Australia's First Coffee degustation Dinner?

askthecoffeeguy

Hey guys just went to St Ali and tried four courses matched with wine and coffee with master chef Paul Wilson presiding!

Must say that the wine and food was a bit hit and miss as was the coffee but when it worked it was flippin amazing!

Never really thought much about the term 'coffee sommelier' in an Australian setting but based upon the success of this dinner (its sold out four nights in a row for $150 per person!) - it can only be a matter of time before we see coffee degustation menus in restaurants and I'm seriously thinking about creating one for my new cafe!

What do others think?

P

blanyon

Sounds like, if done well, it could push coffee into the next phase of public awareness (ie more than just caffeine to get you through the day) so people think of it as a gourmet  food. Would love to try one.

psaigh

At Bar 9 we're really happy with our pastry chef, he (Shane Joppich) comes up with some really creative flavour combinations for seemingly simple pastries. To do him justice we usually pair his creations with our recomendations for coffee.  Sometimes it's as simple as almond biscotti with a Latte, or more involved like and pumpkin walnut tart with a lighter roast malabar through the syphon. As for st ali's degustation - I think it's great for some of the leaders in our industry to push the boundries.  And even better that there's enough market interest that it sold out so much - that's fantastic!! It's probably important that we don't get caught up in ourselves and remember it's ultimately about offering an experience to the customer, without being pretentious about it. I wish I could have made it to melbourne to see and taste in person, and hopefully we see more of this in the future.  Looking forward to hearing about round 2 at your place Pat ;P

askthecoffeeguy

I hear ya! At the moment I'm flat out getting my joint finished in time for opening and even though I'm really happy with the coffee I still fell like there are quite a few intricacies with the coffee machine that need to be nailed / adjusted before we open our doors in a few weeks time! And in all fairness to the Guys at St Ali coffee pairing with food is still very much a fledgling industry in Australia and one that will need to save some serious marks on the board before it starts to infiltrate to the wider community - and I'm not convinced that the latest offering will dramatically sway puplic opinion so much as open up a debate about what is possible... To the future and beyond! P