Australasian Specialty Coffee Association

UPDATE 2014

Another big year for Coffee in Australia, with the highlight surely being World Coffee Events (WCE) holding the World Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits, and the World Cupping Championships at Australia’s premier coffee event, MICE, in May.
I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the previous Executive in landing and preparing to stage these events: thank you Craig Dickson, Ana Pipunic, Cameron Ballard, Bruno Maiolo, Ross Quail, Brian Raslin, and Craig Simon for the work you put in.
I was on the founding committee of AASCA, and now I return as the newly elected President, at a time ripe to build on the success that the industry has enjoyed in the last decade. The opportunity to develop stronger ties throughout the whole coffee value-chain and to further enhance the already highly regarded reputation of the Australian Barista internationally, are two main focus areas the executive team of AASCA will be planning and delivering on in the coming year.
Briefly, AASCA is strengthening its education and certification by linking up with the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) and SCAE (Specialty Coffee Association of Europe) to control the delivery of their various courses. AASCA will be running barista accreditation. This will give the barista a certification of their skills as a barista, whish must be shown to be a very high standard and demonstrate theoretical coffee knowledge, along with practical preparation skills.
In addition, the Pura Milk Bottle promotion of AASCA will entail the AASCA logo included on the artwork of the 2 L milk bottle sold across the Australian Eastern Seaboard for the period leading up to MICE2014.
And finally, to support these initiatives the reengineering our website again, so it will deal with the barista, café and roaster – all tangible, positive promotion opportunities for AASCA and the AASCA accredited barista.
All of this is slated to happen in the current year, along with AASCA continuing to dedicate itself to benefiting its members and the industry by promoting knowledge, skills and learning, fostering relationships between the growers, producers, wholesalers, roasters and baristas on a global level. AASCA will provide the platform to members by which they can promote themselves to their peers and an appreciating coffee public and of course, the organisation of highly esteemed events that allow members to benchmark themselves within the industry.
To deliver on all this, I have the wealth of experience on the executive of AASCA to draw upon.
I also invite you to keep up to date about all the events we are running this year. This can be done by liking our Facebook page, following our Twitter, joining AASCA via our website and receiving newsletters.
Please support our wonderful sponsors: Pura Milk, DaVinci Syrups, Nouvo Simonelli, Cafetto, Espresso Mechanics, Natvia, Brita, Caspak, Maltra Foods, D’Ancap Cups, Inditech.

And be sure to update your 2014 calendar for:
Australian Specialty Coffee Championship (ASCC)
Melbourne, Australia 15 – 18 May.
AASCA proudly presents the 2014 Australian Specialty Coffee Championship (ASCC), at both state and national level. This is the premier event on the specialty coffee calendar and the prelude to the World Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits and Cup Tasters Championships, being held in Melbourne, May 2014.
The World Barista, World Brewers Championships
Rimini, Italy 9 – 12 June.

President AASCA
Rob Forsyth
Executive of AASCA
Nick Calabrisello, Treasurer
Brent Williams
Brian Raslyn
Jeramy Regan
Keith Pettigrew, Public officer
The State Sub Committees:
ACT
Attilo Sciannimanica, Chairperson
Lincoln Faireigh, Training & Certification
Tim Manning, Roasters Guild
Angus Mackie, Barista Guild
Sasa Sestic
Queensland
Leigh Carmichael, Chair, Training & Certification
Stacey-lea Benjamin, Secretary
Dragan Sestic, Barista Guild
Michael Oo, Barista Guild
Victoria
Jeramy Regan
Ben Bicknell, Judge Committee
Western Australia
Elisha Mauger
South Australia
Brian Raslan, Judge Committee, Training & Certification
Bill Comley
New South Wales
Frankie Shi, Chairperson
Paul Asquith, Secretary
Shae Macnamara, Barista guild
Jared Chapman, Training & certification
Toni Macri, Roasters Guild
Matt Troughton, Volunteer
Saxon Wright, Judge committee
Brent Williams