'Magic' coffee order makes its way from Melbourne cafe scene to become popular in Newcastle

After my own taste test in Melbourne, at Padre Coffee on Lygon Street and No 19 in Ascot Vale, I realised what a great coffee a magic is. Strong, but not bitter. With milk, but not too much. And, oh so full of flavour.

So what happens in Newcastle when you ask for a 'Magic'?

Brew Tales, check.

Bank Corner, check.

Mr Sister, check.

Xtraction Espresso, check.

Kenn Blackman, the owner of Xtraction Espresso and a coffee aficionado, explained the magic as: "We call it magic, or double ris, double ristretto. That is exactly what it is. Double ristretto shot of coffee.

"It's one of those things, it started in Melbourne. The folklore says a customer went in, asked for a double shot of espresso as a flat white, and the barista made a bit of gaffe of the coffee, didn't do a very good job of it. And served it up anyway.

"The customer liked it that much, that the very next day he went back for another coffee, and asked for the same thing, and they started calling it a magic, the magic cup of coffee. That's supposedly how it started in Melbourne."

Coffee is a culture. And, as such, it has its own language. And its own secrets. And, in Australia, Melbourne is the capital of coffee.

But, the coffee culture in Newcastle has come a long way. It's a smaller city, but its coffee scene has grown into respectability in the past 30 years, and particularly the past five years.

Blackman thinks 70 to 80 per cent of Newcastle baristas would know what the customer wanted if he or she ordered a "magic".

Here is Blackman's definition of how to make a magic: "It's a double ristretto, Work from there. Just a short cut-off shot. If they are using a machine, give them a guide. A ristretto, we like 16 to 18 seconds [on the machine]. But anywhere from 15 to 20 seconds, depending on how the coffee is running on the day. I'd say can you please cut it off at 16 to 18 seconds, and milk foam in three-quarters of the cup."

Michael Byrne, who has worked as a barista in Newcastle for 20 years, and serves as the Newcastle Herald's unofficial coffee writer, thinks far fewer baristas would recognise the term "magic" coffee.

"I think it would be more popular if people knew what it was," he says.

"The piccolo has probably been wearing the magic's clothes for some time.

"A lot of baristas have been making magics without necessarily knowing it. The popularity of the magic is very distinct nonetheless, and requires a little bit more precision, in monitoring the shot and pouring the coffee itself."

Byrne minces no words when he talks about the reality of Newcastle's coffee scene.

"There are probably only 40 shit-hot baristas in Newcastle. The rest have learned out of necessity and repetition," he says. "There is a core of baristas who do it out of passion. And from those ranks, you would find your magic."

Blackman offers an anecdote of a customer who came in looking for something special.

"We had a customer come in who spent 10 years in Canada. He was asking the guys for a cortado . . ."

Wikipedia will tell you a cortado comes from Spain, particularly Madrid. It is an espresso mixed, roughly, with an equal amount of warm milk. The milk is steamed, but not frothy.

"I changed his way of serving it for him," Blackman says.

"Large cup, small milk, espresso milk. I pictured what I thought he asked for. He absolutely loved it. Got a second one to take away."

Blackman and Byrne agree Newcastle's taste for coffee has been turning black - less milk, more flavour.

It's not just people asking for something they've had somewhere else that is changing the scene, Byrne says.

"The most recent trend is homebrewing," Byrne notes.

"The white-collar professional, making their own coffee at home, buying their grinder, their special coffee machine . . . it's meant baristas have to stay on their game."