My travel often involves making some effort to find good local coffee. From Palo Alto to Portland, a little effort finds quality cafes with reliable espresso drinks. How does the rest of the world then stack up with Australia, the acknowledged home of coffee?
My first stop was Sydney, where my airbnb was conveniently located a stone’s throw from Skittle Lane Coffee. Many other cafes were on my list (Cabrito Coffee Traders, St Dreux Espresso Bar, and so on). What consistently stood out was not necessarily how far above in quality the coffee was from elsewhere in the world, but the sheer consistency of a cup at almost any completely random cafe in Sydney, and there are a *lot* of cafes. I mean, walking down a city street and finding three different cafes in a row was a common sight.
After a while, it began to dawn on me that I am not a coffee snob; it’s just that the rest of the world sucks when it comes to consistent espresso drinks. There are some places which can make a decent cup on occasion, but when the baristas are under pressure (especially with long lines of customers) their technique falters and they screw up the microfoam. New York City is the absolute worst in this regard — full of hipster baristas with beards to match making subpar coffee when they are rushed. So as my trip continued, I could relax and order coffee almost anywhere (country cafes, even Sydney airport). It helped that almost every single cafe had a La Marzocco coffee machine, a serious 20K piece of equipment.
All this is not to say that some coffee places were better than others. My favourite was probably Poolhouse coffee, (whose product has replaced the old coffee picture on my webpage) but this was just one great option among many.