After traveling to Ireland and Australia in March, I've been at a loss where to find a proper cup of drip coffee. It seems to me that when I order a coffee (albeit in my Midwestern accent) I invariably got an Americano (or tall black in Oz) which, while good at times, usually tastes like hot water with a bit of espresso in it. I do really enjoy a cup of good drip or French press coffee and would love to hear an explanation of this phenomenon or some advice where I can find a proper cup overseas (outside of a Starbucks). I haven�t� really had this problem in continental Europe, the coffee there is quite good.

Where were you drinking in Australia? One or two bad cups of coffee would be acceptable, but the standard of coffee is regarded as being amongst the highest in the world. Unless you were going to some of the chains I don't think it's fair to describe it as hot water with a bit of espresso in it.

While drip coffee can be quite good, I'll take the taste of a properly done espresso over drip coffee any day.

I'll agree with bensyd: I found the flat whites I tasted there to be superior to anything similar you can get at an American coffee house (a latte at the better of my local places, such as Kaladi Brothers or Cafe Del Mundo up here in ANC). Espresso culture seems to have been around in Australia longer and had more time to embed itself in local culture and develop proper technique than it has in the U.S., where it's come around mostly since the Starbucks revolution.

I also love the French/Spanish/Portuguese/Italian strong coffees (Caf� au lait, caf� con leche, caf� com leite, caff� latte) and have yet to find something similar in the States (a latte at a modern coffee shop isn't the same thing). In fact, can anyone tell me what process they use to make those? Is it indeed espresso, or is it a strong drip or French press coffee? If it's espresso, why don't lattes at coffee houses taste the same?

There is one large benefit American drip coffee has over espresso: it's cheap. Even at a good coffee shop (like Kaladi's up here), a 20-oz drip coffee is $2, compared to $4-5 for similarly-sized espresso beverages. And that's for good coffee; if you don't mind drinking swill or watery cardboard, you can get unlimited refills at a neighborhood diner for under a buck (still, I think; I haven't checked recently).

Ask for an extra shot in your Americano. Many places put two shots in no matter what the size. Not everywhere is like Starbucks and not everyone adjusts the amount of expresso to the size of the drink. Good americano will be beat good drip any day of the week.

I didn't find a lot of good coffee in Aus. I've fought about this topic with people from there many times. You'll commonly find instant coffee there in many places. The people on here dispute this, but the figures from the coffee associations in Australia show that the majority ~80% of coffee drank in that country is instant. You might want to hunt around for one of the alleged coffee shops. Hopefully you'll be in a bigger city.

Strange. Most every place I stopped by--even the little gift shop in Victor Harbour, SA by the causeway leading to Granite Island--had an espresso press machine. In fact, espresso presses were more ubiquitous there than anywhere else I'd seen, which I remember being surprised by because those machines are not cheap. I never had a shortage of flat whites, and most were as good as what I drank at Pellegrini's (one of those "alleged coffee shops" you mentioned) in Melbourne.

True, when espresso wasn't available at a particular place (which was rare), it was instant rather than drip coffee (I'd choose drip, too--someone needs to teach them what it is!), but it was extremely rare not to find espresso on any block in any town of any size.

Hi MflyerCVG,
In Australia, you could get whatever coffee you like.
Here's a quick guide:
For drip/filtered coffee, most chain hotels should have the USA-style offering of a mini percolator, filter and a sachet of coffee.

In the lounge, you should be able to get espresso, made to your request (I think a double espresso shot in an americano aka long black is a great startin point).
In some cases there may be filtered coffee available in huge quantities, in a large jug.

In lower-end hotels, expect to have just instant coffee sachets and an electric kettle jug.

French Press (Bodum & imitation french press homewares)
French presses are very easy to find (any supermarket or Asian $2 shop) and ground coffee is available at any supermarket in 250-250G packages.

Lots of office workers buy 2-3 espressos a day, but others use a french press and their own, brought-in coffee.
Our office meetings are supplied with ground coffee made with a french press.

General estimates in Oz:
Yes, for non coffee drinkers and older people, the convenience (and heavy marketing) of instant coffee at home means 80% of houses might have instant coffee in the cupboard.
But I'd estimate 50%+ also have a dripolator/filter coffee machine gathering dust somewhere and maybe 25-40% have a french press, too.

40% of homes would have some kind of espresso machine as they are the new toaster of gift giving.

Probably <20% of homes use these gadgets- primarily a semi-automatic or automatic machine.

If you prefer french press style coffee, then go for it.

I can't believe I'm saying this but McDonald's has drip-style coffee. (Don't kill me, please. I don't touch anything else at McD's, honest!) Many of them are expanding with cafe add-ons and espresso-style coffee, but the "regular" McD's coffee is drip. And it's consistent - if you don't like it in America, you won't like it here.

Way out of date - as jackal said, every town has restaurants and coffee shops with espresso machines and people who can run them. It's not hard to find good take-away coffee. In a hotel room, yeah, you're probably going to find instant. And there's a lot of instant coffee in offices, homes, church halls, sports grounds, picnics, dive boats and so on, but any half-decent restaurant will have an espresso machine or, at minimum, a French press.

Dude, I don't know where you went to find coffee but honestly if you can't find an espresso machine your a battler.

I don't even like coffee but when I'm hungover and want a coffee I have never been into a cafe that didn't have an espresso machine.

I did notice that the tall blacks with an extra shot were just as good, if not better than a good cup of drip coffee. I didn't mean to insinuate the coffee in Oz was bad, the straight espressos and other drinks I had were fantastic, I'm just a bit more accustomed to finding a good cup of drip coffee anywhere. I'm used to drinking my coffee black back home so the nonavailability of drip coffee threw me off a bit.

I absolutely agree on the frustrations with Australia not having drip coffee, but I'd argue - as some others have - that the coffee (/espresso) is fantastic. I'm just not sure why they wouldn't offer drip coffee to speed up lines, and make life a little easier for the staff (and it's not like all drip coffee is rubbish - look at Merlo, they make some fantastic coffee - perhaps my favourite anywhere - that could easily be used for drip).

I actually was so frustrated with Australia's 'anti-drip' stance, I wrote an article about it. Would love to hear your thoughts.

http://hubpages.com/_jblogs26/hub/En...Regular-Coffee

Drip coffee is rare because the market is discriminating and prefers espresso, which tends to be much better made in Oz than in the US (perhaps due to the proliferation of barista training schools). Maybe a long black costs AUD 4 in QLD, but in MEL it usually costs between $2.50 and $3, and I've never had a 10 minute wait (unless I ordered a dozen of them). Even cappucino at the best coffee place in town (the European) costs a mere $3.50. Maybe you are living in the wrong part of Oz, and time to move to coffee civilization

All good points, and I appreciate the response, though I'd have to argue that regardless of what the particular time difference is - perhaps 30 seconds, perhaps more - it does take longer to make an espresso-based beverage than pour a cup of brewed coffee, and this of course multiplies depending on how busy the place is. I've done a fair amount of traveling around Australia, and have found this to be the case everywhere I've gone (though I'll admit I haven't made my way to Melbourne yet - though I'm dying to make the trip, as I hear such great things - so perhaps things are different over there). I've also noticed that because of the amount of drinks that need to be made with the espresso machine, cafe's here typically have more employees on the clock than those back home.

I understand this argument that Australia is very particular about its coffee, but considering the amount of instant coffee that's consumed here, I find it very hard to believe that people wouldn't buy a quality cup of brewed coffee. Sure, there would still be a number of people who'd stick with their long blacks - I know I'd still buy them, at least some of the time - but I do think a market exists for 'regular joe' as well.

I personally buy Merlo coffee and brew it at home, and it is phenomenal. Can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't, at least on occasion, buy a freshly brewed cup of one of Merlo's darker blends if it were half the price? I'd even argue that a quality cup of coffee like that is far better than the long black I'm going to get at Zaraffa's.

And as for prices, perhaps they are lower depending on which part of Australia you're in, but there's no doubt that an espresso-based beverage will cost more than a cup of brewed coffee anywhere.

I think many posts here are missing the point. No need to debate which type of coffee is best -- I like espresso, French press, and others (but not instant), but share the OP's frustration at how difficult it is to find good brewed coffee on those occasions when I want it.

Of course this is where Starbucks comes in. I rarely go in the U.S., but in the Middle East, for example, it is a welcome destination because one knows exactly what one is going to get.

In a similar vein to McDonalds's, when I want a cup of good American coffee in Qatar, I go to Dunkin Donuts, which has the best coffee in town in my opinion.

Well put.

That's interesting - do you like Dunkin' Donuts coffee in the US?

The reality is that if people are happy with brewed coffee they'll use a french press and make it themselves, they're not going to leave the office to pay for it.

Possibly but Zaraffa's is chain coffee so it wouldn't be that surprising. If you're in Brisbane try going to a proper cafe like Brothers or Campos

It's more likely where you're getting your coffee as chain stores are generally more expensive than independent stores, $2.50 - $3.00 is pretty much the standard throughout the country. That said, Queensland is kinda, well, behind the rest of Aus when it comes to things like this so it is a lot more difficult to get decent coffee (or food) for decent money there than in the rest of the country.