Gloria's Beans

Coffee Growing Project Sept 2010

2010-09-18T17:58:00.002+10:00

Life is a funny thing.
The earlier pot plant photo posted in march was not a coffee plant!!!
It's chilli!!!

The coffee plant, with the bean sticking out was the real thing. (photo posted in april)

Here is a little photo update of how the coffee is growing.
It's got 12 leaves now, and will probably need a new pot soon.

18 GRAMS OPENED 2010AUG24

2010-08-21T04:27:00.006+10:00

Finally, 18 GRAMS coffee shop is opened. Coffee plants growing strong. New blood added to the team. Grand Barista Championship was great fun. Blending new beans for new clients. All my love and kisses to my beautiful 18Grams family, and many thanks for your hard work so far! ^3^

Coffee Growing Project 03 April 2010

2010-04-07T15:36:00.003+10:00

Had a lovely surprise this weekend. I was going to empty the pots of coffee that didn't work out. It has been 2 months, so I thought it was about time to let go. But when I looked at the pot more closely.. COFFEE!!!! I couldn't contain myself and skipped back into the house and kept annoying Jason to come and have a look.

I've always wanted to believe that this is how coffee comes out of the ground when I saw pictures on the internet. Deep down I've always thought it was "keyed" in and "illustrated". But what do you know?

Coffee Growing Project 05 Mar 2010

2010-03-05T18:39:00.003+11:00

Could it be?

Can it be true?

My first coffee tree!!!

Although my first reaction was, "hmm.. is it a weed?"

Yet I can say with 90% confidence that this is a dicotyledon plant!

Fingers crossed!

Sanremo maintenance crash course.

2010-03-01T14:23:00.007+11:00

Spent my Chinese New Year productively this year. Jason and I went to Sydney for a coffee machine maintenance crash course. This is well worth it.

This Sanremo espresso machine, "Verona" has their new TCS system. Each group has it's own boiler which means that each group can have it's own Temperature Control System.

Long story short, this was one of the best working holidays~ >.<

Coffee Growing Project Feb 2010

2010-02-04T22:05:00.008+11:00

I had a sudden urge to grow my own coffee. So I did! I picked the coffees that arrived last week in the hopes that they will grow better. These are the photos of the dry green beans (before), soaked and enlarged beans (during), and the beans that have sprouted(after). After a lot of reading, I found out that the hardest stage of growing my own coffee plants is still to come. The next 60 days of them trying to grow in soil would be a challenge. Can't be too wet, or they will rot. Too dry and they will die. Anyway, will pot them tonight. Hopefully I'll have enough time to keep a journal.

Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival 2009

2009-12-28T16:54:00.017+11:00

This year we had the

pleasure to work with one of Hong Kong's best French Chef: Bonnie of Chez Les Copain in the Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival.

Friends have asked,"Why are you in the Wine Festival? You don't sell wine!!" Well, it's supposed to be a FOOD Festival too! I'm sure people would love a coffee after 3 or 4 glasses of wine.

It's always fun, no matter what we're doing with Bonnie~ So thank you Bonnie姐 for this experience. Hope we can work with you again next year!

香江茶道 - 第八課

2009-10-20T19:01:00.009+11:00

上一課香江茶道我哋親身接觸到製造紫沙茶壺的工具。睇「講國語的」DVD學製造過程。睇咗個幾鍾。。。講真有啲悶，我隔離嗰個訓咗。 zzzzz....

但喺見識多啲，都喺好事。

Last tea class we get to see and feel the tools that are used to make a "purple sand" tea pot. We watched a DVD that shows 2 different makers. One made the teapot entirely by hand, the other made the teapot by hand but with a mould. As interesting as it was it got boring after an hour and a bit more of the video... zzzz...
Never go to class after hotdogs... keep burping onions...

Still learning more is always a good thing.

Coffee cupping-part 1

2009-10-13T17:31:00.002+11:00

Had a lot of fun at work on Monday. We roasted 14 different single origins last week to taste this week. It was a great chance for me to taste several new coffees that we imported, and also a great chance for our new staff to experience and enjoy most of our coffees. Unfortunately cupping 14 coffees in one session was a bit too much for our new blood, and they had a bit of a tummy ache after. Have to get used to it!!

We tasted coffee from South and Central America, Africa, Arabia and Asia.
Interesting results: Our favourites..

K: Yemen Mocca, Sumatra, Indian Cherry
H: Brazil, Ethiopian Harrar, Yemen Mocca
R: Kenya, Colombian Supremo
M: Ethiopian Harrar, Ethiopian Limu, Yemen Mocca
J: Kenya, Ethiopian Limu, Indian Cherry, Sumatra, Ethiopian Harrar
Gloria: Ethiopian Harrar, Sumatra, Costa Rica

Interesting how most of them have chocolate notes. And yes, I order them because I like them...

Will do a whole round of tasting later but taste them as espressos and lattes.

香江茶道 - 第一課 Chinese Tea Course

2009-08-10T13:14:00.007+10:00

上個星期四我們Glory Coffee去咗旺角香港茶藝中心學「香江茶道」。
我們上的是香江茶道基礎班，一共八堂。

第一堂已經學咗好多茶嘅知識~
茶有六大種 : 綠茶、青茶、黃茶、白茶、紅茶、黑茶。
它們的分別在於發酵的程度。
綠茶是無發酵、青茶是半發酵、黃茶有小小發酵、白茶有發酵、紅茶全發酵、黑茶後發酵。

當日品嚐到的鐵觀音（青茶）是屬於烏龍茶類。
沖泡時需要用高沖幼流方式、泡一分鐘。
茶香清新怡人，有濃郁的甘甜味，正!

Last Thursday Glory Coffee went to Mong Kok for a tea class.
We joined the basic course which is a combination of eight classes.

This first lesson was about basic knowledge.
There's six categories for tea: Green, blue, yellow, white, red and black.
Their difference is in their processing after harvesting.

Green tea has not been fermented,
Blue has been half fermented,
Yellow has been fermented a little,
White has been fermented,
Red has been fully fermented,
Black has been fermented after.

We've tasted Iron Buddha (Tie Guan Yin) on the day.
There is a certain method to brew this, it needs "high pour thin stream" and steep for one minute.
The tea has a lovely aroma left in the teapot, a little like orchid. When it cools down the aroma intensifies and turned perfume like.
It taste floral and leaves a pleasant bitter sweet taste on the tip of the tongue.

Can't wait for the next class where we get to taste all the different categories! ^ ^

GBC Hong Kong 2009 咖啡師大賽

2009-08-06T16:03:00.013+10:00

2009 香港GBC咖啡師大賽完滿結束~ ^ ^
Glory Coffee全體工作人員學會好多點樣舉辦賽事o既重要事行。如:有啲乜唔可以做, 有啲乜一定要做。認識GBC參賽者之後令我回憶起當初我開始做Barista的時候。好開心香港有咁多有夢想o既Barista!~ 多謝你們令我想再次做一個高層次o既Barista. XD

下次香港2010GBC我們Glory Coffee都會參加!!!

GBC prepare before and after photos.

Finally Hong Kong's 1st GBC Barista Championship has finished.
Tracy, winner of this event is on her way to Australia to compete for the ultimate title, Australasia GBC Champion!!!

All of us at Glory Coffee has learnt a lot about hosting a barista competition. What NOT TO DO and What TO DO!! It was extremely inspiring meeting all the contestants. Made me think back to the time when I became a barista.
We were all very happy to see that there are Cafes and baristas that cares about their work. This has been an eye opening event for me. It's great to meet all these baristas with dreams and passion. Thank you for making me want to become a barista once again!

We will definitely enter GBC in 2010!

TVB 品味咖啡, 多謝!

2009-02-28T13:59:00.005+11:00

好多謝TVB的品味咖啡節目带動咖啡行業。

咖啡行業最大的敵人並不是Starbucks。
咖啡最大的敵人是香港人對咖啡 : : 無要求。
沖一杯三合一了事。

我身邊好多人之前對咖啡冇興趣的,現在因為品味咖啡,都開始會問很多問題。
\\(^o^)//
多謝你TVB!!

Roasting Beans 咖啡烘焙

2008-11-20T19:53:00.004+11:00

咖啡會在 200-250 度高溫下烘焙 10-30 分鐘(視乎烘焙機的容量, 咖啡豆品種等..)。在烘焙過程中, 咖啡會釋放出超過2000多種物質。

咖啡豆會在烘焙過程中由綠色轉為黃色, 然後變成淺啡色, 再慢慢變深咖啡色。咖啡豆在烘焙中會「爆」兩次。

第一次會發生在咖啡豆變成淺啡色的時間, 這時會釋放出大量氣體。

第二次會發生在最後階段, 這時咖啡會變成深啡色。當咖啡變成預期的顏色時會即時以水或空氣冷卻。

同一種咖啡豆烘焙至不同程度 (淺, 中, 深), 會有不一樣的味道。

濃縮咖啡一般會採用中深至深烘焙度的咖啡豆。

如果用中深烘焙度以下的咖啡豆做濃縮咖啡,酸性會很重, 但這種烘焙度的咖啡豆是很適合用紙過濾壺, 法式壓壺, 或塞風壺的咖啡器具沖泡。

Coffee is roasted at 200-250 degrees Celcius, for 10-30 minutes (depending on roaster capacity and roast profile). There are over 2000 substances released when roasting, including aromas and Carbon compounds.

Beans change from green to yellow, to light brown, and darker to desired dark brown colour during a roast.

"First Crack" occurs where beans release a lof of gas when colour changes to light brown.

"Second Crack" usually happens in the final stage. When the desired colour is reached, the beans are cooled instantly by spraying water, or cooled by a fan with air.

The same type of bean, roasted to a different level (light, medium, dark), will produce a different taste.

Medium dark to dark roasts are usually used to make espresso coffee. When a lighter roast is used in this brewing method, it usually produces an acidic flavour, but these roasts are great when brewed in a plunger/French press, filter, or syphon coffee makers.

咖啡

2008-10-03T16:46:00.009+10:00

好多人以為咖啡係'豆'. 其實咖啡係一種車厘子（櫻桃）的種子，樹名Coffea.
Coffea樹有分兩種：Coffea Arabica 同 Coffea Robusta.

Arabica 品質高，對病毒的抵抗能力低．種植比較難，因此他們的價格比較高.
Robusta 味道比較粗糙．對病毒的抵抗能力高,，種植比較容易．咖啡因比Arabica高，有時會加一點在Blends內．

picture from wikipedia: Coffea cherries.

My Big Project in 2008 in HK

2008-09-22T16:57:00.006+10:00

I've always wanted to open a cafe in Hong Kong, but then just the thought of importing "fresh" coffee from Australia... by the time it's arrived in Hong Kong (4-6 weeks) it's not "fresh" anymore...
I might as well open a starbucks.. or illy cafe.. or lavazza cafe...if I was to do that...
But then.. I really didn't want to. No offense to illy or lavazza, but how fresh could the beans be when it has to come from overseas.

If I were to open a cafe I would have to ensure that the beans are up to scratch.
So after a year of preparation. Da~Da~!!! ^^
This is my IR-12 Diedrich roaster, fresh from the US of A!

This is the GLORY COFFEE ROASTER!
www.glorycoffee.com

My Little Project 2007

2007-08-08T20:02:00.002+10:00

After getting more and more confused at Uni, I decided, why wait til I'm 30 before I start my own cafe?
Well, I didn't end up starting one. My now partner's approached me at the end of 2006 and asked if I'm interested in starting a cafe guide website.

So this is what happened in February 2007. The first concept of www.whereismycoffee.com.au.

(the dark green squiggly border are pictures of different latte art designs)

Coffee Quest - 1st Impact

2007-08-07T19:43:00.000+10:00

Had my first coffee when I was 13. I must admit, I did have it with condensed milk at the time. It was a Starbucks, homemade plunger coffee. Well in 1995 that was pretty much the best coffee you could get in Hong Kong.

After studying various subjects at UNSW and getting myself more and more confused. I decided to give myself a break and started working in a coffee shop that roasts their own coffee beans as well.

Now it's my mission to:

try all the good coffee (with the bad) in Sydney,
find all the good coffee roasters in Australia,
perfect my own coffee (see pic.),
one day roast my own coffee beans with my Wok.