Dead Man Espresso

Dead Man Espresso is made up of many talented individuals. From the 2 passionate chefs ( more on them later) , to our crackin good baristi! (is it barista's or baristi?). Below is a blog entry from one of them.. Angus Gibbs aka @blaklaquer in Tweetland. Who maybe starting up his own blog soon in preparation for his overseas trip. Angus started making coffee at Mixed Business, Clifton Hill, before learning to roast with Justin Miles of Seven Seeds before landing at Dead Man. With so much going on in Melbourne with coffee at present, it's nice to read about it from a hands on perspective. Luke

WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! And with that loud, obnoxious noise I enter ‘Blog World’.  Hello. My name is Angus. I make coffee. I do other things too. Alright enough of that, it’s business time.

            After a manic escape from work yesterday I took to the streets car in hand, well car’s steering wheel actually, determined to accomplish two things with my afternoon. 1. Make it out to Grosvenor St in time for Coffee Supreme’s 2pm cupping. 2. Listen to the latest Mos Def record, ‘The Ecstatic’. I managed to arrive only a few minutes late cutting my engine at the end of the third track. As I walk through the door the cupping is already underway but Heath is gracious enough to set up two extra cups for the coffees I had brought with me to sample.

            Already on the table is a selection of coffees Heath has acquired from a relatively new roastery in Portland Oregon by the name of  ‘Heart Roasters’ and one of there own Sumatran offerings as well. Add to that the two late arrivals from ‘49^th Parallel’ out of Burnaby, British Columbia and ‘Ecco Caffe’ from Sonoma County, California.  Now we’re staring at a neat little international table. Should be interesting.

            Here’s a List of the coffees:

COFFEE SUPREME:     Sumatra – sorry boys I can’t remember which (also I cheated and used the so called "intraweb" for the others)

HEART ROASTERS:    Brazil – Chapadao de Ferro

                                     Kenya – Muthewathi

                                     Ethiopia – Yiragcheffe

                                     Sumatra – Gayo

                                     Tanzania – Peaberry

49^th PARALLEL:            Tanzania – Songea (peaberry)

ECCO CAFFEE:              Rwanda – Kunda Kawa co-operative

To be honest everything tasted pretty amazing. All very clean, very well roasted coffees. In fear of this reading like a review, I’ll only talk about the standouts not the whole lot. I thoroughly enjoyed Hearts stuff. All very unique coffees differing greatly yet I must say I really loved the both the Kenyan and the Sumatran, Gasp, Shock, Horror. It had this crazy sweet apple note that overshone the funk.

Ok, so some coffee speak and jovial banter was had by all, and I’m grinning like a four year old. Ben and I clean up, the whole while old Fat Wreck Chords punk is playing, mainly NOFX – White trash, two heebs and a bean? (sorry if I’m wrong on that one Ben). Now it’s SLAYER time! I put through the rest of the Songea pulling some of the longest shots I have ever seen. None of it really tastes that impressive and I get the feeling that you need to spend a serious amount of time with this machine to truly learn it. By my last shot Justin shows up and dials in the Heart Sumatran so quick it is clear that he has spent vast amounts of time with the beast. It’s tasting like those awesome toffee apple candy bars it’s so sweet.

            Over all I had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. Many thanks, Mad props and uber loud shout outs to the supreme boys for hosting and letting me play around in the showroom. If you haven’t been down to Grosvenor Street yet, it’s definitely worth the trip. Also Many loving thanks to Jason Sheltus of market lane fame for hooking us up with the ECCO CAFFE.

Ok I’m out.

Blaklaquer