Anyone who knows me, knows that I need my morning coffee. I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of days I have missed a latte in the morning (typically around 9 am on work days later in the morning in the weekends) over the past 5-8 years.

The last few months since I cut down sugar my first thing in the morning coffee has been plunger rather than instant and I have become almost as fussy about that as the latte.

It will be no surprise then that one of my first priorities was to find acceptable substitutes for my NZ preferred options. I had semi-planned to bring a couple of packets of my favourite at home coffee with me but with the chapter of mishaps that befell my last couple old days in NZ that didn’t happen. I’m hoping the youngest child can fit some into his bag in a couple of weeks.

After a rather disastrous foray into a local blend, I grabbed a small tin  of Illy as a reasonably reliable option from our time in Australia. That didn’t last that long, but gave me some time to check out options in the larger supermarkets and I discovered a French brand which is better than OK and will hold me over until some Hummingbird arrives.

The latte was more of a mission. The biggest issue is probably the milk as it all seems to taste like UHT and doesn’t appear to hold steam well. After about half a dozen experiments and having switched to iced double espressos for any coffee later in the day, I was about to switch to Americano with a side of milk. Then we were having brunch on Sunday at one of the coffee shops who guarantee good coffee and I joked with the server about it. He reckoned their’s would pass the test as they always used a double shot. And he was right – it was the first that I genuinely enjoyed drinking and has become my “local”. Plus simple asking for an extra shot has revealed two other good options.

Nevertheless after all these years my coffee habit is breaking and I’m switching more and more to tea…