Coffee

Ok, call me  a coffee snob but there is no place on earth like Melbourne for coffee.  Let me add some  qualifications.  I am not an espresso drinker, so automatically disqualify myself as an officianado.  In Italy, I am told, the espresso is great, but if you want a milk coffee i.e. cappuccino, latte etc. you are stuck with a fairly ordinary cappuccino with an indeterminate froth and the latte does not exist!  Also, I like to savour my coffee but the Italians skol their espresso and go,  They don't even sit down!

Of course I agree some Melbournians take it too far.  I work in the Melbourne CBD, and there must be about ten cafes within 200 metres of our building which serve passable coffee, including one located in the foyer of the building, and at least two who serve very good coffee.   Yet some of my work mates walk a block and a half (i.e. half a kilometre) to go to a cafe that serves THE BEST coffee!  Needless to say the place is full of hipsters and bankers (sorry, my typing skills are pretty poor, so you have to forgive the occasional typo), and you have to wait ten minutes for your coffee, which makes the morning coffee run about half an hour!  And you still have to drink it when you get back to your desk.

Making Crepes in the Trocadero

We are of course in Paris, and well, it ain't Melbourne, at least where coffee is concerned.  The cappuccino comes with whipped cream (although it also has chocky sprinkles, so they are trying), the latte is really a flat white and there is no such thing as latte art.  There is a profusion of Starbucks, which are a bit more like home but, of course, this is American coffee.  It comes in a bucket (the smallest size is a 'tall' and the large is like a milk shake) with a range of flavours, none of which are actually coffee!  OK, I exaggerate, but my tall latte only tasted marginally like coffee as it was drowned in milk.  Next time I will see if they do a double shot, which  should  make it normal strength.  Seriously, I can make better coffee in my own kitchen on my $200 Sunbeam!  

Of course our luxurious accommodation does come with coffee making facilities, in the form of a dripolator.  Your know, one of those things that you useed to have back in the 80's that you fill with water and put coffee in the dispenser in a filter and the water boils and drips through the coffee into the natty glass jug.  Well, in the absence of anything else it does make decent coffee so we have been using it  every morning.  It is amazing what compromises you make to feed your adictions!  So at the  risk of sounding like a whinging Pom on holiday on the Costa del Sol "OOh Gerald, it isn't like it is at home, is it?", I am really missing Melbourne coffee.