Would you pay $100 for a cup of coffee?
A Perth café owner is charging $100 for a speciality cup of coffee and it seems people are loving it.
Alessandro Carciotto, owner of Nu Noir (French for “naked black”) has a mission to present Perth’s café society with more of a coffee treat than a morning pick-me-up.
“Our motto was to bring back the beauty of espresso,” Carciotto said.
“A lot of people don’t drink it – it’s been tarnished by astringent, low quality coffees.”
Carciotto has a long history in the coffee business, starting his career as a barista in Fremantle when he was 15, before working for the country’s biggest coffee wholesalers and then starting his own venture.
The entrepreneur can charge the high amount due to the international Q grading program, which grades coffee out of 100.
While no coffee has ever scored the perfect 100, Carciotto’s Black Jaguar, was graded at 93.25, and sold at auction to a Taiwanese roaster for almost $US280 a pound.
Most cafe blends score around the 75-80 mark, with “specialty” coffees graded around 82-plus.
Nu Noir’s house blend is called 2 Keys and scores 84-point. It sells for a more reasonable $5 a cup, however the cafes prices range from $5 to $50-$60 and $100.
Carciotto said those choosing he higher end blends were “extremely satisfied”.
“From a business perspective I knew we’d have to do well with everyday coffee and it will be a slow thing with the specialty coffee,” he said.
“But we have actually had people catch on quick and be curious about why, and that’s the question everybody’s asking, why is it worth so much, how do you justify it?”
Carciotto’s flavours include cherry, pomegranate, cinnamon, nutmeg and jasmine, which are more identifiable the higher the grade becomes.
“You’re getting super-sweet beautiful flavours and you can sip and enjoy the aftertaste that is as good as the initial taste,” he said.
“Recently we had one with a coconut culture introduced in the fermentation phase that tasted just like a pina colada, and we made it for a customer, it was $9 and they said it was the best coffee they ever had.”
With all the exotic flavours, what about the basic flat whiters?
Carciotto says no matter what the flavour, he will always try to make them the best coffee possible.
Irit Jackson, 12th September 2022
