Thursday, July 25, 2013

My Coffee Obsession Story and a Giveaway or 3


This post is sponsored by Harris Coffee and Nuffnang

Do you ever get to a point in your day and think I missed my morning coffee, that must be why I am feeling a little low?  It's not just the pick me up that coffee gives me, but also the daily ritual around coffee.  Whether it's brewing it at home on your own coffee maker of choice or catching up with the girls after school drop off, 5.9 million Australians, including me, start their day off with a coffee.

Harris Coffee is celebrating 130 years in business this year and they are asking Australians to share their coffee obsession stories for a chance to win one of 130 personalised anniversary prize packs.  Harris are also running an in store promotion with three lucky coffee lovers winning a trip to an international coffee heartland of their choice - Brazil, Africa or Costa Rica.


As a coffee lover I have many coffee obsession stories.  I could tell you about how my first memory of espresso coffee at home, was when my dad came home with this funky Italian made piece of coffee making genius.   He set about introducing me to Italian coffee culture by making me the perfect home made espresso coffee, only to set the pressure valve way too high.  When he released it, the cap flew off spreading wet ground coffee all over the kitchen. No one was harmed in the making of that coffee, but my mother was cleaning coffee from every nook of that kitchen for weeks to come.  Dad was great in the kitchen until it came to the clean up.

Or I could tell you about a spunky boyfriend I had in my early 20s, who drove a cute coupe Alfa Romeo and really introduced me to the burgeoning outdoor cafe scene in East Sydney.  That always involved lots of espresso coffee and believe me, espresso coffee wasn't the only thing he introduced me to.  Enough said!!!!


But today I am going to share the story of a lovely event I attended recently hosted by Harris ambassador Ada Nicodemou and Wayne Archer, Master Blender at Harris.



We had some lovely coffee, made on a beautiful espresso machine by Daniel Vergnano, Harris Master Roaster.


His hot tip was to make sure the coffee holder on the machine is dry and that you stir the coffee so that the best of the coffee does not accumulate at the bottom of your cup.


Over coffee we had lovely catch up with blogging friends.


and of course I couldn't help but admire the beautiful private home in Darling Point, where the event was held.


How cute is the globe with place names attached?




Then it was down to business.  Wayne and  Daniel  introduced us to the many different varieties that Harris sources from all over the world and how they blend and mix the beans to create some of their signature styles of coffee. 


We tried the different varieties as black coffee. No milk, which as a latte drinker was a challenge for me. Interestingly the one I liked best was the less intense variety, Premium.  I was not keen on the Black Label in the tasting, but had happily drunk it whilst talking to Mel, because it had skim milk in it.


It just goes to show coffee is such an acquired taste and there is no right or wrong blend, it is just a matter of choosing what is right for you.


We also learned that almost 87 million coffees are drunk in Australia each week and the average coffee drinker has 15 coffees a week.  I think that makes me below average on this one, as I have one a day in the morning and feel ratty if I don't.


We then got the chance to win one of these gorgeous coffee machines by guessing the number of coffee beans in the Harris 500 gram bag.  I said 650 and was way off, as it is nearer 3000.  I would have loved to upgrade to one of these fabulous machines at the beach house, so I could make guests a beautiful espresso coffee when entertaining or just to make my morning coffee at home.  What a luxury.  Currently I use a plunger coffee maker, which is fine, but being a barista in my own home would be nice for espresso and a big saving too.


After the coffee tasting it was back to the gorgeous food all washed down with some lovely coffee of course.



Harris are running 3 giveaways right now.  Two on their Facebook page
and one right here on this blog.

Giveaway 1: For your chance to win 1 of 3 coffee lover holidays worth $20,000 enter with Harris Coffee here.

Giveaway 2: To win one of 130 anniversary prize packs including a personalised signature blend pack, a Bodum travel cup with plunger and your coffee obsession story turned into a piece of art go here.

OR
Giveaway 3:
 To win a a Harris Coffee prize pack on this blog containing the following:

Harris Espresso beans 500g
Harris Espresso ground 200g
Harris Premium beans 500g
Harris Black label ground 200g
Harris Reserve Colombian ground 1kg

RRP: $63.00

 Leave a comment on this blog, telling me your coffee obsession story.

The giveaway on this blog is now closed. Anne M congratulations you are the winner and I hope you enjoy your coffee.

Terms and conditions of Giveaway 3 can be viewed here.



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26 comments :

  1. Well, I'm not an Aussie but I'm married to one. We have a joint coffee obsession and we both like it prepared the exact same way in the mornings. Good because I don't have to remember how he likes it and bad because we seem to run out of our coffee and creamer very, very quickly! The brand we like originates from Hawaii and when we moved to Maryland, we had a hard time finding it. We finally found it and buy at least 6 to 8 bags each time we go to that store. We always act like we will never be able to get our hands on it again! Next time I'm in Australia, I'll have to check out the Harris brand! And the house in Darling Point is GORGEOUS!! I love Darling Point. It is one of my most favorite neighborhoods in all of Sydney. Our friends live on Yarranabbe Road and it is just magical visiting them!

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  2. My coffee obsession is that I love to cook with coffee, one of my recipes is Expresso and Dark Chocolate Slice, it's a hit in my coffee shop too.

    wattleview62@yahoo.com.au

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  3. We just bought the Breville dual boiler and it's amazing. I am loving it at home and it seriously makes amazing coffee (as good as a cafe) as long as you get the grind right. Don't know I could have done the black coffee tasting as i'm a latte drinker also.
    Fiona x

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  4. I have an Atomic too. So iconic. Love that house at Darling Point, especially those French linen chairs on the patio.

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  5. Great post and your photos look fabulous. Never seen that last 8 kilos of mine look so obvious though!

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  6. Everybody I care about, knows my deep rooted obsession of a coffee...Show me coffee beans, place/equipment to make them in to warm, full bodied, Creamy and aromatic coffee and I will be literally happy as a clam until the caffeine wears off ... ;-)

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  7. We bought a Cappuccino machine 5 years ago; since then we brew our own cappuccino every single day for lunch; it's a ritual I would not want to miss. Every day I can't wait for our coffee break; it can't come quick enough.

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  8. thanks for sharing the nice hosting!!

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  9. Hi there Carolyn, I ONLY drank Nescafe until I went to live in Italy for a year when I was 18. I almost fell over when I saw how tiny an espresso is... I became a cappuccino drinker... imagine if I'd never gone there? I'm experimenting with coffee makers of the easy variety and have neevr tried a real proper machine myself... will get there one day.

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  10. PS... you must tell me more of what you learned from the coffee drinking boyfriend... over a coffee of course.

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  11. mmmm coffee! my fav drink...wish I could have been there!!

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  12. Looks like a pretty fun event, and I can imagine that coffee lovers were in heaven! Not being a coffee lover myself, I wish your other caffeine-fan-commenters the best of luck!

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  13. Oooh, you saucy devil! I'll have to tell you about a couple of my Italian boyfriend stories. We'll compare notes! My coffee obsession story began a long time ago. Mum actually served us coffee in very retro coffee cups when we were going to primary school back in the 1970s. Even my 6 yo son loves it now. I don't give it to him too much but maybe its something in our genes.

    Anne xx

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  14. Beautiful photos Carolyn. What an amazing house! My mum introduced me to coffee with good old instant Nescafé 'milk coffee' when I was a teenager, and now I'm a one per day girl (fussy these days though - it's gotta be espresso or I'll wear the headache!).

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  15. I work as a consultant and have to work with different customers at their locations and man times these assignments last months. I don't drink too much coffee but whatever 2-3 a day I do I am really passionate about it. I love to make my coffees and the more manual the machine more do i indulge. At my last assignment when I visited the kitchen for the first time, i did not see any coffee machine around. Later I found a machine lying in a corner and I was told its too cumbersome to use it and No one uses it. That was just enough for me to get all fired up. I gave that machine a good clean and checked if it was working. To my luck there was nothing wrong with it. So I recommissioned the machine and brought in some beans next day. Offered a cuppa to my associate and he was all up for it. People started observing me doing all the "too technical " steps and churn out a good coffee out of the machine. Slowly people started using the machine and would even stand by my side to learn some tips. By the time I had finished my assignment there, i trained around 15 people on that machine and couldn't be happier. I always say, its not about how much coffee you drink , it s all about how passionate you are about it. :)



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  16. Milk before water!!! It's just as much an obsession as it is a rule!
    I've always been led to believe the hot water first burns the coffee giving my cuppa that bitter taste!

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  17. My employer, until recently, provided us with a proper barista style coffee machine. For the first 6 months of my employment, my coffee obsession was a little bit out of control. I got to the point where I was having 6 strong long blacks a day - which isn't good for you under any circumstances, but when we decided to try for a baby things had to change. I went cold turkey overnight (yes, there were a couple of days of headaches!) and I went a year without a 'proper' coffee. Now I have just one coffee a day and I make sure it's perfect!

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  18. Having severe morning sickness in all 4 of my pregnancies which lasted until the day I gave birth, I found that not being able to keep down my morning cuppa was one of the first signs of a bubba on the way. As I always have milk in my cuppas, I found the taste of bringing up partially digested milk was just horrendous, so had to give up my beloved cuppas each time. The first thing I looked forward to after the birth of each of my bubbas? A cuppa, that had been about 8 months overdue!

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  19. Is this an obsession or an addiction? I just can't function without a strong black first thing in the morning.
    Simple as that!

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  20. I love coffee... it helps me relax.

    mandaoverturf at yahoo dot com

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  21. I would have loved to have been there just for the coffee. (Can't live without it.)

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  22. There are days when I lie in bed and specifically plan to get up early so I have time to go to the coffee shop on my way to school in the morning - as I know once I'm at school there is no way I can get a good coffee until after school is over for the day.

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  23. I love the smell that enlightens your senses, the smooth taste and the clear mind only a coffee can produce. I love my coffee like I love my man, Americano

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  24. I come with a warning, "don't look at before her coffee in the morning", that sums up my coffee obsession!!!

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  25. At school I had an English teacher who was simply amazing and used to bake for our class regularly. Everyone's absolute favourite was her coffee kisses, which were sinfully delicious! When we finished school she gave us all a recipe book of everything she had ever baked for us, including the coffee kisses... Having that recipe has been dangerous for me, as a couple of those tantalisingly-tasty biccies with a latte is my coffee obsession!!!!!

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  26. Yahoo! Thanks so much Carolyn and thanks Harris Coffee! I expect a few sleepless nights with all that caffeine! LOL

    Anne xx

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