Aroma fest

[Andy]

Re: Aroma fest


Dan was busy pulling shots all day too and only really stopped to compete in the comp although he took a break in the middle of the day to shovel a sandwich and briefly checkout more coffee toys on other stands.

Greg knocked us out some shots on the Giotto, a double espresso for me and a mac for Paula... with some competition level art!

...and on the other side of the stand Meghan from Bombora was providing expertise in their range that Di Bartoli carry. (lots of cool things on that stand)

[Andy]

Re: Aroma fest


The Di Bartoil stand was huge with a cast of thousands and a crowd to match.

Ofra and Renzo were flat out all day as were CS members who joined the team for the day to make it run like clockwork.

Thundergod, Greg and Michelle (below)

[maheel]

Re: Aroma fest

The Jet Black and Di Bartoli had heaps more to see than those  those other stands and the coffee at Di Bartoli was pretty darn good even when they seemed "under the pump". JB was to busy to get one.....
so many shiny machines in one place......

Sorry about the line up Maheel, well have to have more baristas next year!

We had a great time, nice to put some more faces to names. And Ill post some pics as soon as we have unpacked and found the camera :

charlie

Hey not your fault and dont be sorry, it was great to see so many people (hopefully new customers!!) at your display and DBs. I would only been freeloading anyway..... :. I can always rock down to your shop, as i am not far away. i got an eye on a fathers day pressie for myself from your shop and will have to drop some hints

[Andy]

Re: Aroma fest

Across the front of the ECA stand were 3 Giotto machines with a wealth of experiance on them.

World Barista Champion Paul Bassett
World Latte Art Champion Scotty Callaghan
and Chris Natoli from Talk Coffee
(a tough crowd to be pulling shots with but it didnt seem to bother Chris!)

[Andy]

Re: Aroma fest

Heaps of CS Site Sponsors were at Aroma.

The ECA Team were 15 people deep all day, shiny coffee machines, top baristas and great coffee meant that the machines were flat out all day.


Sal made me a doppio on the baby Vibiemme (twas a great shot too) and then made Paula a latte with a "V" for Vibiemme in art on top.

[Thundergod]

Re: Aroma fest

Recover is correct (why do I keep going back?)

Heres one pic (of the glorious day) to tide you over until I get home tonight.

[DiBort]

Re: Aroma fest

Hi There boys and girls..

Took half a day this morning recovering from a lost voice, sore throat, twisted ankle and total exhaustion.....

Were unpacking in Di Bartoli today, please bare with us a day or two before we can reply to the inquiries, email free reports and schedule assessment sessions...even before the camera, we need to find our stationary box... :

A BIG THANK YOU to:

-Our Team of amazing coffee snobs volunteers:
Yeeza, Michelle, GregJW, Recurve Boy, Caspa, MattB, Thundergod, contributing time & energy on our stand helping making coffees, pull shots for tasting, talking about home roasting and taking pictures, amazing effort, I salute you all!

-Thanks to Di Bartoli Team: Renzo, David, Amal, Karen & Eric working around the clock for the past 3 days to make it all happen and giving their absolute best on the day!

-A special thanks to Alex, our La Sorrentina presenter, whod signed up last minute and was so helpful with Bump-in/out, as well with voicing out the home barista culture to anyone who was willing to hear...

-Thanks to our sponsors: Megan from Bombora Supplies and Chris from Barazi whod worked hard explaining technologies, matching a machine to the individual and advising on cleaning and support material.

-Thanks to all of you CS members visiting our stand, we saw many familiar faces and new ones, sorry I couldnt catch up for a longer chat with each and every one of you. Please do drop by our shop or ring us if we can help with anything or just for a cuppa!

-Thanks to our non-CSs customers (who pretty much were the only ones knowing were to find us except CSs, as apparently the organizer has "forgot" to put up their signs for the Machines Expo.... :-[ (apologies for anyone who didnt find us...)

I hope you all enjoyed our coffees, your chat with our baristas, beans, new gadgets and the Home Barista Competition.  We did have a twist this year, check http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1247828947 for more competition details.

Will post the link to flickr pics as soon as TG will recover from yesterdays experience...

Ofra

[JetBlack_Espresso]

Re: Aroma fest

The Jet Black and Di Bartoli had heaps more to see than those  those other stands and the coffee at Di Bartoli was pretty darn good even when they seemed "under the pump". JB was to busy to get one.....
so many shiny machines in one place......

Sorry about the line up Maheel, well have to have more baristas next year!

We had a great time, nice to put some more faces to names. And Ill post some pics as soon as we have unpacked and found the camera :

charlie

[TC]

Re: Aroma fest

My thanks also to those who braved the passenger terminal and said hello.

Its always incredible to work with the ECA crew and as usual much learning occcured. PB was grindng very fine and dosing at close to half mast in triple baskets. Never tried that before but it worked and created a whole new cup experience as well. More experimentation required.... :-/

Thanks also the Charlie of ECA...The after gig big beer and feed was great and the laughter continued all night...

Gotta love visiting Sydney!

Chris

[mfluder]

Re: Aroma fest

Thought the home machine expo was great – but the lines on most of the stalls downstairs were huge! The queue for food from the Pony Lounge & Dining stall was at one point about 75M!

Will have to head up to Mecca to try the Clover - it sounds....controversial?

[danq]

Re: Aroma fest

The weekend spent in Sydney was great, with beautiful weather, coffee and food, the latter not at the festival.

Had never tasted clover (or siphon) before and liked it very much, both the one at King Street and the one at the festival. Of course it is very different to espresso, and definitely a nice alternative if you want to drink larger amounts throughout the day.

I wonder how the clover-coffee I had compares to others...

Was it prepared well? I also imagine that use of different beans or roast profiles would give a very different taste in the cup.

[mattyj]

Re: Aroma fest

I tried a clover as well, as Ive never had one. Never tried the Ethiopian Beloya either, so went in completely open minded.

It smelt reminiscent of horse manure ... but was strangely appealing! The cup had a pleasant sweetness to it, and I really enjoyed it - much more than any pour-over, plunger, or siphon Ive made.

The espresso drinks coming out of the Mecca stand didnt look up to their normal standard - Id heard that the power to thier tent had blown early in the day, they had the same staff working flat out all day. It looked to me like they were aiming for speedy service - I guess if they were aiming for the same quality as their stores, theyd face hordes of complaints for the service being too slow; not a good reputation to get on that sort of stage/exposure.

To be honest, I went to the festival not expecting a stellar coffee, and came away with an interesting cup of clover, so I was happy. Far too many people there though!

[Fresh_Coffee]

Re: Aroma fest

Thanks to all CSers that stopped by our stand to introduce themselves and say hello. Good networking and some good ideas particularly between sponsors.

We had a great day, lost our voices like plenty of others, and went home happy.

Rolled into the drive way at 10.30 pm, about 3 and a half hours drive with stand packed in the back. A very big weekend!

Give us til lunchtime at work today, and we will start to feel the fatigue setting in.

See you again next year.


Regardz,
Attilio
very first CS site sponsor.

[bjeck14]

Re: Aroma fest

Im not a massive siphon or filter coffee drinker but I do know the difference between the afore-mentioned coffee and espresso. The Circular Quay (NOT King St) Clover had great floral and fruit aromas but was lacking in the cup. It smelt like most manually brewed ethiopians, perhaps with a greater sweetness. Really really good aromas. But as I mentioned earlier, I couldnt really pin-point what exactly was wrong with it, but the after-taste left a lot to be desired.

Ill go to King St sometime soon and hopefully enjoy the magic of clover!

p.s coffee is a personal experience. this is just my $0.02

[TC]

Re: Aroma fest

I was really embarrassed when I handed him a long black that had no crema, no body and a horrible aftertaste.  If anyone here on the forum knows the mob personally at Mecca, they should pass on these comments and tell them that if they cant even make a concerted effort to produce what they generally do from their King Street establishment at the Aromafest, then dont bother next year...or at least not rip the public off for $2.00.  No excuses from them as everyone else was just as busy and had to produce the goods from less than perfect working conditions.  Those two horrible coffees were the only negatives to what was a really great day.

SC64

Although I didnt get to revisit the wonderful clover, I think youre dismissing it out of hand and without a reference point - you might have the same issue with siphon coffee?

However, I did tip the piccolo latte I had from Mecca - it wasnt up to the standard Im used to from them, and the clover was in cleaning-mode as I was there only a couple of minutes before closing.

Was lovely to catch up with Ofra, Renzo, Chris, Sanch, Yeeza, Michelle, Greg, TG, Scottie, Marc & others. Unfortunately, Id moved house this weekend so was absolutely wiped, and didnt get there til 3.30 - just in time to take a few snaps of the barista comp (congrats Michelle!). Look forward to being there for the whole day, next year, and hopefully not missing dennis & andy & scootagal!

...and look forward to seeing some of you next week!


J

Yes, I agree...

Clover has much more in common with siphon and great filter coffee than espresso so if you were expecting crema and espresso body, it cant happen. To those that have experienced this style, its about light roasts, fruit, florals and nuances frequently masked by espresso body....

There are many different ways to partake of the brown bean and clover is just one

2mcm