This is a continuation from part 1 of my experience in Singapore Coffee Fest 17 where I hunted for new and interesting coffee to invest my limited caffeine capacity in. It is not meant to be comprehensive, and the recommendations are based on my experience as an amateur coffee afficionado.

Disclaimer: I am neither affiliated with nor sponsored by any companies mentioned in this post. I do not even have discount code under my name to offer 😛

NinetyPlus coffee degustation

Hosted by The Pourover bar, the degustation took place on Sunday morning, where we were treated to 8 cups of NinetyPlus coffee ranging from the least complex ‘Kemgin’ (not in photo) to the most complex collections from the Chad Wang Maker Series and the Semeon Abay Maker Series. Find out more about the NinetyPlus coffee and Chad Wang in part 1 of my post.

The maker series are the coffee fine tuned by top baristas and super pickers and they represent the taste profiles these ‘makers’ feel that super good coffee should taste like.

Thanks to the good working relation with NinetyPlus coffee, The Pourover Bar has been able to secure the greens (un-roasted coffee beans) together with the roast profiles of the beans.

It was a sensory overloaded experience with tastes like graph,orange zest, jackfruit, lychee, red apple, jasmine tea, peach, raspberry all in the degustation session. It was also a good meet-up with friends both from Singapore and abroad 🙂

 

Japanese Coffee Masters

Roasted in Japan is back this year featuring leading independent Japanese roasters from AND Coffee Roasters, GLITCH Coffee, Hoshikawa Cafe, Passage Coffee and Trunk Coffee. The booth was actually fronted by the owners of these roastery/cafes!

Shuichi Sasaki from Passage Coffee who is the 2014 Aeropress Champion was also present with his Aeropress! Of course I did not miss the chance to witness his coffee making routine live!

I also took the chance to show them the smart scale prototype which the design was inspired by the Japanese minimalism movement 🙂

Singapore’s Champion

Natasha Shariff from BettrBarista represented Singapore in the ‘Coffee in Good Spirits‘ competition which took place in Budapest June this year. The competition was held in conjunction with Brewers cup, Cup Tasters and the Latte Art championship. This was the first year Singapore took part in the category which involves mixing alcohol and coffee. And Natasha managed to clinch a good 4th placing on the international stage!

The actual trophy was present at the fest too.

I had the honor to witness Natasha’s competition routine and also to savor the winning  coffee cocktails!

Gordon Summer (L) which consists of coldbrew coffee + Gordon’s gin. And the creamy Irish coffee (R) which consists of espresso and fresh cream.

Freshly roasted beans were also available in BettrBarista’s booth, whats interesting is the beans from Myanmar, another new country to the specialty coffee market.

New mail order goodies

In recent years, we have seen quite a number of companies which provide mail order coffee beans at the convenient of a few mouse clicks. What makes this new company different is their selection of beans. Medano brings us roasted beans and pods from coffee grown in the region. Good tasting coffee need not always come from afar. I have tasted enough coffee made from specialty grade beans from Indonesia which the taste is reminiscent of what we can get from beans from Ethiopia.

Gayo from Aceh/Indonesia.

‘Pangkhon’ from Chiangrai/Thailand.

‘Bintan’ from Sumatra/Indonesia.

Slicker and Smarter Nespresso machine

The newer Nespresso which is priced under SGD800 is not only smaller, the integrated milk frother  has a built-in thermometer for a ‘push-button and forget’ operation.

Unlike the ultra formy milk produced by most automated frother, the milk frothed by this machine can be silky smooth, good enough for latte art.

My first attempt at free pour with Nespresso’s automated frothed milk and milk-pitcher. I have to admit, am not really good with latte art 😛

Discounted coffee in many good cafes

Looking for more discount for good coffee in good cafes? I can now get coffee at SGD4.50/cup or less at a number of my favorite cafes. Check out Sip to find out more on the plans available and the participating cafes. The credits can be shared with friends easily too 😉

A quick peek at the participating cafes.

Learn from one of the best food photographer

C.R Tan from XLBCR who is also a barista, gave a talk and hands-on lesson on food styling and photography. I am a professional photographer myself and a big fan of his work, check out his page and Instagram to understand why.

Learn why freshly roasted beans matter

From the same team behind the home coffee roasting machine which I have written about in part 1 of the post. Raymond from RRFC and Asher Yaron from Pak Kopi spoke about the health benefits of consuming freshly roasted coffee, like 1 day fresh! RRFC has also started compiling interest list for the home roasting machine, do contact them if you like to find out more.

Closing ..

It was a great show! I visited on both of the weekends while some of the visitors I met were there for 4 days! The standards of the coffee were high. We have seen lots of improvement in the crowd control. And the bay views were gorgeous in some of the evenings. Thank you everyone who made this show possible!

Coffee is a complex item. It can get intimidating with so much options available during the fest. I hope everyone managed to learn something new or have taken the plunge and try something beyond just ‘cafe latte’ or ‘cappuccino’. When in doubt, take the leap of faith and ask for the barista’s recommendation. See you in Singapore Coffee Fest 2018 and maybe WBC2017 🙂