Imagine this, a large space, late evening. Outside the wind is picking up, bits of paper whips by you as you make your way down Yarra Place. Inside, this large vaulted space with a hushed expectancy. We're early, and luckily, Salvatore, Melbourne's Conquistador of Coffee is already there. Well, it's his place after all, and we're his guests. The only 'outsiders' here. The lighting accentuates the large roaster at one end, the various other bits of equipment that I'll surely get to know sooner or later. A buzz of expectancy. A sacrifice?, A beheading ritual?, A pornography shoot? Nope, we're about to experience a 'cupping'. A coffee tasters frenzy, akin to a gathering of wine sommeliers discovering a new range of mature casks...
There are all these large tables. And pairs of cups, each with napkins covering them, 10 sets. 20 cups. 3 tables. 60 cups. People are steadily moving in, small groups. Everyone seems to know each other, kindof. Everyone we saw looks a bit wired, I mean, this is coffee we're talking about. One of the roasters I meet confides in me '10 before 10' - Does he mean he downs 10 cups before 10 am? I sidle away from him. Fuckadoodledoo. We're shown a presentation that is an absolute eye-opener. This is all about high-end coffee. Speciality stuff. Single Estate, single varietal, specifically grown and identified. Apparently coffee cannot be effectively identified by country (akin to saying I like French wines, as opposed to say, Bordeaux, or Beaujolais, and then the growing region, and then the estate!). These guys were defining the 'flavour profile', 'Cup of Excellence' which I understand are a kind of benchmark indicators.
The statistics were amazing. Norway has the world's highest per capita consumption. (Just one supplier in Norway purchased more high-end specialized coffee than the entire US consumption!). Also a lot of the coffee sold in the US is from 30 year old Brazilian batches left over from excess production - in an industry where they measure 'fresh' in months, and where yearly batches fromn the same region changes from year to year. And where consistency is as elusive as morals are with an Amsterdam hooker. There are 180 types of coffee, each one quite distinct. So many late nights! Insomnia reigns. The nocturnal army. We're caught up in all of it...
Next we got right down to the 'cupping' process.
Each set of cups are loaded with precisely 7.25 gms of coffee. Boiling water and exact volume is added to each cup, and then a timer counts-down. We're all given long-handled soup spoons, a paper cup (to be used as your very own, personal spitoon), and since the time is up, the ritual begins.
I was a spectator, pretending to be a specialist, so I just followed along.
First, the crust formed on the top of each cup is scooped away. Then each person scoops the coffee and with a noisy slurp (important to suck in a lot of air with each taste) tastes the mouthful and then spits it out. This was obviously a ritual, well practiced and pretty serious. The little video clip shows some of this along with the amazing slurpy sound.... It went on like this, circling the tables, noisy slurps, tasting, spitting, rinsing spoons, and again and again. The collective knowledge in that space was something special. these folk here were in the know, and for now, I was part of it.....
Here's a list of the 10 types of coffee we experienced at the 'cupping' process.
- El Salvador Siberia Bourbon
- Sulawesi Kalosi
- Ethiopian Harrar
- Kenya Gethunbwini
- Nicaragua Limoncillo
- Guatemala La Perla Guat Cupofex
- Lafany 100% Bourbon
- Sumatra Takengon
- Cachoeira 100% Canario
- Guatamala El Bosque 100% Bourbon
Which one did I like? Well, the Ethiopian Harrar, Guatemala La Perla & Sumatra Takengon..
And here's some more:
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