Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th Mar

[Andy]

I hear that the last couple of "Celebrate the Beans" were good but I did not attend. I plan on going this year and if any one from interstate were thinking of flying (ie: cheap Jetstar flights) I can pick-up / drop-off at Avalon Airport.

I can get a few in the car and prob find some more Geelong locals with spare seats to ferry people to Melbourne too.

Any locals in Melbourne want to organise the "great cafe crawl" that day too? (or suggest a good one for CSers to meet/greet/eat)?

How much caffine is too much?

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Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival
20 March
Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival captures the passion and interest of the coffee lover. This one-day festival celebrates cafe culture, lifestyle and all things coffee. Celebrate the Bean is an event with many elements; coffee tasting, domestic machine display and demonstrations, workshops, and coffee themed entertainment.

[Andy]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Looks like Im the only person going. :P

Guess I should tell the organisers just to come around to my place and save themselves a heap in site rent...

[admin]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

We went last year and the coffee IMHO left alot to be desired out of the ten coffees we had only one was drinkable. Apparently Jaspers coffee was nice but we didnt try it.

We may go but im not sure at this stage.

Cheers
Rich

[Andy]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Jasper and Atomica were the early web adopters, both have been around for a fair while and have a good rep for producing good coffee.

Who produced the other 10 coffees?

[ed_vinas]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Fear not Andy, Ill be going too. Although, along with Rich, the coffees were not that great last year. Its not exactly the best environment for producing the best quality coffee though. Im hoping to get to some of the forums organised for the day.

Maybe we should organize to wear something distinctive so we can recognise other coffeesnobs.....

Cheers
Ed

[fatboy_1999]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Maybe we should organize to wear something distinctive so we can recognise other coffeesnobs.....

RUBBER CHICKEN ON A STICK!!

[AndyCJ]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Im hoping to get to this... but Im off on holiday on the 24th, so may have to pack instead!

Im gonna see if I can get to the 10am "Get the most out of your machine" thing. Perhaps a meeting point for other CS people?

A secret password... tip of the hat... nod... wick... something anyhow??

[GR8WineandCoffee]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Andy
Expect to make the trip,
Trying to sort out the flights at the moment.
Expect to be there Sat and Sun
Maybe can catch up.
John

[Andy]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Fear not Andy, Ill be going too. Although, along with Rich, the coffees were not that great last year. Its not exactly the best environment for producing the best quality coffee though. Im hoping to get to some of the forums organised for the day.

Maybe we should organize to wear something distinctive so we can recognise other coffeesnobs.....

Cheers
Ed

Yeah, Ill be going for a look around out of interest not really looking for good coffee as I already make the BEST coffee around ;D

Something distinctive? I agree (see below).

RUBBER CHICKEN ON A STICK!!

Hmmm... maybe not Fatboy. I could prob pick you in the crowd as the guy with pinball blisters though :-/

A secret password... tip of the hat... nod... wick... something anyhow??

Yep, should be doing something AndyCJ.... see below for my take on it.

Andy
Expect to make the trip,
Trying to sort out the flights at the moment.
Expect to be there Sat and Sun
Maybe can catch up.
John

Hope so John. The offer stands for a ferry service from Avalon (unless you plan on doing the hire car thing). Just need to know the times the night before.


Ok... here is my 2c worth. Some quick and dirty coffee name-tags. Print it out on a colour printer and shove it into one of those business-card name tag thingies.


Andy (err... at least two of us can use this one)
http://mediapix-australia.com/coffee/andy.jpg

Ed
http://mediapix-australia.com/coffee/ed.jpg

John
http://mediapix-australia.com/coffee/john.jpg


If you have a copy of photoshop and want to make your own you can get it from here...
http://mediapix-australia.com/coffee/name.psd

Or just let me know what name you want in this thread and Ill make you one.

[admin]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Looks like we may be going too.

Challange for the day... if the coffee is crap say so.

The funniest one i saw last year was one brand selling "Added Robusta" like it was a good thing. "Extra kick" so somthing like that. More like cheap coffee bean used a a buffer against price rises that does little for a blend other than adding cafine.

Rich

[ed_vinas]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Challange for the day... if the coffee is crap say so.

At least this year its coffee and chocolate. So if the coffee gets too bad, you can always try the chocolate. How bad can chocolate be?

[Fresh_Coffee]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Rich,

your observation re someone presenting themselves as having "added robusta"......this is a good topic for anyone interested in coffee, because...

Robusta really does have a legitimate place in coffee blending depending on which ethnic group you (they, whoever) belong to, but where marketers in certain western countries exploit it in their own way by making claims such as that their blend contains only "100% arabica" (ie no robusta)!

Let me expand...
a) In many regions, the blends contain much more robusta than arabica, and the feeling about robusta vs arabica is the opposite to what we feel.

b) there are high quality arabicas and bad, and there are good quality robutas and bad!!!!

When we are presented with the 100% arabica marketing line, are we being told which arabica it is....high quality or low quality arabica?. Those who want to use a low priced "filler" have quite a deal of low quality arabica to choose from...so

c) does it matter if your blend has robust in it or not...?...IF IT TASTES GOOD...?

d) does it matter if their blend is advertised as 100% arabica.....IF IT DOESNT TASTE GOOD...?

e) there is no doubt in my mind that the robusta "thing" actually is closely tied to its caffeine content because those that are used to drinking coffee that is high in robusta, have developed not only the "taste" for robusta, but their bodies have also developed a dependence on the much higher caffeine content. When they tell you they cant get enough kick out of your nice mellow but probably (to their mind) "insipid" arabica based blend, they are telling us the truth...there is not enough kick in our coffee to satisfy their real, physical, need...!

The unfortunate thing for the people you saw at last years "cel.... the.....bean" who were proudly marketing their "added robusta", ....is that someone hasnt told them that (we think) theyre in the wrong market! Try telling this however to all those who insist on buying their favourite packeted roasted coffee imported from Italy, particularly the southern regions, where most of it has so much robusta in it that they should be marketing that that have a little "added arabica..."!

This may also give us some understanding of the situation where in conversation with many Italian consumers and roasters, they are just as shocked at us in the opposite sense, because we "are certainly not doing the right thing" in our espresso blends and that is, we are not adding high enough proportions of robusta (or any at all). According to them, our espresso blends are not designed the way they should be.

Suggest therefore, that purely for academic purposes, so that that coffeesnobs members will be able to recognize the flavour / characteristics of robusta and decide for themselves what side of the fence they wish to be on, that the CoffeeSnobs coop should offer a bag of 100% ROBUSTA through the polls. There would be no need to deliberately try and sabotage the academic aspect of this by deliberately selecting lowest possible quality available, the green bean broker should simply be asked for a quality of robusta that is commonly used in commercial coffee roasting.

Members should try roasting and consuming this as a single origin type, and also do some experimenting with blends including some arabica.

Just a few comments from left field for your interest, and food for thought!

Regardez,
FC.

[micstone]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

I also would like to see more interest in good robusta in the forum.  As Fresh Coffee has indicated there is many blends of coffee available on the market the do have a percentage of robusta in them and will pull a shot that has a markedly higher level of caffeine in it.
I admit that I love coffee and I will also admit that I am addicted to caffeine (2 different things entirely) and would love to be able to get "my kick" out of a double in the morning but it isnt possible with 100% arabica coffee (even when roasted just past 1st crack).  I find that if I want "my kick" that I need 4 doubles of arabica or 1 double for my pleasure and a strong instant moccona.

Lets not be closed minded about coffee - arabica is coffee and so is robusta.

Id really like to see more interest in robusta and I think people should give it a try (were only talking somewhere between 1% and 10% in a blend).

My two bobs worth.

Mick

[Andy]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Drifting off-topic a little (was: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival ) but yes, I too am keen to try some home roasted robusta.
I know this has been mentioned in these forums before and always shot down as something not worthy of consideration. Robusta has been likened to dung and floor-sweepings nearly every time it was mentioned and I too was starting to form the opinion that it was a waste of time.

Its nice to see your post FC, it may help sway opinions when someone with "cred" voices a "at least have a look". I for one did not know that any "quality" robusta existed as I have been believing the "Aribica Mafia" marketing hype. ;D

FC, can you source or recommend a robusta worth trying?

[admin]

Re: Celebrate the Bean Coffee Festival - Melb 20th

Im keen to try a good robusta will see what can be organised for upcomming polls.

Rich