Both RIstretto @ 160 Central Arcade and Howard Street Coffee will be CLOSED next Thurs 26th Jan for Australia Day. Looking forward to seeing you on the Friday - open 6:30am! Have a good Australia day!
Ristretto Coffee Roasters are at the Laneway Night Markets on Sat 28th and Sunday 29th of Jan - Join us:)
What: Laneway Night Markets
When: Saturday 28 January 5-10pm and Sunday 29 January 3-8pm
Where: Hook and Lock Lanes, Northbridge
Celebrate Fringe World Summer Nights and Chinese New Year by shopping your evening away at the Laneway Night Markets. Jam packed with over 45 curious stalls each night, find loads of scrumptious wares from local artists and designers plus some dishes to tickle the taste buds. One of Perth’s more unusual market places, Hook and Lock Lane provide the perfect backdrop to hunt for the obscure and extraordinary late into the night.
The event is a pre-opening of our new Coffee Roastery and walk-up coffee and espresso bar window (more info soon). We’ll be flowin’ pour overs, breaking’ cold coffee brews and popin’ many an Aeorpress. Past the prep method expect a swag of craft roasted fine coffees - full of flavour, enjoyable and meets the mark for Truly Good Coffee. You’ll be able to buy roasted coffee and equipment to take home too!
Website: www.onwilliam.com.au/markets Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/298676280174521/
New Coffee Arrival - Los Congos from San Fernando in Nicaragua. Check for the large “pacamara” arabica bean variety and clean wild character. Right now sitting down typing this and enjoying as a long black (rounded grapefruit notes). Tried with milk (more savory, tobacco and crisp) and espresso (good sweetness, full mouthfeel, syrupy, some tropical fruit and floral notes). Courtesy of farmer Rene Paguaga.
A Christmas Flowering… Right up there with marshmallows, unicorns, clean white teeth, laundered and starched aprons… our Arabica Typica variety coffee plants have started to flower, albeit a little late. Nice to have these crisp, brilliant white, sweeeet, star shaped blossems out. We’re excited - we’ve been nursing these babies for just over a year. With a little luck we’ll have some ripe cherries in a few months. Off to consult the text books and ask around.
Ristrettos Vs Espressos
We are arranging a bit of a get together at Howard Street Coffee this Friday (16th December) at 1:30pm to discuss and demonstrate the differences between espresso and ristretto extractions from the Synesso machine. We’ll be talking specifically about the approaches and how a barista may consider these when working with a given coffee.
Allow 30mins max for your attendance and all the geeky wonderment and coffee obsessiveness that you can enjoy!
Why? Because we think that Perth (in particular) is still suffering from a legacy approach, which was quite appealing at the time, that stipulated that somehow ristretto extractions were “the way”, with some even saying “the only way”.
So come and understand or confirm what each entails, taste some shots, explore and define the resulting experiences from using the same single origin coffee (El Salvador San Jose or Guatamala Atlilian Providencia, anyone?)
You’ll be able to decide for your self what’s better ristretto or espresso.
Ristrettos Vs Espressos: 1:30pm this Friday (16th December) @ Howard Street Coffee (rear 89 St Georges Tce), Perth WA 6000
Fazenda Rainha wins Brasil Cup of Excellence 2011
We were really pleased to learn of Fazenda Rainha’s win of the Brazil Cup of Excellence over the weekend. The farm has previously been a national finailist in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010.
We’ve enjoyed offering coffee from Fazenda Rainha to our customers in Perth since 2010 and look forward to this year’s harvest including some Cup of Excellence samples and ideally stock of the winning lot which will be auctioned online on the 18th of January 2012.
Some more farm information on Fazenda Rainha:
Located on the border of Minas Gerais and Mogiana in Brasil. Under 500 acres in size, Fazenda Rainha has 280 hectares planted in coffee, 200 of those devoted to the Yellow Bourbon variety. The remained are left largely un planted to restosre native plant species and to help ensure balance and sustainability.
All its employees reside on the farm, thus eliminating the need to hire temporary workers. They are covered by unlimited health and hospital insurance. Recently a branch of the Pedro Rosa School of Computer Science and a chapel designed by Oscar Niemeyer were built for the employees. The environmental policy is based on striking a balance between production and preserving the environment.
Coffee cherries are hand-picked and collected on a cloth to keep them from touching the ground. Once they are harvested, they are pulped and spread out on a flat surface to dry in full sun. The drying is done slowly until 11% moisture content is reached. After drying, the coffee is kept in special wooden silos.
In 2008 Fazenda Rainha implemented a UTZ-certified socio-environmental management system. José Renato G. Dias, an agricultural engineer specialized in coffee culture, is Director General of the farm.
