Sunday 6 July 2008

Trends in Melbournes Top 5 Coffee Haunts

For those of you who are not yet aware, Crema Magazine has just released their picks of Melbournes Top 5 Cafe's (judged solely on the quality of the coffee, not things like ambiance, food etc.).

The list reads as follows:

1. Brother Baba Budan
2. Liar Liar
3. Maling Room
4. 7 Grams
5. First Pour

All of these cafe's are superb and if you haven't been, are well worth checking out!!  But I thought I'd post a few things I noticed between the five.
 
*This one's obviouse but still, top 2 cafes both using a Clover

*Top 3 cafe's all use a synesso espresso machine (with both the others using a LMZ Fb80)

*A good spread of roasters with only Veneziano being represented twice (7grams and first pour)

*A good mix of roaster (machinery) talent, with renagades used for BBB and Liar Liar, a Probat for the Maling room, and a wierd custom job that was build for and later adapted by Peter wolf roasting for 7grams and first pour

*Another interesting thing (for me anyway) was that there was no trend in terms of food service. Some of the cafe's in the top 5 do little or on food, while others have fairly in depth menu's and in fact serve some of the best breakfast in Melb (IMO).
I know food was not a pre-requisite, I only mention this as it's always going to be harder to manage a dedicated coffee bar and a dedicated kitchen, than just a dedicated coffee bar

Anyone else have any thoughts?