I have been watching coffee evolve as a beverage and a lifestyle item for the last 3 decades. This is from the time Starbucks began spreading across the World and becoming the de facto coffee chain. The coffee roaster culture of Adelaide is more about the later part of a 30 year journey to what it is now.
It includes what I saw on my overseas work trips. And our own coffee roasting culture taking root in the last 15 years in Adelaide.
Coffee Culture as it is now
Coffee culture in Adelaide and Australia has moved away from just heading to the nearest coffeeshop for your usual cup. You now pick your outlet of choice because you know you like their particular taste even if they are not the nearest outlet.
For some the focus has moved into the type of beans and roasting both at their favourite outlet as well as in the comfort of their home.
Adjourning to a speciality coffeeshop after a meal at a swanky restaurant is now an option and a trend. It’s the same at the end of hosting extended families and friends at home for a meal. The last item would be gathering around the coffeemaker, explaining the merits of the bean chosen and brewing fresh cups of coffee for your guests.
Your guest would then move to find out more about coffee. Acquiring their own coffeemaker and identifying their choice of beans or blend.
Beans and all
Here is an insight on the home aspect of this growing culture.It is rather deep and for the uninitiated quite a revelation.
First is to identify the right bean supply store requiring research and visiting online roasting forums. Most connoisseurs do get their supplies from online stores. You can buy roasted or green beans which takes about 2 days to be delivered.
Bean selection for a particular coffee such as expresso is different to say a latte. Having acquired the beans, if they are unroasted, it requires a roaster and there are models for home enthusiasts. Most bean suppliers do provide a bio on the beans’ origin, their attributes such as acidity, aroma, body and reviews from the customers as a guide.
Then comes the brewing and those that can afford it, the better models of coffeemakers. The range is now extensive. The result is freshly brewed aromatic coffee out of carefully chosen and roasted beans. The aroma is an essential attribute.
Here is the URL for a popular bean supplier in Australia. Do check out the reviews, the sampler packs and bios on the beans. Its gives perspective on the increasing popularity of end consumers selecting, roasting and brewing coffee beans on their own. The coffee roaster culture of Adelaide is now entrenched and still growing.
One point to note though. Purchasing beans, roasting and brewing beans on your own does have a following for many decades but were limited in popularity like the Ham Radio hobby. More esoteric than commonplace and amongst a small group. Kent Town then was home to coffee beans roaster stores.
The Starbucks trend
Back to Starbucks. One could write a business book about Starbucks and how they tanked in Australia. Credit however does go to them for creating a lifestyle around coffee. A place of assignation if you will because of its vice like qualities.
A meeting place for nearly everything. From attending job interviews, first dates, neutral ground to resolve issues to just chilling out all by yourself.
Others chains followed the same Starbucks concept. More seats, at high streets, transport hubs, on the ground floor of office buildings and hospitals. You know a town is on the decline when no coffee chains or speciality coffee shop is present in the town centre.
To be seen as hip
One odd observations is seeing people coming out of Starbucks holding the Trenta. That’s their largest cup size. It was more about making a statement about a hip lifestyle rather than enjoying the coffee. If you know and like coffee you will never make or drink that amount in one go. It’s not soda.
“Trenta” by the way in Italian refers to 30 as in 30 ounces. It actually is 31 ounces. Take note that it is the Italian part that will help explain why Starbucks expansion failed in Australia.
Starbucks falters in Australia
Italian migration to Australia decades ago led to them bringing their strong coffee culture besides pasta and pizza. Among Europeans they have a long history of picking the right beans from afar, roasting and brewing it close to perfection.
It’s their heritage that saved proper coffee making and drinking in Australia. The Italian heritage linked to coffee resurfaced in a big way in Australia in the 1990s. Melbourne with the largest concentration of Australians of Italians heritage became the centre. Melbourne now supplies Australia with beans and coffee making appliances sourced from around the World.
And Flat White became our identity.
Starbucks could no longer compete on taste with their milk heavy and sweeter version. Try tasting Starbucks and another popular Australian coffee and you can tell which is the milk heavy version. It’s reduced outlets now cater more to tourists in major cities rather than locals.
Italian coffee influence in the UK
It is also the Italians in the UK in the late 1990s that help rejuvenate proper coffee preparation and drinking. Now coffee is close to being on par with British tea drinking culture at least in offices and malls and among the young. Go to any university campus in the UK and you can observe the trend yourself.
Fast forward to 2010 and the first signs of changing consumers’ approach to coffee consumption becomes noticeable. Interest in beans, the choices available and tasting these varieties began to take shape.
Netpresso capsules
Coffee capsules or pods is a little deviation but with its own momentum. Netpresso with queues in their then new boutique store in Rundle Mall was evident of variety and freshly brewed coffee sought by consumers. The capsules contains finely ground coffee sealed tight to prevent oxidation and deterioration.
It provided range as well as convenience and importantly freshly brewed coffee from beans of choice at home. The range has gone past 24 and you can’t buy 24 jars of coffee to sample. The capsule form is an excellent choice for sampling. A coffee version of a degustation meal.
Check out their coffee range chart matrix. Warning: You will likely order the range online as the temptation of travelling the coffee globe is expresso strong, pun intended.
The single serve is here to stay, has its own following and it is a sub-trend within the coffee roaster world.
I had my first capsule coffee in my hotel room in Lisbon in 2012. I only noticed the coffeemaker late at night after returning from dinner. It was new to me. Took me an hour to work out how to operate it. The hardest part was working out how the capsule and the machine comes together
Here is a YouTube masterclass on brewing Netpresso capsule coffee. It is good and informative.
Speciality Coffee Bars & Baristas
With time came careful selection of beans and roasting methodology as a differentiators for the even more discerning among consumers.
Younger entrepreneurial singles and couples started to open and experiment speciality coffee outlets across Australia and Adelaide. Many with their own roasting formula. It’s a craft and they take it seriously and they are independent. Baristas too came onto their own as specialist staff, the license to brew coffee.
The coffee roaster culture of Adelaide is now entrenched. First noticed in the backstreets of Adelaide they are now taking on more prime spots. Commercial property owners are now seeking good coffee outlets for their ground floor to attract more leasing tenants.
For those who just don’t have the time to make their own and enjoy good coffee, the best approach is try out different blends whilst visiting the various speciality coffee bars that are springing up around Adelaide. It’s worth the effort. Just go easy on the milk and sugar as you are aiming for flavour.
Like wine, coffee is no longer a beverage.
What next?
Watching London and the explosion of good chain coffeeshops as well as speciality coffeeshops tells you that that the coffee roasting cultures is here to stay. More so in the midst of the British tea drinking culture of centuries. And Australia’s longer history and preference for coffee would be on the same path.
London’s Caffe Nero is my favorite chain and Monmouth out of Borough Market is the best speciality coffeeshop for taste. See their queues on Saturdays.
In Adelaide, I am partial to Hudsons and Illy for chain outlets. For speciality shops that I have tried they are all good. I suspect because you have to have passion to run a speciality coffee bar. For beans in general its Lavazza and Vittoria in Australia.
Without realising it some of us might have actually become part of the new coffee roaster culture of Adelaide in some degree at least.
Its a family thing
If this is all new to you, get a Netpresso machine and their capsules. My family would gather on weekend breakfast morning, picking their capsule of choice and taking their turn on the machine. Discussions will cover taste and aroma of their choice.
Occasionally there will be grumbles on who took their favourite capsules and who failed to clean the milk frother the previous day. It was sort of family bonding. Within months Coles and Woolies began offering their own capsules.
Here is a guide on how to choose Netpresso coffee capsules. Enjoy your cup of chosen coffee brew.