victorian barista championships

well... yesterday was a great day for coffee if the finals of the Victorian Barista Championships are any indication, with a good turn-out by the public, great food and coffee served at the Beach House, and a fantastic performance from all of the finalists, with David Makin taking top honours again this year

Here's a few photos from the day:

David Seng's table set-up for the judges incorporating his 'apple' theme that featured in his signature drink:


Eager judges and contestants clamor for the results:


The deserving winners from l to r: david seng 3rd place, david makin, 1st place, sponsor, con from 7gms 2nd place

Beautiful LA Marzocco FB70 coffee machines (the red one would look good on my bench tp at home!)

victorian barista comp semi finals

well wouldn't you know it... I bought my Olympus camera along on the day but left my sd card at home - so the following photos are from my phone: apologies about the quality!

Here's Con from 7gms demonstrating his passion!



Here he is again - man the guy is all focus!



David Makin - multiple award winning champion - I mean, the guy is a machine!


The judges hard at it!



I'll take my 'big' camera with me tomorrow and get some 'real' shots!

Pat

shanti bhagwan -urban chai temple!

Well... its been a while since my last post for a number of reasons.

Firstly, my 'new' (read: less than 12 months old) Toshiba Tecra laptop died a vainglorious death - faulty hard drive

In the end it was faster and more convenient for me to pay for the repair of the laptop and for the information retrieval myself, rather than wait for weeks on end to get the job done through the 'official' repair channels

Oh well never mind too bad...

At least I've got a working machine again!

Secondly, as I've alluded to in previous posts and as the title of this thread suggests, I've opened my new cafe @ Melbourne Uni - and YES that IS the actual name of the of the cafe above and NO its not a joke!

Still going through a steep learning curve with the new coffee machine: an impressive 3 group Expobar G10 with multiple boilers: one large one just for steam and hot water usage, and a dedicated boiler for each group head offering excellent temperature stability, and the ability to 'dial in' the ideal temperature for each group head to complement the 'sweet spot' of which ever coffee you are using

In my case its a single origin Honduras Copan variety from Jasper coffee, and yes, true to form its both Fair Trade and organic...

New store looks great considering that we haven't had much to work with

Have brushed it up (read cleaned it up) quite a bit after the previous operators exited

Still waiting on finance to come through though, and am looking forward to embracing the renovation process to make the store functional, attractive, and uniquely my own

Managed to hire a wonderful new manager for the store within the first week of trading, so fingers crossed it all works out, and she lasts the distance... so far so good!

Had a very low key opening, and I plan on keeping it that way until such time as systems, procedures, and equipment are all in place

Still, we made 200 coffees last Thursday, which is great for our second week of trade, and I expect that number will continue to increase as we pick up our game a bit

So watch this space and I'll endeavor to keep you informed of our progress

Home roasting has necessarily been put on the back burner for now as other priorities assert themselves

Still... it is coming up to winter, and I've got 5kg of Yirgacheffe and Columbian Peaberry to work my way through

Uh oh... i can feel a roast coming on!

Cheers,

Pat