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

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.

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.

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 roasted the week before by a chap who was the Singapore National Barista Champion 2 years running. Never mind the machine I’m pulling espresso on, named by Gizmodo as the barista’s wet dream machine, the La Marzocco Strada EP, the first of its kind in Asia, and the equally stupendous beauty of a grinder, the Mazzer Robur. I get to calibrate espresso on 1 of the 2 supplied naked portafilters. I record tasting notes of the daily brew, having written down words like “sandalwood”, “granny smith apples”, and “blueberries”. I juggle between pulling shots from each of the 3 PID’d groupheads, maintaining a consistent syrupy mousetail pour, taking turns dosing up to 3 portafilters or hopefully making brilliantly foamed milk the likes of glossy white paint, hopefully delighting customers and myself when I should draw a decent looking rosetta leaf or heart, my trainer all the while stressing the importance of the taste of the milk based drink rather than the art, and should anything go wrong with the pour from the use of experimental VST baskets designed with cutting edge technology I’ve only previously read about from coffee newsgroups, then the …. get this, the R & D team made up of not 1, but 2 Singapore National Barista Champions pay us a visit with their bag full of intricate equipment not limiting to syringes, refractometer, a coffee metering iPhone app that can’t be found on the App Store. They spew forth terms like Total Dissolved Solids, Solubles Concentration, Extraction Yields, and take numerous readings using eye-droppers full of coffee, all the while punching in numbers into their iPhones. End of the day, they do make a difference. And the customers. They KNOW and appreciate the effort. My colleagues? They talk more coffee than I do, and make drinks as if they were going about their routines during the barista championships.

Do I mind being a barista trainee at Oriole Coffee? Are you kidding?

Naked pour from a La Marzocco Strada

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. :)

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 slices.)  As you can remember from the previous meetup, I, on behalf of the group expressed our enthusiasm and reminded Steve to, most of all, show up with the salsa. He did and thanks to Adhe who is wonderfully consistent, we finished the salsa in one sitting. Kai Seng also prepared ice lemon tea and had cream puffs.  Adrian, though absent, gave us a sampling of his bakkwa. As this gathering was called up last minute and that Steve had just returned from a business trip, most of us were caught without roasted coffee so much so Kai Seng and Dawn had to miss their daily americanoes to allocate for the group. I had a roast muckup the day before too on my Idido Misty Valley.

Wow! While Steve was the undisputed champion of machine mods, Kai Seng has practically every latest gadget known to Man and was the envy of us all. Steve mentioned KS definitely had all his priorities right, marvelling at all his worldly goods. It’s techie geek pad EXXTREME, sporting a Dell Zino with BlueRay connected to his HDTV, a handheld wireless trackpad-keyboard all-in-one, a WDTV media player, a Nexstar HDD dock with eSATA, a Canon Vixia HF200 camcorder, and a nice roaster, of course. A La Marzocco GS3 or a Kees Van Der Westen Speedster would have completed this picture with a sweet note. I remarked about how we coffeegeeks are techie geeks at heart, and Steve followed up by saying that the research process leading right up to our purchase was meticulous and tbat anything that was lacking thereafter would immediately be corrected by some modifications. Did I get that part right?

Kai Seng, Melvin and I made a few espressos while I took turns with Melvin to try out the Vixia. Coffees drank today were Kai Seng’s Ethiopian Kuza, Melvin’s Kenyan AA, and my re-roasted Idido Misty Valley. The day before, I had overloaded my roaster with beans and after a 15 minute roast, was dissatisfied with the results and decided to re-roast half of the batch. Fortunately, the re-roasted batch tasted good, albeit a bit fresh and lacking body.

We adjourned to the rooftop where the roaster was situated. Kai Seng uses a professional gas fired drum roaster. We each had brought our own greens and Kai Seng was at the helm roasting them. We were blessed with a good wind and despite the heat, it was comfortable enough to lounge around in the shade. The 1st and 2nd cracks could be heard clearly over the drum rotation of the beans, and a sample of the beans could be easily taken out at any point during the roast to be examined for colour and consistency. Sight and sound are the 2 senses we use to determine when to end the roast, including all other methods we have employed in our coffee roasting, be it a popcorn popper, a DIY over-the-stove drum roaster, an i-Roast or a GeneCafe. The drum roaster also had the knack of rapidly cooling the beans upon exiting the drum, which is a major plus as you would want the roast to end instantaneously. It is akin to photography and its decisive moment. Our decisive moment makes or breaks the roast.

After the roasting, we went back downstairs where Kai Seng wrapped things up by showing us how he kept the greens, which would warrant a separate post. All in all, it was an enjoyable get-together as usual and a great stress reliever. I am so looking forward to our next gathering. We thank Kai Sneg and Dawn for graciously hosting this fantastic meeting of the like-mindeds.

Stay tuned to this blog for upcoming videos of the event and a sure-fire way to preserve your green coffee ala Kai Seng.

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 Sweet Maria’s Italian Espresso Blend and Espresso Vivace’s Dolce.

I hope you readers (however few – sorry about the inferiority complex, it’s a growing trend) can help me out by listing in the comments below about the coffees you’ve had the pleasure of tasting, good and bad (listing here means on this blog, not on Facebook, not on Twitter.)  No holds barred. It could be the Nespresso Ristretto you just had in the office a few hours ago, or the godshot made from your Silvia, or the great cup you’ve just had in Blue Bottle or Intelligentsia or Ritual or even at a corner of a flower market in London. Or 15th Ave Coffee & Tea. Whatever. Please state where you had it. This could be seen as a survey of what my readers drink. To help you out on your tasting notes, I’ve included a taste wheel below. Please push your senses.

I regret that I didn’t take any pictures of the HIGHLIGHT AND MAIN EVENT of the day:

The . . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

S A L S A ! ! !

which was prepared by Steve’s wife, Adhe. Actually, I don’t really regret as I was too busy stuffing my face with the corn chips and the springrolls dipped in the salsa. I’m hungry now just thinking of it. I think I’ll start off by petitioning that no future coffee meetup shall ever start without Adhe’s salsa. It just would not be complete.

After the fabulous salsa, we retreated inside for drinks. Steve has gotten a really nice work table from IKEA for his coffee equipment as you can see in the accompanying photos below. His line of equipment include the Expobar Brewtus, a Macap M5D grinder with a digital display and worm driven stepless grind adjuster, a Rancilio Rocky grinder (from his Silvia days), a new Reg Barber tamper with a made-to-order 58.2mm convex base, a new clicker tamping base, topped off with the familiar “Espresso Open” backlit sign on his wall. Steve went on to explain about how he and Kelvin (another CGSGer) felt that the 58.2mm base was a much nicer fit than the usual 58mm. We all took turns trying it out and I think that 58.2mm just might be my next purchase.

KaiSeng, Melvin and I brought our own home-roasted coffee, while Steve had Spinelli. My Brazil Formosa was just roasted the day before and I felt it wasn’t rested enough, so I declined to even take it out of the bag.  KaiSeng brought Bolivian AA. Melvin brought a blend of Bolivian AA and Ethiopian Limu. We all took turns as baristi, including Steve’s daughter, Samantha who made an exceptional americano for her mom. I should’ve taken a video or photos because her pour using the naked portafilter was excellent – the basket being equally saturated, the first few drips and then smoothly coming together at the centre of the basket, a slow and steady pour. WOW!!

Without further ado, here is the awards ceremony. The votes are counted (award winners’ votes are discarded) and the winners are . . . .

Best Newcomer:  Samantha Cairns

Best Barista:  Samantha Cairns

Best Roaster:  KaiSeng (that’s saying something as Spinelli was also in the running)

Best Entree which every future meetup can’t do without:   Adhe’s SALSA (which just became the best incentive for us to increase the frequency of our meetups.)

Best Salsa Stuffer: 3 way tie between Colin, KaiSeng and Melvin. (Even though Melvin came late, he caught up real fast.)

We really really have to start planning for the next meetup. How’s everyone for December or January?