Replay Espresso has been iconic in North Shore cafes for a long time. Similarly, owner Grant Andronicus’ pedigree in coffee is formidable; Andronicus has been the pre-eminent coffee family in Australia for more than a century.
This morning I ordered the doppio for myself and...the hot milkshake (large caramel skim cap) for the wife. Luckily, the wife’s skim cap was extra hot, because on the way home, I had to fire up the hazard lights and pull the vehicle over to the side of the road to finish my double espresso. I was that overwhelmed by the Replay Espresso single origin.
The aroma hit first, it was inviting and esoteric, with the unmistakable scent of fresh cigar smoke in a study lined with leather-bound books and the mounted heads of exotic animals. And something else swirling beneath, undercurrents of a deeply familiar cologne, as if the help had left the study window open, and two suburbs away someone was smoking pork belly over hickory in the early afternoon, and the combined fragrance now drifted into the study and swirled into the plumes of cigar smoke.
The viscous mouthfeel drifted back and forth between silk and satin, deeply chimerical yet grounded, obesely plump yet syrupy, a tribute if you will to the substance one would extract from the rind of a dwarf Seville orange. Many years ago on a drive across Death Valley, I stopped in the scorching midday heat to scoop a mouthful of fresh molasses as it slowly oozed down the side of a Joshua Tree. This is the mouthfeel of Replay espresso.
The structure was complex and disorienting, like the Gruen transfer when entering Macquarie Shopping Centre, leaving you feeling lost of course, but happy and compliant. The flavours were nuanced and layered, animated by a lively duel between frankincense and ambergris, softened by the unmistakably bright and refreshing fruitiness of an African Horned Cucumber. As bright and refreshing as a cool IPA on the back of a friends boat - you don’t have to worry about driving or docking, you just have to kick back and enjoy that ale.
The shifting, layered intrigue in the cup carried deep into the long, resonant finish, with an umami intrigue that harkened back to maple-cured bacon. Then the finish rolled on into freshly cut cedar, before settling on gently scorched almond wood. I have to point out that the finish was exceptionally long, seemed as if it would outlast religion, until like Keyser Soze… poof, it was gone. Then, I was finally able to restart my vehicle and drive home.
This coffee didn’t just wake me, I learnt something, I'm smarter now. I am woke. Replay is the Modafinil of cafes. 10 out of 10, highly recommend.More