After flawless performances in his first WBC Championships, Australian Barista Champion, Matt Perger won 3rd place in the World Barista Champs 2011, held in Bogota in June.

The final placings were:

2nd Place – Pete Licata, USA

3rd Place – Matt Perger, Australia

4. Javier Garcia, Spain

5. Miki Suzuki, Japan

6. John Gordon, UK

Congratulations to Alejandro, the finalists and all the 2011 competitors.

by Emily Oak, Director, WBC and AIR Training & Development Manager

From June 23-25th at Olympia, in Kensington London, the world’s best baristas and coffee professionals gathered together under one roof to celebrate all facets of the specialty industry. Baristas from more than 50 countries represented their individual nations competing against each other in a bid to win the global title.
This year was fresh and even more interesting for two main reasons. Firstly, it was the first time a semi final round was introduced into the competition. This added a layer of complexity and difficulty for competitors and judges. Secondly, there were more than 15 second or third time champions competing. This mean the standard of performance was higher than it has ever been before. Australia’s reining Barista Champion Scottie Callaghan, (who was also World Latte Art Champion 2006 and Australian Barista Champion 2007) put in a solid performance, making it through both the preliminary and semi final rounds to the final of the championship, no easy task at all. Scott came away with the third place trophy, making him the third best barista in the world. Combined with the efforts of the rest of ‘Team Australia’ competing in a whole range of competitions (Latte Art, Good Spirits and Cup Tasting) Scott’s placing helped secure the overall team trophy for Australia…. Well Done!

To discuss this topic (or any other topics), visit The Forum for news, views and opinions.

The First of our Series, Profiling the Outstanding Figures of the Coffee World

Coffee ‘cupping’ is the tasting of coffee to uncover the coffee’s unique profile. And in the rarified world of cupping, there are few who can rival Ken Davids for experience or expertise. Originally an academic and writer, Ken Davids has grown to be recognized as one of the coffee world’s pre-eminent figures. He has a consultancy business in the US and a number of highly regarded books on coffee to his credit. He is also a sought-after speaker at coffee conferences and seminars worldwide.

 Crema: For many years you were an academic – the dean of a large art and design college and a tenured Professor. What prompted your change from academic pursuits to coffee?

 KD: For me, being wrapped up purely in a teaching environment has always seemed a bit too removed from the practical excitement of business. But combining the business of consulting with the contemplation of writing and reviewing is the perfect balance, particularly when the subject is as absorbing as coffee. I enjoy the struggle of honorably combining ideas, words and cultural judgments with the most primitive of acts, smelling and tasting something.

 Crema: When did you write your first coffee book?

 KD: I first published Coffee: A Guide to Buying, Brewing & Enjoying back in 1975 – it was something of a break-through book. Then, after specialty coffee started to take off in the US about twenty years ago, I published two more books (Espresso: Ultimate Coffee and Home Coffee Roasting: Romance & Revival), started reviewing coffees, and began my consulting business. In the process I gradually stopped being an academic and started being a full-time coffee guy.

 Crema: What do you find most interesting in the world of coffee?

 KD: Coffee arguably is the most complex of all commonly consumed beverages and the most challenging to master and understand. Many more substances contribute to the aroma and flavor of coffee than contribute to the aroma and flavor of wine, for example. And coffee is a much more global and interactive beverage than wine. A good wine changes only gradually once it is bottled, whereas coffee is first created and then completely transformed by four different parties at four different points in its journey from seed to cup. First someone chooses which seeds to plant where and nurtures the trees, then someone harvests the coffee and performs the tremendously expressive and crucial acts of fruit removal and drying, then someone else again roasts it, and finally someone, often the consumer, brews it. Coffee continues to transform even after brewing, as it cools.

 Crema: What were some of your most interesting experiences travelling for coffee?

 KD: Certainly the most transformative experience was meeting my future wife Iara in Brazil. Beyond that, I certainly have had my share of coffee experiences both exotic and moving. One of the most memorable was visiting the original port of Mocha or Al Mukhā in Yemen. As most coffee lovers know, all of the commercially traded coffee in the world was grown in Yemen and the majority of it shipped through the port of Al Mukhā for over 150 years, between around 1600 and 1750

If I had to pick a second experience it would be sitting in on my first genuine village coffee ceremony in Ethiopia. The depth of continuous and indigenous coffee culture in Ethiopia is incredibly dramatic, dignified and fluent. And, despite the poverty of the villagers, the Yirgacheffe region in Ethiopia is almost Eden-like in its intimate, rolling green fecundity and tidy gardens of interplanted coffee and food and fruit trees. But I have had great moments everywhere in the coffee world. Being greeted by mountain villagers in Papua New Guinea with their extravagant and inventive sculptured poles and banners and feathered costumes would rank up near the top as well. 

 Crema: What is the most important trend going on in the world of coffee today, in your view?

 KD: Simply the explosion of knowledge and the globalization of that knowledge. Although we are at the very beginning of the development of coffee as a genuine specialty beverage with a knowledge base comparable to wine, we are at least sneaking up on that goal. Until recently all of the research money for coffee seemed to go into either increasing commodity yield and commodity consistency at origin or saving pennies on commodity roasting and packaging, but now at least some of those resources are being directed at achieving genuine product differentiation through botanical variety and processing nuance. Eventually we may begin to understand how to create not only great coffees, but distinctive coffees that reflect the individual tastes of a new generation of growers, exporters, roasters and aficionado consumers.

Crema: What keeps you going?

 KD: All of the above. Everything about coffee, from the caffeine to the challenge of keeping up with new technical developments, tends to keep me feeling young.

This is an edited extract - you can read the complete interview to be published in our next issue of Crema Magazine, available in December.

- we found some of the ‘best of the best’ at the 2008 Danes Grand Barista Champs.

After a 2 year hiatus, the Danes Gourmet Coffee Institute (DGCI) Grand Barista Championship (GBC) returned on 21st June 2008.

With such notable judges as Hazel de los Reyes (2005 Australian Barista Champion and current NSW Barista Champ), together with Corinne Chilcott (2001 Australian Barista Champion) and Paul Geshos (owner and head Barista for Sydney café, ‘Mecca’ – voted Sydney’s best coffee by Crema Magazine for 2007) the focus was on the professional barista’s technical skill and passion. 20 of Australia’s best Baristas lined up to compete in presenting, within a 12 minute time frame, 4 espresso, 4 milk based coffees and 4 identical latte art designs.

The volume and time restrictions of the WBC were removed to provide the barista with complete freedom to fully exploit the maximum flavour potential of the coffee. In keeping with the belief that one of the most important parts of coffee making is consistency, judges were primarily concerned with the coffee flavour and consistent brewing time and volume.

Again, unlike the WBC, competitors could present any milk-based coffee with the focus being on the balance of espresso and textured milk.

And finally, the last component to the competition focused on the barista’s skill with latte art. This is not judged on taste but rather on the skill of presenting 4 identical free-pour patterns, which the competitor can present in any vessel to best showcase their artwork. ‘We chose not to incorporate a ‘signature beverage’ component’, said Paul Jackson, Director of Danes Gourmet Institute, ‘coffee is the most chemically complex food product on the planet in terms of flavour and aroma – why try to add anything to it? We wanted to keep the focus purely on the coffee’.

Four separate heats were held before the Grand Final on the 21 June, bringing the field down to 5 competitors for the Finals.

And, the winners were 1^st Habib Maarbani (NSW), 2^nd Jesse Hyde (VIC) and 3^rd David Seng (VIC). For an insight into what makes these top baristas ‘tick’, visit our story – where we asked these top barista’s to tell us what it is that drove them to the top and what keeps them there.

And, if you are a barista and need any more encouragement to enter next year, David Makin, 2008 Australian Barista Champion competed in two Danes Gourmet Coffee Grand Barista Championships (2004/2005 placing 3rd & 2nd).

Here is what Habib Maarbani from NSW, Jesse Hyde from Victoria and David Seng, also from Victoria, had to say.

These professionals are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ when it comes to passionate baristi in Australia and we intend to profile many more in the coming months (and years) as we showcase Australia’s passion for coffee and the dedicated people behind the machines.

Habib Maarbani: I’ve been making coffee since 2003, and first learnt to first make coffee in Melbourne. Right from the start, I loved bar work (both alcohol and coffee bars) -  there is something extremely satisfying about beginning with raw materials, be they coffee beans and cold milk, or fruit/herbs and liqueurs (for cocktails) for example and manipulating them to create something that excites or intrigues the palate.

So, although I graduated from a Commerce degree, majoring in Finance, I always found barista work appealing. Sharing this passion with my brother Steve, we developed Morgan’s Kitchen, located in the Sydney suburb of Liverpool, in 2006 – with the view to taking great quality products to the masses. I now manage Morgan’s Kitchen full time and that is my working passion.

But, if I had to pinpoint the driver of my passion, (though no doubt it will sound cheesy) it is a customer’s genuine smile at being ‘Wowed” – they usually stand at the counter as they wait for their coffee and watch as we prepare it. Seeing their smile as you free pour something stunning into their cup – it actually makes my day. That is my daily reminder for why I love what I do, and why I’ll continue to pursue that perfect coffee, every time, for every customer.

Jesse Hyde: I have been making coffee for many years but was first introduced to the world of specialty coffee at Pioneer Roastery in Yandina on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. It was there that I tried some Ethiopian Harar and was amazed by what a different taste it had to any coffee I had previously tasted. This sparked a real curiosity in me and I ended up working for Pioneer for about a year.

I then moved back to Melbourne for a brief time and worked at Veneziano with Dave Makin, Cassie-Anne Lawry and Peter Wolff for about 6 months. It was here that I witnessed the amazing amount of preparation that is involved in being a competition barista. Both Dave and Cassie-Anne were so methodical, precise and consistent and this was definitely inspiring to be a part of this environment.

Currently I am working as a barista at Primary cafe in Parkville, Melbourne with Erin Sampson who is like a Kung Fu master at latte art! I hope to be opening my own place called Dancing Goat Cafe in Melbourne’s CBD sometime in August.

What keeps me passionate about coffee? It’s that I am always learning more about it and always will be. Improving my technical skills and consistency is just one part. What’s really great though is working with awsome coffee and pulling a shot that you are actually reluctant to give to your customer, “mmm…they can have the next one!”

David Seng: I’ve been working as a barista for a little over 2 years. I fell in to the coffee industry by chance. I’m currently studying to become a mechanical engineer and have a love for all things technical. It has only been in the last year working at Veneziano’s ‘First Pour’ that I discovered specialty coffee. My inquisitive nature and desire to learn more about things led me on a search to find out how to create that ultimate cup of coffee.

Barista competitions have accelerated my learning and radically changed the way I think about coffee. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by people who are so passionate and knowledgeable about coffee.

The more I learn about coffee, the more I realise how little I know.

Working as a management consultant for one of the ‘big four’ accounting firms, Ernest wanted to do ‘something that had more meaning than helping a bank make more millions’. He also wanted to work more ‘hands on’ and to be in a role where he had more direct contact with what he was producing – seeing the link between what ‘you produce and the person you made it for’ in his words.

After 10 years, he took the plunge in late 2002 and took over a franchised café concept in Burwood. It was hard work with long hours, but it was a great experience, and Ernest built the café into a successful operation. However, in late 2003, his son was born, and along with wanting to reduce his hours, Ernest had taken an increasing interest in specialty coffee, including spending a lot of time at Campos in Sydney’s inner-west Newtown.

As the association grew, Ernest was impressed with Campos’ commitment to coffee excellence and the pride they took in their product; the relationship developed and in April Will Young (owner of Campos) offered to train Ernest as their new roaster.

There were long days, as Will trained him on the different blends and roasting profiles, but eventually he had built up the skill and the confidence to take over. So how did you find making the change from management consultant to boutique coffee roaster? ‘It was a whole new world,’ says Ernest. ‘You need to understand the relationship between all the variables; understand the roast profiles for the different beans…  there were skills that I brought with me’ he says, ‘but with coffee roasting, you need to rely on your senses – sight, sound and smell – you need to learn how to put them all together to get the perfect end-product’.

Now, he wouldn’t dream of going back, even though the wages and conditions are nothing like what he was on. ‘It’s great to get the reward for really giving yourself fully to something and producing a product that you can be really proud of,’ says Ernest, ‘and working at Campos has been an inspiration’. ‘At first, the motivation was to be as good as these guys’, he says. ‘Now that I’m here, it’s great to be part of this environment’.

A long way from the café at Burwood, and even further from the ivory tower in the city!

In an unprecedented result, Australia brought home the World Latte Art title for the third year running. Cool, calm and collected, Con Haralambopolous out-performed the other competitors from over 50 countries to bring home the crown ahead of Russia’s Kira Malchenko and Japan’s Akihiro Okada.

We have always known that Australia is a leader in the world of coffee but now there can simply be no question with Scottie Callaghan and Jack Hanna (both contributors for Crema Magazine) having won in 2006 and 2007 respectively and now Con Haralambopolous completing the hat trick!
Con, of course, won the title of Australian Latte Art Champion at the Australian Barista Champs in early May. He was also runner up to David Makin in the Australian Barista Championships.

David, a seasoned competitor on the Australian stage, gave an outstanding performance to bring home 2^nd prize from the coveted World Barista Championships. Competing against national champions from 51 countries, David sailed smoothly through the heats to secure one of the 6 spots for the finals. His final performance was relaxed and technically flawless and David was beaten by only the slimmest of margins by the added showmanship of Ireland’s Stephen Morrissey, ahead of Liesbeth Sleijster from the Netherlands in third place.

So, as the Australian Barista Champion and having won 2^nd place on the World stage, David’s work for 2008 is well and truly done!…our congratulations.

If you tried in vain to watch the live feed from Copenhagen, we have footage of David’s entire 15 minute award winning performance from the Australian Barista Champs – it’s as close as it gets to having been there!

[flashvideo filename=wp-content/uploads/2008/06/David_Makin220w.flv width=200 height=170 /]

World Latte Art Champion, Jack Hanna, speaks to us and shows off his talent as well as sharing a few tips for creating latte art.

Young, focussed and confident; these are all words that could be used to describe Sydney’s Jack Hanna, World Latte Art Champion 2007. But there are two words that best sum him up – driven and talented. At only 21 years of age, Jack’s journey to World Champion has been swift and decisive. “When I really get into something, I want to be the best that I can be, otherwise I feel I am wasting my time”, explains Jack.Jack started out behind a machine at the beginning of 2004, for some holiday money after finishing high school. A friend was working for a Gloria Jean’s café and they needed a helping hand, so Jack agreed to pitch in. Within a few weeks he was producing perfectly textured milk and experimenting with latte art. Showing natural talent, he wanted to learn more about coffee. Jack soon moved across the road to work at another café where he met Aldo of Di Lorenzo Coffee. Aldo was just starting out at that time and was able to spend a bit of time giving Jack a few pointers when he delivered coffee to the café. Jack credits this time as the true beginning of his “pursuit for coffee perfection”, as he describes it. “I really got into trying to replicate the perfect espresso every time. There are so many variables and changes that you have to manage and that is always challenging and, the more I learnt, the more I realised I didn’t know”. He recalls saying to Aldo at the time, “Aldo, you just watch, by next year I am going to be top 10 in Australia”.

By 18, Jack had already set up his own graphic design company and was completing a marketing course and attending design school but his passion for coffee was really beginning to take hold. Jack was spending a lot of time researching, experimenting and making contact with people in the coffee industry, both in Australia and overseas. Interestingly, after reading an issue of Crema Magazine, Jack was inspired to contact  Campos Coffee, well-known for it’s quality coffee and top baristas, and did some work with them before closing up the design company and heading for Canada.
Jack had heard of a café in Vancouver, called ‘Caffe Artigiano’, which specialised in latte art, and decided to make contact. Owned by brothers Sammy and Vince Piccolo,  Sammy has been the Canadian Barista Champion from 2003-2006 and silver and bronze medallist at the 2004 & 2005 World Barista Champs respectively; Jack packed his bags when Sammy invited him to come to Vancouver to train. This experience was a fantastic environment for creativity, experimentation and the pursuit of perfection and Jack was to stay for a year before heading home to Sydney to focus on the Australian Barista Champs in 2005. Going it alone, armed only with a Robur grinder and a drive to succeed, Jack would even often pay cafes to use their machines in order to train out of hours. Remembering his words to Aldo, Jack did indeed achieve his goal as he came 5^th in the NSW heats behind the 4 barista’s who went on to take out 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th place at the Australian Barista Championships that year.

Jack was confident in his natural talent for latte art and decided to focus on winning the Australian Championships in 2006. As Jack explains, “with ego put aside, I was sure that I was one of the better latte artists in the world and I wanted to prove that to myself”. He did, of course, go on to win and headed off to Belgium in May of this year to compete on the world stage. In competition, baristas have to make 6 coffees in 8 minutes – free-pouring 2 identical latte or cappuccino designs, 2 identical macchiato designs and the final 2 with a ‘signature design’. Jack not only won with his signature design but, in a very impressive display of talent, Jack poured identical rosettas behind his back. Jack perfected this skill in Canada and, to Jack’s knowledge, no one else can do this in Australia.

So, what lies ahead for Jack Hanna? Essentially he sees himself as a business person rather than a barista and has started his own coffee consultancy, providing training for franchises and big business. Jack is also working on releasing a new line of products and is looking to develop a range of coffee blends further into the future. “This has opened a door for me and has been a great opportunity to set goals for the future” – challenging himself to improve the coffee experience in Australia. “In particular I want to educate people who haven’t experienced the specialty side of coffee”.

Born in the Province of Yunnan in China, famous for it’s tea, Jack laughs as he tells of the irony that his mother worked as an international exporter for the Yunnan Tea Company. “I have certainly had to battle with the misconception – what does an Asian kid know about coffee? – but that is changing now”. As Jack continues to achieve his goals with definite determination, passion and a focus on the future there is no doubt that he will make his mark as one of the leading figures in the coffee industry, in Australia and overseas.

Jack’s tips for creating latte art

• Start with a good shot of espresso with a rich crema.
• Work hard to master the art of texturing the milk – You should maintain a soft hissing sound as the steam creates the silky micro-foam by introducing air into the milk in small micro quantities, not in big cavitations of bubbles.
• Full cream milk is easiest to work with.
• A bell-shaped jug is best for a beginner as it helps to promote the whirlpool effect which is an essential part of texturing the milk (but as you gain experience, any shaped jug should be fine).
• The ideal milk temperature, purely for pouring latte art, is at about 50-55 degrees (but the final coffee might not be warm enough as a drink) – good for practicing but not for serving.
• A bowl-like cup with a round bottom is best. A flat bottom cup doesn’t allow the milk to float as well.
• Pour the milk into the cup, rolling the milk through the espresso in smooth circular motions to soften the surface of the crema. This way it becomes more combined with the milk – one creamy body rather than 2 separate entities – and the milk can cut up through the crema once it is time to focus on pouring the design.
• When pouring a rosetta, use a smooth side-to-side wiggling motion to bring a  wave of milk to the top, then draw the milk back through the centre to create the leaves.
• When pouring a heart, slowly pour the milk onto the crema with a small forward pushing motion so that it forms a blob on the surface, then draw back through the centre, ending with a slender tail.

He had worked most of his University years for a local Dunedin coffee roaster, but it was Wellington’s boutique roaster, Coffee Supreme, that had sparked his interest in all things to do with coffee. He had heard that coffee was big in Melbourne, and for an up-and-coming NZ barista, it seemed a good place to come and try his hand.

When he arrived, Jason worked for a year at Ray’s in Brunswick and it was there that he began to carve out his reputation. Meanwhile, he was researching the market, with the intention of possibly starting up his own shop. In mid-2004, he found a likely location, and in July set up Batch, in Balaclava’s bustling Carlisle Street.

When pushed, he admits to being surprised that the standard of coffee isn’t a little higher in Melbourne; mostly, he finds a disappointing lack of consistency in the coffee here… ‘people love the tradition of coffee,  but maybe they’ve become a little complacent’ he says.

So what is it that makes him recognized as one of Melbourne’s top baristas, if not one of the top baristas in Australia? ‘It’s all about consistency’, he stresses. ‘It’s easy to make a great coffee now and again. But it takes real commitment to make a truly excellent espresso time-after-time’.

Jason believes you have to start with the right equipment. The first thing is his Robur grinder – he’s custom-mounted two cooling fans on it, to make sure that the coffee doesn’t overheat. Then there’s the coffee machine itself, obviously temperature stability is just as critical here. He uses a three-group La Marzocco. But whereas even this top-of-the-line unit can expect to deliver 2-3 deg. temperature variation, Jason has implanted thermometers in the groups and is continually venting. He estimates this gives him a maximum variation of 0.2 – 0.4 degrees!

He also believes in taking time to do things properly – for example, the milk for every milk-based coffee gets textured individually, instead of in bulk. ‘You need to slow down, to appreciate a good coffee’ says Jason. Maybe in this fast food age, we need a bit more of that sort of thinking.

What about Batch – how did it get its name?  ‘Originally, I had thought of naming it Bach (the NZ name for a shack, or holiday house) but I soon realized that no-one would understand it’ says Jason, smiling. ‘I had visions of people coming in and asking me if I was related to the composer’. He may not be a famous musician, but Jason Chan is definitely a maestro in the world of Australian coffee.

Go to our Cafe Reviews to read more on Batch…