This is what I asked myself after having my 3rd serve of Ethiopian Nikasse in three days. It was gloomy, cold, windy - crazy weather to be sitting outside Proud Mary hugging a glass of siphon coffee, even if Roland had roasted the beans himself and it was the most fawned-about coffee I had encountered in the last week.
Drinking this, I had to abandon my original plan of having a dessert (cocoa bread & butter pudding with rhubarb compote and amaretto mascaporne - I am now completely convinced that the Proud Mary kitchen has a dessert repertoire around amaretto mascaporne) This is the most expensive coffee I have ever drunk - even more expensive than the last Jamaican Blue Mountain I had earlier this year (I have not drunk that catpoo coffee from Indonesia yet). Damn Will Priestly, I thought to myself. I HAD to bump into you outside Proud Mary and have you tell me to drink this today, despite the Tanzanian & the Columbian & the Burundi coffees on the board.
This year's batch of Ethiopian Nikasse has also been praised at Seven Seeds and delicately promoted at Dancing Goat. SL tried the batch roasted by Seven Seeds, and called it a "melon, fruity" coffee on the day I had Veneziano's Kenya Makwa, the "banana" coffee (which I think would have matched well with a banana & walnut cake). Then I savoured the floral aroma and vanilla-orange-cocoa notes of the 5 Senses version as a one-day-only pourover at Eclipse.
It is remarkable to see a batch of coffee beans capture the baristas' love so much like this one. This is even more so when you consider the diverse coffees that have been available this month e.g.
- Guatemala Los Volcanoes (ah, will we ever forget the piccolo version of this?),
- Kenya Mbee (all hail Toshi, the Great Roaster who have made this a remarkable passionfruit, vanilla dark tea coffee),
- Brazil Carmo Estate (honey! caramel! almond! lime!),
- Bali Kinmani (earthey, chocolatey, almost malty),
- Brazil CoE #21 (our fondness for the pourover version of this coffee got us an invitation to do a cupping session with Dancing Goat's Jesse at Market Lane).
Now this version of this ridiculously loved coffee, roasted more lightly than the other versions. Definitely much more acidic compared to the 5 Senses version, more fruity, with that floral aroma ever so slight and not as tea-like as the 5 Senses version.
What a great month for coffee geeks, but what a horrible month for the wallet. I feel so broke. *sigh*
In other news:
- Toby's Estate is now open only on Tuesdays to Saturdays 830am to 2pm. Obviously someone decided that Melburnians drink coffee during the same times as Sydneysiders. It's not the time that is the issue you new management, it's your new deco and menu we have a problem with. Put Chris back on the bar with his good crew, and let the children back in!!!
- If you have not heard, Toshi is head roaster of Market Lane now. Bring friends and try the Coffee Tasting Flight. For a bit of fun, do what we did when we were there and do it cupping-style before reading the actual tasting notes that come with the Flight.
- Will is back from England with his World Latte Art trophy in tow. To see what he does with normal coffees, he should be at Cafenatics Docklands (the one with the groovy wooden wall-to-ceiling mural) for the next week - I did not care that the Sumatran on the machine was supposedly defective given how perfect the piccolo was, with its lovely fern design on top.
- If anyone knows where Erin Samson works, please drop us a line. We are curious to find this long-blogged-about lady barista who beat Shannon Hyde at the Danes Championships this year.
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