The very first weekend I moved into my new home in Lower Lonsdale, I walked across the street to the Lonsdale Quay Market and saw this cool stall with a killer looking espresso machine; the San Remo Opera.
I knew this guy was serious when he brings in a $30K machine to serve coffees one customer at a time.
His name is Andy.
We chatted that first day and talked about roasting coffee – and while he seems to subscribe to the newer roasting style that I’ve been observing over the past 10 years (which is lighter and sweeter), I’m a fan of what he’s doing. I typically like my coffee bolder, earthier, strong like hell and black as night.
His coffees tend to have a nice, long-lasting flavour and great after taste.
Recently, I was in for coffee with my girlfriend and I also bought a couple of cups. Andy immediately started to tell me about the quality and the brands.
The first cup – to the left in the photos below is a co-creation by a New Zealand Company called ACME and the Maruasa Porcelain Factory from Japan. It’s quite the quality product, you can tell just by the feel of it. It’s good for coffee, tea, or wine! The second cup is from Kinto, a fantastic Japanese company that focus on the form and function of serve ware. For those of you who know me, you only imagine how excited I was about these purchases.
Andy seemed equally excited and said that he had a present for me; he presented me with a bag of Bilbao Espresso from Monogram Coffee.
As I’ve recently started this food blog, I thought it would be cool to put together a little video on the coffee and some tasting notes.
While I’m not a great video presenter or editor, you’ll get the gist. Enjoy!
Vikas Sharma 
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