without my coffee in the morning i’m a little bit like pooh without his honey. thanks to my tribe of australian friends i have been educated in the art of a ‘proper coffee’ and proudly serve up bali’s finest at sea circus every AM.

like the fake melbournian that i am, mornings to me are all about caffeine. it is the password to the rest of the day. the smell of freshly ground coffee beans. the taste of smoothly foamed milk. the look of a perfectly formed latte heart. squeals!

yep, coffee is a sensual experience. but i wanted to take it even further. i tried to think of all the things that would really help to give you the ultimate start to the day. and so, it is that sea circus custom designed coffee cups now come with a few extras…

* a freshly baked and unnecessarily scrumptious mini cookie - to awaken the tastebuds

* a sweet smelling tropical frangipani flower - to remind you that you’re in bali and it’s awesome!

* an inspiring quote - to refresh your mind and your motivation and set you on your path for the day

today, i got this one…

even just reading jim’s name makes me smile. so his hopes have been realised. and what a great hope to have, hey? here’s hoping we can all say that and make someone smile.

[artwork commissioned by manuel rebollo especially for sea circus]

last week abbey, melissa and charlie braved pak santosa’s four wheels and took the trip up to kintamani to meet with the farmers that make our delicious coffee.

five senses roasters were already up in the mountains doing their annual ‘harvest trip’ with a crew of master roasters and baristas from some of australia’s best cafes. as well as building a new nursery in bedugul, they were meeting with the kintamani farmers to negotiate and educate on organic processing and the various flavours of coffee.

we were lucky enough to take part in the education and see the process from bean on tree to bean in cup. in case you didn’t know, coffee beans are actually red when they are fruit on the tree.

then comes the production line - taking the redskins off to leave just the green beans

… lots of green beans!

then the beans are heaved and hauled and spread out onto the drying racks

where they dry and harden under the sun

then after they are roasted they turn brown like this…

and then it’s [finally] time to taste. huzzah! five senses hosted a ‘cupping’ session with the farmers so we watched on as shaughan and jen prepped up.

we were lucky enough to get involved and taste 4 different beans: 2 from bali, 1 from sumatra and 1 from colombia.

the farmers got right into it and knew straight away which was their crop during the blind tasting.

the kintamani beans were tasting especially good… which is awesome news for us. the new crop will be in sea circus from august. yeeoooow!

to read all about the five senses harvest trip in detail check out their blog

monday 20th june saw sea circus host its very first barista jam. in attendance were an army of roasters [from five senses] and baristas [from some of australia’s best venues]. to set the vibe and get the monday morning pumping we invited our favourite musician to play - the lovely [and english] andy.

jen murray [canada] ran a public cupping session. jen is a highly reputed ‘cupper’ and actively part of the global ‘cup of excellence’ scheme, so we were extremely privileged and excited to have her guiding us through 4 bean varieties: balinese, sumatran, ethiopian and colombian.

befitting the five senses moniker, jen first guided us through the look and feel of the unground beans. each varietal was given 3 cups. then we ceremonially poured the water in…

it was left to stand for a minute before the boys got started on sinking the grinds. next we all took a spitoon and plunged a teaspoon in to start the tasting. jen and shaughan led the way showing us the technique [which was slightly scary to begin with]! it involved loud slurping and sucking up coffee without choking on it, but soon we got the hang of it and could start to really taste the subtleties in notes.

the conoisseur’s favourite was the ethiopian nekisse which was described by jen as the following: ‘distinct berry fruit and citrus character that can border on grapefruity. Vibrant acidity, caramelised mouthfeel and floral aromas are common to Nekisse’

After the cupping it was on to the latte art smackdown. The Melbourne baristas couldn’t help themselves and soon all the roasters and baristas got on the machine to try and claim the latte art crown.

Results coming soon….