coffee

‘There’s a coffee shop around the corner’ said the mechanic when we dropped our car in for a wheel alignment. Given we were in the light industrial wastelands of Mayne, I knew any coffee shop recommended was likely to be called Tuckerbox and serve fairly average coffee. Thankfully, I had done my due diligence and knew… Read more

To be honest, I didn’t know Republic Coffee Traders even existed until I saw a review in the newspaper. Amazingly, it’s less than 2km from home and I pass it on my daily commute but as it’s on a side street, it could have remained undiscovered. Thankfully, it did not. This is a Public Service… Read more

You’ve heard me complain often enough about crowds and queuing and parking and all the things that come with trying to enjoy breakfast at a café on the weekend. I have previously suggested that one solution is to get up early but I find that a rather extreme measure. An alternative is to take some… Read more

February gave us an extra day this year but here we are again, March . Our renovations are finished and the builders are gone. Now comes the task of unpacking and restoring order. I’m asking myself about every item as I return it to a new cupboard. Do I really need it? When was the last… Read more

Welcome to the first ‘In The Tiffin Box’ for the year. There’s just so much happening and the days are already flying past, here’s what’s I’ve squeezed in to my busy weekends and days off. Queensland Faces As always, there are a myriad of activities happening in the Queensland cultural precinct in South Brisbane and most… Read more

Local &/or General is the title of a song by The Models. It’s a song that’s always stuck in my mind and it seemed like an appropriate title for this occasional series of reviews about very local coffee shops that I can walk to from my house. And a walk to La Bomba I have done on… Read more

After a few freezing weeks by Brisbane standards, normal transmission has resumed with highs in the low 20’s. Just how we like it. August in Brisbane means the Exhibition or ‘the Ekka‘. The Ekka is the Royal Queensland Show, running across 2 weeks. It is like a State Fair with plenty of agricultural displays, animal shows… Read more

This is a public service announcement for all Australians who are seeking a real cup of coffee in the USA. Make your way immediately to the town of West Yellowstone in Montana. There you will find the true secret of happiness. An elixir that you will recall with fondness for many months and bad coffees… Read more

Hypothetically, what would you do if you came home from a week away and discovered that due to a horrible oversight, you were down to two scoops of coffee for your three scoop plunger? Would you make a smaller plunger or say… be tempted to make up the third scoop using your husband’s decaf coffee… Read more

Step inside an unassuming door on busy Abbotsford Rd in Brisbane and you’ll find a pleasant surprise. What looks like the door to a business unit is in fact the entry to a bustling coffee shop. I had been invited* to see what goes on behind this modest door, which is the gateway to the realm… Read more

Well here it is. The last IMK for 2014. A few weeks ago Celia from Fig Jam & Lime Cordial asked me ‘I just did the roundup of the November IMKs and missed you. When are you back?  I took a couple of months off from TIFFIN to travel in the USA so of course… Read more

Though it’s been a while since I have written a Local &/or General post, there’s plenty of activity in the suburb. The set of shops at the local express bus stop is a day by day proposition for most businesses. Once upon a time it would have been a thriving terminus for trams travelling from… Read more

The months fly by and here we are in the dead of Winter. Not really that dead and not really that cold in Brisbane but cold enough for us!  Joining in Celia’s In My Kitchen event hosted by Fig Jam and Lime Cordial reminds me what a big world we live in. There’s always some… Read more

In my June kitchen there’s a bit of a baking theme going on. In my kitchen… …was my first attempt at a blockbuster celebration cake. All eaten now. I offered to make a cake for my niece’s birthday and decided to surprise her with an Ombre Cake. It’s not something I had made before but… Read more

Coffee Shops abound in Brisbane. You can’t cross a street or turn a corner without seeing a new venue that has popped up. Of course, it’s an extremely competitive market. Recently, there’s been a caffeine rush of coffee shops opening in the streets around where I work. Let’s visit two and see what’s on offer…… Read more

Every day on my way home from work, I walk along Ann St from the bottom end of the Valley (Newstead really) to the top end of the Valley to catch my bus home. It’s a way of decompressing at the end of the day and getting a short stroll in. I walk along at… Read more

In my November kitchen……is more coffee! Produced in South Australia, we received these packets of Kommon Grounds when we went on a Coffee Crawl during the Adelaide Food Festival earlier in the year. The crawl was led by Kommon Grounds owner Dorcen, looking just like his flat cap logo. Nothing screams fun like 6 espressos… Read more

Gosh! I remember when the first Bar Merlo coffee shop opened up in lower Queen St in the CBD. Well before chain store coffee shops or even artisan single origin beans were on the scene, Merlo were producing fantastic coffee as well as feeding sweet and savoury Italian snacks to office workers. You had to queue… Read more

This week it’s about all things Vintage.  Once upon a time we talked about antiques, about things being old fashioned or retro.  Shabby Chic is out and Vintage is in.  Here’s a week in the life of TIFFIN’s Vintage Brisbane.Today we visit a cafe that doubles as a vintage buyer’s haven.Vintage Kitchen & Vintage Closet is… Read more