Overcoming data free observations on Australia’s coffee production was a big hurdle in the early days.
Research in the subtropics during the 1980s and 1990s was challenged by such beliefs that coffee “must have shade to produce high quality” that “hand-picked coffee is better quality than machine harvested coffee”, or that “high altitude is required to grow the best quality coffee”. Read more
Even with the countless preparation and practice hours required to compete at world level, not every competitor will win. With the financial and mental investment high, what happens when the competition doesn’t go to plan? Stepping onto the stage with the backing of sponsors, family, friends, employers, colleagues, and customers is daunting, even more so on the world stage. With the right mindset, competitions can be richly rewarding, regardless of the result.
With intuitive skills and an impressive coaching ability, Masako Yamamoto coached and travelled with 2017 and 2018 New Zealand Latte Art Champion Leo Li to the World Championships in Brazil.
Masako says her background as a barista trainer gives her the invaluable skill to identify a student or staff’s strengths and weaknesses, and help bring them out. Read more
While working in Hong Kong for a Chinese start-up named Holly Brown, Australian coffee professional Scottie Callaghan noticed a lack of cafés in the area offering the personalised service he was familiar with.
“There was a gap in the market where there was no café offering an Australian espresso bar experience: a friendly barista, ready and prepared to make you a good cup of coffee and do so efficiently, and remember your name – all the little customer service things that are expected in Australia,” Scottie tells BeanScene. Read more
Ordermentum, the brainchild of Adam Theobold, Founder of Beat the Q (now known as Hey You), and former Toby’s Estate Managing Director Andrew Low, is helping Australia’s food and beverage industry trade smarter. The B2B web-based ordering and payments platform streamlines a café’s ordering process, saving time and money for both the retailer and the supplier.
When Adam kept hearing from café owners about a need for a platform that took the pain out of ordering and payments, he jumped at the chance to develop the solution. Read more
When Jeremy Sargeant walked along Kuta beach in the popular holiday destination of Bali in the early 1990s, he recalls swimming in the pristine water and walking along the beach with nothing but sand between his toes.
Upon returning to the idyllic spot in 2016, he describes a completely different scenario.
“I couldn’t swim in the ocean and I couldn’t walk along the beach because of the volume of rubbish,” he says. “There were graders going up and down the beach all day long pushing rubbish into huge piles for collecting, and then dumping the rubbish into bushland. By the time the beach was cleared, the tide would bring in a fresh collection of rubbish.”
With 28 years of hospitality experience between them, the Square One Coffee Roasters team of two, Head Roaster Elika Rowell and two-time Southern Region Cup Tasters Champion Tom Bomford, aims to support burgeoning small businesses in any way they can.
“We want to see [our wholesale customers] not only succeed in serving delicious coffee, but also make sure their cafés are financially sustainable,” Elika says.
Most visitors to Fine Foods Australia in September expected to be dazzled by the latest developments in the food and beverage industries. Many knew they’d discover new flavours, creative recipes, and innovative equipment. What some visitors, baristas in particular, did not expect to find, however, was soy and almond milk that performed as well in coffee as traditional dairy milk.
Crafted at Alternative Dairy Co’s Berkeley Vale factory on the New South Wales Central Coast, the company’s almond and soy milks have been specially designed for coffee. The Australian owned company uses more than 90 per cent Australian ingredients to produce its dairy-free products.
One of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of Australia’s coffee producing community was the invention of the mechanical harvester. The first successful coffee harvesting machine was built in Brazil in 1979. It was a game changer. It helped remove the biggest impediment to the development of the Australian coffee industry – our high labour costs.
The New Zealand Specialty Coffee Guild (NZSCG) has concentrated on building community, education, and expanding the committee by adding new members and holding fun, exciting events around the country.
With Sam Low leaving the fold to venture to Canada on the great Kiwi tradition of the “overseas experience”, we opted to add an additional three new Guild committee members into our team.
Another year of Regional Championships have been run and won. In my first column as ASCA President, I’m pleased to report that the standard of Australian competition grows ever higher, as evidenced by the outstanding routines showcased by baristas around the country these past few months.
I’m especially proud of our 2018 ASCA Australian Champions who competed at the World Championships in Brazil.