A Coffee Incident in Dresden

When all else fails, go grab a coffee. So I went to a nice little café & ordered a latte. The women didn’t know what I meant, so I explained what a latte was & she said that what I wanted was, in fact, a latte macchiato. Who knows? Each country has different names for the same type of coffee. She’d said the coffee costs 1.80 euro. The coffee was weak - more like a hot milkshake. And when I went to pay, she said the price was now 2.60 euro. I asked “why the increase”? And she got quite narky - “coffee shouldn’t be made with milk; it’s not real coffee; you should go back to America if you want to drink that coffee”. I was gob smacked. I told her that what she’d served me wasn’t really coffee - it was crap. And made clear to her, in no uncertain terms, that I wasn’t an American. She seemed a bit stunned afterwards. I paid & left.
And as I walked down the street, more than ready to get out of this town, I heard some beautiful classical but funky sounds emanating from this little alley. A small group of three - a violin, an oboe, a clarinet - belting out some great tunes. I gave a tip & walked away smiling.

Coffee in France

Disappointed in my efforts to find good coffee in France so far, I was fortunate to stumble upon a little gem of a place in Dijon called ‘Café le Mayence’ that served quite a good petit crème café. Tours was terrible for coffee as was Avignon. But in Nice, there’s a strong Italian influence & several cafes serve café latte, particularly around Place Messena. Not quite as nice as a good latte in Sydney, but more than sufficient to satisfy ones coffee taste buds.

A Good Coffee in London?

I had almost given up on the search for a nice cuppa coffee in London when, per chance I stumbled over the neat little cafe called Monmouth at Covert Garden. Wow! The latte was superb in a cup size guaranteed to keep you up til way past midnight. Heaven! And, as if to prove the coffee is good here, the line up right out the door provided more than enough evidence. So, if you're in need of an excellent coffee, here's where you need to head.