Coffee Crazy: Special Edition

If you're like me, you like starting your day with a nice shot of espresso coffee, especially during cold winter mornings on a busy Melbourne street. For me it's a Flat White, no sugar, around 10am at Café Flaunt on Bridge Road Richmond with my two friends. Problem is though, there is such an inconsistency from day to day that after many a coffee over the years you start to become a connoisseur of that delectable bean. It's only when you delve even deeper into the mix that you realise just how many factors are involved in making a good cup of coffee and not many Baristas in the world know what they are doing. Why is it the coffee closer to home is of such a consistent standard then? Oh, that's right, it's made by the Victorian Barista champion of the Michel's franchise.

You may be asking what do Lawyers have to do with coffee? No, not Barrister, Barista; a person who makes coffee for a living and sometimes a good living at that. As Paul Bassett has shown, he has become the World Champion Barista, and he's an Australian. Coffee of late has become the most popular drink in Australia and it shows in the number of cafes cropping up all around our country. You thought the IT industry was big? Well, they have been the main drivers of the coffee industry from my experiences. Some just go after the caffeine hit, not matter the taste, others like to savour the moment on a more emotional level. Or it could be they're not smokers and need a different way of a quick release from the daily grind.

Loopy Luigi Lupi and his latté art.

I remember coming home one afternoon, relaxing in front of the TV, switching across to channel 10 and watching as a little documentary about coffee was served to me. I sat there enthralled at all that information I was after about the perfect coffee; the different types of beans, the machines, the techniques, the skills, the art, it was all there for the budding coffee maker.

Bassett takes you on a tour around Europe looking for the best cup of coffee, and finding the worst. We travel through Italy and France, two countries paying two different types of respect to this most popular of drinks. We meet artists of the trade like Luigi Lipi and a cafe outside of these two countries employing some of the worlds best coffee makers, in one location? If ever you needed yet another excuse to tour Europe, this is it.

At only 45 minutes long it's the long black of documentaries. Then again being a made for TV docco, add in some commercials, and you've got your full hour special here. What an enjoyable experience for a coffee drinker and what an even better surprise to find out the show is now available on DVD when I was kicking myself for not recording it.

Having been shot on DVCAM for a direct for television production, this widescreen anamorphic presentation is superb. Originally when viewed on television I was enjoying a 4x3 presentation and wondering if there ever was a widescreen version given it's such a recent production. Well, my prayers were answered.

Don't expect film quality imagery from video, you know you're not going to get it and this is certainly not one of those DVDs you're going to want to blow up on your mega super screens - it's a documentary for coffees sake. If there is a flaw in the video it's that some of the compression in the faster moving scenes isn't keeping up with the video, particularly noticeable in the opening title sequence when viewing footage recorded looking out the side window of a train. The same footage is seen in the Europe in 150 seconds extras segment.

On the audio front we've got a 2 channel Dolby Digital encoding here with no subtitles for the scenes when we're not really understanding the lingo of the European locals.

Whilst there's nothing wrong in the encoding, the actual audio recording itself is very inconsistent with levels varying from fine to almost silent. At first you think you've sat on the remote and the volume down button has come on but it's not the case; coffee in one hand, remote in the other.

It's a minor quibble, but a documentary looking at the finer details of coffee making should expect a critique about the finer details of DVD making.

A great little assortment of delectables are presented with this DVD. Most of them are just extended scenes from the documentary, more or less the original file footage used for the scene.

We start off with Europe in 150 seconds, some sped up footage of Bassett driving through the highways along the Medditeranean as well as some travelling on the trains. This is accompanied by some boppy music and lasts for 151 seconds. They lied. Next up is a collection of 2 minute shorts explaining the most common ways of making a coffee at home from the drip filter, plunger, stove top and the espresso machines if you're addicted enough to have one of these puppies in your own kitchen. There are further extended shorts on making the perfect long black and the perfect plunger.

The worlds worst coffee?

If you ever wanted to know anything and everything about the history of coffee then Coffee time is a few pages of notes starting from the very beginning when a goat herder named noticed his goats began eating leaves and berries of a certain plant and started behaving a little frisky. This was all the way back in 800-850 A.D. What else does a good goat herder do but try the plant himself.

Beans ain't beans if you ask Bassett and he tells you why and then takes you on a tour of Luigi Lupis state of the art facility in a 15 minute tour in From Bean to Bag. It wouldn't be special if we didn't see any more of Luigi Lupi's latte art so the extended scene goes into a bit more loopy detail. And what better way to finish up the collection of aromatic assortments than with the world's worst coffee.

Finally, a small booklet containing Bassetts recipes for his Honey Affogato, Espresso Martini and the Bacino (Baby Kiss) as well as other popular and common coffees. The other pages are made up of hints and tips for general coffee making at home using the right milk as sponsored by Dairy Farmers and a good coffee machine as sponsored by Sunbeam.

Lovers of a good coffee, this is the DVD for you. I can highly recommended to anyone out there fascinated by a good cup of coffee and how it's made properly. Once you start down that path of perfection, forever will it assess each serving put in front of you. Don't worry; that's a good thing if you're after consistency on a daily basis, twice for me, thrice and more for other veterans.