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Comment by prawn | Hacker News Reader

Iced Coffee has been very popular in Australia (and especially South Australia) since the 70s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers_Union_Iced_Coffee

(I'm assuming this is an equivalent product; I don't drink coffee personally.)

Better than that is the Japanese 'Boss', which even comes in a very-Japanese steel tin. Great coffee that you can now get at most Australian servos, convenience stores, etc.

https://suntorybosscoffee.com

It's made in the Japanese iced style, which is easy to mimic at home and really does make a nice iced coffee.

1. Get your standard filter/drip machine. Nothing fancy.

2. Double the amount of coffee you normally use. You want it coming out strong.

3. Fill the receiving jug with ice.

4. Drip directly on to ice.

As a New Zealander who's been to Australia + a small handful of other countries I can vouch for Australia having a uniquely good convenience store dairy based drink industry. OAK is another old faithful brand I miss in NZ. Also Hungry Jacks (Burger King) there uses cream instead of milk in the soft serve and it's noticeably better.

The $1 coffee from 7-11 was my go-to drink in Australia. Came with the added bonus of annoying the hipster coffee snobs in melbourne when I was walking down the street holding a 7-11 cup. Damn fine coffee.

7-11 has surprisingly good coffee in the US too, or at least Texas. There was a 7-11 on the corner of the block I use to live on and drive past to get to Starbucks until I was running late once and decided to just grab the first coffee available. Now if I just want plain brewed coffee I'll find a 7-11. And if I'm wanting something more Starbuck-ish but don't want to deal with the morning rush, I'll go to a 7-11 and mix little over half a cup of the brew coffee then top it off with their hot chocolate.

I am not a coffee hipster (as will probably become evident by my next statement) but I do like good cafe coffee here in Melbourne and I completely agree. I don’t make it my daily driver, but 7/11 and even McCafe coffee is quite decent here IMO

Iced coffee in Australia seems to automatically imply sweet with lots of milk (or even ice cream). This is very jarring when you expect the default “iced coffee” to be black coffee over ice.

> This is very jarring when you expect the default “iced coffee” to be black coffee over ice.

Same reaction I had the first time I ordered a cappuccino there. I learned to order Flat Whites cause I kept forgetting to tell them to not put chocolate powder on top...why anyone thought that would be a great idea is beyond my comprehension. The Flat White on the hand easily makes up for their cappuccino faux pas

I agree completely, most iced coffee here from supermarkets is hyper sweetened rubbish that barely tastes like coffee at all. You have to go for “double” or “triple” espresso options to get a proper taste of coffee, otherwise you’re just drinking sweet milk (and not even in the guilty pleasure Vietnamese iced coffee way)

As previously mentioned Boss does do a decent black iced coffee though, and there are a few niche brands around putting out less sweet varieties

_Most_ of the coffee sold in cans in Japan is also sweetened. Not all, you can usually find a can or two that are just black and unsweetened, but a majority of the cans will be sweet to some degree.

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