Guest Writer Series: The 1st dive into 3rd wave coffee appreciation.

Written By: Anuar Khairullah
Edited By: Suhaimie Sukiman

The smallest of implementations is always worth more than the grandest of intentions, if I may quote Robin Sharma. Sometimes we procrastinate on big ideas and intentions, most of the time we do not know where to start. The next thing we know, someone else does it and our grand idea becomes just....an idea! 

I have always wanted to collaborate with like minded barista-writers, or passionate coffee professionals that have aplenty to write about in their social media. Where contents are raw and original, short and straight to the point. Tonight, this become a reality as I introduced you to Anuar Khairullah, a relatively young and new barista in the industry but with so much passion and hunger that will put a seasoned barista to shame. This is from his latest Instagram posting. Enjoy.

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I’m new to this industry, well sort of, given that I have work as a Barista in three cafe-roasters here in Singapore and still realising there is a lot more that I do not know, but here I would like to give a few direction or ways to understanding your coffee for beginners. This was a tip I gave myself too then.

First, look for third wave shops. This usually means that they serve specialty coffee, either the shop are doing their own roasting using high scoring coffee beans (ranges between 80 to 90 points) or buying freshly roasted coffee bean from others third wave shop/supplier who embraced the same idea of using high quality greens.

Try to find a shop that provide varieties of coffee beans for you to choose from. Order the same coffee bean via different brewing methods over a period of time/visits. Then, order different coffee beans with only the same method. Stick to that one shop first, and you can see how this works like magic. It’s a great way to start, and you can find your own preference through it.
When you find out the coffee has more than bitterness, that’s when the world of coffee starts opening up to you.

In other ways, try to get yourself involved in coffee cupping that certain coffee shops are doing like in Dutch Colony , you can refer to the online website for the next Public Cupping and when it will be conducted on and where will be next. I will share more about what’s Public Cupping is all about on my next post.

A short story to share, when I first started with Dutch Colony, I had no idea what’s specialty coffee is all about and how am I supposed to drink coffee. Should I just drink everything black? Since, milk  deceives you from the personality of the beans. But an industry person that I know told me that I should try to embrace it. Things happen for a reason. For example, while adding milk seems to be breaking coffee, people also study how different kinds of steam milk would affect different types of beans and imagine how people started that out is mind-blowing to me.

I would love to keep on talking about it, but after all, I’m still quite new to the industry. I do immense some research (through online) and reading though. I buy books and surround myself with coffee people and keep asking question. Hope this will help you! See you on my next post! Cheers! Time!

#iamabaristainsg #mentor #baristalife #dutchcolonycoffee