DROP COFFEE

Words by Ben

No wonder we’re the coffee capital of the world.

There’s nothing worse than getting out of bed and lumbering towards your espresso machine only to see the last scoop of your $59 ground espresso was used by your roommate, and he’s replaced it with a home brand bag that cost $3. Those days will be no more with Melbourne’s new coffee delivery business: Drop Coffee.

There’s no question that when anyone from afar thinks of Melbourne, the first thing that comes to mind is coffee. Our state is jam packed with so many killer cafes and coffee vendors, each bringing something new and fun to the scene.

But it can often get difficult to actually get out there and see them all, buy fresh beans and find that perfect cup. Drop Coffee will save you time and money with a few different inexpensive coffee packs, delivering them to your door on a regular basis with their subscription packages.

Unsurprisingly though, where Drop Coffee really stands out is the quality of the roasters they offer, including Small Batch, Market Lane, Fieldwork, Mecca and Sample, just to name a few. Perhaps most interestingly, you’ll never receive beans from the same roaster twice in a row. Drop Coffee often updates their website with information about the roasters they are using in their packs, so you’re able to really enhance the whole experience.

When it comes to their subscriptions, Drop Coffee have thought of everything. For all home coffee connoisseurs, you’re able to build your subscription box however you like, so you can really make sure your subscription is worth it.

Drop Coffee allows you to pick and choose how your coffee pack will come, starting with the amount of coffees you drink each day (from 1–7), they’ll send you the relative amounts, so you’ll never be without that cup of joe to start off your day.

After you choose your coffee pack size, next up is choosing a roast type, tailoring it to every connoisseur. You can choose espresso or filter roast; espresso roast hotter for longer and often thicker, whereas filter roast is hotter for only a short period and will be finer once put into the machine.

Often you won’t use filter coffee in an espresso machine, but you can use espresso in a filter, so based on the machine you have, Drop Coffee will be able to deliver you the right coffee pack.

After you’ve chosen your roast, the grind is up for selection - one of the things Melburnians love most about buying their own beans. There are a few different types available for purchase; espresso, AeroPress, pourover, stovetop, and plunger.

Once again, Drop Coffee offering numerous options to ensure that coffee’s worth it.

You can also choose fortnightly or monthly deliveries, really making coffee shopping a thing of the past.

With online shopping and subscription food and drink services becoming increasingly popular over the last few years, there’s been an increased call for changes in packaging, with a lot of materials from online orders going straight into landfill. Drop Coffee has ensured this isn’t the case with their eco-friendly packaging, so there’s no reason to feel bad about a fresh bag of coffee rolling up to your door every few weeks.

In a town with $6 espresso shots and beans that’ll put you behind on rent, Drop Coffee is the shop we all need, delivering the stuff we love to our doors. Who can complain about that?

Check out more information and purchase your subscription over at drop.coffee, just scan the QR code below.. This article was made in partnership with Drop Coffee.

ARCHIE ROACH FOUNDATION PRESENTS SINGING OUR FUTURES

PLUS NEW MUSIC COMPETITION • LOCALS STAGE ARTISTS AND PLENTY OF FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT, WORKSHOPS & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

Do we control technology, or does it control us?

This question runs through Data Relations, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s current exhibition. Curated by Miriam Kelly and Shelley McSpedden, this new exhibition centres around major new commissions and site-specific installations from six Australian and international artists and collectives.

LA-based artist and computer scientist Lauren Lee McCarthy wants you to think about how data influences your day-to-day behaviour. “I’m fascinated by the ways we’re taught to interact with data, and how this shapes the way we interact with each other.”

McCarthy explores this idea in LAUREN, one of the first works we see when we step inside ACCA’s sweeping exhibition space. In this video work, we see McCarthy transform into a human version of Alexa, in all its omnipresent glory. Using a series of custom-designed smart devices like cameras, microphones, and switches, McCarthy monitors the day-to-day movements of her participants while remotely controlling the conditions within their homes.

It’s a fascinating work that offers profound insight into how technology has come to play an increasingly intimate role in our lives. And in a world where tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Apple are all racing to introduce artificial intelligence into our homes, McCarthy’s insight is as compelling as it is provocative.

For London-based artist Zach Blas, data has assumed an almost mystical form in recent decades, as companies and governments around the world are increasingly relying on it as a means of predicting and policing the future.

In Blas’s multi-channel installation, Metric Mysticism, we are lectured (literally) by a celestial troll who steers us through the transfiguration of big data into a magical substance that, much like a crystal ball, holds the power to predict and forecast the future.

“Paying attention to how data is turned into information is of course of the utmost importance today, because in our age of big data and surveillance capitalism, information is often presented as an unwavering and incontestable truth,” says Blas. “But information is a primary mode in which the world and its peoples are governed and understood today.”