Coffee Nerd
I’d like to think of myself as a bit of a coffee nerd. I can remember my favourite coffees, when and where. I’ve recently got hooked on a place that is ABOVE my level. The National level. I stumbled onto this place after my old coffee shop closed. I went in to this decent looking, but nothing too fancy looking shop. It was then I noticed the National Awards. 1st place 2003, 2nd place 2005, 3rd place 2004.
So I get talking, and over time they’ve been educating me about coffee. What’s gone from a like has become a major love. One of the first things they told me about is the Ristretto. This is the coffee bean in a liquid form. It’s a gift from the gods. It’s also know as The God Shot, and it’s not just me who’s calling it that.
The guys who are making my coffee, actually know the guys who wrote the articles that I’ve link to. They’ve STAYED with them, that’s Vancouver Canada here folks, not some small place to go to. It’s crazy to know there is such a barista community, I guess it was always there, I can just now see it, like Neo and The Matrix.
The last two weeks they’ve given me places to try coffee in my local area. Last week was The Nuns’ Pool, the barista is ‘Dom’, and he makes a very nice coffee. I LIKED it a lot, but the beans weren’t as good as I’d hoped for. I will be going back ASAP, the venue, service and quality were all simply amazing.
This week was Kafe Nio, also in Cronulla. The place is small, and a little bit more down to earth perhaps even a bit dingy. I was suggested to go there to check out the barista’s (Jason) Latte Art, he’s the national champ @ it and makes ‘crazy stuff’. He wasn’t baristing (is that a word?) when I was there, which was a pity but the beans and the guy who was baristing more then made up for the lack of amazing latte art (which they have photos of on the walls). One of the staff @ Kafe Nio is actually a photographer also, which is great for me, for obvious reason.
Both places have been sitting in my own backyard this whole time. I can’t wait to get back to both places, and it’s not even Monday. That said, I can’t wait for Monday morning to go back to my regular boys. Coffee. Who would of thought?