What goes into competition preparation

What goes into competition preparation? I cannot blame people for being puzzled when they stroll past the barista competition stage. As outsiders to the coffee industry attending the yearly homemakers […]

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What goes into competition preparation?

I cannot blame people for being puzzled when they stroll past the barista competition stage. As outsiders to the coffee industry attending the yearly homemakers expo in Cape Town, they must wonder what the fuss is about as the crowd applauds the rounds of espressos served. Even industry folk who have watched and supported peers within industry but have not competed themselves, do not realise that the 15min on stage is arguably the easiest part of the competition.

(Taken by Lee Henriques)

The days, weeks and months leading into the competition are the most difficult. I’ve only been competing for one and a half years, but the months I’ve spent preparing for competition have been the hardest and most testing of the two and a half years I’ve been working in coffee.

My competition set comprises of three main areas; the coffee, the theme and the signature drink. Preparation begins with either one of these.

The Coffee

Choosing a coffee for competition can at times be very straight forward. Getting that coffee up to standard for competition is a completely different story. There are endless days (and sometimes nights) spent building a flavour profile, working closely with your roaster to get the best out of that coffee and deciding on the perfect espresso ratio for both your espresso and milk courses. Keep in mind that after roasting the coffee has to be given time to age before it can be tasted which could amount to several weeks of trial and error.

The Theme

Ideally, you want to have a central theme for your competition set. This can be an idea you’d like to introduce to the coffee community, new processing techniques, equipment or even your personal coffee journey. Deciding on this theme can be a tedious process and developing the theme into a dialogue to be performed on stage can be even more tiresome. As difficult as it may be, this is part of the competition journey and cannot be forced.

The Signature Drink

In most barista competition sets, competitors reserve their signature drinks for last. There’s a reason for this. Unless, for sensory purposes, a competitor decides to change the order of their drinks, the signature beverage is used as the highlight of the set (other than the coffee of course). So when it comes to signature drink development the competitor has to bear in mind that the on-stage-preparation of the drink has to be visually appealing and engaging, the ingredients have to have a harmonious balance with the espresso and the final beverage presented to the judges has to be aesthetically pleasing in order to score well. This means that the competitor has to take an enormous amount of elements into consideration namely the espresso flavour profile, ingredients and processes, preparation methods and serving vessels, to name a few.

Once these 3 main areas have been taken care of then miscellaneous elements have to be taken care of such as cups, servers, milk, tasting notes, table setting, etc. This is followed by repeatedly running through sets with mock judges to improve on speech and delivery because this is a service competition after all.

Competition is by no means an easy task. Similar to sport, the winners are often the ones putting in extra hours on the practice field. Preparation is key.

The myth about the price of drinking a cup of coffee out in South Africa

RESPECT THE CONSUMER The team and I at Origin welcome all customers to share their opinions, to decide how and where to spend their hard-earned money, to choose which café […]

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RESPECT THE CONSUMER

The team and I at Origin welcome all customers to share their opinions, to decide how and where to spend their hard-earned money, to choose which café serves them the cup of coffee and at the price they want to pay. In light of these decisions, we aim to provide a guide as to what goes into the price of a cup of coffee.

A WORLDWIDE VIEW OF THE PRICE OF A CUP OF COFFEE

Numbeo is a fascinating website and claims to be “the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide”. They provide information on living conditions around the world, including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution.

Interestingly, one of the items Numbeo track in their Basket of Goods & Services used to calculate relative cost of living is the price of a cappuccino in various places around the world.

Most South African consumers may be surprised, after years of increasing coffee cup prices at their favourite cafes, that on average South Africa is ranked as the 87th cheapest cup of coffee out of 122 countries in the survey, where 1 is the most expensive. Other surveys I have seen (such as in Monocle) have reflected a similar view.

Statistics from Numbeo dated 24 February 2017

Aside from our close neighbours above, here are the stats for a few other countries –

Perhaps, before deciding to visit beautiful South Africa on holiday, coffee-mad tourists should consider whether they can find their fix at better value while traveling in Colombia, a coffee producing country selling at $1.28 per cup, for example, or Egypt averaging at $1.13, or the cheapest of all Algeria $0.63. Or, go straight to where it all began: the average cup in Ethiopia is ranked at 118th at the going rate of $0.89.

THE VIEW ON GREAT COFFEE IN SOUTH AFRICA

One should note that most of the cups in the averages above, use commercial or fine commercial coffee and not speciality coffee. These coffees are traded on commodity markets where farmers are often paid very low prices for their hard work. They are at the mercy of the high levels of market volatility (dramatically changing prices for their crop), and from which they do not get rewarded enough for producing higher quality coffee. Most of those average prices for a “regular cappuccino” above are also likely based on a single shot espresso.

South African coffee has changed so much since we launched in 2006. At Origin, we have put in a lot of passion and hard work. We have roasted coffee used to pour more than a million cups of coffee. We have trained over 2,000 baristas who pour our (and many other café’s) coffee. Together with the work of the many other roasteries, the cafes and venues that have committed themselves to serve better coffee, I believe we have transformed Cape Town into a truly world-class coffee (and café) city, with the rest of South Africa soon to follow.

A flat white (double-shot) at Origin sells for R27, 25% more than the South African average. No matter how much better coffee is in South Africa ten years later, I believe that what we serve is far beyond the local average, and an exceptional cup of coffee even by the standard of other top cafés around the world. At an equivalent of $2.04, that Origin flat white is still the 66th cheapest rank out of 122 countries in the survey.

For the health of the farmers who grow all coffee, and of our local baristas and roasters, I think it’s critical that consumers really understand and are conscious of the fact that despite any views they may have to the contrary, the cost of going out to drink a cup of coffee in South Africa is relatively inexpensive compared to the rest of the world. We are fortunate for the quality and price of our coffee as consumers.

So what can you do? The best thing you can do for the local industry and for coffee farmers is to support ethical cafes and roasters who pay their staff well and who source better, speciality-grade, traceable coffees and are willing to pay more for them.

Origin is committed to paying higher prices to farmers for producing the highest quality green coffees. We are committed to achieving technical mastery of the roasting process. We have committed ourselves for over ten years to train an entire generation of South African baristas. We are committed to paying the baristas who work in our cafes living wages which far exceed what many of our competitors pay their peers, including those which you may support regularly.

The next time you pay R27 for a cup at Origin, consider the facts and the true value of what goes into that cup.

New coffee release – Rwanda Buf Café Nyarusiza

This coffee was actually released a little while ago but I thought I’d write a little post about it, especially considering that I recently tweaked the roast profile.

Let’s just take a quick peek at the specs:

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This coffee was actually released a little while ago but I thought I’d write a little post about it, especially considering that I recently tweaked the roast profile.

Let’s just take a quick peek at the specs:

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Understanding coffee acidity – after the workshop

I don’t think there is a better way to get to understand coffee acidity than to taste fruits( and other foods) that contain the same acids prominent in most high […]

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I don’t think there is a better way to get to understand coffee acidity than to taste fruits( and other foods) that contain the same acids prominent in most high grade specialty coffees.

This workshop was divided into 4 segments with a total duration of 1 hour. We had a full house with this one- 12 sign ups.

  • I started everybody off with an intro into acidity followed by a tasting of various fruits which represent the archetypal acids found in coffee.
  • And then everyone sketched what they perceived in their mouth. This is a good exercise to start visualizing subtle differences in acidity.
  • The results followed, not surprisingly- almost everybody was on the right track.
  • I then went on to explain how coffee acidity changes with alterations in grind size and water temperature.
  • Of course, we closed off with a cupping of various coffees from our current selection, with an emphasis on acid identification.

So for those who missed it, below is a breakdown of the two areas I touched on most in the workshop.

What is Acidity?

An acid will increase the number of hydrogen ions in a solution, and can be measured by using a pH analyser ( or strips). Every time you start brewing coffee, the coffee diffuses into the water and increases the hydrogen ion level. The perception of these hydrogen ions by receptors in the mouth creates quite a unique experience. I would describe it as being more like a tingling sensation, rather than an actual taste. Of course, sourness to some degree will be present.

Sour and Salt are different to the other three tastes( Sweet, Bitter and Umami) in that they are simple ions: hydrogen ions (H+) for acidity and, mainly, sodium ions (Na+) for salt. Some researchers have speculated that many cells on the tongue might be able to pick up these signals, relaying this information in a complex pattern of nerve signals to the brain.

The abbreviation- pH is known as power of hydrogen ,or in other circles, potential hydrogen. Coffee has a pH of around 5, which is around the same level of acidity as a banana. By comparison- orange juice is 100 times more acidic than coffee. This should clear up some confusion with those folk who think that coffee is going to burn a whole through their stomach if they drink copious amounts of it. There is another mostly harmless reason for that sensation, for those who do experience it. Perhaps that’s a topic for another day.

Favorable acids give the perception of sourness in a brew, and it is critical in enhancing complexity and structure. It also has a dramatic effect on modulating the brew in general. I would argue, probably more so than any other component of brewed coffee. High quality acidity and a more diverse array of acids are associated with fresh crop coffees( around 4-9 months after harvest).Ever wonder why we keep talking about seasonality? Well now you know.

Why does it matter to you?

Acidity seems to be greatly affected by grind size, water temperature and extraction time. You basically have the power to manipulate any coffee in your possession, by changing these parameters. In the last stretch of the workshop, I gave pointers on which brew methods and parameters to use to emphasize or negate certain acids in a coffee. It sounds like complicated stuff but once you actually start thinking about what you’re drinking and what you’re feeling and tasting, then it all starts to make sense. Below are a few pointers for manipulating acids at home. Remember that, certain coffees will have these acids available to work with and others will not. So the choice of coffee is the key to success.

  • Pourovers for Citric Acid ( citrus fruit)
  • Low temperature( 85-88 degree C) Aeropress for Phosphoric Acid ( berry/winey)
  • Espresso/ Mokapot and high temperature Aeropress for Malic Acid ( apple/ stone- fruit)

Enjoy the brews.

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