"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Creativity, attention to detail and playfulness are just a few of the traits of those behind the Über Boiler. On my recent trip to London and Dublin, the picture became a lot clearer as I met the people, drank the coffee and absorbed the culture that brought the Über project into life.

One of the things that really struck me about London’s coffee scene was its specificity. In a bid to distinguish themselves from the plethora of mediocre coffee offerings around the city, the new wave of cafés and espresso bars are addressing a very specific lack of good quality espresso. These cafés are usually fairly small affairs, featuring a high quality espresso machine, some fresh pastries and the ubiquitous stuff-between-two-slices-of-bread offerings, certainly not the sprawling, bustling cafés of Australia, which increasingly have a well fitted out kitchen and a range of Single Origin espressos.

The focus in London is on providing a small range of well prepared, delicious espresso coffees — and they’re nailing it! London’s been blessed with an influx of energy over the past few years. Some of the most knowledgeable and skilled coffee professionals, in the guise of World Barista Champions, have originated there and have provided fuel to drive the industry forward.

With a quality espresso culture well established, the highly focused coffee scene has turned its attention on their old home turf — brewed coffee. In many countries around the world, brewed or filtered coffee is the heritage that has been thoroughly sidelined for the focus on the newer, sexier espresso coffee. However, with renewed interest on the quality of green beans and extracting the unique flavours secreted within, brewed coffee prepared by the cup is experiencing a resurgence.

Marco is a company based in Dublin, Ireland which, until recently, has been focusing on larger scale hot water delivery systems for brewed coffee and tea within the broader hospitality industry. Marco has always had a high level of attention to detail and has become increasingly responsive to the needs of the coffee industry, so much so that they’re now helping to lead the movement toward a refreshed and researched approach to brewed coffee.

When Paul Stack (Marco’s Operations Director) connected with Square Mile’s James Hoffman through the UK specialty coffee scene, a chain reaction began, which has now reached Australia. The attention to detail that had shaped the stability of previous machines, combined with Paul and James’ enquiring minds and sense of fun birthed the Über Boiler. Both recognised that the significance of temperature stability, dosage and water contact time had the same import on brewed coffee as it did on espresso. What began as a jury-rigged boiler with some domestic kitchen scales and a stopwatch developed into a sleek, all-in one-unit which brought all of the tools for brewing top quality coffee together.

The key component from Marco’s talented R&D department was a system for ensuring water temperature stability up to 1/10th of a degree (Celsius). This was previously unheard of, with people either using a kettle ‘just off the boil’ or an urn delivering inconsistently hot water, ranging over 10° Celsius.

The Über Boiler essentially uses a 6 litre under-counter-boiler that holds steady at a particular ‘Prime Temp’ until ready to brew. When the barista wants to activate brewing, he or she kicks off a process which constantly circulates the boiler water up through the polished stainless steel font and back down again. At this point, no new cold water is allowed into the mix, ensuring that the temperature remains incredibly steady and accurate while the barista is making their brew. This is obviously a significant simplification of the process and the Marco R&D gurus went through many iterations to get the thermal dynamics on the circulating head and temperature control just right.

Once the guts of the technology was on track, Paul and James’ sense of fun and excitement came into play, with the sleek design work and naming of the project. After the recent World Barista Championship in London, some of the Five Senses crew took a short flight up to Dublin to visit Marco’s home base and see how the Über comes to life.

It was great to meet the entire team — it was easy to see how the project has grown a life of its own, providing the talented team the opportunity to create a fun, innovative project. Paul Stack has obviously become as impassioned about the specialty coffee industry as the rest of us and has become a spokesperson for brewed coffee, pushing some really exciting research into the Gold Cup standards and helping to set up the second fully realised and incredibly successful WBC Brew Bar at the recent World Championship.

The specialty coffee industry in the UK and Ireland may not be as widespread or have the rampant momentum behind it that we’re experiencing in Australia, but it’s certainly applying a level of focus and investigative process which is inspiring to watch. Too often coffee ‘knowledge’ and preparation technique is based around anecdotal and cultural experiences. I suggest we follow the lead of companies like Marco and Square Mile, who look outside the box and think creatively about how we can improve our coffee offerings and, above all, provide a fun experience for ourselves and our customers.

Note: If you’d like to see an Über Boiler in action, drop into Proud Mary or Seven Seeds in Melbourne or Epic Espresso in West Perth (in the next couple of weeks) or contact us at info@fivesenses.com.au.