Caffeine Magazine Australia – Issue 03 by eroomcreative.com

Filter coffee review Our taste experts pass judgement on nine roasts worth a try Page 7

Beyond the spin We take a long hard look at greenwashing – how to spot it and stop it Page 26

Turkish delight Unlock the subtleties of brewing coffee with a cezve Page 30

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High coffee

Putting a caffeinated spin on the tea-based tradition

caffeinemagazine.com.au @caffeinemagaus

CONTENTS

Find out what’s new with all things caffeine. Find out how ancient tradition (with some help from an expert) can enhance your teadrinking experience. Are your reusable coffee cups hiding a dirty little secret? DON’T MISS our Blind Taste Review... pressure-free edition. Nine fine filter coffees, four experts, one fuss-free guide to your next caffeinated experience.

With climate change firmly secured on our moral compass, are businesses cynically capitalising on our soft spot for the planet?

We’re about to go full science! Grab your lab coat and join us on the road to understanding the chemistry in the cup.

Learn how coffee is changing the lives of our coffee-growing neighbours in need. Better late than never; the 2020 Australian Coffee Championships finally played out in March 2021, we doff our caps to the winners.

Move over, teabags; it’s coffee-time. The now-classy and well-established tradition of foods in miniature has been given a coffee revamp. High time in our opinion!

Whoever said mixing drinks wasn’t a good idea, definitely didn’t know about this bourbon beauty. Mr Black is back to his usual tricks to spice up our coupes.

The Grind

B E N T L E Y C R E AT I VE

WTF… is Maillard?

High coffee

Look beyond the spin

Turkish Delight

Never miss an issue of the award-winning magazine for coffee lovers! Get every issue delivered direct to your door.

We hear from our expert barista hustler on how ‘new’ is not always better when it comes to brewing.

Visit caffeinemagazine.com.au for details

Industry news

The caffeinated tipple

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Afternoon delights Safia Shakarchi revamps high tea for the modern day by losing the cucumber sandwiches and adding coffee (and more)

n early 19th century Britain, the advent of gas lighting allowed dinner to be served later – but this technological advancement made for a long stretch after lunch with no meal. Anna Russell, the Duchess of Bedford and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria, discovered that finger sandwiches, cakes and pastries, washed down with a cup of Earl Grey, darjeeling or assam, were the perfect way to bridge the gap. She started inviting her friends – and the British concept of afternoon tea was born. The tradition soon made it’s way to other parts of the Empire; and while it’s still going strong in Australia, it’s fair to say that the majority of us prefer a coffee these days – and usually crave a little something to go with it. Fortunately, coffee’s flavour profiles lend it to endless innovative pairings with both sweet and savoury dishes. So we decided to bring afternoon tea into the 21st century with six striking, contemporary dishes, each paired with a caffeinated drink. It’s a spread that would make the Duchess proud.

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Beetroot devilled eggs with cold brew and tonic We have clearly become much wiser since the Duchess of Bedford’s day and now commonly start afternoon tea with a glass of bubbles or a cocktail. It’s only right to treat all that food and drink ahead as cause for celebration. Our afternoon coffee begins with a refreshing cold brew and tonic, injected with a drop of Patrón XO Cafe liqueur and paired with a bright pink beetroot devilled egg. The bite-size, zingy and slightly sweet pickled eggs are a twist on the traditional egg sandwich, a staple of afternoon tea menus. They are the perfect complement to the bittersweet coffee liqueur, with its hints of chocolate and sharp, acidic tequila. It’s a fun, retro-inspired coffee and canapé combo to whet the appetite for the feast ahead.

HIGH COFFEE

Coffee cream cheese, smoked salmon and black sesame with cold-brewed gyokuro tea This dish pays homage to the classic pairing of caffeine and smoked salmon – whether it’s on sourdough or a bagel with coffee for a classic New York breakfast, or the traditional smoked salmon sandwich with afternoon tea. The coffee-infused cream cheese here adds a buttery warmth to the salty salmon, which pairs with the thick, umami cold-brewed gyokuro tea. The tea we’ve used is an Okumidori varietal from Zen Wonders, sourced from the Kyoto area, Japan. The highly-prized green tea is spring-picked after shade-growing for around 30 days and is then brewed at room temperature for 14 minutes. The notes of sweet taro, parsley and nettles complement the smoked fish, particularly with the hints of nutty black sesame and earthy alfafa sprouts on top. Asian flavours tie this course together, but it’s the luminescent green tea’s striking visual contrast to the vibrant orange salmon that entices you. After all, we do eat with our eyes first. Gyokuro - Okumidori | $25 for 30g | zenwondersmatcha.com.au

Blood orange and rose cascara lollipops with sparkling cascara

If you want a literal link between afternoon tea and afternoon coffee, here it is: cascara, the tea-like drink made from coffee cherries. Its refreshingly intense flavour is down to the quick drying process of the cherries, which are ground down in a mortar and pestle then chopped finely before being brewed with hot water. We’ve cooled our cascara – Cascara Coffee Tea from Market Lane Coffee – and topped it up with sparkling water to add some fizz. The brewed cascara is also used in the lollipops themselves, which are lightly infused with blood orange and rosewater, enhancing the distinct floral and fruity notes of the dried coffee cherry skins. Pairing the drink with the sweet lollipop creates a sensation akin to something many of us did as children – dipping a lolly into sherbet. It’s a real party (or par-tea) on your tongue! Cascara Coffee Tea $12 for 80g marketlane.com.au

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Looking beyond the spin I

n 2013, researchers at the University of Gävle in Sweden conducted a social experiment ‘for fun’. In it, students were given two cups of coffee: they were told one was ‘eco-friendly’ and the other was not. Most said they preferred the taste of the eco-friendly one. Both coffees were, in fact, identical. But the label didn’t just make drinkers think it tasted better. Half of the participants were told they had preferred the non-eco-friendly option and those that placed a high value on sustainability

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said they’d still pay more for the ecofriendly option – even though they didn’t like it as much. Mattias Holmgren, one of the Swedish academics involved, said that the study not only showed the power of eco-labelling but also the “greenwashing potential”. Indeed, those involved in the experiment were hoodwinked into thinking one coffee was ‘greener’ using a simple label. But does such greenwashing happen in the ‘real world’, and if so are we lapping it up? Yes and yes. First, it helps to understand what greenwash is. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is ‘disinformation

disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image’. The Cambridge Dictionary offers an example, which is “…when businesses use terms such as ‘environmentally friendly’ and ‘green’ they are often meaningless.” Ambiguity is a tell-tale sign and the vaguer the claim is, the harder it is to substantiate that what is being said is true. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) states that ‘businesses have an obligation not to engage in any conduct that is likely to mislead or deceive consumers.’ It also states that ‘misleading conduct can include silence.’ So, saying ‘made from recycled materials’ when only a part of the product qualifies, is not acceptable.

IL L UST R AT ION : B E NT L E Y C R E AT IV E

False marketing, or ‘greenwashing’, is plaguing the coffee industry. David Burrows looks at how to spot it, and what’s being done to stop it

G R E E N WA S H I N G

Reported breaches are taken seriously and hefty penalties apply. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recently started a project to clamp down on greenwashing. They had noted a quadrupling in the size of the ethical goods and services market to £41 billion (AU$73 billion). David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, and Covid-19 have all created more appetite than ever for sustainable products, but this is also feeding greenwash – people want to buy green products and they’ll pay a premium for them. The International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network (ICPEN) is a global organisation of over 65 countries, including Australia, that facilitates the enforcement of fair trading practices across international borders. An annual sweep, commissioned by ICPEN and led by the CMA, scanned 495 websites. 40% of them “appeared to be using tactics that could be

There is a strong consumer expectation and a marketing advantage to any businesses claiming accreditation or ‘Green Status’. Kieren Westlake, President of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA) says that greenwashing is ‘a frustration to the industry’ and he is an advocate of blockchain technology to provide a solution (as reported previously in Caffeine Australia). “It’s important for the industry to get a better understanding of the situation and provide a way for consumers to validate the truth.” Producing guidelines is all well and good. However, providing third-party trusted validation is very hard. Westlake strongly believes that the problem will be fixed by the passionate people operating in the industry. Speak to those in specialty coffee and their answers are as diverse as the

The grey areas are where the greenwashing spreads. Compostable, biodegradable, reusable and recyclable, the majority of consumers are not aware of the differences, and in a large number of instances there will be an element of plastic in the mix, and that just doesn’t break down at all. While many café owners are trying to do the right thing it’s hard to cover all bases. Melissa Floreani of Clark St Coffee Roasters is passionate about taking plastic out of the supply chain entirely. “The coffee industry is responsible for putting so much packaging out there, so we really have to be doing the right things ourselves,” she says.

“Ambiguity is a tell tale sign and the vaguer the claim is, the harder it is to substantiate that what is being said is true” considered misleading and therefore potentially break consumer law”. Vague claims such as ‘eco’, ‘natural’ and ‘sustainably sourced’ were commonplace. Details and data to back up claims were also often missing in order to “appear more eco-friendly”. The report hasn’t said which products or services are most susceptible to greenwash. However, it’s no secret that the coffee sector is rather addicted to ethical claims. Fair pricing. Compostable packaging. Organic production. The sector is awash with claims (and it isn’t the only one: according to the Ecolabel Index there are currently 456 ecolabels covering 25 industries and 199 countries). But can we trust them?

claims. Howard Barwick from Olam Specialty Coffee reckons greenwashing exists but is inadvertent. He has a point. “Most greenwash is due to ignorance and/or sloppiness rather than malicious intent,” noted the sustainability consultancy Futerra in its guide to the subject. Although it was published 10 years ago, the point still stands today. Take packaging: an issue currently at the top of the sustainability agenda. Coffee shop owners are expected to unpick the pros and cons of different materials and formats to find the bag or box with the least impact, but can often go round in circles. Hence, they go for the option that appears ‘greenest’ – which currently is compostable. Unfortunately, it’s rarely that black and white.

“We know of some cafés using cups lined with compostable film, but they’re still using plastic lids. These can be recycled in some situations, but most people just chuck them in land-fill bins.” The challenge is that ‘specialty’ is a sector that relies on small companies, most with a passion for coffee and few who set out with bad intentions. “As Australians, we tend to view big companies with an element of mistrust,” says Chris Tate, Operations Manager at Pablo & Rusty’s. This situation is accentuated by having an industry that’s rife with people throwing around buzzwords. “Unless there’s independent and verifiable certification in place [such as B-Corp], we would advise consumers to look beyond the marketing spin and

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In with the

old & new out with the

The cezve (or ibrik) has so far been neglected by the third wave coffee movement. Jem Challender of Barista Hustle argues the case for bringing it back

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BRING BACK THE CEZVE

rewed coffee falls into either of two categories: drip or immersion. Somehow, with the notable exception of the AeroPress, third wave coffee has ended up prioritising drip brews. But if the family tree of coffee brew methods were an actual tree, it would probably fall over. Drip is a spindly little branch close to the ground, while immersion’s broad and noble boughs reach high across the canopy. Over the course of history, coffee preparation methods overwhelmingly favoured immersion brewing. The cezve (pronounced jezz-vey) was invented in Turkey in the sixteenth century, soon after Ottoman armies brought coffee back with them from Egypt. The syphon dates back to 1826, when German physics professor Johann Nörremberg gifted the design to his caffeine-crazed students. Cowboy coffee harkens back to well before the American Civil War. In fact, it could rightly be called ‘cockney coffee’; being the preferred brew method for more than 550 coffee houses in eighteenth-century London and Oxford. The French press was first patented in 1852. Cupping – which was originally called liquoring – has been practiced in Kenya since well before World War I. After a year of research and experimentation, Barista Hustle has published an online course called Immersion. The course elaborates on immersion brews, which are immune to channelling and many of the other problems that plague drip brewing methods. Of the many immersion brew methods we researched and wrote about, without any doubt our favourite has been cezve (ibrik in Arabic). It has been intriguing to test; it has yielded some surprises. It’s the oldest brew method and also the most delicious. And yet, somehow, the cezve has been totally neglected by the third wave. Are you a Nespresso-style coffee drinker? Are you a cafe owner vexed by the number of your customers drinking capsule coffee at home instead of coming to you in the mornings? Are you a barista annoyed with your boomer parents for creating so much microplastic pollution with their capsule machine? Cezve coffee might be the answer. The cezve makes coffee remarkably similar in proportions to capsule coffee, except that it’s miles nicer and much greener. A cezve brew doesn’t knock your socks off for strength the way an espresso can, but neither is it a giant, boiling-hot, watery mug of grainy plunger coffee. The best Turkish cezveler (plural of cezve) pots are hand-cast and hammered using fabrication methods that haven’t really changed since the Bronze Age. The finest and most coveted ones are made of pure silver, the most conductive metal in the universe. High-end capsule machines, by comparison, are fabricated from… pure plastic crap. You can pick up a silver cezve for a quarter of the price you’d pay for an entry-level, prosumer espresso machine. If you’re on a budget, you can buy a copper cezve lined with silver for under a hundred bucks that still has extraordinary

powers of conductivity. Copper’s thermal conductivity exceeds 400 watts per meter-Kelvin (W/mK), compared with stainless steel’s 14 W/mK. Greater conductivity means greener performance – it allows for faster heating and the ability to brew a cezve coffee in little more than 60 seconds. Cleaning and maintenance are simple. A cezve needs only a quick rinse with water and a dry wipe between brews. A rub with lemon and salt now and then will make your copper cezve gleam, not to mention silver has antimicrobial properties. Sara Alali, World Cezve / Ibrik finalist, shared her cezve brew recipe with us. Sara almost always begins with a brew ratio of 1:8–1:8.5. That’s virtually the same ratio you get when you push the little button on a capsule machine. World Barista Champion Gwilym Davies, who performed our cezve experiments, made a serendipitous discovery: with the cezve, grinds are traditionally added to cold water and then brought up to temperature (88-93°C) before decanting into a cup. The heating process can take seven or eight minutes. Gwilym found that preheating the water to 60°C made virtually zero difference to the final extraction yield of a brew – but it reduced the preparation time by 40 percent while producing a brew tasting just as good as one made with cold water. ‘The preheated brews [made it] easier to control the contact time,’ Gwilym explained. He added that ‘because contact time had very little influence on total dissolved solids, you might as well choose the fast option’. Turbidity (as discussed in issue two of Caffeine) might be one reason that the third wave seems to have discounted this ancient brew method. If you’ve ever brewed a plunger coffee that seemed a bit cloudy and decided to pour the whole thing through a filter paper to clean it up, you might have found that half the brew passed through the paper quickly, but the rest took ages. This happens because all that churning up of the slurry makes it easier for ultrafine particles to lodge in the pores of the filter. With ordinary pour-overs, fines get conveniently trapped higher up in the coffee bed, preventing them from muddying the paper. ‘Polishing’ a cezve through a filter paper works perfectly, though. The cezve recipe involves much less liquid than a pour-over, so even with a little muddying, your whole brew will percolate through in less than a minute. In with the old and out with the new. Let’s get the original and best immersion brew method, the cezve, on the menu in specialty coffee shops – and at home, too. With a cezve, in just minutes you can brew a potent, yet non-alcoholic digestif featuring an elegance and flavour clarity that would have George Clooney looking around his kitchen, saying, ‘Oh brew, where art thou?’

“It’s the oldest brew method and also the most delicious”

Jem Challender is the Dean of Studies at Barista Hustle (BH) in Melbourne. He’s a former UK Brewers Cup Champion and the author of 10 online courses about coffee production. Scan the code to get 20% off the first three months of a Barista Hustle Education subscription – details on page 25.

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