Rrrrrraow!

There's a spat going on over east between Queensland and the Southern states over the sunshine state's coffee.

First of all - declarations, I'm backing Queensland on this one, for although I was born on the Mornington Peninsula I was raised in Queensland and now just how determined Q'landers are about getting it better, bigger and faster than anyone else.

The Southerner in the equation - one David Southwell, has opened up a can of worms be claiming that he couldn't find a decent cup of coffee during a recent trip North.

Actually I think that reveals far more about his skills at finding good cafes than it does about the state of Queensland's coffee - of course this was an article in Punch and I suspect more than a little of it was aimed at driving up readership, and there is nothing like a little North/South stoush to do that.

Fiona Donnelly in the Courier-Mail has taken up the Queensland part and pulled Mr Southwell's lame attempt at a coffee critique apart with a few well placed darts.

I think that proportionally (numerically is never a doubt given the sheer number of cafes in Melbourne) there are more bad espresso joints in Melbourne than there are in Brisbane, but all he had to do was a little planning.

I don't go to a city without finding out from the locals where the good coffee is to be found - why roll the dice without loading them? Coffeesnobs or Coffeegeek are good places to start and every state has a veritable army of coffee lovers and coffee bloggers only to willing to share the love - as far as coffee drinking goes.

I don't go dashing over the Melbourne and rubbish their coffee scene just because 7 out of the 10 espresso joints I walked in to used stale over roasted beans that had been ground hours ago - no, I make sure that the places I walk into are the one in which I am likely to get a great cup of coffee.

Still, as an article to get the words flying it is a success - ok, maybe not even on a winner there, 35 comments so far (34 if you take away the one from your wife! How about I make a comment too - just to round it up to 35. . .)

Nice try, head back North again some time armed with a list of cafes from those in the know, either that or drop me a line, I can either point you in some good directions or post you a tea bag - depending on my mood.