Brisbane's best coffee shops revealed and taste-tested

The cultivation of coffee in Brisbane has accelerated from virtually zero to hero over the past decades as new cafes seem to open almost every week and the success rate to find a good coffee has increased proportionately.

When these are great cafes is a subject of heated debate.

Everyone has their own particular favorites they defend with a passionate intensity.

But it is a generally accepted criteria for a good coffee. It must be balanced if taken with milk, which should not override the flavor of coffee beans.

Good quality milk should always be used.

The bitterness is undesirable because it is a burnt flavor.

In an effort to track down who in the city was doing things right, we took two days, and 20 cafes by the end of it, four judges very nervous and visited every coffee unexpectedly.

It was all about coffee, with contenders chosen for a strong emphasis on coffee rather than coffee with an equal balance of food and coffee.

There was no decision on a setting of a cafe, we focused entirely on what was in the cup. We ordered one of the most popular ways to make a flat white coffee and have scored on their appearance, odor and flavor.

It would have been previously difficult to find even 10 bars up a decade ago.

Robbing our list of top 20 cafés was the first step in what would be a very difficult mission. Of course, there will be coffees that we missed, and not everyone will agree with our findings.

However, it is gratifying to discover something even luxury, you would not find 10 or even five years ago.