Melbourne coffee snob.

I remember the days where the smell of coffee didn’t do it for me. Instant smelt like burnt, bitter water and fresh was like a punch to the nostrils. It was after my 6 month residence at an art school in Barcelona that I became partial to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

Thick, dark, creamy with a hit that is more satisfying than any other hit. “Cafe con leche, por favour”. This is how I became a fan of coffee.

However, I was dismayed at the “coffee” that could be found back at home in the UK. I remember when you’d meet up with uni friends over a “coffee” at Starbucks of Costa. With all the creams and syrups and marshmallows galore. To think that I thought that was coffee.

Flash forward 6 years to my current residence in Melbourne – the home of the flat white and a million pop up coffee stands. There seems to be a new cafe, a new coffee opportunity on every corner, with more and more opening every week.

Side street sitting, coffee vans, takeaway rushing with the business man, slowly sipping, never spilling, different roasts and different blends in the many hidden laneway gems, steaming, frothing but never bubbling, skinny latte to an elegant chai there is a coffee for every eye. Turn a corner, another blend, the Melbourne coffee never ends.

Melbourne is a place for serious coffee drinkers. Where school kids pick up a takeaway latte on the way to class and every other person has their own ‘Keep-Cup’ to save the environment whilst they enjoy their tri-daily brew. Because one is never enough.

There are so many cafes and so much coffee that my daily strong skinny latte doesn’t seem to make my heart skip a beat anymore. However, not being a born and bred Melbournite, I am not quite the hardened coffee snob that many of my colleagues are – forgoing the free work coffee machine (an actual coffee bean grinding, espresso making, with hot steamer supplied – just like in a cafe) to choose to pay for their $4 coffee from an actual barista. (In Australia you have to be a trained coffee barista to serve coffee in a cafe. It’s actually quite an art and a popular career choice amongst hipsters. No judgment!)

I am surrounded by coffee snobs – and I have become one! I can now taste the difference in the various ‘brews’, whether that be from Ethiopia or whether it is the popular local St Ali blended roast from St Kilda. And I can definitely taste a bad coffee. It’s a personal choice and an art –just like tea, except it’s easier to make a bad coffee I think.

I like my coffee:

Latte: (Daily choice and go-to-coffee)

-           Strong (double-triple shot)

-           Skinny

-           Hot (but not burnt)

-           Medium-large (a small just isn’t small enough

Macchiato: (After a big heavy dinner following desert and red wine)

-           Strong single shot

-           Skinny froth and a tiny bit of hot milk

-           Hot (but not burnt)

-           Single expresso size

-           Half a teaspoon of natural raw sugar

Flat White: (Very occasionally as a switch from a latte)

-           Strong

-           Skinny

-           Hot (but not burnt)

And on that note, here is my personal list of coffee favourites in Melbourne so far:

Go get one here:

-           Brother Baba Budan – Melbourne CBD

-           Verve Spice – South Yarra

-           Dukes – Windsor

-           Beans and Blooms– South Yarra

-           Globe – Prahan (now changed hands)

-           Little Mule – Melbourne CBD

-           Grace – Fitzroy

-           French Fantasies– South Yarra

-           Padre – South Melbourne Markets

-           Claremont Coffee - South Melbourne Markets

-           Old Barber Shop Cafe – Richmond

-           The Bunyip Cafe – South Melbourne

-           Cafe Sweethearts – South Melbourne

-           Gas – South Melbourne

My not-so-favourites:

-           Drugstore espresso  - South Yarra (not my kind of blend – too citrusy for me)

-           Pillar of Salt – Richmond (terrible service – don’t even bother at the weekend)

-           Tivoli Road Bakery – South Yarra (amazing  bakery but average coffee. Get the croissants though!)

-           Chez Drez – South Melbourne (nice enough but too busy at the weekend where you have to queue in a wait line at the weekends)