Neighbourhood BSM – 2016

With a few hours left of 2016, I figure I’d tidy this blog up a bit and squeeze a couple more posts in from my adventures earlier this year. One of my favourite new cafes (yes I’m heavily biased) is Neighbourhood by Sean McManus. He was absolutely awesome when I used to frequent Single O, and now he is even more awesome with his little hole in the wall!

Not only does he have his own oat milk, his espressos are quite different! I love them because I find they’re the perfect flavour – a filter profile with the punch of espresso. His hot chocolates look pretty awesome too!

So here’s a photo dump of coffees, a shiny machine, and a resident plant!


Continue reading Neighbourhood BSM – 2016

Artificer – 2015

Oh, Artificer! There are lots of places that I hype up for myself and set sky high expectations, that come crashing down as I realise they aren’t half as great as I was expecting. Then there’s this place. A place/two man crew that I’ve followed for a very long time now, ever since Shoji worked at Single Origin Roasters, before he was awarded SMH best barista 2012, and before I’d even heard of Dan until he popped up on my radar and then later, I learned that he’d won SMH best barista 2013. That’s a nigh unbeatable duo!

A great, hipsterish cafe that serves only coffee, I’ve always had a filter coffee that has blown me away here. I believe my first experience was a Burundi batch brew which was so sweet and fruity, it was amazing! For once I didn’t compare this to any previous Burundi experience I had, and I was very very happy with it. Though I’m not sure it was a Burundi, because all they really had was Bolivia? Either way, I found the two taste profiles to be similar as I came back to have all their other coffees – Bolivia Estanislao Pununi being another incredibly sweet coffee – some of the sweetest coffees I’ve had ever! I couldn’t believe how good the coffee tasted every time. And they serve piccolos in their espresso cups! It’s adorable!

The true test was when I had their Columbia El Triunfo, which I knew would taste very different from their Bolivian coffees. It was very nicely brewed, with a more acidic profile than the Bolivia, but also more tea like, again I was reminded of it being similar to a geisha. So, it was great, though I liked the Bolivian coffees better. I also managed to try their Brazil Santa Mariana as an espresso, and now that’s what I call a nutty coffee! Those hazelnut flavours came right out with a great finish! So basically, perfect coffee, all the time.
Continue reading Artificer – 2015

Single Origin Roasters – 2011 – 2015

Very seldom do I get to see a cafe evolve through time in a way that makes me feel proud of them. There are currently two in my life: Single Origin Roasters and Exchange Specialty Coffee. The only reason Artificer isn’t here is because it’s too new. Plus being in another state makes it somewhat difficult to assess too.

Continue reading Single Origin Roasters – 2011 – 2015

Sydney Coffee – 2015

A lot of new specialty coffee stores opened in the last year, so much so that I ended up making myself sick from a single coffee crawl because I hadn’t paced out my coffees and ended up dehydrating. Here are the cafes I visited in a two week run; two are specifically left out: Artificer Coffee and Single Origin Roasters because both these cafes have a special place in my caffeinated heart.

Continue reading Sydney Coffee – 2015