Fairfax newspapers 'Good cafe guide' ...

admin

... interesting that both the SMH Sydney Good Cafe Guide 2011 and the Age's Melbourne Good Cafe Guide 2011 have emulated our best cafes from both of our latest Melbourne & Sydney Best Cafes features.

Auction Rooms was named best Melbourne Cafe [see http://www.bestcafes.com.au/melbournes-best-cafes-2010] & Coffee Alchemy Best Coffee in Sydney [see http://www.bestcafes.com.au/cremas-top-sydney-cafes-for-2011].

I guess, as they say, imitation is the best form of flattery!!

8)

beanflying

You only have to watch Mediawatch a bit to see independently researched thoughts and journalism at work. I have been looking fairly seriously at coffee review sites and the more I look the more I question the results of most. When you can get 10-20 of your mates say nice things about you and become the top rated cafe out of 10 in Melbourne or what is a whole lot worse pay some money for a 'featured review' on some sites. Coffee cash for comments is not cool.

DoubleRistretto

maybe they'd be scared to get a different result from the pro's dR

Koffee_Kosmo

Do you think that they just copied your results ? KK

beanflying

I am not saying they did but it seems every few weeks some Melbourne paper runs out the usual suspects, rewrites a paragraph adds a photo then produces it as news. Not saying it is a bad thing either as talking about good coffee is good for us consumers too. Just a comment on doing your own research and tasting and being qualified to pass judgement. Either that or Admin and his tasters were a year ahead of Fairfax  

Brett H

I just wish we had more of this style of coffee culture competitiveness in Brisbane!  There are some wonderful unique cafes doing great work but it is rarely celebrated or reported in the mainstream media. Even if they get the results wrong this type of journalism places a higher value on the pursuit of excellence which is better for we the consumers in the long run (spot on Beanflying).

beanflying

Brisbane seems to be getting there steadily but it's not helped when your leading Murdoch tabloid runs articles like this howler on Dandelion and Driftwood. Written by a foodie but some of the totally negative coffee statements are laughable "My friend tried a Trifecta, made from Kenyan beans. Hot, it came without the offer of milk or sugar, so the strong after-taste was not remotely moderated." and on it went "Don't ask me about the technicalities, but they come from drip-o-later machines called Chemex, Aeropress, Trifecta, Syphon and Yama Cold Drip." Apart from some amateur intentionally negative flaming on Urbanspoon I have never seen this sort of rubbish about Melbourne Coffee from any media outlet. This goes back to qualified to report or judge the coffee which even then is still subjective to some degree. While this recent growth in good coffee may have started in Melbourne (ducks for cover but you all know it's true  ;D ) the whole country is getting onboard just some places a little faster than others.

Brett H

Darn it! I was hoping nobody else saw that 'article?' the whole journalistic scene up here is fairly base and we often have food critics urn p to review Opera so i holnt be surprised that coffee is no different. We are still very much a country town up here in many cultural respects so I guess I should just get the, Banjo, sit in the ROcking chair on the porch and pluck me a few tunes to simmer down.

beanflying

Sorry but lots of us saw the article as there was a couple of fairly upset Tweeters as you can understand. It is still online too which is unfortunate  Age Online today - At the bottom of a good article on some out of the way Cafes I ran across the list for this weekends promo for the good cafe coffee guide in Melbourne http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/about-town/five-local-heroes-20110616-1g5bu.html?comments=28#comments Got to question some of their "3 cup" awards Duchess of Spotswood, nice food but in the top dozen in Melbourne for coffee nope ::)

admin

on 1308216587:

Do you think that they just copied your results ? KK

obviously can't say for sure; the good thing is they've probably moved on a little from days of old, when they used to tell some junior journalist to go out & report on a couple of places where they had a decent coffee... however given the quality of our judges, and the rigorous process we go through, it would presumably be pretty tough to come up with something too different from our Top 5...

Dry_bean.

Seems to me that a positive review (regardless of the qualifications of the reviewer) in one of the major rags has a negative knock on affect. Review published, sheep read it and head en masse to the reviewed establishment, staff overwhelmed by numbers and are unable to cope, with a resultant drop in standards/quality/service, customers disappointed and leave wondering what the fuss was about, and so it goes. Sure it's the cynic in me coming to the fore again, but I've been round the block a couple of times.

beanflying

Just spent my $5 on the Good Cafe Guide, will do some reading over lunch and a good coffee (worth at least a 3cup rating )  and report back.

askthecoffeeguy

Not wishing to sound woe is me here but my cafe offers ten different coffees including two blends and eight single origins prepared by three different brewing techniques and we're constantly busy - and we dont even rate a mention ? Im happy to cop it on the chin and to continue to refine my product and services but I sometimes wonder if I had a Synesso would that help with an 'automatic' inclusion in coffee hall of fame?

askthecoffeeguy

I was contacted yesterday but yet another publication asking if I wanted to take out advertising with them, and "in exchange" they would provide me with a "half page editorial" - obviously this practice is still rife and calls into question the creditabity of the "reviewer" (who in their own words has never previously been to my establishment )...

askthecoffeeguy

on 1308436423:

There is a SLAYER for sale on ebay... Across the sea in TASY  ;D

Gee ... For that kind of money they're practically giving them away!

Koffee_Kosmo

on 1308441831:

I was contacted yesterday but yet another publication asking if I wanted to take out advertising with them, and "in exchange" they would provide me with a "half page editorial" - obviously this practice is still rife and calls into question the creditabity of the "reviewer" (who in their own words has never previously been to my establishment )...

That is a standard practice of the local free weekly papers When I was in retail over 20 years ago I to was offered editorial for advertising KK

beanflying

I have had a first look over some of it and yep glaring omissions and fairly obvious errors if as they say the gradings are coffee based and food. Off my recent trip to town missing totally are Foxy Brown, Studio Movida and only getting a side note was 65 Degrees. All theses places are worthy of some of their 'cup' ratings at least. As it is the first time at this there will no doubt be some more to and fro as there already has been on Twitter in the open and by private emails and phone calls. On the surface they are taking on board criticism of omissions but I guess edition 2 will show the results of this discussion. I will have a few hours on the train tomorrow to have a proper read but my immediate thoughts are it is good guide to SOME of the local haunts and hangouts for Melbourne serving better than average to great coffee. Worth its $5 probably.

admin

actually just a quick follow-up on this; an interesting 'addendum' from a publisher's perspective perhaps, but picked up the Age's 'Good cafe guide' when in Melb and was surprised to see that, in addition to an ad inside, the whole thing was actually sponsored by Campos Coffee   :o in publishing that's a bit of a 'no, no' - not quite sure how the editorial dept would reconcile that with the high standards of editorial integrity/impartiality that are supposed to be required!! A >:(

beanflying

Interesting mixing editorial freedom vs advertising revenue and sources. After reading a couple of Coffee magazines recently one in particular had 2 fairly pointless (to its average home reader) articles from large industrial companies and 1/4 page adds that would have been a blatant if you place size X add here we will write you an editorial puff piece here. Apart from filling pages it detracts from the read. Overall I still see this sort of thing Fairfax did was reasonable in terms of separating add/editorial and as a positive thing for coffee generally. The standards of "research" and getting it on paper in a credible form shows still a lack of background knowledge in coffee in particular and I suspect some additional bias toward feel of a venue has pervaded the reporting instead of being more clinical about it.

hiphipharar

A question that has to be asked is who is the guide targeting? If it is your average coffee drinker then they will probably be impressed with any cafe in the book. Whether these are the best cafes (as claimed) is moot. There are quite a few that weren't listed that would be as good as or better than some of those listed. Jetblack didn't rate a mention, for instance. I know their coffee is better than some cafes listed. Campos being both a sponsor and receiver of a '3 cup/ rating must surely put a question mark on the intwegriy of the review no matter how above-board the rating system is.

mycuppa

on 1309231616:

actually just a quick follow-up on this; an interesting 'addendum' from a publisher's perspective perhaps, but picked up the Age's 'Good cafe guide' when in Melb and was surprised to see that, in addition to an ad inside, the whole thing was actually sponsored by Campos Coffee   :o in publishing that's a bit of a 'no, no' - not quite sure how the editorial dept would reconcile that with the high standards of editorial integrity/impartiality that are supposed to be required!! A >:(

For 3 weeks in February I was constantly called (almost every day) by Fairfax in Sydney desperate to sell me some Ad space in the guide.

Koffee_Kosmo

on 1309249261:

For 3 weeks in February I was constantly called (almost every day) by Fairfax in Sydney desperate to sell me some Ad space in the guide.

Hmm not to bright are they KK

UNM

Don't know if anyone is interested in helping The Age improve their coffee reviewing. If so they are currently looking for volunteer reviewers. Email to aholland at theage com.au . (he's editor of the melbourne magazine) with 'coffee' in the subject line. Unpaid, but might help them get some unbiased reviews if the right people sign up. Don't know if  they have enough reviewers yet, but can't hurt to email and express interest.

admin

on 1309245427:

While there is more and more interest, I find it hard these days to read much of it as I find that in many cases the writers do little more than engage in plagiarism and outright cut and past from others. In many cases that "other " knows very little as well and thus misinformation is at an all time high... many food critics once were the masters of slippery review's, I think many of those  doing the local rags and others publications that now do COFFEE have pushed the Food Critics off their perch...

... to be honest, there are a couple of what i see as 'faults' in them attributing stars for coffee quality: firstly what are the qualifications of their reviewers - usually [& am pretty sure i saw a picture of the bunch] they're young journalists, who while they might like wearing black & hanging out at cafes [if you're a young journo, there can't be much better job than that], may or may not know what makes a good coffee. The second thing is - if you're doing that many cafes, how can you assure consistency - ie they presumably have one journo do 15-20, another one do another 15-20 etc, etc, so where is the calibration? And thirdly, the sponsorship angle - personally I find Jeff's comment above [& the associated 3-star] a bit scary...

mycuppa

on 1309304810:

... to be honest, there are a couple of what i see as 'faults' in them attributing stars for coffee quality: firstly what are the qualifications of their reviewers - usually [& am pretty sure i saw a picture of the bunch] they're young journalists, who while they might like wearing black & hanging out at cafes [if you're a young journo, there can't be much better job than that], may or may not know what makes a good coffee. The second thing is - if you're doing that many cafes, how can you assure consistency - ie they presumably have one journo do 15-20, another one do another 15-20 etc, etc, so where is the calibration? And thirdly, the sponsorship angle - personally I find Jeff's comment above [& the associated 3-star] a bit scary...

Folks, I should clarify - the attempt at selling advertising space in the guide appeared to be undertaken by their sales department and during the half-dozen or so conversations on the phone, at no point was there any suggestion or reference to ratings or rankings - in fact the sales person did not even mention any of the "content" that would likely appear. I know......Chinese walls exist everywhere, but on the surface it appeared to be a purely cash for exposure arrangement. Fog in Melbourne.......hope that clears it up !

DoubleRistretto

haven't been to Campos's Melb HQ, so can't comment on their coffee. I know a bit about publishing myself, and although I've got no idea what they paid for their sponsorship I know they're desperate to make a foothold in the Melb market, so assume they would have been happy to pay whatever it takes! dR 8)

hazchem

on 1308424036:

Not wishing to sound woe is me here but my cafe offers ten different coffees including two blends and eight single origins prepared by three different brewing techniques and we're constantly busy - and we dont even rate a mention ? Im happy to cop it on the chin and to continue to refine my product and services but I sometimes wonder if I had a Synesso would that help with an 'automatic' inclusion in coffee hall of fame?

you should email the guide's editor and ask why. The owner of the cafe I run did, about both his venues in the inner west of Sydney and got a pretty straight & plausible answer. It's probably worth keeping in mind that these guides are never just about the coffee, they're about the cafe experience as a whole. The _only_ publication I know of that rates places for their coffee alone is Crema. Everyone else is reviewing the cafe as a whole, and not always from a well informed position. I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised when Coffee Alchemy got a nod, and made the cover of the SMH. Not being a cafe with food they so often get overlooked by these sorts of publications! There did seem to be a ridiculous list of categories though that cafes could be given awards for.

adelaidecoffee

on 1309377537:

It's probably worth keeping in mind that these guides are never just about the coffee, they're about the cafe experience as a whole.

Probably all coffee reviews in printed media are all about the whole experience, atmosphere, etc - as you say hazchem, its never purely about the coffee is it. The other day someone posted a newspaper ->magazine insert article link on twitter that had 'best steaming coffee' in Adelaide, it listed 5 places. And what a biazzare list - god knows where or how they compiled it but it was probably compiled by throwing darts are some random stuff to give the results.