especially when things aren’t working as intended.

“Roast preference comes down to personal preference. It’s subjective. So, if I have a roaster who wants to roast dark, I work with them to achieve a really good dark roast. Other established roasters may have a specific palate preference yet they’re not connecting with consumer taste preferences. And some simply want to improve their skill level, so everyone’s needs and reasons for attending the course is different,” Anne says.

“Most importantly, I help make roasters realise they are in the business of flavour. As roasters, we are creating something to be tasted, which is culturally and regionally subjective, and that’s where the fun starts.”

Anne says the roasting process itself is actually pretty quick to learn, but learning about green beans, all the varieties and how to adjust for their unique properties is what takes time.

“We are in an era of huge experimentation where origins that were traditionally processing a certain way are now shaking things up with crazy new methods of processing. Roasting equipment and software is also constantly evolving. There is always something to learn because as coffee styles change and technology evolves, we need to adapt, and roasters need to know how. And that’s where I come in,” she says.

Above all else, Anne says it’s her experience that remains her driving weapon. She has “truckloads of experience” from her production roasting days, 25 years of coffee industry experience at many roles and levels, exposure to many roasting scenarios and equipment, and knows how to bring a realistic business perspective to roasting.

“It’s not about tooting my own horn,

but people put their trust in me. My role as a coach and mentor is about reassuring roasters with proven results. If they roast with the best, they will learn from the best,” she says.

Ocean Grind in Torquay, Victoria, was Anne’s first consulting client, where she assisted the roasters to refine their skills on a five kilogram Has Garanti roaster.

Five years down the track and still a client, Anne says it’s extremely rewarding to see the roaster’s progression to an S15 Loring, and the business “kicking goals”.

“I feel really blessed that people find me, mostly through word of mouth. It’s that trust from the roasters who engage in my services that I really value,” she says.

Pre-COVID-19 restrictions, private onsite consultations were a popular option for roasters. It allowed Anne to work with them individually, troubleshooting in their own environment using their green beans, and their equipment.

“They’d see instant results from what was bothering them,” Anne says.

“Taste is always king. It’s immediate proof and if roasters can see and taste the difference themselves, then that’s the best example of learning. It’s about proving results appropriately and professionally.”

For anyone who attends Anne’s

roasting course in-person, the information taught can also be easily adapted and translated across to the individual’s own roasting machine.

Another advantage of the roasting course is that there is only two participants and the opportunity for more hands-on time on the roaster.

Attendees also walk away feeling they’ve had as many of their questions and concerns addressed as possible.

“The biggest thing my students take away is strength in the decision-making process. I can give roasters steps on a piece of paper, but they need to be able to analyse, interpret and understand the decisions behind what they did on the roaster along with the results in the cup,” Anne says.

“It’s important roasters of today know there’s someone they can trust and reach out to. There’s no judgement, and they won’t be shut down for not knowing something. Engagement is simply about understanding what roasters want to achieve, showing them how, and empowering them with results that focus on answering ‘the whys’.”

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

Equilibrium Master Roasters hosts roasting classes and consulting services.

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TRAINING & EDUCATION

A professional touch Nestlé Professional has a wealth of knowledge and expertise to share with its audience, on both hot and cold coffee segments. National Barista Trainer and Beverage Advisor, Joanna “Jo” Yuen, discusses with BeanScene how that’s shared with Australian cafés and baristas.

Jo Yuen is the National Barista Trainer and Beverage Advisor at Nestlé Professional.

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very café owner wants to make the best coffee possible and run the most successful business, and Nestlé Professional is determined to help them do that.

From supplying coffee and equipment to providing business support and consumer insights, Nestlé Professional is a total beverage solutions provider, making

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Nestlé’s more than 150 years of global experience accessible to Australian cafés and coffee shops.

But its international scope doesn’t stop Nestlé Professional from embracing the local market with its coffee brands including the bespoke The Roaster Guy, the timeless Buondi, and the classic Nescafé whole roasted beans, all roasted in Gympie, Queensland.

In particular, what ties Nestlé Professional’s many services together is the training and education it offers to customers.

Nestlé Professional Barista Trainer Joanna “Jo” Yuen has more than a decade of experience in the coffee industry.

Starting as a café all-rounder, she has worked with different leading roasters and coffee suppliers, building her skills as she went.

“With anything in life, practice makes perfect. I’ve been practicing for 10 years and am still learning on a daily basis,” Jo says.

Previously managing the café within Nestlé’s head office, Jo’s ability to run a successful café reflected her skills in coffee making. Most importantly, her focus on customer service made her a stand out personality in the office, and a familiar face to all.

It was this level of dedication and passion for the job that Nestlé Professional hoped Jo could share as its Barista Trainer.

“It’s about having that personal touch – remember the name, remember the order, and make it fun and engaging. A barista can be the most important person to setting your day off right in the morning,” Jo says.

She takes a similar approach to training as she does customer service. Jo says making trainings engaging, and easy to understand, enhances the learning experience and efficiency.

“We’ll go through the theory – the bean to cup journey and sustainability – but to make it a little more fun, I emphasise a more hands-on approach,” she says.

“I’m the kind of person who learns things quicker when I see and touch, and I find that it’s very similar for many other baristas.”

When hosting a training session, Jo prefers small groups where students are less intimidated and more likely to ask questions. It also creates a more intimate setting where students can bond and

Nestlé Professional’s training and education services range from coffee making to advice on running a café.

engage with one another while practicing their coffee making.

“What better way to learn than from each other?” Jo asks.

While tamping and milk texturing are important skills required from baristas, Jo says the most common mistakes people make revolve around the simplest parts of coffee making. These can be easily avoided by revisiting fundamentals such as maintaining a clean machine.

“We’ve all been to a café where the coffee has the most beautiful latte art, but when you go to drink it, it’s over- or under-extracted, or it’s bitter because the machine wasn’t cleaned properly. It’s important to remember that beauty comes from within, not just the outside,” she says.

Even the most experienced baristas can slip on the basics. They may be able to make coffee quickly and efficiently, but that doesn’t mean they can do it consistently, or leave a good impression on the customer.

“We’re all in the customer service space and I think a lot of baristas, even if they have the skill, forget the importance of it,” Jo says.

“The customer always comes first, so no matter how particular their order and their request, we need to be accommodating. A coffee order is a personal choice. Ultimately, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to have a coffee, so that needs to be respected.”

At Nestlé Professional, training and education means more than just running barista classes. It encompasses a full

spectrum of offerings to café businesses, ranging from technical to operational and commercial support. Its purpose is to equip and empower café owners to do more with their coffee offering.

“We make sure we operationally train operators whenever an equipment is placed on site. By showing them what the machine is meant to do, how to maintain it, and how to get the best use out of it, it helps them take a bit of ownership on the solution as well,” Jo says.

“It’s also very important to be supported by the right marketing message and commercial offerings, to entice consumers to purchase and increase your rate of repeat purchase.

Our marketing team will gladly help on this front.”

Because of COVID-19, the team has recognised the dramatic employment movements within hospitality staffing.

With baristas joining and leaving the industry, the need for training was evident to ensure consistency of service.

Since Jo has been limited in how she can carry out training classes, Nestlé Professional put together a barista refresher video that breaks down her usual coffee training classes into easy-todigest sections.

“Despite going virtual and navigating this challenging environment, education is as important as ever,” Jo says.

“For many businesses, there’s an opportunity to use this downtime to upskill before it gets back to normal.”

The company also shares insights into coffee and consumer trends from around the world onto their digital platforms.

These online resources cover many of the difficult aspects of café operations, whether that be touching on dairy

alternatives and the recent dalgona coffee craze, or how to boost workplace staff morale and harness the power of digital marketing.

Like education, sustainability is another value that pierces through the services Nestlé Professional offers the café industry. The Australasian Recycling Label will start to appear on the packaging of Nestlé Professional products, with some products featuring the Rainforest Alliance certification and others being a part of the Nescafé Plan. Globally, Nestlé has also committed to making all of its packaging reusable or recyclable by 2025.

Going into 2021, the coffee industry is in a very different place to this time last year, and it will be important to keep evolving.

Nestlé Professional’s The Roaster Guy and Buondi brands will undergo a brand refresh with a new look and feel, while its Nescafé Nitro Cold Brew system will meet demand from a growing market. To succeed, Jo says it’s essential that cafés and coffee shops continue to grow, adapt and upskill.

“We’ll continue to incorporate feedback to make our trainings even better and more accessible to our customers,” she says.

“With Nestlé’s longstanding history, we support our customers’ success in their business by finding and partnering them up with the right solutions, backed with the support they need. We have a lot of exciting plans and innovations in store for 2021, so we are certainly looking forward to sharing those with you – stay tuned for more from Nestlé Professional.”

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

Jo says one of the common mistakes she sees baristas make is working on unclean machines.

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TRAINING & EDUCATION

Down to business Toby’s Estate explains why 2020 has been a year of action with a new training program committed to the realities of café ownership.

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hile COVID-19 was making its presence in Australia felt, Simon Gautherin, Head of Training for Toby’s Estate, was in France. Simon had travelled to his native homeland to compete in the national Brewers Cup competition, but on arrival, discovered the competition was cancelled.

On his return to Sydney, he discovered dine-in service at cafés was restricted, and the Toby’s Estate’s training school, which had previously run several classes per week for wholesale customers and public members, had also shut its doors.

While disappointing, Simon and Nich Rae, Head of Coffee, made the most of the situation and reflected on how they could improve Toby’s Estate’s training program.

“The shutdown happened really quickly, but it gave us the opportunity to take a breather and refocus the vision, strategy, and content of our training program. We asked ourselves, ‘what did we want the classes to reflect? What did we want our café customers to learn? How could we integrate them more within our business?’” Simon questioned.

“We spoke to our customers, listened to their needs, and developed an ambitious new program that we think is more in line with the current needs of the market. It was

Toby’s Estate’s tasting grid helps customers understand coffee flavours.

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Simon Gautherin says in-person training has remained a key focus and support to café customers throughout the year.

a great opportunity for Nich and I to work together because Toby’s Estate is one of the biggest specialty coffee roasters in the world, therefore everything we do has to be scalable. We need to think how our actions can be implemented to 900-plus cafés, throughout Australia and overseas.”

The pair decided on three main goals for the Toby’s Estate training program.

The first, to support and train wholesale customers. The second, to continue holding public classes, and the third, to use it as an educational tool within the company.

The new training program for wholesale customers is broken into four modules.

Level one is foundation training. This practical module will teach the basics of coffee making. After completion, someone who has never touched coffee will be able to make espresso and steam milk.

Level two is focused on taste. Customers are taught how to analyse a cup of coffee, describe it and then troubleshoot when coffee is not tasting right. Toby’s Estate trainers will use its newly-released tasting grid to rank acidity, flavour, finish, and mouthfeel on a scale of one to eight. This system helps customers understand the benchmark when they make coffee and provide an extra level of consistency.

“Q grading courses are in-depth

and more focused towards baristas with extensive industry experience. But when you’re a barista behind the machine daily, what’s important is being able to practically adjust when the coffee is not tasting right.

That’s where the grid is a great tool to analyse and troubleshoot any issues,” Simon says.

Level three is focused on latte art. This module delves into advanced pouring techniques. And level four, Simon explains, will be one of the “most exciting” courses Toby’s Estate offers. Focused on single origins, it will be a continuation of level two, so users will need to understand how to use the Toby’s Estate grid to progress.

“Level four is about identifying different origins, processing methods and varietals in coffee, and setting expectations on how they will taste,” Simon says.

Toby’s Estate rotates about seven single origins each month. As such, Simon says customers were keen to gain more knowledge on how to assess which single origins were right for their venues and customers.

“It’s the same when you go to a bottle shop. There’s often hundreds of bottles with different labels of different varietals and regions. It can be very difficult to see what wine matches your needs, and it’s the same

for coffee. We want our café customers to be confident and excited about the coffee they’re buying and tasting,” he says.

The new training program is set for release in early 2021. The course length has been trimmed from eight hours to four, meaning most customers can complete the course over two days. Ideally, once restrictions ease, wholesale customers will be allowed back into the Toby’s Estate’s training facility. However, the team are also assessing how the new modules can be delivered should restrictions remain.

Besides redesigning the training program, Simon has been busy supporting Toby’s Estate’s café customers, completing close to 70 in-person training sessions since May. “When our customers couldn’t come to us, I went to them. We had to adapt and rethink the way we worked entirely. I spent more time with our sales team to visit their key customers and customise the training to their specific needs. It’s been one of the most innovative things we’ve done this year,” Simon says.

“Each training session was different.

I got to see the customer in their own environment, identify any issues, troubleshoot, and train them on everything from recipes to workflow and technique. We used to train 10 people together at once, but this way I’ve been able to address issues I see in person, such as incorrect grinder placement for efficient workflow. This experience really helped us build the new training curriculum to be more focused on problem-solving.”

Simon says his customers were “relieved and grateful” to see how much the Toby’s Estate team has supported

Level one of Toby’s Estate’s new training program will focus on foundation techniques to coffee making.

Simon Gautherin is passionate about implementing training and education to consumers on a large scale.

them throughout the year, and the results speak for themselves. After spending time in-person with one of his customers, Simon did a follow-up session and saw the coffee experience improve ten-fold.

“This customer wasn’t using scales.

Now they do and follow a strict recipe.

As a result, they’ve had a lot more returning customers who have noticed how consistent the coffee is. Customer feedback is the ultimate compliment. It really does reinforce that we’re moving in the right direction,” Simon says.

As such, one of Toby’s Estate’s goals is to have every café account using a scale to weigh shots by the end of 2021. Simon

also hopes to measure the correlation between training and improved cup quality and increased volume.

While this year has been one of reflection, it’s also given Nich and Green Bean Buyer Charlotte Malaval, more quality time together than ever before.

“Between sales, production, roasting, green bean buying and relationship managers, we have embraced everyone’s input, challenges, and vision into the new training program,” Simon says.

“Our interaction has provided the entire team with a deeper knowledge and confidence on different areas of the business. Our training program is therefore not strictly focused on our wholesale customers, it’s beneficial for the growth of all staff.”

Prior to joining Toby’s Estate one year ago, Simon was running his own barista training company in Sydney. He says the opportunity to work with a national brand has allowed him to make an impact on a larger scale with access to greater resources and a large team to learn from and grow with.

“I love the way the team works together to achieve a common goal for the benefit of our customers who enjoy using Toby’s Estate coffee,” Simon says.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to achieve this year. The ultimate goal is always improving cup quality, and if we can continue to do that and serve even more Toby’s Estate coffee throughout the country, then it’s a real win-win.”

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

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CAFÉ SCENE KOM COFFEE 355 Anzac Highway, Plympton, South Australia, 5038 Open Monday to Friday 6am to 2pm, Saturday 7:30am to 2pm, Sunday 8am to 2pm 0490 505 304 For many people, running a café is a chance to fulfil their passion. For the owners of KOM (King of the Mountain) Coffee in South Australia, it was also an opportunity to showcase their love of cycling.

Daniel Valencia Martinez started cyclist-focused KOM Coffee in 2016, with Fernanda Gomez Alvarez joining the team as a barista in 2017 before becoming part owner of the business.

“It’s been hard work, but it’s been amazing,” Fernanda says. “Daniel’s from Colombia and I’m from Chile, so we started to put food from South America in the menu. It’s really the food that people have come to know us for.”

While KOM Coffee had to cut back its menu due to COVID-19 restrictions, it has slowly brought back crowd favourites.

This includes the Caldo de Costilla, a beef soup made of ribs boiled in water with slices of potato, garlic, onion, and cilantro leaves.

“It’s been requested for some time now,

KOM Coffee combines its owners’ loves of cycling and South American culture.

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so we’ve put it back on the menu. It’s a good cure for a hangover and people love it on the weekend after a big night,” Fernanda says.

“The café has connected with the South American community too. We started bringing in frozen food products you can’t usually find here, so people are always really grateful for it. Or, they’ll see an item on the menu they remember growing up.”

Located along the Anzac Highway in Plympton, between the hills and coast, KOM Coffee sees many cyclists pass through first thing from 6am. Then, the morning is filled with tradies and teachers before work, followed by parents after school drop off.

“At the beginning, people thought it was just a café for cyclists, but it’s really for everyone,” Fernanda says. “We have two schools nearby, so a lot of teachers will pre-order on Skip before they go on break and grab their coffee quickly before going back to work.”

All coffee served at the café is grown in Colombia, and since 2019, has been roasted by the KOM Coffee team at their sister business Cafetal Coffee Co. “People really loved it when we started roasting our own coffee. We can adjust it ourselves and work with different roasting profiles to customise how we want to serve it,” Fernanda says.

“We also changed our dairy milk to a local supplier, so it was like a double improvement straight away.”

KOM Coffee began receiving questions and requests for oat milk around the same time from its health-focused clientele.

“We went to try some different brands and a friend recommended Alternative Dairy Co,” Fernanda says. “It’s become really popular here at the café. Oat has even become more popular than almond and soy recently.”

Coffee is prepared with a three group La Marzocco espresso machine and Mazzer grinder. An additional grinder is used for retail orders, which Fernanda says have boomed since starting Cafetal.

The café also makes cycling jerseys that have been popular take-home items, particular with interstate visitors, whom Fernanda hopes will return soon.

“We’ve had people send us photos of them wearing in our jerseys around Brisbane and Melbourne which we put up in the café,” Fernanda says.

“The cyclists who come in are always really happy to make this their regular coffee stop. Some have been coming for years. It’s good to know they don’t just come here because it’s a ‘cycling café’ but because they love the coffee and food.”

SAMMY’S 2/148 Scarborough Beach Road, Mount Hawthorn, Western Australia, 6006 Open Monday to Saturday 8am to 3pm, Sunday 9am to 2pm 0428 631 650 May Street Larder is a “destination” in East Fremantle, a place where people go when they want a special café experience. While the same could be said of its sister venue at The Mezz Shopping Centre, Owner Eamon Sullivan tells BeanScene the location also meant many customers were looking for something on the run.

“A lot of the people just wanted a takeaway roll or a quick coffee. So, we decided to make a change and split it into

KŌKAKO COMMERCIAL BAY Level 1 Commercial Bay, 7/21 Queen Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand Open Monday to Friday 6am to 4pm, Saturday 8am to 4pm, Sunday 9am to 4pm +64 9-379 2868 Kōkako Organic Coffee Roasters may have a long history in New Zealand’s coffee industry, but there is one notch the roaster has never added to its belt: operating a coffee bar.

“In a city that prides itself on its café culture, we wanted a fresh take on coffee for Auckland,” says Gemma Dutton, Roastery & Marketing at Kōkako Organic Coffee Roasters. “Customers are welcome to selfserve a speedy takeout coffee, or take a seat at our bar for a peaceful moment to enjoy their coffee and learn about what they’re drinking.”

Gemma says the team drew inspiration from its favourite cafés around the globe for the new Commercial Bay coffee bar.

The counter is upcycled from plastic milk bottles and a cup rinse station is installed on the customer side of the bench to promote reusable cup uptake.

Openness and transparency were other key considerations of the fit out.

“Usually in espresso bars, the working side of the coffee machine is hidden from the

two venues – [café and Mediterranean restaurant] Pogo on one side, Sammy’s on the other,” Eamon says.

“Sammy’s is a toastie and coffee bar, catering to those customers. It’s got a coffee window, online ordering, and all the food can be done in about three minutes.”

The new focus has provided Sammy’s with a consistency that Eamon says has made the business easier to run and experiment with.

“People go to the shops at least once a week, so we know we’ve got those regular customers coming in, which frees us up to branch out and take risks with more funky things,” Eamon says.

A “risk” that paid off for Sammy’s is the French Dip, a toasted panini served with roast

customer. We wanted to open it up so that our customers could watch our baristas craft their coffee and steam their milk — we want to include them in every step of the process,” Gemma says.

She adds the coffee bar has managed to squeeze many of the industry’s top pieces of equipment into its tight space. A La Marzocco KB90 handles most shots while a single group Modbar prepares single origin and decaf espresso drinks. Mazzer electronic grinders were chosen for their consistency under high volume.

All of Kōkako’s blends and single origins are certified Fairtrade, Biogro Organic, and climate neutral, and are available at the coffee bar.

“We serve the usual espresso drinks, along with a soft brew menu which showcases our singles through AeroPress, V60, plunger, and Clever Dripper,” Gemma says. “We also have a seasonal menu, which is our opportunity to create interesting beverages, some caffeinated and others not.

“One of our current favourites is chaff cola, a probiotic cola made with made by our friend Plabita Florence from Forest restaurant with citrus, spices, and coffee chaff from the roastery. We’re always looking for ways to divert waste and give it another life.”

Following a successful start, Kōkako Commercial Bay has built a solid group

Image credit: Josh Griggs

Sammy’s is a coffee bar serving quick and creative toasties to customers on the run.

beef, caramelised onion, cheddar, mustard, and a pot of gravy on the side.

“It’s our take on one of those famous American subs,” Eamon says.

“We wanted to make Sammy’s a really fun and approachable brand, all about those creature comforts you want when you’re on the run.”

For coffee, Eamon has partnered with Locale Coffee Roasters across his venues.

Sammy’s serves the roaster’s Ultimate Wingman blend for milk-based coffee, the organic Eco Warrior blend for black coffee, and single origins for filter or on request.

“Locale being carbon neutral really stood out to me, and it’s a nice touch having money from the organic blend going to the Orangutan Coffee Project,” Eamon says.

“It’s added a few more strings to our bow on the environmental side we didn’t have in the past.”

The pandemic also illustrated to Eamon how important it was to have access to someone local that could offer on-the-ground support.

“We’ve got reps who come to the shop weekly and provide that level of training and attention I can’t give when jumping between venues,” he says.

“We’re lucky to be where we are. For us, it’s now about making sure we’re ready for anything that gets thrown our way.”

Kōkako Commercial Bay features all of the roaster’s organic and Fairtrade coffees.

of regulars, some of whom are new to the Kōkako brand and its values.

“We’re proud of our leadership in promoting sustainability within the coffee industry. This will always be a priority for us,” Gemma says. “A better world is one where human beings have a greater awareness of how we can live in a considered and less impactful way.”

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CAFÉ SCENE CLOVE CAFÉ 1 Amy Road, Newstead, Tasmania, 7250 Open Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm (03) 6343 4096

Clove Café is a popular spot for locals outside of the busy city of Launceston.

Clove Café in Tasmania has passed through several hands since opening in 2014, with each owner adding something new to the café.

When mother and daughter Kylie Danielson and Alex McLean took over the café in 2018, they introduced a range of gifts, plants, and retail items to the local coffee shop.

“We’re right in the suburbs outside Launceston, with lovely homes and locals, a private school across the road, and nursing

D

home around the corner, so there’s quite a variety of different customers,” Kylie says.

“That means we can carry a nice range of gifts and items of a good quality.”

This includes candles and body lotion, baskets and deli items. Many products are sourced locally, and the same goes for the café’s food and desserts.

“We’re a bit restricted having a small kitchen, so we look at what we can offer and have gone down the road of quiches, salads, and fresh meals that people can take away,” Kylie says.

“We’re also a bit off the street, which gives us a great outdoor dining area. It’s a nice welcoming café, with a bright and airy feel.”

For its coffee, Kylie and Mal continued the previous owner’s relationship with Mocopan Coffee and Doppio Foods, but with their own past experience in hospitality, felt the roaster’s Pasquale blend was a better fit for the café’s demographic.

“It’s a nice, smooth blend. With an older generation of customers, we didn’t want a really strong coffee, just an all-rounder they were all quite happy with,” Kylie says.

“It’s a bit of an older area with younger people moving in and renovating the older homes. We get a lot of mature regular customers, who find it easy to come in, because they don’t have to go to

eveloped in conjuction with the BeanScene magazine website, The Long & Short of It news EDM is dedicated to keeping the coffee industry abreast of the latest relevant news as it breaks, in addition to providing an electronic interface for the viewing of BeanScene magazine content. To keep up to date with fresh, informative and relevant content, register your details at www.beanscenemag.com.au

Clove works around its limited kitchen space with a selection of fresh food.

Launceston and struggle with parking.”

Kylie adds that building relationships with their customers has been the best part of taking over Clove.

“The opportunity to buy the café arose after my daughter started working here.

I’ve always worked in hospitality and we thought it would be a nice, quiet Monday to Friday business, but it’s actually quite busy now, which is really good,” Kylie says.

“We’ve been here for two years now and have ticked quite a few of the boxes we hoped to.”

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SUB-ZERO COFFEE 245 St Kilda Road, St Kilda, Victoria, 3182 Open seven days 8am to 4pm When customers at Sub-Zero Coffee peer into the coffee bar’s gelato freezer, rather than a range of ice cream they are greeted by row after row of sealed frozen coffee packs.

Every coffee served at the café is individually dosed, vacuum sealed, and frozen. The brainchild of two former St Ali head baristas, Kirk Pearson and Todd Souter, Sub-Zero Coffee was launched with the goal of making amazing coffees always available.

“Todd and I both love coffee, especially that upper echelon, but we couldn’t really go just anywhere in Melbourne and find the particular coffee we felt like. Sometimes I might want a Costa Rican filter coffee, but there’s no guarantee you can just go to a coffee shop in Melbourne and get that,” Kirk says. “We’re not settling for 30 to 50 coffees. We want to eventually have 200 on the menu, a real library of sorts.”

Sub-Zero Coffee started as a monthly popup in 2019, with plans to take the concept overseas in 2020. With COVID-19 grounding the pair, they decided to set up a permanent shop in a coworking space in St Kilda.

“Despite the tragedies that unfolded at the beginning of the year, there were a few positives for us that came out of it,” Kirk says.

“We’ve embraced a minimalist design, but people are coming here to have a pretty awesome sensory experience and we have everything we need to offer that.”

Sub-Zero brand coffee is roasted exclusively by 2018 Australia Roasting Champion Ben Toovey. But thanks to the freezing process slowing down the

Kirk says the Slayer Steam LPX was the only machine that could give them the manual control needed for their many recipes.

Sub-Zero Coffee in St Kilda serves exclusively frozen and sealed coffees.

ageing of its coffees, it also carries a diverse selection from roasters around the world. This includes the first Ethiopia Cup of Excellence runner-up from Single O in New South Wales and single origins from Coffee Collective and April Coffee Roasters in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“In the past, if you’re a coffee shop owner, you’ve got two weeks to serve this coffee before it declines in quality. With the power of freezing we never waste anything,” Kirk says.

“That’s empowered us to make this wide list of coffee.”

Espresso is prepared with a Mahlkonig EK43 and Slayer Steam LPX, chosen because its manual mode allows the baristas to customise recipes for each coffee. For its milk-based drinks, SubZero has partnered with Riverina Fresh to make its coffee shine.

“I’ve been to their farms and seen

what they do. Having grown up in the country, exposed to a lot of dairy farms, I know what it takes to produce good milk,” Kirk says.

“They’re really looking after their farmers, who have endured pretty strenuous conditions in the last few years, and in the coffee industry that’s something we all really understand.”

The premium end of Sub-Zero Coffee’s offering has attracted a following of coffee enthusiasts, but Kirk says the shop is starting to connect with its neighbours too.

“The locals are quite happy there’s a coffee shop in the area doing the quality of coffee that we are,” Kirk says.

“They can indulge on a Panamanian Geisha if they want, or we’ve got coffee for a good latte. That’s the beauty of what we do, anyone can come in here and get the coffee they like.”

Sub-Zero’s frozen menu lets the café serve a diverse manu of premium coffees.

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TECH TALK

Maurizio Marcocci is the Director of Service Sphere.

Wake the sleeping giant

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Maurizio Marcocci of Service Sphere shares his advice on how to get hospitality coffee equipment primed and ready for the ultimate comeback of the year.

t’s hard to recall another time in history when thousands of hospitality businesses were forced to close for an extended break.

Of course, there’s always quieter times of the year such as Christmas and January, when cities become ghost towns due to office staff enjoying summer holidays, but never to the extent we’ve witnessed over the past year.

Victoria has undoubtedly suffered the most, with many cafés and restaurants forced to shut their doors to dine-in customers and serve takeaway or via online if possible. But not everyone was so lucky. Venues along the coast and across the country have also suffered from a lack of tourism. Thankfully, there’s signs of

hope and a positive end to 2020.

From early November, metro Melbourne’s hospitality venues were given the green light to operate again under restricted measures. While many venues were quick to pick up where they left off, for others, their return continues to be a gradual phase. For this reason, it’s important to pay extra attention to the needs of your equipment, their functionality, and condition, to ensure customers are treated to the same high standards they experienced pre-lockdown.

Most commercial coffee machines are not built to sit idle. They like to be pushed to their limits. It’s the same with cars.

Think of what happened when you last went on holiday and left your car sitting

If you notice blockages or leaks from your steam wand, it’s best to call a technician.

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alone in your garage collecting dust while you indulged in aperitive on the Amalfi Coast. On your return, you went to use the car, only to realise the battery was flat and you had to call a mechanic.

Well, it’s the same with unused coffee equipment. We need to wake it up gently and get it back to its old workhorse self. To do that, here are a few key steps to follow: 1. F irst, get COVID clean. Sanitise and disinfect your entire bench top and coffee equipment from handles to buttons. Germs can linger. We need to be more vigilant with cleaning equipment than ever before, so start with a thorough surface clean.

2. T urn your water supply back on.

3. E nsure your main power supply is turned back on.

4. P ower “on” your espresso machine.

Do a complete cleaning cycle on your machine. Some machines will have an automatic wash function, for others it’s manual. Either way, ensure you backflush the machine a few times with cleaning agent like Cafetto cleaning solutions, just like you would during a daily shift, and as part of a regular weekly cleaning schedule.

5. C lean your group seals and wipe around your shower heads to remove any stale coffee grounds.

Replace showers and seals that are stiff or old.

6. S oak your handles and filters for 15 minutes in warm water and cleaning agent. Thoroughly rinse and dry before reuse. Signs of mould growing in the group handles or

A flowmetre is a simple thing to replace but can be the source of water leaks or blockages.

filter baskets is a classic indication that these items have been left in the group head for an extended period, sitting with potentially stale coffee grounds mixing with stale water.

7. P urge the steam arms and flush them out in a cleaning solution. Pay extra attention to the steam wand tip where stale milk residue can remain.

8. Remove the drip tray and grill.

Again, use warm, soapy water to clean.

9. Clean and drain your water filter or replace it with a new one. If you experience a blocked water filter, shut down your machine and call your technician. If filters are blocked, then it is likely your boiler will need to be emptied as dirt can still be sitting in there and make its way through to the group head. This will also get rid of any stale water that’s been left inside.

10. D on’t forget your grinder. Empty the hopper and clean it with warm, soapy water to remove any oils that remain. Pre-ground coffee will be left in the burrs. I suggest using Cafetto Grinder Clean to remove the stale coffee.

11. O nce the equipment is in good working condition, make a few coffees to season the machine, and discard them.

If you can tend to a general clean and maintenance of your machine yourself, go for it. But, if you’re ever unsure, don’t hesitate to call your go-to technician or machine provider. Any evidence of your hand lingering inside the machine is a sign it’s probably not a job for you.

There are some common tell-tale signs when it’s time to call a tech, like low water pressure, a blockage or leak – a sign that

your safety valves need replacing. In these instances, it’s always best to turn your machine off to risk any further damage and call your trusted technician.

As much as your machine can give you signs its working well – a good nine bars of pressure, no leaks, drips or sounds of blockages – don’t forget to use your palate to calibrate your coffee. Good coffee should be vibrant, sweet and taste “clean” in the cup. Fresh is always best, but if you’re tasting grittiness, dirtiness, burnt ash or oxidised flavours, it’s a sign the coffee is still stale and needs further cleaning attention.

If you’re one of the lucky – or unlucky – employees who gets to return to an office soon, don’t forget to pay attention to the staff coffee machine. Whether it’s a domestic model or a super-automatic machine, it’s also likely been unused for a long time, and needs extra attention,

especially because some models store milk. For this reason, it will need a proper clean before use. Check the fridge compartment for any stale milk and get the fridge temperature down to the right setting before putting fresh milk in. Drain the water from the boiler, which would be stale and likely full of sediment. Make sure to run a few coffees through the machine to help season the machine and discard them.

It’s also a good time to consider a preventative maintenance check-up. Just like the yearly health check-up, dentist appointment, optometry test, or car service you should have scheduled – and of which have been put on the back burner due to COVID-19 restrictions – your coffee machine also needs a regular check-up.

Here at Service Sphere, we believe a preventative maintenance schedule is a key part of keeping your equipment and in-cup result a premium level.

Long-term effects and cost comparisons usually favour preventative maintenance over reactive maintenance. The longterm benefits definitely outweigh reactive maintenance. It helps improve equipment reliability, decreases the cost of replacement or extends the life of equipment. It decreases maintenance downtime, provides better spare inventory, more efficient use of capital, and gives you the ability to budget for service, and increases customer satisfaction.

So, what’s there to lose? The hospitality sector has endured a tough year. We’ve navigated through as best we can, and now it’s time to care for our equipment as much as we care about every coffee we make.

For more information, visit servicesphere.com.au

Low water pressure can be a sign your safey valves need replacing.

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ESPRESSO YOURSELF

Jibbi Little of Jibbijug is the 2019 ASCA Pauls Professional Australian Latte Art Champion.

Mary Poppins

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Jibbi Little shares a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious take on one of her favourite literary characters.

t’s been a long and sometimes crazy year, full of twists and turns many of us didn’t expect.

Some people used their time to learn new skills, whether that be baking sourdough, picking up an instrument, or anything in between. Hopefully if you’ve been following this column, you’ve been refining your latte art abilities to the point where you can handle this World Latte Art Championship worthy pattern.

It feels like a lifetime ago when I presented this design on stage in Berlin in 2019, made all the more surreal by the World Latte Art Championship being cancelled this year.

Mary Poppins was my favourite book growing up, which made it an obvious source of inspiration when I chose ‘childhood stories’ as a theme for the competition. The story of a magical nanny teaches us about the power of imagination.

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You may notice some similarities to my Little Red Riding Hood design from the October 2019 edition, and in many ways, that simpler pattern evolved – you could even say grew up – into this more complex design.

You’ll need a steady hand and good understanding of how one movement will impact another when drawing this latte art.

There are several rosettas placed in this design that are brought to life by the simple lines that connect them. Remember to use the photos as well as descriptions to get a good idea of how each step should look.

Little flourishes like the feather in the cap can be difficult to perfect, but that’s what separates the best designs from the rest.

Mary Poppins famously said “in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun”, and that’s exactly how I feel about this design. Enjoy.

1.

Build your base with the handle at nine o’clock. Pour a 10-leaf rosetta from the centre of the cup to the bottom and pull through.

3.

Pour a shorter six-leaf rosetta along the left side of the top rosetta.

5.

From the tip of your second rosetta closest to the handle, pour a curved line with a little spiral at the end.

7.

From the other end of the second rosetta, pour a slightly curved line, followed by two small bumps forming the nose and mouth, another smaller bump for the chin, and connecting it back to the first rosetta.

2.

Pour an 11-leaf rosetta along top of the first, creating a T-shape.

4.

Pour a small four-leaf rosetta from the end of the last rosetta to the edge of the cup and pull back through.

6.

Pour a line between your second and third rosettas, with a thin line curving down on the right and curving up on the left to form the hat.

8.

Drop a small amount of foam in the middle of the face for the eye.

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TRAINING TACTICS

Babin Gurung is the New South Wales Barista Trainer at Mocopan Coffee.

A virtual world

Mocopan Coffee’s Babin Gurung on how to navigate coffee training in a virtual world of mute buttons and remote classrooms.

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he use of online technology has never been more significant in our lives than it is now. In a year when COVID-19 restricted physical exchange, virtual interaction has been a true blessing.

With social distancing and travel bans still in place, it may be a while before we see classroom or on-site coffee training return. The only way forward, for now, is via online platforms.

Here at Suntory Coffee Australia, we have partially moved to virtual coffee training, which has allowed us to connect with baristas and continue to help them upskill.

best to keep training duration short.

Between two to three hours is a good length with small breaks in between.

This will allow participants to stay focused and get the most out of the session.

- Topics: when building curriculum, choose topics that are best suited for the virtual classroom. Theoretical topics such as seed to cup, extraction, grinder calibration, etc. are great for this type of learning environment.

Online training is perfect for building solid foundation for new baristas, but can also be used to explore advanced concepts for experienced baristas on topics such as grind distribution,

When conducting a virtual lesson involving an espresso machine, use a flexible phone holder or mini tripod with your laptop nearby.

Without a doubt, coffee training is challenging to execute in a virtual environment, but here are some key points I have found to give the best result.

1. P lan. Compared to face-to-face training, virtual training has its limitations. This needs to be taken into account when planning a session. Here are few things to consider: - Training length: since participants will be sitting in front of a screen for the majority of the training time, it’s

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sensory analysis or milk science.

- P ractice: virtual training should always be followed with a practice session to solidify concepts. Participants must have access to a coffee machine during or after the training. This will help them apply their learnings from the training to practice.

2. S etup equipment. Having the right technology on your side can make a big difference. Here is a list of equipment you will need:

- I nternet connection: Wi-Fi enabled internet is required to operate virtual trainings as multiple devices will be in use. Where Wi-Fi isn’t strong, 3G or 4G connection can be used.

- Coffee equipment: the trainer must have access to coffee equipment for demonstrations. This can be a basic setup of espresso machine and a grinder. Props such as burrs and cleaning tools can also be used to explain different concepts.

- Laptop computer: you will need a computer to dial in to the meeting.

It can also be used for sharing slideshows, which allows trainers to provide visual information and also help keep track of the flow of topics.

- Video: video capturing can be done using webcam or smartphone.

Smartphone tripod can be used to setup multiple camera angles giving participants wide range of views allowing deeper engagement.

Tripods come in many different forms, some with clamps, which can be mounted on coffee machines or tables, allowing you more control.

It is important trainees keep their videos on as well during the session to encourage interaction and read the room in order to ask questions and receive real-time responses.

- Audio: audio quality is one of the most important variables to get right when training online. Because coffee training requires lot of movement on the trainer’s part, it is important that sound quality is well captured throughout the training. I found wireless Bluetooth earphones work best, for sound quality and mobility. For better sound clarity, it is advisable to have trainees on mute during the session unless speaking.

- Software: Zoom and Microsoft Teams are two of the most common

Add humour and real-life examples to your virtual training session where appropriate to help connect with participants.

virtual meeting software we have seen in recent times, and have proven to work efficiently for large class sizes. They are easy to setup and use, even for someone with minimal technical skill. Here are some key features of the software that can be utilised for best results: • M ultiple accounts: Zoom allows more devices for login and view compared to Microsoft Teams. This feature is not only important for accommodating larger class size but also allows trainer to share multiple screens for effective training.

• R ecording: training sessions can be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes. It is advisable to ask for participant’s consent before recording.

• S creen share: screen share is a great feature that allows the trainer and participant to share their screen.

This feature can be used for sharing presentations, photos and videos or any training relevant documents.

I encourage trainers to use as many visual aids as possible to maximise learning.

3. T rial run. Once the plans are laid out and gears are fixed, it is important to run a trial session. This will help identify any areas of opportunity and allow time to make necessary

adjustments. This could include equipment troubleshoot, internet connection, training length and pace. It is ideal to run the test with the help of a colleague or a senior manager, who can provide you with feedback. This valuable information must then be used to refine training components and build a more effective training module.

4. Engagement. Unlike classroom training, maintaining high engagement and participation is a challenge in virtual sessions which can ultimately impact training effectiveness. Here are my top tips for capturing and maintaining participant’s attention: • Ask participants to be in a quiet room.

• Keep your training room tidy with no distractions such as running TV, advertisements or external noise.

• Keep high energy and steady pace when presenting. Pace that is too fast or too slow can impact concentration.

• Ask questions to build engagement and test knowledge. Asking for thumbs up/thumbs down is a great alternative to saying yes/no, which requires constant muting and unmuting.

• Add humour and real-life examples where appropriate. Finding areas where participants can relate to you

is a great way of connecting.

• K eep topics even sized and give small breaks in between allowing participants time to refresh. This will also allow trainers to clear the training space and be ready for the next topic.

5. T raining day. It is important that training invites are sent out well in advance with necessary instructions.

It is advisable to provide participants with handbook which they can follow during the session. Logging in 10 to 15 minutes prior to commencement of training is a good way to make sure everyone is comfortable in the environment and feel confident in using online technology.

6. F eedback. One of the best ways to measure success of a training is by collecting feedback from participants and peers, where possible. A selfreflection form or watching recorded video are also some great ways of monitoring self-progress.

We already have embraced technology in our cafés to refine variables and achieve quality and consistency in coffee. But the most important variable in coffee making is the barista and through online training, we can refine their skills to help them achieve that consistency.

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ASCA

Kieran Westlake is the President of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association.

Support local Why hospitality will need the same level of support as other industries if the Australian economy is to recover.

W

ithout the $44.6 billion spent by international tourists in Australia each year, the Australian Government is obligated to incentivise domestic business spending during the economic recovery.

According to the Australian Government, the Hospitality and Tourism industries represents 925,000 employees or 8.1 per cent of all workers and more than 160,000 individual businesses. In the 2020-21 Federal Budget, there are many winners. However, there is a significant lack of direct support for the Food & Beverage (F&B), Entertainment, Travel and Tourism industries outside of broader benefits to businesses.

These industries and their employees have been, and continue to be, some of the worst affected by COVID-19. They have suffered through: • Full lockdowns • Limited business operations • State governments not adopting to the National Cabinet Mandatory Code of Conduct on commercial leasing • Modified trading conditions setting a

Removing entertainment from FBT could encourage businesses and employers to spend more with hospitality and tourism.

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future of increased operational costs.

Unfortunately, all the benefits provided in the budget have issues or limitations on there effectiveness or speed. The rate of capital flow is the central issue.

Businesses on life support or coming off it, may not have the capital reserves to benefit from the new asset write-offs caps.

Jobkeeper subsidies may not be enough or no longer available while trading conditions continue to be suppressed.

Therefore, employees will be let go if the underlying businesses financial position does not improve to pre-COVID levels.

Tax cuts to individuals may increase discretionary spending. However, it may or may not flow to hospitality and tourism businesses while travel is still restricted and personal health risks are still prevalent.

What stimulus would make a difference to the hospitality and tourism industries, that would also be cost-effective and quick to have a real-world impact? Remove ‘Entertainment’ from Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT). Entertainment under FBT includes, for example, meals and drinks or staff social functions; sporting or theatrical events, sightseeing tours, and holidays; and entertaining employees and non-employees (such as clients) over a weekend at a tourist resort. Essentially, this change would remove a barrier for businesses to help stimulate the economy.

F&B transactions are typically in smaller amounts and higher frequency than capital equipment. This increased velocity of capital in F&B spending is also exponentially faster compared to large infrastructure projects, manufacturing, or construction projects. F&B spending also creates more stable jobs in hospitality.

The community benefit increases as fudning reaches more individuals pockets and sooner.

Businesses will also be able to increase their domestic travel expenditure, as well as

reward and retain their current workforce via more entertainment spending – think Christmas parties, coffee meetings, and the like. Backdating the stimulus package for FY21 and continuing through FY22/FY23, the effect of this package on the economy would be felt upon implementation. It would bring forward the government’s desired stimulus outcomes and potentially increasing the consumer confidence index, as F&B spending is an emotional and mental health enabler.

But what is the cost? According to the Australian Government’s own review of the FBT system, it was designed to fill a perceived gap in the income tax base.

However, its highly prescriptive rules to cover every possible fringe benefit make it very complex. The revenue from FBT equates to only $4.3 billion – less than 1 per cent of Australia’s annual tax revenue – with many Australian accountants estimating its cost on employers outweighs the value of its collected revenue.

Costs associated with self-assessing tax systems, like record keeping and external fees, may be disproportionately high for small businesses, relative to their turnover, income, and number of employees.

More than 925,000 Australian workers and their employers need support inline with other industries in these novel times.

By removing “Entertainment” from FBT, the Australian Government can provide a stimulus package that will make an immediate and sustainable difference to these individuals and small businesses. It will not only save businesses billions on FBT reporting costs, but also incentivise them to drive the economic recovery of Australian hospitality and tourism.

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NZSCA

Emma McDougall is the Communications and Administration Co-ordinator of the NZSCA.

A time capsule for future generations The NZSCA’s Emma McDougall on how one bizarre year has created the new (ab)normal.

I

ronically, when I went to look back at my first draft of this article, the laptop chucked a #2020 and lost my previous words, perhaps summing up this year in a nutshell.

Nevertheless, I persisted, as with all the ups and downs, surely the resilience of our people and industry is what truly encapsulates this year.

The start of 2020 was stacked heavy with events, planned to give our champions enough time to prepare for Worlds. We opened tickets to the Meadow Fresh Barista Championship 2020 in April 2019, earlier than ever, to give a good year of planning for those competing to refine their performance.

Our hosts for the New Zealand Cup Tasters Championship, Ozone Coffee Roasters in Auckland, had also set the date early, sandwiched neatly between the Womad and Taranaki Anniversary.

The Meadow Fresh NZ Latte Art Championship two days later made the weekend one to attend for coffee lovers.

A comfortable ease settled in as we herded the cats, over thought the details, and our wonderful sponsors made the events next level. Our 2019 Champions both pulled off double wins, with Alan Bruce taking out Cup Tasters and Hoony Chae winning the Latte Art title.

However, we’d noticed that our volunteer and audience base was smaller, competitors were pulling out and entering self-quarantine. Our sponsors for the Barista Championship where gently asking about alternative plans should the virus take hold.

March became unpredictable for

our industry. Social distancing, working from home, and new cupping protocols became the norm. Then, unprecedented moves from the government saw everything locked down from 26 March.

The mission to make freshly roasted coffee an essential service to New Zealand consumers became our priority.

Communication with members, and the government departments was key during lockdown. Information was crucial and often hard to get. When the rules were relaxed, the ability for members to send out coffee again was a massive celebration. Buying local never felt so good.

Thanks to prior planning, September was set as the new date for the Barista Championship and we were able to gently rearrange most things with understanding on all sides.

We made the decision to delay sending out our membership invoices and moved our AGM online. This pushed attendance up, helped with some great goodie boxes.

Due to the nature of the year, we understood that not everyone could rejoin. However, huge growth in smaller members joining, particularly in the allied sector has seen our members back up at pre-COVID level. We’d like to welcome our new members and are excited about connecting with them.

With the gains comes the losses and we’ve seen companies restructuring, job redundances, and retrenchment.

The flow of employees and work visas remains a concern.

Focusing on our people, we interviewed and discovered more

about the diversity of the folk who are involved in coffee. We had more reach and fantastic feedback than we’ve experienced before. The Ultimate Fluffy Challenge was a highlight and we look forward to planning the next online competition.

As with all good plans, COVID-19 round two put the brakes back on as Auckland was plunged back into Level 3 lockdown in August, with the rest of New Zealand operating distantly on Level 2. Knowing that we couldn’t operate the Barista Championship, we made the heavy decision to cancel. Ever the optimists though, we have set the date for 20 to 21 March 2021.

With no big events to be held, the events committee created the Tasters Series aimed at breaking down the barriers to holding safe, delicious events.

With all coffee lovers invited to attend, each event was a sell-out. We are happy that being able to hold community events again has resulted in great success.

In hindsight, the coffee industry wasn’t prepared for a major pandemic.

The NZSCA has managed a response to COVID-19 that has laid the groundwork for a new approach to events, the industry and each other. There have devastatingly been some tragedies.

Anecdotally, many have come out stronger than ever.

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

MARY TIPPETT When I moved to Australia from America some 16 years ago, my knowledge of coffee was limited to drip coffee. My first experience of coffee in Australia was “wow”. It knocked my socks off. It took time to adjust, then after trying different types of coffees and coffee beans from different regions, my taste for better coffee began, as well as my desire to know much more about coffee, from different beans to roasting styles, even down to the right milk to use. At home, I have a Sunbeam Torino and grinder that makes the best coffee.

With the help of magazines like BeanScene, my knowledge of coffee is growing, I’m even growing a coffee tree.

My fascination with coffee continues to grow even to this day, after 16 years of the best coffee has to give.

ANDY GIBSON

When I moved to Melbourne from rural Victoria in 2017 to study at university, it was a very exciting time for me: meeting lots of new people, trying new cuisines, immersing myself in Melbourne’s rich sporting culture. One thing that especially stood out to me was Melbourne’s coffee culture. Everyone at uni had a coffee in hand or next to their laptop, no matter what time of day.

It didn’t take me long to become a part of this culture and fall in love with coffee. When Melbourne went into lockdown earlier this year, its great coffee culture was put on hold, and I discovered a love for home espresso. Months of tweaking my daily brewing process has enhanced my relationship with coffee, making me appreciate the process behind every cup. However, it’s still not quite the same as the local café experience. Special shoutout to Jack The Lad Café for the best coffee in Chelsea!

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KARINA DENMAN I was a late bloomer when it comes to coffee. I only discovered my love for a latte five years ago at a cute café in Brisbane, and I can’t believe the journey it has taken me on. I kicked things off with a very casual hobby, starting the Facebook page @cairnscoffees purely dedicated to discovering and displaying the best coffees in my city.

Then COVID-19 hit tourism in Cairns quite hard, so this year I started the Instagram page @cairnscoffees with the aim to help keep the local coffee scene alive and encourage locals to explore new cafés within the region. I don’t write negative reviews on my page. If I don’t enjoy my coffee, I simply don’t write about that establishment.

I wanted to keep my page a positive place, while still “espresso-ing” myself.

Cairns is such a beautiful place to live for coffee lovers, with a diverse scene complete with five-star establishments, to tiny hole-in-the-wall venues serving boutique blends. And uniquely, less than an hour from the bustling CBD you can find some of the best coffee farms in Australia.

It was while touring one of these farms last year that I met my now-partner, Jason Jaques. His family owns and operates Jaques Coffee Plantation in Mareeba, and I fell in love. I guess you could say we are the “perfect blend”.

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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

INFO@CMS.COM.AU

(03) 9462 5055

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