Bar 9

I was surprised when a friend suggested we meet at Bar 9 for a coffee as I had never heard of it. I duly hit Google and discovered that this cafe had recently been named as the only SA cafe in a list by the Australian newspaper of the country's best coffee houses. With fabulous Melbourne coffee experience in recent memory I headed off in high hopes of finding some freshly roasted beans and a great cup of coffee.

However Bar 9 are a small outfit and obviously decided that roasting their own beans isn't an option. They chose the Perth Label 5 Senses Coffee to supply them with their three blends of ethically traded coffee. I tasted the White Label blend consisting of beans from Brazil - Ethiopia - Indonesia - Guatemala - Papua New Guinea (that's quite a mix!)

Bar 9 have a beautiful Synesso espresso machine as proof of their commitment to fine coffee and employ a number of keen and even award winning baristas. They also source their milk locally from happy cows in the Adelaide hills.

I was looking forward to a great latte and certainly it looked very pretty but it was also very weak. I'm not sure exactly why but I am by no means a strong coffee drinker and I ordered another coffee to follow as the first didn't even hit the sides. The second latte was stronger - perhaps they got the message but it was a disappointing introduction to a supposedly premium coffee house.

On the plus side my coffee was drunk alongside a beautiful warm and incredibly dense chocolate cake/brownie that was just wonderful. You can't have everything perhaps but I would prefer the Coffee Barun for freshly roasted beans and passionate coffee conversation or Spoon for a perfectly balanced latte.