This story made me choke on my coffee, but I’d run it again

July 17, 2026 — 7:30pm

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It was the story that made me choke on my morning brew. My smooth, best-in-class, Melbourne-made, flat white.

The piece, in case you missed it, written by journalist James Panichi, attempted, unsuccessfully, to make the unmakeable case for why Melbourne’s claim to the coffee crown was “demonstrably false [and] has been willed into existence by marketing spivs”.

Dripping with more bitterness than a Wangaratta truck-stop espresso, Panichi described Melbourne’s coffee as ranging from “unpleasant to the utterly undrinkable”, dismissed our addiction as hype, our passion as pretension.

He also had the gall to argue that Tuscan airport coffee from a paper cup is superior to a finely balanced Melbourne latte. A $2.10 espresso that makes a vodka shot look generous is better value too, apparently. Eppur si muove aside, Panichi.

Let’s start with the value. Italian coffee is known for being........

© The Age