"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Seattle — a mecca for all things coffee; Synesso — touted by experts around the globe as the crème de la crème of espresso machines. Coffee and Synesso — a marriage made in heaven! Little wonder, then, that we considered ourselves incredibly lucky when we snaffled Synesso’s first official employee, Caleb, to work at 5 Senses.

Caleb first pulled on his 5 Senses shirt in December 2007, and has been travelling around our wide brown land ever since, keeping Synesso machines spick and span and in top-notch working order.

This is fantastic news for those of us lucky enough to own our own shiny Synesso, as Caleb is the leading expert on all things Synesso. With over 10 years experience in Seattle’s coffee industry, including four with Synesso, there isn’t much that Caleb doesn’t know, and there are few problems that his magic hands can’t solve.

Caleb was involved in Synesso’s creation from the very start, working on testing and modifying the machine. He provided Synesso owners Mark and Sandy with the benefit of knowledge acquired from years working with some of Seattle’s coffee pioneers, people who, Caleb says, have “pushed the coffee industry to the point where it is today world-wide”. Caleb has assembled over 250 Synesso machines — impressive credentials indeed.

And they were credentials that we wanted here at 5 Senses! As 5 Senses is Australia’s exclusive distributor for Synesso, Dean and Richard, who heads up all things technical, spent a considerable amount of time working with Caleb at Synesso in Seattle. After hearing Caleb talk about his “strong fascination with Australia” and his readiness for an adventure, Dean decided to ask whether Synesso would be happy for 5 Senses to poach Caleb. The rest, as they say, is history!

While leaving friends, family and the familiar routines of life behind is never easy, Caleb jokes that he’s got past the ‘grieving’ stage of culture shock and he’s slowly adjusting to the Australian way of life. Footy has taken the place of gridiron, and he knows all about ‘serenity’ and ‘the pool room’.

Caleb provides some interesting insight into what’s happening with the Australian coffee industry. “I feel Australia is where Seattle was in the early to mid-1990’s” he muses. “Just a handful of ‘micro roasters’ perfecting their trade, slowly but surely, to become some of the bigger names in artisan coffee roasting.”

He goes on to explain that by his count, there are now seven ‘5 Senses calibre’ coffee roasters in Seattle, cementing it as, “the place to go to learn about how delicate coffee truly is, and why it takes a blend of high end equipment and professional preparation to make it all come together. This makes it an experience, not a routine, and to me, worth the money.”

Caleb likes to wax lyrical about Synesso. Whether you’re checking what the experts have to say, browsing Synesso’s website or talking to another coffee geek, everyone loves the same thing about Synesso machines; the temperature stability. Caleb is no different.

“What makes Synesso equipment one of a kind is its ability to sustain temperature stability throughout the extraction of the coffee. Paired up with a professional barista, this maintains a flavour balance and allows roasters and connoisseurs the true experience that that particular blend or bean has to offer.”

“Synesso was able to narrow the temperature window by employing dedicated boilers for each group; using non-mechanical temperature probes which work in conjunction with heat exchangers that run through the steam tank to source each group with preheated water. All of the temperatures are controlled by a user-friendly interface that allows you to programme on the fly and consistently monitors itself for proper function. I believe Synesso has now tweaked the programming even further and improved the proficiency of the probes to stay within a 10th of a degree from the programmed temperature.” You don’t have to be an expert to know that this is new territory for espresso machines, and results in the sweetest of espresso that can be consistently repeated.

In his own words, Caleb is “working as hard as I can to keep our customers happy and operational” and describes 5 Senses as “the most happy, healthy environment I’ve ever experienced”. Caleb is an integral member of the 5 Senses family and his technical prowess (and charm!) make him a favourite with the customers too. Maybe Synesso isn’t the only best thing to come out of Seattle …