Saturday 5 March 2011

Cairns Dining picks Caffiend as best cuppa

With new coffee shops opening in Cairns like Bang Espresso! and recently Silk on the corner of Spence and Sheridan, there's now lots of discussion of who grinds the best in the far north.

A cool collaborative review website that has been round for many years time is Cairns Dining, run by a couple of mad-keen foodies, Nicky & Kaj of Precedence web fame. They describe the site as a reflection of the dining trends and news happening in Cairns.

So, what is it about the charm of an amazing cup of coffee? Be it espresso, cappucino or latte, whatever your preference. People travel great distances to savor their favourite brew, Nicky says.

Bean Hunter is also a nice "trip advisor" type site, and also available as an iPhone app. They have already reviewed Silk, and as the Cairns Post is now running a ‘best coffee in town' competition, Cairns Dining is keen to share their opinion. They have surveyed, sipped and sampled all over Cairns and have come up with their five best cups of coffee in town.

Here's Cairns Dining's picks, and their comments...

1. Caffiend
Caffiend is owned by a hard case coffee crazy, Ollie, who is passionate about every cup of coffee he serves. If you too adore espressos, ristrettos, single origin and macchiatos then this should be your local.

2. Silk Caffe
A fresh (and welcome!) newcomer to the Cairns coffee scene, this seasoned cafe owner has found a niche location. Reminiscent of a stand-up Italian espresso bar, everything is right here; the beans, the barista, the machine, and of course, the coffee.

3. Tosca Trattoria
The discovery of Tosca’s as a top notch coffee stopover was an accident after recently meeting the owner, Paul, when he was the winner of a latte art competition. His specialty is the piccolo latte, but honestly all the coffee here is awesome. Tosca’s is head-and-shoulders above all other cups of coffee at Cairns Central.

4. Bang Espresso
In our (humble) opinion Bang Espresso was the pioneer of the developing coffee culture of Cairns. Their Melbournesque styling and no nonsence cafe really brought the Cairns coffee connossoirs out of the woodwork. Bang would be #2 if you were always lucky enough to get a coffee by baristas Erol or Ian.

5. Industry One
One of Cairns’ few specialty coffee roasters, the aroma as you enter Industry One is intoxicatingly good. Their coffee is pretty good too! A real industry player, Industry One actively engages the wider coffee community by holding regular events like latte art competitions, and cupping nights.

So, how did they come up with their top picks? Recently one of the CairnsDining team judged the Cairns Barista Championships which is an official competition under AustraAsian Specialty Coffee Association regulation. They used the same competition judging technique and scoring system. At each cafe they sampled an espresso and a cappucino. And probably cake too, but they didn’t make it onto the judging criteria.

What's your opinion?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Industry One - it is a couple of doors down from work - great coffee and on Fridays the boss buys our coffee.