Went to Hobart for work for a week, which was the perfect opportunity to explore the city and see how the specialty coffee scene has evolved since my last visit in 2017!
A lot of cafes don’t open until 7 or 7:30AM so my choices on weekdays were quite limited, but I still I found some nice ones! Staple Coffee was one I kept returning to; their bagels and croissants are really tasty (and cheap?! A coffee and bagel/croissant was only around the $12 mark!).
Bloom coffee and bites is cute too! However I had a pretty strict morning schedule, and while they advertised being open at 7AM, I wasn’t able to revisit because they opened a few minutes after 7 so I kept returning to Staple!
I revisited Villicia, and they still use Ona coffee!
Pigeon Whole Bakers now has an espresso machine and seems to have gotten more famous in the last few years! Their pastries are still as tasty as ever, and their filter coffee quality is still good! I even bought heaps of merch this time haha!
Lastly, Somewhere Coffee Bar! This one is a nice place, and has heaps of coffee on offer. This is probably the prime specialty coffee shop in Hobart now, and they’re about 3 years old I think. I visited this one on the weekend so I had plenty of time to chat (and they’re open till 5 on Saturdays!) – sampled some coffee from Good Life coffee roasters from Finland, as well as some Leaves Coffee from Japan. Oh, and they had Wood & Co roasted for Audrey coffee in Hobart – a cafe that is probably only really accessible by car so it wasn’t on my to do list this trip.
One of the most interesting things while chatting was watching the barista make breakfast, which was a couple of slices of toast dipped in olive oil, salt and pepper. It’s rare to see baristas making breakfasts for themselves so this was cool to watch!
Overall I think there’s still some inconsistency with how filter coffee/batch brew tastes, as if it’s still developing. I am pretty sure my palate was on point but a lot of the coffees lacked acidity/brightness. There was something else lacking (though sweetness was often prominent in the brews), such as body? I’m not too sure. But I am no coffee expert and I didn’t have time to chat to confirm; but Pigeon Whole Baker’s batch brew was the same as always so I wonder what it was!
It’s great to see so many more coffee shops now!