to think that British coffee is just as good as Australian?

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

DNiece has arrived at ours, she's visiting from Australia and I haven't seen her for 5 years, since she was 15.

She's been in the UK for a few days and keeps banging on about how British coffee is horrible and not a patch on Australian coffee. Her dad, my BIL, always says this when he's in the UK but I'm not convinced it's true. I've only been to Australia once, but I wasn't blown away by their amazing coffee. I think DN is just parroting her dad and wouldn't be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test.

So, I think I'm not being unreasonable. Anyone agree?

Ha yes you are so not being unreasonable but it's in their culture to criticise the UK and especially the coffee!

We had a relative come over and every single day if we had coffee out it would be "ooo that's quite nice coffee. Wasn't expecting that from English coffee". Every. Single. Time.

We even had in London from another relative "ah that was a nice coffee but the Barista was Australian- I expect they will have trained the others."

Haha yes I remember this when I was in Australia. I’m still unsure what’s so much better about it? Surely it depends on the cafe

I had a visitor from Aus last year who said the same thing!

I dunno - I've never been to Australia, but I've been other places, and coffee is largely speaking coffee - depends on the individual coffee shop rather than the country.

Isn't coffee normally Colombian or Indonesian or similar?

Aaaah sorry but have to agree with your niece 🙈 I somehow always find Aussie coffee ‘smooth’. Don’t have to make a face drinking it, not bitter, just ‘smooth’….

Yes exactly this is what confused me when I was in Australia, surely we get our coffee from the same place 🤣

How much British coffee has she drunk? It doesn’t all taste the same.

Having said that, the best cup of coffee I have drunk was in Australia.

It depends where you go. The little indie coffee shop near me is truly excellent by any standards. But Costa, Starbucks, Cafe Nero etc are all really shite. So it's probably true that the Aussie chains are lots better than the British chains.

What coffee are you drinking that makes you make a face?

Maybe it's the water?
London water is horrible.

Failing that, tell them to drink tea instead.

This is true - most places I take a sugar in my coffee, but there is one, superb coffee shop where I don't need to, the coffee is so good.

I've been meaning to buy a bag of their roast, but perhaps it's how they make it (although it looks like a fairly standard coffee machine to me)

It depends on where she has been. Costa and Starbucks are dreadful. My local independent is brilliant. I wouldn’t judge all the coffee in one country based on a couple of chains.

Coffee comes in many strengths and flavours. Some I enjoy, some I don't. What is classed as "British coffee"?

My (British) parents say the Aus coffee is really nice (I don’t drink coffee). Also maybe because there aren’t so many chain places in Aus so cafes aren’t just banging out same old drinks?

YABU. Overall the coffee is much better in Australia.

Aussies are coffee snobs (particularly Melbournians) and their cafe culture holds a lot of pride for them. When they talk about their coffee, they are talking about chic, cool places- not bog standard costa or Nescafé gold.

however they are deluded if they think their hipster coffee is any better than the local hipster equivalent here. Good beans (which we get some the same places they do…) and good baristas will produce lovely coffee, wherever.

Yanbu. Maybe it is a bit of a cultural thing to criticise - my cousin from Australia sagely said “yes, dad did say everyone in the uk looks dehydrated…”, I was like 🤨?!

Cafe coffee? I haven't been to Australia, but in general I find it poor in the UK. Typically, the only black coffee you can get is espresso, double espresso, Americano. The double espresso is a lot smaller than typical in France. The Americano is weak, like the joke about making love in a canoe. The Germans have the cafe creme. Further south-west you can get Turkish coffee. The Australians famously have the long black.

She's from Melbourne!

I understand that some foodstuffs are better in some countries than others. I think most American chocolate is rank, whereas most Belgian chocolate is great. But I imagine the coffee beans and processes are very similar in the UK and Australia, so am not convinced that she could really tell the difference

@Terningbay i always have a latte and some coffee shops make really smooth ones. Others are very bitter or maybe the ratio of milk/coffee is off I’m not sure. It’s more consistent in Australia. Not an attack against the Brits, just an observation.

Typical Aussie attitude.

There's good and bad coffee everywhere.

There is an Australian owned coffee shop in Streatham which isn’t far from where I live. To be honest when I went there (I’m not a huge coffee drinker but do like lattes, cappuccinos and mochas) I wasn’t that impressed but my boyfriend at the time said it was good.

I agree with others, a good indie coffee shop/cafe will be just as good as the Aussie ones. Chains aren’t good generally.

I do find sometimes too some Aussies like to complain about British food/drink/coffee in quite loud tones, guess they’re getting us back for being whinging Poms!

I was in Australia earlier in the year, I don’t remember there being anything particularly memorable about the coffee.

Just created a Mumsnet account specifically to reply to this post! I’m sorry, YABU - but it’s not your fault. British coffee is… just unimaginably bad (yes, I’m Australian, yes, I’m from Melbourne).

The reason for this is not the coffee beans but the preparation - the milk is always too hot, and it makes the coffee taste bitter. The only really good coffees I’ve had in this country have been places that are owned by Aussies or Kiwis. And yeah, I go to hipster coffee shops.