Thought it might be useful to have a quick description of how I rate cafes. As currently I am focusing on getting most of the reviews up into the Google Local and Google Maps arenas, I am forced to rate each cafe out of 5 stars.
Star Rating Values
5 out of 5
Working backwards, 5 out of 5 stars means that I recommend these cafes as innovative cafes that will give you the greatest chance of enjoying your coffee experience. They are very likely to have single origin coffees available, and will often go out of their way to ensure that you get the most from these beans.
4 out of 5
This cafe will be a constant and reliable cafe. While not always pushing the coffee experience forward, they are certainly passionate enough to have the desire to make great coffee. Often in more regional areas, they will be the cafes that you can get the best coffee in the area.
3 out of 5
When the need is there and there are no other 4 or 5 out of 5 cafes available, these cafes will stand up as viable options. Certainly not a cafe I’d travel any distance to try out, but they can be useful in a pinch. Unfortunately they are not shown on the BitterBliss Sydney Coffee Map as I would much rather get people to expand their coffee experience rather than just get by.
2 out of 5
This rating is normally used for cafes that rely on selling industrial burnt coffee. In most cases I will not drink this coffee. My theory is that the potential of getting a good coffee starting with bad ingredients is very low (but not impossible) but really… why take the risk.
1 out of 5
If I ever rate something this low, they must have really pissed me off some how. Normally I would not bother to write a review if I was going to give a 1 out of 5, but if motivated by crap coffee, crap service or something else that is unforgivable, this is what they’ll be getting.
Passion
In my reviews, passion is the most important factor (out side of which coffee they use). To me, passion is the desire of the cafe and the barsita to produce the best coffee possible. To make sure there is a decent range, this is a score I give out of 10, but if it is not higher than a 6 or 7, you might want to keep searching for another cafe. 10 out of 10 passion ratings are VERY rare. This is saved for cafes that go out of their way to maximise you experience.
N.B. Often cafes will go out of there way to maximise your experience only if you have identified yourself as a coffee enthusiast. This means NOT ordering a weak decaf half caf skim milk mocha with no choc but one equal.
Crema
Of all my ratings, this is likely the most confusing as not all coffees have crema. To clarify, I use crema to signify the skill of the barista. While the passion of the barista is vital, if they don’t have the skill and/or experience to get the most out of their coffee, your experience is going to be effected. Again I rate this out of 10 and a rating of below 7 is a marker for possibly wanting to move on to another cafe.
So hopefully that clears up a few things. At the end of the day, I am reviewing these cafe to identify those places that are going to give you the best experience. I do this as a lover of coffee and have no affiliation to any brand of coffee.
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