Coffee

Melburnians raised a glass when the US coffee giant Starbucks announced, a couple of years back, that it was closing most of its Australian stores, including sixteen in Melbourne.


Chances are that most of the glasses contained coffee - but not of the Starbucks variety.  For coffee, more than any other beverage, is what makes Melbourne tick.  Virtually everywhere you go in the city and its suburbs you will find legions of independent cafés and kiosks, each of them with a loyal clientele convinced that they serve the best beans in town.

Melbourne in action

Coffee is the drink that powers business, gets everyone through the day, and is the excuse for sneaking out to network, or just catch up with friends.  As in other cities, most large office buildings have their own dedicated cafés to meet the needs of the workers' caffeine addiction on the doorstep.  Unlike many other cities, having a captive client base does not seem to prevent them trying to serve the very best cupfuls they can.  Possibly the best coffee I've had in Melbourne came from one of these places, which probably had hardly any passing trade at all.


Quite why Melbourne should have developed an obsession with the coffee bean that dwarfs that of any other city in Australia is something I've yet to get to the bottom of.  Certainly it seems that during the 19th century, while the rest of the British Empire was drowning in an ocean of tea, Melburnian office workers were staying awake during the day with nips of coffee.  Then, after the Second World War, large numbers of Italians migrated to Australia, bringing their love of the beverage with them.  By some distance, Melbourne was the city of choice for these new Australians.


Coffee also seems the natural drink for a city that prides itself on its metropolitan sophistication.  Some of its hipper residents, when they deign to think of Sydney at all, probably imagine the inhabitants of Melbourne's brasher northern sister getting by on Fanta and fruit cordial.


It was into this market that Starbucks stepped in 2000.  In retrospect they never stood a chance. Although in fact there were plenty who told them that at the time as well.  The coffee giant has been in full retreat throughout Australia, but in Melbourne it has been reduced to a token five outlets.  There can't be many cities of 4 million inhabitants where it's been routed to that extent.


It's a heartening story.  Australia - and Melbourne in particular - have proved that so long as there are enough little guys, and they do what they do well enough, the major multinational doesn't stand a chance.