For coffee lovers …
I think this is usually about $20 - $25 normally.
Matt Holden and his team of reviewers have scoured Melbourne to put together a guide of over 280 reviews on the best coffee being brewed. Our Guide focuses on coffee but also rates food, place/space and feel good factor. Plus we also have a feature on the 21 great out of town (country) cafes. CLICK HERE for a sneak preview.
This guide will only be available with The Saturday Age on June 18 for $5! So don’t miss out on this fantastic offer. CLICK HERE to see the list of newsagents stocking this guide.
So how did the team make their judgements?
Coffee (scored out of ten): commitment to quality beans (single origin, organic, fair trade, and microlots), grinding to order, consistency, care taken; and the coffee experience: aroma, temperature, crema, acidity, flavour balance, mouth feel, body, and aftertaste.
Food (scored out of five): quality, freshness, appropriateness, deliciousness.
Feel good factor (scored out of two): special things such as art, music, loose-leaf tea, sunshine, smiles, the possibility of spontaneous conversation, serendipity.
What we dissed: dirty tables, pre-ground coffee, stale decaf, bad food, three-day-old muffins and lusciousness.
Place and space (scored out of three): the café experience – comfort, class, cosiness, sense of community, staff spirit or rudeness. Nor did we try to judge what was cool and what was wasn’t.
Also in our guide are the following awards:
Best Coffee 2011
Best Cafe 2011
Best New Cafe 2011
Best Food Cafe 2011
Best Small Cafe 2011
Best Chocolate Cafe 2011
Best Bakery 2011
Good Cafe Guide Barista Award 2011
Goof Cafe Guide Local Hero 2011
Good Cafe Guide Hall of Fame 2011
The Age Good Food Guide 2011 version came out August 31 last year.
http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143011750/age-good-fo…
New 2012 version is due Aug 30 2012
http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143011767/age-good-fo…
Not sure if this Age Good Cafe Guide is a totally different book, but it seems odd to release a 2011 guide to anything so late in the year. They usually come out months in advance of the year on the cover.