Introducing La Musette, a cafe for cyclists, owned and run by cyclists!
La Musette is a small, boutique cafe, designed specifically to service Adelaide's cycling community. Seating is limited to dozen or so customers at any one time, bike parking is provided in-shop and as well as serving great coffee, we stock a range of spare tubes, emergency cycling supplies and bananas.
Enjoy the unique and inviting atmosphere of a strange little cafe that has timetravelled all the way from 18th century Paris in a pedal-powered hot air balloon and come to rest gently in Moseley Street, Glenelg.
Park your bike safely and securely away from the hustle and bustle of Moseley Square and relax with a traditional coffee, brewed using the Astounding Siphon Apparatus.
ClosePerfect for either pre or post ride snacks.
An delicious savory dish, perfect for the summer weather we are getting in Adelaide this year.
$5.00
A colourful plate, designed to compliment the KOM jersey.
$5.00
Approx 400 Cal per serving, depending on contents. (ie - One mouthful, per hour, per race)
Also, If you have specific food needs, alergies, etc - have a chat, and we can look at doing a custom bar just for you !
$5.00
Our Siphon Coffee might be surprisingly different to what you are used to.
Using a selection of different freshly roasted beans, different brewing techniques, extended extraction times, and numerous other variables ... means that we can create a wide range of 'custom' brews, just for you !
The result of this process is a full powered brew, with a more distinct flavour profile ... incredible smoothness, and a whole new world of subtelty to experience.
Of course, its also great theatre watching the Siphon Machines in action.
Accordingly, we have chosen to do away with the conventional naming of our brews ... the menu looks deceptively simple with 2 options "Black" and "White", both of which are $5.00
The process is simple, first we will ask you how you like your coffee. How strong, what sort of flavour, milk profile, etc. Describe your perfect coffee, in whatever choice of words suits you.
There are basically 3 different 'flavours' to work from as a starting point. Here is a quick and simple overview :
Once you have selected your ideal coffee, we select the beans at the last possible moment (taking them from airtight containers), carefully measure them out, and then grind them finely only seconds before adding them to the amazing Siphon device.
This way, we strive to provide the full hit of the flavours trapped in the bean, without the oxidation and flattening that occurs due to exposure to air.
Everyone has a different opinion on the ideal amount of milk in their coffee. Thats fine - just let us know how you like it, and that is what you can expect to get.
The choice is simple - How much milk, and how much froth ?
(or of course - No milk).
We only use fresh, non homogenised milk sourced from local SA farms. Its 'real' milk, and the both the taste and texture show through.
Also - even if you love your coffee white, just ask, and we can brew up a little extra of the same set to serve it straight in an additional sample cup. That way, you can experience the full unadulterated taste of the selection, whilst enjoying your full sized regular coffee as well. Just ask !
We are experimenting with vegan alternatives to milk, which is easier said than done. (Suggestions welcome). Stay tuned for more details as we experiment away.
Note : We do not offer skim milk, as we do not believe it is good for you.
We pride ourselves on being completely over-the-top when it comes to getting 'Your' coffee just right. This is where things get a little crazy.
For most customers, we actually track Your Personal Selections in our database, for each visit - down to the choice of bean, how many grams, how many ml of milk, notes on the experience, etc.
For repeat customers, we have your full history of every cup made, and how we may have adjusted various parameters just for you, over the course of time. Yes, that is pretty nuts, I know ! ... but we would not have it any other way.
If you are on a painstaking journey to discover your own ultimate coffee, then its all good - we are fully equipped, and prepared to assist.
The shop is all about serious fun and adventure .... and we take our coffee pretty damn seriously ;)
We do not add sugar to the coffee, unless specifically requested during the order.
All tables are provided with a bowl of unprocessed sugar, so you can add as much or as little as you like to adjust the taste.
We are also experimenting with offering other sweetener alternatives, such as raw palm sugar, organic cacao powder, etc. Be adventerous, and give it a go !
Note : We do not provide any artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, but you are free to use your own if you like.
CloseA vacuum coffee maker works on the principle of expansion and contraction of gases - actually one gas, water vapour - is what allows the device to brew a full infusion style of coffee and filter the grounds efficiently, leaving a generally clean, pristine cup.
Siphon coffee makers are made up of four parts: the bottom container where the water initially sits and the brewed coffee eventually rests; a top container that has a siphon tube attached to it (and a hole in the bottom of the vessel), where the coffee brewing takes place; a type of sealing material (usually a rubber gasket) to help create a partial vacuum in the lower vessel while brewing is taking place, and a filter, which can be made of glass, paper, metal, or cloth.
There is also a heating source, and there's usually three types - a cloth-wick alcohol burner (slowest), gas or electric stovetop (faster), or a specialty butane burner (fastest). There are additional heating devices, including the halogen burner system that is part of the $20,000 setup that Blue Bottle Cafe in San Francisco has for their siphon coffee makers.
Once the siphon coffee maker is assembled, heat is applied to the lower container. As it heats up, some of the water is converted to a gas - water vapour. A gas occupies a lot more space than its liquid or solid variant, and it can expand as more heat is applied. Gas can be compressed, but only to a point, whereas liquids do not compress. The water vapour continues to expand and it seeks some relief from all the compression it's starting to have. The only escape route out of the bottom vessel is the siphon tube traveling up to the top, but the problem is, there's a lot of liquid blocking its way. So what does the gas vapour do? It pushes the water up the siphon tube!
This is how the brewing water "defies gravity" and gets up top past the installed filter and starts saturating the coffee grounds. Heated (though not boiling) water will continue to force itself up the siphon tube until the vapour gas in the bottom vessel can have direct access to the siphon. By design, all vacuum coffee makers do not have siphons that sit flush with the bottom vessel: there's always a couple of millimetres of clearance (or more). This leaves some water in the bottom vessel which serves two purposes - protects the glass (if it boiled dry, glass would superheat and could crack), and has a continuing source of water to turn into - you guessed it - more steam, vapour, gas!
This is a desirable thing. Once the water in the bottom vessel is lower than the siphon tube, water vapour starts pouring up the siphon into the top chamber. This does two things - it keeps the liquid all up in the top vessel where the full-saturation brewing is taking place, and it continually heats the top vessel, maintaining near-ideal brewing temperatures (90C and 95C (185F and 204F)). As the vapour bubbles pass through the top liquid, it may appear that the active brewing is "boiling" but in fact it isn't under normal brewing conditions. If you leave the siphon coffee maker long enough, eventually the top vessel water temperatures will reach 100C, but this takes a very hot heat source and five or more minutes of brewing time in most cases.
Another thing is going on as well - phase change. Some of the gas vapour starts changing back into its liquid form: water. This is almost like a miniscule turbo boost for the contraction of gas and vacuum forming, aiding the pull of the brewed liquid back down to the bottom vessel. At first it starts slowly, but as you watch, things will pick up speed and unless the coffee filter has been excessively clogged, the last half of the water travel down south will happen twice as fast as the first half did.
The effect is so efficient that once all the liquid has passed back down to the bottom vessel, air is drawn through the grounds up top, drying them out, to fill the vacuum void in the bottom vessel and balance out the pressure to normal room atmospheric pressure. For some, this is how the siphon coffee maker got one of its names - the ground coffee is literally "vacuumed" dry.
CloseUntil we get fully rolling ... opening hours are pretty much TBA.
During cycling season (Amys Ride till after the TDU), we will be opening at all the good times, ie :
Having said that, we need our cycling fix too ... so some times we need to close shop and put on some k's of our own.
If you have a group ride planned, and want a bike friendly spot to either start or end a ride ... let us know, and we will look at scheduling our hours around your group's needs.
The shop is about community, so we are happy to be flexible on opening hours.
To keep up to date on cycling events in Adelaide, keep a close eye on the AdelaideCyclists Event Calendar for up to date news.
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