Coffee trade looks forward to times of change

A remarkable groundswell of coffee trade opinion has been triggered by the appointment of Lynsey Harley of United Coffee as the new UK Co-ordinator of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe.

This elected position is one which rarely receives any interest from the beverage trade. The industry’s trade associations are fairly low-profile, and the image of the SCAE’s UK co-ordinator is generally not one which receives any media attention at all.

This year, however, there has been a quite unprecedented amount of interest in the election, almost entirely because one of the three candidates, Lynsey, is such a well-known barista, competition entrant, trainer, and advocate of industry training. The barista and roaster sectors enthusiastically took up the concept that one of their own would take up a position of influence in the industry association, and be in a position to bring about many aspects of change and progress in the industry.

The result was that baristas and roasters alike could be seen on social network sites exhorting SCAE members to take an active part in the election – a most unusual display of excitement around a trade association post.

The consequence – although we have yet to have this confirmed – appears to be that Lynsey won the poll by a landslide majority.

The reaction from the barista sector, one never known for its restraint in opinion, was unequivocal: “let the revolution begin!” was one comment on Twitter, although a slightly more restrained one, which probably encapsulates the view of many members, was: “it seems it’s time for a change, according to paid-up SCAE members”.

Lynsey’s stated intention in running for office was to organise events, talks, and education, and to ‘utilise the wealth of knowledge and expertise we have in the UK to bring the industry forward leaps and bounds’. This fits with the generally stated objectives of the SCAE, who will welcome such an enthusiastic recruit.

“Some of the plans are still to be finalised, but I have all the ideas ready to roll out,” she told Coffee House magazine. “The UK coffee scene is one of the best, if not the best, in the world. However, we need more events, education, etc, where like-minded people can get together, share ideas and make things happen. Too much of the current focus is on competitions, which are great and create a buzz, but not all members compete, and therefore we need to engage with other members and offer something to them which will keep them interested.“

In this, she has acknowledged that there are many different levels to the trade, from the ‘elite’ baristas and roasters to the everyday high-street coffee-shop staff, who have to be approached with equal respect. Not everyone wants to be a world champ, or a national competitor – many everyday staff simply want to be good and respected baristas.

“Making decent coffee is absolutely key to our industry, and that’s from Mr Smith my next door neighbour, my local high street chain, to the specialist independents. If everyone learns a little, makes tastier coffee, then it’s only natural that people will migrate towards the more speciality end, which would be a win for the SCAE.

“There’s a lot of myths out there about making great coffee, and the education will hopefully clear up a few of these.”

Lynsey is currently employed by United Coffee, headed by possibly the single most influential managing director in the UK coffee trade. To what degree will she be able to call upon the considerable facilities of United Coffee in doing the SCAE job?

“My boss is influential and is known throughout the industry. I have the full support of United Coffee to fulfil this role, and this was key to my decision.

“But I will have a committee in place to assist in the quest of taking the SCAE in the UK to a new level – this committee will be made up of a mix of people, from a whole range of companies and angles of the UK coffee industry… my aim is to unite the UK coffee industry.”

Her boss at United Coffee, Elaine Higginson, told Coffee House:

“I’m delighted that Lynsey has the opportunity to demonstrate her knowledge and passion for coffee and barista skill as the national co-ordinator for the SCAE. I’m confident that Lynsey, supported by her colleagues, will transform the UK chapter into a progressive learning and networking organisation that leads the way in Europe.

“Lynsey is energetic, no-nonsense and has a great palate and since joining United Coffee in 2010 has developed as an individual, as well as making a significant contribution to our business.”

One of Lynsey’s former employers, Marco Olmi of Drury Tea and Coffee, has agreed that he believes her to be the right person for the job:

“Having worked closely with Lynsey for a while, I think she is a great choice for SCAE UK national co-ordinator. There is no doubting her passion and interest in all things coffee, and I’m sure she’ll bring a fresh outlook to the post – she undoubtedly showed me a new perspective while she worked as our barista trainer!”

Probably a telling comment was one from a coffee roaster, who said on Twitter: “I guess we will re-join the SCAE now…”

And that, for all trade associations in the industry, probably says a great deal more than it appears to at first sight.

UK coffee trade has new barista contest

As the UK Barista Championship approaches its second regional heat (Exeter, on Wednesday and Thursday), we have discovered a surprise addition to the competition calendar – the Caffe Culture show, the trade’s major exhibition, is to launch its own Barista Challenge.

The interesting aspect of the project is that the contest is not intended to be just ‘another barista competition’ along the conventional lines. It has been designed to recognise baristas who understand the commercial element of their work.

According to the show’s event director, Elliot Gard, the event is to be more than ‘simply a test of a barista’s practical talents’. Entrants will have to show that they can devise a signature coffee beverage, but it has to be one which is commercially practical.

“While we want to recognise the fantastic skills of baristas operating in the UK, we also want to deliver a competition that relates back to the commercial world in which they work,” he said. “We are looking for someone who can translate barista skills into devising drinks that will truly deliver for their business – drinks that have great marketability, are consistently quick and easy to deliver within a working café bar setting, and represent good profit margins.”

The winner will receive a trophy, a cash prize of £1,000, a range of equipment and products for their business, and will be invited to be the subject of a promotional PR campaign.

Entry is free, through an initial written submission which details the method and costings of the proposed drink. Judges, who have not yet been identified, will select certain entrants and invite them to create a video showing an explanation and demonstration of the drink. Those videos will be shown on the show’s website, and selected finalists will then be invited to present their drink at the Caffè Culture show in May. At that event they will also be judged on two other drinks, details of which are not yet known.

Entrants must be aged 18 or over, and currently working in a British café bar.

Further details are on the Caffe Culture website – http://www.caffeculture.com/barista-challenge/

All the top coffee news comes from Boughton’s Coffee House magazine !

Coffee contest sponsors encourage up-and-coming baristas

The most imaginative ideas in the 2012 UK Barista Championship have been made by two of the contest’s sponsors. Both Union Hand Roasted and Cravendale have made new moves to encourage new entrants into the contest – and although the Union initiative has not gone down universally well, the company stands behind its attempt to encourage newcomers.

The idea from Union Hand Roasted is to introduce a brand new prize category, of Best Newcomer (Working Barista). The company, which is known for its worldwide sourcing of gourmet coffee, is offering to take the winner on one of its trips to ‘origin’, or coffee-growing countries.

When the new prize was announced, it did come in for some criticism on social networking sites – several familiar names commented unfavourably on it, and one asked why the prize was not being given to the winner of the overall barista contest. Union’s Alan Miller responded, in effect, that experienced baristas have quite enough of a target to aim for, in competing for a prize in the world championships – his idea was to intended to encourage the up-and-coming baristas at grass-roots level.

“We wanted something fresh,” Alan Miller told Coffee House magazine. “From my limited exposure to the competition over the last few years, it has always struck me as odd that only the top end of the trade was involved. And while you need excellent skills and talented people to make any competition exciting and worth its weight, why not encourage the new generation and those perhaps not so skilled to learn more and take part as well?

“A ‘newcomer’ is someone competing for the first time, but already working as a frontline barista. They could come from a niche coffee shop, or a contract caterer, but they will be talking to the coffee-drinking public every day. This is important, because they can spread knowledge, and the point of this is to spread coffee knowledge with consumer engagement.

“By ‘asking for newcomers’, we are certainly excluding some people – but for those who have competed before, they know the situation, they are prepared to enter a very daunting contest, and their big target is going for a place in the world championship. Sure, you have to have the top people in the national contest, but you also widen it and encourage the rest.

“So, how do you encourage newcomers to go in for a contest which is so daunting? You encourage them, with a prize for those who have no realistic chance of going forward to the world event.”

By remarkable coincidence, the contest’s milk sponsor, Arla Cravendale, has also made a move to encourage first-time entrants – it has picked two milk farmers from its own supply chain, and will put them through ‘intensive training and mentoring’ before they appear in the contest.

The two entrants are from roughly the same part of the UK. One of the farmers is Philip Halhead, from Lancaster; the other is farmer’s daughter Rachel Parker, from Garstang, who works at the Old Holly Farm café in Forton. The two are to be ‘immersed in to the world of coffee’ with regular training sessions.

The idea of a sponsor directly supporting individual entrants could raise ethical questions, if the contestants were thought likely to be in with a chance of winning the contest and going to the world finals – however, supporting first-time entrants will probably be seen as a constructive gesture, in encouraging up-and-coming baristas.

Elsewhere, the width of the contest has again been expanded by interest from outside the independent coffee-shop market. Some contract caterers always enter, and this year the training manager for the giant contract caterer Baxter Storey, Tim Sturk, has planned a minimum of four entrants, with the aim of getting one into the top twenty finalists.

Tim Sturk has already put a thousand baristas through his in-house training scheme, and last year he took drastic action – he competed in the northern heat himself, deliberately picking the farthest heat from where his own staff were competing.

“I wanted to understand the pressures that our people would be under and so be able to better coach them through the process. I competed in the Lancashire heat , where it was about 90 degrees in the room – I couldn’t get my grinder calibrated, so had to guess my dosage and my ice glasses for my signature drink melted too quickly. Ouch…. It was humiliating and also humbling, but I am pleased that I have no doubts that I can get one of our baristas into the finals for this year.”

Elsewhere, first-time entrants include two from Marks and Spencer, and the owner of a brand-new coffee house, Sarah Locke of the Studio Lounge in Plymouth, which has been open for only a couple of months.

The UKBC begins at the end of January, and the final will be at the London Coffee Festival.

This story, written by Scoop Malone of Coffee House, can be found among the top coffee trade news at the Caffe Culture Portal – www.caffeculture.com

The cool coffee houses of London

With impressively good timing, Alex Evans’ guide to independent coffee shops in London has arrived just as the gift shopping season gets under way. This is a truly pocket-sized small book, at 6in x 4in, yet it crams in 150 pages of café guides and good feature stories on such aspects as roasting, brewing methods, and ethical sourcing.

The list of acknowledgements shows that some remarkably influential names in the coffee field were involved, and it has to be said that the photography, by Vic Frankowski of the Tapped and Packed coffee house, is extremely imaginative – atmospheric, and mercifully light on the usual old shots of dripping espresso. A lot of ‘coffee photography’ has got stuck in the same kind of rut that coffee companies’ corporate videos have done… we all know what customers in coffee houses look like, and we know what pouring espresso looks like, and we don’t want to see them ad nauseam. Vic, however, has the photographer’s knack of looking at things from an entirely different viewpoint, and has shot from up in the rafters, or deep in a remote corner of a roastery or coffee-house.

Some of the shots of the interiors of certain well-known London coffee-houses here are the best, and most accurately atmospheric, that we’ve seen (and, to our joy, he shot the same thing that we photographed in the rear of the St Ali café – the giant poster of a young Chairman Mao giving ‘the finger’!

But what of the featured coffee-houses? In what has become the accepted format, the guide divides central London into five parts, and looks at a dozen in the west end, and half a dozen in the other sectors. To a degree, it would be fair to say that it covers the expected ones… well, of course it does. You can’t miss out the really great cafes! But there are some delightfully unexpected entries – typically, the Giddy Up coffee cart.

The book does not attempt to cover every decent coffee venue in the capital, with about three dozen being reviewed, but it is well written, and in meaningful terms… we ourselves once fell out with a very big beverage trade organisation for criticising their annual café guide as being too full of clichés and worn-out phrases to actually mean anything (what on earth is ‘a delicious selection of mouth-watering sandwiches’ supposed to tell the customer, we asked? They never spoke to us again!) In this Guide, we found the term ‘mouth-watering’ used only once, and thankfully, there is very little of the usual sycophantic pandering to Antipodean influences. Here, the brief reviews of each venue actually do give some worthwhile information, and a reasonable pen-picture of the ambience of each business.

There are some interesting observations here and there. One is that London’s baristas are ‘privileged’ to work with a product which has involved so much effort by people in remote places, and that a single lapse of concentration ‘can ruin the coffee that has travelled so far’. It would be a good idea if more baristas realised that… indeed, one of the most illuminating things we ever heard from a barista was from our first world champ, James Hoffman, some years ago when he very honestly recalled to us that in the very early days of his career, he was under the impression that it was his talent which turned the base bean into a drink… and that was before he developed understanding of, and respect for, the bean. Today, his Square Mile roastery has a short, respectful, feature to itself in this Guide.

The additional chapters are worthwhile, too. OK, a history of London coffee houses is predictable and perfectly good, but there is an interesting piece by Steven Macatonia of Union Hand-Roasted on why he finds Fairtrade a ‘limited’ method of buying ethically, there is a good piece on general roasting by Lawrence Sinclair of Dark Fluid, and there is a pretty decent run-down of the various brewing methods.

It all makes up a very nicely rounded volume.

For a tenner, this certainly is a very good buy.

- Ian Boughton, Boughton’s Coffee House magazine
*
The Independent Coffee Book, London.
Published Vespertine Press, ISBN 978-0-9566582-2-7. www.independentcafes.co.uk

Coffee trade helps shelter homeless from the storm

The British coffee trade is expected to once again play a great part in supporting the homeless of London this Christmas.

Shelter From The Storm is a unique charity – it is London’s only free homeless shelter, open all year round, in spite of receiving no grant, no government support, and being reliant only on volunteers, donations and support… much of which comes from the coffee trade.

A founder of the Shelter is Louie Salvoni of Espresso Services, one of the beverage trade’s most significant servicing companies, and very many members of the coffee trade have supported the work, either with money, or equipment, or with supplies, or with their time, or in helping the ‘guests’ find jobs. One very well-known chain of cafes has played a big part in bringing several of the shelter’s vulnerable people back into employment.

Some of the coffee trade’s best baristas have spent their time at the shelter, fixing drinks for the guests – it is a curious fact that some of the very finest coffee in London has been willingly and generously served entirely free to a clientele of homeless, needy people!

Shelter from the Storm started in the crypt of a church for at first one or two nights a week, and with new premises in Kings Cross, has now realised its dream of opening seven nights a week. In the last year, it has provided thirteen thousand overnight places, and has helped vulnerable people in a wide range of ways, from helping some with job interviews to helping others escape trafficking and torture.

“With your love and support,” say the founders, “we weave a net to catch our guests when they fall through the cracks in society.”

This Christmas, it costs just £9.40 to support a homeless person for one night’s accommodation and food. The coffee trade has done great work already in supporting this project… please remember Shelter From The Storm again this Christmas.

*

Contact: www.sfts.org.uk, 020 7697 9569.
Email: mail@sfts.org.uk

Bewleys, Brains, in busy day for buying coffee companies

The coffee trade saw two big acquisitions in the space of eight hours yesterday. Following the acquisition of the Coffee#1 cafe chain by the Welsh brewer and pub chain S A Brain, the Irish roaster Bewley’s announced that it had acquired the Darlington’s coffee business of London.

Bewley’s is the influential roaster which has dominated the coffee scene in the Republic of Ireland for many years, and which also has operations in the US, in Boston and California.

Darlington’s has been operating since the early 1990s, and has a turnover in the region of £4.5 million. It has a strong business in restaurants of various kinds, significant pub companies such as the St Austell brewery chain, and food chains such as Eat, Caffe Uno and the Bagel Factory – but it has also been seen in the very newest wave of coffee houses, most notably working with Sacred of Soho.

Bewley’s managing director, Jim Corbett, has acknowledged to Coffee House magazine that the acquisition can be seen as providing a firm foothold for his company in the UK.

“We definitely see this as a springboard for further development in the UK. Bewley’s already supplies a number of major UK retailers and foodservice clients, and this is a natural development for us – the Darlington’s business model is very similar to ours in Ireland with a high focus and commitment to customer service and support.

“Darlington’s is now wholly owned by Bewley’s but will continue to trade under its own name and brand, and we intend to develop and grow the Darlington’s brand.”

Darlington’s coffees are currently produced by a number of different roasters. Asked whether Darlington’s clients would now find their coffees roasted by the Irish giant, Bewley’s tactfully replied: “We believe that access to Bewley’s procurement, blending and roasting expertise will enable Darlington’s to expand the range of services they offer, to the benefit of all their customers.”

The acquisition of Coffee#1 by Brains is considered a significant step in the growing interest of pubs in business other than alcohol. The leader in this sector is certainly JD Wetherspoon, with its regular promotions on coffee, which it used to open up a massive early morning breakfast trade. Other pub chains have followed with varying degrees of enthusiasm and commitment.

The SA Brain business has pubs through Wales, and also several just across the English border. The pub trade press reported last week that Brains had secured a new funding package which includes a £70 million revolving credit facility, and almost immediately afterwards came the news of the coffee acquisition. The purchase of Coffee#1 brings Brains fifteen cafes in England and Wales, with a combined turnover of £5 million, but the price of the acquisition has not been disclosed.

Some Brains pubs sell Costa coffee – it is not yet known whether that will continue.

World’s most expensive coffee in animal-cruelty row

In both Britain and the United States, there has been a wave of activity over the ethical acceptability of the most expensive coffee in the world. It is suggested that by pandering to consumer tastes over a novelty product, the coffee trade is helping to perpetuate animal cruelty in certain parts of the world.

The coffee in question is Kopi Luwak, which can be translated as ‘cat coffee’. This is the product in which coffee ‘cherries’, the complete fruit of the coffee plant, are eaten by the palm civet cats of the far East, typically in Indonesia. The cats digest the cherries but excrete the inner beans, which are then roasted and brewed as any other coffee bean – some people say that the digestive process gives the coffee a distinctive taste.

Others say it tastes awful, but the story of the process is sufficiently unusual that every so often, a newspaper somewhere in the world comes across the product and produces a novelty feature on the subject of ‘cat-poo coffee’. The image of the coffee as ‘the rarest in the world’ has led to its high value – it can be sold for as much as, or more than, Jamaica Blue Mountain.

Although the coffee has for a long time been regarded as a novelty, it was for many years considered to be a relatively harmless one, in the belief that digested beans were gathered more by luck than judgment in the wild, or at least by farmers who knew where to look for the cat droppings.

However, there is now increasing disquiet about what has become effectively the factory-farming, or battery-farming, of civet cats.
The allegation is that farmers who have realised the high price of the coffee have begun capturing the civet cats from the wild and keeping them in tiny cages, allegedly force-feeding them coffee beans to produce the high-priced coffee.

It has been known for some years that some farmers in Indonesia had taken up some kind of ‘farming’ practice, but it was not realised until quite recently that such intensive small-cage processes were involved – one international newspaper has now reported on a typical small farmer keeping 102 civets and collecting 550 pounds of beans a month.

In Britain, the issue has been highlighted by Mike Haggerton, a coffee shop owner in Aberfoyle, who says that he has actually seen caged civets on a trip to coffee-growing regions, and who was upset to see Kopi Luwak coffee featured in recent speciality coffee events.

For the coffee still to be seen as a harmless novelty, he has said, directly contributes to more westerners thinking ‘hmm, let’s try that’, which in turn results in more animals losing their freedom by being caught and put in small cages for the rest of their lives.

“Members of the coffee trade who do not speak out are, by their silence, advocating Kopi Luwak,” he has said.

Elsewhere in the coffee trade, there has been support.

In the US, a Facebook group has been created to highlight the issue, and “to send a message to the coffee industry that Kopi Luwak coffee is unacceptable, tastes bad, does not serve the coffee farmer’s interest, distracts from the message of quality coffee, and that we condemn animal cruelty”.

In Britain, unrest among the coffee trade is certainly growing.
Typically, the craft roaster Steve Leighton of Has Bean in Stafford has said: “We bought 20 kilos of it in 2003, and I’ve regretted it ever since. The farming thing doesn’t sound nice at all, and I do not condone any of that.”

The managing director of the London coffee importer Mercanta, Stephen Hurst, has said: “The stories are quite correct – I have seen these battery farms myself and do not agree with them.

“If there is now a movement against Kopi Luwak, it will be the result of ourselves and others mentioning this unpleasant practice. This coffee is a gimmick, and these poor animals need not be kept as chickens – but whenever someone is going to pay a ridiculous price for something, then abuses will arise.”

The latest aspect of the debate suggests that not all Kopi Luwak coffee is the product of battery farming. The Sea Island coffee company of London, which specialises in rare and exotic coffees, has said that all the ‘cat coffee’ it imports comes from beans collected in the wild, not from factory farms.

This news item from Boughton’s Coffee House, the trade news magazine for those who run coffee-houses and tea-rooms.www.coffee-house.org.uk

Rare orchid named after a coffee!

Miko's orchid

A blend of coffee which is widely sold in coffee-houses around Britain has received the unlikely honour of having a newly-discovered orchid named after it.

The coffee is Puro, a Fairtrade blend by the Miko group, and the Teagueia Puroana orchid was discovered in a rainforest which has been bought for conservation purposes by the coffee group.

Puro is the ‘ethically-sourced’ coffee from Miko, the long-established European coffee group which has grown rapidly in the UK, mainly by acquisition of independent local companies – it now has ten UK sites, and stretches from Redruth in Cornwall to Scotland.

For the past five years, Miko has donated two per cent of the revenue from Puro coffee to the World Land Trust, and this partnership has paid for rainforest reserve in Ecuador which covers five thousand acres, with a similar project in Brazil to come.

A world-renowned botanist, Dr Lou Jost, discovered the new orchid species while trekking in the Cerro Candelaria reserve in central Ecuador. The orchid is endemic to the high mountains of the upper Rio Pastaza watershed, and is a member of one of the most remarkable plant radiations in the world.

The same botanist, trekking with a representative of the coffee company three years ago, discovered a new tree species which was later named Blakea attenboroughii after Sir David Attenborough, a patron of WLT.

The Miko project has also turned up eleven more previously-unknown orchids, and a formerly-undiscovered species of frog.

In the UK, Puro coffee is sold through many independent cafes, and also sold through the National Trust – every coffee sold in the 150 National Trust catering outlets directly contributes to the work being carried out by the World Land Trust.

This news from Boughton’s Coffee House magazine: www.coffee-house.org.uk

Tea and coffee results in Great taste Awards

In the annual Great Taste awards, 287 awards have been made in the tea, coffee and hot chocolate categories – and the notable thing about this is that the judging was considered to be particularly severe this year. Only eight three-star awards were given – and they were all in tea. Not one coffee achieved the three-star accolade.

There has always been a certain amount of debate about the results, notably because tea blenders and coffee roasters are extremely proud of what they do, and they are extremely sensitive to criticism! However, it has been pointed out that the strict nature of the judging this year only underlines the credibility of the awards, and their value at retail… a one-star award, say the organizers, really means something.

The most notable performers in the beverage section overall were Newby Teas, who got twenty awards, and Teapigs, who took 13.

Among the top coffee performers, Baillies, the Irish roaster, got nine stars, although three of them were for tea; three of the coffees received two-star awards. Bolling of Yorkshire got seven, two of them two-stars; so did Java Republic, all one-stars, three of which were for teas. Union Hand-Roasted took four, two of them two-stars. Percol got four, and so far as we can see from the results, the notable thing about this is that they were all for roast-and-ground or wholebean – Percol in the past has also scored well for instant coffees. Tudor got three, including two two-stars, and Cafedirect got a remarkably well-spread five awards, which included teabags, ground coffee, hot chocolate and even an instant coffee.

In tea, the big stars were Newby, with 20 awards (three of them two-stars) and Teapigs, who took 13, including one of the rare three-stars, for its pure lemongrass. Twinings scored 11, with four two-starred, all for its Tea Deli and Tea Rituals products. Whittard scored 10, made up of four teas, three coffees, and three hot chocolates. Clipper got 9, including a hot chocolate. Typhoo got in there for a Harrod’s English Breakfast.

There were as always some curiosities – rhubarb cropped up a couple of times, including a rooibos and rhubarb infusion which won a three-star award, and there was a white chocolate and rhubarb drink. Perhaps the oddest of all, and we haven’t had time to check this out yet, was the espresso award to the Ludlow Food Centre, for what is described as ‘a blend of quality robusta beans’.

The alphabetical list of beverage winners can be seen on this magazine’s website, here: www.coffee-house.org.uk . The link to the winners is at the top of the news column.

Clarification on espresso machine safety inspections expected soon

It is now hoped that the authorities may very soon issue a report on their investigation into the explosion of an espresso machine in a supermarket café last year – the trade magazine Boughton’s Coffee House has learned that official bodies have been involved in consultations with players in the beverage trade, with a view to establishing what actually happens in the supply of espresso machines to the catering industry, and what really happens in the continuing maintenance and inspection of machines.

However, it is clear that there is still disagreement and misunderstanding in the coffee trade concerning the inspection and certification of espresso machines. And so, the Coffee Council has now published its own report setting out how the current situation came about, where the disagreements have arisen, and what are thought to be the major hazards for the trade – most specifically, the main dangers for front-line catering operators.

The main problem is still the general suspicion that a vast number of commercial espresso machines used in the catering industry are not covered by the required certification of inspection.

This need for a commercial espresso machine to be inspected and certified regularly is not in doubt, because it is a requirement under the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations, 2000. It is the detail which is confusing – nobody knows how many operators in the UK’s immense hospitality trade are even aware of this requirement, and there are doubts over how regularly it should be done.

It is not even clear who is qualified to issue such certification – one interpretation is that the inspection of the espresso machine has to be handled by an independent inspector, referred to in some regulations as the ‘competent person’. If this is so, a caterer’s usual espresso engineer is not allowed to do it.

The regulatory authorities and the insurance companies do not speak clearly on the matter, and there is even doubt as to which is the appropriate regulating authority. The viewpoint of the insurance companies is extremely difficult to understand, and they have said nothing to help clarify the fear that in the event of an accident, a caterer’s public liability insurance could be deemed void if their espresso machine had no written scheme of inspection.

The Coffee Council has now set out the various conflicting points of view, and says that the matter must now be made clear.

The Coffee Council has called on the regulatory authorities to work together to give an unequivocal ruling, and to present the requirements for espresso machine testing in clear and unmistakeable language. The Coffee Council has said that the insurance profession must set out immediately, and in crystal-clear language, their requirements for espresso machine testing, and the implications of non-compliance for a caterer’s business. The Coffee Council asks beverage trade associations and suppliers of espresso machines to work to ensure that all caterers are aware of the requirements for testing and certification.

Until the matter is clear, the Coffee Council urges great caution on the part of both catering operators and the engineering trade. Catering operators using an espresso machine might consider it wise to consult their equipment supplier and their insurers for opinions on how they stand – but they are warned that as yet, any views received may be opinions, and worth no more than that.

And until a specific directive received from the authorities, says the Council, espresso engineers themselves might consider it unsafe to act as both engineer and certifying ‘competent person’.

The full document can be read here:

http://www.coffee-house.org.uk/CH8CoffeeCouncilPressureVessels.pdf

The Coffee Council.

The Coffee Council is an informal association of members of the catering trade, specifically from the coffee side of the trade, who believe that it is valuable for issues of importance to be highlighted and discussed throughout the trade.

The Council can be contacted through Louie Salvoni at Espresso Service, at 0844 692 2222