You know, I've driven that Gold Coast/Sydney route more times than I care to remember but only a few as a leisurely road trip. The first was the mid-60's schoolies/surfing road trip and I can only remember one cafe.....it's still there, half-way along the beachfont at Lennox Head with a new facade now and of course the prices and fare have changed somewhat. In those days a two course evening meal with coffee was two shillings (20 cents) but there was only one table, one booking time and one choice of meal......you ate with the owners family! The second road trip was in the 80's with kids in tow.....you know the one....Big Banana, Fantasy Glades, Leyland Brothers World etc. This time it's the Pacific Coast coffee road trip (G.C. to Sydney's nortern beaches) and what better place to start than at Yamba's Pacific Hotel. Perched high above the ocean, I'd heard about the view but didn't realise it was this good. This hotel has a basic Wega/Botero combo and a kitchen hand will pop out to make you a coffee ... I also tried the Stone and Wood hand-crafted Byron Bay beer....a fruity lager. You will appreciate that in an 11 day/53 cafe experience that my views are often formed on the basis of a single coffee and that I always try to engage the barista with questions like: "How do you find that 3 group ECM?", or "What machine is that?", otherwise you may not get to meet other forum members and on this trip I had the bonus of meeting two members......both following the Pacific coffee thread and both waiting for me to arrive!...(one waiting for his moment of redemption and we will meet him a little later). Tucked away in a little sidestreet at Yamba is the Beechwood Cafe (Wega/Allpress) and with good patronage and coffee is probably the pick of the cafe's here. Sweet Vintage (main street), LaMarzocco/Botero was also a good coffee and the barista, Mat, gave me the tip that the Botero roasting house was active that day across in Maclean. By the way, Mat is not the first trilby wearing barista on the cherry red LaMarzocco that I've noticed.....maybe it's mandatory? And yes, there are a few mum and dad cafes in Yamba so I dropped into one which was using the Dunno/Segafredo combo. Now I dunno about you but it seems to me that these dunno machines are quite common and are always accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders, perhaps mandatory like the trilby/LaMarzocco combo. I'm guessing that these machines come from Brazil as a coffee machine guy once told me that if the name ends in an 'a' then likely it's Italian or ending in an 'o' then Brazilian. Across in Maclean, it's the local footie grand final Sunday and the town is empty....that is except for the Botero roasting house where Danny and his sidekick (the professor) are busy in the lab, working on their new blend and CJM is only too happy to provide his limited expertise to assist them! They have their priorities right and by the time I left, I think we had nailed it. Watch out for the new 'CJM' blend, out soon! Footnote: Yes, these were the guys with a booth at the Australian Barista Champs. Next episode, Coffs, Sawtell, Bellingen.
