Five Senses Coffee Blog

COE auction experience

YAY Nicaragua!

Beside the non travel induced jet lag that I’m feeling, the recent COE auction was a great experience.  Glued to the screen as it refreshed every 30 seconds was actually much more edge of the seat excitement than I ever expected.

Watching number one race to $89 392.73 had me all warm and fuzzy thinking how proud and ecstatic those winning farmers would be.  Not just number one, but all the farmers who participated, submitted their best lots and get to sit back and watch as live international buyers bid against each other.

Mini bidding wars kept me excited as I realised that we were not the only ones after our particular lot.  I felt a true sense of joy when the timer finally timed out and La Esperenza was officially ours.  I can’t say enough about what a valuable experience it was, looking forward to many more auctions in the future.

Good coffee

I’ve been into coffee now for a quarter of my life – I know there are a lot of you that read this blog that have been working with coffee for a whole lot longer.

Had I crystal ball gazed 10 years ago I might have predicted that at about this moment in time I would have been totally bored with anything and everything to do with coffee and would have moved on to the next thing. I am a bit of a “phaseologist” (yep – i did invent that word) meaning that it normally doesn’t take me long to lose interest in something before I move on to something new, a new phase. My shed is the best record keeper my of discarded interests – it is littered with fishing gear, golf clubs, snorkling gear and a bunch of other things I’ve forgotten about over the years.

My interest in coffee however – contrary to my own personal expectations – has not waned. Infact my interest if anything, has grown and my appetite to learn more about coffee is greater than ever before. The coffee industry all to often overstates it’s expertise in different area’s of coffee which has had the effect of giving the exagerated impression that a massive body of knowledge about coffee, easily accessible to everyone, exists – out there – somewhere. I’m absolutely certain that there is a massive amount of IP relating to different aspects of coffee but finding out exactly what you need is sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack and then, once you do find it you often end up having to make judgement calls on the credibilty of the information and whether or not the gleanings can be applied directly to something you are trying to get your head around. Ironically, I think that it’s this constant frustration that keeps my interest in coffee alive.

That’s why I loved the 2010 SCAA. I think that this conference – more so than the previous ones I’ve been to, heralded the dawn of a new era of a new way of thinking about coffee – an era where manufacturers are putting emphasis on providing tools to aid our learning about coffee rather than making equipment that makes the presumption that they (the manufacturers) know everything. Green bean suppliers are also on board and are promoting transparency and traceability back to the grower. It’s like a broad base acknowledgement that the barista and roaster need to be able to explore and that they have the desire to share and contribute to the body of knowledge.

Equipment like the Uber Boiler, the new generation Synesso and the Extract MoJo all put control back into the hands of the people most interested in exploring coffee and green bean hunters/suppliers (like Atlas coffee) are trying to bridge the gap between growers, roasters and baristas. I don’t think that I’ve been as excited about the future of coffee for a long time.

That’s my rant.

Cupping at Atlas - Seattle

Ben ready to cup at Atlas - Seattle

Jeremy pulling first shots of Nekisse on next generation Synesso

Better view of the next generation Synesso

Jeremy from Synesso still looking composed after pulling shots all day.

Beanhunter iPhone App Released

The BeanHunter iPhone App

Good news for fans of Beanhunter — there’s now a Beanhunter iPhone app, so you can hunt down the best coffee anywhere around the world, wherever you are. You can find the nearest cafe wherever you are. Then, if you’re generous enough to share the best kept coffee secrets, you can write reviews and upload photos directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Download the Beanhunter App here.

It has been a very good year.

I’ve been reflecting on some of the happenings this year and feel like it’s worth jotting down some of the positive experiences I had over the last 12 months. These experiences are not in any particular order.

The Brewed Coffee revolution

I know that the word “revolution” might sound a tad melodramatic but this year, after a few years of a bit of a spluttering start, (think 1970′s engine) coffee brewed in ways other than through an espresso machine has really taken hold amongst those in the specialty coffee community. The most notable thing here is that attitudes to brewed coffee have changed to a point where there is a greater respect for the brewed product and where many people choose to brew their extra special coffee’s through brewing systems that give them the chance to experience nuances in the coffee which would not be evident to them through espresso. This newly found enthusiasm by the industry in general has resulted in a few good things happening. Firstly, manufacturers are getting serious about making and supplying gear that gives us better brewing results. Marco in Ireland have now got serious and have produced a machine (Uber boiler) that dispenses water to exacting temperatures. Syphon brewers, Chemex, Clever Coffee Drippers and filters are readily available and most importantly there are tons of people experimenting and publishing their thoughts on how to get good results. This is an excellent thing and bodes very well for those interested in the success of specialty coffee. My favourite brewed experience. Ethiopian Beloya through a Clever Coffee Dripper, 30g to 330ml, 3 minute steep time, Blueberry smack in the face!

Coffee from Kintamani in Bali

We’ve been visiting Bali for about 3 years now and this year is the first year that I’ve felt that our investment in the area has started to have a real impact on the people who are doing the farming and on the coffee in the cup. I won’t go into the finer details but because of the choice of a large exporter choosing to pull the pin on their support for a few farmers we were working with it meant that they (the farmers) would also loose their wet mill. We were able to buy the wet mill from the exporter and leave it in situ for the farmers to continue to use. This year the growers really improved their post harvesting techniques in an effort to increase the quality of the beans sent to us. The beans arrived last week. The quality is much better. It feels good to be involved in something where there are wins all round.

The opening of a couple of new places (Proud Mary and Seven Seeds)

These two venues have a unique place in the industry in Australia – for how far they have lifted the bar and how they have become what they are. Each of these venues reflects the passionate coffee journey of the people behind them – Both these venues have people that work within them that started from very modest coffee beginnings. Mark, Bridget and Nolan and Sharee rely on the bean telling the story and work their hardest at providing hard working Australians with one of the world’s best total coffee experiences. Mecca (Paul) in Sydney and a couple of other also fit into this catagory but were opened prior to this year.

The arrival of our baby gade and backroom program:

This heading is really me trying to summerise a whole mix of events and moments that all contributed to something that made us like coffee just so much more. The return of Jenny Murray from her sabatical in Canada, the final pimping/modification of the Renegade sampler, and the arrival of our first mixed shipment of microlot coffees from brokers in the US all culminated in us being able to really explore roasting profiles and brewing results of unique and excellent coffees like we’d never done before. I’m not sure I’ve every heard so many “wows” in one year by the guys here around the roastery.

Our success at the comps:

Normally our participation in competitions is done simply for us to be able know how we are going in the industry against the rest of Australia and the rest of the world. We here in Perth often feel that our isolation prevents us from keeping up with what’s hot and what’s not so we are constantly watching the industry as closely as we can and striving to get better. Our success in the comps this year has played a role validating the efforts we’ve made to hover at cutting edge of the specialty coffee industry. It’s a small measure but we’ll take it.

The birthing of the “mod” department:

We probably never really understood what we would be getting when we signed up for a service department. After much hard work we’ve not only got ourselves a slick equipment fixing machine we’ve also got ourselves a couple of equipment geeks (I hope they will forgive me for calling them this – they know who they are) who have been able to demonstrate with skill and imagination anything is possible. Out of our workshop this year we’ve seen a tuned Renegade sample roaster, a preinfusion mod on a Synesso, a funky timer and hopper mod on a normal Robur and more recently a mashup of a Synesso and Isomac to create an incredibly heat stable multiboiler machine suitable for the domestic market. In recent days the geek (Rich) has also been able to convert a 3 group Sabre into a Hydra/Sable Hybrid. It’s just incredible to be associated with a company with a service department that can do a whole lot more than just change seals and filters. I think that best is yet to come and ultimately, the specialty coffee industry will be the winner.

The noise in the production room is starting to lift as I finish this post. The guys are playing hacky sack, the BBQ is on and the drinks are on ice.

Yep, it’s been a very good year.

Jenny Jenny

Jenny from the WA Barista Academy (WABA) has been back in Canada for the last few months. It’ll be mid 2009 before we get her back. We’ve missed her, but for some reason it almost feels like she hasn’t been away. Jen has been ever present though her blog on the WABA website and through her constant updates about her caffeinated experiences across Canada and North America.

It wouldn't be Seattle without good coffee and the space "needle"

Jenny has just got back from the North West Coffee Fest in Seattle where she hung out in the Synesso booth and also spent time sussing out the coffee culture in general.

Jeremy, Mark and Elizabeth holding the pink version of the Synesso shirt

The Hydra - more about this later

She even had a crack at the Millrock Latte Art competition.

5 Senses shirt - Very nice Jen!

Jen’s heading down to LA soon to catch up with Deaton from Intelligensia and hopefully get a gig behind their machine. No doubt we’ll hear about it and you’ll have a chance to read about it in her blog.

Liar Liar

I’m always interested to see how much enthusiastic gossip is generated at the smallest mention of a potential sale of a cafe. Liar Liar is a brilliant cafe owned and operated by a team of three (Nolan, Nathan and Diamond) who I’m sure would also be bemused by the amount of chatter around the “sale”.

Nothing should be considered sold until the deal is settled, money safely in bank and the vendors are on the plane to the Bahamas for a well deserved rest.

Let’s see where Nolan, Nathan and Diamond are hanging in a couple of weeks.

If you can’t wait to find out – ask them directly – rather than paying too much attention to the rumour mill. I’m sure they’d give you an honest straight up answer – if they thought it was any of your business