One Saturday morning, I stopped off in Stafford on the way to the city. I had been told that there is a cafe just off Webster Road, next to an Ultra Tune, that’s well worth checking out.
In a few ways Elixir is a bit like the Merlo store on James Street. It also stocks a lot of coffee makng paraphernalia, including percolator seals, espresso machines, filters, etc. They also sell their own coffee beans.
Arriving at Elixir Coffee, I ran into David, someone I know through Twitter. Once I ordered my long black, David told me a little more about the place. It turned out that he knew the owners.
Elixir Coffee does not look much like a cafe, and it wasn’t one at first. David told me that Elixir Coffee began life as a small coffee roaster. The owners had always been involved in cafes, starting with the one their parents ran, and so it seems natural that they would have a real enthusiam for coffee, which shows in their product.
They offer a range of different blends, and at least one single origin on offer at any given time. The coffee is the focus, with only a small but varied food menu. And every coffee is served with tasting notes on a small, laminated card.
Espresso and Ice
David suggested that I let the staff choose what I was going to have next. That is how I ended up with a ‘con hielo’ as my second coffee. The crema was impressive, and it was great to try something I hadn’t even heard of before and probably wouldn’t have selected for myself.
TL;DR
Elixir Coffee is worth visiting, assuming you love coffee.
If you don’t, that’s your problem.
In the Brisbane CBD, there is a cafe called Coffee Hit on King George Square. I was in the city early for an Interactive Minds event, and I needed to get some form of caffeine. Coffee Hit looked promising, in a generic CBD cafe way. And they met my expectations, in a generic CBD cafe way.
Coffee Hit's Dollar
Except for one thing. The change that they gave me for the coffee. The dollar coin was damaged. Well, defaced. Scoured is another good word for it. Ground down would also work, maybe even savaged, if I wanted to use something more emotive.
Both sides of the coin had been very comprehensively scratched, possibly obliterated, you might even say brutally torn into. All trace of the Queen, and the unique Australian wildlife that decorated its once unmolested form had been remorselessly eradicated, like kangaroo genocide. That is completely unfair. I gave them real money for the coffee; it seems a little mean to give me something that almost wasn’t change. It’s nearly as bad as getting New Zealand money.
The coffee itself was OK. Like a lot of rather ordinary long blacks, it was a little too bitter. Since it was also boiling hot, that wasn’t a real surprise. Like their coffee, the prices were in line with most other CBD cafes as well. Nice location though.
Seriously, what am I going to do with that one dollar coin?
Finding a coffee on Park Road is not hard. Finding a good one isn’t a problem either. There is always La Dolce Vita, and most of the other cafes are worth trying too. Including a brand new one called Alegria Mediterranean Bistro & Bar, just next to La Dolce.
It is actually more restaurant than cafe, and their tapas menu is certainly worth checking out, but they also do good coffee. Alegria serves Moak coffee. I enjoyed the long black; it was strong, though a little bitter. Alegria also had a range of biscuits, some of which were made by one of the proprietors’ mothers. It is amazing how good someone can be at baking after a few decades’ experience, as my own Greek grandmother’s biscuits demonstrate as well.
GW Private Room is the first hairdresser I’ve been to that offers wine as well as tea or coffee. They also do breakfast. It is a neat little place in Festival Towers with free parking for customers and one of the coolest two level layouts I have seen. Hannah recommended the place, and it was a great choice.
They also serve black coffee in a glass. It and the yoghurt arrived on a rectangular plate as they got to work on my hair. It is actually harder than you think to eat and get your hair cut without getting hair in your food.
The coffee was OK but the glass was too hot. I guess this is why no-one else serves black coffee in something so conductive. Since they have massage chairs for the customers to sit in while they get their hair washed, I don’t plan to hold this against them.
The haircut was very good, the coffee was very ordinary, but overall in terms of service, GW Private Room does stand out.
They were wearing weskits. All of them. That was the first thing that I noticed at Dandelion and Driftwood. The cafe itself looked like someone’s caffeine-fuelled Victorian corner store with enough technology to add a hint of steampunk. Dandelion & Driftwood is located on Gerler Road in Hendra on Brisbane’s northside, just near Mario @ the Dining Room. A real coffee geek I know, the manager of Medium Roast Coffees subscription box, was raving about the place last week, and as he both knows more than me and strongly recommended the place, I had to check it out.
The staff uniforms, with a mix of ties, striped aprons and weskits, and the fully functional coffee brewing paraphernalia scattered around the store and counter were not the only noteworthy thing there. Awesome decor and attentive service aside, the coffee itself is great. They feature a number of different brewing methods as well as different blends.
Driftwood Blend
Driftwood blend
First was a long black with the Driftwood blend, with a ham and cheese croissant on the side. I liked it. It is similar to most standard blends in its body and acidity. There was a card detailing the blend propped on the side of the cup, which does a far better job of describing the coffee than I could. Peter, the proprietor, recommended that I try out one of their single origin blends next. They had two on offer, the El Salvador San Emilio, and another from Guatemala. He recommended the El Salvador San Emilio as the best one for black coffee.
El Salvador San Emilio
El Salvador San Emilio
Next was the El Salvador San Emilio. It was different to the Driftwood Blend and had a much lighter flavour, so other elements of the bean came out stronger. Peter took a few minutes to explain the coffee itself and apparently one of the significant differences between this and the other blend was that it’s semi-washed. Apparently this made for a more balanced flavour where no single element overpowered the bean. Fortunately this coffee, like the one before, came with another card, detailing what it was, describing its flavours, where it was grown and how it was processed.
Guatemala Acate Antiqua
Guatemala Acate Antiqua
The last bean I had was the Guatemala Acate Antiqua, along with a small chocolate friand. This was an interesting bean, best suited to a milk coffee, as per the accompanying card, due to its bitterness, but it had some really interesting flavours with it. Again, they are covered very well and in detail on the little card with which the coffee was served.
There was one more blend I did not try, and it was their Dandelion Blend. Peter explained that they get two new single origin coffees each week. While the El Salvador and the Guatemala beans won’t be there for long (Peter mentioned that there were some Kenyan and Costa Rican beans forthcoming) , the two house blends, Driftwood and Dandelion, will be.
Dandelion and Driftwood will have been open for just two weeks on the 24th October, and already it’s very busy. They combine an outstanding product with a great customer experience in a pleasant and convenient location, so this should not be a real surprise. It helps that the cafe is run by people who obviously love coffee and love to share that with the customers, no matter how busy they are.
TL;DR
Great coffee, with new single origin beans each week
