Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) 2015 – Day 1

This year (finally) was my first opportunity to go to the Melbourne International Coffee Festival (MICE) and indulge my passion that is coffee. If my willingness to drive there from Sydney, or create a map focused primarily of finding awesome cafes in Melbourne (http://frid.co/2015MelbCoffee) isn’t reason enough, it was also a great opportunity to do my bit and volunteer to help out the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA).

In short, the drive to Melbourne was barely a challenge. Sharing the duties we drove from Sydney to Melbourne in about 8hrs, arriving just in time to start hitting up some cafes. After jumping a couple of trams going in the wrong direction we ended up at Auction Rooms.

IMG_20150312_110047IMG_20150312_110734First impressions are massively important, and the impression that Auction Rooms left was both brilliant, but set my expectations a little too high. From the service at the door to the attention to detail explaining the coffees and just the overall vibe, Auction Rooms was sensational. Better still, the Candyman mac (my first coffee) was smooth, light, chocolaty, with a slight sweetness and the perfect amount of milk. Next up the filter arrived, a Manantiales del Frontino ‘Gesha’, which was clean with a delicate slightly dry orange citrus and a slight floral. While it improved as it cooled, it never really wowed me. And then… the Yirgacheffe espresso arrived. Sad that I did not take down more details about this coffee as it was AWESOME. Flavour descriptors were “Full of Yum”. So robust, spectacular mouth-feel, and a great balance of sweetness with a finish of florals. BooYah!

IMG_20150312_115431IMG_20150312_121309From here the trek continued onto Seven Seeds, which I had high hopes for, and coming from the highs of the Auction Room, Seven Seeds was a real low. No one in the store was smiling, nor looked interested at being there. No matter how much positive energy I put out, it was quickly snuffed. Sadly the coffee suffered the same fate. The cold brew that we ordered had a film of unfiltered coffee floating on top of an otherwise unmentionable coffee. The filter coffee, a Ethiopian Kochere Yirgacheffe had some floral aroma, and once warm, some enjoyable sweetness, but cooled any further it tasted over extracted. As such, probably the cold drip was more enjoyable. Finally I had the Matambo Huila Colombian long black, which was likely the savior of the experience. Hot, it was all kinds of chocolate, and then as it opened up a pleasant sweet fruitiness came though. Even though I enjoyed talking one of the Seven Seeds customers into drinking black filters in the future, the experience on the whole wasn’t in the same league as the Auction Rooms.

IMG_20150312_124710212201512587Next on the list was the Assembly, which was one of the first cafes I saw in Melbourne using the Sydney roaster Mecca as a guest roast. Avoiding that (as I drink more than enough of it in Sydney), I got to enjoy a Colomibia Paraiso long black from Bar Rio (Canberra roaster), which has a robust chocolate start with a clean finish. Then as it cooled the sweetness came through with a lingering acidic tartness. Very enjoyable. I followed that up with a Seven Seeds Alfredo Boas filter coffee that was very lemon tea like, with a nice balanced acidity and a clean finish. Wasn’t really my cup of tea, but was enjoyable non the less.

2122015135458IMG_20150312_140817Finally on day 1, we made it over to the League of Honest Coffee which from start to finish impressed on all fronts. the service here was awesome and friendly, and the coffee was certainly drinkable! We started off with a Mwasa Nyamasheke Rwanda chemex filter, that was full of smooth and delicate stone fruits with a clean delicious finish. We also had a Leon Cortes Costa Rica long black that was full bodied with robust berries. A full on coffee, but full of deliciousness. We also had an Indian Kelagur Heights espresso, though, other than its nuttiness, was pretty unmentionable. Though the piece de resistance was the “Hey Buddy” blend as a cold brew. An awesome omniroast with an impressively balance berry sweetness and a nice acidity.

IMG_20150312_142018As a non-coffee aside, the chocolate brownie with peanut butter chunks was all kinds of awesome. If only they had been able to heat it up and serve it with vanilla bean ice-cream…… Oh well…. can’t have it all…

So all in all, for my first day in Melbourne it was a decent start. Unfortunately as I spent a great deal of time volunteering at MICE for ASCA, I wasn’t able to get around to my entire list of cafes, but I gave it a crack. When I get a bit more time, I will detail the rest of my experience in Melbourne.

Day 2 — Day 3 –>

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