Path
Each month we highlight a coffee shop.
We share their story, vision, and coffee.
This month we spotlight: Path Melbourne (North Melbourne, Australia)
Path Melbourne- 362 Victoria St, North Melbourne
Story:
If you're craving a coffee experience that's anything but ordinary, Path in North Melbourne is a must-visit, offering a bold, unique twist on specialty coffee that challenges the status quo of Melbourne's bustling café scene.
A brew bar with 4 bar seats, perfect lighting, and a nearly all black coffee menu, Path is in every way beautiful.
Opened November 2020 by partners Josh and Ash, Path is located at 362 Victoria St North Melbourne.
Fortunately for me Path is one of the closet cafes to the university I attend, and I’m lucky enough to visit when they have something unique. That uniqueness is what Josh described to be the reason to open Path.
Josh mentioned that “although Melbourne is a good coffee city, there’s not a lot of really specialty places”, Path is trying to “add something to the industry” and their goal is to “leave a mark”.
Since its opening, the humble little store has gotten people talking.
Having a menu alike to a wine list, frozen beans in tubes, and using both a filter roast for their pour overs and their espresso, and most notably to many: not serving dairy.
People may call it pretentious but it’s not.
It’s not trying to be like everyone else.
It’s not trying to cater for everyone.
Like their reason for starting, they are offering something unique.
It’s an experience that you can rarely get in Melbourne.
My opinion of the Melbourne coffee industry is positive. However, it does feel like an over-saturation of coffee shops all trying to achieve the same thing: a large volume of milk coffees trying to fix the cities coffee addiction.
Yes a bit harsh but being early innovators in coffee is what made Melbourne THE city for specialty coffee. Yet with the reluctance to change, new pressures in coffee prices, and the “race to the bottom”, coined by Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, I find that Melbourne’s coffee scene is in danger. It’s cafes like Path that push the industry, and the cafes that Melbourne needs, in order to keep the status of the City of Coffee.
Photograph: Path Melbourne Instagram
Photograph: La Marzocco Australia
Vision:
Yes path’s vision may be constant: to deliver something unique, but they want to push it.
By having something on the shelf that someone hasn’t had before to showcasing the best coffees from the best roasters around the world, to experimental signature drinks, Path keeps pushing and brings the new to Melbourne.
They adopt the new innovations in brewing and extracting coffee.
But best of all, they are humble, open to sharing, and just want to spread the joy of specialty coffee.
Coffee:
My last visit is what really prompted me to write for Path.
They had a stacked menu featuring Tim Wendelboe, April, Villino, Twin Peaks, Offshoot and of course their own roasted coffee.
I tried Tim’s SL28 from Finca Tamana. (It’s quite hard finding any shops serving coffees at the standard of Tim’s. This visit to Path was the final trigger to starting my subscription)
While brewing, Josh said this coffee was “just roasted perfectly and its up to us not to mess it up”, and they sure did not mess up.
There were clear red berries, red wine acidity, and dark chocolates.
Guest Singles like Tim’s coffee is what best represents what Path is trying to do. Josh said he finds it important to work with roasters that are really reputable to have a good reference for what they want to achieve with their roasting program.
“If we constantly get these world class coffee roasters, it sets a benchmark for us and what we want to do… but most importantly it’s something that we want to really try”.
The second coffee I tried represented this. Their Chinese Washed Bourbon roasted for filter but extracted as espresso as Path have “always loved it for its expression”.
This espresso had hints of lemon tea and honey, but lots of stone fruits and florals like orange blossom. It had a nice texture and was super balanced. Josh mentioned that this was “pretty lightly roasted coffee, as I’ve roasted more and more, I’ve gone lighter and lighter”.
The espresso recipe was 17.5g in / 48g out / 22seconds (wow what a breath of fresh air).
It was short, sharp, punchy and it had a lot of the floral characteristics like it was from Africa.
When it comes to their green sourcing they mentioned it’s built on strong relationships. Josh mentioned that they “have a few people who work for importing companies that are always thinking of us”, like “Fran from Bredda”, who works for cafe Imports “always gives us cool more unique coffees that we are supportive of”.
If you only have time to visit one cafe in Melbourne I would without a doubt say Path. It’s a cafe that makes you feel special, looked after, and curious. Their beautiful store design, their great cupware, to their simple flavour accomodating flavour wheel, Path is a shop Melbourne is truely lucky to have.
