Yep, a rush, not a crawl. Though I couldn’t actually rush because I was a little too enthusiastic about coffee, and managed to poison myself on my very first day of adventure! That was not only embarrassing as I couldn’t finish a meal at my favourite soba restaurant, but also had to battle to not collapse in the middle of nowhere!
That aside, I think I will write this up by cafe in no order except in which they appear in my uploads!
Steam Tank Coffee – a place that’s just over a year old, I’d say. The last time I was here was several months ago, and the owner still remembered me! That’s what happens when you start asking random questions, like “when did you open?” “what kind of single origin coffees do you use/have?” They serve up some delicious coffee, and have hilarious comments on their “one size only” coffee cup. The tastiest one I’ve had was an Ethiopia Dumerso which was just so sweet, it was amazing!
I actually also had a pretty fun adventure once when I decided to ask for their filter coffee, and they made one for me, but hadn’t told me where it was from. After they asked me how it was, I said, “I’m going to try and guess what this coffee is.” I did do a check and asked them if it was a coffee on their take-home pack shelf, because that would help me, and they said yes. So I drank the coffee and tried to analyse it the best I could, though I wasn’t sure how well I was faring. But if the experts can do it, surely there are certain things I can note, right? I decided that it wasn’t super floral as I couldn’t smell any mystical aromas, so excluded the Ethiopian coffees. Then, I felt that there wasn’t a strong juicy. fruity presence or roundedness in the mouth (is that even a phrase?), so I ruled out Kenya. That left Burundi and Rwanda. I always remembered Burundis to be quite nice, but never knew in what way, but I remember that Rwandan coffees had more of an astringent, grapefruit acidity to them from previous descriptions. I did receive some help by confirming with the baristas that it wasn’t Ethiopia and Kenya, and so I guessed Rwanda. I was right! Hooray for me! That was great and gave me more confidence in trusting my palate!
Next up, Edition Coffee Roasters. I really wanted to visit this cafe for their oden, and actually missed out the first time because I was too early, plus I had a flight that afternoon so whatever coffee I consumed couldn’t be too late in the day. Thus, I had an Ethiopian batch brew and the black rice (first two pictures). I always hate taking pictures of black coffee, and this was the first time I noticed something really cool – I was sitting under a fancy light, and it made fancy circles as a reflection! Being primarily a black coffee drinker, this inspired me to take awesome pictures of black coffee. The black rice was also a pretty and tasty dish – there were fresh strawberries as well as freeze dried ones which were really nice. I love the coconut and black rice combo!
On my second visit, I managed to get both the Elixir cold brew and the oden, the two things that took my interest as they were quite novel. Having had their Ethiopia Kochere brewed really nicely by my Adelaide barista, I knew how sweet and delicious it could get, plus, I’ve had Kochere enough before that I knew I liked it. However, the cold brew wasn’t quite up to scratch. The light colour should have given it away, but since they use a secret recipe, I was hoping they’d be able to retain a bit more of the body and sweetness of the coffee. Since my sense of smell is bad, I can’t say if a cold brew should also have a prominent smell. The cold brew isn’t something I’d get again. And finally, the oden! It looked very very pretty, and had a large chunk of the jelly cake! And ever since I’ve made my own dashi broth, I can now taste out dashi. The pickled egg was great, and I loved the texture of the jelly cake, but everything else was rather bland. I’m usually happy with mild flavours, but the stuff in Japan tastes better and has more flavour. Perhaps I hyped this up too much, but an amazing experience can sometimes live up to the hype (keep scrolling down), so Edition won’t get a revisit from me unless I’m in the area.
I consider Single Origin Roasters to be old stalwart, my oldie but goodie. One of the places that started my passion for coffee, I still come back to it! It’s changed management, chefs, baristas, appearance, but it still sources, roasts and brews great coffee! I wasn’t disappointed with the Colombia Bella Vista, CoE#1 this year. Even now I’m always hesitant about ordering a top notch coffee because I’m never sure I can fully appreciate the flavours and why it scored so highly, but this one was fantastic! I felt that it was quite light and silky and had almost geisha qualities about it (not that I even know what this means??), and there was a soft fruitiness to it, that I think I did taste out the grapes. Very pleased!
Burundi Mahonda also has a special place in my heart, because Single O is where I tasted my first Burundi, and it was amazing! I loved coffees from this region immediately after that. Then, Mahonda actually won CoE#3 possibly last year or the year before, and Single O was posting about the process and how they were bidding for it, and now they have a partnership with the farm to be able to buy the coffee at a premium to help make the coffee even better! I found that following a cafe’s journey on sourcing this lot was very inspiring, and continues to reinforce my love of coffee!
Yes, that was a lot of exclamation marks and a bit of gushiness.
Four pictures of essentially the same type of shot! At Brewtown Newtown. The first time I went, it was way too busy because it was a weekend. This time, I went on a weekday and it was much much better. Burundi was on their batch brew, so of course I had to have it, and a piccolo for the purposes of prettiness. A long time ago I used to take pictures of my flat whites and try and remember where I had them, as I believed that each cafe’s set of baristas had a distinct way of pouring their milk and therefore the patterns, the cup style and colour, and the table, could all be used to determine where the coffee was consumed. It has since gotten much more difficult, mainly due to the sheer number of cafes out there. Every now and again, I am still impressed I can remember my archived pictures!
This blood orange brewnut was quite delicious indeed – the sugar had a nice tang to it that was just perfect.
Replay Espresso only has a single picture of a piccolo. They use Gabriel Roasters, one I hadn’t heard of before, and the espresso I ordered wasn’t nice at all for me – too dark. It was perfect for the piccolo though, and that actually had a nice creaminess and chocolate flavour to it. They actually appeared to have an extensive food menu, but since I’d already had breakfast that day, I ordered a bacon and egg tart, which I thought would be small, but came out a decent size. I ate it anyway!
Elbow Room Espresso, a relatively new place that serves food and coffee. Their filter coffees feature guest roasters that rotate, though I was recovering from caffeine overdose pretty much all two weeks in Sydney, so I couldn’t sample the drinks here more than twice. Their french toast was also quite nice – not too sweet, and the vanilla mascarpone was just right.
The other cute thing about this place is that they serve sparkling iced cascara in a whisky glass alongside an espresso!
Speaking of cascara, this is Devon on Danks, where the waitress explained that their iced cascara was quite unpopular so they don’t make it anymore. They had guest coffees from Industry Beans, Seven Seeds, and Marvel St. Since I haven’t tried Marvel Street roasters before, I gave that a go. It was an Ethiopia Wottona Bultuma, which I figured was a great way to judge the coffee since I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. I wasn’t happy with what I received, however. I’m not sure if it was the roast or the brewing method, but it was a rather sour coffee – way too acidic and I didn’t get a sweetness or much fruit flavour out of it. I haven’t tried another Marvel Street coffee since, but I should, to be able to understand what their coffee is actually like, and if that experience was a once off.
The food was nicely presented and tasty, just like at Devon. This was the green eggs and ham, which was delicious! I had no idea thick cut bacon = chunk of bacon, but the more bacon, the better! I loved the pea tendrils and sauce too, but the best bit was actually the green tomato sauce – I wish there was a bit more! It had a great tanginess that went so well with the dish and brought it together; even at home I love fried green tomato with my bacon and eggs. It’s a pretty cool place and I’d love to try Devon by Night sometime!
I never paid too much attention to Paramount Coffee Project because I thought it was a project, not a cafe, but my brother kept recommending the place to me, and so I decided to go. On the first visit, I sampled the Ethiopia Shebel Fana (wow, I guess I had a lot of Ethiopian coffees – oops! – not that it’s a bad thing, I just thought that I had a little more variety than I actually did) as filter, roasted by Reuben Hills. I’d previously had it as an espresso at Steam Tank, and at both places, it tasted great. However, the filter wasn’t pretty enough for a picture, and I wanted to come back and sample more stuff anyway as their food menu looked interesting.
Behold, fried chicken and waffle with Japanese curry – the best chicken and waffle set I’ve had ever! It tasted so much better than a maple syrup version, and Roscoe’s in LA was pretty hard to beat! The curry was so flavoursome here and made the chicken taste even better, and the waffle acted like a sponge. I need to learn how to make this curry at home! Also, I will actually admit here to a secret love of hip hop at cafes. The funky beats just make it more fun for me!
I’ve visited Sample Coffee several times, but I was eager to take a trip to their relatively new roastery. While it was a bit of trek to get there, I was rewarded with a walk through Sydney Park, and then a trip to the Grounds of Alexandria! The batch brew here was an Ethiopian (wow I really did have just so much Ethiopia…), but for some reason tasted a little funky, as if it had a winey flavour from what I usually associated with natural processed coffees, which confused me a little. Most of the time I do like the flavour, but it was just weird in this one. Am I becoming too snobby/incorrectly overeducated? I have no idea. The espresso, on the other hand, was quite tasty indeed – this was the right way to prepare an Ethiopia Wottona Bultuma!
Hello Brewristas, with your fancy hario contraptions and funky coffee aerators! I was very lucky to have visited on the day I did, because apparently the owner had just come back from Japan and brought back coffees from Onibus, Switch, and Amameria! How amazing! As I had opted to dine in the courtyard at the back of the cafe, my walk took me past the brew bar where I saw their board with these treats, so asked about them straight away. I knew then that I’d have to have at least two coffees – one Amameria since I hadn’t had the opportunity to try it in Japan, and Onibus because I saw them roast on site, and their filter was absolutely delicious. First up, Amameria Guatemala Las Tilancias. Guatemalan coffees aren’t my favourite, though some of them can be quite nice. I found this to be a little light, lacking in something like body or just… something that stands out. The Onibus Costa Rica Sin Limites, on the other hand, was prepared quite well and had that sweetness and chocolate that I associate with Costa Rican coffees. Always a safe one for me since I know how these taste. I did have different baristas make each coffee too.
Okay, exciting moment time! There were two other tables of pairs of Asians (this is important because the group in my line of sight were taking pictures of food, and I always wonder if they are famous instagram people), and I actually did start feeling a little awkward (I guess even though I am an awesome alone diner, I am still susceptible to human conditions!), so I decided to have a chat to the barista. He immediately asked if I was carrying around an a6000, at which point I was a little surprised but said yes and asked if he had one as well. We then delved into a discussion about being a coffee enthusiast and clarifying that I wasn’t a blogger or review (I get asked that a lot now) , and then discussed coffees from Melbourne too.
The food I ordered was an avocado smash – with ricotta, corn, pomegranate, tomato. I added poached egg and bacon, and it was quite average. Sure it looked pretty, but the ricotta washed out any flavour of avocado and corn. Haloumi would be something I would have preferred, but they didn’t allow substitutions. The bacon was more towards crispy, which is probably fine for most people, but I like mine more on the ham side. However, the next day, I went to John Smith Cafe (no pics so this is the only mention it will get this time, even though it was amazing) and had their poached eggs, with added avocado salsa and bacon (isn’t it funny how it’s essentially the same thing just priced and added differently? So amusing!), and that was so good it blew this one out of the water! I really need to go back to John Smith Cafe because just that one dish made the visit absolutely amazing. Plus, the staff there were all incredibly chilled. And I mean incredibly chilled. Lots of fun!
At the end of my Brewristas experience, I did provide feedback on my thoughts on the two coffees tasted, and mentioned one being not up to scratch. Times like that, I wish I was better at describing coffee, so I felt limited in the way I could express what I tasted. The barista mentioned that he had a pretty good idea of what could be improved, so I have faith that they will be able to prefect the brewing of the Guatelmalan coffee. I suspect it had to do with the fact that the coffees had just arrived, so they hadn’t had an opportunity to troubleshoot and refine the brewing of it, so all is forgiven.
Oops, this post is getting really long. I’m not sure I’ve posted about Reformatory Caffeine Lab before, but it’s a funky place full of batman and other superhero references. The lighting in here makes it a challenge to take a lot of pictures, and they have a very crazy lineup of coffees all the time!
They appear to have a lot of variety, some all year round, for example, their competition coffees such as the Ninetyplus Panama Geisha Lycello, which I opted for this time. And how else to sample this, but to let it go through the steampunk! Okay, so I got charged $16 for this and was explained that this is a competition coffee. Was it worth it? Nah, considering my Colombia CoE#1 was $8. This actually makes for a record I believe, unless I have previously paid $20 for a geisha, but I don’t think so. It did indeed taste nice though, and I got the flavour of lychees 3/4 in. This place is great for things like coffee degustations and sommelier tastings of coffee, but it does require several people or else there’s just too much coffee. Nice to visit simply to geek out on crazy coffee, but it’s not a place I’m eager to revisit. Not sure why, I just don’t get the same [hipster] vibe about it. Yes, I admitted to having a hipster sense. I gave up denying that not too long ago.
Haven Tailoring Coffee Joyously. Hello, VA388 Black Eagle! I dont’t actually like the look of it; I still like the sleek styles of Synesso and Slayer the best. Since the Black Eagle has recently popped up on my radar though, it was nice seeing one up close! My brother was lucky enough to attend their opening event and has some shots from behind the machine, which is super cool. This place felt like an introductory school to specialty coffee to me. Signs saying “please try without sugar first” and the coffee descriptors being “fruity” “nutty” and “chocolatey” to help people make their decisions. Since this felt a little wishy washy to me, I had to ask, at which point they presented me with the actual coffees they used. I dismissed nutty and chocolatey in favour of fruity, which was a Nicaragua Ana Maria. I find that I encounter Nicaraguan coffees way too infrequently, so I take the opportunity to taste them when I can. I remember my first one being very lemon/citrus, so I wasn’t sure how it classed as fruity as I’d place it under a more acidic profile. Anyway, it was quite nice. The beans were roasted by some barista champion in Taiwan, so the beans do have to travel a bit before reaching us.
The plum panna cotta was tasty and my favourite bit was the coconut tapioca bits! I was only given a spoon to eat this dish, however it contained slices of grapefruit that I had to cut to eat, as they wouldn’t break apart with my single spoon. I kind of wish that I was given a knife and fork to eat this, but that’s also me being highly dextrous with those utensils.
I also tried an espresso since I wanted to see if the Black Eagle made awesome espresso (I don’t even know how I could have told if the machine contributed to the quality so I don’t know what I was thinking, probably just me trying to be cool), and opted for nutty – a Guatemala Antigua “La Minita La Flor”. I totally didn’t like it, it wasn’t really drinkable for me. I can only describe it as being too strong and not even nutty, I’d say borderline bitter. It wasn’t a great end to my visit, and after a discussion with Dan from Artificer, I realised that this cafe was pushing opinions on people in an effort to educate them on coffee. So, I still think this place’s main goal is to educate people on specialty coffee, and not a place I need to go to as I’d get more learning from superultraawesomebaristasinthemosthipsterestcafes. See below.
Oh, Artificer! There are lots of places that I hype up for myself and set sky high expectations, that come crashing down as I realise they aren’t half as great as I was expecting. Then there’s this place. A place/two man crew that I’ve followed for a very long time now, ever since Shoji worked at Single Origin Roasters, before he was awarded SMH best barista 2012, and before I’d even heard of Dan until he popped up on my radar and then later, I learned that he’d won SMH best barista 2013. That’s a nigh unbeatable duo!
A great, hipsterish cafe that serves only coffee, I’ve always had a filter coffee that has blown me away here. I believe my first experience was a Burundi batch brew which was so sweet and fruity, it was amazing! For once I didn’t compare this to any previous Burundi experience I had, and I was very very happy with it. Though I’m not sure it was a Burundi, because all they really had was Bolivia? Either way, I found the two taste profiles to be similar as I came back to have all their other coffees – Bolivia Estanislao Pununi being another incredibly sweet coffee – some of the sweetest coffees I’ve had ever! I couldn’t believe how good the coffee tasted every time. And they serve piccolos in their espresso cups! It’s adorable!
The true test was when I had their Columbia El Triunfo, which I knew would taste very different from their Bolivian coffees. It was very nicely brewed, with a more acidic profile than the Bolivia, but also more tea like, again I was reminded of it being similar to a geisha. So, it was great, though I liked the Bolivian coffees better. I also managed to try their Brazil Santa Mariana as an espresso, and now that’s what I call a nutty coffee! Those hazelnut flavours came right out with a great finish! So basically, perfect coffee, all the time.
Dan was also happy to explain more about what they do, and that they’re happy to serve coffee however we want it and they aren’t snobby and pretentious at all – apparently they get asked if it’s ok to order a flat white, or to put sugar in their coffee. He’s very much of the opinion that coffee should be served as the customer likes it, so of course they can! It’s not something they need permission from the barista for. He mentioned also that the Melbourne coffee scene seems to have the same cafes with the same tricks, there’s nothing new or innovative. This is something I’m not quite sure I grasp, since I feel Sydney is becoming quite saturated and that a lot of cafes are also doing the same thing (Artificer isn’t the first place to do coffee only; Coffee Alchemy then Gumption, and I think also Reformatory for a while. Sample also focused on coffee with a very small sweets selection) (Single Origin, Reuben Hills are very food focused as well as on coffee, John Smith would fit this description too) (PCP is not in the previous grouping because it joins the group that features guest roasters, including Steam Tank, Brewristas, and possibly other cafes).
Anyway, as long as we all enjoy the coffee at the places we choose to go, that’s all that matters. And I like good coffee, and have a preference for those places with a strong food menu too.
Aaand to complete this blog entry – we put Dan through a hilarious scenario where my brother and I were discussing if it was possible to tell the difference between a batch brew and a manual brew. He and Shoji both confirmed that they definitely taste different, but that it shouldn’t be possible to tell batch vs manual. My brother thought otherwise! Me, I’m happy with whichever method.
So here it is. Two Bolivia Carmelo Yujras, one batched, one pourovered, in a blind taste test. The one on the right started off being very fragrant, which reminded me of bubblegum, but I wouldn’t claim this to be an accurate descriptor since my sense of smell is awful, and had more prominent notes of acidity. The one on the left didn’t have a standout smell, but was sweeter and had a better mouthfeel – it was juicy and fulfilling. As they cooled, they began to taste identical as more acidity stood out. The left had a hit of sweetness towards the end, where as the right actually did the same, but it was much more subtle to the point where I wouldn’t consider it to be actually anything to note.
So yes, they were very different. I find that batch brew usually has a more plasticy mouthfeel, but I’m not sure I’m describing that right. It’s a little less harsh. In that way, I thought that the left could be batch for that reason. However, the right one had such prominent and unusual fragrance that I’ve never had in a pourover before, so then I suspected my brother might be right. Plus the fact that in a manual brew, I’ve found coffees on average to be sweeter. However, I wasn’t confident in any conclusion I drew.
My brother instantly identified the right one to be batch though, and wouldn’t drink it after a while. He also identified this correctly! Then we pretty much elaborated on our thoughts and analyses, I think both baristas were rather amused – at least I hope they were! I was intending for this to be as fun for them as it was for us. Dan didn’t believe that there should be a way to taste out batch every time, though if my brother does guess correctly every time (I hope he goes back for more blind tests!), then I think there might be some basis for it. Who knows, it’s part of the ongoing coffee adventure!
So that marks the end of my Sydney Coffee Rush, with a deliberate omission of the Grounds of Alexandria as I hadn’t entered the cafe; I went to the bar area instead. Also not featured is Kingswood Coffee, as I hadn’t taken great pictures there, but they did feature some Intelligentsia coffee, I had their Rwandan as an espresso and it was great! Nice to have coffees roasted in different countries to sample! It was great to revisit the cafes I’ve grown to love and see grow further, as well as check out some of the newer places on the street. I think it’s also helped me be a better, more educated coffee enthusiast/geek, which will help in my dream quest to become a barista!
Ok, now to lie down from overcaffeination….