Five Senses Coffee Blog

All the action from the 2010 WBC

After acquiring new human origami skills on a 25 hour flight from Melbourne to London, I unfolded myself from my plane seat and emerged into balmy summer weather and 10pm sunsets. I was ready to get stuck into the exciting event that is the 2010 World Barista Championship (WBC)! My disconnect level was pretty high – but jet lag was sorted by a strong dose of WBC judge calibration!

Each year, a lucky few are selected from a pool of accredited judges from around the world to sit in front of the top baristas from over 50 countries at the WBC and absorb their interpretation of exciting specialty coffee — a pretty sweet job!

This year’s judges calibration was more intense and successful than ever before. Over two full on days we pulled apart every possible interpretation of the rules, ran through innumerable tasting and scoring calibrations and limbered up our fingers for frantic scribbling. We participated in exercises designed to refresh our memory of how it feels on ‘the other side’ of the table. We were split into groups, given a coffee and told to get behind the machine, find the best extraction for that coffee and provide the head judges with a concise set of descriptions.

With a plethora of skill sets within the group, we experienced an exciting melting pot of perspectives and approaches to assessing specialty coffee. There were lots of big names, including previous Australian Barista Champion and runner-up WBC competitor, David Makin, along with James Hoffman, WBC Champion and owner of Square Mile and Stephen Morrissey, WBC Champion working at Intelligentsia. They all provided invaluable perspectives as past participants of the WBC. It was great to see these previous competitors helping to develop the competition and industry they love.

After a gruelling two days of intense discussion and an abundance of espresso shots, I headed over to the impressively grand Olympia Stadium for the competitor briefing session. WBC organisers ran through the amazing stage set up, prep times, rule clarifications and the innumerable details that need to be pulled together to ensure a smooth event. It was great to see the camaraderie between competitors as the excitement started to build!

Day one (Wednesday) saw 30 competitors presenting with an additional 24 competitors on day two (Thursday). I acted as a sensory judge throughout and it was an honour to have the opportunity to sit, taste and listen to the passion of the competitors.

The new semi-finals format had competitors excited. This year’s event saw the top 12 competitors from the pool of 54 moving through to the next round. From this top pool of 12, the competitors would be whittled down to an even more polished six, who would be the WBC finalists.

The 12 semi finalists included returning national champions and some virgin competitors, who gave amazing performances and served up delicious coffees. There was a huge roar when it was announced that Australian Barista Champion, Scottie Callaghan was through to the semis. The Aussie support crew was out in force and, as usual, were unrestrained in their gleeful cheering for our champion!

One of the most exciting things to see was that the semis pool included five competitors from coffee producing nations. This is a huge step forward for the competition and our industry as a whole, as it indicates the strong flow of information between consuming and producing nations. There were great techniques shown, and the passion and quality of coffee being served by these guys was amazing. It’s great to see so many different perspectives from the worldwide coffee industry.

Day three (Friday) saw excitement and stress levels rise exponentially! Competitors had been training for months (sometimes years) for their 15 minutes on stage – half of them would go through to the finals and for half of them, it would be a long trip home. After presenting some amazing interpretations of specialty coffee on the stage, the results finally came through. Again, the Aussie contingent went wild as Scottie progressed to the final round of the 2010 World Barista Championship! The final six countries were Australia, USA, Guatemala, Ireland, Denmark and Greece, a great mixture from around the world.

After a tense round of competition with the stadium packed out and people cheering in the aisles, Michael Phillips from Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago, USA took out the top podium. Michael’s signature drink combined an exciting sensory aspect, representing three different coffees from the same farm in Costa Rica, along with the technical challenge of changing these coffees through the grinder in the tight 15 minute time frame. Scottie gave a polished performance, placing 3^rd in the world with his cardamom infused signature drink and dynamic engagement with the judges.

The week was truly great — although thoroughly exhausting! London put on a great show and hosting international guests with a warm reception at espresso bars around the city was a spectacular addition to the experience.

The World Barista Championship is moving ahead in leaps and bounds and the continual focus on the role of the barista, the importance of the coffee and coffee knowledge presented and a move towards bettering our industry helps move us forward. Moving into 2011 we’re looking at another groundbreaking event, with the first ever WBC hosted by a coffee producing country. Colombia will be the host nation for the next championship, with plans to provide exciting opportunities for all national winners to experience the coffee regions of Colombia around the competition schedule.

The barista competitions, while never being the be all and end all, continue to improve the quality of specialty coffee and tie the worldwide coffee community together under the banner of progress towards quality!

Check out  the “WBC website”: www.worldbaristachampionship.com for more. The “AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association (AASCA) website”: www.aasca.com has information about this year’s Australian championships.

2008 World Barista Champion, Stephen Morrissey contemplates the next few days

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

Clever and Virtuoso in Bali

The team relaxing in Bali over a brew.

My first three days have been all about Robusta with a sugar coating of Bali bliss.  Day one a couple sips, day two half a cup, day three and I’m pretty sure I was developing a taste for it.   Thank you Shaughan, who on day four arrived with CCD, Baratza Virtuoso and Yirg Koke in hand.  Morning life has just gone up a notch!

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.

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.

Synesso’s new electronics

This photo is the prototype of Synesso’s completely redesigned electronics box. The current relay driver board with separate display board will be replaced by a CPU board that will connect to the SSRs and solenoids through individual relay driver boards (via optically isolated outputs) . The operator interface is a four line LCD display that is used for changing the configurable settings and displaying temperatures and error logs etc.

All the machine’s functions and features are now fully controlled by the software program, which allows the machine to be incredibly versatile and configurable. New features and functions are added by simply updating the machine’s program via the inbuilt USB port.

Some of the features of the software being developed include: reduced temperature  power saving (sleep) mode, shot timers, two stage pre-infusion timers, error and event logging,  shot counters,  hot water spout timer,  auto back flushing, safety time out on pumps and valves and much more.

The fully operational  prototype will be at the SCAA in Anahiem next week, so drop by if you are going to be there and have a close up look at the next generation Synesso.     ~ Richard