"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

For those who follow the world of international coffee competition, the name Hazel de los Reyes is probably very familiar. Hazel first came to fame in 2005 when she won the Australian Barista competition. She then went on to represent Australia at the World Barista Championship in Seattle a few months later. Following this participation on the world stage Hazel competed for and won the 2007 AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association (AASCA) Cupping competition. She again had the opportunity to represent Australia at the World Cupping Competition in Belgium in May of this year.

Hazel’s knowledge and passion for coffee is huge, and it was on this basis that we invited her to spend the weekend exploring and talking coffee with a few of us. The Western Australian Barista Academy was selected as the venue and a range of single origin coffees were carefully roasted in anticipation of the event.

We had a great couple of days immersing ourselves in tasting, smelling, sipping, spitting, sniffing and participating in some good old fashion debate. The great thing about coffee (or anything that’s evaluated from a sensory perspective for that matter) is the possibility for as many opinions about a particular flavour character as there are people in the room.

It was in this environment of rigorous discussion that many of our prejudices became evident. Some of our opinions about different origins were based on experiences from the past that weren’t necessarily congruent with how some of these coffees now present in the cup. Colombian Supremo was a great example of a coffee that had fallen off our radar. We’ve always appreciated what it had to offer but (probably for reasons of boredom) have never really considered it as an option in creating new and exciting roast and flavour profiles. Prejudice smashed, the Colombian rocked! Admittedly, we had the added benefit of brew temp control and the ability to brew at different temperature intervals but really, the Colombian was able to hold its own and more. And it wasn’t just the Colombian — we also became reacquainted with other classic origins like the PNG PSC A, the Guatemalans and some of the Brazils.

The weekend was a great reminder that some things become legendary for good reason. Some of the ‘oldies’ are definitely still ‘goodies’. Some of these coffees were excellent yesterday, they are excellent today and will probably still be excellent tomorrow. We have the good fortune of having access to an amazing array of origins (at last count we held about 50 single origins in our roastery) that all have something to offer. Reinvigorating our interest in some of the mainstays was a consequence of tasting impartially and without prejudice — and it’s something that I’d encourage everyone to do. Revisit and Reinvigorate.