Tabla de contenidos para February 2022 en BeanScene

Covershoot location: Genovese Coffee House 1/3 Lawrence St, Alexandria NSW 2015 Product focus: Tone brewer Distributor: Barista Group E14 and E15, 20 Picrite Cl, Pemulwuy, NSW 2145 www.baristagroup.com.au For the first time in a year, BeanScene travelled to Sydney on what was a humid, rainy, La Niña summer day. On our way from the airport, we stopped at the newly opened Genovese Coffee House, and immediately were in awe of the beauty before us. In each direction was something new to observe: the Brambati roaster in front of the door entrance, the Wega machine on the tiled cupping bench, authentic Italian marble coffee bar, and warm orange tones throughout, exuding strong 1970s vibes. To one end of the coffee bar stood a slim, striking figure known as the Tone brewer.…

Enrico Bracesco describes the past year as “a challenging and thrilling adventure”. In many ways, the newly appointed General Manager of Gruppo Cimbali says the year of reflection and preparation is just what the company needed to strengthen the value proposition of its four brands – Slayer, Cimbali, Faema and Casadio. “We reflected upon who we are, what we have been doing well, what we have been missing, and how to project new trajectories and capture new trends,” Enrico says. Now, with a solid investment platform for each brand in distinctive markets, Gruppo Cimbali is ready to diversify its product range and services, and open its first Australian subsidiary from Q1 2022. “The reason why we’re investing in the Asia Pacific, starting with the opening of our Singapore subsidiary in…

The eastern states may be more famous for their booming coffee cultures, but that same quality can be found across Australia. At Espresso Works, we provide maintenance and sales of the finest coffee machines and associated products to coffee shops across Western Australia. We work with some of the biggest brands in coffee, including XLVI, Wega, Rocket, SAB, Slayer, La Marzocco, ECM, Mazzer and Fiorenzato just to name a few. Over in the west we have our own unique challenges to the rest of Australia, water quality being one of them. But relationships with partners like BRITA help us overcome them. Tap water in Western Australia comes from a variety of different sources, including desalination plants and above ground dams. Simple groundwater also contains an abundance of minerals – including…

Espresso recipes are a guide to producing consistent coffees in your café. Much like cooking or baking, having a recipe to go by helps set the variables to achieve the desired outcome every time. Often, your coffee roaster will provide you the recipe or brew guide to suit the coffee. While this is a great starting point, further adjustments may be required due to variations in equipment on hand, style of coffee you serve, customer-base, and even the location of your café. Having the knowledge and confidence to adjust your espresso recipe is key to getting the best out of your coffee and not wasting precious grounds in the process. Today, we’ll look at how to create your own espresso recipe. But first, here are a few things to consider…

Babin Gurung is the New South Wales Barista Trainer of Suntory Coffee Australia. 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. Matthew Lewin is the 2019 ASCA Vitasoy Barista Champion, and Vitasoy ambassador and coffee consultant. Matthew has worked in the coffee industry for the past 10 years, honing his barista skills and coffee knowledge. He won the 2018 Fushan Cup Barista Championship in China. Matthew is currently the…

After the signing of the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement, Vittoria Coffee is planning further expansions in the United Kingdom. The company says the UK has always been high on its expansion list, with Vittoria supplying the Australian-UK expatriate market and high-end hotels and cafés since the company began in 1947. Vittoria Coffee Managing Director and third-generation coffee maker, Rolando Schirato, is keen to pounce on the growing demand for an Australian brew. “It’s safe to say Australian coffee is among the best in the world, and has been for some time,” Rolando says. Vittoria Coffee’s expansion plans include having a flagship showroom, which, according to the company, will create a unique Vittoria coffee experience. It is also planning to lock in the right ambassador to grow its brand. Rolando says…

Experienced campers take an extra pair of socks and a pocketknife when they travel, but for Ben Milbourne and his father, it was always Nestlé Coffee & Milk. “The first coffee I ever remember having was out of a tube. It was the early 90s and I was just six years old. My dad introduced me to this sweet Vietnamese-like iced coffee with lots of sugar that we warmed over the fire when we were out camping or fishing. For a kid, it was phenomenal. Dad loved it, so I loved it too,” Ben tells BeanScene. His coffee choices have matured over the years, but Ben says if he’s ever out fishing or camping with his own kids, there’s no hesitation that the tube of Nestlé comes with them. “It…

If choice is in the hands of consumers, then it’s up to cafés to supply the variety. This notion has been adopted for coffee menus, dairy and dairy alternative options, and now specialty syrups and powdered drinks. Urban Barista first launched its specialty range of power lattes in 2018 to offer cafés ready-to-serve artisanal products, and now the Australian manufacturer is excited to unveil its new-look range for 2022. “The Urban Barista range was originally developed to play on the trend of healthy café options, largely driven by consumers as they sought out beverages for new flavour and colour experiences, and with health benefits beyond the caffeine kick, like turmeric, beetroot and matcha,” says Urban Barista Brand Manager Nathan Alfrey. “We feel the time is right to relaunch the range…

The MilkLab Barista Series has become a unique way to unite the upcoming barista community and learn from influential industry figures. The first series event ‘From Bean to Cup: The Coffee Bean Journey’ took place in April 2021 at Three Pence Roasters in Sydney. The second instalment, ‘Mastering the variables affecting espresso quality’, took place in May at the Coffee Commune in Brisbane with Certified World Brewers Cup and World Coffee Roasters Championship Judge Danny Andrade. The third event on 6 December, however, was an open invitation to all. At Mecca Coffee in Sydney, registered baristas viewed the livestream of a panel discussion on the evolution of Australia’s booming coffee culture, preceded by an in-person workshop on ‘top tips for competing in coffee competitions’, led by Ona Coffee Account Manager…

I’ve really enjoyed taking a deep dive into the world of plant-based milks in the past few columns and hope you’ve learnt something new along the way. Now that we’ve covered the ‘theory’ behind plant-based milks, this time around we’ll get straight to the practical things you’ll need to know when working on the coffee bar. Here are my top tips & tricks to help you master dairy alternatives in your café. 1. Have the right options available. More and more customers are becoming plant-based milk drinkers, but people often have different tastes and preferences. There are many options on the market and having too many can make service difficult to manage. If you have the ‘big three’ of oat, almond, and soy on your roster, alongside dairy and light/skim…

A previous article of ours had front footed the situation of explaining what goes into each cup of coffee. As we all know, there are hidden factors which are our customers, some of whom are predominately driven by price, don’t want to pay for. Educating the public has been relatively easy, probably even romantic for the New Zealand wine and craft beer industry but drawing comparisons with coffee, our daily luxury, has been slightly harder as the consuming public are reactive to any price fluctuations. We must remember that 70 per cent of the New Zealand public drink instant as their go-to morning beverage. So how do we tell and sell them the story on specialty coffee? The uncertainties of COVID-19 have been a challenge for us all, emotionally, mentally…

RIDING THE COVID WAVE Normally at the beginning of a new year, social media platforms are filled with ‘year in review’ pictorials and ‘new year, new me’ affirmations. Instead, I saw post after post from cafés asking patrons to be patient as they worked through a shortage of staff to accommodate holiday makers, and in some instances, notices of early or temporary closures. In just a matter of hours, cafés went from being fully operational to having staff test positive to COVID, some in isolation after becoming a close contact, or simply awaiting a PCR test result. In this ever-changing COVID landscape, staff shortages is yet another hurdle for businesses to overcome. Just when hospitality venues thought the worst was over, with restrictions eased and capacity densities removed over the…

BARISTA COLD BREW SOFT SERVE With Summer here, your favourite drink just got a lot more exciting with Cold Brew Coffee soft serve designed to give customers their morning kick with the enjoyment of a soft serve product. Barista Technology has partnered with Passport Specialty Coffee in Brisbane to produce a 90-plus coffee to produce a cold brew soft serve experience like no other. Designed and tested by baristas and coffee roasters, the blend can be mixed with almond milk or any plant based alternative milk. Using Passport Specialty Coffee’s Departure Blend concentrate and Alternative Dairy Co barista almond milk creates flavours of creamy almond nougat, chocolate, and hints of berry and vanilla with a creamy texture. Delivering the perfectly textured soft serve are the Brullen machines to produce an…

With every innovative product that Barista Group imports to Australia, General Manager Joe Chalhoub asks one simple question, ‘would I use it in my own café?’ “Our focus is on providing equipment that is engineered with precision, improves workflow, and ultimately saves precious time,” Joe says. “It all comes down to workflow efficiency. Every product we bring in improves the way baristas work or increases productivity in the café. If I can’t see how a piece of equipment would do that, then I wouldn’t use it in a café of my own and wouldn’t expect others to either.” While Joe has more than two decades of experience in coffee roasting, Barista Group has a much shorter legacy, celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2022. “I started Socratic Coffee as a hobby…

The old adage goes ‘the customer is always right’ but most people in the service industry will tell you that’s often not the case. Following two years of lockdowns, restrictions, and mandates, cafés are trying to get back in the swing of things, but many are facing another problem: customer aggression. Working in the foodservice industry, customer aggression is something you expect to sometimes deal with. However, it seems that COVID-19 has escalated the number and seriousness of incidents that café workers are experiencing. We’ve been lucky at Wolff Coffee Roasters to have not seen too many instances of customer aggression over COVID-19, but speaking with many other business owners, it’s become clear it’s a growing problem. Despite it never being acceptable behaviour, there may be a few reasons for…

Like a phoenix rises from the ashes, I think 2022 will be a year of hope and revival for our special coffee community. Lockdowns are – hopefully – in the past and we can get back to business, serving amazing coffee to the people. For this edition, I chose to highlight my phoenix design, one of my first latte art patterns that has gone through many lives and iterations over the years. This pattern is a good turning point in your latte art journey, taking the skills you’ve built in the café up to the next level to create something more detailed and complex. The beauty of this pattern, aside from its aesthetics, is that it’s produced using the same simply techniques you’d use for beginner latte art designs like…

CALEB CHA – HUMBLE TIGERS COFFEE ROASTERS Caleb Cha, 2015 World Latte Art Champion, World Coffee Events Certified Visual Judge and CEO of Tigerous Espresso specialty café in Melbourne, has added the title of “roaster” to his resume. Caleb has launched his own Humble Tigers Coffee Roasters brand, which he says is strongly influenced by Zest Coffee and Acoffee’s roasting style – two brands he has learned a lot from over the years. “Roasting coffee always has been my ultimate goal for a better understanding about coffee. I really wanted to experience the complete seed to cup process as a coffee professional and this career move is a step forward in that direction,” Caleb says. Caleb has since gained retain accounts and was invited to Korea to celebrate the 60th…