- Monday - 1 white mocha with JC in the morning, followed by tea in the afternoon.
- Tuesday to Friday - 1 plunger of coffee using my home-blend (which changes), followed by tea in the afternoon. I currently have seven teas including roses and a fruit rooibos to choose from so I do not get bored.
- Saturday & Sunday - as much coffee and hot chocolate as I want :P
We attempted to get into St Ali's but the queue for service was sufficiently long that we had to escape with only monetary damage from my buying a small bag of Peruvian coffee beans (I am currently down to 3 kgs of coffee...I think) Alas, the Middle Eastern breakfast and Clover coffee will have to wait until another day. Off we paced to Coventry Street, one of my favourite streets in Melbourne, for its breakfast places, Peter Watson shop, paper specialty shop, Japanese warehouse, cake shop, Chef's Hat warehouse and of course South Melbourne Market at the end of it.
GAS was full as usual, so Cafe Sweethearts delivered on brunch (as usual), and Nut has asked to write about the experience as a first-timer so I will leave it to her. Having said that, I was disappointed with my first coffee of the day there, considering it was a Genovese and this coffee is normally a well-roasted bean with good training attached. In spite of the beautiful layer of crema from the milk, the cafe latte actually tasted burnt and certainly the usual Italian bean-reminiscent aroma was not forthcoming - I went to the counter to ostensibly pay the bill later and checked to see what was wrong for the day. Ah, milk next to the coffee machine instead of being in the fridge. & how much pressure is the barista actually applying to the coffee today? I wondered.
South Melbourne Market was bustling with its dim sim queues, sushi guzzlers, bread buyers and seafood gourmets. The deli section was crowded as always, with sufficient confusion that we had no idea which one was safe to support. Three freshly shucked Pacific oysters per person (turns out the oyster shucker does not eat oysters at all, which is why he is so safe in the job!) and then off to find another coffee. Nut to actually have her first coffee of the day, I to find one that would recompense for my lacklustre first shot of the day.
Sweet Agora Cafe, in almost complete contrast to Cafe Sweethearts, is run by red T-shirted men behind the counter. Specialising in breakfast wraps and coffee, these guys are confident enough to have a video camera aimed at the espresso machine with a direct feed to the TV screen at the front of the cafe. They take a little while with their coffees, but then they have three types of beans on the go for any one day and they never seem to stop taking coffee orders. They run a quiet operation in the middle of the noisy market, with all chat restricted to the work at hand.
We noted that the Coffee of the Day was Nicaraguan (dark roast). Nut commented that this usually is a coffee with chocolate tones. Intrigued, I ordered a macchiato while she ordered a mocha - "the coffee should go well with the added chocolate". Then we sat on the high chairs at the side of the counter, watching the barista at work. Alas, the coffee machine blocked us but the man looked so focused and serious we truly believed he was doing his best to extract perfect 30ml shots of espresso.
Then we noticed something. The man who took our coffee orders was also the milk man in this case i.e. he heats up the milk and finishes off each serving of coffee before it goes out, not the barista. Nut and I start wondering how much you need to pay for two men to do what normally is done by one person. Especially when you are determined to use fridge-cold milk each and every time.
My little red espresso cup of macchiato. Perfect little dollop of milk foam, and the scent of mocha is coming through. Let's not bother with any sugar for this. I inhale the scent, then I sip. Definitely not a burnt coffee here. The right temperature, sliding around my mouth with good "grip" and the right tones for this coffee - the smell and taste of dark South American chocolate with a touch of berry, and this one is roasted to the right strength for me. Aaaaaaah. Unfortunately I really cannot order a third coffee for the day straight away unless I intend to annoy Nut and bounce around everywhere like Tigger.
"So how's your mocha?"
"Uh, tastes like coffee and chocolate."
>LS stares at Nut and wonders if something extra has been added to Nut's mocha<
"Uh, you did order a mocha. Which is a shot of coffee with chocolate added to it, then hot milk." "You better taste this for yourself."
>pause< "This is really chocolatey, yet we know there is a good shot of coffee in this."
"Like I said, coffee and chocolate!"
"Guess that Nicaraguan is a chocolatey coffee all right!"
After Sweet Agora Cafe, we headed off to Chef's Hat and the Japanese warehouse. Finally we headed back to the city, whereby I announced that I was in the mood for a wine this time. We tossed about the options of Movida versus Van Haus, and Van Haus won the toss. Unfortunately it was also the day that Van Haus was under renovations, so off we went to my perpetual back-up wine bar, the City Wine Shop on Spring Street.
"My friend here is looking for a fruity and fresh choice today."
>LS gestures towards Nut<
"Well, most of our selection are made from fruits"
>cheeky grin from bartender<
"You mean something here is NOT made from fruit?!"
>LS feigning shock<
Nut finally decided on a glass of the '07 Rockburn Riesling, while I opted for the '07 Borsao Macabeo. The latter is apparently the most grown white-wine grape in the world but is uncommon in this part of the world. "Interesting" was how the bartender described it when I asked for it.
Sitting under the heater in the weak afternoon sun, I tasted kiwifruit with a touch of lime. Some creaminess and even mild petroleum-like grip on the tongue, but not so much that I would baulk as a riesling fan. The faintest scent of earthy smokiness, almost like that of a Dominican cocoa bean. Quite the right drop for the afternoon, I thought. My senses were really on full alert, considering that I normally just label wines as "Yum", "Good", "Not Bad", "OK" and "Scrumptious" (which means Yeek, Yuck, Aicarumba, Oy Vay, Yeow who let this out of the barrel, and No Way Jose).
Nut seemed to also enjoy her Riesling. We discussed the extent to which those working at wine bars, especially those that serve wines from various regions of the world like the City Wine Shop, have to be trained to be able to give proper sommelier advice to customers.
One thing I like about Melbourne: you can drink pretty much anything you want whenever you want to, especially on a weekend.
LS on drinks alone:
- Cafe Sweethearts was a 2 out of 5 stars experience for me for the day - very uncharacteristic performance for them based on a comparison of experiences and certainly I hope such coffee will not be repeated;
- Sweet Agora gets 4&1/2 out of 5 stars for the ability to get the macchiato just right and extract the full flavour profile of the single origin bean which is quite a feat in this country from my experiences and so we certainly will not argue with the two man behind the machine strategy. The 1/2 star is for the ability to get Nut and me engaged in one of our funniest chats yet;
- City Wine Shop 4 out of 5 stars for, as always, good customer service (despite the smart aleck remark - they even actively offered us an extra chair for our bags of groceries) and good wines.
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