McCormick Place April 2024

After competing in the Toddy World Coldbrew Championship, Guatemala.

We were invited by the head judge and CEO of Toddy, Julia Leach to attend the Specialty Coffee Expo in Chicago.

The Expo is a B2B event and was designed to be the coffee professional’s one stop shop for everything they need to succeed in the coffee industry.

The invite was to “takeover” the Toddy cold brew stand and serve our signature drink from the cold brew championships.

You can read about my experience at the Cold Brew Championships here. https://silverskincoffee.ie/2024/03/13/toddy-coldbrew-championships/

So we packed up our varsity jackets, coffee and cascara and set off to Chicago.

First up upon arrival was the “100 years Mahlkonig party” and we didn’t let the jet-lag stand a chance 😄.

Marco Beverage Systems were in attendance and we were invited to take over their cold brew academy. This was an amazing opportunity to serve up our cold brew tonic which we had designed out their cold brew concentrate system.

Using the same Hacienda Sonora coffee we made a concentrate which was finished using the Pour’d system with sparkling water. It was a major success and the Marco team could not have been nicer to us.

We got to take in the sites and sounds of McCormick place which was set against the most beautiful backdrop Lake Michigan.

All of our favourites were in attendance and we got the chance to see all the latest developments and taste some amazing coffees. Most notable was the CGLE Sidra. Which we bought upon arrival home.

Its available here https://silverskincoffee.ie/product/c-g-l-e-sidra-natural-cafe-granja-la-esperanza/

Day 2 was the official take over on the Toddy stand. I had met Matt Irish on the PRF trip and he is a trusted staff member and really cool guy.

Matt, Kyle and team made us feel very welcome and it was awesome serving up and talking all things cold brew to a US/worldwide audience.

We met some good friends and partners from the coffee world.

While in Chicago I had the opportunity to take part in the World of Coffee inaugural run. https://community.coffeeknowledgehub.com/c/events-and-webinars/world-of-coffee-runners

We also took the opportunity to visit the local theatre for the “Jersey Boys” and had an amazing night out in downtown Chicago.

Copenhagen

It’s exactly 16 years since I was in Copenhagen and stood in the very same spot saw Stephen Morrissey become World Barista Champion. I got a chance to meet Stephen at the show along with all of our other Irish colleagues.

The WOC show is an array of roasters, machine manufactures, cafes & competitions.

First up to meet was our partners in Guatemala. Unitrade and Finca Catalan de Las Mercedes Cristian and Nikko. https://www.fincacatalan.com

We have a container coming direct from the guys whom I had the pleasure of visiting in March.

The main purpose of the show was to meet the guys along with Valentin from Gasharu Coffee. https://www.gasharucoffee.com

Both farms are family owned and producing top quality specialty coffee. Environmental practices and workers wellbeing are of course to the fore in both locations.

We are so excited to share their respective coffees and help communities in both regions.

We took time to taste the Maragogype which was on the Guatemalan Coffees stand and produced by Nikko (I loved this coffee when cupping on farm). It did not disappoint at the show.

I managed to catch up with Henry from Producers Roasters Forum who had organised the trip to origins and the show in Guatemala. https://producerroasterforum.com

There was time to taste the wonderful coffee from SI Cafe which we sponsored to appear at the brewer * right next to the Roasting Championships. https://silverskincoffee.ie/product/finca-san-cayetano-nairobi-tea/

Also to stop by and check out our submission to the packaging awards https://design.sca.coffee/latest/silverskin-coffee-roasters2 we weren’t quite on the podium this time but will return. Massive congratulations to Herz & Son who won in our category. https://design.sca.coffee/latest/herz-son-gmbh

Day 1 finished off at the 100 years of Mahlkonig party and a great time was had by everyone, although it may not be ideal preparation for an early morning run.

I was lucky enough to be at EXPO in Chicago where the inaugural WOC runners took place.

https://community.coffeeknowledgehub.com/c/events-and-webinars/world-of-coffee-runners

This amazing initiative is a welcome break from the norm at coffee events whereby people from all over the world ran solitary if they wanted.

Andrew, Anna & Leanne have created a beautiful event aimed at raising awareness for a very notable and worthy charity Girlsgottarun.

Although this event in Copenhagen was a little more competitive than the Chicago run, with some people asking me if I had registered for the race 😁.

It was an absolute blast and something I’ll continue to do at all events. It’s a chance not only to be smug all day 😂 but to see different areas of each city.

After Day 2 of the WOC it was time to head to Out of The Box hosted by La Marzocco.

An immersive educational day that’s only rivalled by the absolute monstrous party afterwards.

Giveaways or I should say throwaways so LM staff hurling merch from the top windows while unsuspecting punters began rugby style tackles for t-shirts, tote bags and those really cool workwear jackets.

Time for bed after all of that jostling and dancing.

Looking forward to the next one!

Tuesday June 18th Dublin, Ireland

It’s not everyday you get to host the worldwide sales team of a company like Marco Beverage Systems https://marcobeveragesystems.com but that is the exact situation we found ourselves in last Tuesday night.

Marco have released their new cold brew concentrate system and asked if we might host and talk a little around CB at this private event.

We have used the Marco system and created some amazing concentrate .

It’s main purpose is to replicate a concentrate here and across our brew tanks in the roastery.

We kicked off the evening with some pizza, beers and our very own Porterhouse collaboration. https://untappd.com/b/the-porterhouse-brew-co-slvrskin/4911039

This 24-hour boil stout was aged in a Dingle Whiskey cask, which was originally a Pedro Ximénez sherry butt.

We added cold brew in the initial brew to concentrate the malt flavours and develop other complex flavours. 
Resulting beer was matured for 9 months in Dingle Distillery Bourbon casks after which a second addition of coffee was made, this time as a cold brew into the conditioning tanks before canning. https://silverskincoffee.ie/2023/01/17/slvrskin-stout-event/

Next was a guided tour and discussion of our recent cold brew installation. We had a small demo of how the plant works and moved onto out roastery machinery.

Next was a Q&A regarding cold brew landscape.

Finally we served up a concentrate using Hacienda Sonora Pyramide Fermentation. https://silverskincoffee.ie/product/sonora-centroamericana-piramide-natural/

I am delighted to announce our partnership with Valentin & Gasharu coffee.
A direct trade, multi container/coffee partnership which will see direct investment into the Gasharu Community Social Welfare Project and Rugori Women’s Crown Program.
Valentin and myself are delighted to work on a range of coffee varietals and post harvest processing techniques to give you the very best of Gasharu & Silverskin coffee. We originally met through an Ikawa/Algrano event during covid times. This was the first time I had cupped IREME an anaerobic experimental lot that blew me away.

The quality of coffee and the emphasis on community make Gasharu one of the best producers around and we are genuinely delighted to be working with them.

GASHARU FAMILY HISTORY

You can have a read below.

During my trip to Guatemala I had the pleasure of competing in the World Cold Brew Championships (hosted by Toddy).

The was an amazing competition and lots of fun to take part in. On day one we had ten minutes prep time. I used 100g of Hacienda Sonora to 1.7 litres water. http://www.sonoracoffee.com/home Piramide Fermentation which is a Centroamericano varietal. Hacienda Sonora currently works with more than 20 varietals and several unique processing methods. The farm has been in the Guardia family for more than 100 years but has focused exclusively on specialty coffee since 1999. We have worked with these guys many times over the years and their coffee is synonymous with quality Costa Rican lots worldwide.

Using the Toddy essential brewer ( I enjoyed using it so much, they are now available on our website)

A medium/slightly coarse grind was selected and the coffee was then refrigerated for 24 hours. Competitiors had the option to leave it at room temp or to make a concentrate for the following day.

The rules are fairly relaxed compared with other competitions but you need to make a coldbrew and a specialty drink/cocktail.

I had one small issue, upon travelling I didn’t bring glassware or any tools for presenting. Up steps Christian from Unitrade http://unitradecoffee.com who was our host for the trip. Himself and Nico were THE most amazing hosts and their generosity was unbelievable. So I had glasses a Antigua Cerveza bottle to serve (Cerveza is a native beer in Guate).

To prepare the coldbrew was easy enough as described above although this exact ratio I hadn’t tried previously. The specialty drink was a little different. I had bought and brought with me an ice cube mould in the shape of small coffee beans and 100g of Cascara again from the same tree and farm (Hacienda Sonora).

I made a syrup of 100g cascara to 100ml water this was steeped for 5 minutes to concentrate and then frozen in the mould overnight.

The first day of the PRF (producer roaster forum) I met Jorge Mendez a farmer form Finca La Apiario also known as the Honey Bee Farm. His honey is called coffee blossom honey https://youtu.be/2hjQmTDgXwE?si=w5w0L7bVRBJZ9p7- and I was so inspired by him his story and his amazing product that I wanted to somehow include it in the drink.

So I erm *borrowed an ice bucket from my hotel and some spoons and set off on day 2 to compete.

The competition was well organised and lots of fun to take part in. I was really happy with how the drink turned out the coldbrew had notes of orange fruits, muted acidity due to its 24 hours brewing which was perfect. Stewed peach, apricot, candy cotton and a huge honey note 🙂

The presentation went really well and I had the guys from my sourcing trip pumping up the crowd 😂😂

So onto my specialty beverage * Honey Blossom Cascara. I used the same coldbrew but added 5g of frozen cascara syrup to each drink and asked the judges to add their own honey (in case they didn’t like it). I managed to place 4th overall which I was genuinely delighted with. This is something I would definitely do again.

Brew Recipe

100g Hacienda Sonora Centroamericano Piramide Fermentation

1.7 litres of water

Med/Coarse grind on Fellow

Brewtime 24 hours

Specialty * Coffee Blossom Cascara

Add 5g of frozen Cascara Syrup

Coffee Blossom Honey

MARCH 1ST

THE COMPLEX SMITHFIELD DUBLIN, IRELAND.

What a launch!

True Coldbrew, Cold Brew Nitro & Oat Milk Flatwhite (Nitro) were launched and received with really positive and encouraging feedback.

This project has been underway behind the scenes now for over 18 months and its a pleasure to finally put it out into the world. We brought along a Tone Nitro for sampling and got to work for the 3 day festival. These festivals are always a lot of work but are equally rewarding as its a chance to test the product face to face with the cusomer.

Our coldbrew range will be available very soon with our wholesale partners and on our designated coldbrew website.

Here you can buy merchandise, glasses , stickers along with Toddy brewers and coffee concentrate for home/business use.

The hard tank baby has arrived!

Using patented technology you can now create beautiful coldbrew quickly and with ease.

I was delighted to get my hands on one of these units as coldbrew and nitro is something that interests me hugely.

The baby model is the smallest of the tanks available, the full range offers a nitro system and a larger tank for cold brew.

Coldbrew Consumption

Traditionally coldbrew drinks are time consuming to prepare, we normally offer the Toddy system to our customers https://toddycafe.com/product/toddy-cold-brew-system

This methods and all traditional methods do require a lot of manual labour, while the coffee is at risk of oxidisation from being exposed during brewing and sitting in the Toddy unit before/while serving.

Coldbrew over the last couple of years however has become hugely popular along with iced beverages. The brewing process normally takes a long time with the result giving a less acidic and less bitter result.

More developed coffees suit traditional coldbrew methods for “coffee taste”, but in the ever changing world of coffee, coldbrew drinkers now would like to enjoy specialty coffee with different post harvesting processing methods. This is where the Hardtank excels.

The cold brew coffee market is poised to grow by $2176.05 mn from 2023-2027, accelerating at a CAGR of 26.44% during the forecast period.

A report on the cold brew coffee market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221201005535/en/Global-Cold-Brew-Coffee-Market-2023-2027-Increasing-Product-Launches-and-New-Retail-Outlets-Driving-26.4-Annual-Growth—ResearchAndMarkets.com

But what is HardTank?

Hardtank is the brain child of Hard Beans coffee in Poland, https://hardbeans.com

Baby HardTank it’s a fast cold brew and nitro cold brew maker. In less than 1 hour you can prepare up to 4,5 liters of cold brew coffee, tea or cascara. Innovative, stainless steel double- filtration system makes sure that there are no particles left in your cold brew causing increased bitterness and astringency. Touch screen lets you choose an optimal recipe for your beverage choosing the preferred amount of water and time of extraction. Built -In TDS reader controls your extraction levels throughout the whole production process. HardTank app for smartphones alarms you when the TDS reached your preferred level or production time is about to finish. Automated washing process makes sure that there is no risk of contamination in your beverages. Nitro tap lets you serve chilled and infused with nitrogen cold brew beverage giving it smooth, creamy and refreshing taste.

You can make coldbrew from coffee, cascara, tea and spirits from the Baby hardtank which was the 2021 SCA best new product winner. https://sca.coffee/sca-news/announcement/winners-of-the-2021-best-new-product

The hardtank

PROS

• Quicker
• Cleaner
• Ease of Use
• Robust unit/system

CONS

• The app needs work
• The software is clunky
• No Manual

Final Thoughts

The app and the program for the hardtank are a little clunky it has to be said. Scrolling the menu is not as easy as it should be and theres a confusing element of how much water the tank holds (when you add 4 litres it reads 3.5 etc)

The fact you can transfer the brew straight to a nitro system and keep the coffee enclosed and thus fresher is very smart and beneficial.

The coldbrew we have enjoyed from the HardTank is definitely a huge improvement on traditional methods, with cleaner less bitter results.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Hardtank is being able to experiment with different roast styles and brew time in a controlled way but also in a quick and timely fashion. The cleaning/sanitation cycles can be initiated from the menu or you phone. In the video above you can see a quick cleaning method we use when the tank is not plumbed into a closed system. The cleaning is a doddle and ensures you can continue to brew all day.

We would definitely recommend buying one for your coffee shop/roastery and we look forward to many more brews from the HardTank.