Saturday, 18 October 2008

Ghetto Drip/Pour Over

Inspired by a conversation with prolific blogger, Luca, and a forum poll started by yours truly, I have decided put out a challenge to the four or so people who read this blog, to see who can create the best (or maybe worst) ghetto drip station.

So here are the rules. Who can find the best/funniest/cheapest/most ingenious piece or pieces of crap to either
A) Chuck Norris (read, brake beat or crush) or
B) McGuyver (read, manipulate or engineer in some way) into a Drip station.

Single drip is okay, bonus points awarded for multiple cup drip/pour-over station, as well as practicality or sheer impracticality.

Now for those of you who don't know what this is (particularly those living in the espresso dominated market of Australia) here's one example of a finnished product.



So basically it's a fairly simple device that holds a filter (usually paper, metal or cloth) in place above another vessel designed to catch the brewed coffee, ground coffee and hot water go in the top, simple.

So get your thinking caps on, and just to help get you started here's my first design.



Or check out Koffee Kosmo's fantastic (and far more practical) effort here.

Friday, 10 October 2008

Espresso royale organic cafe.


Well in the slow moving town of Adelaide it's not often a new cafe of passionate owners, that's worth heading out of your way for springs up. But that's exactly what you'll find at 357 magill rd, st morris, at "espresso royale".
It's a bit hard to spot as the name of the cafe almost doesn't appear on the site at all, instead lookout for a big "organic coffee" sign.  A good landmark to watch out for is the green, organic meats butcher across the road.
The small, quirky cafe boasts a shiny new la marz fb70 in the front which is a welcome site in a state overrun by cheap and nasty heat exchangers. Unfortunately no Robur to go along with it but they manage what they have very well.
The coffee is roasted on site so you know it's always fresh. They have a huge emphasis on organic fair trade coffee and food, offering a selection of three different single origins though no blends (They run an Ethiopian Sidamo as their 'house' coffee).
I had an espresso (which they make as a double) and a flat white and both were well made, though not perfect, but easily some of the better coffee available in south Australia.
The owners here really seem to care, which is fantastic as there is currently only a very small handful of operators in South Australia that operate with any sense of passion for what they do.  So I thoroughly recommend heading out to St Morris and please put forward any comments as to your experience.