Our Top Cafes

As with wine, tastes are purely personal.  We rated the following in terms of the coffee, the cafe, the staff and the overall experience.  We seldom ate at any of the cafes and we drink only pure coffee, i.e. without milk, primarily in the form of an espresso.

1. Proud Mary

2. Three Bags Full

3. St Ali

4. 7 Seeds

We got used to the lighter roast and higher acidity of the Melbourne style and liked that we could have a lighter beverage in the form of the siphon or pour-over.  They even sometimes provided tasting notes.

Other notables were: Monk Bodi Dharma (Balaclava), Supreme in Abbotsford, Hobba (Prahran), Dukes (Prahran), 19 squares (St Kilda) and Final Step.

Ben, the owner and grand pooh bah of Final Step, was particularly memorable in that he selects the best beans the city has to offer at the time and offers this as an experience from his cafe.  Very good idea and we would hope is the way things are heading.  Also, many cafes offered a ‘seasonal blend’ that is based on what was the best on offer for the season.  This makes it more interesting and experimental and challenges us on our tastes and preferences.

Being a plant grown around the world, we cannot expect the beans to taste exactly the same every year.  There are many factors that go into producing quality beans, not all that can be controlled by humans.  Lets hope that bean production does not become another ‘factory farming’ industry.  I’d rather drink less, pay more and have the pleasure of sampling variations from one year to the next…as is the case with wine vintages.