Perth for Comp-time blending

With the South Australian Barista competition coming up again (12th and 13th or September at the Royal Adelaide Show) it has proved to be the perfect time to head back to my favorite capitol city in Australia to team up with the crew from Five Senses and nut out a blend.
So after a couple of decent cups of coffee at tiger tiger and velvet it was off to the cupping lab for some lengthy tasting of god knows how many coffees. I'll keep it brief, but basically at the moment the blend is using two exciting direct trade coffees, one from PNG and the other from some very excited farmers in sumatra. The next couple of weeks we'll be playing around with the roast profiles the the optimal aging of the beans to present them to the judges. And I may just squeeze a little Rwandan coffee into the mix but we'll just have to wait and see.

Will defintely keep you updated as things progress =D

The new Pullman barista

Every now and again a new toy comes on the market for all us coffee heads to tinker around with. Some are useless little gadgets, some are basically something old with a few new features, some are genuine improvements and sometimes, just sometimes something new comes out that actually has some worth. This is definitely one of those toys that really does hold some worth.
In the lead up to the last Australian Barista competition I had the opportunity to trial and test the prototype of this tamp and offer some feedback to the creator, Greg Pullman. What has followed is numerous modifications and new models each just a little bit different from the last. Culminating in the final, commercially designed, Pullman Barista.
This, in my opinion is truly the best commercial tamper on the market today. It's makeup gives the tamp a really natural feel, and really feels like and extension of your arm while tamping. Amongst it's key features is
#1: the workmanship and quality of tools and materials used. This thing really is built to take the punishment of a 100+kg p/wk cafe and last. And with seven separate parts to this little unit, should something happen, replacing the damaged or lost piece is simple and relatively inexpensive.
#2: Being centrally weighted, and with the guide of the true tamp rings, it makes it really easy in high volume to to ensure a flat, even dose and tamp. (I should also note that for those who prefer a bottom heavy tamper, acetol or wooden handles are available instead of the anodized aluminum)
#3: There is a soft, cushiony rubber thing that your fingers rest on. And while at first I was worried about this potentially pinching your skin during constant use, after working with the tamp in very high volume, I have found it to be a very comfortable addition to the tamp, which makes it that much more appealing to pick up and tamp another shot in.
#4: Did I mention that this unit can really take a beating. I "accidentally" dropped this tamp a number of times and it just keeps on bouncing back ready to take another pounding.
#5: Individual spacers allow you to customise the tamp to your individual hand size/tamping method. Those that like to really get behind the tamp and put their shoulder into it will love using the smallest spacer, or removing the spacers altogether. While those with large hands, or those that like the "radical pro" approach to tamping will appreciate the larger spacing. Personally the mid sized works perfect for me.
Final thoughts: I absolutely love using this tamp and really can't think of any improvements or negative points to say about it. I think the price is around $109 but I can't quite remember so check the website or your local dealer.
Anyone else used this please feel free to post a comment.

Trends in Melbournes Top 5 Coffee Haunts

For those of you who are not yet aware, Crema Magazine has just released their picks of Melbournes Top 5 Cafe's (judged solely on the quality of the coffee, not things like ambiance, food etc.).

The list reads as follows:

1. Brother Baba Budan
2. Liar Liar
3. Maling Room
4. 7 Grams
5. First Pour

All of these cafe's are superb and if you haven't been, are well worth checking out!!  But I thought I'd post a few things I noticed between the five.
 
*This one's obviouse but still, top 2 cafes both using a Clover

*Top 3 cafe's all use a synesso espresso machine (with both the others using a LMZ Fb80)

*A good spread of roasters with only Veneziano being represented twice (7grams and first pour)

*A good mix of roaster (machinery) talent, with renagades used for BBB and Liar Liar, a Probat for the Maling room, and a wierd custom job that was build for and later adapted by Peter wolf roasting for 7grams and first pour

*Another interesting thing (for me anyway) was that there was no trend in terms of food service. Some of the cafe's in the top 5 do little or on food, while others have fairly in depth menu's and in fact serve some of the best breakfast in Melb (IMO).
I know food was not a pre-requisite, I only mention this as it's always going to be harder to manage a dedicated coffee bar and a dedicated kitchen, than just a dedicated coffee bar

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Blazin' to a ghetto near ya'alll - now this is badass!

www.ethoscoffeecar.com

Dare you to send back yo' s'pro for being too short from deez bad azz g's. Keepin' it gangsta all da wheeey! Fo shiz aiiight!

And just in case you loved that background tune so much, here are da boyz in all their glory!

What to do with bags of leftover coffee husks?

Well apparantly if you live in south australia the thing to do is roll em up and smoke them.
FIRST OFF: I DO NOT CONDONE OR ENCOURAGE THIS IN ANY WAY, AS IT MAY LEAD TO SEVERE HEALTH ISSUES (Who knows?!)
Anyhow, a rather annoying by product of roasted coffee is the amount of coffee husks that split off from the bean (they're the yellowish flakes in the photo above), and how these then need to be collected from around the drum and discarded. Without roasting with the aid of an afterburner, there can be quite an amount of this stuff to be getting rid of on a weekly basis.
On a sunny morning's roasting (at a coffee roaster who, for now at least, shal remain nameless) a small particle of coffee husk lodged itself against a heating element and a perculier smell gave way.
Now i'm not sure what prompted this (probably a curious persona and living in SA was enough), but the nameless roaster felt the need to roll up some husks into a cigarette and smoke them.
What's followed is a small following of folks who are really enjoy this "disgusting habit". And so with the absence of nicotein and the other 52 chemicals added to regular cigarettes (of which i'd never personally touch) i thought i'd give it a shot.
The flavour is quite clean and very smooth. Mildly earthy, and actually (dare i say) quite enjoyable. Around 2 mins later you're met with a slight head buzz, not unlike the kind of head buzz after drinking a little bit too much coffee, which fades soon after.
While this is not something i'd do again, it was certainly an interesting experience all the same.
It does make you wonder though what was going through the persons mine who first lit fire to tobacco and put that in his mouth.