Catering Melbourne Blog

Most people who love specialty coffee drinks eventually purchase an espresso maker. With a good one, you can make all your favourite drinks in the comfort of your own kitchen and try out a new recipe or two. Since this is a large investment, you should spend some time learning about these machines before you buy. Learn about the features available and then read some reviews to find the best machine for your home.
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Common Types of Espresso Maker
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Manual Espresso Makers
Manual machines require you to do all the work. You measure and grind the beans, tamp the grounds and brew the coffee. These are the least expensive machines. Some avid espresso drinkers will only use a manual machine.

Semi Automatic Machines
Semi automatics do some of the work for you. You adjust the water temperature and pressure. Grind and tamp the beans and the machine will do the rest. They are more expensive than a manual machine, but much more affordable than a fully automatic model. These machines are a good first cappuccino maker.

Automatic Machines
Automatic machines do the whole job for you. All you need to do is add the water and the beans. With the touch of one button, you will have a great cup of your favourite java drink.

Super Automatic Machines
Super automatics do everything from grinding and tamping the beans to the finished product. They pre infuse the beans with water for more flavour than other machines. The entire process is faster than regular automatics. These machines are often found in restaurants and coffee bars.
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Great Espresso Maker Features
The features vary from machine to machine. When comparing two models, look at the features included with each to determine which will suit your needs better.

Bean Grinder
More expensive machines often have a built in grinder. The beans are ground for each individual cup. This results in more flavour from the oils inside the beans. The drink will taste fresh with this feature.

Milk Frother
For cappuccino or latte drinks, you will need a frother. This can either be a frothing wand or a separate milk container. More expensive models have a container.

Pod Compatible
Pods are small packets that consist of a filter material on the outside and ground beans on the inside. The pods are pre measured for one cup. Just put the pod in the machine and brew your coffee. Most people either love the pods for the convenience or hate them and lament the bitter taste.

Water Filter
Some of the more expensive machines have a built in water filter to remove chlorine or other chemicals from the water prior to brewing. These are mostly carbon filters. If your water is heavily chlorinated, you will notice the difference with a built in filter.

Cup Warmer
A cup warmer keeps the cup warm before brewing. This results in a hotter drink. This feature is usually located on the top of the machine.

Hot Water Dispenser
Some machines have a separate valve for dispensing hot water. This feature is great for making tea or hot chocolate. Most machines used in commercial establishments have this feature.

Some Other Things to Consider

o Steel or brass machines are best. Some people detect an aftertaste with aluminium machines.
o Look at the pump pressure on home coffee makers. More powerful pumps work will with finer grounds. You should have a minimum of 14 bars or more for pump pressure.
o Look for a removable water tank. This is easier for cleaning or emptying and will prevent stagnant water from collecting at the bottom of the tank.

Cafe fires off waste for taste

Newcastle’s latest inner-city coffee house offers lattes that do not weigh heavily on one’s conscience. Behind Sprocket Roasters’ funky face its owners use innovative green technology to roast organic coffee beans on site, at the corner of Watt and Hunter streets. The rugged appearance of the furnace is in stark contrast to the chic fit-out of the cafe’s front of house with its retro furniture and prints to create an intimate escape from the city. There is also a record player for customers to play DJ. “We roast the beans on site using a combustor to burn waste from the cafe and surrounding offices. The heat from it is used to roast the beans,” one of four business partners, Nick Ciavarella, said. Their patented technology is believed to be a first for the Hunter and attracted a lot of interest at the Royal Easter Show where their beans won a bronze medal. The company, originally called Precision Roasting and Drying, attracted $64,000 government funding to help commercialise its product. Newcastle Herald, April 27

After a hectic day at office, with an unimaginable load of work and your boss finding a thousand faults in your work, do you come back home and find the relaxation of a day in a cup of espresso? Well, then you are not the only one. Like you, there are millions around the globe who greedily lay their hands on a cup of espresso after a hard day’s work. Espresso or caffè espresso is a very concentrated form of coffee that has been prepared by forcing boiling water through roasted coffee bean powder (of a consistency which is neither too big nor too fine) under very high pressure. Generally, about an ounce and a half of dark coffee is used for this particular preparation. It is also important to mention that only sweet-bitter coffee powder is used for preparing espresso.

Do you often wonder as to how the coffee shops offer espresso with that top layer of aromatic oil?! And have you often tried to make an espresso similar to that but invariably came up with your own version that was in no way at par with the coffee shops? Your version probably, despite your 100% efficiency, lacked that oily top part. Well, then let us tell you are not alone. You are one of those numerous people who in vain try to imitate the coffee shops only to fail miserably. But then there is a reason behind this universal failure and that is- the layer of crema (aromatic oil layer) that you get as the topping of your espresso is a trick that only the espresso machine is equipped to perform. This is due to the high pressure at which the boiling water is made to pass through the fine, rich coffee powder.

Talking of the coffee powder, the more fine coffee powder you use the more time the coffee machine will take to force the boiling water through the powder. It is the expert opinion that espresso tastes best when the coffee machine prepares it in exactly 25 seconds. Keep in mind that your coffee powder is not over-extracted. This is a very important thing to remember if you want the perfect espresso. It is also equally important for you to buy the very best of the coffee beans. These coffee beans then need to be roasted until they become dark and the texture becomes oily, only then shall these coffee beans be roasted.

Keep in mind that the only points which distinguish your regular coffee and your espresso is the powder’s fineness and the time for which it gets brewed, and so you must be very careful about these two features, lest you turn your espresso into your regular coffee. An important requirement is that the powder is uniform in fineness, this is very easy to achieve if you are using a burr grinder, since it used discs in rotation motion.

So now you know all the secrets to a perfect espresso. Remember that fineness of coffee powder, the coffee machine, time of brewing; pressure the machine is using, the roasting of the coffee beans, etc. - everything is equally important when it comes to making that perfect shop-like espresso.

Vittoria, mio core

Les Schirato, the CEO of Cantarella Bros, says it was not easy to introduce strong coffee to Australia. Initially, Schirato was laughed at when he tried to persuade supermarket owners to distribute Cantarella’s products. At that time, it seemed impossible to make Australians drink strong coffee. Schirato persevered and his persistence paid off. Cantarella now controls 43 per cent of the domestic pure coffee market. Schirato, who has been at the helm of the company since 1993, is proud of his achievements. The Australian Financial Review, May 2008

Coffee prices on boil - Favourite beans make for a rich brew

It’s enough to make even hardened coffee drinkers stock up on instant. Rising coffee bean prices could force up the cost of a cup of coffee from your favourite cafe, according to the Australian Coffee Traders Association. Vice-chairman Andrew Mackay said the price of arabica beans had increased almost 25 per cent in the past month because of investors speculating on the wholesale coffee market. “We’re seeing prices at almost 10-year highs in the arabica market and the same with robusta,” he said. The latest annual Cappuccino Price Index, produced by coffee distributor Gilkatho, reveals that the average price of a takeaway cappuccino in Brisbane is $2.85—up 5 in the past year. Wayne Fowler, managing director of Gilkatho, in the Brisbane suburb of Milton, said cafe operators would be under financial hardship unless they raised prices or increased sales. The Sunday Mail (Brisbane), March 2.

For most people, a cup of hot coffee is the only way to start a day. Since 2001, Adelaide has enjoyed the aroma and taste of Bean Bar coffees, with more than 20,000 cups served each week from its six outlets. The growing demand for quality will see another four Bean Bar stores open in the city’s CBD by July next year. Bean Bar master franchisor Ron Basset said the introduction of coffee outlets in service stations is a bonus as it encourages people to ditch the instant cup of coffee in favour of the specialised espresso. ”Consumers are becoming more discriminating in their coffee tastes,” he said. ”Cafes and coffee outlets not meeting this emerging standard are being left behind.” The popular coffee chain will soon launch its new colour, logo and slogan, ”Double or Nothing”, and early next year, will broaden its service with new mobile coffee vans. In the booming coffee market, Bean Bar stays one step ahead by monitoring customer reactions and continually improving its products. Sunday Mail (Adelaide), November 11.

Coffee lovers will tell you that the best coffee comes from beans grounded immediately before the coffee is brewed. Old Time coffee drinkers know this by heart. That’s why no kitchen is complete without a coffee grinder. Waking up in the morning and grinding up a fresh batch of coffee beans and throwing it into the coffee maker and then anticipating that first sip of fresh hot coffee! Now that is the good life!

What Makes a Great Coffee Grinder?

When it comes to coffee grinders, there to basic types. One is called burr grinders and the other is called blade grinders. The difference between these two is basically how the beans are processed. Blade coffee grinders use a spinning blade to grind up the coffee beans. Burr grinders use burrs to grind up coffee beans. Burrs resemble plates with gears on them. One of the burrs is stationary, while the other one spins and grinds up the coffee beans.

When trying to make a great cup of coffee, one has to keep a couple things in mind. The taste of coffee will be affected by heat and uniformity. What this means is, heat is undesirable in a coffee grinder because it damages the coffee beans. The process of grinding coffee is relatively violent, because both blade and burr grinders in produce some heat. And of course, the faster the grinding mechanism runs; the more heat is being generated. Even finer grinds generate heat because of the extra time it takes to grind the coffee beans.

For those who are concerned about the quality of their coffee, one can purchase a low- speed burr grinder. A low speed burr will be more expensive. As well it will take longer to grind the coffee beans. But coffee purists will swear by these coffee grinders as the only way to go for a perfect cup of coffee.

Another very important factor is the uniformity of the grind. With the brewing process, the water spends a certain amount of time passing over the grinds. The uniform grinds are much more efficient at imparting flavor to the water. At first glance, the average coffee drinker may not be able to distinguish coffee that was grinded from a blade grinder vs. a burr grinder. But, to a coffee purist, they will notice the difference. The blade grinder is not very good at creating a uniform grind. However, with burr grinders, they produce an exceptional uniform grind resulting in a much tastier cup of coffee.

Quite frankly, it’s a no brainer when it comes to selecting a coffee grinder. The burr grinder s really the only way to go. However, some of the higher end models can cost several hundred dollars, thus putting them out of reach for some of the coffee lovers. However, this doesn’t mean that a small budget will always get a poor coffee grinder. Best to do a search online for burr coffee grinders. One can pick up a very nice coffee grinder for under hundred dollars. The selection is almost endless. Most coffee lovers consider a coffee grinder to be an investment and not an expense. After all, who can put the dollar value on a fantastic cup of coffee each and every morning? Yes, it is the good life!

Tea is taking the world by storm. With more and more new flavors coming every day, the life of a tea drinker keeps getting better. Maybe it started with the onslaught of green-tea health benefits, such as helping fight cancer and cardiovascular problems, heart disease, and strokes. Its no doubt to the growing number of health releated and organic tea drinkers that antioxidants play a major role in this area. Antioxidants can have a great effect on removing cell-damaging properties and have been reported to even help with neurological diseases!

It remains a fact that tea sales in the United States keep climbing. from just over $1 Billion to over $5 billion over the past 10 years, according to the Tea Council of the USA. And it’s not just traditional black and orange pekoe tea behind that growth - more people are buying green and specialty teas.

Tea is for fun,” said Susan Zuege, co-owner of the Perennial Tea Room, located in Post Alley, near this city’s famous Pike Place Market and the original Starbucks coffee shop. “You should enjoy it. If you don’t, you might as well do coffee.”

If you travel around the U.S.A., hotels throughout will be offering you more and more new flavors of tea to enjoy. Are Americans getting sick of coffee? More and more tea houses can be found, just take a look at CitySearch or another “locator” service and great tea will be all around! Tea’s rising popularity has encouraged entrepreneurs to open tea shops around the country, even in rural communities such as Newton, N.J.; Carefree, Ariz.; and Anoka, Minn., where people sit for a while and enjoy a pot or a cup. And even in coffee-loving Seattle.

Forget about Starbucks, Coke or Sunny Delight — tea is set to be most popular with drinkers in the 21st century. Chinese researchers say it will become quite popular among consumers seeking to keep healthy, stay young and live longer. Tea does not contain salt, fat or any other substance that could produce heat, said Ding Junzhi, honorary chairman of the International Research Institute for Tea Culture and a professor at the South China Agriculture University. Ding said drinking tea fits the lifestyle of modern people who care more about their health. And evidence is already emerging on the global horizon. Survey results released by the United Nations revealed that one of the secrets of longevity is “drinking more tea and smoking less.”

A survey carried out in East China’s Anhui Province shows that more than 30 centenarians in the province love drinking tea.

People nowadays are drinking less cocoa since it can be fattening and may lead to some childhood ailments, and caffeine also produces undesirable side-effects in the human body, according to research.

Coffee comes from two main beans, robusta and arabica. Both are grown in equatorial regions of the world, with the arabica grown at a higher altitude than the robusta. Robusta has the highest yield and largest amount of caffeine, but accounts for only about 30% of the world’s coffee.
With it’s delicate flavour and caramel aftertaste, Arabica is generally considered to be the superior coffee. All coffee blends are made from these two types, with the cheaper blends having a higher proportion of robusta beans. The various flavours are achieved by different roasting times.

American (regular) roast has a moderate flavour due to beans being roasted moderately, while French and dark French roasts are really dark and strong and a dark chocolate colour due to the longer roasting time. Italian is a strong roast used for espresso coffee, while European and Viennese roasts are all made from various blends of slight, medium and dark roasted beans

The instant coffee that we all know is made from freshly brewed coffee that has been heat-dried, while freeze-dried coffee is freshly brewed and frozen into a slush from which the water is evaporated. The flavour is said to be superior.

Decaffeinated coffee is still real coffee. It’s just that the caffeine has been removed from the beans by a chemical process before they are crushed. The chemical disappears during the roasting process so it is quite safe.

“He proudly shows us the branches of the coffee trees, bent under the weight of their crop. He touches them tenderly, as a father would his children . . . his eyes shining with happiness. ‘Do you know, doctor, why these branches curve so toward the earth? They are grateful to the farmer, and bow before God.’” José Corvetti, describing a visit to the farm of Italian immigrant T. Malavasi,Tres Ríos, 1935 Coffee and Costa Rica were meant for each other, and they have grown and prospered together, complementing each other in the pursuit of excellence. Costa Rica repealed the death penalty in 1870 and abolished the army in 1948, and coffee supported those reforms with its high productivity and environmentally friendly disposition. In a country which has enacted laws protecting 21% of its territory in order to preserve the 5% of the world’s biodiversity it shelters, Costa Ricans are encouraged by their environment to love what they do, and to do it well. In its desire to protect the environment, Costa Rica has carefully tended the soils and climate that are best suited to coffee production. As Costa Rica’s soils have been enriched by volcanic ash, they contain a slight degree of tropical acidity. They are also rich in organic matter, which makes for good distribution of the coffee plant’s root system, enabling them to retain humidity and facilitating oxygenation. This combination of factors invigorates the coffee plants and is one of many elements contributing to the quality of Costa Rican coffee. Over 70% of the country’s coffee is produced in the mountains, which vary in altitude from 3,280 to 5,580 feet above sea level. Mountain temperatures range from 63 to 73 degrees Fahrenheit. Sunlight is stable, and precipitation levels are ideal. All this makes for as dependable and high-quality a coffee crop as any produced in a greenhouse. Costa Rica is the only country in the world which has issued an executive order (N°19302-MAG, 4 December 1989) banning the production of any variety of coffee other than Arabica. This standard is made possible by the expertise, experience and favorable physical conditions which converge in this remarkable land. The story of Costa Rica’s coffee is the story of the nation that saw it come to life over two centuries ago. Throughout the years, it has been the yardstick by which the country’s life and economy have been measured. Our grandparents tell us… Coffee was first brought to Costa Rica during the last decade of the eighteenth century. So we are told in a letter sent by Panamanian trader Agustín de Gana to the Governor of Costa Rica, Don José Vásquez y Téllez, announcing that he was sending two pounds of coffee.
The history books tells us that Father Felix Velarde was the first Costa Rican coffee grower; his will, dated 1816, refers to a plot of land on which coffee had been planted. Tradition has it that he bequeathed the seeds to his neighbors, inviting them to plant them. His suggestion must have taken hold, because the first recorded export of Costa Rican coffee, a one-hundred pound shipment to Panama, took place in 1820. By 1832 coffee was also being exported to Chile by Jorge Stiepel, a German businessman living in Costa Rica. In Chile, the coffee was repackaged and sent to England, where it was sold as “Valparaíso Chilean Coffee”. Meanwhile, a group of forward-looking coffee producers, including Mariano Montealegre, who was the main promoter of the crop between 1830 and 1840, decided to take on the task of exporting it directly to England. The first shipment was made in 1843 thanks to the efforts of the captain of an English ship, The Monarch, which transported 5,505 one-hundred-pound sacks to Europe. The first two Heads of State of Costa Rica, Juan Mora Fernández and Braulio Carrillo, strongly supported the coffee trade, as they sensed that it could generate economic growth and enhance Costa Rica’s position on the international market. As coffee production developed further, the country’s economy, society, and culture flourished. But that is another story . . . The story of Costa Rica’s coffee is the story of the nation that saw it come to life over two centuries ago. Throughout the years, it has been the yardstick by which the country’s life and economy have been measured. Coffee bears fruit . . . What does coffee have to do with the theater? What does the tax year have to do with the coffee harvest? In Costa Rica such relationships are essential, and are part of the benefits obtained from the “Golden Grain”, as it is called in Costa Rica. Coffee exports to Europe during the mid-nineteenth century brought many opportunities for Costa Rica, opening a window to the Old World that would eventually bring in railroads, a postal service, printing presses, the country’s first university, and what is perhaps the region’s greatest architectural treasure: the National Theater. Designed as a miniature copy of the Paris Opera House, the National Theater, located in the center of the capital city of San José, became a symbol of coffee-driven prosperity because it was initially financed by coffee taxes. Coffee did not simply transform the Costa Rican economy and its landscape, it also changed consumer behavior and working patterns. The development of a taste for coffee was, perhaps, a reflection of the democratic society that was being forged. In the words of historians Peters and Samper, “Drinking coffee became a ritual of Costa Rican society, a society that was free of economic and social distinctions; everyone drank it, from the simplest farmer or laborer to the most prominent politician.” And, just as Costa Rica lives and breathes democracy and peace, it also lives and breathes coffee. It is no coincidence that per capita consumption of this drink is the highest of all coffee-producing countries in the world. The close relationship between coffee and daily life led Costa Ricans to plan their calendar around the harvesting, processing and sale of coffee, to such an extent that the Costa Rican tax year is based on the coffee trade: it begins in October and ends in September of the following year. For a long time, in fact, even the school year revolved around the coffee harvest. But that did not prevent education in Costa Rica from becoming in 1886, what it still is today: free and mandatory. Textbooks and teachers arriving from Chile during the early years of the coffee trade, and later on, from Europe, became part of a tradition which also included a unique land ownership structure, in which small and medium-sized properties have remained a part of the rural landscape to this day. That landscape has changed over the years. What has not changed is Costa Rica’s continuing love affair with coffee.