I think my blogging will slow down over the next few months, we’ll see! I have become somewhat permanently poor so I haven’t been going to as many cafes lately.

Still, Eat Drink Perth happened as part of Good Food Month, which happens here in April instead of October (my Sydneysiderer strikes again!). I found out because one of the cafes I follow (rocks 2 Slayers but only open Monday – Friday) was running some coffee events during this time – how could I not say no!

Fancy a Filter?

The cafe is called Willie Wagtail, just a tad bigger than a hole in the wall, with two Slayers and coffee roasted by Pound (a local roaster). I was so happy that I had the opportunity to  learn more without committing lots of money and time – I considered this more of a hobby/enthusiast class than anything that I would become barista-worthy from.

The first of their “masterclasses” was all about filter coffee and various brew methods – Moccamaster, aeropress, syphon, pourover (look at that shiny copper Hario!). It was awkward to explain that I wasn’t really a home brewer but that I own an aeropress and v60….

The class was an hour long and felt very introductory to me, and reminded me a little of a coffee class I didn’t attend in Adelaide, and my barista said afterwards that I would have already known most of the stuff. However, the next course was more exciting….

Pour Like a Pro

And it’s espresso time! Another one hour session, this time it covered espresso and steaming milk. This one was still pretty basic. I liked it because I got to play with a Slayer and make my own espresso, but I would have preferred for a longer session (or having the focus on just espresso or milk, rather than both).

There was an explanation as to what an espresso recipe was, and how adjusting different things would affect the flavour. Stuff I already knew, and I was eager to put it into practise. Also, tamping is such an interesting thing because of the mechanics that goes into it. Plus the whole time I was just thinking “keep it flat like a golf lawn, keep it flat!!!”

This wasn’t my extraction, but I took a shot of it anyway!

And then the second half of the lesson – steaming milk and latte art! These were the owner’s pours – so pretty!

Even though I’ve steamed milk before, it had been many, many, many years ago. So this time, I totally freaked out every time I turned on the steam, and ended up making milkshake… oops! Not sure how I didn’t all those years back. And then I completely failed at pouring my milk, too. No blobs, no squiggles… just… nothing. The blandest, most homogeneous brown coffee you can imagine!

So, I guess my journey to being a barista will be very long….

How to pull the perfect shot

And then, serendipitously, came along the golden class – a 2 hour espresso lesson. No milk here! It was almost too expensive for me, but not much gets in the way of me and my coffee. So $75 it was, and it was well worth the money! We started off with three different coffees – house, El Limoncello Nicaragua, and some Kenyan that I don’t remember. With several tasting wheels for our reference, we first cupped these coffees (no real cupping spoons, but who needs them!) before proceeding to work behind the machine.

I couldn’t help but identify that the Nicaraguan coffee was natural processed – it’s just so obvious! Though I didn’t know that they produced natural coffees, so I was second guessing myself a little bit.

Next, a lesson in extraction. I remember the first time I was shown this demonstration and got to taste it, it was amazing! So this is actually one of my favourite parts of espresso learning. A shot of coffee is run indefinitely, collecting about 10 sec worth of coffee in each glass, so 40 sec in total here (anything past 50 sec is just disgusting water). All the oils and flavour are in the first, all the bitter compounds are in the last.

And here is the first espresso that I made! It was kind of sour…. The house blend was made of Colombian, Brazil and Nicaragua (not the same as their single), so I would have liked more chocolateyness out of this one. Next, we had a choice of what coffee we wanted to extract. The Nicaraguan had an interesting recipe which required a full pre-infusion, which was a cool concept that I had explained to me for the first time – letting the basket fill with water, then allowing for full pressure and extraction. Apparently the El Limoncello ran really fast… it was also a massive bean. So that’s good to know!

I chose the Kenyan though, mainly because I know what Kenyans taste like (generally speaking). For some reason though, the coffee kept coming out way too fast and sour, and for me, severely lacking body. There was another group who also used the Kenyan – same recipe – and theirs came out nicer, so tamping was the only real variable. I guess I don’t tamp hard enough? Even increasing the dose didn’t help, but I absolutely loved the hands on experience!

I love coffee!

In Conversation with Gary Mehigan

While there were also some night noodle markets I attended, that wasn’t all too eventful. Instead, what was really fun to attend was a talk with Gary Mehigan. It was a reasonably priced session so I decided to go. He’s a very nice fellow and super talkative!

It was just a general chat, where he talked about his childhood and how he was studying to be an architect/engineer until he found out his grandfather cooked. There was a great recount of how he loved his grandfather’s cabbage because it had bacon and garlic in it, and that he hated his mum’s boiled cabbage, but that he didn’t understand why at the time to be able to articulate this.

There was also talk about the hard hours of a chef, which I always love listening to. I love cooking, but I know that a chef’s hours are hard and there’s a lot of blood sweat and tears involved, so I’ll never actually become one.

There was also a focus on Masterchef – how he came to become one of the judges by passing auditions with George – they bounced ideas off one another rather than just present their own opinions. He also mentioned that most of the food they were tasting was indeed cold – with so many contestants, cleaning and camera crew during the cooks. The time is real! But he explained that since they were walking around, tasting things during the cook (and not being able to directly provide advice), that they had a rough idea of what the dish would taste like by the time it was served to them. That was pretty cool, and makes a lot of sense.

The hour went by so quickly! He’s such a chatty fellow. A very enjoyable session!

I should probably do and attend more things, but the busier I am, the less I blog! So we’ll see!