Ever since, the Silvia arrived we’ve been mucking about pulling shots and foaming lattes with it. And sipping on these more then covers our daily dose of caffeine, so we haven’t been blogging on coffee drinks in the stores we’ve had lately.

However, we finished the 1kg of Spinelli’s house blend they gave us when we got the machine last week. In need of our fix, we bought a packet of Starbuck’s Sumatra Extra Bold, 250g at $13.50. (Now before anyone goes screaming, “WHAT?! You bought from Starphucks?!!”, we had totally run out of beans and just needed to get some. Well, you learn.) SB’s Coffee Passport describes – “A smooth, full-bodied coffee, Sumatra has an earthy flavour with the subtle herbal and spicy notes that are characteristic of Indonesian coffees.”

VERY ‘full bodied’ lor. Suffice to say, we didn’t enjoy the roast as much. It is a VERY dark roast, so the taste is very bold (duh! as the name suggests). Rather uninteresting, too simple and too bitter for us not something we’d buy again.

Pictured above, demonstrates how dark the Starbucks Sumatra roast (pictured left) as compared to the Spinelli’s house blend.

SB’s Coffee Passport is in line with the “Buy X get 1 free” mantra stores run. Which gets stamped everytime you buy a packet of beans from them (ha ha! A passport that gets stamped – deja vu ). The Passport though categorises their different beans, telling you a bit about where the blend came from, tastes, etc. Little lines let you make notes under each blend as well.

Bean Score: 2 out of 5

Yesterday, we purchased a packet of Highlander Coffee’s premier blend. This blend is a roast we’re familiar with already. Personally, I enjoy cafe lattes from this roast but am a long ways to pulling consistent shots – up next in our next post.