12 Sep Pane e Dolci Presents “First Taste: Specialty Coffee Experience” with Extraction Wars and Latte Wars
“May your pour be in your favour.”
Pane e Dolci, Cagayan de Oro’s prime “Take a Break from the Ordinary” coffee shop and sweet treats, recently held a special coffee event entitled: “First Taste: Specialty Coffee Experience” last September 6 and 7, 2016 at the Pane e Dolci located at 8th and 21st Streets in Nazareth. Aside from the specialty coffee, baristas from all over the country also participated in the Extraction Wars and Latte Wars.
The event was organized by Pane e Dolci in partnership with Coffee Connects Co., Jack Meets Kaldi, and Latte Art Philippines (LAP). The event introduced the wonderful taste of SPECIALTY COFFEE through a lecture, cupping, and demonstration brewing of the new Specialty Coffee.
The event was facilitated by one of the country’s top specialty coffee experts and founder of Latte Art Philippines (LAP), Mr. Mark Neil B. Madrelejos. LAP is a country-wide organization that brings together Baristas from all over the Philippines to help boost their morale to continue making good coffee and to further their learning by exchanging or learning new tradecraft. Together with him also was Mr. Angelo Benedict B. Abordo from Jack Meets Kaldi Specialty Coffee.
Most of the participants were from CDO’s top coffee cafés such as Mai Crafts, Nummies, Dave’s Beanery, Bowties and Butter, and St. Nicholas Inn, as well as baristas from Cagayan de Oro City, Iligan City, Gingoog City, Davao City, Cebu, and Manila, as well as coffee farmers, coffee enthusiasts, HRM educators, students from the different HRM schools here in the city.
Day 1 – Specialty Coffee
The first day of the event focused on an introductory lecture on Specialty Coffee. This was followed by what is termed as “cupping,” that is, introducing the participants to the different smells of the specialty coffees after they have been grounded and placed in clean cups.
After this was the manual brewing demonstration of the finest origin coffee beans for specialty coffees, followed by the actual tasting of the coffees by the participants. For those still novices to coffee, actual coffee tasting must take place with no sugar, cream, or milk involved.
This is to ensure that the participant gets the maximum taste from the coffee. Examples of Specialty Coffee used in the demonstration were Cup of Excellence certified Finca Bosque Lya from El Salvador (Central America), Ferrero from Brazil, and Kirinyaga from Kenya, to name a few.
Day 2 – Extraction Wars and Latte Wars
The second day was fun filled, exciting, and noisy cheering; not the usual atmosphere you would expect from the Extraction Wars and Latte Wars. But that’s the way it went as the baristas cheered and jeered each other in the open competitions.
For the Extraction Wars, all baristas were given 5 minutes to brew a single origin coffee (Kenya Kirinyaga) using his or her preferred brewing tool and recipe of his choice considering the basic brewing parameters which are the coffee grind size, water temperature, coffee-to-water ratio, and brewing time.
All outputs were judged according to taste and acidity as well as the Actual Total Dissolved Solids using a refractometer and percentage of Extraction Yield.
The judges were Mr. Miko Simangan, founder, of Stop bad coffee worldwide advocacy and Master Roaster; Ms. Kristine Joy Cunanan, president of Latte Art Philippine and CEO of Jack Meets Kaldi Specialty Coffee in Tarlac City; and Mr. Angelo Benedict B. Abordo, specialty coffee specialist at Jack Meet’s Kaldi Specialty Coffee.
Those who emerged as winners were:
Left to Right: JR Caballero, James Ucat and Che Roa
Champion – Barista James Ucat (Pane e Dolci)
2nd Place – Barista Jan Ralph Caballero (Krispy Kreme)
3rd Place – Barista Rachelle Roa (Pane e Dolci)
For the Latte Art Wars, baristas chose their own free-poured latte art design in a 10-ounce latte cup. For the second round, baristas chose their own free-poured latte art in a 6-ounce styro cup. For the semi-finals, baristas chose their own free-poured latte art in a demitasse (3-ounce) cup. For the championship round, the judges were given a choice between 2 patterns of free-poured art in one 10-ounce latte cup.
Aside from bringing back Ms. Cunanan as one of the judges, the two other judges were Mr. Kevin Israel Furto, founder of Stop bad coffee worldwide and Mr. Mark Neil Madrelejos.
Those who emerged as winners were:
Champion – Barista Enan Sabado (Kuppa Roastery and Café, Bonifacio Global City)
Silver – Barista Michael Cabilao (Fujinoya Philippines, Cebu City)
Bronze – Barista Lean Cunanan (Jack Meets Kaldi Specialty Coffee, Tarlac City)
Meet the Baristas
We had a fun chat with two of the baristas present and one who one at the Latte Art Wars. Meet Ms. Che Roa, Pane e Dolci’s pride and Wenz Orio Sollano (guest barista from Davao). The full interview with them can be read at Urban Life Gold Star Daily so watch out for it!
Che Roa of Pane e Dolci
Che Roa and Wenz Orio Sollano
What is Specialty Coffee?
The term “specialty coffee” was coined by Erna Knutsen, a Norwegian-American, one of the major organizers of the SCAA, and the proprietor of Knutsen Coffee, Ltd. In accordance with the SCAA or Specialty Coffee Association of America, a certain coffee type can only be certified as “specialty” if it passes all scientific testing and tasting by the SCAA through pre-set values and ranges for water, beans, cupping, extraction, and tasting. For premium and gourmet coffee to be marked as “specialty,” the coffee must garner at least a score of 80. Anything scoring 90 and above is considered a COE or Cup of Excellence.
Specialty coffee is mostly grown and produced in Colombia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Panama, and Jamaica. The judging of coffees to be certified as well as in open competitions needs the use of modern equipment such as a moisture analyzer, color analyzer, etc.
“Specialty” premium or gourmet coffees are made from exceptional Arabica beans grown in ideal coffee-producing climates, and usually harvested by hand only in mountainous areas. Specialty coffees have distinctive flavors, specific to botanical variety, processing method, and the unique characteristics of the soil and environment that produces them. Specialty coffees stand in stark contrast to the often bitter Robusta beans grown at low elevations and harvested by machines. Arabica coffee plants for specialty coffees are often observed to be beautifully arranged in terrace formations along mountainsides.
When compared to each other, harvested arabica beans are darker and larger while robusta beans are smaller and lighter in color. Even when using ordinary arabica and robusta beans, the former, after extraction has a lighter brewed color while robusta is darker, owing to its quite bitter flavor. Specialty coffees are also sold only in specialty coffee shops or exclusive coffee cafes rather than commercial coffee shops such as Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, or McDonalds.
This is because specialty and exclusive cafes and their owners and baristas have undergone the proper training, knowledge, and have shown the passion to service and serve specialty coffees. They also have the proper tools, brewing equipment, and machines needed to serve specialty coffees such as V60, Chemex, Siphon, French Press and Aeropress, just to name a few. Of course, the owners and cafes need to have a direct business relation with the proper manufacturers and distributors of specialty coffees.
Team Acadeo poses with the Owners of Pane e Dolci.
In Cagayan de Oro City, only Pane e Dolci is presently authorized to brew and sell specialty coffees.
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