Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) 2015 – Day2

Day 2 kicked off with a bit more back and forth that I had hoped for, but on the whole the experience was still a good one.

I jumped on a tram and had been told that opposite the Auction Rooms was a Mork cafe that I “had to check out” pity that they weren’t open at 730am when I passed by. On a side note, what is it with Melbourne cafes opening so late..?? I get the closing early thing, but coffee is quintessentially a morning beverage right…??

IMG_20150313_081139IMG_20150313_083004Anyways, that aside, I made my way to Manchester Press, only getting a little lost on the way. Alot of these alleys look alike, and before you know where you’re going the lack of signage can be a pain. It seems that no one else was having similar problems as the cafe was packed, and apparently everyone had come for bagels (which I was disappointed to find out is not Melbourne for coffee).

The actual coffee here though was quite decent. The house blend mac (Indonesia, Brazil, Ethiopia, & PNG blend) started off at a walk with a not bad, but not mind blowing coffee. Thankfully the Nayarita Reserva 2 Mexican long black picked up the level with a clean, darker brew, with nice back notes of stone fruits. It was well balanced, and as I don’t get alot of Mexican coffee to drink normally, it was a nice change. I then finished off with a nice Dukes coffee Kenyan Karimikui batch brew, which had a distinctive nectarine aftertaste, and a light honey acidity. Very interesting coffee.

Next on the cards was Patricia, but walking by, the line up to get in was insane. With little time left before getting over to #MICE2015 I needed another option and fast. Luckily Filter cafe is not too far away.

IMG_20150313_090454IMG_20150313_085525My first impression of Filter would be a perfect lobby cafe for an Apple store. It is quiet and clean, and designed very simply. As a representative of Small Batch coffee it has a great location.

The coffee was…. not bad…. If I was being perfectly honest, the coffee was clean and spot on the flavour notes of the coffee, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.  I started with a Colombian Artunuaga batch brew that certainly had the advertised almond taste (of almost nothingness) and some of the apple/blackcurrant acidity once it cooled. If nothing else it was interesting. I then had a Costa Rica Ortiz aeropress which giving the awesome coffee coming out of there this year I expected alot. It was better than the batch brew, but not by a wide margin. It had a little acidity, it was clean, but that’s about it.

20150313_10161820150313_101225Time was up for too soon, and I had to get myself to MICE to help out at the ASCA stand. Once I had finally found my way to the showgrounds by tram, and had talked my way past the security checkpoint (I didn’t actually have a pass for any of the days which was inconvenient).
At MICE on this day I got to try a quick Mocopan espresso and a Grinders espresso. Both were possibly better than expected, but dark and chocolatey was the main aim. The Grinders booth in particular had an awesome concept. They’ve put alot of effort into it. I grab a couple of random coffees during the day including a nitro cold brew, and a few more espressos, but nothing noteworthy.

IMG_20150314_071901The finish to the day was awesome though, as Grinders had taken my two favourite things, coffee and single malt whisky, and created an matching event. Great fun, led onto a late night and a lot of scotch…

And so day 2 was completed.

 

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