Product Review: Griffiths Just Fair Coffee

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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Disclaimer: I was sent the coffee to try.

Once upon a time I drank a lot of coffee. In my previous job, a group of us had a share in our own plunger and ground coffee round and, until very recently, my current employer provided us with a lovely barista grade coffee machine*. Almost 4 years ago, I decided 6 long blacks a day was probably a bad thing and went cold turkey for a while. Now, I have one (very infrequently two) cup of coffee a day. So I like it to be good.

Sadly, coffee is one of those products that is often brought to us by people who aren’t treated very well by the corporate chain in which they find themselves. Personally, I think it’s important to look for Fairtrade products, because in theory the farmers will have received a fair price (and fair treatment) for their raw commodity.

I’m pretty sure we all know that I also think it’s important to try to buy Australian. So while a small amount of coffee is actually grown in Australia (mostly in the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland) it is less than commonplace. Actually, even finding Australian owned, local coffee roasters is pretty tricky but one of these is Griffiths.

Griffiths’ new product is Just Fair, an Australian Certified Organic, Fairtrade coffee that is roasted (and ground) in Melbourne. I was sent the espresso beans to try.

The beans come in a tin, rather than a bag, which is very handy for storage (I don’t usually grind a whole tin/bag at once). They are, obviously, 100% Arabica. All well and good, providing the resultant coffee hits the mark taste wise.

Now, I confess we don’t have a proper coffee grinder at home (I am one of those bad people who uses a spice grinder) and often we find that lighter roast beans will end up producing a rather insipid cup of coffee. I’m pleased that this isn’t the case with the Just Fair coffee. It’s a good strong roast, with richness of flavour and a healthy kick of bitterness. I was very happy and I would recommend this for anyone who likes a strong coffee. In fact, this is definitely a coffee that I’d consider as an alternative to our usual brand.

Just Fair retails for around $12 for a 250g tin. You can buy beans or ground and there’s a decaf option too. For a bit of novelty, you can trace your beans’ journey on the Just Fair website.

* For the record, that machine has been replaced by an awful pod machine.  Productivity has, naturally, decreased!

Cellar Door Wine Festival 2014 – Social Media Ambassador

- Alex Prichard 2 Comments

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Tasting plate of SA goodies – that rare beef was amazing!

Even before I had a child, a week that involved every night out would have left me feeling a little knackered. Last week was such a week: epic on many, many counts and my sanity (and the long suffering Andy’s sanity) saved quite possibly only by the fact that the toddler spent Friday night at his grandparents’ house.

Every night out was a good night out, don’t get me wrong, but I could have done with them rather more spaced out. Let’s fast forward through the week to Thursday night.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from the Adelaide Convention Centre, which is the organisation behind the annual Cellar Door Wine Festival. Would I like to be a social media ambassador for the 2014 festival?

On the one hand, this suggests that I either drink too much or spend too much time on twitter … but on the other, did they really have to ask?!

With Thursday night by that stage the only night free in an already hectic week, I shouldn’t have been surprised when that was the night of the program’s launch. I headed off to the Convention Centre, post Dora the Explorer, feeling a little less than glamorous and wondering what awaited me.

What awaited me was a tiny taste of what awaits everyone come Valentine’s Day 2014 – the opening day of the Festival. Next year you can expect to see the same overwhelming array of wineries but there’s going to be an increasing emphasis on food and local producers. Marion Grasby (ex Masterchef) will be hosting master classes, as will Valérie Henbest of the Smelly Cheese Shop. If you don’t already have a date for Valentine’s Day, consider yourself on notice to find one.

This partnership with the Smelly Cheese extends to a very special cheese themed competition. Details are coming but, in the meantime, if you love cheese, perhaps consider taking a selfie of your next close encounter and keeping it stashed away ready for the competition to open!

The ambassadors were treated to a lovely meal: amazing antipasto (seriously amazing – everyone was so impressed with the pastrami in particular), a seared tuna entrée, served on a melon salad dressed with soy sauce which was genius (and tasted a lot better than it sounds written down!), a tasting plate (shown above) for main course and a Haigh’s flourless chocolate cake for dessert. That also received some rave reviews (unsurprising, really).

We were also spoiled with a souvenir (see the photo below) as well as an amazing goodie box filled with South Australian eats, drinks and treats – and a tomato plant*. I might be pitting the tomato plant against my own seedlings and seeing how it fares.

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* Not so random, when you consider that tomatoes were often referred to as love apples. Remember, the Festival opens on Valentine’s Day.

H by Felici

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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date of visit: Sunday 22 September 2013

A rare visit out the other side of town saw us stop off at Burnside Village and, of course, any stop had to include the obligatory babychino.

It was a really lovely day and absolutely perfect for sitting outside on what is apparently known as the ‘restaurant deck’. We sat in some beautiful egg shaped chairs (a lot of excitement for an almost three year old in and of itself) enjoying the dappled light and admiring the selection of outdoor seating. At H by Felici you’ve got a choice of pretty much everything from high, bar style tables through to a huge sofa.

To be honest, the lovely, comfortable setting was about as good as things got. In terms of cake selection, my choice was limited, so I chose a chocolate croissant because paying $4.50 for a macaron feels just wrong.

I ordered our coffees, paid my money and went and sat down. And we waited. And waited. H by Felici wasn’t busy at all, and while I recognise that it styles itself as more restaurant than café, if you’ve made the decision to serve coffee and cakes you should be able to turn out a couple of coffees and a babychino in under the 15 or 20 minutes we waited. Whenever the toddler starts getting fidgety with a lot of “where’s my ‘cino?’ you know you’ve been waiting a while.

Sitting outside, we barely saw any staff so making an enquiry wasn’t going to be possible without heading indoors.

Fortunately, things didn’t come to that and the coffees and cake arrived. While I thought my caffe latte was pretty good, Andy didn’t rate his long black at all. The chocolate croissant had been heated (I hadn’t been asked if I wanted it warm or cold – but I guess this contributed to the delay) but all this had done was dry it out. The only moisture left was the odd bit of melting chocolate. Andy sagely pointed out “it was mostly air”.

We finished up and disappeared off. With very few staff around there was no one to acknowledge either our arrival or our departure.

As a restaurant the H by Felici experience may be either wonderful or terrible, but as a café the metaphorical socks really do need to be pulled up.

H by Felici
The Restaurant Deck
Burnside Village
447 Portrush Road
Glenside
phone: 8338 1427

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