Do You Do Magic?

Do you do magic

My niece Bianca stayed with me recently and apart from teaching me the benefits of vegan eating she also introduced me to a little secret and I am about to let it slip.

It all began when we sat down at one of my local coffee haunts and she offered to shout me a coffee which I gratefully accepted. 

This is where it became interesting. As the waiter stood at our table she looked up and politely asked him Do you do magic?  Well, my mind jumped into gear and I imagined coffee-soaked magic mushrooms sprinkled with powdered chocolate floating on the top of my cappuccino. 

You can imagine I gave her a weird look as if to say what the? But she only smiled with a cheeky grin on her face. Bianca runs an Instagram page that showcases her finds chasing the finest coffee from all over the world @coffee_chasers.  

Not surprisingly the waiter hesitated, looked at my naïve face with a somewhat awkward silence, then suddenly his eyes bulged in excitement. He turned back to my niece, smiled as if to say I’m onto it, and replied oh I think we do, let me check with our barista. 

Needless to say, I was more than intrigued and eager to find out more. So Bianca spilled the beans. It all began when she lived in Melbourne and being a coffee connoisseur she quickly discovered this sneaky secret coffee trend.

Melbourne’s Magic Coffee

Melbourne is famous for its coffee diversity with every little space or laneway filled with the aroma of grounded roasted coffee beans and is where Magic Coffee originated.  Magic is rare to find outside of Melbourne, but now the secret is out it is spreading interstate and I am part of it.

Want to know more about the magic? Here is my simplistic barista description of how to make Magic Coffee. The magic is made from a 5oz cup with a double ristretto. To und

erstand what a ristretto is, a single shot of espresso is around 30ml and a ristretto is 20ml. There is more acidity as less water is used and it is the first half of an espresso shot. So a double ristretto is 40ml and the best way to extract this is to use a double shot portafilter basket to avoid doing it twice. 

The coffee is then topped up with a flat white style steamed milk where there is little or no foam. According to the experts, it should be slightly on the cooler side of things (48 Celsius / 118 Fahrenheit). It is all about the proportions of a 50-50 ratio of milk and espresso.

It is a perfectly balanced magical coffee and easy to drink. It tastes sweeter and brighter and I loved the fact there was no bitterness to my Magic Coffee, which people prefer. 

Welcome to the Club

I now declare I have been initiated into the secret coffee lovers club. My next step is to gather the courage to ask Do you do magic? with that special grin. It’s never on the menu and sounds a little snobbish but for me, it is about how you ask the question in the first place. My niece told me I am so woke haha.