Espresso!: Melbourne Coffee Stories
Review by Don McMaster
Andrew Brown-May, Espresso!: Melbourne Coffee Stories (Melbourne: Arcadia, 2001). Rrp $16.50.
To substantiate the claim of Melbourne as Australia’s coffee capital (p. 75) Andrew Brown-May presents a detailed historical map of Melbourne’s coffee scene. Having just returned from both Melbourne and Sydney I was able to compare the contemporary manifestations of a ‘good coffee’ from both these cosmopolitan cities as well as my home town of Adelaide. While Andrew Brown-May’s claim for Melbourne still holds true in that the majority of the coffee industry is still located in Melbourne and the established cafés of the Italian community are still thriving, the end result of the industry, the proverbial good cup, is indistinguishable in all three cities--the art of coffee making has truly become global!
A concise book, Espresso! provides an insightful foray into the development of the coffee industry and café society of Melbourne from the mid nineteenth century to the present Starbucks infused time. It is a personal account of the coffee scene, both from Andrew Brown-May and the personalities he investigates and interviews. This is established in the Prologue where the reader is engaged with a leading Melbournian coffee personality, thus setting the tone of the personalities who are filtered throughout the book. As Andrew states, there is "a rich and diverse local lore about Melbourne’s coffee history"(p. xii), and he sets out to explore and bring this history to the reader in a colourful and engaging manner.
A brief general history of coffee is given starting with Kaldi the Abyssinian goat or sheepherder who, it is mythologised, first noticed the effects the red berries of the coffee plant on his animals and, after trying them, on himself (p. 4). The historical map of the coffee plant and the commodification and politicisation of the coffee bean is briefly, but adequately provided in chapter one providing the reader with an understanding of what coffee is and where it has come from. Facts such as the global position of coffee as second to oil as a global traded commodity and that coffee is the most popular stimulant drug in the world engages the reader and provides a talking point.
Chapters two to six provide the historical map of Melbourne’s coffee industry. While this section is of greater interest to Melbournians rather than to non-Melbournians I found it interesting, the various personalities engaging and the evolution of the espresso machine informative. However I also found this section too detailed and long. Chapters seven and eight focus on the contemporary café society and here Andrew highlights the "social place of the café latte set" (p.76) pointing out the changing social nature and class of the coffee scene, a thought-provoking aspect of contemporary social life, which applies to most western societies.
For those interested in coffee (and aren’t most of us?) this concise book on Melbourne coffee stories provides an insightful account on the history of the coffee industry and how coffee has changed the social scene of Melbourne. It is well presented, easy to read and includes photographs spanning the one hundred and fifty years of the coffee history of Melbourne. I would recommend this book for all coffee lovers and especially as a guide to the café scene when next visiting Melbourne.
Dr Don McMaster is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Politics Department, University of Adelaide.
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