Day 5: Viva Espresso, 70 Pirie St

Fridays are for drinkin’ and celebratin’, especially in this the silliest of seasons. MMC saw no reason why the drinkin’ couldn’t begin at 8.45 am, especially if quality coffee were involved. Once on Pirie, the tricky part was separating the West-of-Gawler-Place La Vida coffee from the East-of-GP Viva Espresso. The Order: standard cappuccino and a medium latte, takeaway. The prices: $3.20, $4.20, respectably.

So what is the dealio - is orange the marketing soul mate of bean-brown?
Shopfront: generic. Logo: underimpressive, overused colour scheme. A3 posterboard advertises specialty belgian waffles and cones of chips, and MMC’s chain-store alarm bells ring. Even the menu board looks a little McPrinted. But a wary glance takes in a genuinely friendly waitress and a barista who looks legit: suitably edgy and ooh, did I detect a UK accent? Points.

Takeaway time is spent sussing an entirely well-used cafe space. After ordering, we’re quick to inspect the produce for sale behind us. VE’s own 100% Arabica blend, sourced from Central / Southern America and Africa. The Blend: officially beyond MMC's field of expertise. Onward, to Wikipedia!

Legend has it that high on a hill, an Ethiopian goatherd (lay-odle-lay-odle –ay-he-hoo) got into wild coffee berries after observing the increased activity of his flock after munching on the same. Some say that after berries, his goats stayed up all night. Others write that he saw the goats, you know, mounting each other, after berries. Bored, tired, and/or confused, the young goatherd musta have given it a whirl (eating berries, that is), and told his mates all about it at the next goat fair.

Word travels fast. Next it was 15th century Arabian scholars who were onto coffee’s potential as a late-night study-aid. After 1000+ years of harvest in Arabia (now Yemen-ish) coffea arabica is considered the world’s longest coffee tradition. For some reason, this arabica is rumoured to be less caffeinated than its cousin coffea canephora, the other most common species. Whew, luckily friend of MMC had already checked that his upsize came with two shots.

The Service: not ultra-quick, but redeemed by rare Barista small-talk. While waitin’, we settle near a red kettle-drum-lookin’ machine surrounded by hessian bags of coffee beans (pictured). I take this curio for a display-only relic of coffee production, the way Starbucks might exhibit beans to commemorate the ancestry of your diluted, creamed, sprinkled, soy-decaf beverage. MMC discovers online that this mean machine is a working coffee bean roaster! Yew!
 The Pour: best of the week, pretty as pictured. At half-dusted but thickly, it is MMC's ideal cappuccino. While the high % chocolate is tasty goodness, the downer here is that a first sip elicits ‘mmm, cocoa’ rather than ‘mmm, coffee’. Friend of MMC’s choc-free testimony becometh gospel. The Blend: smooth, mild, and organic-esque.

Lesson: Viva were voted SA's best coffee in the online 'I Heart Food' awards 2009, and this is a deserving validation of their product differentiation efforts. The next step would be a web presence to explain the waffles/bean roasting/sourcing stuff, ala Bar Nine of Glen Osmond Road. Here, we see a distinctive blue branding, and a website detailed down to make/model of flasho coffee machino. I quote: ‘this machine delivers the cleanest, most dynamic tasting espresso coffee you will have ever experienced.’ This is not called bragging. It’s called marketing.

The latte word: 4 beans out of 5. Friend of MMC: ‘It might be mild, but it’s a flavour that we probably won't find elsewhere in the CBD.’ Next week: Viva la Birthday! MMC and friend start the week somewhere sweet.

Link: Bar Nine online