Java Junkie Coffee Magazine launch edition by Java Junkie Coffee Magazine

Java Junkie Barista banter International barista champ The story of a cafe Win in our competitions

Launch Edition

Nifty gadgets

“Sniff...Whazat?!

Zat’s coffee!” Garfield

From the ed... Java Junkie Magazine aims to give a voice to the growing coffee culture in South Africa on a number of levels: • The coffee drinker Read all about what to look for in a good cup of coffee, read up about how your coffee is prepared, where it comes from, who’s preparing it for you, tell us where your favourite spots are, tell us about your favourite baristas... • The coffee business owner Hear what your clients are looking for, learn about what to look for in a good barista, if you are passionate about your coffee, get your business featured so that our readers know where to go. • The coffee supplier Flaunt your stuff! Let us know about the best products out there, where we can purchase great roasts from, where we can get machines and all the tools that go with them...

Mostly we want to create an active forum of folk who would love to see the coffee culture grow and develop in South Africa! Let us know what you would like to read about, what you would like to see, where you like going to for that great cup... keep in contact with us! We really do want to know what you think and desire. Thank you so much to all our contributors who have made this first edition possible! We have LOVED working with you! To our readers and advertisers, we hope that you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you. Yours in caffeine, Trace

Contents

Story of a Cafe

12 Barista Banter 17 Business Sense 18 Coffee World 22 Surprises 23 Hints & Tips 24 Nifty Gadgets

Editor Tracy Ward Sub-editor Rae Reinhardt Photographer Kim Swan javajunkiemag@gmail.com http://javajunkiecoffee.blogspot.com cONTRIBUTORS: www.worldbaristachampionship.org, Kyle Fraser, Judd Campbell, David Donde.

Meet the Corner Cafe’s “new kid on the coffee block” - their special blend, you guessed it! “Judd” My name is Judd Campbell and I have a coffee problem. That’s why I went to the best when selecting my coffee supplier. I wanted to team up with people who actually gave a shit about the planet and I found a company, Colombo Fine Beverage Co. This passionate family take so much pride in the way they ethically source, drum-roast and pack Judd Espresso Blend and Single Estate Coffee. They select 100% Arabica & 100% African beans every season for me and roast each individual origin to its own taste profile, before blending them together in harmonious espresso

balance. Sometimes they find a seasonal Single Estate Coffee that is so special on its own that we pack it unblended. This single origin coffee is usually great through a plunger or a drip filter. Browse their website <www.colombo. co.za> for more tips on making a brilliant cup of coffee or call them on 031 2053283 ask for Kyle. Use the tin to plant herbs in or keep on your desk for pens hell if you bring it back I’ll give you a discount on your next batch.

The Story of a Cafe

By Judd Campbell

I failed matric and my dad threw me out the house, so I hitched to Durban three days after school broke up. I have been waitering ever since. Sure, I own the cafe I’m working at now, but I’m still just a waiter and I love my life. I’m doing what makes me happy, no two days are the same. It’s just bloody perfect, and the coffee is free! I remember my first espresso, it was 16 years ago... Illy coffee at Circus Circus Cafe in Musgrave Centre. Back then everyone was a Barista! Waiters, barmen, even the sculler was allowed to work behind the espresso machine. The

www.cornercafe.co.za

cappuccino was only good if it stood two feet above the lip of the cup and it had to be boiling, it was returned if it wasn’t very milky. Fast-forward 16 years (and some 30 restaurants later) and the standards have changed. The public at large is more descerning and a milky, boiling hot cappuccino with a frothy tower can now can kill a café. Maybe it’s because of the

The Story of a Cafe

international society we live in, perhaps people have travelled and tasted coffee as it should be? Who knows, the fact remains: customers will not deal with shit coffee. If you don’t get it right they will let you know! Although, I have some customers who wouldn’t know a good coffee if it bit them on nose, mid sip. The customer is only right until she/he is bloody wrong. Sometimes you have to stand-up for what you believe in, especially if you

know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen, tasted and enjoyed coffee all over the world, and when it came my turn to open a shop I had to get the best. I started approaching roasters to get a “green” coffee, sourced ethically. I didn’t want a coffee that had been grown in India or Venezuela and shipped all over to be roasted in far-off factories and then sent on again to Africa to eventually find its way to me...hell no! I wanted 100% African coffee, 100% Arabica, a low carbon footprint and most of all I wanted it to be all mine, exclusively! I wanted to put my name on it, so that I would always give it my full attention. Oh, and I

also wanted to use recycleable packaging (my cafe is Eco friendly, if you haven’t picked that up by now). Only Colombo Fine Beverage Co. said yes and started bringing me test shots of coffee all through the day for six months. Their offices are less than a kilometer from the café, so it made the blending, testing and tasting much easier. They have eventually put together an all African, all Arabica blend that may just be the nicest espresso in our solar system, it’s just perfect and I’m proud to have my name on the tin. My sales are up by a third, and I’ve only lost that one customer who got bitten on the nose. The lads at Colombo are a bit over

the top and insisted I get the Nuova Simonelli Aurelia espresso machine with a Mythos grinder. This coffee machine is so sexy and I’m sure it says “morning Judd, did you sleep well tiger?” every day when I open up, it’s such a far cry from those earlier machines at Circus Circus, automatic frothers and buttons everywhere. You need a pilots license these days, the thing turns itself on and off too, and allows me to get all kinds of info off it. The grinder also grinds fresh for every single shot, which is so vital in making the perfect espresso . In four months we have gone through a bizzilion kgs and counting. I’m saving the planet one cappuccino at a time, and loving it.

Barista Banter

By Kyle Fraser

www.colombo.co.za

When specialty coffee is the business, Barista is the word. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re sitting in a cafĂŠ right now, your Barista should be your mainline into a central database of caffeine, but do you know what to look for in a good cup?

Barista Banter I’ll start with a simple formality… let me break it down, dictionary style: Barista: [ba-ris-ta] noun. (Business/Professions) a person who makes & serves coffee in a coffee bar or café [Italian: literally, bartender]

Right. Espresso is a coffee preparation technique, not a coffee roast level or grind setting. You’re doing really well, I would usually just stop here but you’re no ordinary

Ok, I feel like we cleared that up. A Barista = professional coffee person. You would usually encounter these “persons” in a café, behind an espresso machine and (hopefully) in complete control. What the definition doesn’t tell you (sort of like a secret hidden message, the magical coffee people have been guarding for centuries) is that it gets more advanced than that.

Espresso, as a form of extraction can be very unforgiving. As can other techniques associated with espresso based drinks, such as milk steaming. Let’s just put another definition in here because it looks scientific:

Espresso: [es-prê-sso] noun. pl. is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee [Italian: literally, press out]

coffee lover, let’s get technical… Coffee, as we know it, is a roasted seed (yup, it’s not a bean, weird hey) that forms in the fruit of a tree called Coffea Arabica (known as Arabica) or Coffea Canephora (known as Robusta). These trees usually grow the best seeds (“beans”) when planted between the tropics and growers of specialty coffee put an intense amount of effort into planting, nurturing, harvesting and

Barista Banter processing their “beans”. Those beans get packed up and shipped to specialty coffee roasters around the world and we should try to best compliment the individual coffees from different origins by roasting them each in their own special way. Roasted coffee is best when its local because, once roasted, the coffee becomes incredibly sensitive to oxygen and light and begins a rapid deterioration in terms of flavour and aroma. Anything that made the coffee “specialty” such as delicate aromas and nuances will be lost

By Kyle Fraser

www.colombo.co.za

over time. A Barista should know all of this. A Barista should also know what type of flavour and aroma to expect from his/her coffee, before they make it. Knowing where your coffee was grown and roasted is not advanced, it’s a required starting point. This information is vital in the preparation of specialty coffee. I would like to concentrate on the espresso method for this article, although it is by no means the only technique to make coffee. Espresso has become a favorable café option in

Barista Banter South Africa and it has also become a dog’s breakfast in cafés through-out the country. No reason to give up, however. Below, we have a picture of a good espresso extraction and “crema”. An espresso should be concentrated in aroma & flavour, with a crema sealing it all in (brown/hazelnut coloured foam caused by a combination of undissolved essential oils and other lipids or proteins). There are a variety of different ways to pull a great espresso shot, consistently. On our Introductory Barista Course,

we concentrate on grind adjustment, hygiene and timing. You would think that a café owner or entrepreneur would know all of these factors intricately before selling a single espresso shot, but the majority of espresso shots are still pulled with little to no effort by a waiter who has never been trained on the art/science of espresso. We haven’t even begun to talk about adding milk to that espresso shot! Have you ever noticed a build-up of old, dried milk on an espresso machine’s steam wand? I’m not a food technologist,

Barista Banter but I’m pretty sure that old dried up milk is not the best thing to put in your cappuccino. It takes something as simple as a wipe, with a cloth every time you steam milk, to avoid that. A cappuccino is a truly awesome achievement, for any barista. Now I’m not going to lay down the law of ‘latte art in every cup’, but one thing I will state is that a professional barista should do his/her upmost to show customers how much effort has gone into making that R12-R18 cappuccino worth the investment. When I roast and blend (espresso blends such as Aggressive Chocolate Espresso) for my customers, I have micro-textured milk in mind. That means sweet, velvety, smooth, steamed milk that enhances

By Kyle Fraser

www.colombo.co.za

your overall experience of the already sweet espresso shot. You can also use this sort of milk to “free-pour” latte art, but that takes practice! This means that our coffee is truly remarkable when you pull a decent espresso shot and steam milk rather than frothing it beyond recognition. Milk that is too hot is usually burnt, which isn’t complementary to any coffee in my opinion. If you are sitting at a café/ restaurant reading this at the moment, having an espresso or a cappuccino that you feel does not live up to these standards, please give us a call or visit or training centre for more details on how to change that!

We take coffee seriously, but only because it can be aweinspiring when it’s made with love... and we’re addicted to it too. 031 205 32 83 369 Gale Street, Durban info@colombo.co.za 16

Business Sense

GET YOUR WEBSITE TO WORK FOR YOU... Email Marketing An effective email campaign has the power to attract potential, and maintain existing clients. We all like to browse around until something catches our eye! We avidly start reading through, and then run out of time - the phone goes, business requires our attention - and we do the inevitable - we log out! How then do you begin to ensure that these folk become regulars on your site? Mail lists are the answer you are looing for! Spend time and energy building and maintaining your database. Communicate worthwhile information to your list - none of like to sense endless, useless gumph! If you are going to say something, make it effective and of value to your clients.

Google Analytics

Make it your business to learn about your site visitors! Where do they come from? What are they looking at on your site? How much time are they spending on your site? Google Analytics is free! http://www.google.com/analytics

BE USER FRIENDLY

You know what you are talking about, what you mean... but does everyone else? Use your friends, family and work colleagues to test your site and give you feedback. Ensuring that your site is easy to use will mean that folk are happy to interate with you, to order from you etc!

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO enables website owners to maximise traffic that is coming through to their sites. It does require a little effort to achieve huge results! TIPS - increase your rankings: 1. Link to websites that are relevant to your business. 2. Make sure that they link back to you as well! 3. Your website code needs to be search engine friendly. 3. Add new content regularly... Ensure that articles relate to your business! Google Guidelines: www.google.com/support/ webmasters/bin/answer. py?answer=35769&hl=en

IMAGE: David S. Holloway

After three days of competition among 53 professional and champion baristas, Michael Phillips won the title of the 2010 World Barista Champion. Michael hails from the United States where he is employed at Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea. This was his second time competing in the event. Other finalists were (listed in order of place): Raul Rodas (Guatemala), Scottie Callaghan (Australia), Colin Harmon (Ireland), Soren Stiller Markussen (Denmark), and Stefanos Domatiotis (Greece). Hundreds of spectators were on site to watch the competition and the live stream web video drew another

200,000-plus visitors. The World Barista Championship (WBC) was founded by the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) and the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) and is supported by a number of sponsors from the industry, with the goals of recognizing professional excellence and increasing awareness and education of specialty coffee. The finalists receive a number of prizes including coffee equipment and accessories along with trips to Peru and Italy, which are designed to enhance their understanding of the supply chain with the ultimate aim of sharing that

Coffee World

knowledge and passion for coffee with the end-consumer. Next year’s competition will be held in Bogota, Colombia (2-5 June 2011) and is the first time a coffee producing country will host. WBC Executive Director, Cindy Chang, comments, “The participation and engagement from coffee origin is increasing each year and that commitment is evident in the results.

bringing the coffee world together and deepening the understanding and relationships within it”.

The World Barista Championship is the preeminent international coffee competition. The organization focuses on promoting excellence in coffee, advancing the barista profession, and engaging a worldwide audience with an This year, five of the twelve semiannual championship event finalists represented countries that also that serves as the culmination of events produce coffee”. She continues, “For us, held in more than 50 member nations that symbolizes the greater significance around the globe. the competition holds, in that it is www.worldbaristachampionship.org

Coffee World

• Look out for their Voyage Range - available in select stores. • Colombo now also boast a world class barista training area above the shop itself. 031 205 32 83 369 Gale Street, Durban www.colombo.co.za

They will be offering cofee appreciation courses, as well as full training for baristas!

Fresh drum roasted arabica coffee • A boutique roaster of speciality coffees, roasted beans based in Umhlanga Rocks Anthony Peach 071 898 6752 beanstruk@discoverymail.co.za www.beanstruk.co.za agent for JURA espresso machines

daily to order.

• Coffee can be mailed or couriered to your door anywhere in SA. Keep an eye out for their new premises coming soon to Salt Rock!

• Specialising in producing artisanal style coffees for the coffee geeks out there. 021 419 2945 Prestwich Memorial, 1 Somerset Rd Green Point www.truthcoffee.com

• Buy from the roastery or depot, buy online or get us to supply your Hotel, restaurant or business.

• Experience Coffee diversity firsthand in a cupping (tasting) evening at the Roastery. • Fair trade is an essential element of Bean There Coffee Company. o11 726 4883 44 Stanley Avenue, Milpark www.beanthere.co.za

20 Contact javajunkiemag@gmail.com to get your roastery or cafe featured here!

Coffee World

XPress SmartCup introduces XPress, the first singleuse French Press. XPress is comprised of a disposable/ recyclable lid, rod and press that will fit most standard 16 & 20oz. hot cups.

The Barista Championship Committee has announced the dates for the next cycle of the South African Barista Championships. Regionals • Cape Town - 17 – 19 September 2010 Table Bay Hotel • Durban - 15 – 17 October 2010 Pavilion • Johannesburg - 5 – 7 November 2010 University of Johannesburg

National Barista Championship 13 – 16 March 2011 Hostex, Sandton Convention Centre

Coffee SITEs We Love • colombofinebeverageco.blogspot.com • beavercreek.co.za • ilovecoffee.co.za • coffeeuniverse.com

Surprises

WIN 1 X VARIETY PACK - From Beaver Creeks’ latest selection - The Black Rhino Range, the pack includes a 250g bag of the following: Congo Kikivi Mountain, Ethiopian BLACK Sidamo, Malawi Nantipwilli AA, Uganda RHINO Bugisu Kapchorwa District, Tanzania AA RARE AFRICAN COFFEE and the Zimbabwe Farfell Estate coffee.

BLACK RHINO RARE AFRICAN COFFEE

Congo Kikivu Mountain

Ethiopian Sidamo

B i s e c t e d b y t h e E q u a t o r, C o n g o l i e s p a r t i a l l y i n t h e

The Sidamo province is the birthplace of coffee.

northern and southern hemispheres. The climate and

Sidamo is a region where coffee is milled using the "washed"

Value: R239

Email javajunkiemag@gmail.com with Beaver Creek in the header + your contact details in the email body to stand a chance to win!

topography of the Congo is similar to the outstanding

method instead of a more primitive "natural" process.

Arabica coffee producing regions in nearby Kenya,

Natural sun drying and frequent hand turning ensure even

U g a n d a , R w a n d a a n d Ta n z a n i a . C e l e b r a t e t h e r e b i r t h o f

drying and taste retention. Sorting is also carried out by

democracy in central Africa's largest nation by

hand to ensure the highest grade of pure coffee and

tasting the fresh surprise of Congo.

a taste that originates from the heart of Africa.

250gsm

• •••••••••• ••••

Special offer for Java Junkie readers

BLACK RHINO RARE AFRICAN COFFEE

Malawi - Nantipwilli AA Nantipwilli Estate belongs to a government organization called Press Agriculture Limited. Nantipwili is their flagship estate, situated close to the city of Blantyre. Coffees that come from here are renowned for their impressive Blue-green appearance as well as their smooth flavour and medium acidity.

• •••••••••• •••• 250gsm

20% off the Abid Clever Dripper 20% their coffees when you BLACK order online RHINO

www.truthcoffee.com RARE AFRICAN COFFEE

Tanzania AA I n t e r m s o f t h e Ta n z a n i a c o f f e e c h a r a c t e r, i t b e l o n g s to the Central / East African family of washed (wet-processed) coffees, bright acidty, and mostly flavor ful. O f t h e g o o d Ta n z a n i a n c o f f e e s t h e r e a r e n o r t h e r n r e g i o n s around Mt. Kilimanjaro, Moshi, Mbeya and Southern Songea. This coffee is a blend of estates from each region.

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HINTS AND TIPS

Store your coffee in an airtight container, in a cool, dry place. DO NOT store your coffee in the fridge or freezer, as this degrades the flavours!

Sprinkle used coffee grinds in your garden to deter ants.

Keep your coffee machine clean: the oils left over from coffee beans, and the hard water deposits that build up, can really effect the taste of your morning coffee!

www.jasonlove.com

Coffee is at its best if used a day or two after roasting.

nifty gadgets

By David Donde

www.truthcoffee.com

ABID Clever Coffee Dripper Abid has enhanced the French Press concept, and has developed a brewer that produces an incredibly rich, robust and aromatic brew without bitterness, acidity or loose grounds in the cup. The difference is our new filtering system...Instead of pushing the grounds to the bottom of the brew carafe, the grounds settle naturally. When brewing is complete, coffee is dispensed through our patented Amazing Shut-Off Filter that creates rich, flavourful coffee and filters out the grounds. www.abid.com.tw

Truth Coffee gave us some tips on making a great cup in the ABID For more help: 021-419 2945 www.truthcoffee.com

Special offer for Java Junkie readers

20% off the Abid Clever Dripper 20% their coffees when you order online www.truthcoffee.com

nifty gadgets

1. Take freshly ground coffee, ground on a filter setting. 2. Leave the ABID on the counter on it’s coaster. It shouldn’t leak! 3. Use about 18g of coffee (around 60ml or 2 heaped tablespoons). 4. The size of filter paper is not that important, but for best results, insert filter paper and rinse it with your freshly boiled water, swirl until the paper is thoroughly wet. Disposing of the water, in order to remove any bleach or paper taste from the filter. 5. Add the coffee. 6. Pour over a little water no hotter than 90°C. This is easily achieved by letting the kettle boil and stand for round 2 minutes. The average kettle loses 7°C every minute. Not using cooler water will cause a bitter flavour. 7. Allow it to swell the coffee and after a few moments pour in more water. We recommend using a total of 250ml of water, but don’t use more water than your cup holds. 8. Wait between 2-4 minutes. It is worth timing. Longer increases flavour and body. Shorter enhances perceived complexity. 9. Place the ABID on your cup and the coffee will come out on its own. 10. Enjoy. The Abid is dishwasher safe, but a brief rinse will do or if using immediately again, don’t bother, just tip out the grinds and go again.