Tilly Sproule

Tim Adams Specialty Coffee.

At Project Origin, we love helping people connect with our coffee, especially when we’re able to link them with some of our closest producers. In this series of articles, we chat with roasters, competitors, producers, green bean buyers, exporters and baristas to find out what it takes to create this amazing connection and to bring fantastic flavour to people around the world.

Anyone familiar with the speciality coffee scene north of the NSW/QLD border will know Tilly. She is a consummate competitor with an incredible record of success in barista competitions (Northern Region Barista Champion 5 years in a row!!!).

We’ve been very lucky at Project Origin to work with her for a few years now, helping her with competition training and coffee selection. 2019 Australian Brewers Cup champion and Project Origin Green Bean Buyer, Yanina Ferreyra, has been working closely with Tilly for the last 3 years. Tilly also joined our General Manager, Habib Maarbani, on a recent origin trip to Honduras where she worked directly with the amazing Lanza Family to create a unique Carbonic Maceration Catuai from the La Huerta farm. She went on to use this coffee as the base of her Signature Drink in the most recent Northern Region Barista Competition (which she won! Again!).

She also used two Panama coffees from our great friend Jamison Savage; a Finca Deborah washed for Espresso and a Finca Deborah natural for Milk. In conjunction with Project Origin, Tim Adams Specialty Coffee have built a relationship with Jamison over the last 3 years in their quest to make coffee more sustainable, a key concept for Tilly. We spoke to Tilly not long after the 2020 Northern Region Barista Competition:

What is the key message you wanted to convey to the judges?

I felt this year was a collaboration of my last 5 years of Barista Competitions. When I watch past routines I realised I’ve been slowly working towards 1 goal. This goal I believe is shared by many people in our industry from origin to the cafes, and that’s, working towards a sustainable future for our specialty coffee industry. Depending on where we are at in our coffee careers, this can mean something different for each of us but for me, it’s through the power of relationships that we will have a sustainable future.

How did you go about selecting the coffee(s) for your competition?

The coffees were certainly no fluke, these are the result of years of building stronger relationships with Jamison and the Lanza’s and we are extremely proud to thank Project Origin for giving us the opportunity to start such incredible relationships and even visit the farms! This is the 3rd year I’ve worked with Jamison and wow what a wizard. I have honestly never experienced a coffee like ‘Terroir’ before, its clarity and refinement that express Finca Deborah is just out if this world, it’s unbelievable & each year this coffee continues to blow us away! The work he is doing is phenomenal and it’s always an honour to work with and brew coffees from Jamison Savage.

The CM Catuai from La Huerta was also a no brainer for me. When I visited with Tim & PO earlier this year (my first time to Honduras) we decided with the Lanza’s to make a really special coffee for competition and that’s exactly what we did. I have a strong connection & history with this coffee, and now we’ve tasted first-hand how good farming practices & CM can unlock new flavours in an ordinary varietal.

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What inspires you to compete in coffee competitions?

This is the question of all questions! Competition is my tool to learn, to develop new ideas, to experiment & to put all of my energy into not only understanding coffee more but also always improving my technique as a Barista. But the biggest inspiration for me to compete (this one makes my heart full!) is the people we meet along the way & the relationships we build with people all around the world! From our producers to barista legends & coffee professionals these relationships last a lifetime and for that I’m truly grateful to be able to compete to connect with so many people.

How long have you worked with Project Origin-sourced coffees? Why do you choose to use them?

For five years we have worked with PO and in that time we have not only been able to source some of the best competition coffees in the world, we’ve travelled to origin, connected with producers, and even for us as a business (TASC/Pedro & Grizz) we have the opportunity to share such amazing coffees with our wholesale partners every single day! PO’s goals and philosophies align with ours and it’s been such a privilege to work with them.

Do you have any ideas/plans for the national stage that you can share with us?

As we move into preparation for Nationals I’ll be spending lots of time fine-tuning myself as a Barista, there is always room for improvement and each time I jump onto the stage I’m gaining more feedback and learning. So this preparation is going to be focused on control, on carrying my message into our world of specialty coffee & ultimately being the best version of myself! There are of course many ideas floating around & I’m looking forward to collaborating with industry leaders over the next few months and I like the suspense, so we’ll leave it at that!

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