Iced Coffee Misadventures

I love coffee plain and simple. Everybody who knows me knows that coffee is one of my true loves. I was raised by parents who drank coffee before they went to bed and it wasn’t until graduate school that I realized drinking coffee before bed was fairly unusual. As much as I love coffee, I have fairly simple tastes. I don’t like coffee that is masked as milkshakes like a frappuccino, I don’t need fancy cappuccino’s or espressos, my true love is plain coffee. It was just in the past year I started to enjoy an iced coffee with a just little bit of milk.

Day 1

I landed in Australia and I was exhausted!  It’s approximately a 30 hour trip from Dayton, Ohio to Sydney, Australia so getting a cup of coffee was my first priority. Tim and I found a coffee shop in the Haymarket area and I ordered a tall cold brew. With the Sydney spring heat, I thought cold coffee was a good idea.  The barista handed me my coffee and I looked around the coffee shop for some milk or creamer but there was not a drop to be found on any of the counters. I asked the gentleman at the counter and he said they keep it in the back.  He pulled heavy cream out of the refrigerator and I put it in my coffee. I was surprised they didn’t keep cream in thermos containers on the counter like they did in the US, but what did I know.   I was just happy I found coffee and learned the next time I’ll ask for cream when I order my coffee.

Day 2

I was still jetlagged and very eager to get my morning cup of joe. I found a new coffee shop, but this coffee shop did not have cold brew but they did have ice coffee. Learning from the first day, I ordered an iced coffee with cream. Much to my surprise, the barista handed me this incredible looking ice coffee with a mountain of whip cream. Wow! That’s all I wanted was ice coffee with milk. But, whip cream at any time of the day is good so I enjoyed my cup of coffee with my huge dollop of whipped cream and will order differently the next day.

Day 3

Jet lag was better, but I was still desperate for my morning coffee! I went to another new coffee shop. There is a coffee shop on every corner in Sydney Australia. It really is the coffee capital of the world, sorry Seattle.  From the past two days, I learned two things – first of all coffee shops do not keep milk or cream out on the counters, you have to ask for milk or cream when you order. But secondly, if
you ask for cream in your coffee you’re going to get whipped cream. I ordered iced coffee no cream. I was confident I had it right this time. But I was so wrong! Much to my surprise, I had another beautiful cup of ice coffee, but this time I found a large scoop of ice cream in my glass. Oh, it was delicious, there’s no doubt about that, I just wasn’t expecting to have dessert for breakfast. What I learned was ice coffee in Australia is served with whip cream and ice cream. So when I ordered iced coffee no whip cream, they eliminated the whipped cream but kept the ice cream and the coffee.

Day 45

After several other attempts and misses, I am finally able to order exactly what I want. We moved into our apartment and there’s a cute little coffee shop about four-minute walk called Paperboy and they have cold brew! I order cold brew with a little milk and I get the perfect cup of coffee every time! And when I’m out and about in Sydney and I want a cold coffee, I only order ice coffee if I’m in the mood for dessert at the same time.

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