THE FIRST TIME I saw a toddler sipping from an expresso cup in a well known coffee emporium in central Dublin recently, I was appalled and gave the parents a disapproving looks as I left. I later learned that the child in question was not drinking coffee but was, in fact, sipping a babycino. This coffee-free concoction of frothy milk topped with a dusting of drinking chocolate and served in a tiny expresso cup is fast becoming a phenomenon.
The babycino – a shot of steamed milk foam with a sprinkling of chocolate on top served in an expresso cup with a miniature bar of chocolate – originated in the fashionable coffee houses of Sydney in the late 1990s. It was a smart move by the Australian baristas. It is good for business because the parents get to enjoy their coffee and are happy that their children are drinking milk rather than fizzy drinks. And of course for the coffee houses, they are cultivating their customers young. In time, those little customers will grow up into full-blown coffee- drinking adults.
Jane Wilson from Clontarf in Dublin, mother to three-year-old Jenny Mei, has been ordering babycinos for the last six months since her best friend returned from Australia and introduced her to them.
“I like a coffee myself and often found that Jenny Mei was bored in coffee shops but not since we started getting the babycinos. She loves the idea of being grown up and getting a little cup and saucer of her own.” said Jane, who takes it upon herself to teach Irish baristas the gentle art of making the babycino.
“In general I find that most coffee houses are delighted to oblige once they know how to make it. In fact they seem a have a bigger dilemma about what to charge,” laughs Jane who reckons that €1 is the average cost.
Harvey Nichols coffee shop in Dublin’s Dundrum Centre, a haven for designer-clad babes and their mothers, has been serving babycinos since they first opened, according to manager Andrew McFeely. “We serve quite a lot of babycinos and we never charge for them at all.” Andrew says the tiny bar of quality chocolate is also a big hit with the kids.
“It has proved good for business for us. The kids like the idea of it and the parents like it when the kids are happy and we like it when the parents are happy.”
Greta Gaughran (age 2½) tried her very first babycino with her doting mum Angela looking on in Harvey Nichols. A couple of minutes later Greta had emptied her cup and grabbed the milk jug on the table for a refill.
Seagreen, the lifestyle emporium in Monkstown, Co Dublin, also reports a swift trade in this toddler-sized designer beverage, according to Anna Kroplewska.
“Once the babycino went on the menu, it proved a huge hit with parents and children. We often put a little face on the top” says Anna who says that they charge €1.
All Starbucks outlets also serve the babycino free if requested by a parent.
While we hear a lot about rip-off Ireland, it is good to know that in the majority of Irish restaurants and coffee houses, babycinos are free or cost just €1 – compared to an average charge of around £2 in the trendier parts of London like Notting Hill and Hampstead
The babycino years, compared to what comes later - the teenage cappuccino with Ugg boots years - seem like halcyon days indeed.
