Five Senses Coffee Blog

HOST Trade show in Milan

HOST 2011 has come and gone. It was, as expected, a massive show. This is the 4th HOST show I’ve been to in a row and what I’ve started to realise is how this show has become a great broad snap shot of what the coffee industry looks like globally every two years. It almost acts like a time lapse photo being taken every two years of the coffee industry and every photo being a record of who was doing what, of people, of companies and most importantly of coffee trends.

This year roasting machine manufacturers were hardly represented in comparison to years gone by. Probat were present but only presented their shop roasting equipment. Typically there were trillions of European roasting companies on the floor and an equal number of low end espresso machine manufacturers — not much has changed here.

Things of interest. Call them trends if you will.

Pods are out. Capsules are in. (Don’t worry all you lovers of coffee — this doesn’t matter to you)

Domestic espresso machine manufacturers seems to have doubled — sorry all you home users of specialty coffee, the machines being made are basically capsule dispensing machines. Even traditional domestic espresso machine manufacturers are now pimping their existing lines to be able to brew capsules.

On top of this there were booth after booth of manufacturers selling equipment to roasters that enabled them to pack their coffee into, you guessed it — capsules.

Capsule rant done.

What was exciting was that for the first time at HOST the specialty coffee world appeared better represented in comparison with previous years. The epicenter for activity in the specialty coffee world was at the Marco (Uber project) booth and it was probably the busiest booth consistently throughout the show per square meter — certainly the noisiest and most fun. The booth consisted of a few brew benches, the Marco hot water delivery systems and the Baratza and Uber Grinders.

The activity went off the dial when the booth played host to the World Aeropress Championship. Brewed coffee is well and truly here and is well supported by the people who have become synonymous with espresso. Competitors included WBC champs James Hoffman, Gwilym Davies, Irish Barista champ Colin Harmon, UK champ John Gordan and a whole host of others who highly active in the specialty coffee world. We tweeted the action so feel free to trawl back through our tweets to get a feel for what was happening.

The other thing worth mentioning was notable efforts by some of in specialty industry to explore profiling. We went along to hear the results of some testing by a group that included James Hoffman, Tim Wendelboe and Tim Varney. The stuff they presented was by no means conclusive but there were definite signs that with further work in the area correlations between cup taste and pressure profile stages would become pretty obvious. One thing that has become apparent is the link between the length of pre-infusion and the flow rate during the next stages of the shot. Also, traditional understandings of shot time go out the window with a pressure profiled shot — this is consistent with my own experience thus far.

Now, off to the next part of the trip…

To infinity and beyond

I’m aware that this blog post title and the photo appear pretty random but let me explain. Brad and I have just commenced a journey which includes the HOST trade show in Milan followed by lots of visits to like – minded roasteries to share knowledge and hopefully learn new things. The pic shows Brad standing on the cliff at the most south western corner of Europe looking hard into the distance. When I took the picture I was thinking that I might use it for a post that said something like “we travel to the corners of the planet to bring you all the best in coffee and stuff”. After a milli second of thinking about it I realized that this would take corny to a new level so that idea was shelved.

All I want you to know is that over the next few weeks we will be trying to learn as much as we can from others that will help as make our coffee and the delivery of it as a fresh roasted product to you even better

Against the odds.

We’re now into day 4. The first 2 days were spent in Huila meeting with farmers and millers – the most notable being the growers from Monserrate.

Yesterday (our third day) we visited a farmer “just out of Bogota” roughly translated as “four and a half hours out of Bogota by bus until it could go no further and then by Jeep”.

I have to admit I was tired – my heart wasn’t in it and spending another long day on the road wasn’t exactly what I felt like doing. Over the previous two days (starting at 4.00am on the Monday and finishing at midnight on Tuesday) we had probably spent about 18 hours in total on the move in either bumpy buses, jolting dusty jeeps or planes – I was over it.

So, back to yesterday….

Our journey started early again with usual battle through traffic to get out of Bogota. Once out into the countryside things became a little saner, some of my travelling buddies slept, some read and others discussed and debated the finer points of the coffee world. (Notable absence of reference to crazy drivers that made us think that we were all going to die).

We travelled for a few hours before rendezvousing at a roadside kiosk with the farmer whose farm we were going to visit. Obviously we needed directions – hmmm, road not on the map maybe? With instructions to follow the farmer off we went.

It didn’t take long for the road to take the form of a goat track as it wound further and higher into the mountains. Our bus proved not to be the goat that it needed to be to get us to the farm. The driver eventually stopped and refused to go any further. After a bit of head scratching we worked out that we could all fit into (or more accurately – into and onto) the farmers 4WD and continue with the rest of the trip.

There we were, 7 people in the vehicle and 4 people hanging onto the outside of the car for dear life – bumping along track. You’d think that given how we’d felt at the start of the days trip we’d have all just wanted to turn around and go back to the hotel.

But not so – things had changed. We had become aware that we were in a very peculiar place. Not only were we confronted with a vista of breathtaking beauty but we also realised that we were in the presence of an equally intriguing farmer. Her name: Juanita Sinistera from a farm she calls La Fragua.

Let me tell you about the farm.

Firstly, I’m not even going to begin to try and describe the spectacular landscape of close and distant mountain peaks, plunging valleys and lush diverse vegetation – You’ll just have to believe me or I’ll have to leave it to the photos to paint the picture as I’m not nearly a clever enough wordsmith to do it justice.

The farm was started by her Great (x many) Grandfather five generations ago sometime in the 1800′s and has been worked on ever since – almost – I’ll get to that later. The farm still uses the steam driven equipment that was first commissioned about 150 years ago. The place is literally a working museum with its original homestead, stables and processing plant still intact and still in use.

Upon arrival at the farm Juanita starts to leads us towards the veranda for some refreshments. As she walks us towards the house past the mill she animatedly and with great enthusiasm tries with her best broken English to give us a sense of the farms history. She’s hilarious. Everyone’s demeanour is beginning to become infected by her effervescence. It wasn’t long before we collectively started to feel a sense of connection to the farm and in particular this lady. As we walked through the homestead she pauses to show us the photos of her family hung on the whitewashed wall in the main entry. She starts talking us through the linage from oldest to most current – each photo representing a generation and each one with a story. She finally gets to the most current photo on her wall. It’s a photo of herself, her husband and her two daughters posing on horseback somewhere on the farm. Gauging by the age of her children in the pictures (they are early teens now) I’m guessing the photo was about 3 years old. Unlike the rest of the photos where she wasn’t short of words she hesitated, waved her hand over the photo and then spun away quickly, leading us through to the back where some fresh juice and snacks awaited.

After soaking up the view and some refreshments the farm tour began – on horseback – as you do. Juanita elaborated on the early history of the farm. There was no road to the farm until the late fifties. Up till then then everything was carried in on horseback. Tucked uncomfortably in the saddle while the horse picked its path up and down the slopes through the coffee it was very easy to imagine what it would have been like for the last 150 years. Sitting up on that horse was an experience that would have been largely identical for those that had worked the slopes since the farms inception.

Juanita is a dynamo, though despite being part of such a long tradition of coffee farmers, it appears that she lacks expertise. Little things give it away – like questions she asks Sebastian (our exporter and host) about her varietals and also, the coffee trees and the plots of coffee scattered across the valley, to be honest, look like they need a bit more work. Hmmm, things weren’t really adding up and I’m even more intrigued.

Our lack of tolerance to saddle soreness coincided perfectly with arriving back at the stables where the mill tour begun. The pickers had just assembled after a day’s work and were just getting ready to have their picks weighed. We had the privilege of watching the process from go to whoa and this is where I started to get my first insight into what was going on. As each individual farmer dumped their picks into the silo Juanita urged us to clap and cheer according to each farmer’s quality of pick. Sebastian explained that they had started working with Juanita a few years ago after she approached them for help and the first thing they did was address the issues of pickers picking unripe and overripe fruit. They (Racafe) had come to the farm and together with Juanita, brewed coffee with the pickers with only ripe cherries and then with over and under ripe fruit to get the pickers to understand what influence they had on cup quality. This was the first time Sebastian had seen an example of the picking post their input and he was mighty happy – and Juanita was whipping us up into a cheering frenzy, like a cheerleader at a sporting event. I don’t think that I’ve ever had as much fun watching the cherries being dumped into a silo – ever! It must have been awesomely gratifying for Juanita and Sebastian to see an obvious shift towards quality on account of their technical input and Juanita’s commitment and enthusiasm. The beaming faces of the pickers – priceless.

Next, mechanical washing. Last year at the recommendation of Sebastian’s team at Racafe, Juanita bought and commissioned a mechanical washing mill. Unlike some of the other farms we saw, hers was spotless. There was no doubt that this lady was desperate to take things to the next level. So clean was her processing, it’s the first time that I’ve actually felt that I wanted to taste the mucilage slurry coming off the parchment. So I did and it was sweet.

This commitment to quality continued right through the milling process. It wasn’t perfect at every stage but we were left with the impression that with the right support this amazing woman would get there.

As the day wound to an end, dinner was set out for us on the veranda overlooking the sun setting behind the mountains. It was a perfectly beautiful moment in time. As we ate, Juanita started to share her story and things became clearer.

About ten to twelve years ago, Colombia was gripped in fear. The government had lost control of law and order outside of the cities so nobody travelled. No one left the city, no one went out at night. The farm was abandoned and no one was able to return safely for eight years. About five years ago Juanita’s husband started to become more defiant and frustrated by the stranglehold the guerrillas had on his country and decided that he needed to try and get the farm back into order so despite the danger (which fortunately was diminishing) he and Juanita started to make intermittent trips back to La Fragua to get things rolling. She explains, with tears welling up in her eyes that it was around about this time (about three years ago) her husband Ahlandro was diagnosed with a brain tumour and passed away. Juanita’s reaction to the photo on the wall suddenly made sense – as did all of the other things that just didn’t appear right.

For the last three years Juanita, a widowed mother of two has single handedly continued the painstaking process of returning the farm to its original glory and then beyond. She describes the months it took using machetes and plenty of sweat and tears to uncover the coffee trees which were completely overrun by weeds. Hearing this makes me think that this farm is looking pretty good – I’m seeing it in a totally new light. A community now exists at La Fragua. Despite the odds, it’s a community made viable by the relentless spirit of a lady who has taken on the responsibility to rejuvenate it and give it a future.

And she’s using coffee to do it.

I’ll leave you to ponder this over your next brew.

An agent of change

So I’m sitting here in a mini bus at the start of another 12 hours exploring some coffee farms closer in to Bogota. We’ve already done two days in the Huila Department. They were also long days. We left the hotel at 4am on Monday and got back to our hotel on Tuesday night at about 10.30pm. Needless to say, I have so much I want to share (both stories and photos) but have had so little time to share it.

Our focus of the last couple of days has been on visiting farmers that we already have an existing relationship with. Today, tomorrow and the next day will be spent exploring other areas of Colombia, cupping and assessing viability of supply for later down the track.

It’s been really exciting – we’ve cupped some outstanding coffee and seen the effort that some farmers are going to in order to present specialty grade coffee. For about ten years the Colombian Coffee Federation has had a policy that has effectively discouraged farmers from focusing on producing coffee with unique character in an effort to normalise the flavour profile coming out of Colombia. The Federation has had a bit of a change of heart in recent times and now, with the influx of buyers like us committing to buy excellent coffee that reflects regional character – and pay a good price for it – growers are starting to step up and put in the extra effort to produce increasingly better coffee. To me it is exactly this that makes what we do really exciting. Paying higher prices for coffee has a noticeable impact on local village economies. Over the last six years the village of Monseratte has epitomised this perfectly. Even since my last visit I’ve noticed many small upgrades to people houses – new rooves, fresh paint and more glass in windows. Monserrate only started growing coffee ten years ago. They used to grow coca (what they use to make cocaine). A guy called Don Gabrielle recognised the failings of this crop in terms of it’s negative impact on their community and persuaded over 100 farmers to pull up the coca and plant coffee. Producing coffee is very labour intensive but the upside to this is that the community suddenly found themselves very busy being productive. The psychological landscape in the community almost changed overnight. From living with fear and anxiety and dealing with the pressure of meeting quotas from a less than savoury industry they essentially moved into an industry where they became part of a legitimate traded global commodity.

Now Monserrate is well on its way to being a viable wealth producing community.

There is real sense of pride within the whole community about what they have achieved.

The atmosphere is upbeat. It’s a great place to support and an even nicer place to visit.

WBC 2011 and Colombian coffee expo

I’m now in a head space where I can reflect on some of the finer nuances of this great event – the World Barista Championship. This event brings nearly every coffee legend into one space and generates a vibe that is rarely repeated at any other coffee event throughout the year. The host country changes every year providing maximum opportunity for people across the globe to catch the atmosphere and be a physical part of it. Ordinarily the competition is also part of a bigger show – and this year it’s part of the big Colombian Coffee Expo which unlike many other coffee events in the western world is far more producer focused as opposed to end-consumer focused. The Colombians coffee industry have pulled out all stops to ensure that this event showcases their coffee of which they are so proud.

This year we feel like we are making a real contribution to the event – both the WBC competition and the show itself.

Our own Ben (Espresso Ranger Bicknell) has continued to become increasingly more acknowledged for his expertise and passion and this year is part of the panel of judges who will ultimately decide who becomes the 2011 World Barista Champ.

Jen is just as busy. This year Five Senses, Racafe (one of the biggest exporters of Colombian specialty coffee) Atlas coffee and Synesso have teamed up to run a booth to showcase how good some of the Colombian microlot coffee is. We’re running public cuppings and also running the coffee through the Gen 2 Synesso (The farmers are loving it – most have never had the opportunity to stand by and watch their coffee carefully prepared as espresso and then have the chance to drink it). After the show we are heading out to the growing regions and meeting up with some of the farmers. Some we’ve visited before – others will be new to us. Atlas and Racafe have gone to so much effort to bring the producers and consumers just one notch closer together. There honestly couldn’t be a better picture than a world class barista cupping a coffee unaware that the farmer who produced it is standing silently just off to the side amongst the other spectators with gaze intently trying to get a fix on the cuppers reaction. Another great picture – a farmer who has probably never seen an espresso being made stepping up into the ampitheatre and watching the worlds best baristas going to mountains of effort to extract the best from the beans – I’m amazed at what I continue to see and I see it all the time. I can only imagine what they might think.

We are now in the final stages of the competition. The 12 semi-finalists have been reduced to 6 and have yet another night to replay their routines in their minds and decide on the what or if any adjustments will be made. Sadly the Colombian competitor didn’t make it. Had she got through I think that you could quite possibly have heard the roar of the crowd from almost anywhere in the world. I’m thinking that now she’s no longer competing tomorrow the noise of the applause in the ampitheatre might settle down to a level just louder than thunder. I can’t wait to hear.

So, the final 6: UK, USA, Japan, El Salvador (a producing country is still in the mix), Spain and Australia!

More tomorrow.

Semi-Final Day

Waiting for the announcement of the semi finalists

I’ve really only just arrived in Bogota and only had the chance to catch the tail end of the heats. This photo is more about giving you a sense of what the whole thing looks like. More details will follow a little bit later but what I can tell you is that Matt Perger from Australia is one of the 12 who are through to the semi finals. The most interesting thing about the semi final 12 is that there were none from Scandanavia (who dominated during the early years) and 4 competitors from coffee producing nations. The announcement that the Colombian competitor was part of the mix of 12 nearly brought the house down. It was awesome!

More later

Tags: WBC Bogota

On the upside

I’m currently en-route from Perth to the WBC in Bogota. Quite frankly, I’m shattered. I started my journey at 4:00am from my house on Wednesday morning Perth time. I’m just over half way through the trip and it’s now Friday mid-morning Perth time. Do the maths – I’ve been at it for just over 50 hours. I’m sitting here in the airport in a zombie like stake – I’m starving but my body doesn’t know if it needs breakfast or dinner. I have a headache but can’t be sure if it’s a lack of caffeine induced headache or it’s just been brought on through a combination of airplane dehydration and sheer tiredness. Probably both.

One of the sensational things about our new world of technology is our ability to be connected to the action and the action is exactly where I’m headed. I have a special twitter feed list set up for coffee industry chatter. It’s genuinely random chatter normally but right now the “chatter” has escalated to nothing short of a roar.

Things I do know so far – EVERYONE is there at the moment and a already tucking into a few cervesa’s (The Bicknell Espresso Ranger and our own Jen Murray are included in the mix), Emily Oak of the WBC has had her laptop nicked and the Barista’s are frantically getting prepped for their moments of glory.

What more can I say. I reckon that closing my eyes and mentally painting a canvas of the cool things that I’m going to see is going to be a way better tonic for my head than paracetamol.

My flight is leaving soon. I’ll keep you posted…

A word on the C Price from Scottie Bennett

I’ve just received an email from Scott from HAB Melbourne which I thought was worth a repost. We’re all starting to feel the pinch from the higher C Price on the NY Exchange. Scott’s email goes into some of the reasons why…

Hello All.

NY Arabica coffee prices have moved from $ 1.35 c/lb mid 2010 to $ 3.00 c/lb recently (April 2011) and has potential for further increase on the short, medium and longer term. That equates to a price raise in A$ terms of approx A$3.00 to A$3.50 per kilo! This is price calculation includes the Australian dollar’s recent appreciation against the U$ dollar.

WHY?
- Brazil harvested +55 million bags this 2010/11 crop after a zero carry-over in July 1st 2010.
- Brazil will roast internally, 20 million and attempt to keep the last 2 years export figures of 30 million, leaving again, a very small carry over stock at July 1st 2011. (5 million bags one month usage stock.)
- In the 2011/12 crop cycle, Brazil will produce 20% less due to bi-annual productivity loss and face a 21 million internal consumption demand plus a hopeful 30 million export demand arriving on June 30th 2012 with a 10 – 11 million bag deficit.
- World production, planted area and yields have fallen by 1.5% per year this past decade while World consumption has risen by 2% per year in the same period, half the increase coming from production countries
- World coffee tree average age is beyond a quick restructuring/recovery, it will take at least 6 years before world productivity/production can turn upwards again while during the same period, consumption will stay stable at best.
- Most available stocks/inventory are in the hands of stronger positioned producers and Coops worldwide, roaster in the US and in Europe are buying hand to mouth with no considerable availability nearby.
- The NY Board of Trade has accepted Brazilian coffee to be delivered against the C Contract by 2013, this will create an extra squeeze as local Brazilian roasters will fight to keep the supply close by while multinational trade companies will transfer stocks from origin to certified warehouses in the Northern hemisphere.
- Colombia will not return to historic 13 million export bags before 2013 while Central America is not expected to increase their 10 million average production due to crop competition and development. Africa and Vietnam are expected to remain stable production wise.

- Basically we have a fundamental imbalance between supply and demand of arabica coffee in the world and prices are up!!!! They will be up for 12-18 months we feel.

- Fund Money flows to the market with trends. All soft commodities all are in high demand. Coffee is in a Bull trend and fundamentals are making most players; Trade and Specs ride the same wave.

- Expect the unexpected!!! This all comes with unprecedented market volatility.

If the A$ was at U$.80cents then you would be paying an additional $$ higher premium.

Regards,
Scott Bennett
HA Bennett and Sons
Unit 2 / 2 Walton Street, Kew 3101, Australia.

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.

It has been a very good year.

I’ve been reflecting on some of the happenings this year and feel like it’s worth jotting down some of the positive experiences I had over the last 12 months. These experiences are not in any particular order.

The Brewed Coffee revolution

I know that the word “revolution” might sound a tad melodramatic but this year, after a few years of a bit of a spluttering start, (think 1970′s engine) coffee brewed in ways other than through an espresso machine has really taken hold amongst those in the specialty coffee community. The most notable thing here is that attitudes to brewed coffee have changed to a point where there is a greater respect for the brewed product and where many people choose to brew their extra special coffee’s through brewing systems that give them the chance to experience nuances in the coffee which would not be evident to them through espresso. This newly found enthusiasm by the industry in general has resulted in a few good things happening. Firstly, manufacturers are getting serious about making and supplying gear that gives us better brewing results. Marco in Ireland have now got serious and have produced a machine (Uber boiler) that dispenses water to exacting temperatures. Syphon brewers, Chemex, Clever Coffee Drippers and filters are readily available and most importantly there are tons of people experimenting and publishing their thoughts on how to get good results. This is an excellent thing and bodes very well for those interested in the success of specialty coffee. My favourite brewed experience. Ethiopian Beloya through a Clever Coffee Dripper, 30g to 330ml, 3 minute steep time, Blueberry smack in the face!

Coffee from Kintamani in Bali

We’ve been visiting Bali for about 3 years now and this year is the first year that I’ve felt that our investment in the area has started to have a real impact on the people who are doing the farming and on the coffee in the cup. I won’t go into the finer details but because of the choice of a large exporter choosing to pull the pin on their support for a few farmers we were working with it meant that they (the farmers) would also loose their wet mill. We were able to buy the wet mill from the exporter and leave it in situ for the farmers to continue to use. This year the growers really improved their post harvesting techniques in an effort to increase the quality of the beans sent to us. The beans arrived last week. The quality is much better. It feels good to be involved in something where there are wins all round.

The opening of a couple of new places (Proud Mary and Seven Seeds)

These two venues have a unique place in the industry in Australia – for how far they have lifted the bar and how they have become what they are. Each of these venues reflects the passionate coffee journey of the people behind them – Both these venues have people that work within them that started from very modest coffee beginnings. Mark, Bridget and Nolan and Sharee rely on the bean telling the story and work their hardest at providing hard working Australians with one of the world’s best total coffee experiences. Mecca (Paul) in Sydney and a couple of other also fit into this catagory but were opened prior to this year.

The arrival of our baby gade and backroom program:

This heading is really me trying to summerise a whole mix of events and moments that all contributed to something that made us like coffee just so much more. The return of Jenny Murray from her sabatical in Canada, the final pimping/modification of the Renegade sampler, and the arrival of our first mixed shipment of microlot coffees from brokers in the US all culminated in us being able to really explore roasting profiles and brewing results of unique and excellent coffees like we’d never done before. I’m not sure I’ve every heard so many “wows” in one year by the guys here around the roastery.

Our success at the comps:

Normally our participation in competitions is done simply for us to be able know how we are going in the industry against the rest of Australia and the rest of the world. We here in Perth often feel that our isolation prevents us from keeping up with what’s hot and what’s not so we are constantly watching the industry as closely as we can and striving to get better. Our success in the comps this year has played a role validating the efforts we’ve made to hover at cutting edge of the specialty coffee industry. It’s a small measure but we’ll take it.

The birthing of the “mod” department:

We probably never really understood what we would be getting when we signed up for a service department. After much hard work we’ve not only got ourselves a slick equipment fixing machine we’ve also got ourselves a couple of equipment geeks (I hope they will forgive me for calling them this – they know who they are) who have been able to demonstrate with skill and imagination anything is possible. Out of our workshop this year we’ve seen a tuned Renegade sample roaster, a preinfusion mod on a Synesso, a funky timer and hopper mod on a normal Robur and more recently a mashup of a Synesso and Isomac to create an incredibly heat stable multiboiler machine suitable for the domestic market. In recent days the geek (Rich) has also been able to convert a 3 group Sabre into a Hydra/Sable Hybrid. It’s just incredible to be associated with a company with a service department that can do a whole lot more than just change seals and filters. I think that best is yet to come and ultimately, the specialty coffee industry will be the winner.

The noise in the production room is starting to lift as I finish this post. The guys are playing hacky sack, the BBQ is on and the drinks are on ice.

Yep, it’s been a very good year.