Dan versus the most expensive coffee in Australia Australia's most expensive coffee Reporter Dan Nancarrow takes the challenge to see if he can identify the most expensive coffee in Australia when lined up next to four other cups. PT2M14S http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2uwyw 620 349 October 4, 2013 - 12:01AM When it comes to coffee I know what I don't like. And to be honest, I don't like coffee. Put me in a cafe and I'll order a hot chocolate. At my most daring I'll grab a mocha. If I need a pick me up in the morning I'll grab a Pepsi Max. Dan Nancarrow tries Australia's most expensive coffee at Fortitude Valley's Campos Coffee in Brisbane. Photo: Scott Beveridge I guess that makes me the perfect candidate to identify the most expensive coffee in Australia during a cupping session at Campos in Fortitude Valley. Cupping is like the coffee version of wine tasting. The worst part about it is you have to drink coffee. The best? You get to slurp really loudly. According to Campos director John Ronchi, the louder you slurp when you're cupping the better. The coffee's good, but Dan Nancarrow might stick to Milo. He should know. He slurps really, really loudly. Which makes him the ultimate cupper. And a guy who probably gets in trouble when eating soup at his parents. Mr Ronchi lined up five different coffees for me to smell and taste in the Campos cupping room. It was up to me to guess which one was the Iron Man Geisha - the winner of the Best of Panama Auction and the coffee billed by Campos as the "most prized and most prestigious coffee ever brought into Australia." Considering I couldn't taste the difference between International Roast and a cup of ... really good coffee stuff (I don't even know the name of a good coffee brand) I really thought I'd be up against it. To be honest the first five or so taste tests I had no idea. All that was happening was I was getting red-cordial hyper on caffeine. Soon I got to the stage of "this one tastes really strong" and "this one tastes like the stuff I drank to stay up really late one night." But eventually I started to distinguish the middle cups tasted weaker to the two on the end. And then I figured out the middle cup tasted different from the rest altogether. It was smooth and fruity and not like any coffee I had tasted or smelled before (which mightn't be saying much). Mr Ronchi confirmed I had cracked the Iron Man code. So I guess that makes me Brisbane's answer to Tony Stark, without the billionaire bank account, super-powered suit or the pants-dropping charisma. At the very least I've developed a new appreciation for coffee, and might even be tempted to try a cup or two of the stuff in the future. At $100 for 150 grams of the Iron Man Geisha I guess it is worth it if you're looking for something that tastes very different to what you've had before. But I'll be honest though. I'd prefer a warm cup of Milo. Iron Man Geisha is exclusively available in Australia through the Campos Website. Got another suggestion for Dan? Suggest a dare by sending an email to scoop@brisbanetimes.com.au and putting "Dan versus ..." in the subject line.