to move up and down
Six Eight Kafe's Coffee Blog
We are a new independent coffee shop open in the centre of Birmingham, using cutting edge technology and award winning roasters.
Open Mon-Fri, 7:30-18:00
Sat, 10-5:30
Sun, 10:30-4:30
Six Eight Kafé
Address: 6/8 Temple Row, Birmingham, B2 5HG
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Take-art-away cups
The humble takeaway cup is often something taken for granted and discarded once a beverage is finished…well not at 6/8. We have invited a whole host of illustrators, graphic designers and photographers to put their unique skills onto stickers that will adorn our takeaway cups. As well as our customers getting a little piece of art with every drink, it will also be a way of these creatives getting their work to a new audience.
Some are exclusive prints designed for this project, whereas others have sketched or done typography that is different on every sticker - no two cups will be the same.
The majority of contributors are locally based, but submissions are coming from as far away as Glasgow.
So far we have been kindly donated work from:
Jodie Atkins - photographer and graphic designer
One Sugar Please - print designer illustrator
Kerry Leslie - graphic designer and creator of FAKE Magazine
This is an ongoing project and we welcome submissions from anyone who would like to be part of it.
If you would like to be involved then contact us on Twitter or Facebook.
Keep sketching.
Espresso Games: St. Ali Espresso Blend
Some know St. Ali as the Saint of Coffee, others will recognise it as a coffee shop renowned for being one of the best shop/roasteries in the world. Located in South Melbourne, Australia; they have become known for their superb quality of service and ever changing house espressos.
Well lucky for us Brits then St. Ali has brought the party over here. They have recently opened a location in After a visit to the new and superb St. Ali coffee shop in London on Clerkenwell Road. The shop is beautifully designed with a huge central bar, equipped with a Slayer espresso machine, Uber boiler and all the brewing treats you could possibly imagine. Attach onto that an open roastery on the shop floor and top quality food to match the excellent coffee.
I was lucky enough to have a chat and tour of the shop with Head of Coffee, Tim Williams. After showing me the upstairs espresso bar, which boasted an all to familiar (for you 6/8 fans) Synesso Cyncra three group, he took me around the roasting area and I managed to accquire a kilo of their latest espresso blend forthe shop.
I smuggled it out of London, got it safely back in to the shop in Birmingham and got the ‘Tank’ grinder to unleash it on curious patrons of 6/8.
As you can read above, this is a mix of Brazilian and Guatemalan. The espresso came out extremely bright, not too sweet, but certainly a slap in the face as soon as it touched the tounge. This then gave away to a rich body; certainly a fun and tasty espresso - kind of wish I tried with a longer pre-infusion to see what affect it had, especially on the brightness.
A beautiful St. Ali espresso.
From bag, to grinder, to tamper, to machine, to shot.
The final latte of the day.
After burning through many shots (and varying degrees of annoyance with a temperamental grinder) both Greg and I were well and truly caffeinated to the brim. We had tried the espresso in the differen’t milks drinks and it certainly shone through in our 5oz Flat Whites and 7oz double shot Lattes. It was smooth and chocolately (well noticed by Greg that it tasted like Cadbury’s dairy milk) but then with an earthy finish. An interesting change in notes from the straight espresso.
All in all, well worth trying and I would love to hear the thoughts of anyone else who has managed to dial it in on their own machines.
Once again, thanks to Tim and the whole of the St. Ali team for their hospitality and giving us the chance to have a go with it in the shop.
Keep an eye out in the shop as you may see more random espressos, including other St. Ali blends, creeping into the store for some coffee fun afternoons.
All the best!
Craig
Tootin’ our own horn
Good or bad, we like it when people write about us. We like the good because it strokes our already swollen, pretentious barista egos; and we like reading the bad (won’t people don’t like, rather than bad writing) because it gives us something to work on.
So in that vein, we would like to direct our customers to the coffee shop review website Beanhunter and leave a review of our humble shop on profile page. Just tell us what you think and rate our service.
Here are also a few reviews of our place:
Birmingham University’s student newspaper Redbrick was kind enough to come along and have a chat with us, heres what they said about us Redbrick’s Twitter is Here
FAKE magazine is a new and exciting independent publication with their first issue coming out this Summer. Really friendly guys and they wrote a few nice words on us Find Fake on Twitter here
Nom Birmingham is a new restaurant review website set up by students from Birmingham City University. They visit eateries of all sorts but have a hankering for independents (which we whole heartedly approve) and articles are written in an entertaining and relaxed manner. Well worth checking out and recommend them ideas if you know any independents that should get some attention. Here’s what they said about us. Nom Birmingham is on Twitter
Style Birmingham wrote a piece on how we had a short film called Four Way filmed in our shop. Director of the film Matt Daniels spoke to the magazine on his experience filming with us and also Karen Strunks, who leads the 4am Project, gave a few words about our involvement is catering for a bunch of photographers on the project. To see what was said, just look here Find Style Birmingham on Twitter
Lastly,
Helen of helenography had been doing 365 Project of a photo a day and was rather impressed by our lovely big blue cups (meaning she either had a mocha or hot chocolate!). Helen’s site is fun and lots of advice for anyone looking to take part in the same type of project. See what she said about us and find her on twitter & also on Flickr
Here is one of Helen’s photos of our cups:
We Heart Photographers
With two camera fiddlers on the staff alone, it is an easy assumption to say that at 6/8 Kafé we bloody love you photography types.
Starting off with our blog at http://sixeightkafe.co.uk/ with shots by Andrea at AMCH Photography and onto our Flickr, we always dig it when someone pulls out their lensed beauty and gets snap happy.
We’re looking to get more photographers involved - whether you are a student looking for a place to take some shots or looking to network and meet other photographers in the other area; we want to meet you and see what we can do.
We recently had a visit from a picture taker, who we now like to call a friend, Dave Cox
Pret. Dave is a fan of coffee and photography and took a couple of shots of the shop for his Project 50. Dave describes this personal endeavour as “50 photos over 50 days with a 50mm lens with the aim to improve my image quality as I progress.”
Below is the resulting shot
Very nice, I think you’ll agree.
So tell us what you as photographers want from us. Photography tutorial/networking events? A coffee blog to promote and give credit to those who frequent take shots of the shop?
We’re more than happy to hear from anyone and share ideas.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Contact us on:
or email listed in the info bar to the left of the screen.
More on David Cox
More on AMCH Photography
The Hasbean Roastery was kind enough to open its doors to me for the days. I spent the day pestering Director of Wholesale, Dale Harris, and discussing coffee and the shop. Chatted to Steve, the Head Roaster, but as many of you know he is a busy man!
Hope you enjoy these shots and we are working closely with Hasbean to always improve our coffee and service. Feel free to ask any questions or check out their site here
We also have a Flickr account where we upload photos of our store and visits to events and other shops. Check it out!
