Five Senses Coffee Blog

Good coffee

I’ve been into coffee now for a quarter of my life – I know there are a lot of you that read this blog that have been working with coffee for a whole lot longer.

Had I crystal ball gazed 10 years ago I might have predicted that at about this moment in time I would have been totally bored with anything and everything to do with coffee and would have moved on to the next thing. I am a bit of a “phaseologist” (yep – i did invent that word) meaning that it normally doesn’t take me long to lose interest in something before I move on to something new, a new phase. My shed is the best record keeper my of discarded interests – it is littered with fishing gear, golf clubs, snorkling gear and a bunch of other things I’ve forgotten about over the years.

My interest in coffee however – contrary to my own personal expectations – has not waned. Infact my interest if anything, has grown and my appetite to learn more about coffee is greater than ever before. The coffee industry all to often overstates it’s expertise in different area’s of coffee which has had the effect of giving the exagerated impression that a massive body of knowledge about coffee, easily accessible to everyone, exists – out there – somewhere. I’m absolutely certain that there is a massive amount of IP relating to different aspects of coffee but finding out exactly what you need is sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack and then, once you do find it you often end up having to make judgement calls on the credibilty of the information and whether or not the gleanings can be applied directly to something you are trying to get your head around. Ironically, I think that it’s this constant frustration that keeps my interest in coffee alive.

That’s why I loved the 2010 SCAA. I think that this conference – more so than the previous ones I’ve been to, heralded the dawn of a new era of a new way of thinking about coffee – an era where manufacturers are putting emphasis on providing tools to aid our learning about coffee rather than making equipment that makes the presumption that they (the manufacturers) know everything. Green bean suppliers are also on board and are promoting transparency and traceability back to the grower. It’s like a broad base acknowledgement that the barista and roaster need to be able to explore and that they have the desire to share and contribute to the body of knowledge.

Equipment like the Uber Boiler, the new generation Synesso and the Extract MoJo all put control back into the hands of the people most interested in exploring coffee and green bean hunters/suppliers (like Atlas coffee) are trying to bridge the gap between growers, roasters and baristas. I don’t think that I’ve been as excited about the future of coffee for a long time.

That’s my rant.

Cupping at Atlas - Seattle

Ben ready to cup at Atlas - Seattle

Jeremy pulling first shots of Nekisse on next generation Synesso

Better view of the next generation Synesso

Jeremy from Synesso still looking composed after pulling shots all day.