Jaime Siadie of Cape Coffee Beans recently represented South Africa at the World AeroPress Championships that were held in Lisbon, Portugal. It's always a lively affair and the South African Edition hosted by Tribe Coffee and The African School of Coffee was no different! Out of the fleet of competitors, Jaime emerged victorious. He may be the AeroPress Champion, but he brews on all manner of equipment through his role at Cape Coffee Beans. We had the opportunity to learn a little more about Jaime!
How did you get into the world of coffee?
I got into coffee years ago when I was invited out to a coffee lunch date with a friend. Went down to Bootlegger Coffee on Kenilworth Main Road, and that was my first introduction to the world of speciality coffee. Since then my interest was sparked and it's never stopped burning. Thankfully, coffee is still a growing industry and I get to be part of it.
What was unique about your winning recipe?
I believe what was unique about my recipe was that I tried my best to highlight the sweeter notes that the competition coffee had present. I did so by using the Third Wave Water - Light Roast Profile mixture, 2 paragon chilling rocks, a medium-fine grind and a pretty tight ratio. After getting an idea of profile of the coffee I "chased" the note that I wanted to stand out.
You can find his winning recipe here.
Image by Tribe Coffee
What is your training routine like for WAC? Sibahle was Runner Up so you’re in good company at CCB!
It was rough. Leading up to the national competition, having to still complete the day-to-day tasks required of me and take time out, when I could, to fine-tune my recipe. It helped having my colleagues around the office to critique it and my wife also played a role in supporting me by her willingness to taste the first few cups of terrible coffee I made with AeroPress late at night and she's not a coffee drinker.
What is exciting you in the coffee equipment sector?
That is not a simple question to answer. I firmly believe that "There's nothing new under the sun" so even when a seemingly new piece of equipment arrives on the scene, when you look at the product for what it is, oftentimes it's just a different take on another piece of equipment, with a couple of extra features that might speed up or refine the coffee-making process. It's difficult to pick just one exciting new thing, when I work for a company that has almost all the toys and resources available to me!
If you could offer our readers one piece of advice on how to make their coffee at home better, what would it be?
I recently gave a bit of advice to someone who found my winning recipe through a post of Instagram and commented saying that they've been brewing incorrectly for years. My advice to them, which is the same advice I give to everyone: It comes down to what you're hoping to achieve from your brew. If you end up with what you perceive to be a tasty cup of coffee then continue doing what you're doing. Play around with your recipe if you want, but know that there is no right or wrong way to make coffee.
What is your favourite non-coffee related interest/activity/hobby? And can you tell us a bit about it?
Oh, I have many hobbies but if I had to choose only one it'd be listening to music, especially hip-hop. During the day when I feel some type of way and I get a chance to, I just play a good, well thought out, excellently produced hip-hop song. I love discovering new music and I prefer to stay away from mainstream artists because they all seem to rap about the same thing which doesn't appeal to me. I look for creativity from these uncovered artists and groups. Three artists that I've been enjoying listening to on repeat recently are nobigdyl., Kevin Hackett and Jon Keith.
