So last week I get a call from the Divine Miss Em, over from Coonawarra for a day and with a brief window of opportunity for a coffee in South Melbourne. “Just tell me where to meet you,” she says.
Where to take an out-of-towner for coffee in South Melbourne? Where else but St Ali – one of the original third-wave coffee destinations (i.e. coffee wankery) in this fine town of ours.(Yeah, yeah, every other blogger has been here already. I don’t cross the river very often, alright?)
If you have any interest in coffee at all, you will probably know that St Ali roasts its own beans on the premises. All kinds of beans. Choose from impressive-sounding single origins from Ethiopian Yirgacheffe to Brazilian Nossa Senhora De Fatima, plus a few different house blends.
To start with, I had a shot of espresso with their blend of the day. And in true espresso fashion, I gulped it down before realising I’d forgotten to take a photo… oops. Anyway, it was a great short black – no bitterness, but with enough punch to give you that espresso buzz.
Not only are there a zillion different beans to choose from, you can also choose from a range of different coffee brewing methods. Oh no, silly, there’s not just espresso! (Although their espresso machine is fairly impressive.) I decided to try the syphon (or siphon) filter, mainly because it looks really cool when they make it.
I believe the idea with the syphon is that it gives a more delicate flavour, so that you can better taste all the different notes. Obviously I am a coffee philistine, as it just tasted to me like watery coffee. But hey, whatever floats your boat.
The Divine Miss Em had a latte:
which she pronounced fabulous. She asked for a skinny latte, but was told that “we’re not doing skinny milk at the moment” – I immediately got my back up, thinking “effing full cream coffee nazis”, but when we went up to the counter to pay, I noticed a sign saying that skim milk was going to be unavailable for three weeks due to supplier issues. So I forgive them. (Guessing they must use some kind of fancy organic milk.)
We didn’t eat, but the menu looked great, as did the food coming out. The woman at the next table was having a Meg Ryan moment over the baked beans.
But really, St Ali is all about kickarse coffee.
KATE