The Advocate newspaper ran a story in May 2010 about Bay Beans Coffee, a local business banking on a fresh approach. 

I'm very proud to announce I have this week picked up a coveted award at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show 2014 and will have Bay Beans Coffee beans on display at this years Sydney Royal Easter Show. A massive accomplishment for me in comercialising a small business that started as a passion.

"The premium products from the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show will be showcased at the Sydney Royal Easter Show from 10th - 23rd April 2014 at Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park. These products will be located in the Woolworths Fresh Food Dome, the centerpiece of the Show site".

I'm particularly proud of the result, being a small independent business and having entered only one coffee variety in competition to hundreds of other coffee roasting houses, some of who entered multiple coffees.  Bay Beans was awarded a Bronze Medal for Espresso Master variety, a coffee that is ideally suited to flat white and cappuccino and will impress as an espresso shot for the devoted coffee lover.  

Espresso Master is a creation of Bay Beans using predominately 100% Arabica coffee beans from South America and roasted on a 60 kilo Dietrich coffee roaster programmed to accurately follow specific roasting profiles specified by James - a leap ahead of the original coffee roaster James custom built from various parts mostly imported from the USA  that had a maximum roast size of 4 kilos. 

James continues to supply his fresh roasted and now award winning coffee beans online to cafes, offices and homes all over Australia at www.baybeans.com.au along side his other love as Daddy Day Care to his 3 year old son and 5 year old daughter. 

Over the holiday period, I used more coffee than I expected and was faced with a dilema - do I use those emergency coffee beans at the back of the pantry? I thought, why not, that's what they are there for - for times like this, just in case I run out. The coffee beans I am reaching for are now 8 months old - roasted 8 months ago. When you think about it, that's not so bad - supermarket coffee and most of the coffee from big coffee brands in Australia are 12 months old by the time you get them home anyway. 

I poured the beans into the grinder at home, sure they were a little more glossy than usual, but they smelt okay - sure, it wasnt the immediate blast of aroma that I am use to, I expected the flavour to be down a little -but a fair compromise for fresh roasted coffee beans I convinced myself, in my time of need.

Grinding these coffee beans produced a little more clumping than usual, so I adjusted the grinder a touch to accommodate, loaded up the coffee portafilter basket and started the extraction. What happened next I was not prepared for - the usual volume of crema was gone - in fact, there was almost no crema, and what crema there was dissipated pretty fast.  After steaming the milk to a nice texture, there was no surprise that the coffee looked flat, and there was almost no contrast when combined with the milk. My coffee was pretty boring, not awful, but definitely not exceptional. 

I learned something new today - fresh coffee beans make all the difference! My coffee making skills are pretty good and I find my coffees to be consistent, but these less than fresh beans changed everything - no longer was I enjoying spectacular coffee, but 'average', 'okay' coffee - that's just not good enough I thought!

So, I decided to take some time out, roast up a new batch of coffee beans and the difference was amazing. 

Do you have enough coffee beans for Christmas 2013 and to celebrate New Year 2014? Order your coffee beans before December 20th to ensure your coffee beans are delivered by Christmas and New Year. Any orders placed after December 20th will be automatically scheduled for delivery from Monday January 6th 2014. 

To sumarise, Christmas / New Year: Orders after 20th Dec will be sent on Jan 6th.

You've arrived at the perfect time - James has just launched the brand new website for Bay Beans coffee - the home of fresh roasted coffee beans online in Australia. You can buy coffee beans from a lot of places these days, but you're really taking a risk giving your business to just anyone - when you buy coffee beans online at Bay Beans, you can expect personalised service from a guy that really takes customer service serious - as serious as he does ensuring your coffee beans order is fresh and roasted to perfection, and delivered fast to your door, oh yeah, and delivery is Free, anywhere in Australia. 

If you are buying coffee beans for a cafe or office, benefit from 30% discount that is automatically applied to your purchase. 

If you need any assistance with selecting your perfect coffee bean variety, or how to make a better coffee, James is always ready to be your first port of call. 

Crema on top of your coffee is produced when you use fresh roasted coffee beans with correct espresso extraction technique. Crema is the golden foam that sits onto of the dark espresso base. A technique to produce maximum crema on your coffee is to pre-heat your coffee machine for around 30 minutes, then dose your coffee into your coffee machines portafilter basket and tamp with consistent and even pressure. A good trick is to tap the coffee basket on the bench half way through your coffee dosing to settle the grinds prior to tamping. 

Best results will come from using a coffee bean specifically blended to create maximum crema in your coffee, such as my Super Crema coffee using a base of coffee beans from the Monsoon Malabar. 

If you would like help with your coffee preparation or technique, get in touch anytime for free advice.  

The original Bay Beans logo and coffee bag designs were my own creation. With Bay Beans become more and more popular in cafes and businesses around Australia, it was time to freshen up the image and create a classy and unique full printed coffee bag. I think we've done it! If you run a cafe, restaurant or coffee van and want to be serving quality coffee packaged in professional packaging, buy your coffee online now or get in touch to discuss your requirements.  

The Graphic Designer I partnered with to develop a new coffee bag design is a genius.. absolute GENIUS! (if you need a superstar designer for your own project, let me know and I will send you hook you up). 

If you enjoy quality coffee, you will absolutely love Bay Beans fresh roasted coffee beans. Are you opening a cafe or coffee shop, do you have plans to serve quality coffee at home for your friends or family, would like to source fresh coffee for your office or business, or are just curious about the coffee roasting process? If that sounds like you, you have come to the right place. 

Fresh roasted coffee means different things to different people, but this is what it means for me;

• Coffee roasted for shipment to one of our online or wholesale customers comes out of the roaster hot and is packed into foil lined coffee bags once it cools to room temperature. That's fresh roasted coffee. Simple as that.
• Most experts explain that fresh roasted coffee is coffee that has been roasted less than two weeks ago, for absolute freshness.
• Coffee that is less than ten days old is nearly impossible to find,unless you are buying your coffee direct from the roaster.

In creating the very best roasted coffee bean, we need to ensure

• the raw coffee beans selected are of the highest quality
• the roasting process is consistent and matches the desired roast profile
  
• your coffee beans are packed in foil lined bags with one-way degassing valves
• the coffee bag is sealed effectively
• your coffee is roasted and dispatched as soon as possible after you order
• your delivery is timely and efficient

Selecting the most heavenly green coffee beans is possibly the most important step in the process. Ever heard the old phrase 'a buildling is only as good as its foundations'?

As a professional roaster, I have my own experience with the spiritual side of fresh roasted coffee. I certainly care more about coffee than anything I have done, professionally speaking, thus far in my life.

The whole point of this is to say that without excellent green coffee beans, all of the care taken by a Roastmaster will be like pearls cast to swine. Thus, “The Perfect Cup” becomes sadly unattainable.

I love questions from customers about coffee, and here is one that I would like to share with you from Steve.

Steve asked the question about the impact of a pressurised coffee basket in his new coffee machine, and if he should change it to a after-market non-pressurised basket, improve his coffee.

Here is my reply.

Hi Steve.

Thanks for your email.

You have nailed it - the point that is letting you down is the pressurised basket. Let me first explain why some coffee machine manufacturers use presurised baskets in the first place, and the difference between non-pressurised coffee baskets.

A pressurised basket is different to a non pressurised basket by having only one single hole in the bottom of the basket, vs many holes in a normal basket. The idea is to force the coffee through the one tiny hole, and in the process, creating a fake crema. Thats perfect for the machine manufacturer, becasue even with stale supermarket beans, they can say "look how good the crema is from our machine", but it will lack taste - its just micro-foamed coffee.

Using fresh roasted beans will improve the flavour of your coffee, but the basket being pressurised means that you dont get any good feedback on what is really happening with your coffee extraction.

Breville make non pressurised baskets for their Cafe Roma boiler machine - the machine retails for about $80, but the spare bpart can be ordered seerately for under $10. if it fits your machine, thats what I reccomend as a solution.

When you pay more for a machine, really all you are getting other than facy looks, is a more stable and consistent tempreture and pressure, and better heatup times, which while important, is not absolutely necessary. You will get a much better benefit by changing your basket to a non pressurised basket, and using a coffee tamp. then you can experiment with technique to perfect your coffee.

your aiming for 30ml of coffee in the cup, over 25seconds. If you get more than 30ml, your grind is too coarse, or your tamp too light. I like to try and keep as many things consistent, ie;

30 ml of coffee (per shot)
7grams of coffee (per shot)
25 seconds extraction
15kg of tamp pressure (try using bathroom scales to get an idea of what 15kg of pressure feels like.
I also like to always use a double basket, per coffee extraction, into one cup (so 14g of coffee and 60ml).

Let me know how you get on.

Regards,

James Axisa
Chief Espresso Officer 
www.baybeans.com.au
Mobile: 0428 555 535
Voicemail callback: 02 8208 3477 
[I answer your emails, just hit reply]