Soy Flat White – Anthropology Coffee

Anthropolgy; The study of humans and human behaviour. Or as our new local café would put it, Anthropology; the study of man and coffee. That’s right we live about 2minutes from Pascoe Vale’s premier speciality coffee shop, Anthropology (I have no idea if that part’s true, but it sounded good). Let’s overlook that they have used the word ‘man’ instead of ‘human’ or ‘people’ in their slogan, consider that it’s not meant to be patriarchal statement and focus on the quality of goods that they provide.

This particular trip to Anthropology is my third ever, with all of those in just over a week; the location is stupidly convenient. The thing about today is I have committed to myself that I will get an entire zine made (excluding cover) and I will apply for a job – quite optimistic goals – so I am desperately in need of my morning coffee. The other thing about today is, it is the morning after the AFL Grand Final and the café is packed. I don’t mean a little full, I mean groups of people waiting out the front for their coffee. I overheard one person say their friend was on their 3^rd coffee for the day; that’s a rough morning.

So, I am able to order my coffee reasonably quickly, but then the wait for the coffee starts. Since I’m alone and it’s freezing outside I was able to find a place to wait inside the café. After a wait of around 12-15minutes I was finally graced with my order – a large soy flat white (for me) a small decaf soy flat white (for my wife), 2 snickeralla’s (you wish you knew what that was) and a box of Happy Happy Soy Boy soy milk (to take home).

Once I get home I dig out my laptop to write this review, settle back into the bed and start drinking the coffee. The first thing I notice is that the coffee is a perfect temperature; that is a rare pleasure these days, particularly once baristas become busy. The next thing to notice is the smooth and velvety milk –  it’s been frothed to perfection and to the credit of the soy milk (I’d never heard of Happy Happy Soy Boy until this café) it has behaved just as well as Bonsoy.

I feel as though I should be complimenting the coffee beans – by Clark St Roasters – as well because I can tell their taste is pretty good. The issue is, there’s not quite enough taste coming through the soy milk to provide an excellent review. In this instance I’m not sure if it is the fault of the beans, the barista not making the coffee strong enough, or if I’m just used to cafes like True North and Red Bean putting 2 shots into a large coffee and potentially only getting one on this occasion.

Overall, it’s a solid coffee that I didn’t expect to find in suburban Pascoe Vale

Coffee 4/5 | Chicken and Waffles 5/5

Matt Power
4 February 2019