Friday, October 30, 2009

The elusive holy grail for caffeine fanciers

Saw The Graham Norton Show last night and giggled at David Mitchell's blast against coffee obsessives. It was really funny but I thought perhaps a bit hyperbolic until I got in the lift at work this morning.

A man and woman, clearly work colleagues, were engrossed in a coffee appreciation dialogue as follows:

Petite well groomed woman (PWGW) looking up at lanky colleague holding paper cup:Where do you get your coffee?

Lanky authoritative man (LAM) nursing lidded paper cup of coffee: I go to that little place in Campbell Street, not the really trendy looking one, their coffee is undrinkable...

PWGW: Oh so, you go the place on the corner? Is their coffee good?

LAM: Yeah, the place just near the corner. The African woman who used to work there made really good coffee; there's a French guy there now and he's not quite as good.

PWGW: Really an African barista? She made good coffee then?

LAM: Well, I drink long blacks and half the time they just give you this watery stuff... See this one (inviting her to peek under the plastic lid of his cup) you can still just see the creme. On a proper long black the creme should last for at least 3 minutes, there's just a hint still there....

You get the idea - I had to alight at that point.

Just googled a few Surry Hills cafe reviews. One referred to 'Melbourne-style coffee' and another one said to try and catch a day when George was there as he was the better barista. So David Mitchell is right, almost all of middle class western society appears to be obsessed with the search for 'real' coffee and can elucidate it's quest endlessly.

For years our kids have teased us about our need to find somewhere that has 'decent' coffee whenever we're out or on holidays so mea culpa too I suppose.

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