McDonald's Launches Aussie-Style Coffee to Challenge American Coffee?! Australian Baristas Reveal What It Really Takes to Make Coffee!

According to Australian News Network, McDonald's recently launched a special coffee exclusively for Australians - "Australiano." This coffee uses Australian locally roasted coffee beans, mixed with Australian-specific wattleseed and locally beloved chai flavors, creating an "Australiano" that suits Australian tastes and embodies Australian characteristics.

Although Australia has a strong coffee culture, it lacks a coffee that represents the local area. Just as Italy has espresso and America has Americano, Australia should also have a coffee that represents its country.

Two years ago, McDonald's Australia set a goal to create a coffee belonging to Australians. They began collecting taste preferences and opinions from customers across Australia, then conceived this unique coffee product that represents Australians, naming it "Australiano."

Lancy Huynh, McDonald's Australia Brand Manager, stated that Australia is a country with a strong coffee culture, so what could be a better idea than creating a coffee that belongs to its people and represents the nation? As one of the earliest advocates of Australian coffee culture, McCafe hopes this "Australiano" will bring a new "transformation" to coffee culture while also becoming a blended coffee that Australians can take pride in.

McDonald's introduced McCafe in Melbourne, Australia in 1993. As McCafe achieved success in both Australian and overseas markets, it has been regarded by Australians as "a true Australian success story." One in every four coffees sold in Australia comes from McCafe, making it a local national coffee chain brand.

However, McCafe has always sold classic coffees like espresso and Americano, lacking the "soul" of Australian coffee culture. Therefore, many Australians find it somewhat inappropriate to sell Americano in Australia... Thus, to better promote Australian coffee culture, McCafe, as one of the earliest advocates, once again "leads by example" by introducing "Australiano." McDonald's also announced that in the coming weeks, all Australians can try this product for free. (We're jealous!)

Australia's Strong Coffee Culture

How strong is Australia's coffee culture? Australian coffee has always been its own unique style, different from other countries in terms of roasting, drink names, and preparation methods. Almost every café's business is extremely booming, with busy periods producing over 200 cups per hour. Baristas are incredibly busy, so most Australian baristas have mastered the skill of carrying multiple cups in one hand. Despite being busy, the quality of each cup of coffee remains the most important thing for baristas.

Especially in major cities like Melbourne and Sydney, every coffee shop's offerings are first-class, and prices are very affordable. Competition between cafés isn't about style but about barista skills and the quality of each cup of coffee. Therefore, many visitors to Australia find themselves missing the local coffee long after their trip.

In Australian cafés, besides fixed coffee products, most have a "secret menu" - designed to satisfy customers' various complex coffee ordering preferences. For example, a cappuccino with soy milk, with foam accounting for 3/4 of the cup (meaning except for espresso, foam occupies all other space). Even when busy, baristas must accommodate some regular (not too outrageous) customization requests from customers.

Some customized drinks have gradually become regular items on many coffee menus, such as the familiar flat white and piccolo, among others. Many coffee preparation methods that seem to have evolved from lattes mostly originate from Australian creativity.

Australian coffee culture cannot be separated from the Italian people who brought espresso machines and European café culture, making espresso an important part of Australian coffee culture. According to Australian historians, espresso was introduced in the 1950s, but at that time, Australians discriminated against Italians, so coffee culture didn't develop then. It wasn't until the urban revitalization and gentrification of the 1980s that significant momentum was brought to the development of Australian coffee culture.

The President of Australian Specialty Coffee also mentioned that Australians particularly love the texture of velvety milk (steamed milk) evenly blended with coffee. Australians have specifically studied cattle breeds to further enhance milk texture, making Australian milk coffee even more distinctive.

With the development of specialty coffee, Australian baristas continue to experiment, improve, and enhance the quality of each cup. In recent years, many winners of barista and roaster competitions have come from Australia. As some improve milk quality, others improve the quality of coffee itself, leading to more and more independent/specialty cafés opening in Australia in recent years, even "repelling" Starbucks from the Australian market.

Baristas in every specialty café focus not only on the texture of milk coffee but also put extra thought into roasting coffee beans. This allows customers to experience not only the silky, dense texture in each cup of milk coffee but also the origin flavor characteristics - the roaster's approach to making certain flavors shine through in milk coffee. This led to the emergence of SOE (Single Origin Espresso).

Conclusion

Thanks to its continuously developing coffee culture and a series of novel, innovative coffee service methods, Australia seems poised to maintain its reputation as a leader in specialty coffee. McCafe's introduction of "Australiano" may become a direction for the development of Australian coffee culture. From its quality name, it allows people worldwide to think of Australia when seeing a certain type of coffee and to feel Australians' love and pursuit of coffee.

Image source: Internet

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