Victorian Barista and Latte Art Champioships! 2009

WOW! What a GREAT day:

Spent down at the DOCKLANDS @ the Victorian Barista and Latte Art Champioships for 2009.

Here I am hard at work, drinking coffee, what else ?!?!? ;o)

With THE BOYZ!! (from left to right)

My main man Inni from AASCA (head judge), me The CaFFiend, Bruno Maiolo from C4 Coffee and Lance Brown from NATIONAL FOODS, the event's major sponsor!

Good job guys, AWESOME WORK and a BIG thank you to David Makin for inviting me down, a great day for all and for coffee in general.

2009 Victorian Barista Campionships RESULTS:

First Place Jesse Hyde

Second Place Zoe Delany

Third Place Nolan Hirte

2009 Victorian Latte Art Championships RESULTS:

First Place Erin Sampson

Second Place David Seng

Third Place Kirby Berlin

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL, who not only got a place but who competed, in my eyes you are ALL champions, WELL DONE!!!!

The big winner though is the MElbourne Coffee scene and the general public , because we all know life is too short to drink bad coffee!!!

Tune in to the Devil's Cup on 94.1 3WBC on the 22/11 @ 11am for the next instalment with world exclusive interviews of both Jesse and Erin, the days BIG winners!!

ONLY ON THE DEVIL's CUP!!!

And for all the best cafes that Melbourne has to offer check out:

http://hotshots.melbournecoffeereview.com/

Till next time, keep on caffeining on…….

[Support MCR and delight your taste buds by joining our Home Barista Hotshot Club]

The Devil's Cup

Hey Team Caffeine, Just wanted to let you all know, in case you already didn't, that tomorrow, Saturday 8/11 @ 11am (Melb time) will be the first installemt of the Devil's Cup, live on 94.1fm WBC.
Tune in for all the latest news, views, reviews and interviews and all things coffee......
For all of you not in Australia it streams live @:
www.3wbc.org.au and will also be podcast right here at the Melbourne Coffee Review from Sunday onwards.
The CaFFeind continues the pilgrimage for true espresso nirvana, because life is too short to drink bad coffee........

Make a movie with us!

Dear MCR readers,

We would like you to help us make a movie about a moment in our lives with coffee as the backdrop.

We would like you to grab your video capable phone or video camera and capture a café culture moment in time, where ever you are on the planet.

Simply; we are after is a visual moment of your coffee life! A video of what you see at 8am for just 15 seconds. We want to see moments from all over the world.

Specifically, 8am any working day for 15 seconds only. Once done, we will bring them together in a collage and overlay it with music from a highly respected and accomplished musician and upload it on MCR for the world to see (We hope to make history as the first world collaboration movie, and hope you will be a part of it).

Whether it be your ristretto being extracted in New York, your cafe latte being poured in Venice, your cappuccino being served in Sydney, groups of people enjoying their coffee in Melbourne, street scenes of cafes in the UAE or any visual image you think is worth while, even your instant coffee at home, if that is what that moment means to you!!!!

I have been 'brewing' on this idea for years after I saw a movie called "SMOKE" when Harvey Keitel took photos every morning at 8am on the street corner for years. In the movie Harvey had hundreds of pictures over the years. This idea remained in my mind for all these years as something kind of amazing to do to look at life through another portal.

Here it is on youtube... that talks about it.

For me this is the 2008 version when the world pauses to share a moment from a hectic life.

I guess its also an experiment in 'crowd sourcing' content and also collaborating with the world. For me it is very 2008, and I hope the first of an annual event. Please be part of this with us.

If you want to take part, please click here to register and read the instructions of what you need to do!

Warmest Regards
Peter Christo
Founder
Melbourne Coffee Review

Melbourne Coffee Review TOP 5

Hey Caffiends,

In case you didn't know yet, how could you not, EVERYONE is talking about it, Melbourne Coffee Review has selected it's TOP 5 cafes in The Age's Melbourne Magazine (25/9/08)

They are:

1. First Pour

2. 7 Grams

3. St ALI/ Brother Baba Budan

4. ATOMICA

5. Espresso Elements

The response has been HUGE!!! Thanks to all of you for giving us the strength to continue on the caffiene fuelled journey in search of the ultimate Godshot; because life is too short to have BAD coffee.

Sorry to all the rest, there are just sooo many that are sooo amazing, where do I begin.... at the beginning I suppose.

You can find all of Melbourne's BEST listed as HOTSHOT cafes, being developed right now, as we speak, keep an eye out for all of our favorite cafes, they are all HOTSHOTS doing incredible things with the humble coffee bean.

http://hotshots.melbournecoffeereview.com/

The Caffiend!

MCR ON FACEBOOK

Hey caffiends, just a heads up....Melbourne Coffee Review has an awesome presence on FACEBOOK, check it out and join the group.....

http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21716810641

Heaps of coffee, fun, coffee, competitions, coffee, opinions and oh yeah, did I mention, COFFEE?!

Go and try out all the cafes I recommend, and tell them Steve sent you, they love it!!!

Keep it up guys, life is too short to drink bad coffee , lets let the World know where the HOTSHOT cafes are, thanks to the Melbourne Coffee Review

Celebrate Good Times!

Good news everyone!

The originator of all things evil and corrupt, the dark lord of the bean has finally decided to leave our fair shores, and good riddance!

You all know what I mean, the source of endless frustration and disappointment, STARBUCKS, has pulled the pin on most of its Australian stores. YIPPEE!!!!

Melbourne Coffee Review is proud to let you all know that it has no and has never had any affiliation with this behemoth, this pathetic excuse for a coffee chain.

Lets hope one of the local players will take the reins and do what PEET's has done so well, for so long over in the US.

It's not about bells and whistles people, its not about umbrellas and wind-breaks, its about the coffee, the passionate preperation of the devil's cup to be served to the masses, the tireless and passionate journey that coffee can take you on, make no mistake, this fraud, this charlatan has exploited the masses for long enough, GOOD RIDDANCE!

At Melbourne Coffee Review it's all about the bean the whole bean and nothing but the bean!

MCR RSS (Syndication)

If you don't know what the title means, please ignore this post. For all you technical people out there, we have changes our RSS to feedburner. Please change your settings when convenient (http://feeds.feedburner.com/melbournecoffeereview).

First Pour

First Pour
26 Bond Street
Abbotsford VIC 3067

Well let me just say, it was both an honor and an absolute pleasure to trek down to Abbotsford, and meet the great David Makin.
As a confirmed caffeine addict and café junky it was quite exciting.
First Pour is home to probably some of the best Baristas this country has to offer, with not only David, but also Luca and David Seng doing their thing behind the amazing Yellow La Marzocca.
How can I dare to review their coffee?
What adjectives can one use to describe such an experience?
Another latte, why not, the last 3 were great, bring it on, Davo!!!
No seriously guys, if you haven’t make sure you do! If you have, I’m sure you’ll agree!!
I spent most of the day with David learning about what it takes to be the best, and at Makin’ espresso which operates out of the Veneziano warehouse; David does his best to teach us poor humans the fine art of being a true Barista, a maestro!
Without doubt a three beaner and a MUST for all seriously looking for that amazing Coffee experience!

Maybe we should introduce "the Golden Bean award"...??

NEWS FLASH! David Makin and Erin Sampson of former Coffee HQ fame, have JUST opened a brand New café called: PRIMARY @ 399 Royal Pde, PARKVILLE: Can’t wait to head out there for that review!!

Coffee: Veneziano.

[Support MCR and delight your taste buds by having our special roasted blend delivered to your door! Become Part of the MCR Family]

Guinness Book of Records

Just how BIG is coffee in Melbourne?
Guinness World Book of Records BIG!
That’s right, it’s official, we are recognized around the world as the café, coffee capital of the known coffee cosmos.
And guess what?
We also now can boast to have the World’s Largest Espresso Machine.
It has been created, built and owned by Mr. Bernard Goston of AMANTI Coffee, here in Blackburn Melbourne.
A veritable Willy Wonka of the coffee world!
A boutique/specialty roaster, who is as passionate about coffee as he is about everything he does, he has built this behemoth of an espresso machine, which is the only one of its kind IN THE WORLD!!!
Check out these specs:
It measures an amazing 1.83m * .56m * .54m.
It is a six group and can make up to 18 cups of beautiful creamy coffee at the same time.
It has 3 LCD screens and cameras to catch all the action built in, eight boilers, six steam arms, surround sound, bluetooth and Internet connectivity.
Etc etc etc, the list of features goes on and on.
AMANTI has really put Melbourne and it’s coffee scene on the map, setting us apart from everyone else in the world as the biggest and the best!
Well done, a definite 2 beans for overall input into the coffee scene!
By the way, has anyone tried AMANTI? I hear its pretty good, but haven’t seen much of it around, feedback would be appreciated
J

Shout out to Coffee Shop owners!!

Hi all, we are piloting an SMS based system where coffee shops can broadcast their immediate vacancy requirements out to a database of people looking for work (Baristas, wait staff etc). We are looking for 20 shops to run the pilot. We will make it worth your while. They need to be in the inner metro area of Melbourne. If you are interested, email gothelp@melbournecoffeereview.com with your mobile number, contact name, the name and location of your shop (post code).

People looking to get on the database go here;

Re the reviews, I have now nominated Fri avo’s as my review day, so the review rate should spike up again soon. I have been a bit flat chat with Pitch Club’s next big event. If you are starting up a new business, you need to see this.

One final note, I will be co-judging at the home Barista championships on the 2^nd of March at Docklands. If you come down feel free to come up and say g’day.

Peter Christo

MCR SPECIAL NOTICE

I’d just like to thank you all for your supporting Melbourne Coffee Review over the last 2.5 years. Its amazing how this little hobby has grown. The stats are amazing, with MCR getting over 75,000 unique visits per annum as compared to lass than half that this time last year.

What you may not realise is that the Australian traffic to the site is only about number 3, and that the USA tops the list followed by Hong Kong, Australia, Netherlands, Great Brittan and China. What this means to is that there are ex pats or just people who love Melbourn's coffee culture, who long for a wonderful Melbourne roasted coffee.

We are therefore going to commission a special and exclusive ‘Melbourne Coffee Review’ Roast, to supply to our fans around the world. We want to contact Melbourne Based Roasters who are interested in doing our first batch. We have a couple we’ll be considering, and are looking doing this each new season.

People on the mailing list will get first opportunity to buy the roast, so if you want to secure your order make sure you contact me. Prospective buyers can email ‘beans4me’ as an email to melbournecoffeereview.com (just put beans4me before the @melbournecoffeereview.com) to secure there 1 or 2 kilos (no more per order). Once we have sold out, that’s it until next season, so NO BEANS FOR U!!

Remember, stop and smell the coffee!!

The MCR Team!!

Black Gold Promotion Goes Live

Some of you may recall seeing the blurb on the Black Gold movie and that MCR along with Somage got behind it. Here's a copy of the poster we produced 1000 of for distribution around town. If you want one, let us know and we'll get one out to you asap.

Make sure you catch the movie at the Melbourne Film Festival.

Pete

MCR & Black Gold

Hi all,

until now MCR has been a bit of a hobby, but more recently I have been getting a niggling feeling all is not perfect in paradise. Reality is that there is a disparity between our kicking back enjoying a long macciato in the CBD, and the farmers who produce the coffee. A new movie about this issue called Black Gold. It has gotten rave reviews at the sundance film festival. Here's a snippet from the director:

"We were provoked to make a film about coffee after it was announced at the end of 2002, that Ethiopia was facing another famine. Twenty years earlier people across the world had been motivated to respond to this crisis in Ethiopia. But still, even now nothing seems to have changed. We wanted to fire up a western audience to realize that the problem had not gone away. But this time we wanted to find a way to make it connect to our every day lives. Read the snipped form the directors below:

"Our hope was to make a film that forced us, as western consumers, to question some of our basic assumptions about our consumer lifestyle and its interaction with the rest of the world. And in doing so, we wanted to challenge the way in which the Western media bombards its audiences with an overload of de-contextualised images depicting poverty in Africa with no link to our own lives. ...."

We are talking to the producers of the movie about what we can do, and have also renamed the coffee club pod to "Black Gold" as a group that shares knowledge and ideas regarding how MCR can help locally. IF you are interested, join black gold off Podmatcher.com.

Peter