Suggestions for a newbie

[strawdog]

Hi,

I live in Tasmania, where there is only one local roaster (Hobart). Can anyone give me some ideas on which blends would be good to try (from other well known Australian roasters)?

Cheers

Strawdog

[>Veneziano]

Re: Suggestions for a newbie

Hi Strawdog,

Please forgive me for not replying to this sooner!

First up, Im sure that there are at least two roasters in your neck of the woods; both Island Espresso and Oomph competed in the Tasmanian Barista Competition, which was actually held in Victoria. Island took first and seconds place and I was lucky enough to be given some of their blend to take home and play with. It was quite low in acidity, very syrupy and very easy to work with. I dont think that that was a standard blend of theirs, but if you ask Dane about it, Im sure that hell be able to put you on the right track to getting something similar.

In terms of our offerings, personally I think that the "Makin Espresso" blend (formerly called the WBC blend) is the most suitable for domestic espresso machines. It contains a small percentage of robusta, which makes it a very forgiving blend to work with - your shots can be a little too fast or a little too slow and it still tastes pretty good. You should look for toffee-like flavours, a rich and syrupy mouthfeel with a subtle palate cleaning acidity in the aftertaste. This is a blend that we have had on and off, but I think that we will be adding it to our regular production cycle now.

Our "Veneziano Estate" blend is designed to deliver a clean, but rich espresso from the first to the last sip. It has a sort of milk chocolate type taste with some dried fruit notes. This one has proved quite popular with coffeesnobs. The lack of robusta and monsooned malabar in this blend means that youll probably want to run shorter shots of this than of the Makin Espresso blend.

Both of these blends are all-rounders in that they perform quite well as both espresso and as milk drinks.

Cheers,

Luca