Sydney Coffeeposting

I recently flew down to Sydney to visit my partner (well, not technically Sydney, actually Central Coast, but close enough.) Took the opportunity to do some more tourism than my previous trip, which of course means lots of coffee shops!

Diggy Doo’s Coffee

First coffeeshop visit, and an excellent one to start! It was a little hard to find, kind of hidden in a basement/alley area, but only a short walk from Circular Quay/Wynard. They have a front facing espresso counter but also a slow bar talked in the back, which is where we sat.

We ordered two different pourovers to share - Costa Rica Finca Tono (anaerobic honey process; roasted in-house) and Colombia Finca La Maria Geisha (anarobic natural process; roasted by Fried Hats). The barista would let us smell the beans, then again after they were ground, and served it to us in a carafe with these cute ceramic cups called “2-WayCups”. The barista explained that the differently shaped rims direct coffee to hit different parts of your mouth first, with the narrow rim bringing out sweetness and the flared rim pronouncing floral notes and acidity.

He definitely made the experience, he overheard me talking my partner through tasting notes (he doesn’t drink a lot of black coffee so he’s still building that context and vocab) and chatted with us a bit about the coffees. The Finca Tono was funky, slightly sweet, really nice. The Finca La Maria was super tasty, very tea-like and fruity sweet, a super clean coffee. He even asked us if we were interested in trying something else, and cracked open a dose of a Nicaraguan coffee (I believe he said it was from a Tokyo roaster that they were friends with, though I didn’t catch more details). This one was wild, I could swear the beans smelled like gummy worms and definitely had a bit of candy/fruit-sweet especially from the thin rim.

A fantastic start to the day!

Dutch Smuggler Coffee Brewers

After spending the morning climbing the Bridge Pylon and enjoying the views, we headed back to the Quay and dropped by Dutch Smuggler for coffee and lunch. Didn’t actually grab any pictures without my face in them but we had some iced lattes to stave off the heat and I got to see the wonders of a mi goreng toastie (it’s frankly ridiculous, but also tasty as fuck)

We finished off the day with a walk past the Opera House (apparently the royals were visiting so the stairs were all blocked off, got some great photos from the pylon) and a nice wander through the Botanical Gardens.

Stitch Coffee QVB

We kicked off our second Sydney day trip with a visit to Stitch Coffee in QVB for breakfast and coffee. The food was delicious and I had a limited release Ethiopia Gara Agena pourover while my partner enjoyed a latte. Natural process, very smooth that finished with a pleasant sweetness, I really enjoyed it. Just the amount of fun coffees available is incredible, not to mention all the slow bars. Really wish the states had a bit more of a specialty coffee scene, but so it goes.

They used all Origami ceramics and glassware (and brewers of course), very fun - I might have to get one of these mugs myself. They were also serving several specialty cold drinks and we grabbed an orange and yuzu cold brew to go.

Sevens Specialty Coffee

Didn’t grab any pics but we stopped by for lunch and coffee. Really solid ‘spro and I had a pretty good reuben for food.

Skittle Lane

Similarly, no pics for this, we stopped by real quick before catching the ferry to Taronga. I ended up grabbing an iced coffee which was nice (it came white actually, which I wasn’t expecting) and stole some of the partner’s latte.

Single O Surry Hills

Final coffeeshop was the day of my flight back, we stopped by Single O Surry Hills before taking the train to the airport. Lovely atmosphere, I grabbed the filter flight - on the left is a Colombia El Vergel Java Koji, a bean that uses koji as a fermentation inoculate. Really weird tasting, very floral to my taste with heavy fruitiness. In the middle is a washed Kenyan which had a very bright lemon-citrus acid, and on the right was a mild and slightly sweet cold brew which served well as a palate cleanser

For food I also had this monstrous avo toast with a poached egg - tasty for sure, but I’m honestly not sure how you were meant to approach it. All the avocado and spread was on the top slice, the bottom just had some of the chili oil - I ended up eating the salad separately then spreading/mashing half of the toppings onto the bottom slice and topping it with the egg which worked well enough. Very filling and yum, a good start to a long day.

And then off to the airport for goodbyes and a long flight home. Hopefully I’ll be able to return soon.