When I’m on the road or headed to a new city the one place I know I will visit is their local cafe. I’m a little bit of a coffee snob and have developed a keen eye for the quality of a coffee based on the cafe’s equipment. This means I often snap a picture of their setup and share it to Google Maps just incase there are others out there like me.
Quick tips if you’re wanting to do the same:
Check out their grinder, these ones below are quite common among the better cafes.
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identifier.html (768 KB)
I’ll usually avoid any cafe’s with grinders that have a basket as that usually means the coffee wont be as fresh example image below: (side note: on demand mazzer grinders also feel like they’re coming out of fashion so I’ll avoid those too)
Another thing I look for a picture of is their milk jug set-up. What I am looking for here is whether or not they have a milk-jug rinser. If the cafe has a milk-jug rinser then its pretty much an immediate win
Sometimes scales can indicate they care, although it’s not essential to measure every shot so these things are more rare to see but when I do see them it’s a good sign.
Recently, PUQ presses are trending. I think they are a great addition to cafes compared to tamping by hand:
The coffee machine itself can also be an indicator. Although there are many machines so this is a little bit difficult. If you can find an “under the table” espresso machine like a beer tap that’s a very good indicator.
Other than that there are too many different brands. But the la marzocco brand below is the one I see the most. In general, if the machine looks instagrammy then its probably a good one.
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I also end up taking a photo of my coffee and so do a lot of other people on Google Maps. Latte art is usually a good sign although the coffee doesn’t always taste better. I look for fancy cups and latte art with high contrast.
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identifier.html (768 KB)
V60 Pour overs are also good indicators. These take longer to make and generally use higher quality coffee beans
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identifier.html (768 KB)
Thats a basic summary of things I look out for when googling a new cafe and also the same sort of things I try to share. It’s really helped me streamline my cafe’s to visit and is the reason why it’s my favourite thing to share on google maps.
