Meetup at the Cairns

Oriole Mac Yellowbird Blend

Posted in coffee, cupping, espresso, john, Notes, oriole, oriole-coffee-roasters, Pulls, Rant, Roasts, taste, ting on December 27th, 2011 by Colin Loh

Oriole Coffee just announced their new Yellowbird seasonal espresso blend this Christmas week. Previous iterations of Yellowbird have been a duo-origin blend, Brazilian and Ethiopian, and this new YB follows in its ancestral footsteps. Made up of 20% Ethiopian Sidama, and 80% of a semi-washed Brazilian bean from Fazenda Machado, this YB proves to be another winner in… Continue reading

Tags: beans, brazil, coffee, espresso, ethiopia, La_Marzocco, oriole, roast, sidamo, singapore, ting

Required Reading – Tonx Opens Micro-Roastery

Posted in barista, brewed, coffee, home-barista, News, Required Reading, Roasts on December 20th, 2011 by Colin Loh

I followed a link on facebook posted by Espressoparts that coffee blogger Tonx opened up a micro-roastery in an article in LA Weekly by Tien Nguyen. This article is required reading. Yes, I’ve even started a category that is titled “Required Reading”. This category will contain my favourite reads from now on.

The LA Weekly article went on to… Continue reading

Tags: blogger, brewed, coffee, espresso, home-barista, roastery, subscription, tonx, usa

Toby’s Estate Opens in Singapore

Posted in Cafe, espresso, Meetups, Roasts, singapore, taste, tobys_estate on October 9th, 2011 by Colin Loh

I’ve known about Toby’s Estate opening in Singapore a while back. I was highlighted to it by way of jimseven and then Deaton Pigot, who opened Toby’s Estate in New York. Blogging has its accolades. In fact, it was the 1st of only 2 coffee places I went to for job interviews.

Toby’s

Tags: barista, beans, brazil, cgsg, championship, coffee, cuppachoice, espresso, estate, kaiseng, melvin, singapore, snbc, starbucks, steve_cairns, suhaimie_sukiman, tobys, tobys_estate, world barista championship

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Subscribe To Craft Coffee

Posted in Rant on August 5th, 2011 by Colin Loh

I read Brian W Jones’ blog, paid heed to his advice, and now, according to Craft Coffee, I became their first Singapore-based customer. 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… Continue reading

Tags: artisan, coffee, Craft, roasters, subscription

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A Day in the Life of a Barista Trainee at Oriole Coffee

Posted in barista, Cafe, championship, espresso, oriole, oriole-coffee-roasters, singapore on May 23rd, 2011 by Colin Loh

I was formerly a barista trainer at The Line Restaurant at Shangri-la Hotel. I quit rather than having to compromise on quality issues. Now, I’m a barista trainee at Oriole Coffee. Does this bother me? Let me elaborate ….

My work day starts at 7.00 am. I open up the Republic Plaza outlet of Oriole Coffee Espresso and Brew Bar together with my colleagues. I get to calibrate coffee that is… Continue reading

Tags: barista, championship, coffee, espresso, naked-portafilter, oriole, roast, singapore, snbc

7 Comments »

ChristchurchCafe.com

Posted in Cafe, News on April 26th, 2011 by Steve Cairns

I was catching up with CG podcasts today and listened to the Christchurch post-earthquake episode that was really moving. The city has been devastated we all know … as has Japan. One of our most respected coffee gurus, Carl Sara, who has a cafe there, has set up a website with some help from Mark Prince (CoffeeGeek), Steve Leighton (HasBean) and Lawrence Brown (Web designer) – a virtual cafe, where… Continue reading

Tags: beans, carl, coffee, coffeegeek, donate, espresso, hasbean, ristretto, sara, uk

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The Big Picture

Posted in barista, championship, competition, News, Rant, singapore, wbc, world on March 29th, 2011 by Colin Loh

“As a barista trainer, I would rather resign than compromise on the quality of coffee and training I deliver.” And I did. My last day in The Line [Restaurant] will be April 25th. Sorry, I can’t bring myself to conduct training in a manner that would set the quality of coffee in Singapore back to the Dark Ages. It’s not what I signed up for.

I posted this on… Continue reading

Tags: barista, challenge, championship, coffee, espresso, facebook, singapore, snbc, wbc, world, world barista championship

2 Comments »

Meetup at Kai Seng’s

Posted in Meetups on January 17th, 2010 by Colin Loh

CGSG Gang of Four (L to R): Colin, Melvin, Kai Seng, Steve

Today’s gathering, January 17 2010, was called up at the last minute, and the attendees were the usual Gang of Four: me, Melvin and Steve at Kai Seng’s pad. Peter was away in Geneva while Adrian was selling bakkwa (roasted pork… Continue reading

Tags: barista, coffee, espresso, kaiseng, meetup, melvin, naked-portafilter, steve_cairns

1 Comment »

Share Your Cupping Notes

Posted in cupping, Reviews on January 14th, 2010 by Colin Loh

One of the chief purposes of this blog was to write down my cupping notes for the coffees I’ve roasted (however somewhat limited they are to my lackluster ability and tastebuds to define the nuances of the tastes.)

And looking at my own notes, I’m always roasting the few same coffees, Ethiopian Sidamo, Yrgacheffe, Panama Gesha, and of course, who can forget the evergreen Brazil Formosa, and my favourite… Continue reading

Tags: americano, coffee, espresso, taste