the babychino

the 'babychino' is the most ridiculous thing to plague australia since the overpopulation of kangaroos. it consists of a tiny coffee cup filled with milk foam (from making lattes, capachinos, etc) and topped with chocolate powder (also used for making cappachinos) created for babies and little kids who are having coffee with their parents. the logic is somewhat reasonable - kids like getting what their parents are getting and milk topped with chocolate powder is a semi normal thing for a child to be drinking. BUT the whole principle strikes me as pretentious and psychologically unhealthy! making these 2 year old kids mini-cappachinos is too funny to take seriously, plus it is guaranteed to get them to start drinking actual coffee and becoming little caffeine addicts at an unhealthily young age.
to cinch the annoyance at this modern aussie custom, my canadian friend travis made a great analogy to giving your babies non-alcoholic beer so they 'could be like mommy and daddy' and feel all grown up.

i have my fingers crossed that america doesnt pick up on this!

while on the subject of australians and their coffee (as a newly trained barista, thank you very much!), they come up with all these versions of standard coffee drinks and make new words for them that all sound exactly the same to an american ear - see the glossary of coffees i was requested for today at work:

Cappachino - standard coffee drink consisting of 1 shot of espresso, half milk, half foam in a standard coffee mug topped with chocolate powder

Mugachino - same as a cappachino but in a extra large mug with an extra shot

Mochachino - same as a cappachino but with chocolate milk instead of plain

Machiato - an entirely different drink, a shot of expresso topped with a bit of foam

Skinnichino - a capachino made with skim milk

Babychino - we've already been through this one... sigh