Hidden in the industrial zone of Paarden Eiland, Cape Town is a an oasis of beauty and luxury goods, The Wings Group. In fact, founder Dr Suzanne Reuther has cultivated somewhat of a tropical jungle in a walled corridor on the impressive property, including a banana tree (yes in Cape Town!) and she hopes soon a racemosa coffee seedling can that arrived for this special event can be planted there.
We were invited as part of a global push to rebrand the very successful Breville line of appliances, to Sage. One of their flagship ranges are the espresso machines. They have just launched the Sage Oracle Dual Boiler, which is a mightily impressive home espresso machine. Review to follow soon!
In attendance to reveal all the functionality of this compact beast was David Gubbin, President EMEA Sage Appliances. With customary Aussie humour he led us their thinking when creating Oracle. Both the coffee curious and the professionals learned some new things! It is always good to be reminded that there are always new people discovering the wonderful world of coffee for the first time.
Next, we sat down to an exclusive cupping of the 'World's Rarest Coffee' with Charles Denison. We have had the privilege of tasting this species of coffee a couple of times before, but as with any crop, each harvest is different and this coffee has certainly matured. It was incredibly interesting to learn the details about this coffee species that while very tiny in seed size, could become increasingly important in the broader coffee landscape as climate changes continue to wreak havoc on production globally.
It was really lovely to go through cupping protocol with people who were doing it for the first time and were having fun with it!
