Coffee Journey 澳洲咖啡之旅: Swallow

This was the first small café I fell in love with after moving to Australia. I’ve been to here for a couple of times but each time the quality was so consistently good. I have no doubt in trusting their devotion in producing good coffee for their loyal customers in which some of them travel from other suburbs to have a cup. Paintings (swallows) are nice. Food is fresh. Services are wonderful. The only bad words I can say for today is that Angus and Jessica were not here!!

Back to the coffee, apart from the good brewing skills, I highly appreciate the professional knowledge of the baristas here. Today Reece briefed me of the characteristics of the beans they were using and the brewing methods. This is called ‘professionalism’ which some cafés lack.

One more special thing is that other than the overwhelmingly popular espresso coffee, Swallow also serves coffee by filter methods, i.e. pour-over, Chemex and aeropress. You may probably know that beans for filter methods cannot be roasted to the same degree as those for espresso but should be lightly roasted. Who cares to provide choices for the minorities when the coffee world seems to be market and business driven?

Thanks for Swallow who caters for people like me having some lactose intolerance and can enjoy coffee in another way by the filter method. Today’s cup is even Geisha beans which are comparatively more expensive than any other beans. Totally satisfied today!

Today’s Pick:

Cappuccino: Single origin – Gera Jimma, Ethiopia: I didn’t taste the fruity flavor as expected by the roaster. But the body was very rich and smooth while the after-taste was very long-lasting.

Aeropress: Panama Santa Teresa Geisha – fruity taste like berries; just like some black tea with not a tiny bit of bitterness.

Jessica and Angus,

Congratulations to the opening of your second shop. I shall be visiting you very soon. :)

移居澳洲以後，這是第一間令我鍾情的咖啡店；其後的數次光顧，我也享受到他們很一致而高水準的造啡技術。這讓我絕對相信他們致力於為顧客提供好啡，怪不得忠誠的顧客也特意從別的小區來這兒歎啡。

小店的牆畫很美、食物新鮮、服務也很好。今天唯一不足之處是不能跟店主Angus和Jessica碰面！

說回咖啡，除了沖調技術優秀，咖啡師的專業知識令我讚嘆。今天咖啡師Reece給我細緻的講解他們用的豆的特性及各種沖調方法。這就叫做「專業」，是一些咖啡店所缺乏的。

此外，除了最流行的意式咖啡沖調外，他們也提供濾沖咖啡。你也許知道濾沖咖啡所用的豆子，不會跟意式咖啡用的豆子一樣，以相同的烘焙度烘焙，而是淺烘焙的。這樣額外支出，在現今以市場及營商主導的環境中，誰會願意顧及顧客中的小眾呢?!

謝謝Swallow，也令和我一樣有點乳糖不耐的人受惠，享用以濾沖方法的咖啡。今天的豆子還是巴拿馬藝伎豆，它的價錢在一般豆子之上，淺烘焙用以濾沖方法，讓今天美滿得不得了！

今天所選：

Cappuccino: 單品俟塞俄比亞Gera Jimma豆，我嚐不到烘焙商建議的果味，但質感卻很厚和滑，而且後感餘韻也悠長。

氣壓式沖泡：巴拿馬藝伎（Panama Santa Teresa Geisha），莓的味道，尤如喝了一杯黑茶一樣，絲亳的苦味也沒有，好一杯！

Mon-Fri 0600-1600