News Articles by Ashley Brian
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Using the Internet to Market Your Café
Gone are the days where it’s all about location, location, location. With the emergence of the internet as a promotional beast, every back alley cafe has the chance to become an industry icon. It’s certainly not a concept that’s new to Melbourne which has had thriving cafés tucked away in laneways for decades, but what may have been a decision made out of sheer necessity back in the day (due to rental costs) is now considered chic and unique.
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Price increase
As of today we have increased the prices for our coffee. We regret the need to do this but over the last 12 months we have been absorbing the rising costs of coffee as a commodity. We can no longer continue to do this.
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The CCD in action
The Clever Coffee Dripper was considered a pretty innovative product when it was first released in Australia some six months ago. Since then it has fast become the brewing method of choice for both cafes and home brewers wishing to explore the world of black coffee.
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Live Stream of the Australian Barista Comp
Catch all the action this weekend from the 2011 Australian Barista Championships as it happens with a live stream thanks to Gun Barista Challenge.
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2010 SA Barista Comp Results
Baby faced, Jonny Pisanelli takes out the 2010 South Australian Barista Comp with David Moen and Mike Wells coming in second and third using Five Senses Coffee.
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Step by step espresso
Espresso at home is a great way for coffee drinkers to experience and understand what goes into their café style drinks. By that, I don’t just mean the actual ingredients, but more the different levels of quality, technology, expertise, patience and attention to detail.
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Releasing the Advanced Barista Techniques DVD
Coffee made badly at home can become a thing of the past. We now have something that you can use to help your mate, brother, sister, uncle or cousin never make a bad coffee ever again. It’s been a very long time coming but now it’s completed everyone at 5 Senses has breathed a collective sigh of relief. It’s not often that we undertake a project that consumes such an unexpected amount of mental, emotional and for a couple of people, performance energy.
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WBC - live streaming
The World Barista Championship has just kicked off in London. Competition will be fierce, with the National Champions from over 50 countries vying for the title. Aussie veteran and industry great, Scottie Callaghan, will be representing our great nation. Watch all the action via the live stream.
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Bigger, better steam wands
Our tech guys have been hard at work figuring out how they can improve the milk steaming capability of Isomac machines. After plenty of research and extensive testing in the workshop, it all came down to the steam wand tip.
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It starts with good water
You know that a shot of espresso is 90% water, and that means the quality of the water you use in your machine has an enormous impact on the way your espresso tastes. This is why many people use filtered water in their coffee machine. But is the filtered water you’re using as good as you think it is?
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2010 Australian Barista Champs — Final
Veteran competitor, Scottie Callaghan from NSW, has been crowned the 2010 Australian Barista Champion ahead of Simon James from Victoria. Scottie’s routine was calm and calculated and included a very impressive signature drink where he poured his espresso through cardamom seeds on a muslin cloth.
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2010 Australian Barista Champs — Day 2
It was a bustling day two at the Australian Barista Championships with semi finals in three championships. The hot news for the day was Mark Chandler, WA Barista Champ, who made it through to the finals coming up tomorrow and Brad Nixon who dominated his heat earning a spot in the Cup Tasting final.
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2010 Australian Barista Champs — Day 1
With an inspired performance, Jennifer Murray from Five Senses WA has narrowly missed out on a place in Saturday’s Australian Barista Championship Semi Final on the Gold Coast.
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Engineering skills
Yes, the rumours are all true … Five Senses’ engineer extraordinaire, Richard Muhl, is attempting to combine a Synesso Cyncra group head and boilers with an Isomac to produce the most impressive hybrid domestic espresso machine in the world.
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Starting with Single Origins
The number of people with a keen interest in coffee is increasing all the time. Hordes of people all around Australia have a genuine desire to learn more about their daily brew, and this is reflected in the number of punters walking through the doors of the nation’s best cafés.
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5 Senses sweeps the WA Barista Champs
It was a hat trick for 5 Senses Coffee at the WA Barista Championships on the weekend, with each of the event’s three awards being taken out by 5 Senses people.
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Cawfee talk with Jen
Once it was all said and done and I stepped outside the Perth town hall, I must admit, I was absolutely stoked to have won the 2008 WA Barista Competition. I breathed a massive sigh of relief as I realised that it was all over and that I had somehow managed to execute most of what I had planned. I think it’s safe to say, with three competitions under my belt, I’m well on the way to being able to call myself a seasoned competitor.
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Footy fever is back!
The siren has sounded, it’s footy season again! As Five Senses’ Footy Tipping competition ramps up, the taunts are starting to fly thick and fast between offices. Old rivalries are rearing their heads: husband against wife, neighbour against neighbour … and colleague against colleague.
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WA Barista Academy launches their new website
After a fantastic win by Jennifer Murray in the Western Australian Barista Championships the Western Australian Barista Academy has been given a facelift.
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Jennifer Murray wins the 2008 WA Barista Competition
Jennifer Murray, manager of the 5 Senses Coffee training school, the Western Australian Barista Academy, today took out the 2008 Western Australian Barista Championship held at the Perth Town Hall.
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Turning lemons into Lemon's
It sounds so easy. Find a rundown café, give it a quick refit, appoint a manager to look after it for you and watch the money pile up while you relax with a silky latté. The reality, however, is very different for owners with no hospitality experience, or those who have had a long break from the industry.
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Liar Liar delivers
It takes a lot more than guts to open a café off the main street. But Liar Liar, which opened its doors late last year in a small side street in Hawthorn, has the credentials to back the brave move. Serious (and seriously sexy) equipment, fantastic fit out and superlative staff practically guarantee its success.
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Magazine Espresso opens in Burswood
In a suburb almost devoid of places to find a fine coffee, a Five Senses-fuelled espresso bar opened last month to cater for the many caffeine-starved business people in the area.
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Celebrating the month of Movember
For the second year running many of the staff at Five Senses decided to get onboard the well publicised fund-raising event — Movember.
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Need a Christmas gift idea?
Are you stuck with what to buy the person who has everything? ... or maybe you’re that person and you need to subtly forward this link to someone as a hint for gift ideas for you.
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Dana has the baby
Many readers have been asking about the progress of Dana’s pregnancy and as expected Dana’s baby couldn’t wait to get out into the world and was born two weeks early on Sunday 21 October at 9:34pm.
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Epic hits the road
After recently launching their new website, Epic Espresso can now been seen roaming the streets in their new Toyota Aurion.
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Nolan names his cafe
Tipped to be named Liar Liar, the newest café in Hawthorn, Victoria is on track for it’s official opening later this month, according to co-owner and WA Barista Champ, Nolan Hirte.
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Retro hot pink tamper hits the market
Five Senses would like to introduce our new retro style Hot Pink powder coated Reg Barber tampers.
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WA Barista Champ takes on Melbourne
Melbourne, the home of coffee in Australia, is about to get a serious wake-up call …
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Dana stacks on the weight
It has been confirmed … Dana has not stacked on weight from massive overeating — she’s actually pregnant and due in early November.
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New black anodised Reg Barber's
Five Senses would like to introduce our new slick black anodised Reg Barber tampers.
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Bumpers prices plummet
Our new Bumper shipment has just arrived and like our Isomac’s we’ve reduced our prices.
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The journey of Cafe 54
In an area starved of consistent, quality coffee, Café 54 is already considered a stand out — pure liquid gold. Located in Pier Street at the east end of the city, the story behind Café 54 can be summed up with one phrase, ‘a journey for the perfect cup of coffee’.
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Middles takes up the challenge
In the interest of safety, Five Senses has implemented a number of different precautionary measures to minimise injuries in the workplace and to ensure staff are working in an appropriate manner… although Middles, who is having a break from uni to work in our production area, has taken the safety precautions a little bit too far.
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Wife latte art champion announced
The desire of wives to learn the finer art of the barista movement culminated in an all-wives class at the Western Australian Barista Academy on Sunday 1 July, where the ‘World’s Best Latte Art Champion Married to a Five Senses Staff Member’ was also announced.
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A star in the north
New to the Five Senses stable of espresso bars is T5 Espresso. Located in Joondalup, it’s proving to be a star in the north.
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Emma gets a one group Synesso
Emma recently unveiled her very own one group Synesso Cyncra for home, sending a wave of jealousy not only throughout Five Senses, but beyond the walls of our business.
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Website of epic proportions
If you haven’t checked out the Epic Espresso website yet, it’s definitely worth a look. After hearing they were up and running, we logged on the other day and were impressed with the stylish layout, funky graphics and easy-to-use interface. We had to admit we weren’t surprised, given the slickness and quality that coffee lovers everywhere have come to expect from Corey Diamond and his team at Epic.
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Wives in secret latte-art training finalists
The Five Senses interest in latte-art has been taken to the next level with the wives vowing to begin an intense few months of secret training for an in-house, spouse latte-art off.
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The boys visit the SCAA Conference
A few of the boys recently travelled to the US for the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) annual conference and have come back beaming from seeing the industry’s newest products on display and from the knowledge gained in the various lectures and tutorials they attended.
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'Super' places third in Singapore
Andrew Tang, or ‘Super’ as we like to call him, gets third place in the recent 2007 Singapore Barista Championships. The inaugural Singapore Barista Championships were held on 29 – 31 March at the Suntec City Convention.
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Check out Abstract Gourmet
Every now and then we come across something that’s good enough to pass on. This is one of those times.
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Mr Brady joins Five Senses
Five Senses Coffee has now officially gone too far. After 3 months of intense negotiation, Dean made a deal with the official, Mike Brady, from the classic 70s TV show — The Brady Bunch.
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WA competitors leave for Barista Champs
The Western Australian Barista team have left for Adelaide to represent the state in the 2007 Australian Barista Championships.
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Keeping everyone awake!
At 2pm on Sunday 25 March the Five Senses Coffee barista team made their final take-away coffee for the Cancer Foundation’s Relay for Life event held at Perry Lakes sporting complex.
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Smaller quantity bags now available
From today, we are offering more of our single origins and specialty range to be sold in 250g and 500g bags.
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2007 WA Barista Champion
Nolan Hirte from Lemon Espresso in Claremont took out the top prize in the 2007 Western Australian Barista Championships.
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Shaughan steps up his IT skills
Shaughan’s computer literacy has been a source of laughter around the Five Senses office, and we thought it was time to recognise his progression of his abilities.
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Good things in small packages
The saying ‘good things come in small packages’ can certainly be the case with two additions to the Five Senses family, Mooba and Stimulatté.
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TODAY in the West
TODAY’S West Australian talks about new coffee shops that are dedicated to the bean.
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A fresh face in Leederville
Sayers Food is yet another fantastic cafe that has recently opened in Perth and is fast making headway in the well established coffee centre that is Leederville.
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Bo stars on the stage
Bo stars in the recent production of Beauty and the Beast and according to the public and the critics — steals the show.
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We go crazy with latte art
After The Bo came second in the recent 2006 Western Australian Latte Art Competition, most of the the Five Senses staff have got on the bandwagon wanting to learn.
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Synesso hits the streets
The Aroma Festival hosted a champion’s tent featuring the world’s best barista’s. Organisers flew the current World Barista Champion Klaus Thomsen from Denmark, the Indian Barista Champion, K.S. Gautam, and the Russian Barista Champion, Yelizarova Tatiana, as their special guests. Read more and check out some videos.
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Harmony at Christmas
We thought we’d take the time to suggest a coffee that will go perfectly with your Christmas meal.
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Soprano wins BBQ
Commonly known as Soprano, Ash, our Five Senses driver reaped the rewards of turning up to work early on Monday, by calling in to participate in a radio competition at 6:30am on Nova.
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Great cafe found in Hong Kong
Sometimes we take the quality of coffee in our town for granted. But every now and then, we come across some gold outside of Australia and feel that the research is worth telling you — our customers about.
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Five Senses in Hong Kong
Five Senses has captured the attention of international buyer Park’n’Shop, the most exclusive chain of fast consumable goods stores in Hong Kong.
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Peaches Launch Fairtrade
Peaches Fresh Food Market has always been the place to go for organic produce, but now become the place for the complete range of Five Senses’ organic and Fairtrade products.
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Smooth as Velvet
Like the smooth texture of velvet the new Perth cafe with the same name has opened with seamless perfection …
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Roasters Visit Capricorn
After years of learning the fine art of coffee roasting, Jay and Rich extended their knowledge with a practical tour of one of Australia’s largest coffee plantation’s: Capricorn Estate.
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