"Dublin can be heaven, with coffee at eleven…" is the old song that inspired the name of Colin Harmon's new 3FE venture on Sussex Avenue, just off the Grand Canal near Dublin's city centre. It's a barista training space, an equipment shop and a takeaway spot that is so shiny and full of optimistic newness that it feels like an expensive car showroom, in a beautiful and exciting way.
From June 23rd-25th, the RDS plays host to the World of Coffee, an annual event that brings thousands of coffee delegates from around the world together. A major part of the three-day event is the World Barista Championships, where 61 baristas will represent their respective countries in the world's most prestigious coffee competition. Representing Ireland this year is Natalia Piotrowska of Coffee Consultancy Events. Day passes are €20.
It’s a big deal for a scene that has seen huge growth in the past couple of years. Around the country, coffee is improving. Sure, it’s still easy to get a mediocre cup of coffee, but the rabbit hole of techniques, flavours and origins that is specialty coffee continues to capture more and more imaginations nationwide.
There is serious attention being paid to filters and flat whites in cafes around the country. Out west, my favourite coffees are made by Shell's Café in Sligo and coffeewerk + press in Galway. In Limerick, Canteen's coffee, made by barista Dalton Greene using beans from Badger & Dodo, is up there with the best. In Northern Ireland, Bridgeen Barbour and Mark Ashford at Established Coffee have been trailblazing the way since opening two years ago. Down in Cork City, Filter Coffee on George's Quay was an early adopter of this current wave of specialty coffee.
In Dublin this weekend, there are a series of fringe events taking place for coffee lovers. Tonight, a Coffee Throwing Competition takes place at The Bernard Shaw. It's free for spectators, and competitors pay €5 to enter with all proceeds being donated to Grounds for Health, a charity that provides medical care for women in coffee-growing areas. Tom Stafford and the crew at Vice Coffee Inc have put together a handy guide of what's what, online at vicecoffeeinc.com/dublin.
If you're not sure what the different between a filtered or a milky coffee is, and how each technique influences the cup of coffee, you should try Roasted Brown's (roastedbrown.com) tasting board of an espresso, a milky coffee and a filter coffee in their Filmbase cafe. It clearly shows how the same bean can be shaped into three unique experiences, and the staff are only too willing to talk coffee facts with punters.
Other friendly baristas can be found at Kaph on Drury St, whose matcha lattes have become seriously popular for those looking for an alternative to coffee beans. The Fumbally in Dublin 8 also offers an alternative to dairy milk, with its homemade sunflower seed milk that pairs successfully with their Berlin-roasted beans from The Barn.
A newer kid on the Dublin block is Smithfield's Proper Order Coffee, which opened up earlier this year with two of our best baristas, Dave Regan and Niall Wynn, at the helm. Network Coffee is a promising new space on Aungier St, keen to encourage single origin filter coffees, and Meet Me In The Morning on Pleasant St has been winning hearts. This is a community whose growth is showing no signs of letting up. Check out the World of Coffee at RDS today and tomorrow, for a larger insight into what's happening in the world of specialty coffee in Ireland and abroad.
