So reports the Wall St. Journal today: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1 ... 43846776#!

Carmel Melouney wrote:Specialty cafes are being opened across the city by a wave of young Australian entrepreneurs who want to change the way New Yorkers drink coffee.

While many people think Australia's favorite brew is beer, the country is perhaps equally obsessed with coffee, a culture that began with a wave of Italian immigrants carrying stovetop percolators after World War II.

Australians are known to shun American-style drip coffee and favor espresso. At Little Collins, a Lexington Avenue cafe that opened in July at East 56th Street, Australian customers enjoy bemoaning American coffee.

(cont'd)

mmmm....i am more than a little bemused by us aussies taking the high moral ground on coffee! I know its near impossible to find what i would rate a decent coffee in any australian cafe.

There is a lot of self generated hype about some of our 3rd wave cafes, (no different to you guys there!), but not to my taste.

My opinion is that great coffee is a very rare beast indeed, anywhere in the world.

Totally agree

galumay wrote:My opinion is that great coffee is a very rare beast indeed, anywhere in the world.

From the article it sounds like the Austrailian market must be saturated with coffee shops for so many knowledgable people to come to the US to open coffee shops. I have noticed more and more coffee shops in Washington DC adding flat whites to their menu over the last year or two.

Even in Albuquerque a few shops have added flat whites, but here I don't think it's due to Aussies in town. People (including myself) have found it an easy way to ask for a small cap without a top of frothy foam, and the cafes end up putting it on the menu.

Although true that the top notch cafés are few and far between, and I happily seek them out, I did find that the general bar is much higher in Oz than NA. This was especially true in Melbourne, less so in Sydney. You can count on at least decent coffee more often than here where swill is all too common. In Cochran, just outside of calgary, one of the best cafés was open by a young auzzie and she is fully immersed in NA style third wave and continues exploring. Love it and welcome it. NA is a rising though....

It's amusing to see in what direction current trends are taking, and the individual interpretations of said trends. It's true that MOST coffee shops do a less than optimal job of producing a palatable beverage, whether it be a lack of knowledge or lack of interest to do so. The same goes for any industry; and my answer is this: if the individual cannot produce a decent representation of their product then they are deemed a hack. In this age of information there is no excuse to be uninformed. The flip side of course is to then be an over informed snob, which can be equally dangerous and off putting.

We've apparently always have had a similar style of Aussie flat white on our menu from our beginning, we call it the Classic, a double shot in 4oz steamed milk. It's always been popular. Our blend of espresso is roasted dark and is acidic to cut through the muting effect of milk so our drinks will still have that "coffee edge" that most latte drinking people have come to expect. Very few of our customers ever ask for straight espresso though. I can't even drink it straight.

galumay wrote:mmmm....i am more than a little bemused by us aussies taking the high moral ground on coffee! I know its near impossible to find what i would rate a decent coffee in any australian cafe.

There is a lot of self generated hype about some of our 3rd wave cafes, (no different to you guys there!), but not to my taste.

My opinion is that great coffee is a very rare beast indeed, anywhere in the world.

Depends a lot on where you live. There would be at least a dozen places making good to excellent espresso within walking distance of my home, and a couple of hundred within a half hour's drive. Downside is at least 4 times as many places producing junk. Melbourne really is coffee central in Australia, and there are a lot of decent baristas who like to travel.

Getting here to taste the coffees might be a bit of a battle, though. Nhulunbuy to Port Melbourne is 4000 km!

Alan