Look at my good ol’ friend here, Colin Harmon¹. Should he be scared? I would be, that’s a huge crowd and top-notch judges. But the judges are also being watched!

Despite all that, right now I’m trying to decide whether I should try and compete to become the next SA barista champion (not that it’s easy to achieve) and represent all that the specialty coffee in SA stands for, or remain and refine my judging skills to assist in finding the next SA barista champion who can do this (and let’s hope they can). Hmmm.

And I do realise that I may have been doing things a bit backwards (I think) – judging and then competing instead of the usual order…but oh well, some close friends in the industry² and I want to relook at the norm and if things are done in certain ways for a reason or not anyway.

So I’ll keep you posted on additional thoughts and hopefully a decision.

Zane

Cape Talk’s Solly Philander was busy with a live broadcast at TRUTH. Prestwich, along the fan walk earlier, and part of their promo was to hand out free vuvuzela’s to those walking past who could blow one. Unfortunately, a few FIFA representatives thought that wasn’t a good idea…at all. BUT, they left them all behind for us to give to our lovely customers who come in and warm themselves up with a nice, warm cuppa Joe. Now isn’t that nice of Cape Talk?

Like plungers, drip-filters, our Abid filters, syphon filters, Aero-press. The reason? My best cuppa this week was a tie between the Vengeance (currently Ethiopia, Harrar) and the Donde’s Chaos (currently our Mexican, organic coop) both of which were on a larger grind setting (6 as opposed to 5 or 5.5) and a shorter brewing time (2:30 total minutes and not 4:00). And it’s actually fun playing around with the various brewing parameters to see what happens.

My question to you Mr or Mrs reader is would you care if I organised such (with baristas who knew how to explain each method and coffee used) coffee tasting experiences? Come on! Interactive and informative coffee rituals and not just the coffee.

Zane

It hasn’t happened to me in a while but I know our friends at Espresso Lab mentioned something a while back. Anyway, here’s an interesting link http://godshot.blogspot.com/2010/05/cultural-imperialism.html (as usual from this guy) to a blog I follow around a response to a “typical” Italian espresso-lover’s under educated critique on the antipodean style¹ that we have all come to know and love (i.e. the beloved flat white inter alia).

So my thoughts? Drink what you prefer, but at least try both before slating the other. Personally (and I’ve got an international backing here), once you’ve understood the antipodean style’s rationale behind why things are done the way they are, and had it matched with an awesome flat white, you’ll understand why I really don’t mind letting Italians keep all their Italian roasted coffee².

Zane

He concisely describes the first 3 waves with the third being the one we are TRUTH.fully living, but I find it very interesting how we and the better, more well-known guys, especially abroad¹ have been getting “keeping on track” so to speak.

We have been promoting the Abid per-cup drip filter experience (read more about them here) and falling more in love with them. The main thing that resonates in his blog with us here is that we love coffee and are still in it because we love it and love having fun with it and where ever this ‘wave’ leads us I just hope that we continue to have fun and enjoy the coffee along the way.

Zane

1. Aylesford ‘Constantia Fresh’ Sauvignon Blanc festival¹. We had the privilege of making espresso-based hot drinks to local and international Sauvignon Blanc wine lovers (and the odd companion who didn’t really care too much) and it was awesome! It started off slow for the first 2 hours but then picked up nicely and we ended up pouring around 120 cups before we took a break to re-stock our sugars, cups, etc and eat some fuel before round 2 which was even better. Once we were serving again we hardly had a a break until eventually we couldn’t see anymore (Cape Town gets dark in Constantia around 8pm) and someone (not sure whom but thank you) cut off our water supply. We poured another 150 to 200 cups. It was SO fun : ) The highlight was hearing a lot of people, a lot of wine lovers giving us good feedback about our Resurrection blend we were pouring – they really enjoyed themselves and so did we. Thank you Claire Lockey for the opportunity.

2. Best home cups I have ever had or made. So after the Sauvignon Blanc function, and being too late to take the equipment back to work, I went home…and unloaded it on the Sunday “for security purposes”. So, on Sunday night we invited some friends around and I had fun making the best home cups of coffee I have ever had…from my kitchen…on a commercial grade 2 group (has 2 brewing heads) espresso machine : D Big smiles were had all around. Here is a pic from my neighbour’s point of view:

3. Panama, Hacienda La Esmeralda estate green coffee samples. OH BABY!!! Not 100% sure how we’ll roast them yet without a sample roaster² but we’ll make a plan.

“So Zane, why are you so excited about these coffee samples?”

“Well Joe, can I call you Joe? Anyway, this coffee estate is one of the most talked about coffee estates in the world at the moment. Very briefly, the average New York Stock Exchange price is around $1.30 p/lb and this coffee reached $130 p/lb at a Panamanian coffee online auction last year!!! Wow! James Hoffmann³, who we have mentioned several times already⁴, said it was the most non coffee-tasting coffee he has ever tasted yet so complex and amazing. We shall let you know!

Zane

“But why Zane? How could you? You keep going on about caring etc etc but now you tell us this.”Their is a very good reason for this. The reason is because, and quoting the coffee genius James Hoffmann², Fair Trade is “the absolute minimum necessary to get people to stop questioning how you source, or pushing you to do better. Not enough.”³.

VERY briefly how I see it, there are two prevalent ways of trading coffee. The standard way whereby one regards coffee as a New York Stock Exchange Dollar value; you primarily look at and regard your self with coffee figures. And this is where Fair Trade tries to ensure a fairer price by ensuring that those who comply etc etc will get 15cents (US) per pound above the stock exchange price.

The second is “known” as the direct-trade or relationship coffee model. Basically, it is about cutting out unnecessary middle-men where possible and locate the source of the coffee whether it be a coffee co-op (several farms or a regions collective coffee supply that is collected together) or single-estate / farm in order to build a relationship with the farmer to team together. The emphasis here is not just on money but on quality and paying a good price for a good product, and looking at ways in which one can assist farming communities develop⁴. Benefits include paying the farmer(s) directly which means more money going straight to the farmer (or at least more direct). In general, most companies who purchase coffee this way have not paid less than twice that of the New York Stock Exchange price.

There are numerous potential problems with Fair Trade but, if you are interested, I can e-mail you two really good articles about Fair Trade (although they are slightly too harsh on Fair Trade and what it is and has done even if merely with regards to changing mind-sets and/or creating awareness). One reason that irritates me personally though is that if you have two farms next to each other and they are both Fair Trade certified, and the one farmer plants his crop and ignores it until harvest time while the other takes care of his farm as though it were a member of the family – i.e. producing much better tasting coffee in theory – once processed and sold, both farmers get the same amount of money per pound. Sounds slightly more like Unfair Trade to me.

A second reason: in a video blog I watched recently⁵, a very good observation and interesting point was raised with regards to the selling prices of general “run-of-the-mill” coffee and Fair Trade around Central and South America last year. For most of these countries, due to a huge drought in the general region, coffee was selling at quite a lot higher than, and at times double that of Fair Trade due to a lower yield and higher demand. Now what happened to the guys “locked in” to selling at the “better” Fair Trade price? Apparently what happened was that a lot of the farmers where sneakily selling there stuff off to other buyers to get the extra money and in deed they should. But this doesn’t happen all the time and Fair Trade pricing is often giving back more.

So, a late disclaimer just to clarify my feelings, I am not against Fair Trade if the farmer actually gets more than if they had to “sell out” the stock exchange way (i.e. what they claim they do) and this does happen quite often – my heart is for the farmer too. If I feel that the green coffee I receive is far more amazing than the “run-of-the-mill” stuff then my green coffee costs should reflect it. Both third-world farmer (and processor) and Western-world roaster can benefit from a really good product, why should it be just the end buyers who benefit? So if you are buying Fair Trade and it’s changing the lives of those farmers more so than before Fair Trade certification then great.

Interested in direct-trade or relationship coffees? Find out more from www.sustainableharvest.com.

Zane

Some cafe’s might say: “Oh no! But they are so expensive per sachet in comparison!”

Probably. But I heard (rumour?) that aspartame / phenylalanine is 1 molecule different to paint thinners. Okay, 1 molecule can make a huge difference but I’m not so keen to take a chance…with others’ health that is¹.

Zane

An awesome and easy-on-the-eyes layout worth having a read:

http://capetown.unlike.net/locations/306811-TRUTH-coffeecult

Zane : )

An awesome and easy-on-the-eyes layout worth having a read:

http://capetown.unlike.net/locations/306811-TRUTH-coffeecult

Zane : )