Cartel - Caxton St

  Cartel Coffee on Caxton St has a cool vibe, friendly staff and a pretty good coffee to boot. 'Cartel' uses a Sydney boutique roaster "Caffe Di Gabriel" which is yet to really break into the Brisbane espresso market. 

  All of my encounters with this little espresso bar which has touches of south american charm, have been great. Located right near the top of Caxton St, this is definitely a new up and comer to check out.

The Coffee Guy - Wooloowin

Thought there wasn't anywhere to get a decent coffee a little further out into the suburbs? Well think again.

Today I visited "The Coffee Guy" Mr Daniel Salter. They now have two stores, the original espresso bar/roastery and the cafe down the road.

They can be found at:

1. Shop 2, 85 Kent Rd Wooloowin 

and

2. 38 Shaw Rd Wooloowin.

I asked Daniel for a description of his Signature Roast which is the house blend, and this is what he gave me. I would agree with this description.

"Signature Roast - a combination of supreme Arabica coffees sourced to create a flavour profile that is rich and full with strong earthy, cocoa tones. Recommended for espresso coffees with or without milk."

If you're in the area, stop by and visit Daniel or one of his crew for a great coffee.

- Brisbane's Best Coffee.

Veneziano - Preliminary review. Many more to come!

Hello Brisbane Coffee fans! 

Veneziano Coffee at 369 Montague Rd, West End - www.venezianocoffee.com.au - they have made our list of top coffee spots in Brisbane. In fairness we haven't yet developed our criteria for judging each establishment with any across the board consistency, so for now we will call this a preliminary review.

Veneziano are a specialty roaster from Melbourne. Home to some of the best Baristas in Australia (and yes even the world) they have set a high standard in all things coffee.

When we visited we had a single shot latte each and a single espresso. Since this experience was a little bit lacking in coffee flavour (what serious coffee drinker has singles in a drink as large as a latte) I have decided to change the review process from now on to a standard drink order. That being said, the drinks we had were well made, and Veneziano's blends and single origins really are of the highest standards.

The standard drink order will now be:

A latte/flat white/cappuccino/whatever milk based drink you want in an acf tulip cup (or similar size) made on a double and a doppio ristretto as the drinks of choice for review purposes and so that some standards are in place.

In the future we will be opening up the blog (with some moderation of course) for people to be able to put comments in, and tell us of their own experiences of any of the places which we review.

The state of coffee in Brisbane

Come with us on a journey, and input along the way!

Our intention on this site is to only bring you reviews of the good coffee being made or roasted around Brisbane, and keep celebrating the good, not putting down the bad. Its amazing how many people whinge about other people in the coffee industry up here. So all hail the Baristas of Queensland who take their job seriously and the Artisan Roasters, closely guarding their secrets. Soon, bad coffee in Qld will be a thing of the past!

**Let me tell you how this blog came about...

Having briefly travelled to a few parts of the world recently (on that note, shout out to the best coffee I had outside of Australia which was at Estate Coffee in Copenhagen) it has become apparent to me, despite my often long winded rants to family, friends and customers about the poor state of the hospitality industry, and more specifically coffee industry in Brisbane and Qld, that it is in fact not that bad. Let me explain why below.

It seems that no matter where you go, Italy included, there are many poor quality/not fresh coffees floating around in cafes, being extracted by even poorer baristas.

Just over a month ago whilst staying with some friends from Brisbane, who are living in Kiev, Ukraine, we got talking about the state of coffee in Brisbane. The longer we talked about it, the more we realised that yes in fact, Brisbane is on the improve atleast, and already has some world class coffee being made. Let me back that up!

For all my rants about coffee culture in Brisbane, I could list off atleast 5 places straight away where I would be happy to introduce someone to 'real' coffee, and 10 places where you could go if you were able to live with 'good not excellent,' results. Lets build on what we already have! 

So once again I say, raise your glasses (or acf cups) to the baristas, cafe owners and specialty coffee roasters of Queensland, and lets enjoy every last drop.

P.S Since this is my first post, I thought I should put in a video of me pouring a rosetta at work with my boss filming.