Back in Adelaide after a night out in my early 20's, I would catch up with my cousin down Rundle Street and gossip about the night before at our local night club, who we saw, who did what, giggling and laughing out loud....Oh how I loved those days! Well back then, I would order a weak cappuccino and think I was important because I was drinking coffee (insert eye roll here).
After having my 2 kids in my early 30's we had a Sunbeam coffee machine at home and I started appreciating the taste for coffee. So my weak coffee became a double strength cappuccino with skinny milk....so now that you know my coffee order, you'll also appreciate the frustration when ordering a coffee and it either being made with full cream milk, weak or milky and I would refuse to drink it. Yep, I would throw it out because there just wasn't any point of having milk with a taste of coffee. My tummy wouldn't agree with it and I would be miserable for the day....Yes, I became a coffee snob.
So moving to Melbourne, I made sure to sit back and see what I was dealing with before I judged the coffee scene. It was all about the taste I found, not necessarily about the strength, so I've learnt over the years to ask all the right questions, notice the machine they were using and who was behind it...did they look like they know what they're doing?
I soon learnt that coffee wasn't everything, it was also about the cafe setting I found myself in, the small intimate cafes tucked away in an alley way, the simplistic furniture which I soon learnt was trendy, not tacky. There were amazing pastries I would find staring back at me at the counter each time I ordered and I had to make the decision on which one I would try. Would it be the bright green cookies that soon learnt to be matcha? It was all amazing, but I did feel full and heavy after I ate because I couldn't visit a cafe, have my coffee and not have something with it when there was so much to choose from and always something different I would find that I had no choice by to try!
Let me be clear, it's not that Adelaide's cafes weren't just as good, but here in Melbourne, it was just....different! Relaxed and chilled atmosphere, something to admire and feel excited to be in. As I said, it wasn't just about the coffee, but where you enjoyed it!
In early 2016 we bought a small Expo Bar coffee machine and I attended a few barista courses..... I felt like a real snob now! Shortly after Green Whisk was born, it was a match made in heaven. The thought about making mum's Almond Bread available in cafes around the country so that there was options where people wouldn't leave feeling heavy and full was brilliant. Bringing a traditional biscuit back to life, for everyone to enjoy, now that was a exciting idea.
