Best coffee bean in Brisbane

Where can you find the best coffee beans in Brisbane? Well in short I can tell you that it is any coffee shop that stocks Matteo beans in Brisbane. Yes this coffee is roasted and blended in Italy and yes it is imported to Australia. (I will explain in detail why below). 

I guess this is a subjective question depending on who you speak to and their own taste preference and loyalties. To "lay man" coffee is just dirty water and it all tastes the same however with connoisseurs of coffee they would travel the world to find that perfect cup of 'dirty water'. So it is the latter audience which this article applies to. In Brisbane there is an emerging coffee culture shift away from imported coffee to locally roasted coffee beans where these roasts are touted by the roaster companies as being fresh, smooth and the best option over imported italian espresso beans.

So who is right you ask? So called "freshly roasted" beans does not provide an enhancement in taste contrary to popular belief.  This is I guess something that has been lost in translation or purposely withheld from the Australian market to gain a market advantage from Australian roasters over genuine italian roasted and blended beans. I am not saying roasted beans do not degrade at all but i guess the "freshness" arguement is true-er however for the green coffee beans. In the supply chain the green coffee bean does degrade faster and for the Australian roasters they still have to import the quality african and south american green coffee beans into the country (go figure). So as a consumer wanting a quality cup of coffee, choosing the local roasted bean from an Australian roaster who has little experience in picking the correct grade of beans, roasting but more importantly blending the different grades; is not always the correct choice. This lack of experience and time delay of the green beans can and does contribute to sour, bitter and inconsistent coffee quality for the consumer.

There is also the belief that 'good coffee' beans are the beans that are used straight off the roaster. Now the thing with coffee beans is yes they are perishable food items but they do not perish as quick as you may think once roasted. In fact good Italian espresso coffee must be 'aged' for 2-3 months as a minimum before being used. This basically translates to the coffee being rested in a temperature and humidity controlled room for that time period to exhaust the gas that the beans produce and to give a superior flavour.

 
But why is Italian espresso so important you ask?  The genuine Italian espresso "shot" is the basis of all kinds of cups of coffee, from macchiato to cappuccinos to cafe lattes and affogattos. So you need a good coffee bean and grind to get a good 7 second extraction from the machine. This is coffee school teaching 101. I have also heard the arguement that coffee from Italy has not changed for the past 40 years and it lacks innovation.  Well what these people are most likely referring to is the italian espresso coffee blends and not any of the innovative coffee equipment that comes from Italy. Surely common sense triumphs here and recognition that the genuine italian espresso consists of a blend of arabica and robusta beans and not just one (100% arabica) or the new marketing hype of single origin.  How do you achieve a complex smooth flavour eperience from single origin beans?  How boring! A geniune Italian coffee espresso blend is quite complex and in fact it consists of a minumum of 7 different types of coffee beans. This has changed very little overtime and perhaps it is this reason that the Italians do not need to re-invent the wheel so to speak however the Australian roasters do.