Coffee Tour!

Mark and I spent the morning on a coffee tasting and history tour of Melbourne with the hugely enthusiastic and knowledgeable Maria Paoli (evolvingsuccess.com.au).   Forget about Starbucks, and anyway, Seattle is really a neophyte to the coffee culture compared to Melbourne. Espresso has been made here since the city really began, in the 1850's.  Fueled by an immigrant culture (read: the Italians!), there are hundreds of cafes.  Maria explained that Australia, unlike the USA, does not thrive on developing chains and franchises.  They have more of a boutique sensibility.  We wove our way through cafes on major streets and also in the laneways.  Maria knew everyone.

She even took us into Melbourne's oldest retaurant, Grossi.  It is a beautiful restaurant with a bistro and a dining room.  The dining room had wood paneled walls and paintings, giving it a very old world atmosphere.  While many of the cafes had had a young crowd, this one had an older set enjoying their coffee.  We went upstairs and eventually into the kitchen where Guy Grossi himself was cutting steaks.  This Australian celebrity chef was very gracious to stop, wash his hands and greet us for a few minutes.  I find it exciting to be in a restaurant kitchen.  It's rather like a lab.  Everyone works with care, and areas are well segregated.  This one was extremely clean as well.

Just how much coffee did we drink?  About three espressos each, over the two hours.  The last was in the vestibule of David Jones, one of Mebourne's chicest department stores.  This was the coffee lab, where the coffee is siphoned and then served very cold.  The siphoning is  like distilling and takes seven hours!  Mark stuck with espresso the whole way.  His palate is accustomed to Starbucks and he persistently likes his coffee roasted so dark that is is on the edge of a burnt flavor.  Maria is adamantly against this sort of treatment of the bean.  For my part, I discovered that I like macchiaito.  Maria drinks hers as macchiatone; she is particular about having the foamiest part only to top off her cup.  This gave the coffee a carmel flavor, but definitely not a dairy or milky flavor.  Any barrista in the states would be able to do this for me. 

I haven't been drinking daily coffee for about a year.  It's almost ten hours later and I still feel under the influence!  Mark went back to the meetings for the afternoon.  I felt as though I owed the abandoned boys their choice for the afternoon and they have been yearning for a game of laser tag at the Crown Entertainment Complex across the river.  So, we walked over and I set them up with some games and cash cards for the game arcade.  I spent the next two hours walking and window shopping.  Melbourne may be the only major city in the world where I have some sense of direction.  The horizon over the river looks different from the inland horizon, which helps me.  The central city is laid out in a grid and I am getting used to the names of the streets and their orientation.  The only treacherous part for me is that once I enter an arcade and come out the other side, I have to reason out my orientation again!

The headine in the IBC news today was :  "How cotton was born:  a million year-old mating opens up an improved future."  Think what you will, cotton is a very interesting plant.  Mark says the meetings a winding down.  He's not attending tomorrow since it is really only business.   He'll spend the day with us and sacrifice his chance to vote down Latin.