New York coffee break: Ground Support

Shopping and sight-seeing around SoHo can be a serious and time-consuming business, so a decent coffee stop is very welcome. And Ground Support in West Broadway is just the ticket.

Light, airy and open, Ground Support was once an art galley and funky artwork still adorns its walls. It attracts a mixed crowd of locals and tourists, who cram inside at rough wooden tables, or spill outside into the adjoining courtyard.

A smooth cafe latte is strong and nutty, or there's single-origin Chemex drip coffee or cold-brew iced coffee. Sandwiches are artfully wrapped in brown paper tied with string and are big enough to share between two.

Ground Support
399 West Broadway (Spring St)
SoHo

New York coffee break: 88 Orchard

While waiting for our tour of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, we stumbled across 88 Orchard, a little cafe on the corner of Orchard and Broome Streets in the Lower East Side. Once one of the most miserable areas in New York, its tenements crowded with recently arrived migrants, this little pocket is now gentrified, with cafes and expensive clothing stores occupying the ground floors of renovated tenement buildings with beautifully artistic and decorative wrought-iron balconies and fire stairs. It's difficult to reconcile this pretty area, its streets crowded with expensively dressed locals and tourists, with the misery experienced by some of the migrants who moved here in the 1800s. (If you are visiting New York, I highly recommend a visit to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum - one of the highlights of our trip).

88 Orchard is a two-storey cafe, with the serving area and counter on the ground floor and more tables available downstairs, which was fully occupied by people tapping away on laptops on our visit.

The coffee is served in coloured mugs that are more like tea-cups than coffee cups. Our cafe lattes had a chocolatey aroma and the milk was creamy. The sandwiches and salads looked enticing but we didn't have time to eat before our tour. This is a good little cafe to pass the time while waiting to visit the museum.

88 Orchard Cafe
88 Orchard St (at Broome St)
Lower East Side

New York coffee break: Iris Cafe

Iris Cafe is a perfect little neighbourhood cafe. Situated in a pretty corner of Brooklyn Heights, with tree-lined streets of beautiful old brownstones, Iris's little shopfront windows almost blend into the surroundings.
Although the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is just behind this residential pocket, it is a quiet area and the traffic noise is just a low buzz in the background.

Inside, the French-accented decor is perfectly suited to the pressed metal ceiling and exposed mellow brick walls. Gilt frames hold blackboards featuring the menu, while the subtle yet pretty burgundy-brown striped laminate on the tables proves that practicality doesn't have to be ugly. Artworks includes artisan black-and-white photos of busy hands, kneading bread and holding grapes or quiche.

The simple menu focuses on breakfast and lunch dishes. Maple granola is crunchy and sweet, while the egg salad baguette is stylishly wrapped in brown paper tied with string. The salad is fresh, with plenty of egg mixed with tangy mayonnaise and lettuce. A highlight is the sticky cinnamon bun: soft bread loaded with plenty of cinnamon flavour but it is not tooth-achingly sweet.

Cafe lattes are served in huge cups almost the size of soup bowls. Thankfully, the lattes are made with double shots, so there is a good taste of strong espresso, which is not overwhelmed by the milk.

Iris Cafe is a perfect little neighbourhood cafe. Another homely touch is added by the "Please place your dishes here" sign in the corner (where patrons dutifully deposit their dirty crockery). If I could replicate one New York cafe in its entirety back home in Melbourne, it is this one. If you're planning on walking the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan, allow an extra hour and come here first for breakfast or lunch. You won't be sorry.

Iris Cafe
20 Columbia Place (Joralemon St)
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn

New York coffee break: Maialino

If you want glamour with your coffee, Maialino is the place to go. Located inside the Gramercy Park Hotel, opposite the fenced, pretty and private Gramercy Park (only people residing around the park have a key), Maialino is a Roman-style trattoria that is winning plaudits for its food.

The long angular space, which opens off the hotel's lobby, has bay windows overlooking the park. There is an elegant bar, with rustic wooden tables and weathered floorboards, while things are a little more upmarket in the back section, where the tables are covered in cloths. The separate stations for bread, salumi, cheese and dessert are buzzing with busy waiters.

Although more known for its food, Maialino takes its coffee seriously. There is a pour-over drip bar set-up in the morning, while espressos and cafe lattes are served all day. Late on a Thursday afternoon, the bar area is filled with suits drinking wine, and the back restaurant section is almost full.

While we wait for coffee, a waitress brings us a complementary basket of grissini, olive rolls and sourdough bread, along with a bowl of fruity olive oil. The cafe lattes, served in large mugs, arrive shortly afterwards. Adorned with a perfect rosetta, the lattes are creamy but have a strong and chocolatey afterkick of caffeine.

Maialino is definitely worth a visit if you're in the area; next time we'll allow more time and make sure we stay for food as well.

Gramercy Park Hotel
2 Lexington Ave, New York
http://www.maialinonyc.com/

New York coffee break: Think Coffee

Think Coffee is a cafe that many university students would love to have as their local. Open from 7am to 11.30pm weekdays (from 8am on weekends), Think's three outlets offer so much more than good coffee made from Fair Trade organic coffee that is roasted in Brooklyn. Wine and beer, cheese platters, a good range of teas, baked goods (including muffins, cookies, brownies, pies and cakes), and a menu featuring sandwiches, salads and soups are all part of Think's package. Events, including art exhibitions and bands, are also held, while barista classes are offered at the Think Lab.

Think's outlet at 248 Mercer Street in Greenwich Village is large and packed with students from nearby NYU, many who are busy tapping away on laptops. Others are enjoying a glass of wine at the marble bar area or a coffee while they discuss homework. French club music is playing and the lighting is low, even at 5pm.

The barista is slow to make the coffee but he is very careful and precise in his brewing and our cafe lattes are sweet and nutty, with a thick, creamy texture and crema. The atmosphere here is as much an attraction as the coffee and you may find yourself lingering much longer than you planned.

Think Coffee
248 Mercer Street (West Fourth Street), Greenwich Village
1 Bleecker Street (the Bowery), NoHo
123 Fourth Avenue (East 12th Street), Greenwich Village
thinkcoffeenyc.com

New York coffee break: La Colombe Torrefaction

Coffee is unashamedly the focus in the streamlined and minimalist La Colombe Torrefaction store in SoHo. There's no merchandise and little branding - just slick walls that point customers towards the coffee counter. As owners Todd Carmichael and Jean-Philippe Iberti point out on their website: "[We have] an unapologetic devotion to tradition not trend - a place where taste always trumps novelty."

La Colombe Torrefaction is a coffee roasting company based in Philadelphia, with a focus on medium and dark roasts. There are two outlets in New York: one in Lafayette St, SoHo, and the other in Church St, TriBeCa.

In the SoHo store, there are a few seats along one wall but most of the traffic is for take-away. A lot of customers were opting for a coffee that seemed a strange concoction to our eyes: a tall plastic glass filled with black coffee that is topped up with milk and lots of sugar sachets by the customer. We opted for cafe lattes, which were well-made and creamy, although the coffee was surprisingly light for a medium-to-dark roast and is perhaps more suited to an espresso than a milk-based coffee. This area of SoHo seemed a little quieter to us than the areas between West Broadway and Broadway streets, but it is worth seeking out this little shop, especially if you are in the area visiting Balthazar's or the MOMA Design Shop.

La Colombe Torrefaction
270 Lafayette Street (Prince Street), SoHo
www.lacolombe.com

New York coffee break: Cafe Pedlar

For most of its history, the Lower East Side has been a poor, working-class neighbourhood, providing the first home in the United States for generations of immigrants.

But in the past 10 years, the Lower East Side, like many inner-urban areas of major cities around the world, has undergone gentrification. And with gentrification comes coffee.

Cafe Pedlar's Manhattan outpost is in Clinton St, which is sandwiched between Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges. Clinton St itself is well-known for its dining establishments (including Clinton St Baking Co, famous for its pancakes). The street (which is easily reached by catching the F subway line to East Broadway) has a nice neighbourhood feel to it and there's an eclectic mix of shops. The street hasn't been taken over entirely by stylish cafes: little neighbourhood shops, such as a dry-cleaner, a newsagent and a hairdresser (advertising for braiders with experience) still fulfill the needs of local residents.

Cafe Pedlar has a very Melbourne feel. It is long and narrow, with exposed brick walls, but it's not dark, as light streams in from the large front windows. Shelves holding bottles of wine speak of its other life as a wine bar.

The cafe uses coffee beans from Stumptown (an independent coffee roaster and retailer based in Portland, Oregon) and all drinks are made with double shots - which is just as well, as the cups are twice the size of a standard Australian cup.

Intricate double rosettas on the cafe lattes make a pretty touch. The latte is quite milky but there is a strong, dark cocoa undertone that rounds out the creamy milk nicely.

Danishes, rolls, pretzels, tarts, muffins, cookies and cakes feature on the simple pastry-based menu. This is a great neighbourhood cafe, perfect for locals, but well worth a visit if you're in the area.

Cafe Pedlar
17 Clinton St (East Houston St), Lower East Side
210 Court St (Warren St), Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
www.cafepedlar.com

New York coffee break: Joe's

Mention the words "New York" and "coffee chain" in the same sentence and serious coffee drinkers will shudder, expecting weak, watery drinks or, worse, coffee disguised with sugary syrups.

But Joe's, a boutique coffee chain of five stores, is different. This is a company that treats coffee seriously. First, the beans are sourced from Ecco Caffe, an artisan coffee roasting company based in California. Second, coffee classes, including espresso fundamentals, milk steaming techniques and a cupping series, are offered at Joe's University (13th Street, Waverly Place and Columbus Ave stores). Private classes and home visits are also available.

Joe's opened as Joe the Art of Coffee in 2003 but renamed itself to plain Joe last year. It also opened its fifth store, on the Upper West Side, "bringing serious coffee to an underserved neighborhood", according to the New York Times, which nominated Joe's as one of its 10 outstanding coffee bars that "not only produce extraordinary coffee at the highest standards, but also do so with consistency day after day."

The Upper West Side store is at 514 Columbus Ave (West 85th Street).



It is small but has a great vibe and makes good use of the limited space available - a tiny office alcove is hidden behind one of the blackboards behind the counter, reached by a small pull-up ladder. About a dozen people can be seated at the tiny tables, just big enough for a laptop and a coffee cup. There's also two park benches out the front that adds some extra seating - best on warm days only. Central Park is also nearby if, like us, you find Joe's is filled to capacity when you visit.

Coffee is made with a house blend or single origin blends are available. The house blend makes an excellent cafe latte - a nutty aroma gives way to a smooth and creamy drink that slips down effortlessly. Despite the coffees being larger than Australia - the smallest one is served in a 12oz cup - there is still a strong caffeine taste and the espresso is not overwhelmed by too much milk.

Our second visit to Joe's was at 11am on Sunday and we had to join a queue stretching out the door. Parents with prams, babies and dogs dominated the park benches out the front and there was barely room to move inside, which was crammed with joggers from nearby Central Park fuelling up after a run. But the baristas worked overtime and, despite there being at least 10 people ahead of us, we waited only 10 minutes for our coffee, which was just as excellent as our first cup.

Another Joe's outlet is in the Graybar Passage of the Grand Central Terminal (89 East 42nd Street). It is a tiny little shop that serves take-away only, but the quality across Joe's stores is consistent and our coffee from this store also hit the spot.



Joe's can be found at five locations:
514 Columbus Avenue (West 85th Street), Upper West Side
89 East 42nd Street (Grand Central Terminal)
141 Waverly Place (Sixth Avenue), Greenwich Village
9 East 13th Street (University Place), Greenwich Village
405 West 23rd Street (Ninth Avenue), Chelsea
See joetheartofcoffee.com for more information.

Good coffee in New York - does it exist?

Our mission: could two caffeine addicts, spoiled for choice in their home city of Melbourne, find a decent cup of joe in New York?

Friends warned us to prepare ourselves for a week of disappointment and deprivation, saying that drip or percolated coffee abounded. Although I generally deplore travellers who want to eat food just like they have at home, coffee is different. In Melbourne, we take excellent coffee for granted and I find it difficult to get my daily hit from weak, milky pretenders.

But a few weeks before our departure, the New York Times came to the rescue, featuring an article by Oliver Strand on “New York is finally taking its coffee seriously”. “New York used to be a second-string city when it came to coffee. No longer,” Strand wrote. “Over the last two years, more than 40 new cafes and coffee bars have joined a small, dedicated group of establishments where coffee making is treated like an art, or at least a high form of craft.”

The article listed the 40 best coffee places around Manhattan and Brooklyn and this list became our bible for the next week. Some days we planned our itinerary around coffee shops we wanted to visit but generally we found it useful to refer to when we were already in a neighbourhood and needed a caffeine hit.

On our first morning in New York, thirty-six hours after we left Melbourne and with only weak, tepid aeroplane coffee to sustain us in that time, we set out to blast away the jetlag with some good coffee. Our destination was Culture Espresso Bar in West 38th St, the closest cafe to our hotel that had been rated by the New York Times as “one of the few serious coffee bars in Midtown.

As noted recently by both the New York Times and The Age, Australian baristas are teaching New Yorkers about great coffee. Culture Espresso Bar is part of what the New York Times dubbed the “Australian coffee diaspora”, as one owner is Australian, as is Ross the barista who made our coffees. Overhearing our order for two cafe lattes, he asked, in an accent as broad as our own despite his 10 years in New York, whether we wanted our lattes served in glasses.

As he expertly made our coffees, we asked Ross about his experiences with coffee in New York and he laughed but conceded that things were getting better, especially as the US has easy access to some of the world's greatest coffee beans.

Culture Espresso opened in mid-2009 and has proven to be an oasis in Midtown, which locals deplore as an area deprived of decent food or coffee places. It uses beans from Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea and Four Barrel Coffee. An espresso is $2.50, and a latte is $4.

Our lattes look good, with textbook-perfect latte art on top. The aroma is nutty and the first sip transports us to coffee heaven: dark cocoa undertones to the creamy milk and a good hit of caffeine (as all drinks are made here with double espresso shots). This was a seriously good coffee that would easily rank highly in Melbourne.

The decor here is funky and the most is made of a small space. With just 22 seats, it can be difficult to snag one of the small tables (on our three separate visits, the cafe was always busy), although there are worse seats in the world than one here at the window bar overlooking a busy street in the heart of Manhattan. Purple-patterned wallpaper, a sparkly chandelier and modern artwork add to the ambiance.

Breakfast staples of granola, muesli and eggs are supplemented by more exotic dishes such as a Tuscan breakfast platter, and sweet-tooths will be satisfied by jumbo muffins, cookies and croissants. Sandwiches predominate on the lunch menu.

Culture Espresso Bar is a cafe that easily ranks highly on its own merits. But in an area of Manhattan that is lacking in decent coffee places, it is even more of a beacon.

Culture Espresso Bar
72 West 38th St (Sixth Avenue), Midtown
Monday-Friday 7am-7pm
Sat-Sun 8am-4pm
www.cultureespresso.com
(212) 302 0200

Coffee break: Eclipse

Don’t be fooled by the Collins Street address: the entrance to Eclipse is in Flinders Lane, hidden away at the back of the refurbished Intercontinental Hotel.

Red-brick walls hide a nightclub-like interior, its darkness illuminated by spotlights on the walls. The serving area and Synesso machine dominate the small interior, with a few wooden tables, including two communal tables, and a glass cabinet of pastries the only other furniture of note. There's also plenty more tables outside for those who can't cram inside, and table service is offered.

Queues are long at peak times but the city-cool-chic staff are quick and gracious under pressure. Although most customers take away, the pastries and a lunch menu that has expanded considerably since Eclipse opened, offer a reason to stay in.

But the focus is on the excellent coffee. An aromatic espresso, a rich brew with unsweetened cocoa and woody notes, is a powerful drink, while a toasty, nutty cafe latte is equally masterful: a balanced blend of chocolaty coffee with creamy milk that slips down very easily. Rotating single-origin beans on offer might include a chocolaty Brazilian blend that teases the palate with a brief burst of flavour.

A relative newcomer to the CBD coffee scene, Eclipse is already overshadowing nearby rivals and promises to be a stayer.

Eclipse
7A/495 Collins St (enter off Flinders Lane), Melbourne

Coffee break: 65 Degrees

The north-eastern end of Exhibition St is an unlikely home for a world champion barista. It's a quiet area, away from the main CBD shopping strips, but that hasn't stopped 65 Degrees becoming a big hit with those in the know. There's a steady crowd of loyal regulars lining up for take-aways - even three businessmen, who were in Melbourne for just six hours, were thrilled by the tip-off that led them there. "We'll definitely be back!" they chorused as they left.

Con Haralambopoulos, one of three brothers behind the cafe, has an impressive list of coffee titles to his name, including world espresso champion and world latte art champion. The brothers previously ran 7 Grams in Richmond, but closed that to start this new venture. The obsessive attention to coffee detail even extends to the name: 65 degrees Celsius is the correct temperature for milk when making coffee.

The narrow but light-filled interior has tall tables and stools at the front and smaller tables at the back. The best seats are those by the leadlight full-length windows that overlook Exhibition St. This end of the street is quite pretty, lined with trees, and with less traffic than other, busier streets in the CBD (there were even some carparks available out the front on the morning that I visited).

A substantial breakfast and lunch menu is chalked on a blackboard at the front of the cafe and the glass display case is full of sweet and savoury treats. But the focus is on coffee, made here with beans from Gridlock, and Con's impressive coffee skills. Warm cocoa notes dominate in a smooth and silky short black that is a delight to sip. The café latte is simply stunning: there’s a hint of toasted nuts but no flavour predominates in the smooth, balanced brew that slips down without effort. I am in raptures as I drink it: this is, quite simply, the best cafe latte I've ever had in my life!

The only drawback to 65 Degrees is that it is at the opposite end of town to my office, so I can't visit as often as I would like. If you love coffee, do yourself a favour and get to 65 Degrees as soon as you can: it's a must-visit destination.

65 Degrees
309 Exhibition St, Melbourne
Mon-Fri 6.30am-4pm

Coffee break: Coffee Hit, Doncaster

Shopped-out fashionistas will find a caffeine hit here that’s a cut above the usual shopping-centre offerings. This is a cafe that takes coffee seriously: as well as grinding and roasting its own beans, Coffee Hit sells beans, utensils and books, and the Australian Barista Champion 2009 runner-up is on staff.

Situated in a light-filled atrium near upmarket grocery stores, Coffee Hit has a classy fitout of dark timber furniture, with space for prams or shopping bags. There’s sandwiches and cakes for sale but the high-standard coffee is the main deal. A very short espresso has an intense, spicy aroma that fills the mouth but fades quickly. The initial tobacco aroma of a long black fades into a mellow, slightly earthy taste that doesn’t linger, while a latte, full of caramel and nuts, is an easy-sipping palate pleaser. Just as pleased are the outer-suburban shoppers who now have a caffeine indulgence to equal their inner-city counterparts.

Coffee Hit
Shop G217, Westfield Shoppingtown
619 Doncaster Road, Doncaster

Rich iced birthday cake

I'm an absolute sucker for magazines that feature Christmas feasts. It doesn't matter how many recipe features I have with Christmas dishes (and I already have my own extensive collection of family favourites that I usually make each year), if I see a new magazine with an enticing spread, I buy it.

I admit that the December issue of Notebook magazine was one such purchase. I am a big fan of Notebook magazine, which seems to be one of the few women's magazines that addresses women who might want to read something more substantial than celebrity gossip and sealed sex sections. There's always lots of inspirational reading, with articles on finance, personal improvement, spiritual wellbeing and work-life balance interspersed with fashion and cooking spreads.

One of the dishes that caught my eye in the December issue was the rich iced mud cake with boozy berries. I didn't have time to make it at Christmas (nor did we really need extra cakes!) but I bookmarked it and decided it was the perfect cake to make for Adam's birthday.

It's always a risk to make a new cake for a special occasion, in case it doesn't work, but the method was easy and the combination of chocolate, coffee, Marsala and mascarpone was tempting. It's a big cake, suitable to serve at least 12 people, so it's an excellent occasion cake. The original method called for the cake to be made in two loaf tins but I made it in one big square cake tin and just had to adjust the cooking time accordingly.

The end result was enthusiastically received by both the birthday boy and the family members who attended the birthday feast. The cake is moist and dense, with the subtle coffee and Marsala flavours blending harmoniously with the chocolate. A mixture of mascarpone, whipped cream, Marsala and icing sugar sandwiches the cake together. The alcohol softens the rich mascarpone and ensures that this cake, while rich, is not overpowering and will not leave you feeling like you've overindulged.

Coffee break: Seven Seeds

Melburnians are truly spoilt for choice when it comes to coffee. Baristas take pride in their product and the use of freshly roasted beans, whether secret house blends or single-origin beans, is expected. New places, some in little more than shopfronts, open all the time and it becomes a game to see who knows the newest, secret venue that caffeine fiends are chatting about.

One venue that has received widespread coverage for its excellent coffee, and is no longer a secret, is Seven Seeds in Carlton. It's been on my list to visit for quite a while now and I was pleased to finally make it there. Seven Seeds gets my vote for the best coffee in Melbourne right now. I'm not the first person to nominate them for this honour, and I certainly won't be the last, as the baristas there are churning out a quality brew.

Seven Seeds is inside a converted old warehouse, situated off the main drag in nondescript Berkeley St, Carlton - but still close to Queen Victoria Market and Melbourne University - and surrounded by other old warehouses and new high-rise apartments. Inside, the atmosphere is industrial chic. The high ceilings and large interior lend an air of spaciousness and there is certainly plenty of room to fit in a pram for caffeine addicts with littlies in tow (the only downside is that most of the tables are high, with stools, so toddlers may need to stay strapped in the pram).

A Synesso machine takes pride of place in the spacious serving area. There is an extensive coffee menu, with different blends noted, and a basic breakfast and lunch menu.

Coffee of the day when we visited was 'black cult'. It is syrupy and thick in the mouth, with spicy fruit building to a rich chocolate finish. It is a smooth and mellow coffee that rewards sipping. Adam's cafe latte, decorated with a textbook-perfect rosetta, is smooth and creamy and he votes it as one of the best lattes he's ever had.

It was a rushed visit but we vow to return as soon as we can to try more of the excellent coffee here. This is a venue that takes pride in its coffee, from the sourcing of beans to the serving of the finished product. If you live in the area - lucky you! If you don't - make the visit; Seven Seeds is definitely worth it.

Seven Seeds, 114 Berkeley St, Carlton

Monday-Saturday 7am-5pm, Sunday (and public holidays) 8am-4pm

Coffee break in the country

The early morning rush to get four adults and two children ready and on the road for our day of berry picking at Pennyroyal, nearly two hours' drive away, meant that there was no time for a heart-starting shot of caffeine before we headed out the door.

By the time we arrived at 10.30am at Deans Marsh, a little town of nearly 700 people between Lorne and Winchelsea, our caffeine-deprived brains were screaming for a fix, and we pulled over when I spotted the words "take away cappuccinos" on the wall of the Deans Marsh General Store.

My mum grew up in Deans Marsh, so this town was like a second home to me when I was growing up, as we spent most school holidays here visiting our grandparents. Back then, it was a general store in the old-fashioned sense of the word. It sold newspapers, milk, butter, ice-creams, pies, lollies, tinned food and other grocery items - in short, everything you would need to pick up if you didn't have time to go into Birregurra or Colac to do your big weekly shop, or you ran out of an item mid-week. One thing it certainly did not sell was take-away cappuccinos.

But times have changed. Deans Marsh is no longer predominantly a farming community. Olives, grapes and llamas are some of the new local industries and artists and "tree-changers" have moved in from the city. The old Presbyterian church is now adorned with artistic rainbow-coloured ribbons and the garage has a cafe attached. And the Deans Marsh General Store makes coffee using Jasper Coffee, an Australian-owned company based in Collingwood.

The take-away cafe lattes were excellent: smooth with an aroma and flavour of caramel and a soft, mellow aftertaste. Deans Marsh has certainly changed but I'm thrilled that good coffee is now available there.

My second rural coffee of the week came during a day trip to Torquay on the Bellarine Peninsula. After a picnic lunch in the sun with friends, a dip in the ocean for the kids and an ice-cream to round things off, we farewelled our friends and went for a stroll and then a drive around town as we searched for a caffeine hit. There were several open-fronted cafes on the Esplanade but they looked upmarket and more for meals than a casual coffee with two rapidly tiring children in tow.

As we drove down Gilbert St in the town centre, I spied a cafe that looked like it might be OK and Adam miraculously found a carpark in the main street. As I opened the door, I found myself face to face with a Jasper Coffee - Caffeine Dealers banner and so I headed instead into Farm Foods, a butcher shop cum deli. I was a little sceptical when I first entered the shop: there was one person at the butcher's counter at the back of the shop and a man totting up the till at the front. I hesitantly asked if he served take-away coffees, which he did, and he turned to the large red Wega machine behind the counter. He made the coffee slowly but seemed to know what he was doing.

My first surprise came when he charged me $5 for two take-away lattes. I haven't paid $2.50 for a coffee for years! And certainly not in a beachside tourist town where coffee is usually more expensive than in Melbourne. The second surprise came when I took my first sip: this was, quite simply, one of the best coffees I've ever had. A nutty aroma, followed by a smooth-as-silk sensation on the palate with a lingering caramel aftertaste. It was such a drinkable coffee that I wished for a never-ending cup. Farm Foods will be my first stop next time I'm in Torquay.

Deans Marsh General Store, 1419 Birregurra Road, Deans Marsh

Farm Foods, 4a Gilbert Street, Torquay

How do you take your coffee? Part II

Melburnians, despite their love of good coffee, are yet to discover the wonders of single origin specialty coffee beans, says coffee hunter Stephen Hurst, from Mercanta the Coffee Hunters.

As I recently wrote, Mr Hurst believes that the future of coffee lies in the "flavour discovery" of single origin specialty coffee beans. He says consumers are used to drinking the industrial blends offered to them but he believes good coffee starts from single estate, or single origin, specialty coffee beans.

Unfortunately, like most good things in life, quality comes at an expense. While not specifying prices, Mr Hurst did acknowledge that single origin estate coffee would be more expensive. When penning my original article, I queried whether people would be willing to pay more for premium coffee, especially when a good coffee depends on so much more than the beans (a decent barista and coffee machine are also necessities).

Now, thanks to the good folk at Melbourne Coffee Merchants (the local offshoot of Mercanta), I have sampled some single origin estate coffee - and it is seriously good!

The coffee was El Guabo from north-eastern Peru. The beans were roasted, but not ground, and, in order to enjoy the coffee at its best, I also received a special filter cup, filter papers and an A4 sheet of instructions on how to correctly prepare filtered coffee.




The roasted beans had an intense, earthy caffeine smell that was quite intoxicating, especially once ground, although the aroma faded once the coffee was poured. It didn't have the same intense caffeine smell as a coffee extracted from a machine. There's no crema with a filtered coffee, so it was the blackest coffee I've ever seen.




The coffee was very smooth on the palate and quite sweet. Drinking this is how I imagine eating silk would be like. It slides sweetly down the throat with no acid aftertaste or puckering on the palate. I kept sipping, craving more, and suddenly the cup was empty. I drank this coffee black and there was no need to add sugar. There was a shortish aftertaste but this coffee improved after each sip and became more mellow.

The next day, I ground the beans and got Adam, who's the expert barista in our house, to make some coffees from the machine. I had a long black and Adam added some sugar but this was a mistake, as it made the coffee too sweet. The taste was softer on the palate than the filtered coffee but it was also not as flavoursome. The second coffee Adam made was a flat white and this was a massive disappointment. The milk did not blend well with the coffee. It tasted sickly and the coffee flavour was masked. The best way to enjoy this coffee is as a long black with no sugar added; this allows the full flavours and characteristics of the bean to shine through.

So I am a convert to this coffee. But what cost would there be to my hip pocket? Well, it turns out to be not as bad as I feared. St Ali sells 250g of the El Guabo coffee for $13.50, as opposed to $11 for 250g of the St Ali espresso blend (which also makes a very nice coffee). For such a small price difference, I would be willing to buy single origin estate coffee beans, as I think the extra flavour sensation is worth it, particularly if, like me, you make and drink a lot of black coffee at home. And I also think I would buy a coffee made from single origin estate beans from a cafe, as long as it was a cafe that took its coffee seriously, had an excellent barista, and the single origin beans were competitively priced against the industrial blend beans.

How do you take your coffee?

The coffee revolution has not yet begun, according to international coffee expert Stephen Hurst.

Mr Hurst, the founder of specialty coffee company Mercanta The Coffee Hunters, says the future for coffee lies in developing a premium market and highlighting the characteristics of different coffee beans in a way similar to wine.

Even water has been marketed in terms of different flavour characteristics and a premium water market has emerged, he said.

"It's amazing that coffee has not been differentiated in a premium way yet," Mr Hurst told a gathering of coffee lovers at Melbourne caffeine temple St Ali.

"The future will be in flavour discovery: single estate and single varietals of coffee beans."

Despite Melbourne's strong coffee culture, he said coffee lovers often remained uninformed on the origins of the coffee served and how it was selected by suppliers. And the concept of single estate, or single origin specialty coffee, rather than industrial blends, is also new to Australia, he said.

Mr Hurst said the existence of futures markets for coffee has "commoditised" the product and there is a false assumption that coffee is "generic", as if every bag from a single origin or country somehow tastes the same. He said good coffee needed to start from a good basis and that was with the green beans.

"The quality of the coffee is in the beans. Everyone has their own idea of what a specialty coffee is but if you roast good beans well and serve it well, that's specialty coffee," he said.

Mr Hurst founded his company Mercanta The Coffee Hunters in 1996 and supplies fine coffees to specialty coffee roasters around the world. He is also involved with the Cup of Excellence, a competition that selects the very best coffee produced in a particular country each year.

Contrary to popular business wisdom, Mr Hurst believes that the customer is not king when it comes to choosing the best coffee.

"Customers don't have the tools to make a good choice." he said.

"They ask for coffee that they've read about or heard about. There's a lot of things about coffee that are not understood. The baristas should be advising clients what to buy."

Mr Hurst said that fine quality coffee does cost more and acknowledged that it would be difficult to sell more expensive coffee, especially given the current economic climate.

This, to me, was one of the most interesting points of the night and got me thinking about our relationship with coffee: why do we drink it? For some people, it's because of addiction and they need a caffeine hit to start the day. For others, drinking coffee is a social thing to do, a pleasant way to pass the time or something to do while conducting a meeting or catching up with friends. Others enjoy going to new cafes and sampling different coffees.

We're fortunate in Melbourne because we have a strong coffee and cafe culture. In general, Melburnians are quite knowledgeable about coffee and we're fortunate that it's not hard to find excellent coffee. People are quite particular about their favourite type, whether it's a skinny latte or a macchiato, and more dedicated caffeine fiends have favourite cafes, and even favourite baristas.

But coffee is also a drink that's often consumed on the go, in take-away cups, or slurped down in a hurry before catching a train or rushing to the next meeting. It's not always savoured in the same way a glass of fine wine might be.

Is there a market in Melbourne for more expensive coffee? Would the average punter, despite our good coffee knowledge, be able to discern the difference between their usual flat white and one that's made with a single origin coffee bean? If you can get a good cup of coffee for $3, are you likely to pay $6 or $8 for a coffee that uses so-called superior beans?

I love my coffee, and I've learnt a lot about it through studying a barista course and reviewing for the Melbourne Coffee Guide. But I'm not sure that I would be persuaded to pay double the price for a coffee made with single origin beans - and definitely not for every cup of coffee I consume. I haven't yet tasted any coffee made from these specialty beans, and I may change my mind once I do so - perhaps it really is obviously superior to the blends currently offered. I agree that you often pay a price for a premium product but do we want to be drinking premium beans every time we grab a coffee? It's like drinking Grange at every meal.

There's also so much more that goes into a coffee than just the beans - the machine, the temperature, the milk and especially the barista can all make a difference. In fact, the barista's talent is the biggest variable of them all and even the best green beans in the world will not save a poor barista from making bad coffee.

Still, anything that increases our knowledge, and our choices, about coffee is a good thing, so it will be interesting to see how the concept of single origin beans slots into the current market.