Drips Bakery & Cafe

I've a girlfriend who's studied overseas at Melbourne before. We meet often to chat about our lives (during and post-Aussie) over brunch or shopping sessions sometimes, and we've always been meaning to set up a coffee date of some sort since she's sort of a coffee fanatic (what with the diverse cafe scene that Melbourne has...). We finally managed to arrange for a coffee session at one of the new coffee joints that I was planning to check out in late December 2011.

 Drips Bakery & Cafe

The place was packed with people when we arrived around early afternoon. We managed to grab some "bar" seats right next to the pastry counter as there were no available tables at hand.

I've read several online reviews all recommending that the tarts at Drips were very good, thus it was with that in mind that I persuaded my girlfriend (easily) to get some fruit tarts to go with our coffees.

We spied that the kitchen had just prepared a fresh trayful of fresh fruit tarts (photo below). Mountain high fresh berries were perched prettily atop a tart shell. Gorgeous. We got a fresh raspberry tart and a brandied cherry tart slice.

The tart crust for the fresh fruit tart was simply ah-may-zing. If I may say so. It was simply the best fruit crust I've ever tasted in any pastry store. Hands down. Crumbly, buttery and crunchy. Paired with a creamy sweet custard and what looks like to be a whole (okay, maybe half) punnet worth of raspberries, I was wowed.

The cherry brandied tart on the other hand, wasn't as fantastic. It was nice because of the brandied cherries, but that's about it. As I didn't had lunch that day, I was still hungry after noshing on the two tarts. It didn't help that we were seated right next to the pastries counter. After the staff brought out yet another batch of fresh fruit tarts, we couldn't resist and ordered a third tart (the blackberry mango one) to share. Yup, we're officially big fans of Drips tarts (the fresh fruit ones).

And of course, not forgetting our cuppas. I ordered my standard latte and it was a lovely aromatic cuppa. Girlfriend was very satisfied with her own mug of caffeine and proclaim that she wanted to visit more cafes with me, like once every week or so if possible. Erm,  we'll see about that.

If you ever visit Drips Bakery & Cafe, the tarts are a must try!

Just one bite and it's hook, line and sinker...forever. ;)