Showing all posts about coffee
Some Australian cafes adopt automatic tipping as costs keep rising
24 December 2025
In a land were people (still) do not generally expect to pay a tip at food and beverage venues, a practice called automatic tipping is sure to be poorly received. Industry workers are reasonably well paid in Australia (or are meant to be), so customers see little need to offer tips.
This is not the case for all dining workers across the world though.
But some local food and beverage venues, struggling with escalating costs, have begun adding a gratuity of up to ten-percent to what they charge customers, a practice called automatic tipping.
Although it may not be popular, some industry observers predict the practice will become more common, in response to rising overheads. While automatic tipping is legal in Australia, food and beverage operators must be upfront about the charge, and allow customers to opt out of paying.
At a cafe I go to regularly, a large cappuccino costs five-dollars-and-fifty-cents (Australian). An automatic tip of ten-percent would see the cost rise to six-dollars-and-five-cents. I appreciate local food and beverage operators are struggling, but I’d rather meet them half-way.
Perhaps increase the price of a coffee by five-percent, maybe a tad more, taking the price to five-dollars-and-eighty-cents. Round off the price to nearest twenty-cents so people paying cash (to avoid card surcharges) don’t end up with a pocket too full of loose change.
I think most customers, certainly regulars, would continue to support their favourite coffee shop.
A reasonable price increase, and not just for coffee of course, seems far less underhand than levying an automatic tip, would avoid potential confrontations, and bring the much needed revenue boost food and beverage venues are looking for.
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Australia, coffee, economics, trends
Eight out of ten coffee drinkers prefer instant over drip
21 October 2025
In blind taste tests conducted on eighty-four people, American researchers discovered nearly eight in ten study participants preferred instant coffee over drip coffee. The findings have, needless to say, astonished some coffee aficionados.
But I’m not sure the news is that surprising. I tried for a while to get into drip coffee, but struggled. I’m no fan of instant either, but when it comes to coffee, I think my preference is for something with a little texture, a little froth.
Probably not real coffee to those who like drip brews though, but to each their own, of course.
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One for coffee drinkers: caffeine might slow cellular ageing
2 July 2025
This from recent research at the Cellular Ageing and Senescence laboratory at Queen Mary University of London’s Centre for Molecular Cell Biology:
In new research published by scientists studying fission yeast — a single-celled organism surprisingly similar to human cells — researchers found that caffeine affects aging by tapping into an ancient cellular energy system.
Always enjoy coffee in moderation…
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Cafes in the United States seek to discourage remote workers staying all day
22 May 2025
Some coffee shops in the United States have begun cracking down on people who use their place for hours, maybe even all day, as an office. Some store owners are imposing time limits on remote workers, switching off WI-FI, or blocking access to powerpoints.
Fair enough too. Australian cafe operators are acutely aware of the challenges of running a profitable business, and having someone hogging a table all day, only makes matters worse.
Some owners hope a table will generate perhaps forty dollars an hour, on the expectation several parties occupy that table over the course of an hour. It seems doubtful to me that a remote worker, sitting at a table for, say, eight hours, would even spend forty dollars all day.
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coffee, economics, technology, trends, work
Starbucks turns its fortunes around in Australia
29 April 2025
American coffee chain, Starbucks, is enjoying a surge in popularity in some parts of Australia.
Starbucks, put simply, had to stop chasing the mainstream market — metropolitan city coffee purveyors who savoured the neighbourhood cafe experience.
This is a far cry from their Australian nadir in 2008. To continue the good run though, they’ll need to retain the cafe-style business model, where customers can sit down and socialise. This rather than converting shops into glorified fast food collection points, apparently the norm in North America.
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For the best health outcomes, drink coffee only in the morning
28 January 2025
Research recently published in the European Heart Journal seems to make sense:
Drinking coffee in the morning may be more strongly associated with a lower risk of mortality than drinking coffee later in the day.
A shot or two of caffeine earlier in the day must be better than consuming coffee through out. No one needs to be dealing with the prospect of caffeine shakes come evening time.
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Coffee prices push toward fifty-year high
17 December 2024
The last few years have been bad for both producers and consumers of coffee. Extremes of weather in growing regions has resulted in diminishing coffee bean harvests, which has in turn pushed up prices. This is a topic I’ve been covering for a while here now, but it seems coffee is only going to get more expensive going forward:
On Wednesday, the price for Arabica coffee, the world’s most popular variety, hit its highest level in nearly 50 years, with a pound of beans (453.6 grams) listed in New York for US$3.20 ($5.02). The all-time high was US$3.38 ($5.30) for a pound of Arabica beans in 1977 due to snow destroying swathes of Brazil’s plantations.
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coffee, current affairs, economics, trends
The top twenty cafes in Sydney 2024
24 October 2024
Good Food have published their list of the twenty best cafes in Sydney, Australia.
We eat at restaurants, but we live in cafes.
Yes, but we don’t work in cafes. Or we shouldn’t. If we do though, then only for short periods of time, right? And for a minute I thought one place I occasionally go to, had made the cut. But there’s a slight variation in the spelling of their names. Besides, I’m doubt I’m in Sydney enough to be ending up at any of the Good Food top twenty cafes.
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Your coffee order, a subliminal yet revealing, job interview question?
23 September 2024
Applying for a job, going through the interview process and what not, is much like walking on eggshells. Take one wrong step, and all your efforts may be for nothing. Even something as seemingly innocuous as the way you like your cup of coffee prepared, could be your undoing:
I won’t say what work we do, but it involves judgement and discernment. I keep thinking that if this person is making such bad decisions about coffee, what other bad decisions are they capable of?
I say play it safe in such a situation, and once you’ve been hired, then reveal your true coffee drinking colours. But if you do want your choice of coffee to reflect well on you, this PsychCentral article by Sian Ferguson, may be useful.
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Coffee drinkers ditch coffee as price rises continue to bite
13 September 2024
Australian food critic Terry Durack, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald:
Coffee’s changing. The cost of beans continues to rise, and everyone is on the lookout for alternatives. Old-fashioned espresso coffee is in danger of being shouldered aside, just as cow’s milk is making way for oat, almond and soy.
With coffee prices rising, people are apparently looking for alternatives to coffee-based brews, and maybe I don’t blame them.
A month or so ago, I bought a small cappuccino after stopping by a place in Redfern — one of the inner suburbs of Sydney — for five dollars. That’s about what I usually pay, for a large drink, but this was a small serve. A super small serve. The cup must’ve been two-thirds the size of the usual sized small/regular takeaway coffee cups. The alternatives to cow’s milk I get. But now I see why some people are keen to try alternatives to their once daily caffeine fix.
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