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After this major caffeine hit we headed to Melbourne Showgrounds full of energy to attend the Australian Coffee Festival and Café Biz where we could overdose on more of the amazing black gold. After being in café heaven early that same morning we were now in coffee heaven. This place had every café related product and services imaginable. There were what seemed like hundreds of displays and we could taste, test and purchase new products to our hearts delight.
There was also a barista championship showcasing amazing quality coffee with incredible latte art. As the judges had almost overdosed on the glorious black stuff we were able to get involved and try the coffee made by the hands of some of the country’s best baristas.
Now well and truly abuzz with coffee coursing through our veins it was time to start a never ending array of educational seminars on coffee roasting which we attended most of Saturday and all day Sunday. These seminars and workshops focused on the science of coffee with names such as
A very interesting hands-on experience covered in one of the workshops was experimenting various alternative brewing methods. These included
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Japanese syphon
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Aeropress
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Presso
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Otto
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and many more
Although we all love our coffee, we had had enough coffee for one day. We all jumped in the car and headed off for a small road trip to the Yarra Valley planning to avoid the late afternoon traffic chaos. Unfortunately our plans didn’t pan out as we anticipated and two hours later we arrived at our destination where we sat down to our very first sour dough pizza with a refreshing beer.
Another early morning start on Sunday as we head off to the Italian influenced suburb of Carlton for our express caffeine hit. After a bit of searching we finally found Seven Seeds; an unsigned café in an old warehouse in Carlton. On the menu we were presented with a selection of many different coffees from various countries around the world. Far too much caffeine later we left and headed back to the coffee seminars at the Melbourne Showgrounds to fill our brains with more coffee knowledge.
Later in the afternoon with the coffee conference completed, we drove the short distance to Collingwood where we found a nice little Chinese restaurant and ordered Peking Duck for dinner. During this amazing three-course dining experience we had plenty of time to reflect on everything we had learned over the previous three days and a few hours to detox from our ever growing coffee addiction which we swapped for a few cold beers.
Up again early Monday morning to pack and say good bye to our Melbourne metro apartment before hitting the streets to get our early morning coffee fix. On the agenda today before we fly out back to Perth we visit a few interesting cafes which are well-known in the Melbourne coffee scene.
Our day’s proceedings started at Proud Mary in Collingwood where we also enjoy a delicious breakfast. Proud Mary café is proud of the fact that they are the only café in the world with a six group handle coffee machine; and what a magnificent beast she is! As well as the stock standard espresso based coffees on offer, they also have many alternative brewing methods available to the customer.
Due to our prestige and the fact we had travelled from the other side of the country they allowed us to try one of the best and most expensive coffees in the world; Panama Don Pachi Geisha. It was served in a fancy glass and had a clean and bright colour. It had an intense fruity aroma which reminded me of strawberries.
Our next pit stop was in Hawthorn at the recently opened Café Axil Coffee which is owned and operated by David Makin & Zoe Delaney who are very experienced baristas and roasters in their own right. They also have the current Australian and Singaporean Barista Champions working for them and Zoe was being kept busy roasting all the coffee for this year’s World Barista Championship that was held in Bogota, Columbia.
After a couple more coffees in this shek new café we headed off next to Marketlane in South Yarra to visit another café that we had heard about only to find out that it was closed.
Our last caffeine hit was secured is St. Ali, a café and roasting farm located in some old warehouses in South Melbourne. The head roaster Ross shared some very interesting coffee information and tales. By this stage we had all overdosed on the liquid gold and so opted instead for some homemade juice and tea. This said, we were still smart enough to get some of the addictive little beans bagged up to take home!
So with our adventure drawing to an end we all boarded the plane for the long flight home. We each had our own stash of coffee beans and paraphernalia, brains abuzz with new ideas and bodies so full of caffeine there was defiantly going to be no sleep for any of us.
What a great opportunity and experience!
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