I was at a cafe last weekend, putting in our morning tea order, when I got the giggles.
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Not so long ago, this would have sounded ridiculous but here's what I ordered:
- Large skinny cap
- Regular cap extra shot
- Small soy latte
- Small dirty chai
- Carrot, ginger and tumeric juice
- Gluten free banana bread
No wonder wait staff now have to carry iPads to take orders.
We have become coffee snobs and there's no going back. And apparently Australians in general are willing to try anything with a bit of caffeine in it, which could possibly be the reason the dirty chai is so popular.
Generally finding good coffee, and I'm talking milk-based espresso, is not a problem but it's when we travel that we "suffer".
Many years ago we were in New York in summer and I tried an iced coffee - you know, "When in Rome". It was undrinkable. One of the worst cups of coffee I have tasted was in Nice, France. Also undrinkable. In Nice at least it was an excuse to enjoy a beer instead, at about 9 in the morning (it's beer o'clock somewhere in the world).
While I really enjoy the cafe experience, I have a basic small coffee machine for everyday. I leave the science of coffee, the time and grind function, to my son who also advises me on the best beans for a consistent cup, or cold brew, or espresso martini.
And while we may have Ethiopian goats to thank for drawing our attention to coffee, another food mystery is unfolding in my son's shed - olives. His mate has a couple of olive trees, they picked a couple of buckets of the fruit which now sit curing - and apparently the process takes weeks. The process for making olives edible was explained to me while on tour in Europe, and I wondered who had the patience to find that out.
Anyway, I'm thankful to both the Ethiopian goats and the European olive growers. Olives and expresso martini might be on the menu this weekend.
Have a grand weekend,
Toni Bell
ACM editor, Manning River Times