Photos & Words by Malik S.
The first day of our experiential program was much anticipated, with all members of the team eagerly awaiting the fun the day would bring. The morning began with a bus ride downtown to Fernwood Coffee Roasters and Cafe, where we met Ed, the head roaster, and watched him go through the roasting process with their 20kg a batch roaster. He went through the process step by step, showing us everything from how they monitor temperatures and spin rate on a computer to how to test if the beans are ready. He then introduced us to many different types of coffee from various regions and this was followed by a round of questioning on our part for Ed and Ben, one of the owners. This was a great opportunity to learn lots about the business and production sides of Fernwood Coffee.
The next part of our journey took us to Little June cafe, which are partnered with Fernwood and sell their coffee. Here we were lucky enough to each sample different coffee based drinks and try some of their baked goods. While enjoying our treats, we took note of the design, layout, marketing and logo of Little June and asked lots of questions.
After our delicious tastings, we headed back to school for three activities. The first was barista training, led by John in the schools Howard cafe, where we all learned how to work a coffee machine and got to try making espresso shots. Second up was roasting coffee over barbecues (1.3kg a batch) outdoors with Mr Daly, we then packaged our medium roasted coffee and got to take it home. The third station was drawing up business ideas for everything from brand image to location to production and then looking at how we make a business plan.
Everyone ended the day with big grins on our faces, having tried a variety of different coffees, learned to roast our own, learned about many aspects of business and most importantly did it with a great group of people we can now call our friends.