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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA BY NOAH NAMOWICZ As I threw my luggage in the rental car, and entered the driver's side after a 24-hour trek from St. Paul, Minn., to Melbourne, Australia, I slowly raised my half-shut eyes to see that the steering wheel was not in front of me as I had expected, but rather on the righthand side of the car—as it should be in Australia. I didn't immediately leave the side I was on, the actual passenger side, but rather I just sat there for a couple of minutes in a travel induced insomnia haze, preparing myself for some new ways of doing things while Down Under. The rental car attendants looked at me and chuckled as they watched me not correct myself quickly or laugh it off. I embraced my current situation for a couple of minutes and allowed myself to get recalibrated. I took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from my forehead, and then got in on the correct side and started my coffee journey in Melbourne. I had heard many things about coffee culture in Australia, and experienced some of them firsthand through some of the work that Café Imports does with local roasters. But actually being here gave me insight into a coffee culture that is not only extremely progressive, pushed by those working in the coffee industry, but wholeheartedly embraced by the public. The mass Italian immigration to Australia following World War II planted the seeds for a coffee culture dominated by espresso and fast café culture. Having studied in Italy while in college, I knew that Italians often don't even sit down when stopping for espresso in their local cafés. When I went to my first café in Rome, I was overwhelmed by the sea of people, all waving their hands in the air for service. Everyone was fighting to get their shot, and in a hurry. Thinking about Melbourne in this context gave me some perspective, especially when I decided to stop in a café on my way to the hotel from the airport at 2:30 in the afternoon, and there was a line out the door. Over the next week in Melbourne, I set out to visit as many cafés and roasteries in the city (and some outside the city) as I could. Not a bad gig. One thing that would be immediately obvious to anyone coming from the States to Australia for coffee, is the amount of time and intention that goes into coffeehouse architecture and design. The build out in most shops is so beautiful that it's hard to believe you're in a café, and not some hip modern art gallery or industrial chic wood showroom. It occurred to me that whomever started this upscale design trend really got the ball rolling and set the bar high, because now, if you're opening a new café in Melbourne, you have serious expectations to live up to. A six-group Synesso at Proud Mary; coffee plant atriums at Seven Seeds and Five Senses; chairs hanging from the ceiling at Brother Baba Budan; oversized chalkboard flavor diagrams and water spigots table side at Market Lane; and a throwback 1950s' design aesthetic at Patricia—these Melbourne cafés all have some serious personality. People are clearly digging this strong and proud individualistic mindset throughout the city. How else can you stand out in a city with well over 500 cafés? Café design is geared toward allowing people to experience the coffee and ambiance, but not necessarily hang around too long. Only the rare café offers Wi-Fi, and tables are often large and built to be shared to accommodate large crowds and encourage communication. These cafés are not the linger-long American kind, but rather, they're more like busy liquor lounges; it's just that they happen to be busiest during the day. Shops typically close early, and some are closed on Sundays. All of this was just fine by me. Shops in Melbourne are able to fly through coffee by structuring their businesses like this. And I soon discovered that individuality among these cafés goes far beyond design decisions. Barista training here is done to such a level that most places I visited served me near-flawless espresso and milk drinks. 26 barista magazine FIELD REPORT AUSTRALIA SUMATRA PHOTOS BY NOAH NAMOWICZ