Veneziano Coffee Roasters has launched its Pinnacle Series, a selection of ultra-premium coffees released alongside a virtual coffee tasting experience open to customers across the globe.
Only 50 packs are available at $40 each. This marks the first time the roaster has made its coffee available for international purchase.
The coffees were intended to be on display at the 2020 Melbourne International Coffee Expo, however with the event postponed due to COVID-19, Veneziano thought how it could still share these coffees at their optimum drinking time.
“With everyone at home and looking for things to do, this is an opportunity for people who are really into coffee or who want to taste something off the charts to have that experience,” Veneziano CEO Craig Dickson says.
“It’s not very often you get to taste coffees of this level as a consumer or even as a coffee professional.”
The Pinnacle Series includes two coffees from the Herrera brothers of Café Granja La Esperanza in Colombia: Cerro Azul Honey Geisha and Las Margaritas Anaerobic Natural Sidra. Veneziano Green Bean Buyer Jack Allisey says both of these coffees scored more than 90 points in cupping, and puts them in the top 1 per cent of coffee produced globally.
“We’ve always enjoyed Granja’s coffees, but hadn’t had the chance to purchase them. Our competition barista Ben Cheong – who came second in the Southern Region – really wanted to work with them, which gave us that opportunity,” Jack says. “And we were keen to source more coffees from them as well.”
Two coffees from Brazilian farm Fazenda California – Honeymoon and Tropical Storm – complete the pack. The farmer behind the coffees, Luiz Saldanha Rodriguez, used his unique cold soul method to process the coffees. Both were selected at a particular maturation level, then cold fermented under water and anaerobically in sealed tanks.
“For Tropical Storm, Luiz added selective yeasts to inoculate that fermentation and manipulate the flavour profile, which you can definitely taste in the final cup. It brings out a silky, lactic mouthfeel and refinement you don’t get elsewhere,” Jack says. “Honeymoon goes through that same fermentation process, but it’s pulped and dried like a honey [processed coffee].
“We’ve been working closely with Luiz for the last four or five years. We visit him once a year if not more, and he travels to us too. Seeing the progression of these coffees and how he’s dialled in that processing technique to achieve the flavour profile has blown us all away.”
These coffees are exclusive to Veneziano, and cost the roaster up to $350 per kilogram. The packs will include 40 grams of each coffee, or approximately two double espressos at 120 millilitres or two pour over brews at 640 millilitres total.
“It combines two of the producers with best practices in selecting, processing, all the way through to storing and processing,” Jack says.
“It’s upper echelon, it’s deliberately processed, and it’s done with an end goal in mind. This is designer coffee to a certain extent.”
Pre-orders for the Pinnacle Series will open from 12pm on 25 May until 5pm 8 June, or until sold out.
All customers will receive a private link to a virtual cupping session led by Jack, Ben Cheong, and Research and Development Consultant and 2013 World Barista Champion Pete Licata. The Pinnacle Series will include recipes and Veneziano is producing accompanying videos, with Jack or Ben discussing the coffee and how to best brew it.
Craig looks forward to sharing more of these special edition coffees in the future.
“We’re always sourcing and tasting these crazy coffees for our competitors. It seems a shame that only we and the judges get to taste it. If we can find a way to enable other people around the world to have these experiences, I think that’s a real positive,” Craig says.
“For us, it’s about getting these coffees out there and giving people the opportunity to taste this stuff which is usually reserved for the world stage.”
To purchase the coffees, visit www.venezianocoffee.com.au/shop
For more information, visit www.venezianocoffee.com.au