Hi-tech travels to coffee’s grounds
THE whiz-bang world of virtual reality is giving Geelong coffee guru Nathan Johnston a way to marry the stories of speciality coffee growers with an e-commerce platform that sells their produce.
And he sees an opportunity for Geelong to embrace the rapidly advancing technology so people can taste the city through a virtual experience.
If not for COVID -19, Mr Johnston would this year have visited coffee farms in Ethiopia, Kenya and Burundi to shoot 360-degree images for a virtual reality project that started a couple of years ago with trips to Colombia, Mexico, India and Korea.
“The footage is incredible,” Mr Johnston said. “(Watching it in virtual reality) gives you a true experience of being on the farm and understanding a bit more about the processing.”
The project is the latest iteration of his passion for telling the story of how coffee is produced on smaller, speciality coffee farms and the hardship and simplicity of the lives of the growers and pickers.
“There are very few people that have done what I and this company have done in buying directly from the farmers and not buying commercial coffee,” Mr Johnston, the executive director of Cartel Coffee Roasters, said.
“It’s been very difficult for me to explain to customers the difference in why we pay $15 a kilo, rather than $2 a kilo.”
He and colleague Istephan Barsamoglu are working towards offering a complete virtual reality experience of the Coffee Cartel Brew Bar in the Geelong CBD that would involve people “looking” around the store, choosing to be “transported” to the farms of the coffee beans they are interested in, and making their purchases. “It’s the first time in the world it’s ever been done,” Mr Johnston said.
Virtual reality is growing as the cost and size of the technology comes down and e-commerce stores are starting to create virtual shopping experiences for things like buying clothes.
As an early adopter and investor in the technology, Mr Johnston likens the current VR community to the early days of Instagram. “It’s something the Western world is not adapting to fast enough; the future of this is huge,” he said.
Because COVID-19 interrupted the project, Mr Johnston has been working with Ray Nadeson from Lethbridge Wines to develop a virtual wine experience that would work in a similar fashion to the coffee project in providing a deeper connection to the vineyard and to the wine.
And he would like the rest of Geelong to join the virtual reality ride. “How do we make Geelong the first virtual city in the world?” he asked.
Mr Johnston said people anywhere could then virtually visit local venues, or events, particularly as COVID-19 limits attendance in numbers.
“They can go in there and see what the restaurants are like, see what the meals are like, and see if that’s something that appeals to you.’’