You oughta know #19

In this week’s issue: NZ AeroPress Champ tickets are on sale; Your Local Barista ‘knows how to pick the odd bean’; A new book about tasting coffee at home.

Nau mai, hoki mai and welcome back to You oughta know - your pretty much weekly dose of all the things going down in the coffee world.

I say ‘pretty much weekly’ because there are some weeks where other things come up. Or where the energy levels aren’t high enough to split across everything in life. Or where heading to a lakeside school camp brings more joy than I could ever imagine.

Looks like a camp for serial killers - is actually a camp for kids… most of them survived.

But enough of my travels through the mighty Waikato, it’s time for YOU OUGHTA KNOW!

In this week’s issue: NZ AeroPress Champ tickets are on sale; Your Local Barista ‘knows how to pick the odd bean’; A new book about tasting coffee at home.

NZ AeroPress Champs - on sale now

Competitor tickets for the 2023 New Zealand AeroPress Championship are on sale now!

The 2023 NZAC will be held on Saturday 7th October 2023 at Atomic's Kingsland roastery. Doors open to the public at 4:30pm and the competition starts at 5pm.

I cannot compete this year, but I’ll be keeping a keen eye on the competition and the cool cats who will be training hard for a crack at the big time.

Good luck to all the Pressers!

Hawkes Bay Today: Your Local Barista knows how to pick the odd bean out

Jaye, aka Your Local Barista, recently competed at the New Zealand Cup Tasters competition in Auckland. She did so well at the competition, that her name has spread right around the motu, and piqued the interest of Hawkes Bay Today (as it should).

Jaye had a yarn with Hawkes Bay Today where she spoke about the competition and the inspiration behind the Your Local Barista merch. Jaye said:

“It was so cool to see someone wearing one of my T-shirts at the competition.”

The design on her merchandise is very special to Jaye.

“It’s a coffee cherry and my sister hand-carved it out of wood. I stole her design.”

Jaye stopped talking at this point and took some deep breaths as her eyes welled up.

“My sister Maja died in a car crash along with her boyfriend on the Napier-Taupo Rd at Te Pohue in 2020. Using her artwork is a lovely tribute to her.”

Jaye is an absolute legend. You can hear more about Your Local Barista in the chat she had with The Drumming Barista on the Home Barista Podcast:

Love The Magic Roast? I love pulling it together, learning about new things, trends and people, and going down coffee rabbit holes!

I’m fueled by coffee - so if you want to support The Magic Roast, buy me a coffee.

Learn to taste coffee at home with a new book by Jessica Easto

Now, if Jaye’s rise to cup tasting fame has got you inspired, I think this book might be your ticket.

Jessica Easto isn’t a coffee pro. She’s a '“non-professional coffee person”, writer and editor who has gone deep into the science and method behind coffee tasting in How to taste coffee.

Coffee website Sprudge, sat down and spoke to Jessica ahead of the release of the book in October.

I was pretty excited to read about this, as I’ve often looked for ways to improve my pallet, only to be put off by the complexity around it. It only took a few paras from Jessica for me to pre-purchase this bad boy for the kindle. She said:

I had a few conversations with friends and readers that made me realize there seemed to be a disconnect between consumers and specialty coffee professionals about flavor notes. Flavor notes have done a good job of communicating the message, “specialty coffee has a depth and breadth of flavor!” And that’s exciting. It’s what many of us love about specialty coffee, and we want to explore it. But coffee doesn’t always taste like its flavor notes. Why is that?

Often, people tell me that they assume they’ve done something “wrong” in brewing, that they are “bad” tasters, or that the notes are simply marketing language that doesn’t mean anything. It can be an off-putting experience and makes specialty coffee seem inaccessible—and I’m all about making it more accessible, especially to newbies.

I thought I had a general understanding of why flavor notes can seem misleading. I’m also a book editor and writer and love words, so it sort of bothered me that there seemed to be this “failure to communicate.” I even thought, “Maybe I can help here.” But I was (am) no sensory expert, so I started researching about coffee flavor and our sensory systems. And what I learned was more wondrous and complex than I imagined! I, of course, did not single-handedly solve the communication issue, but I hope I give folks something to think about and some practical, actionable tips for developing their palates.

Keeeeeeeeen.

The book is out on 24 October, and you can pre-order it on Amazon.

I’ll be writing a review of the book once I spend a bit of time getting deeeep. I cannot wait.

ICYMI

The review of the Allbrews throwdown quickly became the most viewed yarn of 2023. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Catch ya next week.

Up. The. Wahs.