December 1, 2009

While I was overseas I drank a lot of coffee. I drink a fair bit of coffee here in Australia, but man alive, Italians know how to pour a good espresso, and I thought it would simply be rude not to sample roughly as much as possible while there. After a few days I decided I would try to take a picture of each one, because in fact coffees are extremely photogenic – the different table textures and cups, and sugar packets and saucers, make each one interesting. I’ve ended up with a set of photos that I’m quite pleased with.

These coffees are from Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, and France. The Italian ones are the really short, delicious ones. Swiss coffees are, for the most part, what we would call a long black here – and as much as I hate to confirm a cliched stereotype, the quality of the coffee really does decrease the moment you cross the border from Italy. The take-away coffee is from France, where you can buy a reasonable espresso on a train.

If you’re interested, you can see these photos in higher resolution in this set on flickr.