Coffee like tea? - The Sensory Lab

Food is a science isn't it? I mean, it's quite like chemistry isn't it, you put a bunch of elements together, add some fire and hopefully it doesn't explode.

Even something as simple as coffee, which mind you, I usually never drink, looks horrifically scientific when you walk into a place that looks like this...





But I love it. The...I'm reluctant to use word waiters, so let's call them connoisseurs, are all very hip, very trendy and wearing adorable white lab coats.

This is David Jone's new Sensory Lab. And whilst there's a couple of baguettes in a little glass case at the back, this place is all about the coffee. Just the coffee. Not even tea for non-coffee drinkers like me.





But when a place is this cute, how can I say no?



David and I walked in, probably looking very lost, took a seat and had someone very promptly come over to us and walk us through the different ways of brewing and serving coffee. Since David and I both admitted to not being coffee drinkers, she suggested we go for the syphoned coffee, which we had both had before and didn't find so bad.

She then proceeded to recommend us two of the four brews that she thought was tasting the best today, so that we could try them both and maybe (hopefully) see a difference between the two.



We were given the Tanzanian Blackburn and the Ethopian something...forgot the name. Oopsies.

But I was given the Tanzanian first, which I found quite rich and smoky and heavy. A little bit much for me.

But then we swapped and fortunately, David liked the Tanzanian much better (and even more so after 3 spoons sugar...oh David.), because I quite loved the Ethopian brew. It was sweeter, lighter and a bit fruitier than the Tanzanian and whilst David insisted I should put sugar in it, I decided to be purist, follow the advice of our connoisseur and not go down the sweet path.



So I would absolutely love to swing by here again, but alas for not being a bit drinker of coffee. If they only did single estate teas like Proud Mary now....

297 Little Collins St, Melbourne