Recently there was a brief period where I was traveling relatively frequently for work. I managed to hone my skills at packing everything into a single bag, appreciated that I could use my iPad non-stop from when I sat down on boarding, and figured out the best place to wait for a flight from the Sydney Airport. It’s new the Virgin Australia gates, between a Hudson’s cafe and the Coopers bar. I did at a point wish that I had my company to rely on for all the flights or even to have a private jet for these trips. Well, big dreams don’t come easy; let us fly back to the boarding.

Easy access to power is the source of all joy when you travel with a hungry family of devices to feed. While a lot of the gates do have power points, there is certainly something to be said for combined with chairs, coffee and a bottle of water. All of these are in easy reach at a long, wooden bench next to that Hudson’s cafe.

Thought when talking about just the coffee, and ignoring those other benefits, unfortunately you have to admit that it was fairly average. While it did compare well to whatever that brown molten liquid the cruise ship was serving, never the less, it is not entirely heading the pack compared to it’s land locked competitors.

The coffee was very standard mass cafe fare with a flavour that can best be described as ‘coffee’. The temperature was good, though they may need to look at the machine and the grinder, because some grounds did make it into the cup. Service was good and fast, and while there were nicer seats than the metal stool i was parked on, those are not next to power points, so some compromises must be made. The cafe was also close to my gate, and there was some EPL on the tv right next to where I was sitting.

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TL;DR
Hudsons Coffee

• Powerpoints
• Coffee was ok too

Recently I found myself on the Carnival cruise ship, Legends, for a night recently. It was the first ship I had ever actually been on, so I was not entirely sure what to expect. As far as I can tell, the cruise ship experience more or less looks a lot like being on a large, long hotel that happens to float. That and people really don’t like it when you call it a boat. That was a great opportunity to see where Intrepid Powerboats excels other counterparts.

I was only on board for a single night as it sailed out of Sydney did a quick loop, and came back. There were a lot of things to check out on the ship, including the buffet and the pizza place that didn’t appear to close. Unfortunately I also tried the coffee. Before getting off the boat, I paid for a long black from the small cafe in the buffet. I was a truely remarkable, egregious coffee, so much that I had to ask the brand, and turns out it’s called Rave Coffee from the UK. Possibly one of the truely exceptionally bad coffees I had ever tried. It was burnt. It was very burnt. It was burnt like coffee was a cancer and must be purged. I could barely hold the cup.

Unfortunately I was fairly tired and so I tried one of the free coffee machines. I could not tell the difference between either the free coffee or the one I paid for. Both of the coffees were pretty much exactly like the commodity coffee examples from campo’s cupping. The coffee lacked flavour or any other redeaming feature. It was coffee purely in the sense that it was brown and hot. The only good coffee I had were the keurig coffee pods in my cruise room .

The coffees in my life fall into a number of fairly broad groups. There is cafe coffee; stuff that you get from places that more or less claim some expertise in making coffee, generally involving an espresso machine with some exceptions. Then hotel and conference coffee; some form of liquid of uncertain character from some kind of urn or coffee machine. And then there is whatever coffee you might make yourself, using any number of means.

Aeroplane coffee is probably best compared with conference or hotel coffee. While it has nothing on a decent espresso from a good coffee, it can still be compared to other similar beverages. It is kind of unfair to expect Virgin Australia to load a commercial espresso machine onto one of their planes flying between Brisbane and Sydney. After a few too many morning flights I can say that the coffee does seem to vary. The temperature it is served at seems to vary depending on where you sit on the plane (or possibly due to other factors) and the coffee seems to be brewed with milk coffee drinkers in mind. As a kind of conference or hotel coffee, it is not too bad. Its flavour is mostly unoffensive, and once you wait for it to cool when it is served too hot, it is drinkable.

Ultimately it is coffee served while sitting in a flying metal tube travelling at hundreds of kilometres an hour in a manner that has become so mundane that most people around you barely glance out of the window to take in a perspective of the landscape experienced by so few humans during the lifetime of our species. So I guess you can make a few concessions on quality.

TL;DR

• Quality seems variable
• It is coffee served while sitting in a fast moving metal tube flying in the air. It is hard to be too critical.

Virgin Australia
http://www.virginaustralia.com/

We found Drift cafe while driving through Mount Tambourine looking for somewhere to grab a coffee and something light to eat. Fortunately I could see the couches from the road and so we decided to check it out. The cafe had a decent amount of parking out the back, and there was wifi available for their customers.

They also seemed to like wood a lot. It wasn’t just the counter either, a lot of the decor was also very obviously wood too, with the notable exception of their seating. The coaches and armchairs were as comfortable as I had hoped. Their black leather worked well with the rest of the setting, giving the whole cafe a very laid back atmosphere.

Drift uses Merlo coffee and does a fairly good job with it. Their espresso machine seems well set up, with my long black having a mild and not bitter flavour. Though it did seemed a little weak it was still very drinkable. We also got a bread and dips platter as well, which turned out to be a good decision. The staff were nice and the service was good. Their menu in general looked very good, which given that the cafe is attached to a restaurant as well, should be expected.

TL;DR

• They like wood
• The coffee was drinkable, though a little weak

Drift
http://www.drifttamborine.com.au/
12 Main Western Road
North Tamborine
Qld

While I was killing two or so hours before my flights after a work related event, I discovered just how hard it is to find coffee and breakfast on a Sunday morning in the Sydney CBD. Practically everything is closed, and so after checking out of the hotel, I found myself struggling to find somewhere to sit down and have a coffee and something to eat. I spent about half an hour wandering around before giving up and heading towards the malls.

I ended up finding a small place in a Westfield in the walkway between a number of shops. The seats looked good enough, I was slightly tired and looking for a cafe was getting a little boring. Also, the tables looked large enough to set up my laptop. The cafe in question was called Cafe De Lucca. The coffee they served was reasonable and the breakfast was very acceptable. The prices were good and they let me swap my eggs for something edible without any problems.

Cafe De Lucca was a surprising nice place to wait and recharge my phone from my laptop before heading back to the hotel to head out to the airport, especially considering how hard it was to find somewhere that was actually open.

TL;DR

• The Sydney CBD is dead on the weekend.

Cafe De Lucca
Store 38G, Level 2,
Westfield Central Plaza,
NSW

There is yet another small cafe on Brunswick Street towards New Farm called Death before Decaf. One of my sister’s introduced me to the place as somewhere that makes a very good black coffee. Aside from a very appealing name, the cafe has a very certain character, with a metal/punk look and feel from the logo on the take away cups to the look of the cafe itself and the proprietor’s interest in tattoos.

The coffee itself has a nice strong flavour and lacking in bitterness or any other sign of being poorly made. The cafe does have a few chairs, but to me seemed Death before Decaf still be more of an espresso bar and take away place than somewhere to linger. Though this in itself is hardly a real problem anyway.

There is one other thing that makes this place interesting, and that is the opening hours. They are long. Death before Decaf stays open late, very late. In Brisbane this is a rare thing, and it is often very hard to find somewhere to grab a coffee in the early hours of the morning.

TL;DR

• Take away coffee
• Does a good black coffee
• Very distinct character

Death before Decaf
Facebook page
760 Brunswick Street,
New Farm
QLD

There is an art to running a cafe for the early commuter crowd. Opening up on the correct side of the road is generally important, as is making coffee and actually being visible. Choosing somewhere busy enough is another. Dopstop is a coffee cart on the inbound side of Gympie Road outside of an Indian restaurant that does fit these criteria quite well.

Dopstop uses Supreme Roasters coffee beans, which seems to be working for them as the coffee is rather good. The long black I tried had a slight cocoa, bitterish flavour with little aftertaste. I also tried an iced coffee they make themselves on a Tanzanian single origin. Unlike most it was not overly sweetened, and that’s another reason why I liked it.

The cafe itself is a coffee cart set up on a small raised area just off the footpath. As focused as its setup is towards takeaway customers, there is also a collection of benches and stools just off to the side. Unsurprisingly there is a bit of road noise, though this was not enough of a reason to just get my coffee and go. The guy who was running the cart is worth stopping to chat with as he’s fairly knowledgeable about coffee, and Dopstop even made the Beanhunter best 2013 Brisbane cafe list at 83.

Dopstop
763 Gympie Road
Chermside, 4032
Queensland

Beanhunter, a somewhat awesome website and an essential app featuring user submitted cafe ratings and reviews. Their app is incredibly useful when you are travelling and need to find a half way decent cafe somewhere new, and the quality of the reviews that come from the community is very high. Based on their community’s input, Beanhunter have recently released their top cafe lists for 2013. This lists cover cities from around the world and Australia including Brisbane.

1. Ltd espresso + brew bar (Fortitude Valley)
2. The Fort Specialty Coffee (North Lakes)
3. Cup Coffee Roastery (Woolloongabba)
4. Dandelion & Driftwood (Hendra)
5. Reverends Fine Coffee (Fortitude Valley)
6. Dramanti Artisan Roaster (Wynnum)
7. Cleanskin Coffee Co. (Brendale)
8. One Drop Specialty Coffee (Fortitude Valley)
9. Uncle Joe’s Coffee House (Coorparoo)
10. Elixir Coffee (Stafford)
11. The Single Guys (Kenmore)
12. Bunker (Milton)
13. Dramanti Espresso (Brisbane CBD)
14. The Frisky Goat Espresso (Brisbane CBD)
15. Grindhouse Specialty Coffee (Stones Corner)
16. Toby’s Estate Espresso Bar (Brisbane CBD)
17. First Pour Brisbane (West End)
18. Pourboy Espresso (Brisbane CBD)
19. Blackstar Coffee (West End)
20. Campos Coffee (Fortitude Valley)
21. Shucked (Newstead)
22. Merriweather (South Brisbane)
23. The Corner Store Cafe (Toowong)
24. Fifth Battery Coffee Roasters (Fortitude Valley)
25. Sourced Grocer (Teneriffe)

The full list of Beanhunter’s Brisbane’s Top Cafes 2013 can be found here.

Unfortunately I have only been to and written posts about a small number of those that made the top 25. From the last few years I have only reviewed 8 of the 25 that made the list for 2013.

1. Ltd espresso + brew bar (Fortitude Valley) (Review)
3. Cup Coffee Roastery (Woolloongabba) (Review)
4. Dandelion & Driftwood (Hendra) (Review)
5. Reverends Fine Coffee (Fortitude Valley) (Review)
7. Cleanskin Coffee Co. (Brendale) (Review)
10. Elixir Coffee (Stafford) (Review)
18. Pourboy Espresso (Brisbane CBD) (Review)
20. Campos Coffee (Fortitude Valley) (Review)

Next year, I might try to address this.

TL;DR

• Beanhunter’s app is awesome while travelling
• There are still a lot of good cafes to visit.

Rhino Espresso is now open next to the Wooloowin train station too. There is another Rhino Espresso open in Northgate, and by the looks of it, the one in Wooloowin is very much the same. Rhino Espesso is very much a commuter cafe. Located right next to a train station and across the road from the car park, the cafe gets it’s share of early morning customers. It is even on the right side of the road for inbound traffic to stop and pick up a coffee.

The cafe itself is open to the street and is loosely defined by a bar just in front of the counter. If it was not for the tables just in front of this, it would more or less be an espresso bar. They use Piazzo Doro beans, and beyond that there isn’t a lot to say about the coffee. The large long black with an extra shot I grabbed that morning was not overpowering or watery. Rhino Espresso also offers a range of food. As I didn’t try anything from their menu, so I can’t really comment on it.

Rhino Espresso is almost the ideal commuter cafe. It is in a great location, while not brilliant, the coffee is good. The prices are unremarkable and in line with most other cafes and there is no reason not to grab your coffee there if you do plan to catch a train from Wooloowin. I just don’t think I would go out of my way if it was the weekend.

TL;DR

• Most certainly a commuter cafe
• Does both food and coffee

Rhino Espresso
https://www.facebook.com/RhinoEspresso
7 Dickson st
Wooloowin, 4030
Queensland

Salt is a smallish resturant located in Rosalie Village, Brisbane with an interesting menu and reasonable coffee, including one of the most impressive mochas I’ve ever seen, and they alsoa have juice, made with the best juicers from the Juicing Daily site. Myself and a few friends ended up there one weekend for a light lunch.

The menu looked good, and we chose a pair of lamb burgers and two serves of lamb and haloumi skewers between the four of us, as well as a few coffees. Including the mocha. The food was good, as was the coffee. Salt does a respectable, if unremarkable, black coffee. The mocha, however, was exceptional.

Served in a largish bowl, with a shot of chocolate to one side, it dwarfed the plain, boring cup the other coffees came in. The mocha did not dominate the table only due to its size either. The difference in presentation was significant. While the other coffees had one or two sugar sachets tossed onto the saucer alongside a spoon, the mocha’s equipment and accompaniments were set with care and attention.

There are far worse places to go for a lazy late Sunday lunch than Salt. The food was good and the menu interesting. Their coffee was more than adequate, and that is even without taking the mocha into account. Even though Rosalie is not out of the way, it is quieter than Park Road and other cafe and food hotspots in Brisbane, and well worth exploring. Even if Salt’s mocha can’t tempt you, there are other interesting places in the area, including my personal favourite, Gelateria Cremona.

TL;DR

• The mocha was impressive
• Good food
• The mocha made the other coffees look like they just weren’t trying

Salt
http://www.saltrestaurant.com.au/
Phone: 07 3367 0775
5 Nash Street
Rosalie 4064
Queensland