Now this sounds much better than the HV Gardens Choc Festival next weekend that the resident Cholaholics were planning to go to (this is after Aroma last weekend where excessive amounts were spent on those choc covered strawberry skewer things (while at the same time being fairly negative about my attempts to become acquainted with shiny new toys   )).  Hopefully I can redirect their attention and get to Maitland instead  

i will be there with bells on, finally a Aroma fest i live close to.

I hope that every local Snobber will be able to come and supprt this event, and maybe some out of towners could make the trip up the F3 or catch a plane into Williamtown (cheap, cheap) from Gold Coast and Melbourne.

The intention here is to have a great coffee event outside of Sydney with the grand idea of improving the coffee knowledge of the consumer as well as the local businesses, cafes and restaurants in the Hunter.

Unfortunately the Vintage Machine display will not be able to make it this year due to transport and storage issues. However John Doyle will be giving a talk on home brewing as well as Sean Edwards from Caffe Culture magazine throwing in a few words in the main marquee where the Barista Competition will be happening.

There will be a few local roasters, a hot chocolate stand, chocolate demonstrations and talks as well as other more historically focussed activities.

It's all about the coffee and getting it out to the masses so one day we can ll sit down and have a great coffee nearly everywhere we go.

Cheers and I hope to see you there,

James Carter
Real Coffee / River Roast

Coffee2Di4 wrote on Aug 11^th, 2009, 4:55pm:


Since we read your post on how to do this we haven't been able to stop roasting! (albeit in a heavy cast iron pot rather than a wok).  Hope to see it being done by sb with more expertise than us on Saturday.

Luwaks

Tomorrow!

Darn shame you can't be there Scoots!  I guess RFS Training is a worthwhile enough excuse to get out of it though...

Great to hear, Luwaks - glad I've been of some help.  I have to admit, I'm pretty nervous about roasting tomorrow but, what the hey, I can only do what I can only do.

Come up to me and say hi if you're visiting. Apparently I will be in or near the main marquee and (hopefully, if I can find it because I haven't seen it since we've moved), I'll be wearing my dark teal green CoffeeSnobs shirt.

Cheers
Di

Just thought I'd give a run down of the Aroma Fest in Maitland today...please excuse any typo's, etc as I'm totally knackered!

A brilliant Festival and I can't recommend it highly enough.  There were huge crowds which was excellent.

I mainly hung out in the main marquee watching the MBC (Maitland Barista Comp ), and listening to the talks from John Doyle (Trainer Extraordinaire and author of Barista Techniques), Salvatore from ECA and Sean Edwards (author of 'The Home Coffee Machine Review' and owner of Peak Coffee in Port Macquarie).

The Barista Comp featured four of our local Baristas in the Maitland/Newcastle area, all of whom were brilliant.

John, Sal and Sean gave a talk about all things Home Coffee related.  There was much keen interest from the crowd and I think (hope) some went away a lot more educated on what makes a good coffee and the importance of freshly roasted beans that have been stored correctly.

I kept on keeping my fingers crossed that Sal would have a 'Special Fest Offer' of his Giotto Premium Plus and ECA Best Grinder for $500.00 but, alas, it was not to be...

I then got on stage and did a wok roasting display, helped out by Sean on the mike.

Not my best effort, I have to admit - I was too busy yacking and not concentrating enough on the roasting so managed to do probably the worst, uneven roast I have ever done.  I was also using a little butane stove which ran a lot hotter than I was expecting (foolishly not testing it out beforehand because I ran out of time!)  Fortunately most of the people there didn't know any different and Sean, gentleman that he is, didn't totally gag when he saw my effort!

I have to say, too, that I was a complete and utter nervous wreck because I didn't realise before I turned up that I was going to be on a stage doing it.  I thought I was just going to do an 'Andy' and have it set up for passer's by and just answer casual questions as people walked past.

Met up with Luwaks and Scarey - it was great to talk to them, thanks for saying hi, guys and thanks to Scarey for his moral support.

I had some brilliantly made coffee and (*gasp*) enjoyed my coffee all day without adding sugar to it. I know that will shock some of my fellow compatriots!  Still not giving up the sugar entirely, but maybe adding a little less.

As you might have guessed (I think I said it a few times), I thoroughly enjoyed the day and it was brilliant meeting and talking to John Doyle, Sean Edwards and Sal, who are all brilliantly knowledgeable and very interesting to talk to.  Managed to get my copy of the Barista Techniques signed by John, and Sean donated a copy of his book to me signed, so I've not got extremely valuable collector's items in my bookshelf.

Oh, and a bad case of 'GPP Envy' (back, back upgraditis!)

A huge, huge thank you to James from Real Coffee for helping to organise today's event - I know he put in a huge amount of time and effort into making it as successful as it was and putting coffee culture on the map outside of Sydney.

And John, Sal, James and Sean - if you ever read this, thank you so much for making a very nervous home-roaster feel comfortable and part of the group, you'll possibly never appreciate how much easier you made it for me!

I'll try and post some photos later tonight when I've recovered a bit and work out how to transfer photos from my new IPhone.

Cheers
Di

Yeah, we only found out by accident about the festival 15 minutes away after arranging to meet people at the one 3 hours away!

Great job today, Di.  It's good to see the roasting of beans done in a way that anybody could do it.

Good wrap of the day Di. I think you have managed to capture the atmosphere and mood quite well!
Unfortunately I could only stop by for a couple of hours in the morning, but even at that time you could tell it was going to be a good day.
Would have loved to stay around to see how you went with the wok roasting.
The organisers of this festival would have to be pleased with the turnout and surely this will be a permanent fixture on Maitland's calendar.
Well done to all!

Thanks Scarey...

Caption:-

"As Sean looks longingly into the distance, trying to forget the complete hack of a home roaster standing next to him, you can almost hear him thinking...please God don't let anyone think that my roasts will turn out anything like this!"

   

I see you had some emergency proceedures in place, Di... ...not quite as good as the proper equipment that was handed to me at Cafebiz... (bottle of water as opposed to small fire extinguisher)

I would have loved to get to this one, looks and sounds like a great day was had by all in a more cosy, friendly atmosphere than some of the insanely oversized events.

Nice work on the roasting demo Di, I'm sure the audience will still be talking about that for weeks to come.  Most people at those events have never seen a green bean little than thought about roasting their own.

Glad the day was fun, I'll try and mark the next one in a calendar.... might be worth a road trip.

Maitland Aroma was a great day... I went up on the saturday to have a look and was pleased with the turn out.

The organisers even asked me to come back and do a latte art demo on the stage on the sunday, which i might add was super fun!

John Doyle did a great job with the comps. I would love to say that i got to see everyone else present but i didn't! Sure you guys all went well though, i was hearing good things!

Can't wait for next year!