coffee mania

i know how much people dislike it when other people go on about things from another place or country, especially if they haven’t been or experienced it  themselves. i try to avoid saying melbourne this and melbourne that all the time because of it. it's a shame really because i am so fond of my time there and it was such a big part of my life, it always will be. so today i'm going to throw that caution to the wind and talk about just one element of melbourne... coffee. but first, a side story. this morning when i came out of the bedroom from getting ready, i caught matt and our housemate ben (also known as gm) trying to break into this beautiful tin of merlo coffee beans that i had bought for my parents as a present for when i next visit. they had the spoon under the lid trying to prise it open! after politely yelling at them to freeze i then asked them what on earth they were doing. they said they were trying to find out what was inside it. this cracked me up as it was clearly a tin of coffee beans, the label said melro coffee and it had a picture of beans on the front. it even smelt of coffee from a mile away and sounded like beans when you shook the tin, oh and it was completely sealed. they replied by saying they thought it might have had lollies in it. odd. so anyway, that made for a funny start of the day and i will dearly miss living with such interesting boys. (this is one of many numerous stories from the last 4 weeks of staying with them). ok, so back to melbourne and the coffee in melbourne. before i lived there and worked full time i rarely drank coffee. from memory i was still drinking mocha's and hot chocolates before i left brisbane. well that was soon to change. working in an office quickly introduces you to the routine of getting coffee and it becomes a way not only to stretch you legs and get away from work, it's also a great reason to socialise and catch up with friends. (matt has also found this out he started his job and he carries on if he doesn't get his daily fix) this was particularly true of being in the graduate program and beyond. at first i still didn't enjoy the taste of drinking coffee so i simply pretended. my previous (and favourite) boss david said something interesting to me in regards to this once and it's stuck with me ever since. we were passing the ngv (gallery) and i mentioned that i didn't really like art. he said that it's like drinking wine, you start off pretending to like it however sooner or later you actually do start to enjoy and appreciate it. and the same theory applies to coffee. i started out with a latte and 2 sugars, and then I cut back to 1. then i went through a phase of getting a latte and raspberry and white chocolate muffin in the morning for breakfast on my way to work. that was great until i started to get noticeably fat so i had to cut back on that little 'treat'! now i drink a cappuccino with 1 sugar, or 2 sugars on the days i feel i really need it. and thanks to my time in melbourne i officially love coffee. the smell, the taste, the experience. luckily, at my new job in bowen hills we are just a two minute walk to the merlo and dibella factories. i know they say melbourne is the coffee capital of australia but i must say brisbane coffee is up there. i dearly miss my favourite melbourne coffee haunts and drinking a cup while chatting with friends on a sunday morning. melbourne certainly gave me lots of things and a new found love and appreciation for coffee is one of them. so thank you melbourne. today i am not afraid to give you credit where credit is due. and to conclude this very long post i would like to add that this blog entry is dedicated to my lovely friend kathleen. you make me feel like a fraud as your love for coffee runs deep and you have a long history together. you also know a great deal more than i do when it comes to knowing what good coffee is and exactly where to find it. xo