East End Providore

I have walked past this café so many times without stopping in. Each time I’ve had one excuse or another, whether it be a lack of time time or that I’ve already had a coffee or something else. This time, I finally stopped in – and I wish I had of sooner.

East End Providore is relatively new to Ebenezer Place. A clean and modern fit-out has been executed in a minimalistic way which hints back to times that have passed. The homely set up with the wall shelves selling all of the goodies which they sell in store further hints towards this ideology. The interior would be a perfect place to dine in, and there is outdoor seating available too, though it is limited.

EEP sells a range of breakfast and lunch items along with their coffees and smoothies which are available to order. They use a special imported bean called Cirelli, and Bonsoy is their soy of choice. Along with this, they also offer Rice Milk and are looking into using Coconut Milk as an option too. The owner informed me that they have plans to begin selling a range of sugar free, gluten free, lactose free and vegan dessert cakes. One can hope this will be reminiscent of Argo’s selection.

This has to have been one of my best café experiences yet. The staff were lovely – and patient as well, when I couldn’t find my money – the atmosphere in the shop was clean and welcoming and the coffee scored pretty highly too.

The temperature of the milk was perfect, the shot tasted clean and the soy was well frothed. Their bean and milk of choice were commendable, and the only thing that let them down was the milk to coffee ratio. I found that in the small takeaway cup I had, there was too much milk in comparison to the shot of coffee. Luckily the milk had been done so well – and that if it could be so allowed, I would drink litres of Bonsoy just for pleasure - or else this may have been more of a problem. Next time I will ask for ¾ the amount of milk, because in all other aspects I am excited to return to this great little place. The final rating for the coffee is a solid 9.

The one for everyone: Rymill Park Kiosk Cafe

I always try and go to new places when I can, but sometimes I can’t help but return to my old favourites. Rymill Park Kiosk is definitely one of those.

Situated on the edge of the lake in the middle of Rymill Park - one of Adelaide’s most beautiful parks – is the little Kiosk Café. While not much can be said for the overall appearance of the store, what it lacks in design, it makes up for in charm.

On a Sunday in summer this café is often found packed to the brim, especially with cyclists, as we found out this particular morning. The staff were friendly and working hard to complete the orders as quickly as possible, as 30 odd cyclists in a group had ordered before many other café patrons. Though I did have to wait 20 minutes for my coffee, on previous experiences, sans the lycra-clad army, my order has always been called out promptly.

My partner, Jon, a connoisseur of all things sweet and mainstream(especially when they come from a certain purple and white brand) stepped out on a limb and tried the comparatively – that is, to his normal diet - exotic muffin which was Raspberry and Banana. The muffin was fresh and light, and Jon gave it a 6.5/10.

Once my coffee was called, I made my way through the army of cyclists and brought it back to our ideal table position, just by the lake. The coffee was smooth and well made. The temperature was just right, and the milk was frothed to perfection. The only things that let this coffee down from scoring a straight 10 was the bean used (Rio – not my favourite) and the brand of soy milk, which was Vitasoy. Non-soy drinkers may never understand why Bonsoy is leagues ahead, but trust me when I say that it is.

This cafe holds a certain charm that will always keep me coming back. A large part of that is its location. While you sit by the lake, you are surrounded by hundreds of trees and plants, and large open areas of grass. In the lake are families of ducks, and you can even hire row boats out from the kiosk. The only time I wouldn't recommend coming to Rymill Park Kiosk Cafe for a coffee date, would be for a business catch-up. There's something so relaxing about the setting that it seems cruel to bring hard work into it. Along with the great location, the staff have always been friendly and work very efficiently to keep their customer's happy. 

Overall, I gave the coffee and experience a solid 8.5/10.

Why I Am Choosing a Soy Flatwhite to Determine Good Coffee

Good coffee can be hard to come by if you don't know the right places to go. My life as a coffee enthusiast began at 14 years old, and this long and loving relationship has provoked me to share the best coffee places in Adelaide with other people.

When I first moved to Adelaide from Brisbane, I struggled to find great coffee: I didn't know where to go for it. Since then, many great cafes have popped up and others who have been in Adelaide longer have entered my radar. So as someone who has experienced the frustration of being in a new place but having no idea where to go, I wanted to create a blog to help others. This in turn would also mean I would need to try out all of those places that have been on my "to-go" list for too long. 

I drink soy by choice. But many cafe's do terrible soy. It might make more sense to test a cafe by their espresso shot or cow's milk latte, but quite frankly I don't enjoy either of those things so I've decided to do it in my own way. The benefit of testing coffee quality with soy is underrated. Soy milk tends to be harder to froth to a perfect consistency, and the brand and quality of soy is much more important than with cow's milk - you can truly see if the cafe understands the coffee they are making. 

In my opinion, the only brand of soy milk that enhances the taste of the coffee (or at the very least, does not negatively affect it) is Bonsoy. I have tried many different brands and I still find myself coming back to this one. As soon as I find out a cafe is not using Bonsoy, I tend to re-evaluate whether or not I want to go there.

This blog is an honest girl's mission to find and share the great coffee haunts of Adelaide. 

Free San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge Vector Download: 162 days until happiness

This July I will be travelling to America. Arriving in San Francisco for Independence Day, we will then travel to Las Vegas and finish up in Los Angeles. As I've never been to America before I am looking for ideas of places to go - especially coffee wise. 

San Francisco would have to be the one I'm most excited for: I've heard great things about it and can't wait to see it for myself. I am so, so excited for it that I even managed to drag myself back onto the Adobe Creative Suite (the very name of which was making my skin crawl by the close of 2013) and onto Illustrator to create a free downloadable image as a tribute to my excitement.

Lo and behold, here is my rendition of the Golden Gate Bridge. This is my first vector drawing for 2013, and certainly provoked a sizeable amount of F words along the way. 

It's available to download in two different colour schemes from my Dropbox here. Keep visiting for more vector drawings throughout the year, and after I've been to America I will be listing the top cafe's to visit. 

Have you been to San Francisco before, or do you live there? Where would you recommend to visit, as a coffee enthusiast? 

The Perfect Watch for the Indecisive

If you are anything like me, you are probably addicted to coffee, beautiful things and suffer from a severe case of indecisiveness. This indecisiveness is not because of a lack of passion - or interest - but rather it is caused by so much passion towards all of the variables that it becomes hard to determine which things that I love the most. It’s a tough gig, first world problems. Now most people with this predicament would just ‘man-up’ and make a decision – it doesn’t matter which pair of socks you choose, Grace, they’re all white and clean – but no, not me. For the most part I get past this dilemma by a very well organized and regimented lifestyle. I try to organize by colour, style, weather or size, and I write my to-do lists every day and stick to them like cotton wool balls to freshly painted fingernails.

Now, I don’t wear a lot of jewellery, but when I do you can bet I spent a lot of time thinking about it – especially when it comes to watches. In fact, I have been scanning the watch market for years, sometimes I even came very close to purchasing one. Close – but not that close. This watch is great, I would think to myself, If only the hands were different. Or I really love the face of this watch, if only the band could be slightly thinner. All my hopes of finding the perfect watch were slowly diminishing – perhaps there would never be a watch out there that could cater to all of my needs? And then I found one.

I was innocently procrastinating from my Design Studio assignments by scrolling through hundreds of very meaningful and highly influential (and totally design related) posts on Instagram, and then I saw it. Staring at me, from the arm of a girl I was following in Europe, was the Jolli watch. Clean and strong faced, I was captured by the simplicity of the design. That face is amazing, I thought to myself, as the entirely white watch stared back at me, continuing on it’s simple routine of counting the minutes in the day. I wondered if this could be it, the watch I had been looking for since the day I exited the womb. But surely not? Surely there must be something wrong with it – that face was too beautiful to have a perfect band as well. Upon further investigation I found that not only was the band beautiful and simple, but that the watch was entirely de-constructible, allowing for the owner to change the colours of all the parts of the watch on a mere whim. In fact, it’s as if the watch was designed specifically for the non-committal, indecisive type. It’s as if the makers could see into my soul.

The Jolli Time watches are available to be bought singularly or in kits, allowing for maximum versatility. Available in 15 different colours – and now patterns too – the watches are also waterproof. What’s great about these watches is that the parts are so easy to change, catering for that last minute fashion decision as you are stepping out the door… to go to the supermarket… in your pajamas (but by Jove, that watch will match if it kills me!). The watches are also reasonably priced, and coming from Stockholm itself you get a little bit of Europe and a lot of style right to your door step.

To find out more of see the watches for yourself, visit http://jollitime.com/