Aunty Peg's — Restaurant in Melbourne

The coffee was unfortunately not very good. It tasted like paper mixed with water that had been out in the sun. I told the barista who made my coffee that it tasted like paper, but I don’t think she cared, she just wanted me to pay for my coffee; which I always was going to do. I have walked away from the experience disappointed. I just went to Melbourne from Sydney and wanted to try the best coffee in Melbourne since I love specialty coffee. Aunty Peg’s is highly rated and recommended so I took myself there. I ordered a Panama Geisha hoping I would be able to enjoy a floral filter coffee. The coffee did not taste like the tasting notes. Nor did the coffee taste like a Panama Geisha. The coffee was of a poor quality and probably points to a few issues about the service of this place. My first issue is with the coffee itself. When you are paying a lot of money for one cup of coffee you expect it to taste exceptional. When the coffee was ground, it was given to me to smell and it did smell like one of the tasing notes, however, this was then lost in the final cup. The final cup tasted hollow, papery and like the water had calcified. This suggests to me that there is an issue with the brewing of the coffee. My first suggestion would be to maintain the aroma of the coffee either using a paragon brewer and brew with chilling rocks or start the brew with a cold bloom. I also suggest revisiting your brew water and having a curated brew water recipe. Also, the paper taste could be addressed a few ways. You could use more water to rinse the filter (I always use about a cup of water to rinse mine at home), you could also rinse the filter in a vessel other than the one you are brewing in to negate exchange of water or use a different filter paper. My personal favourite is the Cafec roast specific paper in medium roast. The Kinto filter paper is odorless and flavourless but is thicker and can stall. Considering I counted about 4 EK43s I do not think you would have a stalling issue with the Kinto papers. Other gripes I have would be minor issues but they were made worse by the fact that you did not get your core business of serving quality coffee right, so they are more of a problem in that circumstance. The blackened bamboo stirrer used between brews that was not washed was gross. If you would like to agitate the bloom, then either swirl or use a metal spoon that you wash between brews. The taking a sip for quality control when the brew was terrible, I did not get that because if the barista had actually tasted the coffee, they would have known it was bad and made another but they took a sip when it was piping hot so it would have been impossible for them to judge quality. Pouring my coffee from the carafe into my cup is something I did not like. I can pour it myself because I like to drink it in parts. The glassware I did not like I think there are good ceramic options out there if you would like to go with glass then a double wall option would not burn people’s hands. The customer service was not the best. It was not warm and friendly the man who served me in the start was nice but the girl was not. The warm table water was an issue. It was a warm day, and I was served warm water. The chemex that the water came from was then used in the pouring kettles to heat and reheat the water. I also suggest not reheating brew water as this can affect the taste of the water but that is what happened with my brew as mid-way more water was added to the kettle and it was reheated. The last number of issues would not have been an issue if the coffee was good but because it wasn’t it became hard to overlook. I overall do not recommend Aunty Peg’s coffee I think there are much better places in Melbourne to get coffee that are cheaper. To the owner’s of Aunty Peg’s I recommend considering my review and advice and also taking the time to visit other café’s to see how they are doing a better job than you to better curate a quality...

AUNTY PEG'S – A ONE-ON-ONE COFFEE DISCOVERY EXPERIENCE

Nolan Hirte, Director of Proud Mary Coffee Roasters envisioned Aunty Peg’s to be a welcoming, inclusive space where you could access some of the best coffee on the planet, brewed for you by your one-on-one barista.

Right after entering the roastery and café bar, I have been “warned” that Aunty Peg’s is only serving black coffee. In addition, the friendly barista also informed me, that for the entire month of March, only BURUNDI is on the menu. In Burundi, coffee is mainly grown by smallholder farmers. The country exports about 200’000 bags of coffee, which is harvested from April to July, so it is the right time to enjoy the fresh crop now in Australia. To fully immerse into a true sensory experience, I went for two coffee flights, the espresso, and the cold drip flight. Both were made with three different coffees from three different processing stations, but all Red Bourbon varieties.

Let’s start with the three espressos:

NYAGASHINA (washed): medium acidity (sour), medium sweetness, and medium bitterness. Edamame (green), brown sugar sweetness, medium round body, sweet brown sugar almond finish, with citrus notes, grapefruit and black tea bitterness.

RUGAZY (honey): medium acidity, high sweetness, low to medium bitterness. Apricot, brown sugar, caramel like and orange. Velvety mouthfeel, syrupy, dense, sweet, bold finish.

KIRASA (natural): intense fermentation aroma. High sweetness, well integrated low to medium acidity, low to medium bitterness. Ripe strawberries with dark chocolate. Dark stone fruits and berries fruit punch, a little boozy. Bold body, thick oily texture, intense high sweetness finish.

The cold drip flight was another amazing experience, and I especially liked the preparation and the final presentation. The three coffees arrived in three little glass flasks, and you could pour them over a beautiful big, round, and transparent ice cube. The visual effect was very nice, and the cold brews all had a very full body, with intensified flavors.

Thank you for this great experience. A great way to embark on a sensory journey to Burundi. I cannot wait for April to explore their next origin country. And again: it is great to see what high-end quality smallholder farmers...

What an experience.

I was in Collingwood with a friend craving a nitro coffee and discovered Aunty Pegs by accident.

Even though we arrived to discover that the nitro was out for the day, we were not disappointed. We sat at the bar and were immediately greeted by Steve, who was very friendly and attentive. He went though all the menu options and explained the different coffee blends and serving styles. We both got a cold drip, followed by another, and then an espresso.

I don’t normally drink more than 1 coffee at a time, but this was simply the best coffee I’d ever had. Incredibly smooth, complex, aromatic and just divine. I wouldn’t normally associate an experience like this with drinking coffee, as it was more like being it a trendy bar with a top shelf spirit.

We loved it so much, that we returned the very next day with 4 more friends and all got a few flights of cold drip and C60 to share around. Definite caffeine overload; we had 2 people with us feeling very hungover when they entered, but ready to tackle the day when we left.

Steve was really attentive again with our group and we all really enjoyed the experience he provided for us.

Some might be a little put off with the price, as it is rather expensive, but I can say with absolute confidence that the price is easily justifiable when you consider the quality, care and passion in every coffee, coupled with the first class experience that a visit to Aunty Peg’s provides.

We were in Melbourne on business and are part of the craft beer industry, and we felt that a visit to Aunty Peg’s shared a lot of similarity to a visit to a craft brewery; in that it was engaging, educational and...