I keep seeing Australians online saying this meme that Australians care a lot about coffee quality, but when I lived there everyone I knew would make instant coffee at home. Then they were often highly critical of espresso at cafes. Odd

This is my experience in Australia too. Outside of the big cities, the coffee is almost undrinkable, Starbucks would be welcome. The coffee in Sydney and Melbourne was good but a city having good coffee is unremarkable

Actually, Starbucks operates in big cities, that's why it was not welcome until foreigners started actually supporting Starbucks, those cities were filled with coffee snobs and Starbucks was not worth it. (Yes, foreigners here means mostly North-East Asians and students) But the coffee quality of Starbucks from North-East Asia and the coffee quality in European Starbucks-esque chains could not compare to the good quality coffee and cheap prices of Australian small shops. Of course most people buy coffee in the city, and outside the city it's all instant coffee since it's perceived like wine. You're either a snob about it, or you just drink it casually (instant) cause you enjoy drinking any shade of it.

I live in Australia and Korea frequently, and one has independent chains with snobby, nice, hardcore coffee (Aus) the other has a bunch of shitty chains, and Starbucks that serve absolutely mediocre coffee.

Entire family drinks coffee in instant, but most work mates drink coffee with machines and cafes. You either care or you don't, but everyone enjoys lots of coffee. It's really not that surprising, the same thing goes for baked goods and fast food. The smaller the town, the worse the quality, but the more people are happy with what they're getting.

Combining the worst of American and British coffee culture, then.

Guess the kangaroos will attack Gloria Jeans then?

With 460 outlets in Australia and worse coffee than Starbucks they should start pretty soon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Jean%27s_Coffees

The coffee was great actually.