Melbourne's Best Coffee

o

Well, lets us hope for an expanded view of melbournes coffee. What it seems to me, is that the only Espresso bars that get a mention (mostly). Are venues sporting a Synesso, or FB80. So is this the benchmark for a glimpse at potentially getting noticed. Or can you only make good coffee on a $17,000+ machine.

o

Sorry for being a little hot headed, but its hard to refute what I have said, and I am sure we have all had some shocking coffee from last years top 5. I know I have.

beanflying

o wrote:

Sorry for being a little hot headed, but its hard to refute what I have said, and I am sure we have all had some shocking coffee from last years top 5. I know I have.

With you there too without wanting to start a war of words mentioning names and or coffee types. Some of the drinks I have been served (brewed and espresso milk and non milk based) were not what they could or should have been. On my recent trip to Melbourne a few of the best milk based drinks came of older Linea's and were not anywhere on the list above. Richmond Rush Cafe on Punt Rd (a bike shop) for one of them and Little Mule in the lane just to the East of BBB. Best Espresso I had was a ristretto that Pat pulled for me at Foxy Brown. All I am getting at here is to get down to a top 5 is hard work. My weapon of choice when I am making coffees is a 3 group lever and no plans to look at LM, Synesso etc. Shots from it are different to the usual suspects and will hold its own I reckon but that's my opinion 😉

mycuppa

With the sheer number of places serving coffee now in Melbourne, it would be difficult for reviewers to visit and sample contenders and as we know, our own damn palette can shift from day to day. As there would be 400+ places, I am curious how the starting list is prepared - e.g. getting on the radar........what sort of criteria or parameters are used....... appearance in previous reviews, fans on facebook, word of mouth, geographical proximity, publicity, etc. factors that would help raise a cafe's profile to the point it is worthy of consideration.

beanflying

Interesting question how to get on the radar of coffee short lists. The newspapers are fairly good at recycling or parroting more serious reviews from what I read. Apart from that between Twitter, Facebook chat amongst the interested on various web forums, reading coffee review sites with my BS filter fully functioning. At least that's how I generate my short list or prospective places to visit. As to narrowing them down and pinning a number on them in Melbourne of all cities it is harder than most.

admin

mycuppa wrote:

With the sheer number of places serving coffee now in Melbourne, it would be difficult for reviewers to visit and sample contenders and as we know, our own damn palette can shift from day to day. As there would be 400+ places, I am curious how the starting list is prepared - e.g. getting on the radar........what sort of criteria or parameters are used....... appearance in previous reviews, fans on facebook, word of mouth, geographical proximity, publicity, etc. factors that would help raise a cafe's profile to the point it is worthy of consideration.

actually, happy to detail at length our process/methodology, but the short answer is that it depends on the quality of the [independent] reviewer/judges, who must be intimately knowledgeable of the city involved... Will add a bit more explanation of our process when we announce Best Cafes of Melbourne, in a couple of weeks. A

mrblack

beanflying wrote:

I might be missing something with De Clieu great layout etc but didn't like the vibe much considering it's heritage of bbb and 7S. Maybe I just need a hipster haircut and a fixie :🙂

Unemployed hipsters, emos and the like don't get up until midday, so next time you make a pilgrimage to Melbourne, try and visit some of the more popular establishments 1st thing (literally) in the morning....I reckon you'd have a far more positive experience. >😃

beanflying

mrblack wrote:

Unemployed hipsters, emos and the like don't get up until midday, so next time you make a pilgrimage to Melbourne, try and visit some of the more popular establishments 1st thing (literally) in the morning....I reckon you'd have a far more positive experience. >😃

I was in Melbourne Monday last week, didn't get up to De Clieu (would mind trying it on a Sat/Sun morning again) but plenty of other places for the day. Most impressed with MBD and Dukes for coffee neither of which I had been to before. Planning a couple of days in Melbourne for later in July with a bit more time to spare I hope. Shame it is a 4 hour train trip each way 🙁

mycuppa

beanflying wrote:

I was in Melbourne Monday last week, didn't get up to De Clieu (would mind trying it on a Sat/Sun morning again) but plenty of other places for the day. Most impressed with MBD and Dukes for coffee neither of which I had been to before. Planning a couple of days in Melbourne for later in July with a bit more time to spare I hope. Shame it is a 4 hour train trip each way 🙁

Just face it Timbo - you can't stay away..........perhaps a Kitehouse by the Bay might be a possibility ?

Dry_bean

Cafe/coffee reviews in a city the size of Melbourne must be almost impossible for a single journo to carry out in a thorough and objective manner. The assumption is that the reviewer knows any thing about coffee, that they will write reviews impartially and will visit every cafe in the city an impossibility, even if they restricted the review area to the CBD still a huge undertaking. Reviews are only the opinion of one person on a single day and we all have off days reviewers and barista's alike. I tend to take em with a pinch of salt. 😉

Dry_bean

AngerManagement wrote:

The coffee or the Reviewer ;D Must admit, doing the Brisbane rounds and going back to a few of the places... Has been an interesting experience... Few are consistent; but it is not impossible. Some are just consistently bad :🙂

The reviews. Can you imagine any Journalist being given sufficient time to visit and review every cafe in Melbourne? The best you could expect is a lucky dip and the worst an editorially biased load of clap trap. 😉

beanflying

Generally I would agree with the Journalists from the mainstream media having issues with getting around and then having the knowledge and tastebuds to sort out a list is another matter. When for example I posted my personal shortlist above here remembering I am 4 hours away and get to Melbourne 6-8 times a year. Some of that is based on been there before, some comes from person X at place Y told me it was worth trying, some comes from Social Media or other online forums and a tiny tiny touch comes from review sites or guides. The problem with food/drink/general Journo's is they are covering a huge scope of topics in most cases and don't dig into or get involved totally in the topic we are most interested in. So like in the fairfax topic they miss places that they shouldn't or parrot past venues.

beanflying

mycuppa wrote:

Just face it Timbo - you can't stay away..........perhaps a Kitehouse by the Bay might be a possibility ?

Mmmm maybe one day but I do prefer the country life 🙂

admin

Hi guys - just a quick 'heads-up' - we announce our Best cafes of Melbourne 2011 tomorrow... cheers A

mycuppa

admin wrote:

Hi guys - just a quick 'heads-up' - we announce our Best cafes of Melbourne 2011 tomorrow... cheers A

Better get your flak jacket and tin hat ready ......... :o

beanflying

5 is so few spots in a city with so much good coffee 🙂

admin

OK here it is: our official Melbourne's Top 5 cafes for 2011 are.... (drum roll please) 1. Proud Mary 2. Dukes Coffee Roasters 3. Axil 4. Dead Man 5. Monk Bodhi Dharma Remember, this is judged on espresso -- we'll have more on judging/methodology shortly [see [i]Melbourne's Best Coffee[/i] thread below] -- but for now, our congratulations to the Top 5 for doing an amazing job in an amazing city for coffee; and of course, special congrats to Nolan and the team at Proud Mary!

beanflying

Dukes for me has been the stand out espresso based coffee for the year for me in Melbourne. They don't make much noise online like some just getting in there and doing their thing well. Going to go back to Proud Mary later this week and take my time having a few coffees as the last trip was last year and was a rushed one with Chris Blair (think we hit 6 or 7 cafes for the day). Its a fairly radical change of names in a Melbourne best coffee list but the competition at the top end is tight. Noticed this on Twitter this morning too 🙂

admin

beanflying wrote:

Dukes for me has been the stand out espresso based coffee for the year for me in Melbourne. They don't make much noise online like some just getting in there and doing their thing well.

yes, they were probably the surprise element... for those that are interested, herewith the full 'Shortlist' 1. Auction Rooms 2. Axil 3. Brother Baba Budan 4. Dead Man 5. Dukes 6. Maling Room 7. Market Lane 8. Monk Bodhi Dharma 9. Proud Mary 10. 65 Degrees 11. Seven Seeds 12. St Ali 13. The Final Step 14. The Premises 15. Three Bags Full we also threw in a new Campos account [Mr Close] but [if you'll excuse the pun] it didn't come close. A

admin

Ok guys - just to let you know, we've got the story up on the home page [ie http://www.cremamagazine.com.au ] - we'll be putting up some extra fun shots, taken along the way, in our Gallery this afternoon - should be fun to have a scroll through... A

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