This week's wrap up

Well I've decided to do a bit of a concise wrap at the end of every week, partly to act as a summary journal, and partly to let you all know what you missed out on if you couldn't make it through ;p

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!

How to brew without power?!

Just a bit of an update before I post some exciting news. Everything was all set to go ahead with a 'soft' opening, followed by the official opening a week later. This is, however, before the power blew out last Sunday.

We didn't just blow a fuse either - we messed up the etsa box good and proper. Consequently there was no power that day which posed two problems. 1) how were we to have a coffee. And 2) how were we to get power back to the site and get the cafe open.

So to address the first problem, we had a butane burner for heating water (thanks to the syphons) and about a dozen or so ways of brewing coffee without the need of a pump or anything else electrical. However, there was no way to grind the coffee. No hand grinder, and obviously no way to power the usual grinders.

Discouraged though not defeated we put our thinking caps on. Anya has the brilliant idea of bagging up some coffee and beating it with a stick (there was no hammer handy). And I grabbed a pair of pliers and proceeded to 'crack' each bean, one at a time, until there was enough to make a cup of coffee. We then brewed the stick beaten coffee in a plunger and the pliered coffee in the Aeropress.

I'm not sure which one I preferred but I can honestly say that both cups were decent. Sure, no spectacular elixir mimicking the nectar of the gods, but still an entirely palatable cup of coffee. Just goes to show you that good stuff in (great quality coffee) mixed with a basic understanding of how to brew, equates to good stuff out.

This then leads to the second problem, no power and how that's going to effect the opening. Fortunately the sparky came out early the next day and got things up and running. Unfortunately I have to selectively power the site until an upgrade of the entire electrics of the site can occur (looking at about a month).

Fortunately with a few tweaks here and there I've been able to salvage together just enough power to get the grinders, coffee machine, fridge, dishwasher and hot water running. IE/ I have (just) enough power to make coffee. Which leads me to my next exciting piece of news.