Suddenly, our standard cappuccino seems rather boring. “Look, I always say the best cup of coffee is the one that you like,” says Toogood. “It’s been a fault in the development of specialty coffee that people try to exclude people, ‘Look at me, I’m weird, I have special coffee you don’t understand.’ Mate, at the end of the day, it’s just brown beans,” he grins.
“I don’t think I’m an uber-geek about coffee but the guys here would say I am,” he says pointing to his staff. “I learn something new every day. I’m lucky in that I have a good palate, and that comes from practice. Tasting and evaluating coffee is purely practice. If you want to be a good barista, go and make 50,000 coffees and you’ll get there.”