Proud Mary Coffee — Restaurant in Melbourne

Finally, I made it back to Proud Mary. The first encounter was in 2016, when I met their roaster in Honduras, during the Cup of Excellence competition Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳. The second encounter with Proud Marry was in Portland, Oregon 🇺🇸 in September 2018 during the ASIC Coffee Science Conference. I still remember the beautiful pour-over coffee I enjoyed from the Pacas family: El Salvador 🇸🇻, La Esperanza – Bernardina Honey, with notes of passion fruits, mandarin, and pineapple. The flavors were delicate, the acidity was juicy, the mouthfeel was smooth and the aftertaste clean, lingering, sweet, and long-lasting.

My third encounter was on 10 February 2019 in Melbourne 🇦🇺 after MICE: I ate an amazing burger and enjoyed a beautiful batch brew from Nuhan Fernandez in Honduras 🇭🇳: Finca Don Andres. The cup was vibrant, with floral notes, yellow stone fruits, and lime.

On 26 April 2019 I was lucky, and met Maria and Alfredo Pacas in El Salvador 🇸🇻, during the award ceremony of the CoE Competition. Their coffee placed 3rd with their amazing Bernardina variety. Their coffee was my personal favorite. It was beautifully tea-like, with subtle floral 🌸 and white peach 🍑 notes, citric 🍊, with a velvety smooth texture and an endless lingering sweet aftertaste. I totally fell in love with this coffee for the second time. Remember, I first tasted it at Proud Mary in Portland.

Last November during WCC in 🇮🇹, I had the pleasure to taste La Esperanza again – anaerobic process, roasted by Tosca from Varietals in the Netherlands 🇳🇱. I really like this Bernardina variety. And here, I am again. At Proud Marry in Melbourne and guess what coffee I enjoyed the most: BERNARDINA – WASHED from El Retiro (Pacas family): beautiful tropical fruit flavors of peach, papaya, and mango 🥭. The acidity was well integrated, juicy. The mouthfeel was silky and the aftertaste clean and long-lasting.

It seems that wherever I go, I bump into Proud Mary, the Pacas family and the Bernardina variety. The barista at Proud Mary was super nice, very knowledgeable, and amazingly friendly. I nearly forgot… My salad was healthy and super tasty too. Sometimes we forget, there are other things than just...

Lord have mercy on my coffee riddled soul, is this place insane in the best possible way! Shout out to Patrick who was filling in today but he was amazing! Even gave my husband and me a bunch of recommendations for food and bars for the rest of our stay in Melbourne. What a gem. Ok. Now on to Proud Mary’s. There’s a reason they made #4 on the best cafes in the world list. Picking a cup of coffee here is like choosing a wine to sample at a winery. It’s hard to pick one, but I went with the Geisha and she made my heart sing. Hands down best pour over I’ve ever tried, ever. They even bring the grounds over to you to smell before they prepare the coffee for you. The New Yorker in me decided the moment it touched my lips that our city ain’t got NOTHIN on Proud Mary’s. Heaven forbid you ruin this coffee with milk or sugar, blasphemy! Food wise, I especially loved the Aussie salad scramble on sourdough, everything about it was perfectly balanced, rich yet refreshing, and the bread was perfectly crispy on the outside and an airy sponge on the inside. My husband had the hash, which I understand is the staple, and it was awesome too. We went Sunday for breakfasty brunch (10:30ish) and only waited about 10 min for a table (we expected way worse) but I imagine this place gets popping for brunch time. You can takeaway though if you don’t want to wait for a table (it’s not that bad though so even the que hater in me says wait for a table). This place isn’t just a cafe, it’s a whole experience. Worth the tiny trek out of...

Having considered PM a bit of an icon cafe Melb/Collingwood I found it a bit meh in terms of warmth of staff and quality of coffee. The venue itself was nice. Can't fault it there. But didn't get much of a warm and friendly welcome when seated or throughout with one kid (id say it's generational but another young girl that stopped to check on us was MJ h better). The quality was forgettable though. Warm on arrival and almost no flavour. It was very much the reason I stopped going to cafes and buying coffee. What's ironic is I was going to ask for a strong coffee but assumed a place like PM wouldnt need that.

And though I enjoyed sitting outside for a catch up and it is located off smith which offered a great side street vibe, when we paid the same amount for beers/cider at the next place you have to question the attraction of hit and miss $6 coffees. I get there are business costs but the product didn't match the price.

I did get asked how the coffee was when paying and just said 'good thanks' given I didn't want to ruin a catch up with my brother visiting from overseas is not seen in 5 years.

Pretty disappointed...but an investment in reestablishing no interest in buying barista coffee anymore.

Not saying don't go...and maybe we just got exhausted staff on the last day of the year (which I get) but mostly I picked PM for quality of coffee and I got a lukewarm mildly flavoured cup. So perhaps order a strong or get a double shot and as for it t be hotter than...