The Boot Factory is a cafe around the corner from our house, so much so that it takes 1 minute 35 seconds to walk to (yes I timed it). The building is a wonderful historic brick prison building that used to be a Boot Factory. It is situated in Coburg’s old Pentridge Prison and apparently is the location where well behaved prisoners could work for a ridiculously low salary.
On this occasion I enter to a disgraceful amount of people. More so than the volume of people the biggest anxiety trigger is the number of children seemingly un-watched running around and screaming. As I wait in line to order my coffee (for some reason I was committed to getting it) I realised that the crowds are explained by today being Mother’s Day. I guess it’s all much more acceptable on that basis and I probably shouldn’t have gone at all if I wasn’t prepared for it.
The coffee is presented in a simple white disposable cup hand stamped with the Boot Factory logo. The logo is a circle utilising type-writer like text to spell out the Boot Factory; “the” is smaller and underlined while “Boot Factory” is larger, across 2 lines. Sealing the cup is a shiny black plastic lid, it’s a common type of lid but not the most pleasant to drink from.
The coffee it’s self is slightly too warm to drink straight away, though not obscenely hot. I walk back home without drinking any and settle on the couch with a cat on my lap before I start drinking some 4 or 5 minutes later. The milk is well frothed without a burnt taste and with a nice smooth texture. The flavour of the coffee isn’t really doing it for me though, I’m thinking it might just be the beans, but it could also be the overall construction of the coffee. It has a certain bitterness to it consistent with what you get eating a chocolate covered coffee bean, though the flavour is actually quite weak. I’m not sure if it’s the Toby’s estate beans (which I know I’m not a big fan of) or if maybe the large size of the coffee required a double shot but only got a single. I’m historically a fan of coffee from The Boot Factory so I’m going to guess that it is the beans letting down the coffee this time.
3/5
Matt Power
02 June 2018
