Taxi’s,Tim Wendelboe and Tasty Cheese.

On Monday morning while riding down Elizabeth st on my way to the Tim Wendelboe talk at Market Lane, I was blind sided by a taxi and knocked off my bike in a rather horrific manner. Sitting on the curb, various kind folk draped me in a blankets and waited until the ambulance arrived. After they had given me a once over, removed the gravel from my badly road-rashed knee’s and made sure I wasn’t suffering from a concussion, I made to get back on the bike and continue towards Prahran. Unfortunately though, my bike didn’t fare as well as I had through the accident and I had to leave it with the friendly crew at BSC. In a strange coincidence, Remy from Little Wish was also having bike troubles that morning and just so happened to walk into the same bike shop as me. We hopped in a taxi and waltzed in just before the morning began.

The talk was interrupted at various stages with slide photos of team Wendelboe partying it up, which salvaged my badly spaced mind with much needed humor. The most relevant piece of information which punctuated the haze of post-accident was the importance of green buyers and roasters forming partnerships with growers. Not in a sense of labeling the coffee that you have bought as, “Relationship Coffee”. But entering into written or spoken agreements in which, in return for their loyalty to you, you continue to buy their produce, regardless of quality. As Tim pointed out, coffee trees have a five year cycle of quality, with some years faring better than others.

Later on in the day, we hit the cupping tables and were lucky enough to taste a Geisha grown in Honduras. It was only planted two years ago but it knocked everything else on the table out of the running. Really looking forward to what it might come up with in a few years time.

After mopping various spit stains from the floors and rearranging the chairs for the next days service, Will Studd breezed into the building laden with styrofoam boxes, overflowing with a plethora of deliciousness. The stragglers of the day crowded around the table to be entertained by a broad spectrum of the cheesiest kind. Everything from the softest goats curd to Taleggio and Cheddar. We got an enthralling condensed version of the ins and outs of the Australian cheese industry and finished off with the infamous Roquefort (which after a 2 million dollar paper commissioned by the Australian Government is actually allowed to be imported. It was AMAZING).

Doesn’t really matter what flavor passion comes in but this one was particularly delectable.

Hacienda La Esmeralda.

Oh deary me!
Words cannot convey to you how brilliant yesterday actually was. Having the entire weekend off is really starting to reveal its merits.

At 6am I jumped on Jethro and sped down Flinders street, took a left and made it just in time to cup with Toshi and Kris at St. Ali. Everything is so different there now, its kind of like when you move away from home and your parents re-arrange your bedroom so that you don’t recognize it anymore.
The Cachoeira was a standout, a balanced body with massive amount of peanuts. The Natural we cupped was also beautiful with berries and sweetness. Mexican Altura was great with big coca notes at the finish. The Blue Batak they had was also very interesting. We all thought it was the Lintong. Oh how wrong we were!

I settled in with the Saturday paper after that and ate the most enormous breakfast in the history of poached eggs. Tried some Rwandan through the machine and tasted their new espresso blend. It was all so lovely.

Jumped on Jethro again to make it back into the city and got a sneak peak of the new place. It hasn’t got a roof now but you can surely see the large amounts of potential. Plus there is the whole bonus of how ridiculously close to my house it is. Totally ace.

Then it was time for a coffee epiphany. We lined up a few things on the cupping table, the Muchoki Peaberry from Square Mile, which we have had in before that displayed a whole lot more snow peas than this standout from the fellas in London. We also had the El Portillo with lovely fudge notes from the same place.
Next in line was where things really hit a hight note. The fragrance was of limes, coconut, apricot and amazing sweetness. The cup was even more astounding, as if someone had spiked what we were slurping. MD really nailed it on this one, it was one of the most spectacular things I have ever tasted. Of course it was the Esmerelda.

Next up were three from Monmouth, who are also from London but to tell you the truth, I was just a little spoiled from then on and kept returning to cup number three.

We did another line up, which included some washed Sidamo, Nicaraguan Natural that we had roasted up and some Kenyans from Russ at Source and Hazel in Sydney.
I finished it all with a quiet coffee in the corner, had some lovely lunch at Sweet Source in Carlton and spent the rest of the afternoon trawling second hand book shops.

If only it had rained, it would have been 100% perfect. Oh well, theres always Sunday.

Victorian Cupping Champions!

Saturday was a rather large day. The alarm coaxed me from sleep-land at 5am, so I rolled out of bed, made some muesli and jumped on my bike to open the shop.
The morning went on without much ado until the clock struck 10am and I sprinted for a taxi. The weather wasn’t very agreeable, but once within the showgrounds the weather didn’t seem to matter with hoards of families eating fairy floss and giant rides hurling people through the air.
It was a little effort to find the tiny pavilion that we had been allocated, but it was jam packed with a sea of friendly faces. The roasters guild had set up a few sample roasters and the air would periodically fill with the hazy smoke of a freshly roasted batch.

Turns out that I was to cup last, so I chilled and hung out with Tosh and J-Town and generally enjoyed the sights and smells of the Royal Melbourne Show. I was darn pleased with my result of 5/8 to win my heat against Dave and Melissa. I was also impressed with the crowd that we managed to attract during the proceedings. It was a shame I couldn’t stick around and grabbed a cab straight back to work to finish the day out.

The winners got a whole swag of prizes! Tom Bond from Grinders coffee came out on top with 8/8, Toshi got second with 6/8 and Luca snagged third with 5/8. Congratulations and high fives all round I reckon.