M
y progress in hauling myself across town to try out some of the best Cafes in Melbourne, hasn’t been as smooth sailing as I’d have liked! I was aiming for a very disciplined 2 cafes a day, which equates to 4 to 6 coffees at most, but I find out that I am not even doing 1 café by every 2 to 3 days! The very segregated locations of the different cafes becomes one major obstacle in achieving that, as I am stuck at the house during the time these Cafés are still open and most of them start shutting down and initiate cleaning way before 4pm sharp. This reminds me of the fact that despite the availability of so MANY great cafes in town, they’re sort of too spreaded out, with each café occupying their own little suburbs gracefully. Individually, each of these are probably the best Café in their respective regions and any of these are potentially world beaters. The Maling Room in Canterbury has been one of the best cafes in Melbourne for a long time and one of the pioneers of 3rd Wave coffee. It is even home to one of the Australian National Latte Art Champions, who is unfortunately not in duty during this visit and who does the prettiest of latte arts when she is on duty here! There have been times in the recent years when I held doubts on whether Maling Room can really keep up with the new upcoming competitions, and I am glad to report back, that since my last visit 2.5 years ago - these guys have definitely kept up for good and now offers a even larger range of premium Single Origin Coffee Beans selection as well as their vastly upgraded equipment. The price meanwhile has remained the same. It was an absolute bargain…!
At a Prominent Corner in Canterbury -
One of the nicest suburbs with plenty to do, including a French cheese room nearby (and they carry unpasteurised cheeses, hehe. You just need to ask politely!) and a very good Chocolate Shop.
With Plenty of Single Origins roasted by Artisanal roaster ‘Atomica Coffee’ or by ‘St Ali’, and nowadays also by themselves at Maling Room -
and Valrhona Dark Chocolate drinks. It is still hard core as before, in fact even better!!
Caffe Latte using a Single Origin Costa Rican Las Trojas/Trojes coffee bean – AUD $3.50
The latte art is nice, but today isn’t done by the Australian National Latte Art Champion Kirby Berlin! Damn, I miss her latte patterns. This is made from a fairly unheard of Costa Rican coffee lot for me. They normally use a ‘Symmetry house blend’ for milk coffees but I’d arrived just before they were about to close. Surprisingly this unblended Single Origin worked so amazingly well as a Caffe Latte. No exaggerations, this was powerful, malty yet slightly fruity and very red fruit driven aromatic at once. This coffee quality is easily better than anything I’ve tried in Hong Kong by a large margin, not a bit of exaggeration. Only Prufrock’s Autumn Espresso in London, was of this complex standard! 9.5/10
Espresso -
Also using the Costa Rican Las Trojes single lot, this was zingy and almost mousse like. It carried a sparkling red acidity on the tongue, which becomes very unique in its profile as the brightness will scare a few people away. Yet, it carried a bold body despite the acid. It was almost like rediscovering coffee all over again for me ! Very fragrantly addictive, btw! ~ 9/10
‘Modded’ Mazzer Major Grinder - check
Synesso Cyncra x 2 Machines - check
Faema Urania hand lever machine - check
A couple of W.B.C. spec Compak K10 grinders I forgot to take a picture of… - check
It’s hardcore coffee stuff, I wish I had these when I used to run a café in the past. Not the best in the world, but it is still a lot of investment. Try finding this in HK in any other café apart from William’s Barista Jam. Great equipment, National Champion baristas and stupidly good Coffee Bean Roasters. How can I ever go back to drinking coffee again when I return ummmm? Feeling so sad right now…
Price: AUD $6.50 per person
Coffee: ♕♕♕♕♕ 1/2
Opening Hours:
Daily - 7am - 4:30pm
Address: 206 Canterbury Road, Canterbury, Victoria, Australia
Ph: (03) 9836 9889
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