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News
The Q course is back!
This is your opportunity to partake in one of the most recognised and meaningful qualifications in the coffee industry in a fun and supportive group environment. We are über-excited to have Trish Rothgeb (Wrecking Ball Coffee, USA) as our instructor.
Exciting new courses and improvements to training structure
Good things are set to roll out at the ABA in 2013 – new courses and restructured, more accessible content has arrived!
Holiday and New Years Trading and Delivery
Each of the Australian Barista Academy’s will close at 12pm on Friday 21 December , 2012 and reopen on Wednesday 2 January, 2013. If you’re looking for a Christmas gift then why not try the shop section on the Five Senses Coffee website.
Christmas Gift Ideas
Wanting to know what to buy the coffee geek of the house, why not try the Five Senses Coffee website.
Juliana wins back-to-back Barista Comps in WA
Juliana Nobre defended her title on the weekend by taking out the 2012/2013 Western Australian Barista Compeition at the Fremantle Town Hall. The WA Barista Competition is the biggest event on the specialty coffee industry calendar and, as always, there was plenty of excitement and support for competitors.
Southern Cross University conducting study of Australian Coffee
The academy was taken over today by cuppers from some of the leading specialty coffee institutions in Australia, who are taking part in Southern Cross University’s study on Australian coffee farming and production.
Ron takes the crown
The Melbourne Food and Wine show was the stage for the Barista Academy’s Ron Ngo to battle it out for the Under 23’s Apprentice Barista Cup. This comp is challenging as one barista makes four piccolo lattes, four lattes and four designer lattes in less than ten minutes.
Smashing a Phoenix at the Advanced Latte Art Class
Latte art has become a staple in the specialty coffee world. It challenges the artistic expression of professional baristas to consistently produce perfectly steamed milk and creative patterns. With the best baristas in Perth eager to evolve their skills to perfectly match the flavours of their coffee.
COE Season at the Australian Barista Academy
The Cup Of Excellence season is in full swing from June through to August, so what better time for us to run a set of group cupping events!
We Love Clever Coffee Drippers
It’s cold right now here in Melbourne, so I’m surprised we managed to get so many people to leave their warm beds on a Sunday morning for our “We Love Clever Coffee Drippers” event. Needless to say the allure of finely brewed coffee and a chance to learn how to brew it themselves provided the enthusiasm we needed to make it happen.
WABC 2012 - Some Words from The Champ
Coming into this year WA Barista Championships I knew I would have to come up with a great concept to win, not only the WA baristas skills have evolved in the past few years but also has never been such a great selection of beautiful fresh crops of coffees available to choose from.
Juliana wins the WA Barista Comp
The 2012 WA Barista Competition is the biggest event on the specialty coffee industry calendar and, as always, there was plenty of excitement and support for competitors. This year saw a changing of the guard with lots of new faces bringing a new energy to the competition arena.
Pressing Victory
I spent last night standing in an extremely crowded room clutching an Aeropress, wondering how many more people could possibly fit in to the already jam-packed Seven Seeds. The crowd had gathered to watch a total of 18 competitors compete for the top spot in the first Victorian Aeropress Championships.
Women Eager to be on the Speciality Map
I’ve been invited to represent Five Senses at a short IWCA (International Women’s Coffee Alliance) workshop in Burundi, East Africa. Not only was I representing Five Senses as a roaster, but I have the honour of representing women in coffee. The Burundi chapter of IWCA, an association where women collaborate with peers to establish good growing and production practices, signed their charter only one year ago.
Q Graders at ABA
The Q grading course came to a close today with 15 out of 21 people becoming Australia’s newest Q graders! Although there are a disappointed few, there is still an opportunity for these folks to retake their section/s at another grading. More importantly everyone agreed it was a great week of learning and every participant can now speak a common language among the specialty coffee world.
The ABA Makeover is Complete
After only three days, Fintan Magee has finished his mural on the Australian Barista Academy wall in Victoria. Although a few rain delays prevented the portafilter idea from eventuating the new artwork has still given the west side wall a whole new look. Check out how the some of the balloons are actually part of a coffee branch!
Rosslyn Gets a Makeover
The west side wall of the Australian Barista Academy in Victoria is now undergoing a full makeover, with artist Fintan Magee from Brisbane hard at work over the weekend. Cheers to our friends and clients Rtist Gallery for hooking this up.
The Eagle Has Landed
After (im)patiently refreshing the tracking page for the shipping container every 15 minutes while it was en route, the new Giesen 90kg roaster arrived just after 3.30pm yesterday at Five Senses Coffee in Cheltenham Victoria. There was lots of jumping around with excitement and many high fives were exchanged.
Ron from Five Senses takes out second place
This year there was a host of fresh competitors and judges at the Victorian Barista Championships and some stella performances. From the Five Senses roasting team Ron Ngo delivered a brilliant performance to take 2nd place in the Barista category. In the cupping Ben Bicknell (also from Five Senses) took out 3rd and Ron took 4th place.
Will Glover crowned the 2011 Siphon Champion
Will Glover was crowned the 2011 Siphon Champion yesterday at Small Batch Roasters. Second place was last years winner: John Vroom and third was Aaron Wood.
“It was a great standard of competitors with everyone making the judges work hard to separate them” said Ross Quail.
Last Day to Sign Up for Cafes!
Cafes, coffee roasters and restaurants across Australia will be counting their beans on Friday August 5th to raise money for local homelessness projects across Australia. CafeSmart, a StreetSmart project, will take place during National Homeless Persons’ Week, 1-7 August 2011, and will bring together café owners, staff and their customers, to create change in local communities.
Bali - a thing of wonder
My first trip to a coffee-producing country or “origin” (for anyone in the coffee industry) was a thing of wonder. Recently I was lucky enough to be chosen to go on the Five Senses annual pilgrimage to visit the farms we work with in the Kintimani region of Bali. Landing at Denpasar airport was a slightly daunting adventure. Once you step outside the safety of those airport doors, your senses immediately go into overdrive!
ABA at Kitchen Warehouse
This Saturday the 18th at 10am I will be heading to Kitchen Warehouse Cockburn to conduct a home coffee demonstration.
The demonstration will include coffee samples of two of our favourite coffee’s here at the Barista Academy – the Ethiopian Nekisse and the Rwandan COE lot #5.
Twitter account launched
A few days ago the Barista Academy took the next step in its fresh new face launching a twitter account. Although a little slow to jump on the social media bandwagon the Barista Academy tweets will endevour to keep everyone updated with everything new and exciting in not only the local barista community but also the specialty coffee industry throughout the world.
The Tim Wendelboe Event
Tim Wendelboe, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the most well known and respected names in the specialty coffee industry. One of the most consistent performers at the World Barista Championships coming second in 2001 and 2002 he finally took out the crown in 2004. Taking out the World Cup Tasting Championship in 2005 before starting his own café/wholesale roastery in 2007 aptly named Tim Wendelboe (TW).
Australian Barista Academy Opens in Melbourne
The fit out of our new training centre has been anything and everything but kept quiet. With whispers, rumours and some sneaky leaked photos floating around, it’s time to introduce the Australian Barista Academy to the world…
Is the Next World Champion Among Us?
Many of the country’s most knowledgeable and experienced coffee professionals came together in the Gold Coast last month to compete in the 2011 Detpak Australian Specialty Coffee Championships.
Caleb Wins Vic Barista Comp
Caleb Podhazcky goes back to back winning the 2011 Victorian Barista Comp at the St Kilda Town Hall Auditorium. This years field was the largest in many years with 17 competitors battling it out, including a few seasoned competitors such as Will Priestly and Erin Sampson.
Christmas is Here
The festive season is here and even our Dwarf Arabica coffee trees (Fee and Juan Pablo) are getting into the holiday spirit. Check out Christmas tree pics on the Flickr site.
The gift that keeps on giving
As the holiday approaches and you’re looking for something even more extraordinary to give that special someone, a gift voucher for a training course is an excellent way to spread peace and love through the art of great coffee.
Jeremy wins the 2011 WA Barista Competition
It was a packed house this weekend for the 2011 Western Australia Barista Competition that took place at Perth Town Hall. More people than ever before showed up to support fellow friends and baristas, or just to see what all the excitement was about. Now that the dust has settled we are going to put all modesty aside to announce how incredibly proud we are of our showing at this year’s competition.
Little Trees, Big Hopes
WABA now has a green thumb and we have started to grow two coffee trees. The trees are of the Dwarf Arabica variety and with a bit of luck, won’t die!
2011 WA Barista Championships
It’s that time of year again! The birds are chirping, the flowers are blossoming, and the Western Australia Barista Championships are just around the corner.
2010 SA Barista Comp Results
Baby faced, Jonny Pisanelli takes out the 2010 South Australian Barista Comp with David Moen and Mike Wells coming in second and third using Five Senses Coffee.
Barista training at home
Now you can learn all the tricks and techniques of making the perfect coffee at home! We have produced a comprehensive DVD that breaks down the myths surrounding coffee preparation. This easy to understand, step-by-step DVD will teach you industry best practice techniques.
WABA Closed until 28 July
Please note that WABA will be closed from 23 to 27 July. We’ll be back on Wednesday, 28 July. If you would like to book a place in one of our classes, please contact Shannon at Five Senses Coffee on 08 9528 6200.
WABA now offers night classes
Due to popular demand the WA Barista Academy now offers night classes. In addition to WABA's very popular Saturday classes the night classes have already started to fill up as people are finding it easier to fit into their busy schedules. The night classes will be available from 3 May, with limited spaces available.
Gearing up for the Australian Barista Championship
If you’ve wandered past the WA Barista Academy in the late afternoon hours of late, you might have wondered at the noise drifting out the door. With the Australian Barista Championship little more than two months away, WABA head trainer Jeremy Hulsdunk, along with Mark Chandler and Jen Murray from Five Senses, are putting in long (and noisy!) hours of practice.
Champion head trainer
The WA Barista Championship has been and gone for another year. It was an awesome weekend, with a field of 16 competing for the main title, and plenty of representation for the Latte Art and Cup Tasting Championships. Mark Chandler, from Five Senses Coffee, was crowned WA Barista Championship, with the WA Barista Academy’s Jeremy Hulsdunk taking silver.
2010 Western Australian Barista Championship
How quickly a year rolls around. It seems as though one minute Mark was celebrating his title as WA Barista Champion, and all too quickly, he’s set to defend it! That’s right; it’s time for the coffee industry’s glamour event of the year, the 2010 Western Australian Barista Championship.
Traveling & Events
Wow .. time has flown! In just over 3 months I’ll be on my way back home to Perth.
Coffee Lab, Waterbury Vermont
Last month, I jumped at the opportunity to spend a week at Coffee Lab International on a 5 day roasting course. It was great to finally get some experience on a variety of commercial and sample roasters as well as a chance to use all the equipment in the “Lab” which is not only for namesake.
Eva Solo - A Simple Approach
Simply put, my first experience with the Eva Solo was memorable. I knew it must be mine for two reasons, simple and effective, which equates to less morning thinking more morning drinking.
Introducing Jeremy Hulsdunk
We welcome Jeremy Hulsdunk as the new WA Barista Academy Manager and Head Trainer.
Well it seems like a pre-requisite that each trainer at the Barista Academy needs to compete and win the WA Barista Competition with Jen winning in 2008 and Mark recently winning 2009. In regards to Jeremy though, we thought we’d take the pressure off, as he already has that trophy in his pool room as the winner in the inaugural year 2006.
NEWS FLASH: Head Trainer wins WA Barista Championships ... again!
Mark Chandler, manager of the Western Australian Barista Academy, today took out the 2009 Western Australian Barista Championships held at the Mount Hawthorn Community Hall.
It is the second year in a row a WABA trainer has won the event with Jennifer Murray winning the 2008 event and going on to finish third in the Australian Competition earlier this year.
Seattle Coffee Fest 2008
When I realised that I would be in the right hemisphere during this years Seattle Coffee Fest, I made an extra effort to make sure I could get there. All up, I got to spend a week in what felt like coffee Hollywood … happily stumbling across one famous café / roaster after another.
Manic Espresso - Ethiopian Yergacheffe Beloya Estate
It’s not every day I get served a cup of coffee that is so incredibly delicious, I can’t help but involuntarily announce it’s greatness between each sip. T’was yet again another clover coffee that tweaked my senses, an Ethiopian Yergacheffe microlot to be exact, sourced and roasted by 49th parrallel. It promised so much on that little white board, and amazingly delivered it with a clarity I’ve come to expect from a well made clover.
Café Myriad Montreal - Coming Soon
Anthony Benda and Scott Rao are opening what without a doubt will become a go to coffee destination in the heart of Montreal.
Monkey Coffee
Yay, Sam from Cafe Veritas sent me an email asking if I wanted to come and taste some coffee eaten, digested and pooped out of some Indian monkeys!! Heck yeah I did …
Café Santé Veritas - Synesso in Montreal
In a city saturated with stale drip coffee and many mediocre attempts at espresso, I’m very grateful to have come across Sam (owner/operator/barista) of Café Veritas in the Old Port.
Montréal, Québec ... Barista at Large
I’ve finally made it … apologies for the late post, however, to say that this is the first chance I’ve had in between all the wild welcoming parties, is only a minor understatement.
Australian Barista Competition 2008
I’m back, I’m inspired and I’m completely stoked to have taken out third place in the 2008 National Barista Competition.
Cawfee talk with Jen
After winning the 2008 Western Australian Barista Competition Jen began the hours of preparation for the national final. During this time she jotted down some thoughts of her coffee journey for Five Senses who put together a story on their site.
Now boarding
Wow, that came quickly, I’m about to hop on a plane to Melbourne tomorrow to compete in the National Barista Competition this weekend. It’s really exciting to represent WA and it seems like only a short time ago I was in Adelaide competing in the 2007 open heats.
NEWS FLASH: Head Trainer wins 2008 WA Barista Championships
Jennifer Murray, manager of the Western Australian Barista Academy, has taken out the 2008 Western Australian Barista Championship!
New WABA site launched
Crammed with new content and freshly launched, we’re pleased to announce that the WA Barista Academy’s (WABA) website is here for your browsing pleasure.