Nullabor coffee?

[Cooper69S Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper69S]

Gday all
planning a drive east.  Not honestly expecting to find coffee between here and Adelaide that would rate in the "good coffee where" section, but does anyone know if there is anywhere along the trip that is less bad than others?

[sidewayss Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sidewayss]

Re: Nullabor coffee?

You might be lucky in Kalgoorlie there might be a cafe that might sell something half decent, but youd have to drive around looking for it.
Ive still got visions of truck stop percolated coffee thats been sitting around for hours and the purpose of the black liquid is only for the caffeine hit. :P

Sorry cant help you here.


Do pack a manual brewing equipment like a Aeropress, manual grinder and fresh beans. At least youre good to go.

[Cooper69S Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper69S]

Re: Nullabor coffee?

You might be lucky in Kalgoorlie there might be a cafe that might sell something half decent, but youd have to drive around looking for it.

Yeah Id expect the bigger places should have somewhere thats ok, but we wont be going through Kal.  Since were south well be going via Esperance...  

Do pack a manual brewing equipment like a Aeropress, manual grinder and fresh beans. At least youre good to go.

probably should look at buying one of those

[sidewayss Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sidewayss]

Re: Nullabor coffee?

Good. You will have a better chance of better coffee in Esperance as they cater for the tourist industry. I didnt think of that town as the highway goes east from Norseman. Enjoy it before the long haul across the Nullabor. Youll need caffeine for the looong stretches of featureless road on the Eyre.

[Bullitt Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bullitt]

Re: Nullabor coffee?

As Gary at Gala said,
"Do pack a manual brewing equipment like a Aeropress, manual grinder and fresh beans. At least youre good to go."

All you need is your choice of manual brewing equipment, hand grinder, fresh beans, a way to make hot water, milk if you need it, and you can have good coffee anywhere. (maybe practice a bit before you leave).

Freshly made plunger, Aeropress, etc coffee can be so much better than poorly made espresso/latte, etc.

[Justin_Boyle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Justin_Boyle]

Re: Nullabor coffee?

I thought you might be coming from the south since you are from bunbury. I wouldnt trust Esperance. Catering for the tourists hardly qualifies them for good coffee. I have found the opposite in tourist towns. You could stop for some coffee at yahava. Thats not far into the trip though. I had a coffee in meredin once which was great but once again you wont be going through there. I dont like your chances finding a good coffee on your trip. Pretty sure the only requirement for the average coffee drinker passing those roads is Hot and Strong.

[Cooper69S Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper69S]

Re: Nullabor coffee?

just to report back... grabbed takeaway coffees at Esperance - cant remember the name of the cafe, but it was honestly undrinkable - wife agreed - both got poured out on the side of the road.
Balladonia was a surprise - didnt expect much but the coffee there was actually not too bad - the lady knew how to operate her machine at least. On the way back however, she wasnt there. the bloke behind the counter was kind of nervous getting hot water out of the machine to make my wife a cup of tea with, so I didnt dare ask him to make a coffee with it - over to the fridge for another iced coffee.
At Nullabor roadhouse I asked for 2 flat whites - the way he asked "you want them done with the machine?" made me worried, but again they were not too bad.
Theyre the only ones I tried on the trip. Sought out Fiefy while I was over in SA and had a good chat and some excellent coffee from her - fantastic latte art too. certainly the highlight of the trip as far as coffee is concerned.

for the 2 weeks while we were there I got to make coffee for everyone every day with the old Sunbeam EM5800 that I sent to my brother over there a few years ago. Coffee was ok but slow and messy. It made me really appreciate the HX machine when I got home. I think when you have excellent coffee every day you can start to take it for granted and not appreciate it properly. First coffee when we got home was a definite "wow" experience...

[WSullivan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close WSullivan]

Re: Nullabor coffee?

Oh my, coffee on the nullabor, what an experience that is, i did the trip from brissie to perth and back 6 months later, from perth to adelaide, is non stop bad coffee, but to be honest i drank it, im a snob but ill pretty much drink anything, unless its rancid, i actually had a good one at the t junction at the end of the nullabor west bound, BP i think, it was the best one i had, nullabor roadhouse was a funny one, eastbound, i was in a bit of a rush, did perth to brissie in 3 days anyway, asked the young bloke for a large coffee ( i gave up on asking for latte or cappa!) so he fiddled around behind the big 2 grouper(from memory) and out he popped with 4 super small takeaway cups filled to the brim with no lids "sorry dont have any more big cups! lol i laughed, thanked him and hit the nullabor with a cabin full of overfilled super small cups of coffee ;D

God its beautiful out there, great trip!

PS, did you put a pair of undies on the tree? ;D