The gorgeous girlfriend and I quit the 'burbs this weekend and headed up the Blue Mountains for a bit of a romantic weekend, complete with fireplace and log cabins. Needless to say, it was an awesome weekend and we really don't do enough of those. For those possibly interested, we stayed at a place called 'Seclusions' in Rydal; a quick Google and you will find them easily enough, it's well worth making the trip.
Anyway, our time was spent traipsing around the mountains like the tourists we were, bouncing from boutique shop to boutique shop, flinging money left and right like it was going out of fashion, all in all a great time.
Considering the environment we were in, and the abundance of little cafes and restaurants, and being the coffee nut that I am, I kept an eye out for potentially good coffee spots.
They built me up buttercup, just to let me down.
Planning a day spent in Leura, we were tipped off by a very professional and friendly waiter at Ashcroft's restaurant in Blackheath that the 'Red Door Cafe' in Leura was a good bet for some nice pastries and good coffee.
Unfortunately, I never got to test the veracity of his claims, because somehow despite parking maybe 5 metres from the bright red door of the aptly named cafe, we failed to find it until we were actually leaving the town, filled to the eyeballs with coffee sourced elsewhere. Woe.
So some day, in the not-too-distance future, we will be heading back there to determine if 'The Red Door' might just end up being the Coffee Mecca of the Mountains. If anyone reading this has visited that particular cafe, please comment.
So with 'The Red Door' out of the equation, we opted to just try random places throughout Leura, figuring such a boutique-ish town must have great coffee everywhere. No, no it didn't.
We jauntily strolled into a deli with a cafe at the back, largely because I was having coffee withdrawals and the icy wind was insistent that we find somewhere indoors. On the positive, it was an awesome deli; we spent a stupid amount of money there. On the negative, the coffee was just slightly upwards of terrible. The staff were attentive and friendly - something you see a lot of in the Blue Mountains just by-the-by.
At a later point in the day, we squeezed ourselves into the somewhat urban-feeling and uniquely named 'The Espresso Bar'. My feeling was that with such an ostentatious "we make such great coffee it's our entire identity" sort of name, that they must make a decent cup of coffee. Not really.
Though I feel that on this one I need to be a bit lenient. When I walk into a place that seems to just specialise in coffee, before ordering I make a habit of asking whoever is taking my order just how strong the coffee is. Typically I get a bit of an uncertain look back, which is understandable as it's all relative to the drinker, so then I ask whether it is a medium-dark or dark roast coffee.
Dependent on the answer is whether I double-shot or not. In this case I was told the coffee was fairly neutral so if I wanted strong, order double-shot, which I did. The coffee I got was bitter, and tasted strong enough to blow a hole in the back of my head. Needless to say I drank plenty of water while having my coffee.
Other places serving coffee followed a similar trend, though it should be noted we avoided Katoomba this time, having been there loads of times before, and yes it's easy to find good coffee there.
Then came the unexpected surprise. Most people who have visited the mountains and ventured past Wentworth Falls are probably familiar with Talisman Wood-fired Pizzas; they are just fantastic.
While paying for the pizzas my partner and I scoffed down, my coffee-enthusiast eye caught hold of a latte making its way outside. Noting the perfect milk texture and tight rosetta sitting on top, my spidey-sense started tingling.
5 minutes later I was sipping on a delicious cappuccino in pure pleasure.
So there you have it, the best coffee I had on this trip to the mountains came from a pizza joint. Who woulda thunk it?
If anyone reading this post knows of some great places in the Blue Mountains for coffee, I would really appreciate you commenting as I will definitely make the time to head up and check them out.
Finally, this was the morning's latte art attempt, still got some practice to do:
Brandon.
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