covering new grounds

Another coffee crawl, this time through The Shire. I promise, no hobbit jokes are to follow.

Well, actually we started with an old favie that is not in the Shire. Coffee Alchemy. Hazel and Adam served us some some delightful Kenya French Mish pour-over (so HOT right now) to start with. The French Mish is pretty amazing, especially once it cools and “turns”. Mmm … the roast tomatoey-ness becomes sweet florals … I love this as pour-over soooo much. We also had a couple of espressi: an Aussie MTE Bin 35 that was just so interesting and different and complex and bassy; and a peanutty, sweet Brasil Rondomuñho. 

Then we headed south to White Horse Coffee (Flora St, Sutherland) who are at present being supplied by Mecca Espresso. We shot some pretty good ’spro, and then had more awesome pour-over (have I mentioned I’m slightly obsessed with brewed coffee at the moment?). The first pour-over we tried was a Guatemalan San Pedro, which was (this will sound insane, I guess you had to be there) masculine, musky, graphite, and black. We then had an absolutely outstanding Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Idido Misty Valley which was purple, with berries, cream, and eucalyptus - seriously, we actually had that eucayptusy-menthol feeling afterwards (I’m not entirely sure why I’m tasting colours at the moment, but they make sense as descriptors in my head).

Next stop was Grind Espresso Bar (Surf Rd, Cronulla) who are serving up ’spro roasted by the fellas at Single Origin Roasters. I’m sure it’s great, but by the time we got there, I was so overloaded on coffee that I really didn’t enjoy the few sips I forced down. I’m sure they must have the goods, as they seem to have somewhat of a cult following; the walls are plastered with photos of people all over the world holding up the ‘I’d rather be at Grind’ slogan.

The final stop was HAM (Harry and Mario, Gerrale St, Cronulla). By then I’d given up on ’spro and stuck to my third favie drink (Phoenix Organic Cola). However, I have it on reasonably good authority that it was the pick of the Sutherland region ’spros today . The coffee is roasted by Paul Bassett and Instaurator. Not entirely sure how that works, but hey, with those two names behind it, I’m sure it’s top-notch. I’d like to go back there soon - preferably with less coffee in my system*.

*Before aspersions are cast on my coffee drinking ability, I should like to point out it is not the caffeine that causes me such a struggle. And I am NOT going soft.