Processing Methods Bootcamp 2020 was held in October at Tamborine Mt Coffee Plantation (TMCP). Students hand-picked 200kg of Red Bourbon cherries which were divided into seperate lots for processing. A total of 12 lots were processed and presented in our first ever Sensory Experience box. It contained: Fundamental Series (4 lots), Innovation Series (4 lots), Hydro Series (2 lots), one Commercial Grade and one Cascara. The quality was undeniable with some lots receiving scores of 88+ points.

Our program this year included three special guests:

1. Kane Dabbouss from Red Soil Organics held a pre-harvest biodynamic farming workshop. He taught students how to create a self-sufficient and sustainable environment for coffee crop. This included planting different inter-crop around the coffee crop, using biodynamic soil prep and compost, and horn manure.

2. Coffee has been known to adopt science and fermentation practices from the wine industry, so we treated our students to a winery tasting and tour at Witches Falls Winery. Ren Dalgarno hosted the tour and spoke to our students about different grape varieties and types of fermentation used in the winemaking process.

3. On the final day, Jose Guillen a fifth-generation specialty coffee producer from El Salvador joined us via Zoom for a Q&A session. Earlier that year, we collaborated with him and produced 14 incredible micro-lots on a large scale, which scored 86.75 - 89.50 points. He gave students an insight into his life and his community, as well as the triumphs and challenges producers face.

Thank you to our superstar sponsors MilkLAB Co and Neli Coffee for supplying our students with goodie bags. And a massive thank you to our team for their generous time and effort!

Photography by Brie Lucas.