"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

The weather wasn’t the only thing heating up in Sydney recently; the coffee scene was also warming up with baristas, café owners, roasters and coffee enthusiasts trekking out to the northern suburbs to take part in the NSW heats for the 2010 Barista and Cup Tasting championships. Coffee sacks and roasting equipment at Australian Independent Roasters provided the perfect background for the state competition and it was an exciting scene, with many new faces and nervous enthusiasm filling the warehouse space.

One first time cup tasting competitor and barista judge was Anthony Svilicich, owner and manager of Le Monde Café in Surry Hills. After working closely with the crew at Five Senses, Anthony felt he was ready to take a step up, and he attended the eight-hour judge accreditation course held prior to the competition. This sensory evaluation training, paired with his ongoing experience through Le Monde’s single origin and filter programmes, no doubt played a large part in preparing Anthony for the challenge of the NSW Cup Tasting Championship.

Facing down five other competitors, Anthony had to identify the ‘odd coffee out’ in a triangle of black coffees. This triangle was repeated eight times, with increasingly difficult combinations. Taking his time to taste and compare each coffee within the triangle, Anthony managed to identify seven out of eight coffees correctly, which earned him the title of 2010 NSW Cup Tasting Champion! Anthony will fly to the Gold Coast in January to compete in the national final, where he hopes to win the coveted Australian Cup Tasting Champion title, along with a flight to London to compete on the world stage.

Anthony was not alone in his success. Brad Davies, head barista at Le Monde Café, gave an awesome presentation and served out some delectable coffees to take out second place in the NSW Barista Championship. In only his second competition, Brad impressed the judges with his passion, breadth of coffee knowledge and his unique signature drink, using boutique honey, sourcream mixed with grapefruit juice and zest, an espresso shot and shaved dark chocolate, all layered in a shot glass.

Le Monde Café in Surry Hills has been going from strength to strength, offering a custom designed house blend and a rotating offering of single origin espressos, brewed through their Synesso Sabre and Mazzer Robur doserless grinder. More recently, Le Monde has begun to offer a range of brewed style coffees, prepared through Chemex, syphon and pourovers, aiming to showcase some of the truly exciting flavours of their Five Senses coffees. Not only is their coffee offering always evolving and dynamic, but their kitchen is constantly turning out drool-worthy delights, with head chef Joseph Sergio and co-owner Renee Byrne launching an exciting new menu recently; the raspberry hotcakes are a dangerous thing as you’ll find yourself heading back for a serve each day!

Congratulations to both Anthony and Brad from the Five Senses crew — best wishes for the nationals! Keep a close eye on Le Monde, as more exciting developments are happening soon!

Le Monde Café
83 Foveaux Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9211 3568

To find out more about the various barista and cup tasting championships around the country, visit www.aasca.com.