Shortly I will be putting up a detailed post listing the winners of each of the competitions and some photos sent through to me during the comp. Unfortunately I lost my internet connection for most of yesterday and part of today making it very patchy to blog.
Congratulations to all those who took part - it looks like it was a great event and venue.
The Australasian Specialty Coffee Association Championships are on next weekend.
There are five competitions:
This Doctor!
You are the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Your sharp, irreverent humour both amuses and exasperates people. You’ve got a roving eye and keen mind – you’re definitely going places.
Well as far as 10 question personality quiz's can be accurate this certainly got me dead to rights on one point - I exasperate people.
Tweak of the Sonic Screwdirver to Bad Astronomy and Ivan3Man
Some people do not tolerate caffeine well, and if they want a coffee they need to have caffeine-free coffee. In reality this means coffee with a very low caffeine content as most processes do not remove all traces of caffeine. The first process - known as the Roselius Process (after its inventor oddly enough) steamed the bean with brine then soaked them in benzene to remove the caffeine. Benzene is a carcinogen (known to cause some forms of leukemia) and thus this process is no longer used.
The most well known process today is the Swiss Water Process. Wikipedia defines this fairly well and I quote:
The Swiss Water Process is a method of decaffeinating coffee beans developed by the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company. To decaffeinate the coffee bean by the Swiss Water method, a batch of green (unroasted) beans is soaked in hot water, releasing caffeine. When all the caffeine and coffee solids are released into the water, the beans are discarded. The water then passes through a carbon filter that traps caffeine but lets the coffee solids pass through. The resulting solution, called "green coffee extract (GCE)" by the company, is now available for decaffeinating coffee. New green coffee beans are introduced to the GCE. Since the GCE is coffee solids without caffeine only the caffeine diffuses from the new beans. The GCE passes through proprietary carbon which captures the caffeine. The process repeats, filtering out all the caffeine until the beans are 99.9% caffeine-free. These beans are removed and dried, and thus retain most if not all of their flavor.
Although the process was pioneered in Switzerland in the 1930s, today the world's only Swiss Water Process decaffeination facility is based near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Liquid carbon dioxide is a good solvent for many lipophilic organic compounds, and is used to remove caffeine from coffee. First, the green coffee beans are soaked in water. The beans are placed in the top of a column seventy feet (21 m) high. Then supercritical carbon dioxide in fluid form at about 93 °C enters at the bottom of the column. The caffeine diffuses out of the beans and into the carbon dioxide.
This liquid works better than water because it is kept in supercritical state near the transition from liquid to gas, combining favorable diffusivity properties of the gas with increased density of a liquid.
Due to an unexpected largess in green beans from a friend I was able to put together three interesting blends this week on a cool afternoon that finally allowed me to do some roasting without attempting it in 40-degree heat.
Since the majority of the beans are from Central America I thought that a spanish name for the blends would be appropriate - thus "Varias Fincas a Nivel Mundial" which, according to Google Translate, means "Various Farms from Around the World" which is pretty accurate.
I have full descriptions and processing notes for each beans but I don't want to infringe on some commercial confidentiality issues (that might or might not exist but I won't risk that they do) so I'll broaden the descriptions somewhat.
Varias Fincas 1
Columbia – Supremo Popayan
Guatamala – SH Liquid Amber
Papua New Guinea – Kimel Peaberry
El Salvador – El Angel
El Salvador - Small lot (high grown)
Ethiopian Harrar
Varias Fincas 2
Costa Rica – Tarrazu (farm 1)
Costa Rica – Tarrazu (farm 2)
Costa Rica – Tarrazu (farm 3)
Costa Rica – Tarrazu (farm 4)
Nicaragua – La Chuhillas (Cup of Excellence)
Varias Fincas 3
El Salvador – El Salvador - Small lot (high grown)
Ethiopia – Yirgacheff
Costa Rica – Tarrazu (farm 5)
Costa Rica – Tarrazu (farm 6)
Costa Rica – Tarrazu (farm 7)
Ok - so there is not a lot of detail there but what I am attempting with these is to see what the blending of similar coffees but from different mills does in a blend. The totally different regions I have added to each are my attempt at balancing some of the characteristics of the dominant beans. I am a total novice at blending and I am having to work from notes of others rather than my own experience, but that is the point of the exercise I guess - getting the experience.
Still, it'll keep me busy for the weekend!
CleanHotDry have created a new website devoted to coffee brewing called BrewMethods. Basically they find links to great methods of brewing coffee and provide links to the point at which that method originated. Simple, elegant and very useful.
Happily they have not attempted 'espresso' as a category. The sheer number of machines with all their little vagaries would have made that a complex exercise beyond some basic principles.
Tip o' the demitasse to JimSeven. >
A year ago yesterday I got my own branch and had the pleasure of choosing the staff myself. Love of coffee was not a criteria and several had little interest initially - including one confirmed tea snob.
How things have changed - I just left the main work area where they were busy discussing a critical new data development while making coffee with a bodum pour-over and the Presso and commenting on the merits of each.
And it’ll stay that way too I think. The Greenhouse on St George’s Terrace is a triumph for the CBD. Set against the enex 100 building it is a haven of terracotta, plants, timber, food and glorious coffee.
The team behind the Greenhouse 
have made a deliberate and successful attempt to create something new and exciting in the city. The concept and the construction of the Greenhouse are fully detailed on their website so I won’t repeat it all but just remark that it works for me – and obviously for a large number of other city coffee and food lovers.
I like simple meals with good ingredients and the Greenhouse
seems to be custom designed to deliver this. The quirky platters and serving ware (the muesli and yogurt is served using a bulk food scoop as a bowl) add to an atmosphere set by the use of plywood for most surfaces and the scent of bare timber is the first thing I noticed on entering.
It was also busy – a good sign for sure but not that surprising given their location. The Greenhouse is table service and has followed the timber theme right down to the tables and the chairs with an array of recycled and new timber materials used.
The breakfast menu is relatively short but with a pleasing array of choices and the prices are very fair. The lunch menu looks great and I forsee a visit in the evening with Mrs Grendel to sample the fascinating array of nibbles along with a glass of something nice - possibly from the collection hanging from above the bar. (Actually this was written the day before Mrs Grendel and I DID go back and she - an ex-chef, was impressed enough to comment very favourably, no easy ask!)
The Greenhouse use Fiori Coffee – or should I say they promote Fiori Coffee as their barista does an outstanding job of presenting Fiori’s roasted gems at its finest and I saw the best long black I have ever seen in my life with a lovely rich crema sitting across the entire surface of the cup. I have tried to accomplish this myself but never managed it and my colleague (who ordered the LB) was suitably impressed.
I ordered two espresso and two flat whites and these were fantastic, the espresso rich, melodious, tangy and savoury all in one. It was like listening to a gong in a silent room and the flavour reverberated all the way to the bottom of the demitasse.
To eat our table ordered a variety of dishes – the eggs with peas and basil, poached eggs on toast, and the breakfast pizza (wild mushrooms, asparagus and fontina cheese). I had the breakfast pizza and it was brilliant - an interplay of flavours that while very simple were perfectly suited to each other. We sat near the open kitchen and every dish that came out looked delicious and was beautifully presented. When this team decided to create something good they obviously thought long and hard about how to do it right and the planning is obvious all the way into the menu as well as the structure itself.
The Greenhouse is an accessible venue although the counter when it comes time to pay is fairly 
high and that may make it a little difficult for some people. On the upside it is one of the few cafes along St Georges Terrace that has an accessible toilet on the premises. The noise inside is about what you’d expect from a busy venue but not too bad and the lighting is soft and restful.
The recent Toodyay fire has been devastating for many families including the Thompson family. The Thompsons are the owners of the Avon Valley Dairy and while their home survived the dairy cows were badly burned by the fire. Half of the heard has been put down and the other half have badly burned udders and they are unable to produce milk.
These are the famous Ayrshire cows that produce milk that the Thompson family bottles in quart glass bottles that I covered in November 2008.
This is very sad news and I hope the Thompson family are able to survive this tragedy and rebuild their Ayrshire herd. Ayrshires are not a common breed in Australia and the Thompson's had the only herd in WA so rebuilding such a fine milk herd will be difficult.
I wish the Thompson family all the best in their efforts to rebuild.
Bendigo Bank is operating a bushfire appeal for the Toodyay Community - donations can be made at Bendigo Bank Online or at any Bendigo Bank Branch.
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