The Single Origin Weekend

During my university days, a mini food hub appeared in Adelaide Arcade. An authentic Taiwanese vegetarian food store with various teas, a Japanese cafe with cheap and decent mains, an Italian restaurant that served limited but good homemade pasta, and a Scottish-managed cafe that served the best white chocolate mocha in town (with the odd day where the staff had to wear kilts and long white stockings). Then there was a chocolate shop that sold only imported chocolates, organic cocoas and coffee beans.

It was at this shop, where you were not allowed to say the C word (as in Cadbury) and could only whisper "Haigh's", that I learnt about single origin chocolates. I was already relatively familiar with single origin coffees, thanks to all the exposure at Adelaide Central Market and Kappy's (I do miss sitting amongst the sacks of coffee and tall glass vats of tea leaves, and I remember my sister talking about the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee roasting session she attended there), though back then I was still confined to sipping the odd Kenya Peaberry mocha and wondering about hazelnut infused ground coffee. My single origin world just ever so expanded when my tongue tingled as it first tasted the difference between Venezuelan chocolate and that from the Dominican Republic, and realised what 65% versus 68% cocoa content meant.

The Taiwanese place has moved to larger premises elsewhere, the Italian restaurant gone and the Scottish-managed cafe changed management, but Chocolate World is still there. In the meantime, I have moved on to trialling home blends with my little Bodum grinder and three-cup plunger. As with my sister, I have also moved to looking more closely at the differences in dark chocolates based on source of origin.

These memories were triggered the weekend I entered Proud Mary with SL, RM and JJ. Four blends, five single origins for espresso and ten single origins for siphon & clover. RM, curious about single origin coffees, happily had the time of his life trying out an Ethiopian espresso followed by a Rwandan siphon coffee - siphon coffee making is always a good show to kickstart interest in single origin coffees. SL thought her Tanzanian siphon was too much like (apricot) fruit juice, while I thought the house blend latte was not a bad cup. I became more distracted by my lunch cum dessert, a hot semolina custard pudding with grilled peaches, roasted hazelnuts, rose-infused mascarpone and honey.
Only one thing to improve on this: I wonder whether pecans or macademias would taste better than hazelnuts on this? Yes I do realise what Proud Mary is famous for, thanks to Melbourne Coffee Review, but I say one definitely needs to give the food a good go. I certainly was more entranced by the food menu than by the coffee menu, though of course I do have this thing about not having too much siphon or clover coffee.

On Sunday, torrential rain led to extremely muddy shoes at Sunny Ridge Strawberries and devouring of fantastic pizza & lasagna (what a sugo) amongst giant artichoke plants at T'Gallant Winery's La Baracca Trattoria. Happily we made our way down the windy road of sea views and grazing cattle to Mornington Peninsula Chocolates. A little shop dedicated to chocolates in entirety. Cocoas, Michel Cruz bars, chocolate lollipops, delicately tempered rounds of sheer delight in passionfruit earl grey tea and coffee ganaches. Ah, what wonderful colour and subtle scents in the shining brightness from the shop's white interior.

But my heart was always with the little boxes and long glass bottles, almost hidden at the side of the shop. The corner for the true chocolate lover. Bolivia 68%, Guanaja 70%, Cuba 70%, Organic Alvesia 74%, and what is this intriguing 80%...here we have smooth velvet, there we have earthy tobacco, but what about this tropical fruit intensity compared to that peach and mango subtlety...

By the time we walked out of the shop with our little bags of goodies, all SL could say was, "And to think I thought this was going to be a chocolate factory tour experience...who needs tours when you have THAT?!"

Ah yes, single origin. Purity in food origin is so under-rated, what a pity, because it can be so marvellous. *Sigh*

Proud Mary: Coffees - 4 stars, including .5 for diversity in choice of single origin coffees;
Food - 4 stars;
Service and atmosphere - 4 stars but peak hour is crowding...

La Baracca Trattoria: Food - 4.5 stars;
Service and atmosphere - 3 stars; we HATE having to queue for 20 minutes and then waiting for just over 1/2 hour for our food...thank gosh for the vegetable garden.

Mornington Peninsula Chocolates: 5 stars. No question about it. If you are a chocolate lover and you miss this place for your ganache fine chocolates & single origin fix, then shame...

Other places to check out while around the Red Hill area:

Montalto Vineyard - famous restaurant, ok wines, definitely best brownies on that side of Victoria...
Red Hill Brewery - be sure to do the beer tasting especially the seasonal brew, and if you turn up during lunchtime you get some pretty decent pub grub like a traditional Welsh Rarebit too.
Red Hill Cheese - enjoying a platter of cheeses on the deck surrounded by bushland on a warm sunny afternoon is always lovely. Just watch out when reversing your car to leave as there is not much space for a proper reversal.