Having been inspired via an influx of Italian migrants after 1945 who evolved the traditions of their home country, Australia has become known and revered for its coffee culture and for the most part, it proves to be hard to not appreciate the obsession with quality product and presentation, which seems essentially to be the melange of the better bits of what coffee bean related culture of this earthround has to offer.
Given the smorgasbord of quality café offerings, chain stores like Starbucks never stood a chance in Australia and the scene is quite competitive. Ever since I moved down under, a day has to go by where I do not kickstart my day with a triple espresso shots skim Flat White made with skill and precision.
Needless to say, I am passionate about places that have established themselves to become outlets for great coffee, especially when those place are dedicated to transparency at the origin and farm level.
Established sixteen years ago, Mecca Coffee is an entity that made the effort to not merely look at how factors like altitude and oil have a tangible impact on flavour nuances, but dug deeper to inform a holistic approach to sourcing their beans in a bid to honour the whole community of contributors whose endeavours result in the black gold we enjoy.
Mecca Coffee’s House blend is a combination of Estrella del Norte, Huila, Colombia and Mountain Capixaba, Espirito Santo, Brazil and what tickles the receptors on the top of the mouth is a well-calibrated melange of honeycomby, milk chocolatey nuances, which are interweaved by refreshing orangey highlights.
Mecca Coffee’s Moonwalker Blend is a suitable go-to for milk based coffee with its classic blend profile comprised of Mountain Capixaba, Espirito Santo, Brazil and Mamut, Huila, Colombia beans, which results in a richer, dark chocolatey flavour profile with a crescendo of layered dark berry highlights and nutty pecan pie, rounded out by a reverberating orange zesty finish.
Nuddy Coffee
Quentin Tarantino is fabled to be a coffee aficionado, which would explain why coffee references are omnipresent throughout his oeuvre, specifically in Pulp Fiction, where in one of the more prominent coffee related scenes Jules quips:
“Mmm! God damn, Jimmie! This is some serious gourmet shit! Usually, me and Vince would be happy with some freeze-dried Taster's Choice, but he springs this serious gourmet shit on us! What flavour is this?”
How this is relevant to Nuddy Coffee you ask?
Well, because I felt the same way about when I first got a taste of their flavourful and fresh expressions, which are more often than not a carefully calibrated melange of different expressions, culminating in their very own DNA with a crema that is their special twist.
Take for example Nuddy’s Kings Canyon variant, an ode to the majestic sandstone massive that graces the red centre in Australia’s Watarrka National Park, which serves as an impressive canvas on which the sun transforms the scenery as daylight wanes.
Nuddy captures the phenomenon via combining the attributes of complex coffees from Papua New Guinea and Guatemala, resulting in a medium dark roast with subtle nuances of dark chocolate, burnt toffee and juicy berry highlights, which make the experience of having a cuppa a flavourful journey that invites to daydream.
I like my coffee strong and hence love Nuddy’s Broken Hill expression, which not unlike the “Silver City” and unofficial capital of the Australian Outback it is named after, carries rugged, rustic and robust characteristics.
The Broken Hill variant has a kick to it, which is derived from the combination of two intense, high-quality Arabica and Robusta coffee varieties.
By roasting the aforementioned source coffees dark, not only the landscape of Broken Hill is matched but a foundation is created on which delicate nuances of peanut butter, cocoa and caramel dance individually only to be ultimately married to a whole that is much more than the mere sum of its components.
If you appreciate your coffee giving you a jolt, you would find yourself hard pressed not being impressed by how this full bodied powerhouse with its deep nutty and slightly bitter flavours not only satisfies in the flavour department but puts a spring in your step with the strong finish it culminates in.
Equally as impressive in its own way is Nuddy’s Nullarbor roast: A blend of carefully curated source coffees from Guatemala and Brazil informs the coffee equivalent of Nullarbor’s earthy colour palate via flavours that traverse deep chocolate territory via a well-calibrated bitterness to hazelnutty nuances. The medium dark roast works well as the core of a Flat White or, the way I like it best, a formidable double espresso.
Nuddy’s sophisticated approach to channelling their alchemy in the creation of specific and unique flavour profiles also extends to the coffee related accessory they design themselves.
Case in point: Their Fellow Joey cup, which is a thing of beauty that will add an aesthetic edge to the bland, branded mug collection of any coffee aficionado: Double walled in a bid to retain heat and avoid exterior condensation, white ceramic majestically rests on a foundation that is a polished, gleaming copper base.
If your love for coffee is profound and you appreciate a sustainable, sophisticated and artisanal effort that goes beyond of what other roasters proffer, you would regret not checking out Nuddy Coffee’s offerings whenever the chance presents itself.
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images from company websites
