I’m extremely proud of this Yellowbird, as I was involved in the process leading up to the creation of the blend. I have been working at Oriole Coffee as a barista, webmaster, and a roast apprentice under the excellent tutelage of barista champions Keith and John. Like what Steve said, I couldn’t have come to a better coffee university. As a roast apprentice, I’ve been roasting for Oriole Coffee for the past half year, and I’ve learnt more in that short span of time than I’ve gathered in all my 4 years as a home roaster.

Today, I pulled a few shots of this Yellowbird, a 20th December roast and 6 days old. The tasting notes that we got on a La Marzocco GB5 MP were “notes of piped tobacco, rich & intense mouthfeel, bright sweet prunes, hints of umami in the mid palate, lingering notes of pomelo in the finish.” On my Quickmill Anita, I had sweet smoke, hints of umami, and hint of grapefruit in the finish. From here on, I could tell the difference between a Quickmill Anita and a LM machine, the slight lack of complexity in the shot. But no bitters. On a GB5, the new mac yellowbird (as I like to refer to it) yielded the fragrance of shisha and the flavours of sweet tobacco, a definite savoury umami, hints of sweet dark prunes and subtle lemon drops beginnings which gave way to a lingering finish of pomelo or grapefruit. And the looks? Mottling and red brownish specks peppered the surface. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

Living in this very moment:

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — FB, 1986.

Craft Coffee is based in New York, and if you pick up a coffee subscription from them, you get a tasting box each month made up of 1 4 ounce bag each from 3 of the numerous artisanal roasters they work with. Past tasting boxes were from Gimme!, Paradise Roasters, Dallis Bros., Four Barrel. Subscriptions are available in monthly, 6 months, or annually. For US, it comes with free shipping, but for international orders, you have to fill up a form and submit to them, after which they will reply you with a price quote. For Singapore, it was $444.44 for a year’s worth of roasted beans. The freshly roasted beans will ship in 6 to 10 day’s time.

I figured this is as good as it gets in the case of getting to try all the artisanal roasters I’ve only read about in my daily blogs.

Nespresso Pixie launches in Singapore

I just got back from Red Dot Design Museum where Nespresso has just launched their smallest Nespresso machine named the Nespresso Pixie. Read this post for the Previous Nespresso Experience.

A new limited edition Nespresso capsule called the Onirio accompanied the Nespresso Pixie’s launch as well. Before I tasted the Onirio, I was introduced to the coffee by the Nespresso staff, who explained the Onirio is made up of a blend of Ethiopian Sidamo and Yrgacheffe. They also reassured me it’s espresso.

Tasting Notes of the Nespresso Onirio
Bitter. Thin bodied. A bit hot on the tongue. Zero florals, opposite of what would have been expected from a blend of Ethiopian Sidamo and Yrgacheffe.

Verdict:

TCBE. Again. This Can’t Be Espresso.  If any nespresso fan is reading this, please head to the nearest Oriole Cafe, either the Somerset outlet or the Republic Plaza outlet and order an espresso. If Nespresso is reading this, do all of us a favour and stop marketing it as espresso. It gives Ethiopian Sidamo and Yrgacheffe a misrepresentation.

As bad as the espresso tasting went, fortunately, the decor for the launch was done up tastefully by Weber Shandwick, Nespresso’s PR agency and the people who invited me to this Nespresso event. I also have them and Nespresso to thank for a wonderful set of espresso demitasse cups. One of the highlights of the evening was the presence of Swissotel The Stamford’s Beverage Operations Manager and Mixologist, Richard Gillam who crafted a whole slew of signature Nespresso beverages. I tried his Oniru-zu made up of Onirio with ginger liqueur served in a champagne flute topped with a cloud of yuzu foam. Because of the thin bodied Onirio, the dominant taste went to the fluffy yuzu cloud. I could not discern the ginger liqueur.  I also tried another creation of Gillam’s – Nescesity, made up of Onirio with cranberry juice and orange water. Again, the dominant flavours were the cranberry juice and orange water. There were also some canapes made by Chef Janice Wong from 2am Dessert Bar, but I didn’t get the chance to try any. What I really wanted to try was another Gillam creation called D.N.A., made up of “a strand of Arpeggio espresso in a clear cacao and hazelnut suspension flecked with gold.”

An interesting fact brought up this evening was that there is a staggering amount of 12,300 cups of nespresso consumed every minute, or 17.7 million cups of nespresso consumed every day. Most of these Nespresso people obviously took the upgrade path from that of a Krups / Braun to a Nespresso. That is not an upgrade. It’s more of a downgrade, especially if they were buying freshly roasted beans for their Krups / Braun and then taking the misinformed jump to a Nespresso pre-ground coffee capsule. The Dark Side of Convenience.

I posted this on my facebook page. Many of you readers here would have read it. I would like to thank all of you for your support and your well-wishes. Part of my inspiration comes from the many people and the participants in the barista championships like SNBC or WBC. So many of you are propelled to take up the challenge each and every year, thereby raising the bar in the overall standards of coffee both here in Singapore as well as on a global scale. I feel I would not be doing my part just by blogging about it and sitting on the sidelines. Thus, herein lies my contribution.

I will be taking part in SNBC 2012 if I’m lucky enough to be employed by a cafe. Which also brings up another thing. I’m available for hiring. :)

   1st:   Keith Loh (Oriole Cafe)

   2nd:  Ryan Tan (Papa Palheta)

   3rd:   Suhaimie Sukiman (CuppaChoice)

Akihiro Okada's signature drink preparation

Akihiro paints the insides of martini glasses

He used a paintbrush to paint the insides of the martini glasses, his paint being the cherry syrup (someone, pls correct me.)  Then again, aesthetics may prove misleading, as many a dark chocolate like naked pour have proven lemony beyond all recognition.

Lo and Behold! Guess what cropped up next? It was a competition between Bosses and Students’ Cappa Contest. The Bosses were Justin Metcalf and Ross Bright. Both Bright and Metcalf ARE CERTIFIED WBC JUDGES. The students were Ting and Cai. I was called back to be the judge and I made sure I sat at the bosses’ table. Whoa! Getting served cappas by Bright AND Metcalf and then judging them will most likely be THE highlight in my career in coffee. I noted the lack of latte art in Metcalf’s drinks, to which he promptly replied that they were’nt being tested on the art. But he did make several triple rosettas later on. Here are some pictures that speak for themselves.

Justin Metcalf pouring latte art while …

Ross Bright foams the milk.

The two WBC judges pour a few rosettas with love

After 10 minutes, both teams had made 30 cappas. The tiebreaker was latte art. And I was the latte art judge. (I am having so much fun!) I gave one point in difficulty for the Bosses and one point in artistry for the students. The Bosses won. We’ll give it to them this year.

I hope this sets the bar for future SNBC’s to come.

For more pictures on the event, go to my flickr account.

I just came from SNBC 2009 Finals held at Suntec Convention Hall today. Whew! What a turnout. Sadly, I didn’t see any familiar faces from our local home roaster’s group, CGSG (Coffee Greens Singapore). Cafes that had baristas in the finals were 2 from Oriole Cafe, Ian from TCC, 1 from Spinelli’s, Danny Pang from Geek Terminal, and 1 from Jones the Grocer (Ahmad Hidayat). Sorry, I’m not familiar with the names other than those from Oriole, who are John Ting (SNBC 2008 champion) and Keith Loh (SNBC 2008 3rd, SNBC 2007 4th.) I guess it’s Fate that Keith should come in 2nd this year, huh?

Without further ado, the winners are (my predictions were spot-on this year):

SNBC 2009 Champion is John Ting. AGAIN

SNBC 2009 Runner Up is Keith Loh. Chalk this up to Fate.

SNBC 2009 2nd Runner Up goes to Ian from TCC.

“To be a Starbucks Roaster,
You need skill, artistry and
a really good watch.”

“We’ve been proudly roasting since 1971.”