How a whisky blender, chocolate maker, and multidisciplinary artist helped Lavazza pinpoint the flavours that light up Australian palates.
Coffee is the lifeblood of Australia: keeping its cities buzzing, surfers pumping, and rural communities connected. But what is it thatmakes coffee here so good and what are the characteristics Australians look for in their morning cup?
These are just a few of the questions the coffee roasters at Lavazza were seeking to answer when they assembled a team of local artists. Part of an 18-month project to develop Mosaic, a new line of distinctly Australian blends for café and restaurants across the country, these artisans were selected for their fine-tuned palates, industry experience, and unbound creativity.
“We had already conducted a lot of our own research, including interviews with premium café customers, mapping the current Australian market, and hosted in-depth sensory tastings with the experts here at Lavazza. Partnering with a group of local artists and artisans was the final piece of the puzzle,” says Nick Ferrara, Lavazza National Training Manager.
“Drawing on their rich experience in their own industries, their in-put was to provide insight and perspective into the local palate. We visited each of them to learn from their approach to Australian tastes and how these philosophies influence their artistry.”
The panel included Carlie Dyer, Master Blender at Starward Whisky, Pana Barbounis, Chocolatier and Founder of Pana Organic, and Daimon Downey, contemporary artist and restaurateur. While whisky, chocolate, and multidisciplinary art might seem like a random assortment of industries, they were carefully chosen for their creative values, focus on taste, crossovers with coffee, and rich history in the Australian hospitality scene.
“There are a lot of correlations between whisky and coffee. My job as a Master Blender requires a lot of sensory skills, I need to be in touch with a wide range of flavours and be able to identify where a whisky fits within a blend to make a harmonious drink,” says Carlie.
“That’s not so different from the process of blending coffees. And the similarities between the methods don’t stop at sensory characters: they extend to the farming and fermentation methods used to create the product.”
When Nick and Lavazza Trainer and Ambassador Peter Dorkota visited Carlie at Starward Whisky’s Melbourne distillery, Carlie says they spent much of their time geeking out over blending processes and bouncing ideas off each other.
“In our style of whisky making, the barrel-aging process is where all the flavour development occurs. I took Nick and Peter through the bond store to show them the different barrel types and we could see
the similarities between this process and roasting coffee to varying degrees to express different flavours,” she says.
For Chocolatier Pana Barbounis, it was also the parallels between his craft and Lavazza’s that inspired him to get involved with the project.
“When Nick and Peter reached out, we started exchanging stories and quickly realised we were talking the same language,” says Pana.
“The processes of roasting cocoa and coffee are very similar. When you start talking about notes and bitterness, characteristics coming through, and using different varieties of beans to develop different flavours, the two crafts have a lot in common.”
Pana also highlights origin as a connection between the two products, with terroir greatly contributing to the flavour and quality of both cocoa and coffee. For Peter and Nick, Pana’s passion about the journey from bean to bar and years of experience in adapting to consumer tastes and trends were invaluable.
Carlie and Pana were invited to Lavazza Australia’s Melbourne headquarters to taste a range of coffees and lend their expert palate to help the team define the three final blends that would form the Mosaic range.
“I’ve got a European background, so in both chocolate and coffee I love bitterness. I’m an espresso drinker and always look for that really great crema,” says Pana.
“Peter and Nick gave us a range of different beans with varying roast levels to try, and we gave our opinions on the best pairings and our preferences. There was a lot of coffee – it was a great afternoon.”
While Pana’s standout was medium- dark blend Retreat, with its bittersweet notes and low acidity, Carlie favoured Ochre.
“I thought it was really well balanced in terms of intensity and delicacy of flavours. It was interesting to explore the other blends too: I usually drink my coffee black, but I thought Retreat matched well with milk. The lightest roast, Tidal, isn’t my usual coffee preference but the flavours were super interesting,” she says.
“It was great to do the tastings alongside Pana as we both had different contributions and enjoy different styles of coffee, which is representative of the Australian population that has unique preferences. The team at Lavazza really hit the mark catering to a wide range of tastes.”
Artist Daimon Downey was also invited to Lavazza to sample the blends, giving his feedback from years as a restaurateur but also to brew inspiration for Mosaic’s packaging for which he was creating the artwork.
“While the other artists were there to define the coffee, I was there to capture Australia in the artwork. Coffee is such a huge part of Australian culture,” says Daimon.
His brief was to create artwork for the three blends, each one capturing a different aspect of Australian culture.
“I work a lot in collage and this lends itself well to the style of mosaic, in which parts are used to make up a whole. The project wasn’t so far out of my comfort zone so I could have a lot of fun with it,” he says.
“The brief was quite loose. The names of the blends [Tidal, Ochre, and Retreat] had been chosen by the team at Lavazza, and each of them naturally lent themselves to a colour pathway.”
Working with paper, Daimon says his process starts with cutting shapes and then layering them in different patterns.
“Realistically, when working in collage you could keep moving things around forever, so you have to give yourself a time limit and start sticking things down,” he says.
“It was an amazing project to work on and it’s been great to see the reaction to the launch go down so well.”
All three artists came together at the start of September for the launch of the Mosaic range, which took place at Starward Whisky’s distillery in Port Melbourne. As part of the event, café owners, industry movers and shakers, and media got the chance to taste the blends and hear from the artisans about their creative process.
“It was an honour to host the packed-out event at Starward,” says Carlie.
“I’ve loved being involved in this project. It’s been so cool to get an insight into the coffee blending process in such a technical way and I can’t wait to see how the blends go down with coffee drinkers across Australia.”
For more information, visit mosaiclavazza.com.au
This article appears in the October/November 2024 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.