Blue Mountains: Where are the best coffees?
When it comes to coffees, we all have our go-tos. Here are some of the mountains’ finest. Did we get it right?
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When it comes to coffees, we all have our go-tos. Here are some of the Blue Mountains’ finest.
Butternut Café, Springwood
The key to a good coffee is the blend, insists Butternut’s Lisa Cruickshank.
She and Mark Mills have been running the homely cafe at 1/150 Macquarie Road together for 18 months and in that time have found the leaf and berry blend, from Seven Mile Coffee, to be very popular.
“We used to sell a different coffee blend before and customers didn't want us to change it, but we took the risk — and they love it,” Ms Cruickshank said.
“It's the best coffee shop in Springwood, for sure,” said Leanne Jowett, who was visiting from Middleton Grange.
Shelley Jowett, of Springwood, chimed in: “It’s as much about the coffee as the people, both.”
The cafe has a BYO cup and save 50 cents offer and a lot of the customers liked that the coffee is Australian Certified Organic (ACO), according to Ms Cruickshank.
Cortado Café, Lawson
Flat whites are the “staple” at Cortado, manager Eugene Baker said.
“We use Mecca coffee, from Alexandria,” Mr Baker said.
The contemporary cafe at 1/11 Staples Crescent opened four years ago and owner Mike Rathge took over some 12 months ago.
“We change our single-origin often; right now it’s Geisha,” Mr Baker said of the Guatemalan blend, which has intense florals with a crisp citrus finish. “Moonwalker is our house blend.”
Minette and husband David drive from Leura especially for their “quality coffee”.
Blackheath General Store & Café
So, it’s a little bit of a drive for folks in the lower Blue Mountains, or beyond, but it’s well worth it.
Open three years in February, the cafe at 249 Great Western Highway doubles as an art space and also sells a range of homewares and gifts.
“Ours is a Sumatran organic coffee,” owner Belinda Norman said. “But it’s the way we make it; we all make the coffees the same way. We all put our love in it.”
Ms Norman said they use single-origin Little Big Dairy Milk, “so every single bar code is traced back to the cow”.
She tries where possible to source locally.
Flat whites are most commonly asked for, but almond and macadamia coffees are gaining in popularity.
“It’s good coffee, good food. It’s our local,” Corali Van Wilder, from Blackheath, said plainly.
Frankly My Dear Coffee, Katoomba
Lenny Marks certainly does give a damn — about his coffees, that is.
A self-professed coffee snob, he said the coffees at Frankly My Dear Coffee are “excellent”.
“Really smooth, strong without being bitter,” Mr Marks, of Katoomba, said. “And it’s really good soy (milk); they cook it nice and hot. A lot of people are frightened of burning it. They’re not.”
Open just a little over three months, Frankly My Dear Coffee at 195a Katoomba Street serves a pour-over filtered coffee that screams “seasoned coffee drinker”.
“Our ‘milky’ coffee that we sell the most of is from Reuben Hills in Surry Hills,” owner-manager Dylan Johnson said.
“Wherever we can we like to have traceability back to a farmer. “At the moment we have great, traceable, ethical, high-quality coffee from Ethiopia, Kenya, Honduras and Columbia.”
Fed, Wentworth Falls
It’s the cake you eat with it that makes Fed’s coffee the best, according to Paul Grigg, of Wentworth Falls.
“Fed’s is not only a great coffee, it’s consistently good all-round,” Mr Grigg said.
“Flat white is my go-to, with a pumpkin and fruit cake. It’s really yummy.”
Manager-owner Stuart Hammett countered: “I think it's our staff, they add a little bit of extra.”
Mr Hammett said lattes were the most popular. The wood-look cafe at 6 Station Street uses a Morgans blend from Emu Plains.
“I come up here with my little mate Cosmo; they welcome him and even put a water bowl out for him,” said Mr Grigg.
Leura Garage
The industrial-themed cafe with accents of car art is especially popular with tourists, both international and from out of town.
“So it’s cappuccinos,” their smiling barista, Hal Chambers, said.
He said they use Cassiopeia, a Katoomba coffee sourced from the finest co-ops in the world, from Africa to Central and South America.
It tastes like sweet, melted chocolate and caramel flavours with a layered complexity.
The waft was enough to draw Natalia Aidone and Chantelle Marfia inside.
The friends, from Abbotsbury and Bossley Park respectively, also “liked the look of the place”.
It’s at 84 Railway Parade, opposite Leura train station.
Café 2773, Glenbrook
And my personal favourite, Cafe 2773 at 19 Ross Street.
I’m a cappuccino lover from way back. I like them rich and flavoursome, which is how they are served here.
I’m also highly influenced by the ambience of a place, and Cafe 2773 doesn’t disappoint.
What’s not to like — they have a talking bird, vertical plants, a children’s play area, and wood-fired pizza.
