Friday, September 24, 2010

Best coffee in Perth: Tartine, Trinity Arcade (St George's Terrace end), Perth

Tartine has got to be the best coffee place in Perth, with a great vibe to boot!

Baristas Jo and Kyle are always chirpy and chatty, and Jo can sometimes be seen dancing around and singing away to the in-house music.

The secret to Tartine's great coffee is the fact that they use a double-shot quantity of grinds (think double-espresso), but only pull a slightly smaller than espresso amount of water through it.  The result is a richly flavoured cup of bliss that you simply cannot make at home.  Because less water is used, there is no bitterness at all - just sweet and citrus!

They are also perfectionists at their art.  Kyle told me today that first thing every morning, they recalibrate the grind depending on the temperature and air humidity, and go through around 7 pulls to do so.  And they often need to recalibrate again later in the day, when conditions change!

The other great thing is the fact that, in addition to their normal blend, they also offer a single estate coffee which differs from week to week.

Today's single estate is an Ethiopian roasted by Five Senses - Yirgacheffe, an ancient coffee varietal grown by the small village cooperative of Harfusa in Southern Ethiopia.  It's got a strong robust flavour (more robust than your average arabica), but not bitter, followed by nutty, pure chocolate (ie 99%) flavours, finishing off with a lemony mouthfull with a subtle sweetness to it.  Beautiful (said in the fashion of Con the Fruiterer - for my fellow Gen Xers out there).

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