TRUGO - The Bendigo Club. Join up today!

You all know how I come up with crazy ideas! (don't agree that quickly). Well here's another ripper. You'll need to concentrate for a bit cause there's  a bit of history here and you might nod off.

Ever heard of Trugo? Call yourself an Oorstaaalian. Born in the Newport Workshops in Melbourne by the train and tram builders during smoko. Pretty simple concept. Take a puck off the workbench and a big wooden mallet. Place it on the ground and stand over the top of it with the goals behind you at the 50 metre mark. Hit the crap out of it and hope to blazes it goes through the goals.

 If you miss you can fine tune your aim with quick mouthful of your beer. The requirements for the sport were based on what the railway workers could find: the length of the pitch was the length of a carriage, the goalpost width was the distance between seats, the mallet was a sledge hammer, and the black rings were an internal component of buffers.

Over the years it's been played around old Melbourne clubs on a green similar to lawn bowl. see Trugo on the ABC



Coffee Select are proud to announce the launch of Australia's first and to this date only indoor Trugo Club, to be based in Bendigo, Australia.  As many of the classic W class Melbourne trams were made in Bendigo and can still be seen running up Pall Mall we see it as a fitting tribute to the cities manufacturing heritage. The pitch will run the length of our shop at 236 Hargreaves Street in the middle of the city. The hit off will be at the pizza oven end, run through the kitchen bar then the bar, roasthouse with the goals at the front door which will have a purpose built net to protect pedestrians from being hit by flying pucks. Hit off will be at 3pm every Sunday afternoon with preparatory drinks commencing at midday. Teams will be made of four people each. Every week the winning team will share a meat platter (is there a better prize).

Any team found to be practicing in any form before the day will be penalised.

New blends for the world to enjoy!!!!!!!!!

I've always believed with my simple marketing brain that Guinness was created by accident. One day one of the brewers was looking the other way and burnt the barley. Instead of throwing out tonnes of blackened barley the brewery decided to proceed with the brew - walah Guinness - a worldwide success. It was going to make a great lead into today's blog which is about the creation of new blends. Because we've come up with a beauty. Using mainly the superb Indian Monsooned which is an aged sweet, low acid coffee blended with a smaller percentage of higher acid South American coffee and another Indian to add body. It's a simple blend which works really well. We created last Friday and have been enjoying it all week. Now for a name to be really clever. What about Indian Summer? Not bad.This coffee roastings too easy really. Give it a try and tell us what us think.

Tarrawarra Winery, Yarra Valley

Everyone loves a good winery experience especially on a chilly Vic winter day. This is the arresting entrance to Tarrawarra Winery in the Yarra Valley. Through the kind referral by the winemaker, Clare Halloran we have been fortunate enough to supply the winery cafe for the past 2 years. I'm sure you'll have an experience to remember if you book a table in the cafe. When I do get a chance to deliver personally I feel inclined to take up residence on one of the tables overlooking the vines and pretend I own the place. I could phone down to the vineyard staff and give them directions. Darren and Lucy work in the cafe and will look after you I'm sure if you pay them a visit.

Indian Malobar Monsooned

Centuries ago, when coffee beans were transported from Asia to Europe in sailing ships, purely by accident a new coffee taste was discovered. Monsoon winds and high moisture levels below deck caused the beans to swell during their voyages across the sea, causing them to change colour and acquire a uniquely distinctive flavour.

Today, a handful of producers on the West Coast of Southern India with special open sided warehouses for ‘monsooning’ recreate the atmosphere of sending the beans across the sea. Raw, green beans harvested from December to February are spread across the floor of these special warehouses where moisture laden winds circulate around the coffee beans as the storms roll in from June to Sep.

This process dramatically increases the aging process - the beans turn pale yellow in color and swell in size, reducing their acidity. As the acidity levels drop, the beans take on a mellowed but consistent, musty flavour and impart a heavy syrupy flatness reminiscent of aged coffees. These ‘speciality’ coffees are predominantly used in blends to impart richness and body to fresher, more acidic full flavoured coffees.

Both Arabica and Robusta cherries (unwashed coffees) are used for the preparation of monsooned coffees. However, better quality beans make a significant difference to the final product. Monsooned beans are traditionally only available for shipment from September to March. The annual production in India ranges between 3,500 and 5,000 tonnes depending on that year’s general coffee production.

International demand for monsooned coffee has increased dramatically over the last few years. The monsooned style of coffee is extremely popular in Scandinavian countries, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, USA and Japan.

Wikipedia

Monsooned Malabar is a variety of dry processed coffee beans. The harvested and processed beans are exposed to the monsoon winds for a period of about three to four months, causing the beans to swell and lose the original acidity, resulting in a sweet and syrupy brew.^[1] The coffee is unique to the Malabar Karnataka and Kerala and has protected status under the Geographical Indications of Goods Act.^[2][3] The name Monsooned Malabar is derived from exposure to the monsoon winds of the Malabar coast.^[4] coast of India. The blend is heavy bodied, pungent and of monotone quality and is considered to be dry with a chocolatey aroma and a slightly sharp taste.^[5][6] The blend has its origins from the times of the British Raj, when, during the months that the beans were transported by sea from India to Europe, the humidity and the sea winds combined to cause the coffee to ripen from the fresh green to a more aged pale yellow.^[7]