The Aroma Coffee Festival

The Rocks
10am - 5pm; annually, mid-late July

In general, I love markets. In particular those little white stalls with teepee hoods that dramatically sweep to the sky in that mediaeval, almost gothic, fashion. Good times!
To be honest, I was not expecting much from the Aroma Festival. In the weeks approaching there was advertising in all shapes and forms (okay, SMH and small billboards), and it started to get a really mainstream feel to it. I am the first to admit that I am a food snob at heart and, thus, I cannot deal with the general public knowing about awesome. I reserve the right to say that some things are only meant for those who deserve the rad. I should probably talk to a therapist about it. Or an analyst. Or...

Nevertheless, the day came. It was overcast and threatened to be drizzly. In other words it was set to be a perfect clutching-coffee-and-nibbling-on-delicious-things day. Ayup! I got there relatively early and had a look around at the roaster's and blender's who had claimed their places around the precinct of The Rocks. To be honest, there was not much that excited and I recognised few worth trying. Out of the Sydney favourites there was only Toby's Estate that I noted. This has become a popular blend amongst local cafés and, alas, proved to have an insane length of lined cawfee-drinkers from sun up to sun down. 'Twas definitely not worth waiting when I have their two stores so close to me (and my heart) - the Woolloomooloo one I am sure will be documented in the future. The first shot I had was from Danes and proved to be the best shot all day. Given, shots earlier in the day are always better than those later, but I was pleasantly surprised at the balance it had going. Definitely a solid roast to look out for. The next coffee short thereafter I had was...awful. Can't remember the roaster and, suffice to say, I don't care to. Only for cases of avoidance. The only other coffee I made bold to try was one within the Latte Art Championships section. A couple of competing baristas were 'taking a rest' from competition by making coffee for the general public at the back...they were obviously avoiding the harsh scores that the judges were serving up. Whew! I received a gorgeously arted latte, of which I do not normally consume, but it was free and proved to be delicious! Milk and coffee do go well together in such ratios! Surprise! It was also nice to meanwhile glance around the International Terminal and covet pretty-looking machines and shiny grinders.
The tea, chocolate, and spices and other edible fare were quite of the delectable! Stand outs included the fruit-infused tea, which within were ingredients like cinnamon, sweet Chinese apricot kernels, tangy haw slices, apple, hibiscus, and rosehips. No wonder it was called 'Amore'. The warm chocolate-covered cup of fresh strawberries were delightful, the conglomeration with which we bought fudge was great, and the dark-chocolate-coated peaberry beans were bought for those who were not predestined to make the festival and proved to be a gift of deliciousness. Also consumed later were the packets of spices bought to make more-than-heavenly curries - a great idea, these packets hold only the required amounts of condiments and leaves, thus ensuring that ingredients are fresh at all times! Innovation!

It was a popular event. It was, all-in-all, a good day to spend with those you enjoy the company of and in a location that is gorgeous to wander into sandstone-lined back alleys and enchantingly concealed shoppes. It is not a coffee festival per se that I would recommend other than if you: are a complete n00b at coffee; like the good stuff for one dollar; or if you are looking to start with some quality home machines. Perhaps next year will prove to be more promising in terms of coffee?

GUEST CONTRIBUTION: RISHIMON

Kekekekeke zerg rush lol.

See? I can be plenty Korean. Can't tell me apart can you?

Ostensibly, this is supposed to be about the Aroma Coffee Festival. But for both of us, it's not going to work out the way we want.

For all its hype as being the coffee festival of Sydney, the coffee component was rather lacklustre. None of the really interesting boutiques were available, the queues were immoderately long despite there being a fairly large number of coffee stalls available, (was your half-hour wait for Toby's Estate worth it?! Well, was it?!) no Campos, no Mecca, no Single Origin. 'Nuff said.

That being said and done, it was still okay. I had a pretty decent shot of Dane's, got to try and learned to hate several blends of coffee, which I can neither remember the names of, nor do I want to.

Where the festival really shined was the rather large 'other' category. This consisting of chocolate, tea and spices. I'm not even going to comment on spices, as a) how the hell do you partake of spices? and b) I didn't really try anything nor buy anything spice-related, which may have been to my detriment. That said, the spice stalls consisted of nice things like jams and relishes and confusing and odd things made of hibiscus. Possibly alcoholic.
The chocolate was good. Really, that sums up it well. Lots of different available chocolate products, lots of free samples, cheap to boot. I managed to snag 200g of chocolate-covered coffee beans for the paltry sum of $5, which was a great damn purchase. In retrospect, I should have bought a lot, LOT more. The consortium we formed to purchase fudge was a wise investment. A deliciously wise investment! Apparently, they appear every week on the Rocks Markets to sell their soft and textured wares, so go seek them out.

Other highlights included: watching baristas get absolutely destroyed by judges in the latte art competition, getting free coffees at the competition with lovely little ferns and trees on them and the coffee machine expo. Getting to stare at and touch some of those machines was a delight.

Gripe: It's too short. 7 hours? C'mon. Ideally, they should stretch this thing into a night festival, but it being the bane that is winter, that may prove infeasible (in which case, move it to summer...or hold two!) If you're not going to hold into the night, make it two days at least.

All that being said and done, it was worth it. I'd go again in a heartbeat, and would strongly suggest you do so too. It was muchly fun, and worth your investment of time and moneyz (even if I turned up late...but that's another story).

Addendum: The weather was really good for that day. Cool, but not cold, with a very light hint of rain. A very fine coffee mood kind of day. This probably contributed a lot to the day, and I hope it happens again.