The current Singapore National Barista Champion Ryan Kieran Tan will be performing on Day 2 of the World Barista Championship 2012 in Vienna. He will be the 3rd performer for the day, 31st performer out of 54 countries taking part in WBC 2012.

WBC Day 1 Schedule

WBC Day 2 Schedule

Ryan’s performance is at 8.53 am Vienna, Austria CEST Time, on June 13th, 2012 which converts to 2.53 pm Singapore Time. Be sure to catch him on livestream below:

WBC 2012 Livestream Day 2

And here’s wishing him good luck as well.

SMRT map

Here. Knock yourself out!

Google Images Coffee Infographic

My favourites are:

globalfinance.zenfs.com

The Oatmeal

Staples.com

Jill Everyday

Fastcodesign

Ojospesados

And I heard from Enrico Wurm, the After Sales Manager from La Marzocco there would be a wicked looking Strada on display at the show.

The class will cost $128 per head, or $250 for 2. To register, send an email with your name and contact number to charlize@santino.com.sg. Mention this blog in your email and you get an additional 5% off.

This is the official press release below.

Singapore (23 March 2012) Santino Coffee Specialists and Nuova Simonelli are jointly organizing a coffee appreciation class by reigning World Barista Championship (WBC) winner, Alejandro Mendez from El Salvador on 22 April 2012. The class will be conducted using quality coffee from Santino as well as a state of art equipment from Nuova Simonelli (WBC official machine brand since 2009).

The event is targeted at home baristas, as well as coffee enthusiasts. Mendez will share much of his coffee knowledge from the history of coffee, coffee varietals, brewing, latte art etc. What makes this class different from others is that Mendez will be bringing insights from a coffee producing country – El Salvador. Mendez will also be sharing briefly his experiences in WBC 2011 and will be answering questions regarding coffee and home brewing.

The class will be held in a renowned hotel in Singapore and the participant size is kept small to maintain the exclusivity as well as allow the attendees to come up close and personal with Mendez. At only $128 per pax, each participant will also receive a goodie bag worth at least $100, an autographed picture with the WBC champion as well as a certificate of attendance for the class.

The event will also feature Nuova Simonelli’s latest semi-pro espresso machine for home and office – Musica. Mendez will be presenting to the class using the intricately designed Nuova Simonelli Musica Machine.

The latest official machine for the WBC – Aurelia T3 will be on display for participants to have a feel of the actual machine used by the champions. The Aurelia T3 boasts individual PID for each group with insulated boilers for the water, steam as well as the group head. It is currently known as probably the best coffee machine for baristas in the world.

In support of the event, Santino Coffee Specialist Pte Ltd, a local specialty coffee roaster and coffee supplier will be providing their selected coffee for tasting and demonstration. Santino Coffee Specialists is also the sole distributor of Nuova Simonelli Coffee Machines in Singapore.

About Alejandro Mendez

Born 16 July 1987 in a small town of El Salvador to a carpenter and a housewife, Alejandro Mendez started working at a tender age of 18. His first job as a cook sparked his interest in the food and beverage industry. Throughout the years, he became intrigued with his country being a coffee producing country. Hence, at the age of 20, he joined Viva Espresso, a specialty coffee company founded by the coffee guru of El Salvador, Federico Bolaños. From then on, it helped open his eyes to the world of coffee. Being a fast learner with a flair in coffee making, young Mendez won his first barista competition in El Salvador and proceeded to compete in the World Barista Championships 2010. He came in 11th worldwide. Determined to better himself, Mendez again participated in the World Barista Championship 2011 and emerged as the World Barista Champion that year. Mendez became the youngest person to ever win the World Barista Championship to date. Despite being the World Barista Champion, Mendez remains very humble and is eager to give back to the specialty coffee industry. He is currently a trainer to budding baristas.

About Nuova Simonelli

Nuova Simonelli is an Italian company with experience and a tradition going back many years. It has been making espresso machines, which it exports all over the world since 1936. Today, Nuova Simonelli boasts a vast range of products that are able to meet the requirements of the hospitality trade, right across the board. Company investments into R and D and the development of new solutions have brought important recognition: World Barista Championship, Compasso d’Oro for design innovation, the first ergonomic machine and cutting-edge applications. For more information, visit www.nuovasimonelli.it

About Santino Coffee Specialists Pte Ltd

Santino Coffee Specialists is a leading supplier of gourmet coffee and distributor of professional coffee machines in Singapore and the region. Santino Coffee Specialists supplies gourmet and exotic coffee beans, coffee blends, coffee powder and other beverages to café joints, institutions, businesses, events, food service outlets, eateries, restaurants, clubs and hotels. Their gourmet coffee beans are sourced worldwide from coffee producing countries. Using the state-of-the-art high technology hot air roasting system, the consistency in quality of their gourmet coffee beans is never compromised. For more information, visit www.santino.com.sg

At 37 Kampong Bahru Road, Strangers’ Reunion is not only home to some of Singapore’s best baristas: Ryan and his brother Dylan (both formerly from Papa Palheta); it was built with plenty of love. Almost every nook and cranny, every bolt, every nail, every piece of wood had been knocked into place by the team. The bare minimum was left to the contractors. Their dad, affectionately known to most as “Uncle Phillip” will be roasting, and their mom helped in the overall feel and look of the cafe. Close friends helped in chores like hacking the floor tiles, demolishing the wall, building the tables, crafting the door by eroding the 8 layers of paint off it. The list goes on – E-gene, Dave, Aaron, Marcus, Aristotle, JK, Celine, Hairol, Ronald, Ivan, Andre, Mel, Leon, Sanchia, Melanie, Victor, Kimberley, Tony, John, Keith, Colin, Regina, Alex, Jean, Shumei. And Mervyn. The lucky ones who were unjustly left out of this list get to claim a free beverage from Ryan. Just mention you heard it from this blog.

I went to Strangers’ Reunion a week ago, before the place was set up for business. So, the pictures here reflect that state. Still…

Set right in front of the espresso bar, the machine is a beautiful Synesso Hydra II 3 Group, the first of its kind in Singapore. It boasts a separate pump and motor to enable a 4 stage pressure profiling for each grouphead. The steam wands create beautiful densely microfoamed textured milk. Ryan was training his baristas to draw hearts and the art on the surfaces hardly changed after 90 minutes when I took the 2nd set of photos. Companion to the Hydra are 2 Mazzer doserless Roburs. In the hoppers were Papa Palheta’s Terra Firma and Bali Kintamani Single Origin. Here’s your chance to try Ryan’s espresso, for those of you who missed out on his espresso during SNBC. He pulled Terra Firma which was quite restricted, and bright. I remarked to him and he said it was intentional. I also tried a Magic – a double ristretto topped with foamed milk in an ACF tulip cup. The drinks here are served in multi-coloured ACF cups with mismatched coloured saucers, a style reminiscent of my colleague at Oriole Coffee, Md Dinie when he competed in this year’s SNBC 2012 (Dinie the Genie came in #4.)

The tables and chairs, like the cups, seem mismatched. While there wasn’t a hotel trashcan in sight (!), the tables and stools look like they came from different eras. The ceilings with quaint lights are bare with an industrial feel. One of the tables was crafted with wood from the crate the Synesso came in.

Ryan and I talked over coffee. He was first exposed to the world of coffee thru watching from the sidelines the Singapore National Barista Championships in 2010, and knew straightaway he wanted to compete the following year. He went for several barista courses, worked at various cafes like Axil Coffee Roasters and St. Ali, and immersed himself in the Melbourne coffee culture. It was remarkable, IMHO, that Ryan, a first-time competitor in SNBC managed to win SNBC 2011 with just a year’s training. The rest is history. He represented Singapore in Bogota, Colombia and came in WBC 2011 #28. He competed in World Latte Art Championships and came in #3. And he defended his title this year when he won SNBC 2012. And Ryan will be representing Singapore yet again on the world stage in Vienna, Austria for the World Barista Championships 2012.

Strangers’ Reunion is a winning combination. Built out of love for coffee. Fronted by a dedicated and driven team, including a 2-time barista champion. Coffee roasted by his dad (and other acclaimed roasters.) ACF cups and saucers. And lastly, the tables and chairs, and coffee cups, though mismatched odds and ends, form an imperfect but strange reunion.

Strangers’ Reunion. 37 Kampong Bahru Road. Opens today 3.28.2012. 9 am to 9 pm.

Coffee Greens Singapore. CGSG for short. We are a group of people, home roasters, home baristas who met over coffeegeek.com and home-barista.com in 2007, and then decided to form the Singapore chapter by holding meetups over at everyone else’s cot. We home-roast, we share bean purchases, we R&D the next coffee toy, we home-made modifications to our existing setup, etc. We did almost everything coffee other than to meet up in a cafe and have coffee. That was 2007. We can’t find decent coffee, so the only solution was to roast at home. Singapore National Barista Championships began the same year.

The year is now 2012. I’m working at Oriole Coffee as an apprentice roaster. There are budding 3rd wave cafes littered all over Singapore, so much so a few of the CGSG members have grown lazy home-roasting. The core members of CGSG still meet up regularly, over coffee, over steak-outs, over beers and ales, over new toy purchases.

The year is now 2012. Tomorrow’s the Singapore National Barista Championships. My colleagues Romeo Alfen and Jeffrey Ng take their turns onstage as the 1st and 2nd performers to start SNBC 2012. Dinie is the 17th of 19 performers on the 2nd day, and I’m taking to the stage 19th of 19. Last I checked, the core members of CGSG are meeting up on the 2nd day.

Thank you.

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.

The LA Weekly article went on to report that Tonx has started a brewed coffee subscription service, US$35 a month for 2 12 oz bags of coffee. An espresso program is in the works. But, what really made this article a must-read were Tonx’s words of wisdom, especially to one who is starting out as a roaster.

“A coffee should have inherent sweetness,” he says, “The roasting process should accentuate that. Clarity and articulation of the intrinsic flavor of the coffee is the role of the roaster. It’s a sacred duty to not screw up the thing that went through some tremendously convoluted supply chain.”

Tonx further sums this up in the article:

“I just want people to taste the coffee, and to experience it as good,” he says. “And if it is good, I don’t want them to look at me as the roaster as being the one that made it good. I want them to understand that it was the producer who grew the coffee, the people who processed this coffee, and all the care that was taken before it got into my hands that made that coffee great. And all I did was just not fuck it up. “

[excerpted from LA Weekly]

P.S. You can sign up for Tonx’s coffee subscription service on tonx.org

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.

Toby’s Estate Singapore opened its doors on 7th October to the public. The address is at 8 Rodyk Street #01-03/04, Singapore 238216.  Toby’s Estate Singapore is fronted by Alvaro Sanchez as the head of operations (formerly from Boncafe and Society Group) and a relatively well-known coffee personality Suhaimie Sukiman, 2nd Runner Up, Singapore National Barista Championships 2010, 2011 (formerly from CuppaChoice) as the cafe manager.  SNBC 2011,2010 #3 Suhaimie has brought along with him at Toby’s Estate quite a few other familiar faces as well. We have Terence Tan, Singapore National Barista Championships 2011 #4 (formerly from Joe & Dough), Nizam (from Black), and Andy (from Jewel and Starbucks).

As you enter the premises of Toby’s Estate, you are greeted by a huge wall mural depicting exactly what every Third Wave cafe is all about: nitpicking the coffee journey from the bean to the cup. A humungous Loring drum coffee roaster attached to a towering exhaust system lies on the right, and a much-humbled Probatino sample roaster is almost hidden alongside it.  And almost akin to an army canteen, it’s space, space, space. And a very long bench. With a coffee tree growing out from the middle of the bench. On the left, there are nicely back-lit retail shelves with bags of roasted coffee, keepcups personalized with Toby’s Estate logo, Cafetto cleaning products for your coffee machines, Chemex brewers, entire lines of Hario products, Toby’s Estate tea and drinking chocolate. Despite the many jute bags of green coffee lying on the pallet by the side of the roaster, the air is very clean, for a sufferer of sinuses like me.

The espresso machine is a Kees Van Der Westen Mirage Triplette Classic. Alongside it, rests 1 of 2 Clover machines in Singapore. The 2 Clovers spent their history in Intelligentsia Coffee, and I’m quite sure along the way, Deaton had something to do with them being brought into Toby’s Estate Singapore. Toby’s Estate kept one of the Clovers, and sold the other to Loysel’s Toy. Good things are meant to be shared, it seems. Kudos to Toby’s Estate. There are 2 Mazzer Roburs here, along with a Mazzer Mini to grind decaf beans.

On espresso, Toby’s Estate Singapore is serving Rodyk Blend and Guatemala Antigua Los Volcanes. I had the Rodyk blend, but coming from the dentist, my mouth was numb and I tasted only brightness in the espresso. My 2nd cup  was a Cafe De Colombia Cup of Excellence roasted by owner Toby Smith and made by Andy on a V60.  I could taste distinct blackberries. The 3rd cup I had was a Brazil Fazenda Rainha made from a Clover by Nizam. Pecans came to mind as I sipped this very clean cup of Clover.

The CGSG core group was here today too, with the exception of Kai Seng. Steve, Adhe and Sam had espresso, cappuccino and a pour-over. Melvin and Diane had the Guatemala Las Volcanes from a clover and a Chemex. Floral, nutty, and sweet.

My take on Toby’s Estate is that their real gem lies in what Suhaimie calls The Slow Bar, thus named because coffee extraction on The Slow Bar would take longer than the 25 to 35 seconds it takes for an espresso-based drink.  The Slow Bar looks like a science lab filled with Chemex flasks sitting atop digital weighing scales, Hario Syphons, a rare Clover machine, a Tiamo cold brewer, and a Vivreau water filtration system, with sparkling, still and hot water dispensers.  The Vivreau system, as explained by Alvaro, supplies the entire line of coffee machines with filtered tap water. Customers can sit at The Slow Bar and marvel at the different processes coffee can be extracted to the eventual cup in front of you.  There are power outlets every few meters and free wifi so customers can lounge with their devices. There is also alfresco tables outside should customers want to sit by the river.

My verdict:  Clean. Comfort. Clover. Coffee. Coming back.