Single origin coffees

Latte Art Smackdown and Cupping US Roasted Microlot Coffees

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First Pour will hold a Latte Art Smackdown, preceded by a Cupping event hosted by Cafe Imports and featuring some exciting microlot coffees from respected US roasters such as Mad Cap, Stumptown, Verve, Sight Glass, Halfwit, Coava, Joe NY and more.

The Smackdown event will have some great prizes up for grabs, such as $1000 cash (sponsored by Pura Milk), Otto Stovetop Espresso machine, $500 cash (sponsored by Silverchef), Compak K3 Push Grinder (courtesy of 9Bar Espresso Services) and the winner will also receive a year’s subscription to Barista Magazine.

In attendance will be the Barista Magazine team, the guys from Cafe Imports and being close to the MICE event you can expect to see some national barista champions as well as some recognised Australian barista names also present.

Veneziano’s Brazilian Microlots Program Continues

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Brazil coffees provide the base of some of our espresso blends. Recently our general manager Ben Romeril and roaster Jack Allisey visited farms in Brazil, touring the regions of Pocos de Caldas and Carmo De Minas. As a result of this trip are excited to share the news about our Brazilian coffee shipments.

Our Brazilian coffee program for our signature blends will draw from five main estates with lots that have scored 84 – 85 points: Fazenda Laranjal, Fazenda Sertaozinho, Fazenda Cachoeira, Fazenda Rainha and Fazenda Recreio. In addition we’re committed to some unique microlots that have achieved 85+ points.

The first container we have received is a Yellow Bourbon from Fazenda Laranajal which we are roasting as a single origin as well as experimenting with as part of our ever changing seasonal blend. Our second shipment will contain coffee sourced from Fazenda Cachoeira followed by Fazenda Recreio.

Here’s an overview of the profiles of these Brazilian beauties:

Exclusive India coffee tour for Veneziano wholesale customers

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COSTS: Reduced Tour Fee of US$1500 covers all hotels, meals and ground transportation.
DATES: January 13-18th, 2013.
CONTACT: Pat Connolly, our Melbourne Roaster is your Team Leader (pat@venezianocoffee.com.au)

Each year, Veneziano Coffee Roasters pay a visit to one of our key specialty coffee producers in India, the Kaapi Royale coffee company and Sethuraman Estate farm. Kaapi Royale, home of the world’s first (and to date only) R certified fine Robusta, supplies Veneziano with most of its Indian coffee.

The 2013 Origin Tour is scheduled for January and is open to our wholesale customers, providing a great opportunity for them to accompany us and gain some in depth knowledge of origin beans and processing methods. Read full article to find out more.

Mike’s signature drink – SA barista championship

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This year’s South Australian (SA) AASCA-run coffee championships saw an even higher level of competition than previous years with the finalists achieving some very high scores, proving that the Adelaide and SA coffee scene is really coming into its own.

Newly crowned SA Barista Champion for 2012/13, Mike Wells from Veneziano Coffee Roasters and First Pour Adelaide, tells us about his competition coffee and how he developed his signature espresso drink.

Competition Coffee

Mike’s competition blend consisted of two special coffees:

Jade achieves 3rd place, her first major coffee competition

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Veneziano’s retail operations manager Jade Jennings recently competed in her first solo coffee competition at a national level, the Danes Grand Barista Competition at the end of August, finishing a not too shabby overall third place!

The Danes competition requires each barista to serve four cappuccinos, four espressos, a filter process and as many express takeaway coffees with latte art as they can manage within 12 minutes. Jade selected the same two-bean blend (Guatemalan Rio Azul and Ethiopian Suiza) for each of her courses, including the filter, because she knew most competitors would choose to use a single origin, particularly for the filter.

For the results, Jade finished third on the first day of competition in the Australian final, being presented with

Jean-Paul Sutton’s Kenya experience

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Jean-Paul (JP) Sutton is state manager and barista extraordinaire at Veneziano Coffee Roasters in Brisbane’s West End. He has an impressive record in competing in barista competitions; finishing in the top three in the Queensland barista competition every year he’s competed. JP won the title of Queensland Barista Champion in 2011, and looks forward to competing, and hopefully winning, again this year.

As part of Veneziano’s commitment to supporting the professional development of its team and his campaign for the 2012 Australian Barista Championship, JP visited Kenya in March to get a get an up-close view of Gethumbwini Estate and Thika coffee mill, as well as dropping in at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange to witness the coffee auctions. JP says the highlight of his trip was definitely being one of the first people to have the opportunity to cup the new season Kenyan coffees.

Visiting the Gethumbwini Estate reveals

Our Aussie Experience at WBC 2012 in Vienna

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Now that the dust has settled on Vienna and the World Barista Championship 2012, we thought we’d put together a bit of a summary.

There were three very talented Australian competitors whom we all cheered for loudly and proudly.

The camaraderie was very strong amongst the Aussies attending the show, but that also was extended to our New Zealand brothers as we watched them compete also…