Hi Brett, I have to agree with you wholeheartedly. There are many places that serve good food (cafe, restaurant, bakery, patisserie etc, etc) but serve poor to average coffee. Good coffee used to be readily available, however, I believe that the quality has dropped. I know a lot of people have improved palettes, but I still find that many places only serve average coffee. A good house blend that offers a nice combo of body, sweetness, complexity and aftertaste is hard to find. People want to sit down and have a nice coffee, but are being disappointed. I find many coffees to be lacking in an essential element and quite lacklustre. Part of the fault is the barista, but also with the ingredients as well. With the price of good coffee increasing, I believe (my theory) that many places are implementing cost cutting features. Maintaining consistency and quality is essential. Also, crappy milk destroys a good coffee, yet many places continue to use it. A2 is so popular now (we drink it as other milk can make my girls queasy), yet what establishment offers it as an extra (like soy for example). If full cream milk is the base drink, offer skim A2 for an extra 50c. (I use full cream for my coffees and find skim to be too watery). I have had a really good coffee from a local place, and then returned a few times. Each time the coffee has been mediocre. I bought roasted beans from them and found the same result at home. My family also echoes this sentiment. My home roasts are good, but I am very critical of them, as I have a very specific taste that I seek. I find it hard to find coffee to my taste, and like you, prefer my own. Hence my path to buying only high quality beans. From now on, my stash of coffee will only consist of very good Single Origins, that can also be blended to achieve what I want. As our coffee journey develops, we learn to appreciate what we like, and concentrate on that. I still cannot resist buying from a good roaster to compare......
