Uncle Russ - But what's in a name???

Tell us about your local coffee shop, the one you end up at if you have 15 mins to enjoy a cuppa. Be it glam or otherwise, who grinds your beans?

Aimee

I love cafes and I love coffee. It’s my vice and I am committed to the addiction. Sydney, New York, LA – I have always chosen my abode for its relativity to my chosen dealer. And I have always loved were I lived because of it. In fact I would go so far as to say I love cafes the way many people love cosy little bars. When I think back of the places I have lived, I think of the local café before I remember the flat. Perhaps the love affair is pretentious but it’s an honest one. That whir of the coffee machine pressing out its creamy espresso ignites all my thoughts and hopes for the day ahead. It is also a joy I share with my husband, we are different creatures on so many levels, but we unite in the face of well ground bean. And Sydneyites (and their Melbourne cousins) are fast becoming the most discerning coffee connoisseurs in all the world. Our expectations of an excellent cup of coffee are high.

So why oh why did I end up in Hong Kong!

I am sorry Honkers but on this occasion you are found sorely lacking. And why should you be any good at coffee, you are a nation with a rich history in tea sipping, trading, healing and then you were colonized by a tea obsessed nation. The odds are steeped against you on this one. And coupled with the monopoly of Starbucks and Pacific coffee, the coffee culture here is anything but organic.

But I live on an expat island and the supply of coffee is shipped in to quench the thirst of the Europeans, Australians and Americans who demand it. But like the fake bricks on the wall of Uncle Russ’s House of coffee (one of two cafes in this community of 15 thousand) the coffee is not produced out of a love affair but rather as a sole trader to a desperate market. Do we look as desperate as the people who fell upon opium traders that built this empire? Perhaps and thus I endure day after day of burnt milky coffee - disclaimer, the Uncle Russ staff are the friendliest bunch ever.

So my current café stands alone at a bus stop and a building site, across the road are huge towers of apartments being built, and a few stray golf carts. Apologies for the photo quality, the phone sweats here too.This site is full of a vision, which will be filled by families like ours, who will bustle in here to escape the sauna outside, they will wince daily at the first sip of the day. But they will continue to come here day in and day out to pay homage to their love affair with the bean. And if I end up here long enough perhaps one day I will succumb to the coconut and green tea smoothie that is this months special promotion. The last bit of ambience I might add, is Phil Collins diamonds on the souls of my shoes, which appears to be the LONGEST song ever made?

If Greer blogs about the Bourke St Bakery right now, I am going to cry.