Friday, August 9, 2013

Coffee Masterclass at the Couch by Katherine

Last night there was another activity by Meld and the City of Melbourne as part of their At home and abroad series. We were invited by Meld to attend this class. Sally had class in the evening so I attended instead.

This article is mainly a word one.

About 40 people attended the class at the Couch. We all had to register online at Eventbrite and the class was free. The class had just started when I arrived at the place at 7:15pm.

The class was hosted by Andrew Mayne of Axil Coffee roasters. Here we were given a history about coffee in Melbourne which goes back to 50 years. At that time Europe played a big part in Melbourne. Most of the coffees comes from Italy.

But the coffee beans are roasted in places like Kenya, Columbia, Indonesia and Brazil.

There are all different types of coffees in Melbourne. No two persons are the same as everyone loves their coffees in their own way. Some like it as an espresso (without milk. All coffees are made this way), whilst others like the sweeter version of coffee known as mocha. Others like the Americano (filtered weak long blacks). The most popular are the cappuccinos (a traditional Italian breakfast coffee with froth on the top) and lattes (coffees with milk that are served in a glass). Coffee is a personal choice. Some like it strong and others like it weak.

You might be wondering what Macchiatos are.  Macchiatos are Italian (muddied or stained) coffees.

How do we spot a bad cafe?
Well there are three ways:
1) Not many people at the cafe- if there isn't line at the door and the next one has a line, go to the next one pronto.
2) The noise of the frother, there should be no noise. If there is noise then that means that the barista is burning the milk.
3) The smell of the coffee- if you can smell the roasted nuts or fruits then that means that the coffee is good. If you can smell a burnt smell then that means that it is bad.

The life of a barista
It is hard work.
They usually wake up at 4:30am in the morning to get to the cafe by about 6/7am to make at least 300 coffees. Some stay back until late to make coffees for people that are really tired.

They have to make the perfect coffees and they spend years and years training to be a really great barista. They also talk to customers waiting for their coffee.

The most important part is the milk. The milk needs to be really good and not burnt for it to be a great coffee.

They also have to learn how to clean and use the machine. They also rely on the dishwasher who cleans their glasses and cups. Without clean cups and glasses they cannot do a good coffee.

They also have to learn how to grind the coffee beans and use the tamper which is really heavy.

Hopefully you'll appreciate all the hard work that a barista does on a day to day basis. 

Many thanks to Meld Magazine and the City of Melbourne for putting this on and inviting me. You can find out more about Meld's activities here.

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