The need for ‘good’ caffeine…

Most American’s think Starbucks coffee is good coffee…. I think it tastes like watered down dishwashing water that has been sitting for weeks in a hot and humid apartment that backs onto a sewer treatment plant. Ok ok, a little exaggeration but honestly, the only time i am the coffee giant’s fan is when christmas time comes around and they release their  limited edition flavours or what i deem, “christmas in a cup” – the gingerbread latte, the egg nog latte, the peppermint mocha. Yes, my friends… this is the ONLY time i will ever expose my tastebuds to such cruelty.

The need for ‘good’ caffeine started the very first moment i stepped off that airbus A380 at the airport. After being swooped up by my family here in the US, i immediately started reviewing the coffee houses around the area. My first stop was a place in Pasadena called Intelligentsia.

“This is where everyone goes for good coffee…” my cousin tells me wide-eyed and excited to be sharing this experience, yet anxious to see what my impression is. As we walk in, the place is actually pretty stunning. Lots of artsy people sitting and sipping away at their espresso’s, trendy bearded barista’s wearing suspenders and buttoned up shirts and bow-ties, lots of hipster type people if you get the gist…

In front of me, a girl in a summer dress was taking her time. Not for her the simplicity and ease of choosing a standard coffee. No. No. No.  She was going rogue and dabbling in what they call “Hario Ceramic Coffee Drip”. She was a coffee maverick, operating outside the boundaries..

“What is this?” i ask. “Its drip coffee, have you never had this before?” she replies… followed by a quick “oh my god, are you from Australia?” My cousin raises his eyebrows at me. Just then, trendy suspender wearing barista guy pipes up “we have experimented with many different methods for brewing single cups of coffee, and the Hario Ceramic Dripper produces amazing results. The angle of the cone, the large hole at the bottom, and the ribbing on the side walls all help to ensure a good extraction.”

I stare blankly at him, kind of annoyed that he interrupted a moment with the girl in the summer dress. “I’ll just have a latte thanks.” Immediately she tries to convince me that this drip coffee is the best coffee in town. She then begs me to try it. I finally accept and decide on going “rogue” against my ‘usual’ standard latte.

After 15 minutes of steaming milk and coffee mixology (apparently its an art here), the barista serves up my drip coffee. Its in a soup bowl. Its steaming hot, so hot in fact that i scold my tongue, lips and everything else thats generally in my mouth. and it tastes like…..dirty dish water!

I turn to my cousin “Dammit. They’ve burnt the beans”

“what do you mean they’ve burnt the beans?”

“Cant you taste the burnt nature of my coffee? I demand as if my tastebuds were screaming at him.

He takes a sip… “It just takes like coffee”

I laugh and shake my head. My poor, simple cousin. If only your tastebuds were as acute as us Aussies…

I end up leaving my coffee to the hipsters, cursing at the $5 it cost me and the time wasted. I walk inside to go to the bathroom. The girl in the summer dress intercepts my bathroom pitstop and excitedly asks me “so? what did you think” with a shutter of her eyelashes.

“Yeah it was interesting…” i say.

“great, well you have to try this one and that one, oh and you have to buy these beans for home….” she kept going on.

Immediately, i turn around, aim for the exit and forget about my bladder.