I make no secret of the fact that I drink a lot of coffee. And, since I live in Melbourne, why wouldn’t I? Not only are we the world’s most livable city (for the fourth year in a row), we have the BEST coffee.
My signature beverage is a large (double shot) skim flat white — with latte art! Check out the lion.
I spend a lot of time in my local cafes. I work from home, so it’s a great way to get out of the house each day, grab some light exercise, sunshine and fresh air as I walk down the street, transition from ‘work’ (home office) to ‘writing’ (cafe). Both forms of work are important to me for different reasons, so I’ve developed a daily routine that allows me to achieve both, while indulging my addiction to good Melbourne coffee.
And when I’m not in a cafe, there’s my trusty home nespresso machine.
Although I try to limit my coffee intake, I’m on an average of four double-shot flat whites a day at the moment… I was going for three a day, but my extended cafe sojourns are seeing me order a second coffee more often than not. It doesn’t seem to be affecting me too much…
My other potion of choice would have to be red wine. In fact, I spent some time this evening sorting out the latest delivery, which involves cutting out ‘tasting notes’ and sticking them to the bottles, along with the date of when to drink each bottle. I have around 10 cases stacked in my wardrobe (right), and these get cycled round to ensure the wine gets a bit of ‘cellaring’ before it’s drunk. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years now, and it works wonderfully well.
I never run out of wine!
My wine club Wine Selectors is fabulous. All its wines are selected by an expert tasting panel, so every wine is excellent. You can order on demand online, or you can do what I do, which is have regular deliveries. I receive four cases a year of the “regional series”, which is always mixed reds from one of Australia’s many winemaking regions. And I receive four half-cases a year of the “winemaker series”, which also comprises mixed reds, but of higher quality.
And I sometimes order periodic specials on demand, when I start to run low of ‘drink now’ bottles.
Coffee. Wine. Life just wouldn’t be the same without them. What is your signature beverage?
(This post was brought to you by today’s WordPress Daily prompt, “pick your potion”.)
E V Gregory 
Yep, coffee and wine. You and I will get along splendidly Ellen. Melbourne is definitely on the list. I’ll bring you some Seattle java. We are coffee fiends also. And wine because I never show up to dinner uninvited and without a bottle of wine. 🙂
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Ah yes, I remember Seattle as being THE place in the US for coffee… I believe you will rather like Melbourne. 😀
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Sounds like a good combination to me. But I must say that the latte art would give me an abundance of chuckles to face the day!
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Latte art like this is not an everyday thing, alas. But it’s always fun when it appears. 🙂
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Well yes, as a card-carrying Seattle resident, I do have an opinion or two about coffee, and I can honestly tell you if I tried to drink four doubles a day, my heart would stop. You’re made of tough stuff, Ellen! I also have some very fond memories of the wine in Melbourne. I mostly drink white these days, though I’m pretty sure if you ever visited here we could find something local you’d like.
But where you’d really get me talking is in a brewery…
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Yes, I rather suspect four doubles a day is a bit high… Just creeps up on you! I can drink white if I have to, but usually as a last resort. As for beer? I don’t drink it at all ever. Sometimes I might have cider instead.
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Yeah, I didn’t drink the beer in Melbourne either. Might be a reason for that…
😉
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The wine is too good? Although I think we (Australia) do good local boutique beers, you just need to know what to order. Which I don’t. Apparently Tasmania makes some good ones. (Having said that, I think there are some differences in taste between what Australians and Americans like in both beer and coffee – probably wine too.)
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Coffee and Wine are two of my vices also, and both are available in abundant quantity and quality here in Melbourne. Thought it still amazes me when I come across cafes that make bad coffee. How are they able to stay in business, or even open their doors in the first place, when there is so much strong competition?
If you get a chance, you should check out seven seeds in Carlton, near vic market, or Ripe up in the Dandenongs. They both make great coffee even by Melbourne standards.
One thing I haven’t encountered in our city yet is 3d latte art, which I think is absolutely amazing.
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I agree, I’m always shocked when I get a bad coffee. There have been a couple of cafes over the years I keep going back to because I really liked the food, but the coffee was very hit and miss. One went out of business (a shame, because I really did like their corn fritters!), the other still chugs along with its OK coffee. So food IS important too!
I don’t get to either Carlton or the Dandenongs much, I have to admit. But whenever I’m somewhere new, I use the bean hunter app – damn, should have included that in the post! That helps me find good coffee wherever I happen to be.
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My signature beverage is a simple latte from Starbucks. Your latte art is lovely, but I think I’d be afraid to mess it up!
Love the way you transition from your home office to your café office.
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To be sure, it’s always a shame to mess up the latte art. Sometimes it’s so cool, you just have to take a photo. That cafe used to make little human faces in the coffee too. Haven’t seen that in a while, though.
As for the transition – oh, yes, I find it’s really essential to get my head out of one thing and into another. I end up with some “dead” time, but it’s important to relax the brain from thinking, I think. Anyway, It’s proving to work for me at the moment.
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I live in Sydney, but envy Melbournites your lane ways, Kay Craddock Rare Books, and Koko Black. 🙂 Coffee and brut champagne are my drinks of choice.
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I didn’t realise KoKo Black was a Melbourne thing. I have no doubt it’ll make its way to Sydney soon, though! Mmmm yummy, you’ve started a chocolate craving in me… Thanks for hanging out!
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