The Cafes of Paris

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007
I just realised that I’ve asked you all over for coffee, so thought I’d better get a brew going and whip up some cup cakes! Sorry about the one that fell off the plate… I just couldn’t wait to get first chomp at the cherry! Sorry… again.

I know it’s not a Cafe in Paris, down a small lane in Montmartre, but maybe we can sip along here together and i~m~a~g~i~n~e it? Afterall, that’s what artists do best isn’t it… imagine? And you thought I meant “sit around and drink coffee” didn’t you? Well we’re pretty good at that too! It’s a classic avoidance technique. When the glare of the naked white canvas/paper is too much to bear… and that very first stroke of the brush just won’t come… we don our Paris Hilton sunnies and head down to the nearest Starbucks for a cafe latte. (That’s a very long walk for me, over 2000 kilometres, but… hey I’m an artist…I can imagine it!) Ah… the sweet aromatic comfort of good coffee… *sigh*

We may not have a Starbucks here but we do have Skybury otherwise known as the Australian Coffee Centre. It’s located about an hour’s drive west of Cairns in the tropical tablelands. It’s elevated, slightly cooler and drier climate is a welcome relief from the sweltering tropical heat we have been enduring here lately… and it’s perfect for growing beautiful aromatic coffee. Although mostly a tea girl of late, I have to say when I heard that Skybury were exporting a unique style of coffee to the cafes of Paris, my interest in sampling it was piqued. The coffee is called Peaberry and it’s a special pick of the very smallest green beans on the end of the shoot. Once roasted these small beans have a unique flavour and aroma and produce a coffee which is naturally sweet.

So on the Sunday of the Australia Day weekend we headed west to Skybury. The main building on the plantation is an interesting one, a wooden pole house type structure hanging from a craggy granite outcrop overlooking one of the most impressively beautiful valleys I have ever seen. It’s different here. Left behind on the Coast are the deep waxy greens of tropical foliage we are used to… in this place the trees are all eucalypts in relatively dry open forest country. It’s pure Australiana. With recent rain though it was a picture of verdant blue grey green (okay I’m an artist – I can say blue grey green!)

We took a seat on the deck and ordered lunch. The valley stretched out for miles in front of us to the distant blue hills… and the view was interrupted only by the occasional distant passing rain skud. By the time coffee was served the storm that had been brewing in the west unleashed it’s fury and amid an impressive display of lightning and thunder proceeded to dump inches of rain on the landscape. As we were now part of that landscape on the outside deck… of course we got a bit wet… but it was warm rain and nobody seemed to mind the show. Reluctant to leave the deck… most people simply pulled their tables and chairs back against the wall as far as possible and let the devil take the hintermost. After the rain the air smelt good… so clean and green and fresh.

As it turned out… the coffee took a backseat to the panorama and atmosphere of the place and the day… but we did buy a rather large bag of Exclusive Peaberry Medium Roast to take home with us. Now we can drink the coffee the French sip in the cafes of Paris whenever we feel like brewing a pot. Ah… who needs Montmartre? Well… maybe I still do… afterall I haven’t tried absinthe yet… hmmm maybe I’ll have a bit more think about that.

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