Tabla de contenidos para February 2021 en BeanScene

THE PLUG & PLAY SOLUTION The TONE NITRO incorporates an integrated cooler and uses nitrogen from the air instead of high-pressure nitrogen cylinders to deliver maximum performance and space efficiency in the workplace. The addition of nitrogen enriches your beverages by giving them a smooth, velvety texture with a foamy surface no matter whether iced coffee/ tea or sophisticated cocktail creations. Nitro has a 5 liters plug & play canister and works in unison with Touch 01 to deliver a total solution that generates a wow factor.…

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…

99TH MONKEY NUT BUTTERS 99th Monkey exists to spread the joy of simple, delicious food. That’s why it makes its products in small batches, carefully sourcing only the finest minimally processed ingredients and hand filling every jar. 99th Monkey’s best-selling Unsalted Natural Peanut Butter includes just one ingredient – roasted peanuts, created using the freshest peanuts and ground with love. Its Salted Natural Peanut Butter also turns tasty peanuts into a creamy yet crunchy consistency with a sprinkling of natural salt. 99th Monkey’s Natural Almond Butter spread is made with 100 per cent roasted almonds. It’s smooth, creamy, and naturally full of protein. These healthy alternative nut butters are ideal for cafés to use as a spread, in smoothies, or in cooking. All butters are vegan, GMO free, gluten free, and…

Classic, bold, and trustworthy are just a few of the frequent words that came up when Wolff Coffee Roasters asked its customers how they would describe the brand. They are also how you could describe the roaster’s new packaging, which hit shelves in January 2021. “We really value the people across our business, from the farmers and employees to our wholesale partners and customers, so it was important for us that the rebrand be a collective effort,” says Penny Wolff, Co-founder of Wolff Coffee Roasters. “We put some samples together of what our new bags could look like and took it out to research groups, including our customers, to gather some feedback. That helped us to think about what Wolff stands for, what our partners think, and to evolve the brand…

Welcome to another year. Another year of adventure, opportunities, and challenges. When I look back at the year that was, I think how lucky we were to survive – as individuals and businesses. The hospitality industry was so fortunate to have government support schemes like JobKeeper to keep it afloat during our darkest times, and to see so many businesses weather the storm and come out stronger on the other side is nothing short of amazing. None of it was easy. Hospitality businesses did their best to reflect, rethink, and refocus on what needed to be done, even us at Cafetto. After all, 2020 was a game of ‘survival of the fittest’. When the pandemic first hit, I cut my Europe trip short by a month, fearful of flights being…

When Charles Stephens woke to a message from Aillio Co-Founder Jonas Lillie telling him the Aillio Bullet R1 V2 roaster had finally achieved CB Certification after five gruelling years, his reaction was one of euphoria. “The significance of the CB certification cannot be underestimated. It now makes the Bullet R1 ‘bulletproof’ by probably being one of the most rigorously scrutinised pieces of coffee equipment anywhere on the market,” says Charles, CEO of Espresso Company Australia (ECA). The Aillio Bullet went through multiple rounds of tests to become CB/ CE certified, passing all international and Australian standards of electrical compliance and safety. The compliance means that ECA, distributors of the Aillio Bullet, can legally bring the roaster into the country. “This project has been close to our hearts. We’ve shared an…

That first cup of coffee in the morning after dialling in your grinder is often the highlight of many people’s day. If you’ve ever wondered why your afternoon coffee doesn’t taste the same, you are not alone. There is a reason why coffees taste better in the morning. Having fresh beans, a clean machine, and a well calibrated grinder makes all the difference. As the day progresses, you may not have all these variables in check. Beans go stale if you leave them in the hopper for more than two hours, which is why maintaining a minimum amount of coffee is the best practice. Your coffee machine can collect a lot of oil and grime from overuse, and if not cleaned regularly, can add unpleasant flavours in the cup. The…

Inspired by the people in our community such as the women who roast, our educators, green bean buyers and technicians, we are aiming to keep the momentum going into 2021. We’re eager to learn more about the great visionaries, how our Kiwis overseas are flourishing, and who we would like to adopt, are the topics for our next set of interviews. Our online Ultimate Fluffy Challenge, 3DFestive Chino, and colouring competitions add to the fun of connecting online and will be adapted further in 2021. How wonderful was it to end 2020 with our Tasters Series and Sausage Fest events around New Zealand in person? After successfully running eight safe, fun, tasty evenings with our community, we asked for eight hosts around the country for round two. Within 24 hours, we had…

Last year tested most people’s strength and resilience, but it also taught us to “stop and smell the roses”. More than just a slogan illuminated in a restaurant bar, the words became a mantra when I focused on what really mattered and sidelined the ‘extras’ during the Victorian lockdown. I had never noticed the willie wagtail birds cleverly weaving a nest in my backyard before. I never knew my neighbour’s name until she stopped to give me a freshly cut rose, and I never knew my local barista went to the same high school as I did. It’s the little things. It’s also the simple yet powerful values of community and culture that allowed people like Market Lane Coffee Co-Founder Fleur Studd to keep her commitments to producers, entire team employed,…

There’s often a place or memory that provides inspiration for a bigger purpose, and for Fleur Studd, that was a visit to Monmouth Coffee Roasters in London’s Borough Market. “I started drinking coffee in high school but I didn’t think of it as a differentiated beverage. I thought all coffee was the same. That was until I went to London in 2003 and was introduced to Monmouth Coffee,” Fleur recalls. “Monmouth has an awesome line-up of diverse coffees, and their staff are experts at explaining how they taste and what makes them special. I was blown away as I began to appreciate how things like the variety, origin, or processing could impact the cup.” When Fleur briefly returned to Australia at the start of 2008, she visited the St Ali…

The iced coffee carton is a supermarket and convenience store staple, and serves as many people’s first step into the wonderful world of coffee. The classic ready to drink (RTD) coffee is probably more notorious for its sugar content than the quality of its coffee. But that’s changing. Many Australian specialty coffee roasters – Seven Seeds, Code Black, and Industry Beans to name a few – have tossed their hat into the RTD ring, adding pre-made cans, bottles, or even casks, to their arsenals. St Ali has also embraced RTD coffee, which Owner and Creative Director Salvatore Malatesta says gives the roaster full control over its coffee quality. “Being able to offer a consistent flavour profile as we reach further afield is really important,” Salvatore says. “RTD means we can…

Every coffee growing region has its own story to tell, and the South American Growers Alliance (SAGA) is sharing the unique coffees and narratives of five areas of Brazil with the Australian community. “I founded SAGA in 2020 in order to showcase the different terroirs – the flavours and natural beauty – of Brazil while giving the market access to a range of coffee that was traceable, consistent, and of a high quality,” says Founder Marcelo Brussi. Through green bean trader Minas Hill Coffee, Marcelo has formed close relationships with some of Brazil’s top producers, sourcing their best micro lots and signature crops. With SAGA, Marcelo sees potential to broaden and deepen these partnerships. The five coffees available through SAGA were developed and selected to be perfect components of a blend, with cupping…

When Tony Strickett and Celina Lazarus established First Crop Coffee in 2014, they did so with the intention of giving back to the hardest working, and sometimes least appreciated people in the coffee supply chain. “Something we really wanted to build into First Crop is the idea of helping farmers and farming communities,” Tony says. “People in coffee use the word sustainability a lot, and for us, sustainability is saying to a community ‘we’re going to buy your coffee this year, next year, and the year after that’. It gives them the confidence their product will be sold, and as a result, they can budget against that, make investments, and the quality naturally improves.” Tony says this model has been really successful for many of the farming communities First Crop works…

Throughout the tragedy and stress of 2020, one thing that can’t be denied is how much our community values coffee – as a beverage, craft, and ritual during what was one of the most challenging years our industry has endured. At Service Sphere, circumstances changed overnight. As the pandemic took hold of our city, many of our food service customers had their work put on hold. Office closures and that of big entertainment complexes, supermarket chains, and cinemas meant our preventative maintenance work was put on pause. Staff that could work from home did and on-road technicians came back into the workshop to help keep up with the growing demand for domestic machine sales and repairs. We’ve been “pivoting” online for years, but this pandemic was the impetus that forced…

“THE WATER USED IN COFFEE IS IMPORTANT.IT IS, AFTER ALL, THE MAIN INGREDIENT. EVEN ONCE IT HAS LEFT THE BOILER, REMAINING CHEMICALS OR MATERIALS CAN CREATE AN UNPLEASANT TASTE OR AROMA. THEY CAN ALSO IMPACT WHAT IS EXTRACTED FROM THE COFFEE GROUNDS.” You might know all about the bean-to-cup journey, but have you thought about how the other pivotal ingredient of any coffee – water – makes its way into the brew? Water may seem pretty straightforward, but there are many steps along the water cycle and plenty of factors that can influence its chemical composition. Let’s start with precipitation. Clouds fill with water until they get too heavy to stay afloat and rain down onto the ground or ocean below. Water that falls on land runs off until it’s…

Most home cooks and aspiring chefs have industry icons they idolise, but for Josh Niland, it was 2003 World Barista Championship winner Paul Bassett. “I used to worship Paul. I’d only ever seen him in magazines like BeanScene, which was literally one of the first magazines I started reading. I used to buy it all the time when I started working in a café at age 14. I’m meticulous for details, so I got really heavily invested in coffee. I was aware of Paul’s coffee skills and his famous milk set. He was a rock star in that sense,” Josh recalls. “It wasn’t until I opened Saint Peter a bit over four years ago that Paul became one of the first people to come to the restaurant. I didn’t even have to look at…

The are many variables that influence the flavour notes and profile of a coffee. Control of these elements – like brewing time, temperature, and water flow – is a big part of why specialty coffee shops have embraced filter brewing. But the time and attention it takes to consistently brew single cups of filter coffee can pose a challenge to the workflow of a café. “If you go to a bar and request an expensive $15 coffee, you know it’s going to take time to brew,” says Joe Chalhoub, General Manager at Barista Group. “From the café side, you want to be as efficient as possible, but that’s not often the case when brewing manually.” Barista Group’s mission is to find and supply products that actually improve and progress the…

There are many threats to the sustainability of coffee production and according to John Russell-Storey, Marketing Manager for CofiCom, farm profitability is the root problem and the solution to supply chain stability. “Coffee growers face fluctuating pressures — from market volatility to pest outbreaks and climate change — and those who aren’t consistently profitable are the most vulnerable,” John says. “When producers see their incomes improve, however, they’re encouraged to improve farm practices, increase productivity, deliver higher quality, and keep farming.” CofiCom is the Australian representative of global coffee supply network Volcafe, which in 2014, undertook a two-year initiative to research and develop a global approach to sustainability while sourcing high-quality coffees. “We drew on the expertise of our field teams, pooling their collective knowledge and experience, to document best-practice…

To Brazil-focused coffee trader Southland Merchants, transparency and traceability are crucial to making a meaningful and sustainable impact at origin. “Coffee is an interesting commodity in how there’s a lack of ownership producers have over the product. Generally, they have little say in where their coffee goes or what’s done with it. That’s not the way we want to trade,” says Andre Selga, Co-owner of Southland Merchants. “If there’s no transparency, it’s really hard for growers to thrive while producing specialty coffee. If you hide information, like the quality of a coffee, the likelihood of them producing the same crop the next year is very low.” Andre and his wife, Nadia Moreira, formed Southland Merchants in 2017, with the goal of not only sharing the great coffee of their native…

For many of us, Christmas is a time for giving, reflection, and sharing what we’re thankful for. Last year may have been difficult for many of us, but I think it’s fair to say we ended it in Australia in a safer and healthier position than many other countries. While I know Christmas has been and gone, I thought I’d still use this chance to share a design that’s fun, festive, and challenging. For this edition’s pattern, I’m proud to share with you my take on the jolly old man in red himself, Santa Claus. Practice it for Christmas in July or perfect your pour for the rest of the year. It’s sure to put a smile on your customer’s dial or invite a confused look of wonder and awe. Either way, let’s give it a go together. Many elements of…

It was heartbreaking when we had to yet again postpone the 2020 Condesa Co Lab Australian Coffee Championships, but the decision left us with the time to plan a 2021 Nationals like never before. With the next World Barista Championship and World Brewers Cup scheduled for Greece in June 2021, we knew we had to leave our competitors with enough time to prepare, so we set ourselves a window of four days over the first two weeks of March. By the time you’re reading this, official dates may have been announced, so check the ASCA website, Facebook, and Instagram for more information. We knew we wouldn’t be able to host the events with the kind of crowd and audience capacity they’d usually attract, so we decided the safest and most…