WHC-123

Dom: This email touched me so much that i wanted to read it again some time in the future and share it with all my friends too.

By Luke Barrett

Bruz’s,

I wanted to say a few words before I take off, never to be seen again (relax, take a deep breath, I’ll be back).

As an abstract (a brief summary of an article) I guess all I really want to say thanks. So if you’re busy, maybe come back to this when you have a few more minutes, but in more detail, it goes like this…

I think the best way to make sense (at least for myself) is to work chronologically. So first up, I wanted to say thanks for giving me a shot and employing me. I’m sure you had your serious doubts about me (like there is with any new employee I guess) with my absurd facial hair, small build and my less-than-impressive coffee order (flat white - standard), so even from the beginning you guys took a punt with me - so thanks.

Then as I settled in and began to learn the ropes of the WHC back-man, Dom decided to start barista training with me on Sundays. I couldn’t fathom how this big dark Croatian man could work stupid hours all week, then back it up on his one day off to train a punk like me - at 7am! It was probably after the second of third one of these that my passion for coffee really became apparent. I couldn’t stop talking to Cait about the relationship between particle size and rate of extraction, or the milk clock, or whatever it was I had just learnt (I’m sure she was listening). So Dom - thanks all your time, patience and knowledge, it means a lot.

We all know how the rest played out (Doms leg exploding, Baz thrown in the deep end only to solidify his position as the Tuesday morning shots man for ever after) but there is one more thing that has lead me to appreciate every second I’ve spent at WHC so much. It struck me after we had all gone into Pizza Mario’s, then Mecca that night and I was telling mum about it. She must have said something like, “Don’t you get sick of eachother? You spend 13 hours of the day with each other working, then you all go out for dinner together, then to a coffee thing, only to do it all again the next day!” While I can see where she’s coming from, it is definitely not the case. It made me realize that in the ten or so months I’ve spent working at WHC, I’ve made some of the best friends I think I’ll ever make. I guess there were always times the boss-employee thing was evident, more often that not, work was about hanging with my mates, doing the things I love (albeit at a frantic pace).

Who knows where I’ll be in 12 months time (my visa tells me its back in Australia), and while it’s safe to say none of us want to commit to anything that far away, I want to say that if the circumstances allow, there would be no hesitation whatsoever on my behalf of coming back to the best job I’ve ever had. I respect you both immensity in your knowledge, work ethic, abilities and character that it truly has been a pleasure to work with you guys. A big thanks might have been adequate, but given the lengths you went to say goodbye to me on Saturday, I wanted to let you guys know as best I could how much I have appreciated everything.

A few more things.
Matt - attached are those two fair trade articles you wanted again.
Dom - if you were serious about hooking me up with a tamper for France, what are you doing Wednesday arvo and could I swing by yours and accept? Hope its not rude me asking but if not I’ll just need to go visit Pablo soon, thats all.
You’ll find all my photos at www.flickr.com/photos/lukebarrett29 so bookmark that one and stay in touch. I also put up some of the photo’s I look at work the other week too - some turned out alright!
And lastly, I’ll likely be in and out of the shop a few times this week, but Cait and I have agreed we’ll come in for our last extensions the morning we leave (tomorrow week)!

Thanks again guys,
Luke Barrett

By DomTRON

I’m sick an tired of hearing my customers travelling to the USA and the UK and complaining that the coffee was terri-bad!

For starters the populations of these countries is much higher than ours in OZ, but if we looked at percentages of “good” cafes to bad it might be much similar to Australia, hell i know of only a handful of places in Sydney where i would want to drink a cup of coffee.

Did you know that the past four world barista champions are from these nations, 2010 Michael Phillips United States, 2009 Gwilym Davies United Kingdom, 2008 Stephen Morrissey Ireland,
2007 James Hoffmann United Kingdom.

Whilst the gourmet coffee industry initially gained allot of its learning and expertise from the Italians, it has been the yanks and poms that have led us into the millennium and really fine tuned our methods of sourcing coffee (mercanta), roasting coffee (monmouth) and preparation of brewing methods (schomer).

When i first entered barista competitions back in 2003, the baristas with the edge had read one book, that book was david schomer’s espresso coffee: professional techniques, this book written by an American easily and clearly explained so much that we now take for granted in Australia.

For years in Australia we were at the mercy of what our green bean brokers were bringing in, and our brokers for many years were comfortable with green coffee that yielded low moisture levels and green coffee older than 12 months, two factors which inhibit a cups quality, yes Australia is quite far from most growing regions, so logistically getting the coffee to Australia is difficult but its companies like Mercanta a UK based green bean sourcer that aims to provide 100% traceability and the best freshest green coffee that has made our current brokers step up and realise that our Australian micro-roasters will not be satisfied with the current service, thank god Mercanta is now also delivering to Australia!

Also the current trend in micro-lot-roasting, is a lighter roast which is greatly influenced by companies like Monmouth, they were also pivotal in revitalising filter brewed coffee which has seen a renaissance in Australia in the last few years.

So lets have some respect because even though you travelled and got a poor excuse for a cup of joe that resembled some sort of swill from the bar room floor, these countries are leading gourmet coffee and “we/the ozzies” are actually following them!

By DomTRON

On previous trips to Melbourne i had noticed that some coffee roasters were using the same roast for filter coffee and espresso, at this point looking back i remember the roast degree was somewhat of a compromise roast, thinking that it could have been darker for what i have been shown to be “true” espresso roasting procedures, and at the same time i thought that the same roast which was intended to be used as a filter coffee drinking style was a splash on the too dark or too “roasty” side for a style of brewing where we want to attempt to showcase the coffees inherent origin characters. Using the same roast for espresso and filter leads one to think that they are trying to increase yield, hence making more profit, they are too lazy to do two separate roasts or just don’t know the difference.

My recent trip to Melbourne, revealed some interesting coffees, coffee made in a way that blew my mind, it blew my mind into doubting my own beliefs on roasting, here is what i saw….

I spoke to some coffee roasters on this trip and they were stating that the Melbourne coffee community is steering away from espresso roasting that is “too dark” and that they wanted to taste more complexity in the coffees, and that the coffee being peddled in Sydney’s top espresso bars was too dark and that they could not taste any origin characters and only roasted caramel sweetness from the coffee at these sydney establishments.

Therein lies the crux of the topic, espresso roasting vs roasting for filter, i suppose that to understand what an espresso roast is vs a filter roast we have to understand espresso mechanics and espresso extraction and its impact on the end cup, and really as coffee professionals and coffee consumers that’s what we “should” only be concerned about.

The espresso machine “accentuates flavours” it heightens what is available in a particular roasted batch of coffee, so if we understand that lighter roasts retain more acidity, more green straw-like flavours, more fruit notes, and if we understand that light roasts will not have as much sweetness and body and mouth-feel which is “developed” as we roast coffee (because in light roasts there simply isn’t enough time to develop those characters) then if we extract said light roast coffee in the espresso machine then we are achieving an accentuation of this flavour profile - we will taste -
Intense acidity, green, low body, little sweetness, and occasionally fruit driven coffees.

The style of “so-called-espresso” extraction that i saw in Melbourne varied immensely, but there was a trend that i saw where for me the penny dropped, really, truly it was not espresso at all, it was a form of coffee extraction that relies on “under-extraction”  because if you execute a correct traditional espresso extraction on this filter roasted coffee the end taste is INTENSE acidity, green, low body, little sweetness, and occasionally fruit driven coffee, where the style of extraction that is being peddled in melbourne results in MUTED or RESTRAINED acidity, green, low body, little sweetness, and occasionally fruit driven coffees. And all of these perceptions were tasted on single or double ristretto and espresso coffees, one can only “shiver, cringe and be worried” at the prospect of consuming these light roasts, extracted as espresso then diluted in milk for a cappuccino or latte, which is 90% of the Australian market, “warm-milky-coffee” anyone…
This is also probably why the trend of putting double ristretto’s and using crotchless baskets is being adopted by some, its easier to “fool” the consumer into drinking a fake so-called single ristretto when it has been extracted from a double and the same goes for milk drinks.

Mind you, the trend, these 11 minute roasts that are being extracted through the espresso machine seem to be like an almost backlash against tradition and the famed Italian roast of espresso coffee.

For me, as a soon-to-be coffee roaster this hit home hard, what am i going to do, i want to buy the best coffees available, but i don’t want them to be too roasty either, but we KNOW what works and what DOES NOT WORK, the simple mechanics of the espresso machine and espresso extraction lend it to roasting and serving coffees that taste sweet and have great body and mouthfeel, its funny that some people are trying to confuse roasting styles and brew methods and they have come up with their own style of espresso, which IMHO isn’t even espresso anymore, i think if you want to taste the coffees natural coffee character roast filter style and brew it filter style, be it, plunger, siphon, drip, clover whatever, if you want to have an espresso which accentuates flavours then it has to be sweet and with body and mouthfeel, confusing the two into one is just dangerous.

A return to Proud Mary was the doctors medicine, we were up on two hours sleep to watch Germany school Australia in the world cup so the hot breakfast was our starter, we finished with a round of coffees and had a great time catching up with our old mate Ben Bicknell from 5 senses coffee while we were there.

Auction rooms, another new cafe roasterie in Melbourne with another beutiful fitout.

Seven seeds, was next for us, we rushed in, shot a spro and hit the frog and toad quick stix.

We travelled back to the Melbourne stalwart St Ali, almost reluctantly, we were rewarded with some great espresso made by Aaron in th outside stantion, the coffee in the main St Ali shop was however not on par, maybe it was the new-yet-semi-working-slayer espresso machine, which Is used outdoors, that delivered the goods over the synesso that is being banged indoors, one could also argue the Barista was the differrence and with quite a solid case, anyways.

On our first day we had great time after meeting Ben from “the final step” at the market lane cupping.
We travelled to his cafe which is idealic and close to the main drag but with an off the beaten path feel, a great place to sit and sip coffees made on his paddle group linea.

We rushed back to tullamarine, flew back to Sydney and went STB.

It’s quite lucky I spose that most melbourne spro bars open late, like 7am.

Our morning started late, very late, stantion, too many drinks, again.

I should I say cafes not spro bars, because in essence that’s what 90% of them actually are, they are full service cafes (please wait to be seated style) with full menus, lots of food and great coffee, NOT trad spro bars like we know in Sydney, market lane and the final step are trad spro bars however, nothing wrong with the differrence, just an interesting observation.

Dukes coffee roasters, our first stantion of the day, awesome panino breakfast, a flawless shop set up. Joper roAster and second generation mistral, spro was pretty stantion.

On to our cupping at market lane coffee with our old mate Toshi, a big thanks to the guys here for a great time, and some awesome coffees.
These guys are bangin some un-homo milk, tastes like rice bubbsies, maybe it’s your thAng, throw in some organic Panella and your in 3/4 strong flat white heaven, or should I say “magic” heaven - Snap!

Panella - un processed rAw sugarcane

Then monk bodhi dharma was our next stop, another micro roasterie using a tiny diedrich. Melbourne has do many micro shop roasters.
Shortest riz in Melbourne and a strange long blAck very lime and peachy at the same time.

Il fornaio, lunchtime, serving sensory lab coffees, great, good, awesome, bestest rissotto and gnocchi in Melbourne, greAt buzz and style.
Tried some COE BrAsil as filter.

Back to Market lane to say goodbye to the guys, a quick spro too.

Proud Mary, and Nolan blew us Away with his hospitality, he brewed us some Ethiopia nekisse as drip and siphon to contrast, also two kinds of cold drip, and a plethora of riz-bombs and longblAck’s, wow!
6 groups of synesso just sets the tone for this epic cAfe.

Movida for dinner, trad Spanish tapas, Melbourne landmRk foodie uhotspot, and many a heated discussion about the rear vs front legs of pigs and how they relate to taste and muscle/fat density of said legs, WTF!

And that’s day 2

We arrived in Melbourne weary after a solid 1230 close at white horse, the mood was set for a fiery evening.

As we strolled the lazy-laneways of Melbourne I noticed that we were strikingly close to St Ali’ latest buzz-store “senosry lab”.
After initially harrassing the filter coffee Barista for a few moments we stumbled over to the line pressure linea espresso machine, the Barista was very welcoming and produced for us a very nice sweet collection bourbon daterra.

We set our course for +39 pizzeria, which was terrific, thanks Ash for the heads up!

No Melbourne stay is complete without a visit to cookie, simply the best most casual concise bar with great staff around, many drinks later, we stumbled out boozy.

Aiming to get to bed early is easier said than done with this crew.

By DomTRON

My nigga Matty Ristretto called me up this morning, I was still asleep, late night >_<

I made my way to ‘nulla, Grind was our first stop and it was great to see a busy ’spro bar in full swing, we ordered our ristretto’s and sat, chat, and watched.

Two more ristretto’s later and the Grind parade waned as lunch was upon us, it was epic to watch the baristas working and to taste their brews.

H.a.m., was our second stop, the “mabo” outdoors was enigmatic and very relaxing, our first ristretto - near perfection, lots of character, body, cleanliness, a very elegant cup of coffee. I was then surprised and humbled as our second ristretto (a single “o” indian coffee), was a display of modern day coffee growing brilliance.This “P/Nat” coffee displayed fruit characters that I have never tasted from Indian coffee, WoWzORs!
It brought me back to the first natural processed central I encountered, I remember tasting and pausing afterwards, the words that came to me were, “F-€k, I’ve never had a central like that before!” the past few years of coffee growing, from my experience, I’d say three years, has seen some traditions left behind in processing style and regional methods and the resultant coffees that are being produced have been a breath-of-fresh-air, new fantastic tastes to explore….

As a soon to be coffee roaster, I am excited as to what the future of coffee growing can yield for us!

This has been some-what of a quest for me….

Its was 2003 and a barista competitor of mine from Canada had a P.I.M.P. tamper, back in those days i was using a red lava tamp, but it was the then-known-as XPRESSIVO barista tamper that i coveted for many years.

Many years had passed and the main coffee websites would not sell these tampers which originate in Scando-land, Norway i think from memory, after many years of trying to source one i finally bit-the-bullet and ordered two direct from Norway, why two…? Because back then they offered a light version, which is the original, and they offered a heavier version for those who prefer that, me being a completest i had to have both…

The experience cost me almost $400 for two tampers with shipping and exchange rates, a $400 experience that was very bitter and deflating as the tampers were never sent from the warehouse, and that is all i have to say about that.

Time, it heals all wounds, 3 years had passed since i dropped four greenbacks for no tampers and an empty wallet, but the “lust for steel” burns in all baristas and my quest to hold the tamper was re-kindled when my friends at coffeeparts.com started to stock the new version.

So, on to the real business…

THE REVIEW

Domtron’s Comments

If you have been following my blog or have visited my espresso bar, you will know that i am a Pullman fan, we use greg’s Barista tamper and that thing is simply-the-best. But, like driving a very fast car for a long time, its nice to drive another type of very fast car, for a change You may always go back to your first car, but the second new version may be just as good, but in a slightly different way.

I spose that is what i have to say about the tamper, the pullman tamp has the uber-nice rubber section around the base and it gives allot of grip and comfort where-as the PRESSO is light-as-a-feather, and is as ergonomically sound for me as any tamp i have used.

I have only used the PRESSO for two full days of trade, but i am confident that the build quality will withstand the punishment we dish out on it.

The handle is made from a bakelite-rubber-type-substance which pwns as it feels just great in the hand.

Personally i love the feel of the tamp, combined with the height of it, which is perfect, and adjustable if you have small hands.

The only concern i have is that the base may be too small in height for some people, i am getting used to it, after years of having Reg barber height bases or higher, like the oldskool era of tamps, ala the ERGO-PACKER being thrown down our throats we are just used to working with said heights of tamper base, and the PRESSO is just small than the RB base by a few mm, a few mm which you notice as the tamper sits lower when the coffee is packed, a hard task to conquer when you program your brain to accept a certain “pack height’ of your coffee…. SHEESH, i hope that jibber-ish makes sense… ROFL

Well if you’re understanding me, read on, if not KEEP READING and i hope i can redeem myself

Also regarding the base of the tamp, the edge is curved which i know allot of baristi like a hard edge or sharp edge as it allows them to judge their pack level in ratio to the filter basket the PRESSO is a little harder to discern this level, i have since painted in with red paint the pack level line which is on the PRESSO, this helps me judge my level more easily.

Other WHC Staff Comments of the PRESSO

Bela: he loves the weight and feel and his shots have been looking great with the tamp
BC Stansion: he isnt convinced of the weight, but is quite happy with the comfort and use
Risty: Feels strange to him as he doesn’t like the weight

This is what the guys from Espresso gear have to say about there product:
The Barista tamper is made for professional use. When you work at home making 5 shots per day, a solid, heavy tool is just fine… When serving 300 shots during a shift, its not as comfortable wielding an unbalanced solid metal piece. When others choose aluminium we did as we always do, think different
The Presso Barista is the only die cast, hollow base stainless steel tamper on the market. It is perfectly balanced and has a comfortable weight of about 250 grams.

Low energy tamping
Tampers in general are lathe machined from 60 mm to maybe 20 mm. This wastes a lot of material and consumes far to much energy. A neat thing that comes with the casting of the tamper is that it saves a huge amount of resources with virtualy no loss in material. The stainless steel in all our products is on top of this 100% recycled which means that we save 80% in energy resources right from the start.

Originally XPRESSIVO/Espresso Gear only offerred the one tamper “the presso barista”, now they produce the “Luce” which seems a little gimmicky and ergonomically un-sound and the “primo” which im sorry to say looks too phallic (i hope the spelling is correct :P) 

FINAL WORDS

Im not sure if i will be using this tamper forever, but its definitely a very nice tamp and im in love with it … for now
Im glad to have completed my quest to own and use the tamper, well worth every dollar spent.

If you are interested in purchasing the tamper try these sites:

espressogearaustralia.com.au
espressogear.com
coffeeparts.com

PICTURES INC, WORDPRESS IS BEING A TARD

Aeropress by WHC 2K10

Written by Domtron

QUICKSTART AEROPRESS GUIDE

Get your coffee cup, Boil a kettle of H2o, Paper filter in black lid, 4 heaped tsp of coffee, brew house blend at 91 c and light roast at 89 c, 250 ml of water, No stirring, Plunge, Drink, J

THE COMPLETE AEROPRESS BREWING GUIDE

STEP 1 – BUY FRESH COFFEE

CHECK THE ROAST DATE of your coffee when you buy it, at WHC we believe that our best experiences with coffee have been with coffee that has just been roasted. We truly believe that the first week of a coffee’s life is when its vibrant natural character is most rich and sweet, so always insist on FRESH ROASTED COFFEE!

STEP 2 – PREPARATION

Never rush, your coffee is a time to treat yourself, so don’t cheat yourself, TAKE YOUR TIME.

Get your COFFEE CUP or mug, boil a KETTLE of H2o, try and use water that hasn’t been boiled before as more of the minerals of the H2o will be retained, rather than using twice boiled H2o.

If you want to get super serious you can use FILTERED H2o.

Place one of the PAPER FILTERS in the BLACK LID of the Aeropress, twist it into place on the brew chamber part of the unit. Place the Aeropress on top of your mug, making sure the cup is snug and ready for the journey ahead.

Once the H2o has boiled pour a long DASH OF WATER INTO THE AEROPRESS that is sitting on top of your coffee mug.

This gives the brewer greater thermal stability, something which is vital for brewing coffee, it will also heat up your coffee cup allowing your coffee to stay hotter longer! Yum!

By doing this we will also remove any papery tastes which may come through from the paper filter.

EMPTY THE H2o FROM THE MUG once the water has passed through the paper filter.

STEP 3 – BREWING

If you buy your coffee pre-ground ask for a METAL FILTER GRIND SIZE at WHC we use 6.5 on our DITTING grinder. For those of you that are super keen and have a grinder at home make sure you grind the coffee as the kettle is boiling.

Place the coffee into the Aeropress, using a teaspoon we recommend 4 HEAPED TEASPOONS OF COFFEE. Its 16 grams for those wanting to achieve the WHC precision in their brew. Give the Aeropress a tiny WIGGLE to distribute the coffee evenly inside the Aeropress.

By this time the BOILED WATER SHOULD HAVE COOLED, which is a good thing, if you want to use a thermometer as we do at WHC it is highly advised for OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD-TASTING-COFFEE.

We brew our HOUSE BLEND at 91 C and our LIGHT ROASTS at 89 C.

The cups we use at WHC can accept 250 ml of WATER nicely so that fits best for us but you may have to experiment with how much water to use for your own mugs at home.

START POURING IMMEDIATELY at the optimum temperature if you have measured it. POUR SLOWLY so as to promote a nice even saturation of all of the coffee in the brewer. You can pour in a SLOW AND CIRCULAR MOTION to achieve best results. Once all of the water has been poured into the brew chamber we PLUNGE IMMEDIATLEY.

The WHC standard is NO STIRRING; we find inconsistent results and occasional over-extraction when we do.

WHEN PLUNGING, DO IT SLOWLY, we want to encourage all of the oils to be extracted into our cup, plunging nice and slow will ensure of this. A VACUUM NOISE will sound when it’s time to STOP PLUNGING, remove the Aeropress from the mug and STAND AEROPRESS UPSIDE DOWN so it doesn’t drip.

Add, sugar, cream, milk or soy to taste or why not ENJOY IT BLACK so you can enjoy the delicate tastes you have just extracted.

STEP 4 – CLEAN UP

Easily the best coffee maker to clean the Aeropress trumps its rivals here. Simply REMOVE THE BLACK PLASTIC CAP from the brew chamber, hold the Aeropress over a compost or rubbish bin and PUSH THE PLUNGER BIT IN A LITTLE.

The coffee puck and the filter paper will pop out, RINSE the end of the Aeropress and the inside of the chamber, VOILA!

You can even just wipe it with a towel which makes the Aeropress convenient for travellers, hikers and people on the go. J

STEP 5 – FURTHER DISCOVERY

The internet is filled with guides, YouTube videos, opinions, stories and legends of how to brew Aeropress coffee and how good it tastes, from using espresso fine grinds to long steep times and even the infamous inverted brew method the Aeropress is definitely a fun limitless coffee brewer, be it for a novice or seasoned home barista!

We are open this Sunday for the Sutherland to Surf, we will be open for around four hours till 10am or so, just for the start of the race, so if you need a ’spro from sprem or a triple from tron we will be there to aid you in the race.