What I miss most from my quarter of a century in corporate Australia is mentoring up and coming superstars...
Earlier this week, an old friend from school requested that I help train his son "A". A has just finished his commerce/finance degree at ANU and will be staying in Canberra for another six months seeing out his lease. In the meantime he'll be working as a barista at a couple of cafés. We caught up yesterday and I was wondering what I could help with. I was acutely conscious that although we have a commercial grade espresso machine that every other element of our set up is (by design) at odds with the fast-paced requirements of a café where speed of espresso delivery is paramount for profitability. I decided that I'd expose A to the world of bean processing and what a dramatic impact it has on coffee flavour. We kicked off our tasting with a washed process coffee, our Kenyan single origin, which features the most beautiful sparkling brightness and some hints of blackcurrant. A's eyes lit up, the best espresso he had ever tasted. Next on the list a natural process coffee, our Ethiopian single origin, with classic winey ferment character and red and dark berry notes. We finished with Coconut Rough, a coffee where coconut is infused during the bean fermentation process. A had never experienced these flavours before and it was a real privilege to be able to lead him through this particular journey of discovery!
And now a couple of questions for you. Our biggest selling product is the Croydon Blend, for my wife Helen nothing beats Croydon! As you're aware, Croydon Blend uses top quality green beans (which would all serve as single origin coffees in their own right), and I was wondering if you would be interested if we started to produce a Grand Cru (or First Growth) version of Croydon Blend where each of the components was amped up to the next level?
The other question I have for you is whether you'd be interested in a half-caff coffee, a 50/50 blend of our delicious sugarcane process decaf and our best-selling Croydon Blend? A little bit of market research suggests that there is a market for lower caffeine (but not decaffeinated) coffee.
I'd really appreciate if you emailed to let me know please! Thank you!
To read about upgrading grinder burr sets click here
To read about early coffee roasting lessons click here