Small, opinionated essays on the things that obsess us — coffee origin, dough hydration, why a 14-hour braise actually matters, and what we're listening to behind the bar.
The first 30 seconds of a pour-over does 60% of the work. Get the bloom right, and the rest of the brew almost makes itself. Get it wrong, and no amount of clever pouring will rescue the cup. A short essay on the most under-appreciated 30 seconds in coffee.
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Lamination is just butter and dough — but the difference between a great croissant and a forgettable one is what happens to that butter at 4°C over 72 hours. A baker's confession.
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Altitude, mist, silver oak shade, and a soil that nobody on our farm has ever tested. We didn't choose this place — but we'd never trade it. A field note from the Coorg ridge.
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We tried braising the beef for nine hours. Then ten. Then eleven. We landed on fourteen, and we'll tell you exactly what changes between the ninth and fourteenth hour.
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We open the bar at six. The first Negroni gets poured at 6:04. By 6:14 it's exactly the temperature it should be. A small note on the most under-rated ten minutes of the day.
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"Slow" gets used a lot. Slow food, slow living, slow coffee. Here's what we actually mean — and what we don't. A long-form essay on the discipline of letting time do the work.
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Automatic pour-over machines exist. They're consistent and they're fast. We don't use them. A short defence of the inefficient, irrational, deeply human practice of pouring water in circles.
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We tested seven pistachio sources. Iranian. Turkish. Californian. Sicilian. We landed on a single farm in Bronte. Here's why — and what changed when we did.
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Cafficana opened in 2019. Slolabs opened in 2026. The seven-year gap is full of failed pastries, over-extracted shots, and one famously bad espresso martini. Here are the lessons.
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Joel curates the playlist. He won't put on anything from after 1979 before noon. Here's the full Slolabs vinyl shelf — and the rule he refuses to bend.
Read more →More notes coming. We write when we have something to say.
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