"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Melbourne’s coffee lovers were rewarded for their devotion in March, with all things coffee being honoured at Celebrate the Bean, part of the annual Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.

It was an early start for the Five Senses team, unloading stacks of gear from our 3 tonne truck. There were benches and grinders, the Synesso (of course!), chairs, tables, umbrellas — even Nolan’s turntable. And, most importantly, plenty of Five Senses coffee beans!

Our roasters love any excuse to get into the cupping lab and they knocked up a special blend, the Farm Gate Blend, for the day. This stunning combination of three of our Direct Trade coffees, the Sumatran, Balinese and PNG, was perfectly formulated for the Synesso, which got a heavy workout.

Our stand was home to some of Australia’s biggest barista names, including South Australia’s espresso specialist (and Five Senses rep), Ian Callahan, Nolan Hirte of Liar Liar fame and Café Vue’s Verity Govett. Not to mention our own incredibly talented crew! Even with plenty of hands to help out, we were kept busy with a seemingly endless queue of coffee loving customers, keen to sample some Five Senses goodness and chew the fat with us.

There is a growing trend of cafés offering coffee brewed through a variety of different methods, and we thought Celebrate the Bean was a great opportunity to showcase some of our premium Single Origin coffees brewed through a filter. This went down a treat with the coffee enthusiasts, who had a difficult time choosing between our Indonesian — Lintong, the ever-popular Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, the PNG Elimbari and the Kenyan AA Kichwa Tembo.

Nolan kept us chilling with some smooth tunes from his vinyl collection, which provided the perfect background to the buzz of conversation about our stand. We’re always enthusiastic about increasing the awareness of fine coffee and educating people about the nuances and flavours of different beans, so we relished the chance to get into some interesting debates and discussions.

We sometimes come across people who believe that coffee has hit its peak, that the café market is saturated or that there isn’t much room for growth in the industry. This year’s Celebrate the Bean offered all the argument we need. The massive crowds and hordes of enthusiastic people, keen to learn about the intricacies of coffee, seem like an indication of good things to come for the industry!