"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Ristretto Espresso Specialists is a newly established café in Perth’s bustling CBD West End and member of the Five Senses family.

It’s named Ristretto primarily for the fact that the business is jammed or ‘restricted’ into just eight square metres of floor space, more so than reflecting a mandate or absolute focus towards ristretto; the sweeter, more condensed style of espresso drink.

It’s a great use of a small but very accessible CBD space where you can rock up, order your coffee and enjoy it at the nifty bar area served in pre-heated traditional brown Nuova Point tazzas for that authentic Italian ‘espresso’ coffee experience. Alternately, a high quality, prompt, modern day ‘to-go’ service in paper cups is also provided with each cup hand stamped with the distinctive Ristretto portafilter logo; a mark of a fine coffee which any coffee lover can parade with pride!

Founder and unabashed coffee freak, Emanuele Muratore, re-acquainted with coffee professionally after a ten plus year break. “As a coffee drinker, I discovered that certain roasters and cafes were doing more with coffee than others. With increased effort and focus came better results, namely; a finer, great tasting coffee … much improved on the standards I worked under years ago”. Emanuele went on to elaborate, “I noticed the better cafés used freshly roasted Arabica beans to a mild/medium degree. The best tended to have an unusual dedication to their milk texturing producing smoother more consistent results with a dense texture but still a wet fluidity for cappuccino. The very best appeared to even grind coffee beans for each order, even manipulating the grinder adjustment and were generally meticulous (with some quite pedantic) about their all round process and precision — including careful dosing, distribution and hand tamping by the barista. I was now experiencing visually appealing coffee with bountiful crema plus body and a sweet natural flavour and aromatics to die for. Also, the higher end coffee-centric places had a positive charge or buzz about them, it wasn’t just from being caffeinated — it was from a genuine dedication and passion to the bean! — This is what I wanted to pursue, experience more of and ultimately promote.”

Emanuele already had the hospitality background to five star hotel management level plus marketing and management experience from a corporate career. His transformation to fully blown geek was rapid with near 12 months of research and practice drawing on leading café owners, artisan coffee roasters, traditional baristas, web resources and the coffee community. He now shares his own experience and knowledge with staff, customers and die-hard geeks alike. Through Ristretto, Emanuele is also already providing office and home bean supply, training and coffee consultancy services to a burgeoning clientèle.

Placed on the wall is a placard simply stating their mission, “At Ristretto we’re coffee people here to provide the best possible coffee, everytime”, damn nice and something that with passion and discipline, the Ristretto team has been able to stick to.

“We are equipped with a three Group Synesso Saber and twin Mazzer Robur conical burr grinders. This is best of breed commercial equipment that’s precise and provides the advanced, state of the art, functionality we require to work more closely with quality coffee to achieve the best possible (great tasting) results we pursue for our customers that’s also true to the fine coffees we work with. The alternative is equipment which has limitations or even worse, risks damage or taint to the coffee.”

Five Senses Coffee has worked with Emanuele to create the Ristretto Custom Blend coffee, a smooth balanced all day coffee that works well for both milk based drinks and short traditional coffees. Think; caramel smooth sweetness with a refreshing clean nutty finish that has many customers returning more than once a day. Ristretto also offers key Single Origin coffees from around the world, “we enjoy showcasing the single origins; getting to experience, know and understand them individually — each is unique and has a great story behind it. Many are relationship coffees providing a direct or a ‘fairer’ return to the farmer and community behind the bean” said Emanuele. “Many of the finer coffees are coming through under such arrangements. Our custom blend currently features over 60% beans bought directly from growers with minimal middle men/ handling”.

Ristretto’s food offerings are also enticing and definitely priced right; big fruity fluffy muffins, fine traditional pastries, organic fruit and nut toast and fruit and muesli yogurts for the morning plus a selection of rather satisfying continental rolls based on fine meats and organic breads for lunch.

“We’re off to a good start; working together in an enthusiastic dedicated team, delivering on our coffee mission, enjoying serving good coffee and bites to a positive, friendly, appreciative clientele.”

Summing up: Ristretto is a little gem in the heart of Perth’s CBD West End that’s very much about making and sharing fine coffee and connecting this with fellow coffee people — we at Five Senses genuinely wish them every success. Oh, and by the way, the ristretto at Ristretto is brilliant and which ever way the ‘ristretto’ term is used it describes this neat little emerging coffee business.

Ristretto Espresso Specialists: ShopG18A 160 Central Arcade (formerly Paragon Arcade), 160 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000, www.ristretto.com.au