Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

[FrenchBean]

I hung my head in shame as I had to succumb to visiting the above mentioned Café, however I felts as though I was quite surprised and very fortunate to come across such a great little Café.

Recently whilst on a mercy dash from Orange NSW to Adelaide to collect my injured Son, I was finding the driving very tiring and decided to pull over and get a Coffee, Knowing that the Service Stations are more than happy to provide me with Instant I decided to stop in at Macas that had a McCafé, due to their coffees at least being freshly ground.

The one we have here in Orange has one as well but the kids there are just button pushers, they have one of those Auto units that doesnt even know how to give a double shot espresso (you get 2 espressos in one cup instead), however I needed a ground coffee hit and needed it fast. I ordered, I consumed and went back for another without any hesitation, Crema was good, flavor was much better than what we get up here in Orange. In fact it was pretty good/Damn but good not as good as we make it at home in our house.

As I needed to have a bit of a spell I decided to ask some questions and have a look at what was behind the counter. To my great surprise it was a Rancillio 2 or 3 group unit and a Rancillio Grinder and these women were doing a great job..... The ability of these women/Barristas was fantastic and I was greatly impressed.

So on the return journey the next day, I called in again and decided to request the following
Double Shot...Good
Dopio......Good
Extra Espresso... which I left to see how long the crema retained its head... even this was quite a while.
Cappuccino..... Very Good.. Milk texture was very good micro.

If all McCafés were to this standard and were able to source better beans... the Café industry would be in trouble, maybe what I am saying is a bit tongue in cheek but the quality was very good and I would be more than willing to call in there again....

We can all sit on our high horses and declare that we can get great coffees from here and there, but from McCafé?, this was a totally unexpected treat...

Maybe the quality that is available here in NSW is set to be a lot lower standard...... :P

My Son now recovering here and a long drive behind me (32 hours without sleep) has allowed me to reflect upon how lucky we really are to be given the treats that we consume each and every day and how fortunate we are to live in this great country.

Have any of you found that any of the McCafés you have visited met your expectations?

Regards

FrenchBean

[Monti]

Re: Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

Shame on you, FB.  And you dare post it here in the coffee forum makes it even worse.  One more visit to McCafe from you and we are going to ask you to be removed from our forum.  How could you?  








Psssst: The McCafe on the Hume Highway or freeway to Canberra is not good at all. It was sooo bitter. Hmmm....so they say....mmmm... you know.....not like I went in there or sumfin. Bugger.....I shoulda kept me trap shut. :-[

[AmyK]

Re: Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

The one at Sutton Forrest or Goulburn? (Freeway McDs)

The Goulburn one (my old home town), Im right there with you about it being awful. Sutton Forrest Ive never experienced.

Ive never had a good coffee at a McCafe. Ever.

Cheers,
Amy

[TC]

Re: Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

Not surprising.....I trained a few groups of McCafe staff and despite all the evidence and pressure to do the right thing, they INSIST on 45ml shots.....welcome to the world of tertiary extraction  :

[Monti]

Re: Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

The one at Sutton Forrest or Goulburn? (Freeway McDs)

The Goulburn one (my old home town), Im right there with you about it being awful. Sutton Forrest Ive never experienced.

Ive never had a good coffee at a McCafe. Ever.

Cheers,
Amy

Yes, the Sutton Forrest one.

I also tried the coffee at the Lindt cafe on the weekend. Not good at all. I watched them make the coffee and their shot must be at least 50 mls, I reckon. They have a very good self-dosing and tamping Marzocco grinder, though. I spoke to the young boy that was making some of the coffees and he said he wasnt a trained barista and he usually doesnt even make coffees. The coffe was bitter and the milk wasnt textured right either.

[Lovey]

Re: Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

Gday all, I stopped in at the Mcafe at Goondiwindi on a flying trip to the Gold Coast the other day. I asked the nice lady behind the counter for a double espresso.  She went, "Huh, whats that?"  I said, "You know, a double short black."  I even pointed to the menu with the nice piccies on it of an espresso and told her to hit the double preset button on the machine.  She gave me another funny look.  She then turned around and asked her supervisor for instructions because she even had difficulty in putting the order into the POS screen.  She took my pesos and I took a seat, all the while crossing my fingers and every crossable bit of my anatomy.  A few minutes later, out comes a cappucino.  She winked at me and said, "This ones got an extra shot in it."
I just about pissed myself when I saw it, but I drank it anyway. It didnt taste too bad, but then again, I had been awake for 24 hours by that stage and any caffeine is good caffeine. It did keep me awake for the next few hours, so at least I knew it wasnt de-caf.
All the best,
Steve.

[el_espressio]

Re: Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

Hey Lovey -
You dont know what youre talkin about mate.  A double espresso is a large mug with coffee the colour of diluted dripolator Andronicus filled to the brim and  lukewarm.  In terms of volume, youre talking 200-275ml.
The other thing about it is that before you order it you know thats what youre gonna get and you find yourself muttering "never again".

Been there.  Done that.  Not good enough - especially from a place that has pretensions of being a place where a decent coffee can be had.  I mean, forget about geography.  If you were employing people to work in a cafe that supposedly SPECIALISES in coffee, how long would it take to learn what the four or five basic orders are going to be?

And - worst of all, you feel like an *&^%hole if you say anything.  Maybe we Aussies need to be a bit moe forthcoming when we dont get what we pay for.  On the rare occasions when I dare to order a coffee at a cafe I will always compliment the barista if I get what Ive paid for.  Tend to curse under my breath and say nothing when it is an experience like the one you had. Were funny like that, arent we.  Where else would you cop it? > 8-) : :-[ :-/

[Master_Chief]

Re: Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

Im not sure if anybody here has even heard of Berwick out in the outer outer outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, but its where I was studying last year at Monash University Berwick Campus, and there was a McCafe just across the road at the Mc. Donalds. Last year when I went there, I bought a long black coffee and I swear it was semi orgasmic.. I was feeling really weird and I wasnt feeling sick or anything, it was strange.. but anyway.. lol

I went there last week, Im doing a Bachelor of Arts Journalism at a different campus now and there was a guest speaker out at Berwick (You may have heard of Allan Russell, the channel 10 news editor?) and so I decided to pop in and get a double espresso shot to make sure I could pay the most attention I could..

Anyway, there was like.. bugger all creme, and it didnt taste very nice at all =/\/ Luckily the chips I got were really fresh hahah.

I think whats happened is that theyve gotten a "fast food" coffee machine which makes different types of coffees which isnt actually the same as the McCafe.. either way, I was pretty disappointed and wont be getting drive-through coffee again! I guess that commercial sold me =(

[robusto]

Re: Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

there was a guest speaker out at Berwick (You may have heard of Allan Russell, the channel 10 news editor?)

Yes, Master Chief, heard of Allan Russell... How was he? Theres little of journalism Allan doesnt know about in his 30+ years in newspapers, ABC, Seven and TEN. Worth listening to.

[Master_Chief]

Re: Café from Mc Ds at Mildura

He seemed quiet and self absorbed.. but yeah, he basically told us how to get a job in broadcasting. Seems Ill find it quite easy, but Id rather write in a newspaper I think.