The review is UP....and it's good.

Finally, after what must have been over 50 visits to the Melbourne Coffee Review page, hitting refresh a million times over, it's up! And like I said in the title, it's good! Here's the link to the review http://www.melbournecoffeereview.com/2008/09/guava-bean.html

Thanks Steve for the great review...and you know what, I didn't even have to pay him for it! Glad that someone out there enjoys what we have to offer because what's the point if we try and try and not one really enjoys/appreciates it.

One another note, I dropped by the Brunswick East Project today for a coffee. It's a little roastery/cafe up on Lygon street in er...Brunswick East. They are the roasters of Padre Coffee. Anyway we had planned to got there for lunch only to realise that they do only coffee and muffins. Well that didn't phase be even though it did my friends who were hungry.

There was something about the place that I really liked. Not the Synesso they had or the bright setting or even the nice cup of coffee that I had, but it was the person who ran it and the passion that he had for it. His name is Marinus and he's the owner of Padre coffee. I spent a good hour there I believe and while my friends had moved onto Gingerlee for lunch, I was deep in conversation with Marinus about coffee, coffee accessories, his previous ventures, my previous ventures, etc. It was only till my wife gave me a nudge that I realised how much time had passed. I love it when I get to hae a good engaging converstion about something that we both have a passion for, even just to hear a person speak about his own passion about anything is enough to make me feel like I'm involved somehow.

All in all, today has been a great day. Great morning at Crema catching up with an old customer, then chatting with Marinus at Brunswick East Project, then lunch at Gingerlee with good friends, then I had a great time chatting with Dean from Vespa House and picking up my Vespa S LX 125 (sorry mum), and then coming home to find out that our review on Melbourne Coffee Review is up.

Awesome.

A nice comment

Was on Coffeesnobs today and someone had posted this on a "Best coffee in Melbourne" thread.

"Had a nice ristretto in a cafe somewhere near the casino....just strolling by and loved the name (The Guava Bean) and great coloured machine at the front...but the coffee was good, if you are in that area." - Buff

That was before the moderator shut the thread down due to there being a strict rule on how members with less than 50 post not allowed to post reviews of cafes. Sad.

Nevertheless, it's great to see yet another person enjoying our coffee at Guava Bean. I do remember this person actually, he's probably the first and so far the only person that has ordered a ristretto.

Thanks Buff, whoever you are.

But on a sad note, I busted my thumb today trying to put stuff from Ikea into my car. I hope that it'll heal before I get to work on Tuesday. Otherwise my coffee making will definitely be affected. It's swollen now and I did hear and feel a crunch as I was trying to fit the pram into the car with some shelving stuff under it.

Receiving my first coffee/cafe review

Something really exciting happened yesterday at Guava Bean. A man by the name of Steve Agi from Melbourne Coffee Review popped by the shop for a coffee. He ordered his espresso and then a flat white to take away but didn't really mention anything about who he was. Anyway Soosh made Steve his coffee and Steve proceeded to pay for his coffee and it was then that he told me who he was.

I admit that I got a little nervous then because I wasn't sure if Soosh had done justice to our coffee but Steve seemed pleased and we had a little chat about how Dave Makin had asked him to come check us out. Nice.

Anyway to cut the long story short. Seong-Lee (my business partner) received a letter in the mail today and it came from Steve at Melbourne Coffee Review. It was a certificate of sorts to er...certify that we had received a rating of 2 beans for the cafe! If you want to know the rating system here it is:

1 bean = bloody worth looking up
2 beans = something extra ordinary here
3 Beans = close to sex

I mean, I think that if we had received 1 bean that would already be fantastic but to receive 2 beans makes me feel like our efforts have not gone to waste. It's good to see that my love for good coffee has translated to the cafe actually serving our great coffee as well.

Actually the story goes that apparently when Dave Makin told Steve Agi about Guava Bean, Steve told him that he had already been receiving emails from people to some check us out. Woohoo!

What can I say, it feels good and if anything, it makes me determined to keep up if not improve on our standards of coffee in Guava Bean.

Guava Bean Freshwater Place

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That's where the shop's going to be.

For the past few months I've been working with a good friend of mine to build a cafe. The cafe is called Guava Bean and it's going to be built in Freshwater Place in Southbank. It's been a long time coming with finding a right site then designing it then building it then now we are almost there. Of course it doesn't come without it's share of heachaches and frustrations, but we are almost there.

And yes, the equipment. We are getting a 3 group La Marzocco FB80 (painted Lamborghini Lime Green), Compak K10 WBC, Mazzer Super Jolly (espresso blend) and Compaq K3T (decaf).

After moving our opening date week after week, finally we are looking at opening on the 12th of August 2008, if all goes to plan. Our lauch party is going to be on the 16th of August 2008. Here's the flyer that I designed.

Black Gold

Don't know if anyone's heard about the movie Black Gold, but I just watched it and it's a fantastic documentary about the coffee industry, specifically about the farmers in Ethopia. It follows an Ethopian man who represents the Coffee Union in Ethopia and he presents to us the current deteriorating situation for coffee farmers in Ethopia. It really made me think about how much I enjoy my coffee and how much paying for it vs how much the farmers are getting for all their efforts. The farmers are basically getting paid about $0.09 per kilo of coffee that they produce. Ouch! But the truth is that I haven't heard much good about the Fairtrade system as well, so really, what can we do? Going to do some research about that. These are the wonderful farmers who have worked hard to bring us such beans as the Ethopian Harrar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe. Yummy stuff. The Harrar has to be one of my fave single origins at the moment.

Here's a review of the movie from the NY Times.

And here's the trailer



Definitely a much watch for any coffee aficionado out there.

Makin WBC Espresso Blend

I scored myself some of David Makin's WBC Espresso blend yesterday at First Pour. It's a blend of the El Salvador St Helena's and Brazil Daterra Reserve Vintage 2005. I hear that the Daterra release is usually really limited so Makin was pretty happy to score some of it for the comps.

Here's what they had to say about it on the Veneziano Website

"In David's espresso blend, he really wanted a coffee that reminded him of his travels through Europe and America. His espresso blend comprises of 2 origins; firstly an El Salvador St. Helena for the coffee fruit notes and the sparkling acidity almost like a good quality riesling. He then rounded the blend off with the Brazil Daterra Vintage Reserve for the dry berry notes it adds through the middle of the cup."

I'm still trying to dial my K10 grinder in to get a proper shot of it and so far it's been pretty good. I'm trying to taste all the stuff that they say is in it but so far I got the fruit notes, but sparkling acidity and dry berry? Hmmm...will try again later, a little coffeed out at the moment.

Anyway for those who didn't watch his spectacular performance at the WBC, here it is.

There was Singapore as well and we came in 32nd, which isn't all too bad. Was considering training up for WBC in Australia but going back to represent Singapore. Hmmm...

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Compak K10 WBC Mod

Did a simple mod to my K10. The difference between the K10 WBC and the K10, aside from its price, is the auto cutoff.

But for some reason, probably cos it's easier, Compak left the plastic contraption still there on the WBC version. So I took it off. That way it gives me a better view of the doser and it also gives me better access to the grind chute.

The grind chute on the K10 is really deep and I think it probably holds about 20gms of coffee before it drops, so now by taking the plastic contraption I have full access to it so I can give it a good clean when I need to.