the best coffee in geelong

ladies and gentlemen. i am a native of the bayside town of geelong. i was born there, schooled there, called it my home for my formative years.

until now, it has been (in my eyes) a disappointing and beanless coffee wasteland. bean squeeze gave me some kind of reprieve over the last couple of years (plus the closest one to my parents' house is right next to the mill markets) and while it's still a solid place to coffee i finally visited the COFFEE CARTEL in breakwater.

and i am in love.

for those unfamiliar: breakwater is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. the cafe is surrounded by industrial buildings and factories and hardly any houses. it kind of looks like the place the bikies hang out. which is cool.

they roast their own coffee out the back.*

there were lots of people there on the saturday arvo that i visited.

my skinny latte was very delicious. nice and strong and a brilliant flavour. quite distinctive and delish. it was relatively pricey at $4, but bigger than you'd get from the equally pricey market lane coffee in melbourne...

they do teas and all kinds of coffees, food and cakes and everythink. comfy places to sit and the folks working there were nice.

the local rag confirms it is the best.
visit their website.

* the lady (unwittingly) pictured - how random is this - was my mama bear's form two maths teacher.

coffee : exploring geelong

the sprout and the bean cafe on malop st

$3.80 (yes, you read that right) for a regular size skinny milk latte. i waited a long, long time and had to go back inside to remind them i'd ordered (people who had arrived after me, served before me) and the coffee was only ok. it was strong, which was good, but the flavour was odd - possibly a type of bean that doesn't appeal to me but it was also a little burnt on top. and in spite of a free coconut thing to eat and nice waiters (although annoyingly forgetful) it was an underwhelming visit. blerg.

bean squeeze, mercer street

very pleasantly surprised! i would usually avoid a place that looks like this. it's a little chain place, with a couple of sites around g-town. my papa bear loves it. i bought a skinny latte ($3.30) and it was good. not great, not on par with my faves in brunswick-town, but very good. website here. i give them extra points for quoting kev carmody and paul kelly.

and thus continues my search for decent coffee in geelong. while the mama bear recuperates after receiving two bionic* knees i shall be visiting fairly often. i've been recommended the cottage on pakington st and espresso on ryrie. we'll see...

*not really bionic. more plastic. and apparently tin. tin??

coffee : geelong train station

coming home after a visit to mama and papa bear (very environmentally friendly on the train) i bought a skinny latte from the wee cafe at the station (very environmentally unfriendly because i forgot my keep cup) and it was pretty gross (not bitter, just not very tasty coffee, made with a dirty filter or something maybe?), but once i added a sugar to it and put a lid on it so i could pretend i got it from, say, the east brunswick project or a minor place - it wasn't the worst thing i've drunk. it resembled coffee and prevented a caffeine withdrawal headache and, to be honest, who really expects delicious coffee from geelong - err - i mean from a train station?

p.s. if anyone from geelong can tell me where to get a good coffee in those there parts, please let me know. really. i will travel down there just to give it a go.
p.p.s. poor old geelong. if you've driven through the main drag in recent times you'll realise it's something of a ghost town. beautiful old buildings looking all worn and ugly and cheap stores, or empty shopfronts. it's really sad. tell you what - close the horrible waurn ponds deakin campus and bring it into town. liven it up a bit. yes. that's what we should do.