tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85534811080441584712012-02-17T00:34:57.097+10:00Official blog of Xococo - a boutique coffee, chocolate and tea business located in Brisbane, Qld, Australia, using only organic and fair trade certified ingredients and products. Always striving for high quality.Xococonoreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-53366048698042015062010-08-18T20:05:00.001+10:002010-08-18T20:07:13.708+10:00

Please check us out from now on at www.bunkercoffee.com.au and on twitter and facebook using "bunkercoffee" With the opening of the shop we decided to re-brand. RIP Xococo. I loved the name...but no-one could say it!

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-25694678642875745092009-12-03T11:18:00.002+10:002009-12-06T07:58:57.026+10:00

This week we did some prototyping and put together 75 single serve gourmet hot chocolates sachets for the Black Dove Christmas Goodie Bags. They are a concept I would love to see extrapolated out into an efficient packing mechanism to be available all over Australia in eco-friendly packaging. I would love to get your feedback or ideas if you were one of the lucky ones to grace the Xmas party.

Xococonoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-76113487670861965282009-10-05T16:55:00.001+10:002009-10-05T16:55:28.640+10:00

After 2-3 months of tiresome, boring, research and work I finally put together and lodged a development application with Brisbane City Council to try to set up a hole in the wall cafe/outlet in Milton. 7xcopies of a 58 page report, a lot of forms and one whopping cheque got handed in begrudgingly by a now poverty stricken me. I should've tied it all up in red tape, but I'd dealt with enough

Xococonoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-89436964057290102412009-09-04T16:23:00.004+10:002009-10-05T16:29:25.826+10:00

While I was getting busy in the garage making the bottomless portafilters I decided to also have a go a converting my Compak K10 WBC Edition connical burr grinder into a doserless. Why? Well, again there a couple of very good reasons: If you grind to order, then it's faster to prepare the shots. Twice as fast. Less coffee wastage Absolutely no stale grounds, no matter who is operating the

Xococonoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-70628079478959520242009-09-01T15:04:00.003+10:002009-10-05T15:22:25.961+10:00

A detailed DIY guide for making your own bottomless (naked) portafilter and reasons for doing so.  For a while now i've been interested in going naked. There were a few motivators for doing this - Minimalism. If it's not really necessary, and it doesn't serve much of a purpose, then I don't want it. We do doppio ristretto's as our standard shot so we never need to split the shots. For a

Xococonoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-10405402837797527552009-06-28T12:31:00.001+10:002009-09-23T20:30:20.704+10:00

Part of the "3rd wave" espresso movement sometimes see's espresso outlets using naked portafilters. Besides the fact that the espresso looks bloody cool coming straight out of the filter basket it also removes (read: minimal) another part of equipment that the coffee has to touch before reaching your cup. i.e. it's another thing that will no longer get caked with oils requiring regular cleaning

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-10044452405566015762009-06-28T12:30:00.002+10:002009-09-23T20:33:07.965+10:00

Dima (formally Dmitrij Cesniuk) has been working with us down at the markets for the last 9 months. Sadly, he is heading back to Lithuania this Wednesday. I wish we got to hang out a bit more outside of the markets but with his other job and Uni getting in the way it didn't end up happening often. Nonetheless, the markets are generally a pretty relaxed space so we got to know each other and

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-15877525377242941982009-06-23T12:29:00.000+10:002009-09-23T20:29:37.448+10:00

In this post I talk a little about being interviewed by Coralie and link to both Coralies website and the youtube videos of the interview in two parts. Today I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Coralie and her little 5 1/2 year old boy Riley. I've never really been interviewed before and found the experience to be really fun. Anyone who knows me, knows I can blabber on pretty well,

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-26475139764114252502009-05-21T12:26:00.001+10:002009-09-23T20:34:08.837+10:00

Just did a bit of searching on Google and came across a local Brisbane blog by Helen Thura called "me, my camera and my life" which pretty much sums up the blog. Beautiful photos of her life and text to explain. One part of that seems to be coming down to the Kelvin Grove Markets to grab a hot chocolate from time to time. "Yesterday I got up a *little* later than I normally do on a Saturday. A

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-89609856400253729812009-04-18T12:26:00.001+10:002009-09-23T20:36:20.890+10:00

I'd been wanting to do teas down at the markets for a while but couldn't decide how to do it nicely in a takeaway setting. So last week I decided to try the Planet Organic range of teas and was relatively happy with the results. So for the price tag of just $2.50 we are now serving a range of their organic teas in either 8oz or 12oz. Below are the tea we will offering: - English Breakfast -

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-47008658869597998152009-04-18T12:22:00.005+10:002009-09-23T20:41:51.967+10:00

A lady who was grabbing a coffee last weekend let me know that we'd had a bit of a good word put in for us at ourbrisbane.com "Siobhan from Ashgrove says: He hasn't got his own shop yet, but the coffee stall at the Kelvin Grove Farmers Markets on Saturdays is by far the best I've found, not only for the real chocolate flakes he sprinkles on top of the cappuccinos either. To be artful in the

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-17597787428020014442009-03-29T12:00:00.003+10:002009-09-24T07:56:04.366+10:00

Steaming at the front, syrup at the rear Yesterday we had our weekly KG Markets session. It was our busiest day of the year yet which was great. The weather was doing strange things with the odd drizzle and some high winds but that just meant that the temperature stayed a bit lower making the day a little more hot chocolate friendly. We did a 70% Dark Hot Chocolate with Peppermint and a White

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-50614535670225361492009-03-21T11:57:00.002+10:002009-09-24T07:54:27.978+10:00

To celebrate the Autumnal Equinox today and the coming of the colder 6 months of the year we brought back the 3 pots of hot chocolate today. It was great and amazing some people who we haven't seen for the 6 months since we last did the flavours. They must have been around this whole time waiting for the flavours to come back =D We did a dark hot chocolate with orange and a white hot chocolate

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-46002337587344991332009-03-19T11:53:00.002+10:002009-09-24T07:56:57.080+10:00

Today I had my first shift at Blackstar Coffee espresso bar and roastery in West End at 44 Thomas St. Since we began doing espresso down at the markets we have been sourcing our fair trade and organic certified beans off these guys each week. In the early days Matt from New Zealand (who was helping at Blackstar at the time) was a great help in getting my standards up to scratch and in our

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-2860668127319096352008-06-07T11:50:00.002+10:002009-09-24T07:53:14.250+10:00

This post is a retrospective of our beggining at the Kelvin Grove Urban Village Market, located at Blamey St, Kelvin Grove every Staurday morning from 6am-1pm. So, the "market scene" wasn't as free spirited as I first naively thought. When I got back to Brisbane from overseas the idea was to begin my stall at the West End Markets. However, I soon found out that you don't just go and pay some

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-72053608192996644432008-05-09T16:00:00.001+10:002009-09-24T07:52:46.823+10:00

Another Retrospective from 9th of May 2008 We did this event the weekend after Mardi Grass. It was a nice chance to meet a lot of the local business people supporting Fair Trade products and some great local businesses. Again we got a great response about the hot chocolates even though again it wasn't a financial success for us. I met Robet Pekin, owner of Food Connect, a great local business

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553481108044158471.post-81744693679913720152008-05-03T21:00:00.006+10:002009-09-24T07:52:26.117+10:00

After finishing University with a Bachelor of Music (Production) at the end of 2007 I travelled through SE Asia for 3 months (half with my girlfriend, a quarter with mates and a quarter alone). While it wasn't exactly worrying me too much, I was wondering what to do when my money ran out and I arrived back in Australia. All the casual jobs I was working while at Uni were starting to irk me. I

Xococonoreply@blogger.com0