Vanessa Moore is living her coffee dream with Bench Espresso, a new edition to the specialty coffee scene in Perth. She is hoping it will have quite an impact. “It’s good to be open, it’s pretty surreal,” Vanessa says. “It’s nice to be able to put my own mark on the Perth coffee industry, bring something new to it and to promote what’s already going on. That’s my approach – bring my own style and flavours.”
Located in the eastern end of the business part of town, Vanessa describes the café as having a relaxed atmosphere with a lot of natural lighting to create an airy and cosy feel. It’s a “mini oasis” in the city, Vanessa says, and a great environment to relax in and escape the outside world, even if it’s just for five minutes.
Vanessa has made coffee a large part of her life, working in cafés, and teaching coffee classes, as well as competing and judging in AASCA barista competitions.
Vanessa is now on a mission to help move the Perth specialty coffee scene in the direction of the filter brewing method.“I really enjoy the challenge of looking at coffee in a different way and brewing it under varying circumstances and methods,” Vanessa says. “More people are brewing coffee at home through a range of filter methods, there’s a growing market for it.”
Bench Espresso offers a filter coffee station and three grinders offering different espresso based coffee from Five Senses roasters. Blends for milk-based coffee include Guaemala Acate, Bali Kintamani and Coast Rica Terrazu, which is a rich, heavy bodied blend with a long cocoa and subtle almond finish. Espresso based blends suited to black coffees include a mixture of the Costa Rica Terrazu and Papua New Guinea from Kimel Estate, featuring hints of warm, tropical fruit sweetness.
Single origin coffees are also available and changed weekly. “It’s exciting to have some pretty incredible coffees available,” Vanessa says.
Bench Espresso uses the new generation Synesso Hydra coffee machine. For the non-coffee drinker, the Belgium couverture hot chocolate is also a crowd pleaser that is melted in a bay marie.To accompany the range of coffee, toasted sandwiches, paninis, fresh muffins and yummy cakes and slices are available.