Barista Of The Week… Andrew Ridley

Barista of the Week… Andrew Ridley
Head Barista ½ Penny Specialty Coffee,
422 Sydney Road, Brunswick, VIC

The Coffee Guide (TCG): If you weren’t a barista what would you be?
Andrew (Drew): Face down in the gutter with a bottle of whiskey… or an exotic dancer.

TCG: How do you have your coffee at home? How do you make it and how do you take it?
Drew: I like getting other people to make my coffee on my days off… then I send them all back just so I can be “that ” customer.

TCG: What’s the best thing about your job- the one thing that you really love aside from the coffee?
Drew: Sharing way too much information about my personal life with strangers.

TCG: What is your favourite music? For work or for play.
Drew: Anything that makes me want to throw windmills at 1000rpm.

TCG: What’s your favourite food?
Drew: Vegemite and cheese on toast.. ‘Straylian as mate!

TCG: Tell us what your best (or first) coffee experience was.
Drew: I like too see how close I can get to having a heart attack by drinking espresso till I puke! Cause I’m tough like that…

TCG: If you’re not drinking coffee, what is your drink of choice?
Drew: Jamesons and dry- a drink for gentlemen, dukes, scholars and self depricating, social outcast, jokes of humans like myself!

TCG: What made you become a barista?
Drew: I needed a job to fuel my alcoholism and my pokies/porn addiction.

TCG: Do people often try and chat you up at work? Have you ever taken the offer up?
Drew: Nah, not really. I am a fair joke of a man. Girls think I’m a massive creep. To be fair, they’re probably right.

TCG: What food do you think is the best compliment to a really great coffee?
Drew: Cold drip with a mini Danish, followed by a cigarette. Boom!

TCG: How many coffees would you make in the average day?
Drew: Not enough! Come down to Half Penny so I can pay my rent!

TCG: What’s the largest amount of coffees you have made in a day?
Drew: There was a day at Cafenatics Docklands that I made sooo much coffee that I broke down and cried for 3weeks… true story…

TCG: Does your coffee style (or how you drink it) say something about you?
Drew: No. My shocking jokes and terrible sense of humour say more about me than anything.

TCG: Where has your coffee making taken you?
Drew: Nowhere, as I am very average.

TCG: What is the most exciting thing happening in coffee right now for you?
Drew: The parties and endless women.

TCG: If you could pick one spot in the world to sit and have a coffee, where would it be, and what coffee would you have?
Drew: Anywhere with Kate Moss. ‘Nuff said.

TCG: If you could make coffee for one other person of your choice (anyone- past or present), who would it be?
Drew: Kate Moss….

TCG: Where is your favourite place to hang out in Melbourne?
Drew: My house. It’s where all of my stuff is.

TCG: What did you do on your last day off?
Drew: I rarely do anything on my days off… as you can tell I’m obviously the most exciting dude in the world who does heaps of cool stuff with rad kids.

TCG: In a good cup of coffee, how much of it is due to the barista and how much is due to the beans?
Drew: I rely on good beans because I am very average. Fake it ‘til you make it brah!

TCG: Is decaf a dirty word?
Drew: I know a couple that start with c and f that are pretty dirty

TCG: Is specialty tea the new cappuccino?
Drew: No- it’s the new tea. It’s nothing like a cappuccino…

TCG: What is your favourite kind of tea?
Drew: Any kind that will make me hallucinate.

TCG: What is your favourite alternate brewing method?
Drew: Nescafe Blend 43.

TCG: Where do you see alternate brewing methods going?
Drew: To the pub.

TCG: What ever happened to the Clover?
Drew: It went to the pub with the other brews.