Australian Café
Despite not losing any love over coffee myself, I seem to have picked up quite a bit about the different ways to consume it. Long gone are the days when everyone only had a couple of options. Instead of being asked “Black or white? With or without sugar?”, ordering a drink at a café almost feels like an interrogation!
To make it easier on yourself and the hospitality staff (who also don’t like the amount of questions they are forced to ask) do everyone a favour by figuring out exactly what you want before getting to the counter.
Step One: Size
Easy, right? Wrong! Every café has different sized coffee cups, with different names, and different prices. Typically, there’ll be three sizes along the lines of small, medium, and large. However, this is sometimes changed up for regular, large, and jumbo, or any combination of the above. Another fun fact is that despite using the glorious metric system for everything else - suppliers advertise their takeaway cups in terms of ounces (oz) - so please forgive me following their example:
6oz to 8oz - small/regular - one shot of coffee
10oz to 12oz - medium/regular/large - two shots of coffee
16oz - large/jumbo - 3 shots of coffee
This isn’t even counting sizes for milkshakes and other cold drinks, though typically they will be around 16oz, you need to check whatever display the café has.
Step Two: Type of Beverage
This step is slightly easier. Decide if you’d like a hot or cold beverage, and if you want coffee in that beverage! For the purposes of this, we’ll say you decided to have a hot coffee - there’s so many options to choose from:
Ristretto - the first 10-15ml of a shot of coffee
Espresso/Short Black - one full shot of coffee
Macchiato - an espresso shot with a small dash of hot, frothy milk
Piccolo - a ristretto shot topped up with hot, frothy milk (basically a tiny latte)
Long Black - hot water topped with coffee (usually two shots)
Flat White - espresso topped with hot milk (little to no froth)
Latte - espresso topped with hot, frothy milk (medium froth)
Mocha - latte with a spoonful of chocolate mixed with the coffee, topped with chocolate powder
Dirty Chai - chai latte with a coffee shot, often topped with cinnamon/chai powder
Cappuccino - espresso with hot, frothy milk (very frothy), topped with chocolate powder
Step Three: Milk
You can skip right on down to the next step if you want a black coffee! If not, strap in…
There are many different kinds of milk nowadays. There’s the classic cows milk (either full cream, skim, or light), soy, almond, oat, and the list goes on. Some hip cafés may also stock coconut or macadamia milk too.
Personally, my go to is full cream milk in my hot chocolates - but I’ve had almond milk on occasion which brings out the nuttiness, and I have a friend who swears by oat milk. I have also enjoyed soy milk in chai lattes to mellow out the flavour.
I can’t recommend any milks to go with coffee, but baristas are usually pretty happy to talk about the pros and cons of different ones (if there’s not a massive line behind you at least).
Step Four (optional): Additives
Sweet syrupy sweeteners. Say that five times really fast.
To round out the coffee ordering experience is ordering any additives to the drink. Whether it be sugar, an artificial sweetener (like equal or stevia), or a syrup - there’s something for most people at a café. The most popular syrups you’ll find in Australian cafés are vanilla, caramel, and hazelnut. There are plenty of other syrups and additives around too.
So now when you’re asked what coffee you want to order at a café, run through these steps to make it easier on yourself and your overworked barista. The most important thing to remember is that every café is different, but they will have a sign, board, or display letting you know what sizes, prices, milks, and additives they have to sell.
Be kind to hospitality workers, and be safe when sipping hot drinks!
P.S. Buy my Barista At A Glance Cheat Sheet here for just AUD$2!
