I Have Chocolate on my Eyelids

Five hours, five cappuccinos, two turkish coffees, a shot of chocolate and three slams. The coffee festival was spectacular.

I'm sad to say that I missed the latte art championship, but I console myself that I was instead sipping wonderful roasts and careening around The Rocks with my eating buddies on a hot winter day.

Coffee in Australia tends towards espresso-based drinks. Drip coffee is rare and drinks are strong. It took me a few days to get the hang of ordering here since the coffee lingo is descriptive in a colorfully unhelpful way. A short black is an espresso. A long black is espresso and water. A flat white is coffee with steamed milk. And then there are lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos and mochas.

I devoted my day to comparative cappuccinos. At a dollar a cup, the lines were long, but the product didn't disappoint. A fair-trade roast won my vote - hot frothy milk (not skim) and a dark, but not burnt espresso. Piazza D'Oro also got my attention with chocolate shots so thick that a skin formed on top. Trying to hang onto my coffee and chocolate while reaching for a sample of cranberry macadamia nougat was almost more than I could handle, but I'm happy to report no spillage.

And then we slammed. Penguin, Jem and I rounded out our Tim Tam tasting by ripping into a package of Black Forest Fantasy, part of the scandalously named "Dangerous Liaisons" series of biscuits. It gave my coffee a nice cherry kick, but we agreed that Caramel still ranks first for slams.

Things I learned about slamming today. (1) Don't try to slam with a cappuccino if there's still foam on top. It doesn't work. (2) Don't laugh while slamming. Concentration is key, because it only takes a second for the cookie to crumble, which mine did, causing more laughter, panic, and somehow, chocolate all over my face.

I'll be working on my slamming technique. I've got a share pack of 20 Tim Tams and a week left in Sydney...

The Slamming Aftermath