hi Alun,
how r u?
nice to have u in our Malaysian Baristas group.

Dear Alun,

Fruity and Funky sounds like my prefered type of blend. Do you guys ship small amount over to Malaysia, like 500g?

Hi Alun,
Everybody seems to be having an Obama's Fever. A friend just brought me an Obama Blend from Australia by Campos. Very decent taste too.

definitely have loads in common! ye are far better at rugby though in fairness !:) have a girl from christchurch working with us at the moment actually, she's as obsessed with coffee as I am. Are you guys ever looking for people to come over and work for a summer?

hey alun, all's well here in Ireland cant complain! If i ever get to indonesia, I'll be looking you guys up, would love to visit coffee plantations all over the world, pity about my barista wage haha it means I have to save forever!!

Thanks!

HI Alun;

My company is actually situated on the Eastern hills towards Wainuioru/Stronvar; I sell beans and espresso at the (almost 2 years old) Wairarapa Farmers' Market on Saturdays, and am on the Management Team for that group. My dad was born and raised in Bandung, so I have an emotional tie, but have not (yet!) been there. Are you familiar with the region, and its coffees? Would love to discuss more with you offline. Eddie

Right now I'd prefer the corruption of Indonesia to the painfully slow and pedantic bureaucracy of getting a lease in england! It's moving, like you're sure that Tuatara you've been staring at for hours actually did just take a breath and move a little bit.

Still looking at December for a soft opening then have a proper launch in January

Never actually made coffee in Welly, just drank loads of it. I learnt the biz in Sydney, where I lived for 6 years. I had an epiphany after being fired from an office job and bluffed my way into a job as a barista (or rather, I blew my massive severance cheque and woke up a month later with a job in a cafe). I got a little training from Paul Bassett and one or two others active on the competition circuit and it just went from there.

Alun...got back from Sacramento and around Lake Tahoe area and Reno. Had a chance to again be dissappointed by terrible espresso prepared by someone who, again, thought they knew so much more about something they knew so little. But made it home for my Malabar Gold cappuccinos! This is my reward for putting up with incompetence! Geeze I have to get my sales model into retail soon......or at least before a piano falls out of a second story window and squashes me flat! Our species really needs to kick up the average age by another 20-30%. I'm probably leaving for Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle, not necessarily in that order, soon. If I decide to take my company van, I will buy an exterior bike rack and take the TREK Hybred. I need the excercise. Don't think my wife will join me this trip. Really enjoyed your photos. I presume they're of Indonesia? I'll have to look again for the title lines. Anyway, while setting up the MSN and Skype, dear friends in Sao Paulo caught me working and chatted, and our neice in the interior of Brasil, Goiania, sent recent family photos. "Talk is cheap"...about 3cents per minute on those calling cards, so we do call back to Brasil often. I'm ending the year well, but will have to kick butt next year. Plus, everyone is "afraid" of Obama.....at least those that have something left to loose! We certainly need someone than Bush to present our case to the world, but I'd feel safer with someone "in between" the current candidates. Seems like we end up electing "extremists" most of the time. Still hoping for a great president before our generation passes on.

wow sounds really nice to meet you in there, please inform me in advance the exact date, i will tell you my location... many thanks!

Hello Alun,

I will be in Hong Kong for CoffeeFest as well. Look forward to meeting you there!

- Matt

good day mr alun! tnx for adding me in your friends list... you had the very interesting profile and it seems i will learn a lot from you... tnx!

Alun...got the Skype info. I just set up Skype and MSN again on my corp. laptop, but have been business traveling and just got home last night. Trying to get re-organized, again!, and will try out my Logitech camera/mic soon. Best for now. BTW, saw a comment on the US dollar v Peso. Same thing in Brasil right now. Exchange rate is going back in favor of the dollar......which is ironic, as our economy is in the "Bermuda (?) Triangle" at the moment.

Thanks Alun, for your comments. I feel the same and we've had to move a bit more slowly on our plans. The US dollar has surged recently against the Mexican Peso which has basically increased the cost of purchasing various equipment by up to 20% in some cases. Most distributors of equipment in Mexico ask for you to pay in dollars, so this has put a bit of a speed bump in our plans. But at this point, we're moving forward!

My grandmother spent some time in Sulawesi, Indonesia (part of the Dutch teaching contingent). Is there much coffee grown in Sulawesi?

I should be at full force by then!

Will do. I have a friend in NYC that designs outstanding websites doing it for free. I just need something interesting to put there. Perhaps a neat little flash cartoon and a blog detailing the process to doors opening. Then I'll have a blog style site showcasing the different coffees I'll be using.

hopefully mid December with launch in January

Hi Alun,

You're more than welcome to try my coffees whe you're in the neighbourhood. To get a good feeling about caffenation (antwerp) you could follow his blog www.caffenation.blogspot.com (or google Antwerp Barista)

Hi,
I'm from Wanganui mostly, spent a few years in Wellington before i headed off.
Trieste? no, I'm not going anywhere for a while- starting an espresso bar here in London shortly, that's taking all my time and money.

Do you grow coffee there in Indonesia?