Stop burning my coffee!!

[mwatt]

Hey all,

Ive not been drinking a lot of coffee lately (29 weeks pregnant, not keen on a hyper-active baby  ), but the last couple of times Ive had a coffee not at home it has been absolutely ridiculously hot. At home I usually have a piccolo, but as most places on the Central Coast dont know what that is, I usually order a latte. My question is-  is it ok to send these scalding drinks back to the barista with instructions that they please heat the milk to no more than 65C? I dont want to be a nuisance, but really... Those of you who work in cafes, is it a major pain when people ask you to re-make stuff?

Cheers, Michelle

[marcstolk]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Na... I agree... take it back... and get them to revisit there Barista Course material.... if no course was done, then they are were trained badly..IMHO of course.....

[niallpedlow]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Where on the Coast are you Michelle? I know of a place or two in different parts where you can get a pretty OK coffee... Lived on the coast for 4 years before Newy.

[mwatt]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Just moved from Green Point to Umina (HEIGHTS, Umina Heights!!!) Spend a fair bit of time in the Erina/Terrigal area as well. Ill be absolutely delighted to know of somewhere good!!

Michelle

P.S. That honey affogato with violet crumble sounds awesome... Honey and ice-cream, or honey ice-cream?

[niallpedlow]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Caesars at Erina should be able to make you a pretty good coffee.  He roasts onsite.  Its been a while since I was there - I used to buy my green beans from him and generally grab a quick coffee while I was there.  Its a big red brick building on The Entrance Road on the main strip at Erina.  They have a website, but I will probably attract the mods attention if I put it on here  

If you like chocolate as well as coffee, (havent met a pregnant woman who didnt  ;D ) Max Brenner in Erina Fair do a pretty good job.  

Let me know if youve tried these and they werent up to scratch and Ill dg deeper into the memory banks.

Honey afogato: OK, this is not my recipe, its someone elses.  A guy called Paul Bassett won the world barista championships a few years back and I saw a special of his on TV a while back.  

http://www.paulbassett.com/download/CreativeCoffee.pdf

The honey afogato has become my favourite special coffee, and its on the first page of the above link.  I dont usually have honey gelato in my freezer, so I mainly use vanilla ice cream, Blue Ribbon works well for the creaminess.  Violet Crumble seems to work a lot better than Crunchie on the top.  When I first saw it, I didnt think honey and coffee would go together that well like this, but YUMMMMM, it really does.

[mwatt]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

I used to work for Max Brenner!! They changed beans since I was there, they use Allpress City Blend instead of the Carmello these days and Im not a huge fan (They had too many people saying the coffee wasnt strong ie. bitter enough, so they went for the city blend). Plus, theyve had 100% staff turnover in less than 12 months, and Im not sure that any of the new girls have been trained too well.

I know Caesars: I grab a bag of their Gladiator blend if I havent been able to do a roast myself. I suppose it depends whos operating the espresso machine, but last time I had a coffee there it was, er, really poorly made.

[niallpedlow]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

OK, Ill turn the snob meter up and trawl the memory bank again ;D At least youre at the right end of the coast for things to be moving forward. I do agree about Caesars and whos operating the machine though.

When did you work at Max Brenner? I was a semi-regular back in 2004 early 2005 until we moved?

[mwatt]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Hmm, I quit when I was 6 months pregnant with my daughter, so that wouldve make it April 2005... I was only there for less than a year (blonde hair with glasses). Would I be correct to guess you were a fan of their mochas? white, milk or dark?

Michelle

[niallpedlow]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Actually most times I would have either had a cappa or an espresso, with one of those divine desserts.  The suckao was a bit of a favourite too, but not the prices Im guessing you werent the only one there who was blond with glasses.

Have you tried the daily grind on the boardwalk at EF? From memory its a small place outside on the same side as coles.  Aromas at the Fair pops into my mind, but I cant remember if it was for food or coffee - might be worth trying though.

Fair Play Cafe doesnt do a great job with coffees, BUT its a good place to drink something while the kids run amuck.

You should definitely try the honey afogato - growing babies needs lots of sugar!

[mwatt]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Thanks for the tips. Ill have to try them...

My husbands already got orders to find me some honey gelato. They should have some at Caesars actually!!

[scoota_gal]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Michelle, great thread title...made me smile.

As some one who is oft on both ends of the machine... I think that you can probably take two approaches to getting the drink just the way you like it.

When ordering, state clearly and in a loud voice that you dont want your drink too hot. If youre in a shop where a waitstaff is taking your order, make sure they have written it down if you like! Plenty of my customers tell me not too hot or want it way way hot. Those who didnt get it hot enough get it zapped in the microwave till it is (and then I remember their face for next time ).

Your other approach, IMO, is to take the drink and just let it sit for a while until cool enough to consume. Now, this might sound kind of dumbed down but there is a method to my madness here! If you are fortunate enough to be in a place where the staff are moving about the tables often enough and theyve got a brain in their head, theyll soon notice that your drink is not being consumed and may even have the guts to ask you if all is okay. At which point, you can then point out that the drink was not made to your liking and see how it goes.

I tell you the above with recent experience of my own! We were in a fairly well known coastal region which has a long strip of cafes and resturants. At the place we chose to eat at, the food was great and the coffee was advertised as the best. However the food was great but let down by the dreadful coffee, which couldnt be saved even with a sugar! So it sat at my elbow, relatively untouched until a waitress came past and asked the usual "Everything okay here?" Im positive that she had noticed the coffee and when I told her the food was great but the drink ordinary, she was quick to speak with her boss who came and offered to redo me the coffee himself! So, it can work but you probably will need to be observant yourself and see what sort of establishment you have chosen to step into!

Of course, if I got someone who came back to me and said that their coffee was dreadful for whatever reason, I would not hesitate to ask if theyd let me have another go and get it right for them. However, Im not just any old untrained cowgal on the end of the portafiller, rather a Coffee Snob who will have ensured that the drink went out right in the first place!

All the best with your pregnancy!

[robusto]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Nothing worse than suffering from someones bad work with a blistered tongue for a fortnight.  If it happens regularly at the one establishment -- definitely pull them up. You have moral indignation on your side and they have no plausible excuse with which to counter.

My worst experience (blistered tongue for a fortnight) came on a morning where everything was going wrong, stranded in  a foreign suburb because a vital part of my new car snapped  and I decided to buy a latte while I waited for the tow truck.

The sight of a thermometer in the frothing jug was a relief, I must say. Now THERE was someone who was not going to leave anything to chance. Not.

A couple of minutes later when Id left the cafe, I took a big sip with impunity---- OUCH!  must have been hot enough to melt steel.

Robusto

[Dimal]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

The sight of a thermometer in the frothing jug was a relief, I must say. Now THERE was someone who was not going to leave anything to chance. Not.

Probably thought it was a fancy stirrer robusto [smiley=evil.gif]

Mal.

[Thundergod]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

Maybe when it melted they knew it was hot enough.

[lucinda]

Re: Stop burning my coffee!!

I just had the honey affogato, instead of honey gelato I used Golden North Honey Icecream (though I did not rim the glass with honey) and got some fresh honeycomb without the choc coating from the market this morning.

Oh yeah, twas good, very good. [smiley=thumbup.gif]