Friday 19 October 2012

Upcoming coffees & teas

Coffee

We are finishing up on Market Lane's seasonal blend and the Santa Isabel COE. It's been quite an enjoyable week. Sad to see it go, but excited for what's coming in this week. We have Seven Seeds' current espresso blend made up three Central Americans.

50% La Penalba, Honduras
30% Jaime Molina, Nicaragua
20$ Brumas Del Zurqui, Costa Rica

Also, on offer for filter is the Kiangai Kirinyaga, Kenya. Really beautiful Kenya with typical blackcurrant & floral tones.

Teas

Also we can't say at this stage what they will be, however we will have some new teas coming in. After a tasty impromptu tea cupping with Nathan Wakeford from Somage we will picking out some of their reserve selection to compliment our current selection.

While on the topic I might as well touch on our current range and our tea practices. We have been brewing with our current methods for the last couple of years with much guidance from David and Pasquale at Larsen and Thompson.

We choose to control our parameters (tea weight, water, temp, time) when brewing our single estate teas. It's with this control that we are able to achieve correct infusion for each customer and customised conditions for each tea. These methods are not new or innovative, however they are not commonly embraced in a cafe environment. More common is a 'bang-it-in-a-teapot' model which leads to unpredictable results in the cup.

Our recipes are ones that we have come to through testing and tasting. However they are not beyond question. We love interacting with anyone and everyone about great tea so if anyone has any questions or queries as to our practices or why their tea has no leaves in it, or why it's not in a giant pot then we would love to hear from you.

If you are at all curious about tea then I would recommend going to Storm In A Teacup on Smith St in Collingwood. Amazing tea and amazing people. For tea brewed in a similar manner I would recommend Monk Bodhi Dharma and Proud Mary. The latter is a particularly good example of what is possible in a cafe environment and why we shouldn't settle for compromises.


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