it took a while, but after lots of hard work, hefty import taxes and tricky power issues we have finally installed the beyootiful synesso coffee machine. described as ‘the best espresso machine out there’ and used by such cafe institutions as ‘proud mary’, ‘seven seeds’ and ‘three bags full’ this bad boy is IT!

shaughan from five senses roastery was in town for the machine installation and ‘deflowering’. this morning the s/c baristas could not wait to do a little bit of training with shaughan and i couldn’t have been happier with the results…

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look at that shot - just like honey! we had previously been a bit worried about how the bali humidity would get funky with the grind and spoil the shot, but thanks to the electronic mazzer grinder we can custom grind per cup. and with the help of our friend reg barber [the tamper] we can always make sure that the shot is pouring just perfectly. 

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gede, anto and putu were getting right into it. gede has already been over to the barista academy in perth and anto is a bit of a gun, but even putu - the newcomer - was making some wicked coffees with a little bit of help from shaughan.

to top the morning off, the stunning new bar stools arrived so i enjoyed my morning caffeine fix at the new high bench area. as you might notice, we have a little bit of work to do on the latte art - which is actually wicked cos next week we have some of australia’s best baristas and latte artists visiting on a direct trade visit to our farmers up in the kintamani mountains. more details and lots more training to come. oh, and lots of caffeine highs. huzzah!

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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….