To local Melburnians, Seven Seeds is quite well known as a recent addition to the indie roaster café scene, the owners having splitted from another well known group. They also have some offshoot cafes in town such as De Clieu (Blog entry on this needs to be updated too), Brother Baba Budan or some other famous cafes using their beans, including Dead Man Espresso and Dancing Goat. I have got to say I wasn’t totally blown away by the coffees here over a few visits. Their milk coffees are at best acceptable. The black coffees seemed to fare a little better. As usual, coffee is a very versatile thing… As much as I do believe in theories, what always sorts out the wheat from the chaff is the final taste. Here, I think it is underperforming a bit, especially when Dancing Goat and Dead Man Espresso made me better milk coffees, everyone’s default favourite.
God I miss the Melbourne Coffee Culture,
It has even spreaded up to Sydney lately..
Not easy to find -
You will need a car. And expect to pay some parking fine >.<
Bikes on Wall -
Pretty cool I guess. But I have seen it a few times before..
Cupping Room -
The whole set up is like a coffee lab. Rental is probably cheaper in Melbourne than Hong Kong, so they can afford to rent out a bigger space. We also did cupping in De Clieu, it’s sister offshoot. Over there it was a little smaller than here.
Clover Machine -
Recently no longer a big fan of this after some false starts. Clover has it’s advantages, but only on the rare occasions when the moon movement matches with the sun. At Seven Seeds, this is only used internally, and not available for cupping to customers. They only use it to test variables themselves.
A hybrid Synesso 2011 spec Hydra -
No official name for it but it’s the latest spec.
Pastries -
A bit generic. Not bad. Tastes better than they look.
El Savador Cup of Excellence #9 - Las Mercedes Pacamara hybrid
Mandarin citrus and vanilla, quite clean but loveable. Wish I could have this all day long ~ 9/10
House Blend Cappuccino -
I actually drank this over a few occasions, with or without chocolate powder, and generally this is too mild. Dead Man Espresso using the exact same coffee blend was usually slightly better than here, but not much. Not a big fan… ~ 6/10
Costa Rican Helsar de Zarcero,
Typica Villalobos Gonzalez -
Another beautiful and nice and bright espresso, a very lively cup with strong mandarin notes. Very memorable shot even from a few months later. I think Seven Seeds’s strongest point is definitely their Single Origin espressos as I got the same feeling from their De Clieu off shoot. The same can’t be said about their Milk Based Coffees or even Siphoned ones. ~ 9/10
Panama Mama Cata Geisha (Siphoned) -
A micro-lot, this is probably a little different to the typical famous Panama Geishas. On the nose is lemon vanilla cream, with a clean lemon and stone fruits in the mouth, followed by a dry chocolate finish. Not bad but does not resonate and rock with your senses like the Esmeralda Geisha or Don Pachi Natural lots from other farms drank in other cafes in Melbourne. It was good rather than exceptional. But compared to the so many boring cups I have been drinking in Hong Kong, I would be happy enough to drink this. Not trying to discourage the HK Coffee Scene, but there is honestly a bit of a gap still when it comes to 3rd wave coffee performance. This particular cup at Seven Seeds wasn’t impressive no, but just be open minded everyone!! I have had coffees that were so good and encapsulating, you couldn’t really go back. In HK, your best bet is at Knockbox Coffee, where perhaps 1 out of 5 cups might also be truly exceptional but be prepared for the ordinary cups in between. Best café in HK by far on a relative basis, sorry to say so to their competitions. Apologies. 
~ 6.9/10
Panela Sugar -
Nice Orange Shortbread..
Couldn’t find all my photos from visiting here over a few times, but that’s not really pertinent.
To me, Seven Seeds Café really excels in single original beans espressos.
Their weakness lies in their milk coffees the most, not really helped at all when other cafes using the exact same house blend made better cups than at the original café. And even then, these are still not exceptional compared to other Cafes. Other black coffees like siphoned or aeropressed coffees, is a big question mark as I haven’t had enough here to cross reference to others to be able to tell accurately! A little disappointed overall except for espressos. Order single origin espressos here always, which I do miss a lot. Forget about the milk coffees ..
Price: AUD $4
Ease of Access: 2/5 (Need a car. Near Melbourne University, around 10 minutes walk)
Coffee: ♕♕♕ – ♕♕♕♕♕ 1/2
Opening Hours:
Mon to Sun - 8:00am - 17:00pm
Address: 106 - 114 Berkeley Street Carlton VIC
Ph: 93478664
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