Hate wasting your valuable caffeine intake on bad coffee?  Follow these five tips before you order and you never will!

1) The frontage

Never judge a book by its cover but you can when it comes to great coffee. Top coffee venues go to great lengths to distinguish themselves from run of the mill cafes and coffee shops.

• Exterior frontages are mostly understated.
•  The name is likely to include coffee or espresso in the title or alternatively will have nothing to do with coffee at all!
•  The best places let their coffee do the talking! If the blackboard outside says ‘great coffee’ then  its usually quite the opposite.

2) The machine

• Coffee houses that take pride in their work make their machine a prominant feature of the interior. If its hidden away in a corner then its time to check the place down the road where coffee is the priority not a side show.
• Check the steam wand.  Trained barista wipe it clean before and after using it. If its dirty, it is a hive for bacteria and suggests the barista is not trained or not bothered or quite possibly both.

3) The takeaway cups?!

• Good coffee houses will have different sized cups for the different coffee on their menu. A skilled barista wants to show off their perfectly crafted espresso and not have it lost in an oversized cup.

4) The barista

• A chef asked to fry an egg as part of an interview process is watched for the efficiency of their movements around the kitchen. It is an effective way to guage how they will perform under pressure.  Good baristas are no different.  If they look like a cat on a hot tin roof its time to look elsewhere.

5) The Grinder

• One grinder one barista. The grind size is integral to a good cup of coffee and is set according to how hard the barista compacts the coffee before placing it in the machine. If there is two people using the same grinder you better hope your coffee is made by the right one!

If they queue out the door then get in it. Good coffee is worth the wait!