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Aug 4th, 2005

A friend of mine wrote this after another disappointing coffee. Is he obssessed? I'll let you judge:

I'm sitting here in Philadelphia International Airport a disappointed and homesick man. The cause of my malaise is a bad coffee experience. Feeling decidedly jet lagged I thought a smooth, sweet cafe latte with a restorative dose of caffeine would help me feel a little more human. Instead I'm sitting here with a bitter aftertaste in my mouth and burnt tongue to boot.

The culprit was Starbucks. I took a chance and lost the toss. How can something as simple as a good coffee be so difficult to get?

All of this has got me thinking about how to go about getting a good coffee when away from your coffee comfort zone. I think the trick is to not waste your time by finding out that the coffee is bad after you have bought it. So, here are my tips on spotting a good cafe.

There are really only 4 rules for making good a good coffee. You can judge 3 of these just by watching the barista at work, so a good start is a cafe where you can see what the barista is doing.

Using fresh coffee

This is pretty crucial.

Once roasted, coffee beans will remain fresh for about 3 weeks. Coffee beans are a complex cocktail of volatile organic compounds so freshness matters. Imported coffee is unlikely to be fresh so avoid anywhere affiliated with the major international coffee companies (Vittoria, Lavazza etc). Look for cafes that use locally roasted beans.

Rinsing the machine between shots

This is a no-brainer that many people simply forget to do.

The water remaining behind the screen in an espresso machine after a shot has been extracted contains extracted coffee. This is usually over-extracted coffee with a very bitter taste. Running a little water through the screen between shots fixes this.

Getting the extraction right

Extracting coffee in an espresso machine is a balance between under and over extraction. Under-extracted coffee lacks flavour and over extracted coffee contains bitter tasting oils from the coffee. You can sometimes see drops of this oil in the top of a latte.

The four keys to extracting coffee are:

getting the grind right,

using the right amount of coffee,

packing it correctly and

extracting it for the correct amount of time.

Someone who pays attention to packing the coffee is a good sign. People who don't pack the coffee at all or seem to put in a random amount of coffee are trouble. The result of the extraction should be a small shot of coffee in the glass with a good crema on top. The crema is a foam of caramelized sugars from the coffee that add sweetness. The crema on a well-extracted coffee is fairly stable and doesn't disappear quickly.

One sure way to get over-extracted coffee is to ask for a long black or a strong coffee.

Both of these usually entail extracting the coffee for much longer than is needed. A long black should be made by floating a shot of coffee over just a cup of just-below-boiling water. Strong coffee means more coffee, i.e. a double shot. One way to avoid over-extracted coffee is to ask for a ristretto which is a "short pull". But if the barista knows what a ristretto is, there probably isn't any need to ask for one.

Getting the milk right

This is the step that is most universally stuffed up.

Milk contains loads of sugars that make it naturally sweet. When milk is heated, the sugars break down and the milk becomes less sweet until it ends up with that very distinctive (and horrible) smell and taste of hot milk. Milk for a latte or cappuccino should not get above about 80 degrees C.

A good thing to look for is a cafe that uses a small jug for steaming the milk. Someone who uses a big jug, will undoubtedly top the jug up with fresh milk from time to time and reheat the jug. During this process, some portion of the milk will get repeatedly reheated and basically destroyed in the process. If you get a latte in a glass with a serviette around it so that you can hold the hot glass it will be too hot to be any good. A thermometer in the jug is not a bad sign, it's not necessary, but if it's there, there's a chance that someone will look at it. If you like really hot drinks you should stick to tea.

Another problem with cappuccinos is that many people seem to think they are making a meringue rather than a coffee. The milk should have a smooth consistency and spoons should not be involved in the pouring process. A latte or cappuccino should be poured in one go. If it's in a glass you should see the same sort of surging action that you see in a glass of just-poured Guinness and the froth will settle at the top in the same way as it does with Guinness.

If things are done right a latte will be sweet and smooth. Many people who normally have sugar in a latte don't need it if it's a well-made latte.

A Real Test

One good test of a cafe (if you're brave enough) is to ask for a decaf. A good cafe will have a separate grinder for decaf. If you see the Tupperware container appear from under the counter, you are out of luck. The coffee was probably ground 2 months ago and will be stale and horrible. There's no reason why a decaf coffee should taste any different from normal coffee. You just miss out on the caffeine buzz.

Let's Name Names

So, where do you go to get good coffee?

Apart from my place ;) Toby's in Woolloomooloo gets my vote as they pass all the tests above. They roast on the premises, the baristas know what they are doing, they have a separate grinder for decaf etc. Unfortunately for me I'm not in Woolloomooloo much these days and I find myself looking for coffee in Kogarah and Bathurst.

Well, here's my hot tip for a reliable coffee in many shopping centres.

Try Michel's Patisserie.

Michel's appear to take the coffee side of things pretty seriously. They use beans roasted in Granville, apparently using a high tech roaster that produces very consistent roasts. They have an annual internal barista competition, which the owner of the Kogarah Michel's has one twice. They also claim to have won the barista world championship in Boston this year, but as we all know this was won by Paul Basset (ex Toby's). The claim is that Paul used Michel's coffee in the world championship. Michel's also seems to go to some trouble to train their franchisees in how to make coffee. Michel's training is provided by George Sabados, who was number 4 barista in the world at one stage and ran a coffee making course I went on once, which I can highly recommend. Above all, the coffee actually taste's good (the best in Kogarah and Bathurst by a country mile).

Starbucks, Gloria Jeans etc can be OK, but I'm not convinced of the freshness of their coffee and as said when I started this rant, I've been burnt by these big chains.

Oh well, this is all well and good, but opportunities for finding a decent cafe are pretty slim in this airport, so I'll just have to go back to being grumpy.