Hobart coffee adventures

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!

Coffee cupping!

Dear diary,

Today I attended a coffee cupping for the first time in many years. I didn't even know it was on until the barista told me while I was having breakfast there. I used to try really hard to learn what coffees from different regions tasted like, but it all got too much and everything started tasting the same, so I took a step back and just enjoyed coffee for what it is instead of trying so hard.

Today, I realised that my tastesbuds, while being unable to describe exact tasting notes (same as always), are at least quite accurate at tasting out "good" coffees and matched some of the other baristas/roasters that attended the cupping.

The natural processed one was obviously naturally processed, full of winey fermenty goodness, while my favourite was considered an expensive coffee. I didn't pick out the geisha varietal though it did smell very, very good in its dry form and it kept lingering in the back of my mind. I also managed to match the host's assessment of the two least impressive coffees.

I should probably just be more confident in what I do because it seems that I still have the right kind of palate after all these years!

To more coffee,

Reine

Western Region Barista Championships

It's been a few years since I last stumbled across the barista championships. Since one of my baristas was competing this year, I figured I should try and visit!

The only problem was that the lighting was ridiculously difficult to manage, since the windows were behind the stage, so everyone had to take shots from the side!

The judging is so tough! Look at this technical judge looking at everything you do! I wonder what it takes to become one since I'm no good at taste/smell to ever think about being a sensory judge lol.

I love that everyone is taking photos or livestreaming the event!

This barista had an incredibly interesting approach. His theme was coffee of the future, with lower coffee doses but getting high yield, using a brewer that isn't actually out yet!

This barista was showcasing Taiwanese coffee!

Pretty cool stuff with a few different events! I managed to see the Brewer's Cup, the Latte Art and the Barista Championship events. I almost ran out of camera battery haha. Also, I feel like I'm not used to taking photos of people standing around lol. I think it's the distance and angle restriction here that was really tricky. That just means more practice!

Japan 2019 - Part 1

Oh man too many holidays at once. This Japan trip was actually a family holiday, where my mum wanted to visit a heap of different places. The trip was mainly based in Hokkaido, and I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the trip or not since it wasn't a food based trip, and I've never done a not-food-based-trip before. It turns out I loved it! It's rare for my to have a life changing holiday, but this one was pretty incredible. Because I'm still sick of typing many words, this will just be mainly picture spam because I took a LOT of photos!

We started off in Tokyo, and here's a coffee my brother fetched for me. It's notable because it's a warm can, and apparently it's a single origin - Ethiopia Mokka. It didn't taste terrible, just bland XD

I also traded my brother some more of my St Ali instant coffee for this Supreme Coffee instant coffee. I haven't tried it yet though!

A trip to Life Size Cribe, and I had no idea that red beans and butter on toast was a thing XD My brother ordered this and it was pretty tasty! Maybe I'll have to try making my own at some point!

Coffee with Mugi!!!

Lunch at Shake Shack. Yeah I know, I've just come from America. But it's still tasty!

Haneda Airport, domestic terminal. Look they have a wasabi plant on display! And I finally got my hands on some saba sushi. This was my plane snack, and it's just as I imagined! Good strong vinegar flavour to offset the really yummy fatty-fishiness!

The AirDo plane's bear totally looks like a koala. Hello Kushiro!

Most of this trip simply involved eating at places that looked decent. This was a cute little place!

Oden and whale meat! Yay now I can say I've eaten a sentient creature >_>

So many pictures at a fish market in Kushiro. This ended up being my pick your own seafood bowl. Plus the sad looking crab on the side. All of this cost about 3200 yen. The crab was a bit disappointing because it was still partly frozen. The seafood bowl, on the other hand, was quite nice! I love getting fresh seafood here! I also ate some asparagus and pumpkin. Pumpkin here is totally different from the main types of pumpkin back in Aus! These ones are dense and creamy, like the texture of chestnuts! I had a hard time liking them because they were heavier than I expected, but still tasted good!

We had a hire car for the beginning of the trip, so we went and visited the national park and wetlands.

Yay I got to do some trainspotting by following my brother around! It's actually a fun thing to do!

It's hard to take photos when we're driving twice as fast as the locals. But cows!! Cows everywhere!

There was a cutesy little shop called Poppotei that makes pretty ramen! Pork and seasonal vegetables. I love the colour in this and it tasted good too!

Lake Mashu is super pretty!

You can smell this place before you get here. Sulfur mountains!! This one was quite stinky!

No idea if people are randomly balancing rocks or some other sorcery is at work here...

Our hotel was at Lake Akan. A beautiful place, but watch out for the insane massive nasty mosquitoes that are everywhere!!!

Marimo island! This is where the marimo museum is! I remember hearing about marimos at work in Adelaide cause a friend was talking about it. Now I finally understand what they are!

The museum was small, but it had so many adorable little marimos! It even showed the life cycle of marimo.

There were touchable marimos at our hotel! They are a lot firmer than I thought, and not as fluffy. It's like a short haired rock... kind of XD

On the road again, this time a stopover at Rausu. Look at this massive octopus tentacle! Also that shot has saturated the shadows on my hand :/

Another 3000 yen seafood bowl!!

Found some nesting seagulls on the rooftop opposite where we had lunch!

A waterfall that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. Tried a few different shutter speeds for this, but I think I still favour fast shutters.

An abandonment that my brother wanted to explore.

Waited around for a train that didn't come because "high temperatures" caused the JR lines to cancel. Instead, found some interesting bugs!

Sunset at Abashiri. My sensor is so dirty!

Set dinner at our hotel. I love the presentation! Grill your own beef, make your own noodle soup, some sashimi, crab, and an all you can eat section too!

Abashiri prison museum. I actually didn't think much of this place when we got here, but wow. The more I walked through and read the information, I ended up really liking this place! It felt like so much more than just a prison. There was a farming section here, including stories about making pickles and cutting edge farming technology. The conditions were harsh, but the prisoners loved it here. It was interesting seeing the prison cells as well, ranging from the 3 to a cell to solitary confinement, and how different materials were used for cells, for different reasons. I didn't take any pictures of this place, but I would love to visit again!

The drive to our next destination was super long, so we had a stopover at a random little stopover place. A simple, onion soup tasting ramen with the weirdest looking "fish stick" thing I've ever seen. At first I thought there was a chunk of bread in my ramen, but it's actually a spongey thing meant to resemble fish stick!

I love seeing rice fields.

Blue Lake. The water is actually super blue, it's a greeny blue and very different from the colour of the sky. This place is famous for these dead looking trees in the water? Not sure what it's all about, but it's pretty!

Look! A bumblebee! I can't believe how big they are! They are sooooo adorable!

Finally a big-ish city, Asahikawa. I call it beer river, just cause XD. Time to try some street photography!

The station here has an interesting sculpture.

My brother alerted me to the presence of sakura mochi ice cream!!! Wooohooo!

A lot of the hotels we were staying at had dinner and/or breakfast included. It turns out I love burdock here! And there's so much jelly. I love jelly! And almond tofu. There's heaps of that too! And the little shishamo fish are everywhere - I had no idea they were all bursting with roe. I made sure to eat plenty since it's hard to get back in Aus!

On the road again, so more rice fields. I'd love to visit these farms and do some rice planting one day - my brother says there are rice planting festivals that people can participate in!

This is the Ken and Mary tree. I actually have no idea who Ken and Mary are, but I think it's cool to have a tree as a tourist attraction. This was quite adorable!

Then we headed to a flower farm. Unfortunately it wasn't quite the right season to see them all in full bloom, but the place was still very picturesque, plus there were heaps of yubari melon goods here!

Yubari melon flavour "the moist stick" financier XD

Rice fields! Everywhere!

Another round of trainspotting. I actually had no idea what my brother was preparing for, so I put on my long lens since the railway track was all the way over there. Good thing, I managed to get a nice shot of the 1 car train!

Tomita farm! Full of flowers, and there's a melon farm next door, but that was closed. It was fun exploring this place!

Someone even brought in their pet parrot to take selfies with XD

They sell lavender coffee here too. Not really sure it had that much lavender flavour, but it was made to order and nice to sip on and relax at the farm.

Also got a half-half of melon and lavender flavoured soft serve since that seems to be a specialty around here.

After leaving Tomita farm, we headed to a place my brother wanted to go to. Furano ramen, a tiny tiny shop in the middle of a tiny town that served cheese ramen. Apparently lots of people leave messages about the fantastic ramen here, which was awesome! This ramen was a tad spicy, but really nice! The toilet here is apparently also super old fashioned, but I didn't feel like checking it out hahahaha. Definitely worth stopping by!

It was actually funny, even though I'm usually the one who gets asked, "how did you find out about this place?" this was the first time that I felt compelled to ask my brother how he found out about the place. It was kind of mystifying, even though I was pretty sure his answer is the same as the way I usually find out about my places. It was still weird being on the asking side instead of the answering side though!

Look! A fox!!! This was actually the third fox we saw, but the only one I managed to take a picture of. They seem used to being around cars and don't panic when we pass them. Interesting!

Can you believe that these are ski fields in winter? Amazing.

I'll end this post here, since now we're in Sapporo. What is this bee doing? Well, I found this corpse at Tomita farm, and managed to have a plastic bag handy to keep it in. Why would I want a corpse? To pose it and take photos of course! However, keeping a dead bumblebee safe was an arduous task. I wanted to make a haiku about carrying the spirit of a bumblebee all across Japan, so that it could experience things that most bumblebees couldn't. Except I never really got a chance to show it off. But it did travel all the way from Tomita farm to Hokodate! What an effort!

Oh no

Dear diary,Today, for the first time, I managed to spill a coffee in a cafe and it was a mortifying experience.It was a relatively new cafe, and I was visiting for the first time. It was setting up to be an interesting adventure right at the beginning, as they weren't kidding when they said it was tiny! So tiny that a table wasn't immediately available. Well, at least not indoors anyway. The waiter who greeted me asked if I wanted an outside table, but alas, I wasn't wearing any sunscreen, and the sun was out, so I said I was happy to wait for a table inside. I realised that it's probably an "only in Australia" thing to decline an outdoors seat because of the risk of sunburn LOL.A table became available quite quickly, and I started ordering my coffees. There was a wide range of coffees to choose from so I just said whatever the waiter liked, and they ended up recommending a Brazilian coffee. I went with that as an espresso, a milk, and a filter. I also decided that a prawn brioche was a better choice than the mi goreng... for now.The filter coffee came in a beautiful glass (Chef & Sommelier branded), and it had lovely looking swirls of steam coming from it, and I managed to take some pictures of it with my new lens! The flat white came shortly after that, and the barista also brought the other half of the shot. It's always awkward when the people presenting food try and move things out of the way or wait for me to take a picture, because I always feel it's my responsibility to behave and let the servers do what they're doing. Of course, being in hospitality, the servers feel that they should be the ones to make allowances so it becomes a scene of both parties apologising to one another! Anyway, he managed to hide the espresso behind a bag of coffee beans at my table, to allow me to take a photo of the flat white. He said that he really liked how the espresso tasted by itself, it was nicer than being in milk, which was pretty cool.He walked away, and I continued taking photos. I realised that there was still stuff in my frame, so I needed to move the coffee bag. Except... I forgot there was an espresso tucked behind the bag, even though it'd literally just been placed there........... so BAM the espresso tipped and fell onto the empty seat opposite me, and splashed the chair, blanket/cloth thing that was hanging on the chair, and the floor.Whoops. I'd caffeinated half the furniture in this tiny cafe. And it was loud, so all the tables heard the incident and I felt so terrible because I'd let taking a picture take all of my attention and I'd neglected my environmental awareness. Which is something I consider essential because I don't want to be *that* person who looks like an Instagrammer and does silly things at a cafe. I try so hard, and I've failed at a new cafe who don't have a prior impression of me. Oh no!I pretty much apologised to the waiter for what felt like forever since I felt so bad. It also meant I had to ask for an espresso again, and I was really hoping the barista wasn't hating me!And when they made my espresso, I got both side of the shot again... so there's my 4 coffees for the day! Both were delicious, but I actually liked the "side' one which was served in a glass over the "proper" one that was served in an espresso cup. Even though a double shot is the same prices as a single, I still felt like they'd given me something for free and I STILL felt bad for spilling the coffee so I gave them more money for their troubles.The end!