Becasse Bakery

Scores:
Coffee: 13/20

Whole experience (cafe + coffee): 24/40

Friday: Just Becasse. My search for the best coffee in the city Westfield continues today. I find myself looking for a easy snack after a weighty morning’s typing. Where better to relax, I ask myself, then in front of the baking window at the amazing Becasse Bakery.

Found on the food court level of the Westfield building, Becasse Bakery is the cheaper, more student friendly spin off to the posh more expensive restraint upstairs.

In café in this ecosystem has to be different as the Westfield has a multitude of café and coffee options, Becasse trades on it’s newly formed (classy) name and on it’s excess of great looking bread and pastries.

Becasse for a Friday arvo is pumping. Coffee and bread orders seem to be going though the roof and the line for the counter is many persons deep. I finally get to the counter, where a very friendly French girl greets me. I somehow in the cause of ordering a coffee become involved in an interoffice (café) joke, it’s a fun experience. Inter-staff jokes going on I always consider a good thing, as it means the atmosphere is light hearted and chilled. I at the end of this end up with a flat white.

At Becasse, they trade on the food court actions, and so there is no table service here (even if you order sit in). I know I have a bit of a wait so I grab a seat at the counter in front of the large window looking in at the kitchen and lose myself in watching bread and pastries being shaped.

My name gets called and I find my way around all the new people waiting on coffee orders. I can see that the coffee has been mass-produced by its look and only some thought had gone into the look and style of the drink (anyway, any style could get ruined by my walking).

Aroma wise the coffee has a sweetish smell to it, which has citrus tingle to it. It does not smell too bold, but does have hints of that nice roasted coffee aroma.

Proportionally speaking the flat white works well, and has a good foam to milk ratio. Considering the heat of the drink it’s not very hot, but defiantly within the realm it should be (I personally think the milk was heated to a near perfect level, I don’t like to burn my mouth).

Sipping on it I can immediately taste that citrus aroma. You will be able to pick out that by citrus I mean not just a lemon or orange, but more a mixture of citrus fruits, it’s nice and a little challenging. My nose, for a change, was on the target on the roast of the bean and after one or two sips it is unquestionably clear that the coffee is a medium bodied drink. Overall the drink had a reasonable balance to it.

Generally speaking, for the cafe lover, Becasse stands well above the typical food court experience. Its coffee is of a high quality (Quarter Twenty One blend) and the window to the inner workings of the bakery gives it something extra. The long lines and having to find and watch a table is a pain however, and more so is carrying you’re coffee around, especially given the competitive nature of this food court and balancing a laptop and your shopping with you’re coffee can feel a little challenging for the solo diner. I like the cafe, but it’s not a stand out to me when I’m next in the area.

Scores:
1. Coffee score
Style (look and feel): 5/10
Experience (taste and smell): 7/10
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Coffee total: 13/20
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2. Cafe score 
Style (what’s it feel like): food court café meets Chinese dumping/noodle house.
Cool?: 6/10
Service: 5/10
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Cafe: 11/20
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Whole experience (coffee + cafe): 24/40