The perfect cup?

In an ever-increasing pursuit of the perfect cup we frantically press, boil, plunge, grind, filter and inevitably drink coffee but most of us still find it a fruitless search. For every one cup of caffeine bliss I need to suffer through five steaming cups of pig swill.

Before my I step onto my coffee ranting podium I will point out that as far as coffee customers go I am already behind the eight ball as I am a soy milk drinker. I have no formal barista training and would not know the first thing about how to produce the perfect cuppa, but I have been told that soy milk is a worthy adversary of the barista and is difficult to work with. Baristas will say that to reach the desired temperature of soy is similar to parting the red sea or turning water into wine; most that attempt will fail. The common result is the removal of the first two or three layers of skin from the roof of your mouth, followed closely by an expletive laden tirade towards the unfortunate barista.

The next challenge is the beans. My sister explains that it is like gravel and sand. If the coffee is ground too fine then it blocks the water flowing through and the result is coffee that is burnt and bitter. If the coffee is ground too coarsely then the water flows past and you get weak coffee, what I term as ‘hot milk’. So, often it is not the fault of the barista but the ‘genius’ grinding the beans.

That being said I have had plenty of decent cups of coffee in my time; and on a regular basis from the same operator. There are true artisans of coffee production. My barista at Toast Café, Surry Hills was one such maestro, he could make the Toby’s Estate coffee beans sing and I have never craved 8.30am like that before.

Is it the training? Is it lack of attention to detail? Is it bad coffee?

I am not sure.

I have been on a coffee search in my new area and I have sampled around 10 different places on a few occasions. Of these there were only 2 places that satisfied my tastes. There were some truly awful offerings, there were mediocre one’s offered up by baristas who are easy on the eye, and then there were a couple of decent representations of the perfect cuppa. Merlo Coffee is a Brisbane coffee producer and if you get an opportunity to sample their wares then do so. They have not overtaken Toby’s yet but they are doing some good work.

I think if you are wanting to take the trip to your local café and hand over $5 for a cup of coffee then you can rightly expect something half decent, but don’t be disappointed if that is not what you receive. It is a tough business, mastering the coffee machine, a skill that takes time and practice. With so many factors influencing the coffee making process I may have to fall back to my tea drinking days. Well, maybe not just yet.

It is about that time so get the beans in the grinder, warm up the soy; I am on my way and ready for a cuppa.