Five Senses Coffee Blog

Indiana Jen heads to Rwanda!

For anyone who doesn’t know, the Cup of Excellence programme is like the AFL grand final and Boxing Day test match all rolled into one! So it goes without saying that we were pretty proud when our very own Jen Murray was the only Australian selected to serve on the judging panel for the 2010 Cup of Excellence event in Rwanda.

Jen has endured a heavy duty barrage of shots and inoculations to get her ready for the trip, which has left her immune system a bit shaken up. Not exactly the perfect preparation for a trip to Africa but I’m sure Jen’s ‘never say die’ attitude and bottomless supply of chutzpah will get her through.

The judging panel represents the specialty coffee world’s dream team, with Tom Owens from Sweet Maria’s, Annette Moldavaer from Square Mile and Indian legend Sunalini Menon all suiting up.

Jen assures us that she will diligently blog her escapades so watch this space as Jen slurps and sips her way through Rwanda’s best coffees. That’s every day, right Jen?!

Indiana Jen

We’ve got worms!

The worms have finally arrived at Ulian Murni! After some particularly dirty work to get the worm farm established (you’d really need a scratch and sniff computer monitor to get the full experience) we now have some worms actively breaking down the discarded coffee pulp. It’ll take a while for the worm population to build to the levels where they’re getting through large volumes of pulp. Worms eat about half their weight in food every day and their digestive tracts enrich the compost with elevated levels of nutrients. The resultant compost will be spread back under the coffee trees and is set to be one of the key factors in our initiative to assist the farmers to return to fully organic agriculture.

We've got worms!

Bali baristas step it up

There has been a lot of emphasis in recent years in improving the skill sets of baristas working in origin countries. The biggest manifestation of this is the recent breakthrough effort of Raul Rodas of Guatemala, coming second at the recent World Barista Championships in London.

We’ve been doing our bit with the barista crew in Bali and on our recent trip there we were rewarded with some really impressive coffee from Komang Budiana at Casa Luna. (Komang was one of the two Balinese baristas we brought to Perth in November 2009)

Despite some pretty ordinary equipment Komang whipped out some great coffee with impressive art. He is one of the most naturally gifted baristas I’ve seen and could easily hold his own in Australia’s best espresso bars with a little more experience. If you’re  ever in Ubud drop through and grab a coffee, tell him we sent you!

Trained by Five Senses, Komang is producing wonderful latte art back in Bali

Real Direct Trade

Direct trade has got to be one of the most compromised terms in specialty coffee.  Once a symbol of a serious coffee business its now reduced to yet another branding exercise. Many roasters claiming a Direct Trade relationship have never stepped foot in the origin country of the coffee!

… anyway, I’ll jump off my soapbox now.

Our travels yesterday took us to both of our Subak Abian (co-op) partners in Kintamani and while there wasn’t a lot of coffee action happening we had a lot of laughs and fun with an amazing bunch of people.

Despite almost no common language we were  given tours of amazing tropical jungles, taught the Balinese word for fart and fed more oranges than we care to remember.  This is real Direct Trade, as much about the heart as it is about the coffee.
P.S. For the Epic crew, yes, Sarah is still watching you!

Real Direct Trade

Pick Merah!

One of the big things we’ve been trying to impress upon the farmers is to pick ripe cherries. After spending some time today picking we quickly realised that its not that easy. The cherry is at various stages of ripeness all over the tree and  progress is frustratingly slow.  Picking ripe cherries means making a lot more passes through the farm over the harvest period and to a pragmatic farmer that doesn’t make a lot of sense. So we will keep emphasising the “pick merah” message but we will be a bit more sympathetic if it doesn’t always meet our high standards.
We’ve also heard our coffee increasingly  referred to as “the speciale”. Think we may have found a new name for this years crop!

Ripe cherries in Bali

Confession time

Ok time to come clean. Whilst Bali is principally all about the coffee we also have a lot of fun and it’s the amazing personalities that we have on these trips that make it such a great experience.

This year we have debutant Brad “King of Kuta “  Evans charming us with his enthusiasm and amusing stories of his adventures in Kuta.  Jenny “you got a program?” Murray is back after a few years absence and proving once again when it comes to chutzpah, she leaves the rest of the pack in the shade!

Tom “I’m in” Beaumont has taken an early lead in the golden shovel award with some backbreaking work on the shovel and a fearless tree climbing effort up a Balinese “ladder”. If there’s something happening Tom is there, we are still looking forward to the “banana sprint” through the Monkey Forrest. (It’s a long story!)

Graeme ‘show me the science” Burton has taken on the challenge of the “field guide to Balinese cultivars” in his inimitable style. Expect a thorough document!

Zach “the quiet achiever” Hyunh has absorbed a lot on his first origin trip and didn’t shirk the “arak attack” challenge and has once again proved the “Bicknell phenomenon” , you don’t need a big body to fit in a lot of food!

Cyclone Dean arrived late and quickly proceeded to get the party started.  For anyone who has travelled with Dean this needs no further explanation, for those of you who haven’t it’s something you have to experience at least once in your life.

Must go, time to head back up the mountain…….

Jeremy lends a hand

Bali Kids

The worm farm begins

Day one at Kintamani was a bit of an unknown quantity. We arrived at Ulian Murni to the usual friendly welcome. Ibu Khartini, affectionately nicknamed the worm lady had met us on the way up and we quickly sat down to come up with a plan of attack. A massive worm farm was the objective to handle the coffee pulp that is a waste product of the coffee process. Before we could pick up a shovel in anger we were treated to the usual morning tea and Kopi Bali which fuelled us up for the day ahead. We quickly set to moving a small mountain of fermented coffee pulp that had been festering for a few days. In true Bali style we moved the pulp around in circles until a way forward emerged. The Aussie contingent represented in solid fashion and moved a heap of pulp to create the room for the walls of the worm farms. The Bali boys then took over and started the wall construction with the Aussies acting as willing labourers. In no time the wall was up and whilst not a marvel of modern engineering it looked sturdy and will do the job. A little smelly and weary we jumped back in the van for the ride back to Ubud, ready for another great meal out. Tomorrow we cup with the growers as we try to get them understanding the basic principles of cupping and bridge the gap between origin and the end user.

Tags: Bali, Five Senses, Kintamani, origin trip, Worm farm

Today we board for Bali

Jay and myself looking at coffee - Bali 2008

“Anyone who has followed our website over the years will know of our deep commitment to the coffee farmers of Kintamani in Bali. This year’s harvest trip is about to get underway and we have a full itinerary for the 10 days. The big project is the building of two jumbo scale worm farms to handle the discarded coffee pulp after processing. This is the first stage of a broader move to organic farming that we are assisting the farmers with. We have engaged the services of the indomitable Ibu Khartini, the president of the Bali Organic Association to help us out.

After last year’s groundbreaking “first accountant at origin” with Jason “bridge breaker” Gray we continue to push the boundaries with Graeme Burton our Service coordinator becoming the “first tech at origin”. I get the feeling Graeme and his trusty tool kit will come in very handy!

Stay tuned over the next 10 days as I keep you updated on our adventures.

Bali boys hit Freo!

If you haven’t been to Hush on Market Street in Fremantle yet, make it your homework for this weekend. These guys have worked away diligently on their craft and are now making some of the best coffee in Perth. When I started to think about a place for some work experience for the Bali boys, it was top of the list. Owner Daniel was happy to oblige and I arrived this morning after the morning  rush was over with two very nervous Balinese baristas in tow. The boys were in luck as Michael was manning the Synesso and really helped the boys find their feet. Komang was thrown in first into the “shot monkey” slot and quickly got into the groove.

He looked very comfortable and pulled consistently great shots and quickly got the feel for working in a busy, high quality cafe. Meanwhile, Gede was keeping it real in the kitchen on dishes duty and quickly fell for the charms of the dishwasher (mechanical dishwasher, that is!) . Not too many of them in Ubud.

After an hour or so it was time to swap roles and Gede got into the swing of things quickly, also pulling great shots and showing the benefit of a solid week’s training.  Michael ran the boys through some latte art techniques and the boys performed admirably. After only a week’s training they could both easily hold their own in any cafe in Perth. Big thanks to all the baristas who helped out with them during the week.

Bali boys on the beach

My apologies for the last post. I managed to post a picture only and totally lose my text. You have no idea how frustrating that is, with my two finger typing technique  and the computer skills of an average pre-schooler. About an hour’s work down the drain!

Anyway, the boys have been training diligently and managing to sneak in a little sightseeing as well. We got a magnificent night for fish and chips on Cottesloe beach. Gede exercised his photographic skills with a great shot of the sunset.

They got through the intro and latte art classes at the WA Barista Academy with flying colours… with the aid of our translation sheet.  Remember to always “goyang” the milk to keep the “busa” integrated before you go to pour!

The boys got the obligatory roastery visit and Richo got out the camera for some higher res shots around the roastery for the boys to take back.  It’s work experience day tomorrow at Hush in Freo. If you haven’t been to Hush, it’s worth the visit, it’s the biggest improver on the Perth coffee scene and doing consistently great coffee.

Terima Kasih-Shaughan