This week saw the first official week with 3 phase power at bar 9. This has meant that the lovely 40amps that the Synesso has been massively overloading our power grid with, is now taken care of, which leaves us with enough power coming to the site to fire up everything else we need without worry of tripping fuses and blowing out Etsa Boxes (yes, it happened - sorry ETSA).
This has meant a gradual introduction of some new menu items. We now have toasted panini being supplied by "queen st cafe", cakes and pastries by local pastry chef Shane Joppich and various other savoury items and house made chutneys etc by locally renowned chef, Scottie Butcher. We've finally got enough power to run a freezer which has meant the exciting introduction of Brazilian super food, Acai. For those of you who haven't tried it come in and ask for a free taster, we assure you, it's pretty damn amazing!
Also, if you have any suggestions for food, or anything you'd like to see on the menu, please let us know, as feedback on this side of the business has been the hardest to get out of people
This week has also seen a plethora of exciting coffee's coming through the doors. Rwandan Musasa, Tanzanian Blackburn Estate (both AA and AB), Bollivia San Juan 8 Estrellas, Kenya Gethumbwini (AA), Tembo and Gaikundo, Columbia Nos Larangas (which we loved so much that we decided to work it into our black blend), Guat and Brazil CoE (both getting on a bit but still quite tasty) two different Aricha's and two different Beloya's, some of Square Mile's summer espresso blend, and finally some Sumatran of which I'm not sure what region/farm but it was damn tasty as a syphon!
Nick Cho's thread on Coffeed.com regarding syphon brewing ratio's has had us really rethinking and experimenting with out syphon technique, however we still haven't made a decent brew with steep time's over a minute (still more tests to be done!). Ben Bicknell suggested a significantly different technique to what we usually employ which has been fun playing around with. Try 12.5g p/cup(120mls) roughly ground for a mokka (slightly coarser than espresso), added during the up draw with only one full stir. Steep for 45-50seconds and allow to draw down with again only one full stir. I'm not sure I'm fully sold on this technique but it does deliver a different but still enjoyable brew. If you do try it, let us know what you think.
Other than that we keep getting busier and busier so thank you to everyone who's come in and had a coffee, and even more so to everyone who's been spreading the word on our behalf, we really appreciate it.
Look forward to pulling you all some more exciting shots next week!
