One Drop

I dropped in here purely on the Unilocal recommendations. The coffee and service was very good as described but the atmosphere is a bit cold and clinical.

Ok… so I know I’m a massive coffee snob because this place looks like a juice bar or chain café to me. Everything about it screams to me not to order coffee here, from the garish orange signage to the person taking my order that had zero idea what I was actually asking for (a filter, which is available on their menu for the record).
Alas, I spied some Proud Mary beans on the counter and had a Brisbane local assuring me it was ok, so I gave them a go and another staff member eventually helped the woman taking my order figure out what I needed.
Thankfully the baristas knew more about coffee than their colleagues behind the register, as I received a perfectly good cup of coffee.
4 stars for coffee and polite barista, 2 – 3 for everything else.

Wanna jack yo’self up for the day?
Like, prep mentally, physically, spiritually and psychologically? Hit up One Drop at peak hour. Anywhere between 8 and 10am. Get your elbows up high, and get ready to jostle. The line is hardcore and it don’t let up, it pumps like an oil rig, people ebb and flow like a tide. A tide that really needs a caffeine hit.
We sat at the big wooden table in the middle of the café like it was an oasis and watched this carnival of corporate humanity swarm around us while sipping on strong lattes. The girls ate bircher muesli. I did a smashed avo on toast with roma tomato and salt and pepper that was so delicious it was all I could do not to jump up, rip my shirt off, rub it all over my naked torso and scream with unbridled pleasure.
But yeah, this one’s a winner. Just make sure you get the wooden table.

My love affair with One Drop started a couple of years ago when i strolled in for my first visit with minimal expectations. I was greeted like an old friend, given an in depth explanation of the current blends, and on top of this, consumed a perfectly brewed coffee. A couple of weeks later on only my second visit i walked up to the counter and was greeted by owner, Blaine Swanborough, with ‘Welcome back! Another ¾ latte?’ And that was it, from that moment on, I was completely hooked. Unfortunately this obsession meant waking up twice a week at 4:30am to get there via public transport before work, but was it worth it? Absolutely, without a doubt.

One Drop know coffee! The specialty coffee blends they use here taste great. The staff are all really laid back friendly, and can make delicious coffee!
The food here is nice — I am a fan of the avocado & tomato sour dough toast for breakfast.
This café supports TXT4Coffee (an iPhone app which let’s you order your coffee from your phone so that you can pick it up when you get there), but if you do order when you’re there, there are plenty of newspapers/​reading material to keep you occupied.
All-​in-​all, a great café!

Green Square is not one place I venture often, but when I do, the obvious choice for my dose of liquid gold is One Drop. These guys know coffee and their blends are second to none for a good kilometre in this part of Brisbane. I’ve only ever ordered take-​away from these dapper gents and even when they’re under the pump it always seems the time from ordering to having my flat white in my hand is lickety-​split. Don’t be fooled by its location at the bottom of a corporate office tower — the only coffee they’re peddling is the five star kind.

It took just one drop of the Brew of the Day here and I became officially hooked.
One Drop is set in the most unsuspecting venue, a business mall come shopping complex thing… It is in the foyer of the Cardno Building and, although you wouldn’t normally envisage this as a welcoming, trendy, hipster place, the guys at One Drop have created a funky warehouse setting by using a few wooden tables, some randomly placed crates, metal chairs and funky copper pot centre pieces.
Now I know every coffee aficionado out there is going to squirm at my incapability when it comes to describing why the coffee is good here but here goes…
(5 stars for quick service)
A coffee tastes good if the service is quick — don’t ask me why but you start with a bitter taste in your mouth even before the coffee arrives if they can’t dish it up quickly.
(5 stars for creaminess)
Being a soy latté drinker I admire whoever manages to turn an ordinarily textured milk (which is a pain to get froth from) into something that tastes like creamy skim milk.
(5 stars for flavour)
Coffee to me has always been like wine… I know they come in different flavours but grassy nolls and oozleberries… really??? So when I taste «something» in a coffee that isn’t just «coffee flavoured,» I get pretty excited.

Along with Allen’s espresso at Roma St the best coffee to be had in Brisbane. I just wish I worked close by

One of the hidden gems of coffee in Brisbane. In what looks like the foyer of a beautiful corporate building, with funky looking seats… the men behind the counter have a no minimum eftpos rate, but instead you just need to order at least 2 coffees to be able to use your card. What a lovely bunch of guys too, very friendly and Brisbane… by far the best Affogato I have had in my many many years traipsing around this city.
The coffee smells freshly brewed and aromatic as soon as you walk through the doors of the building and the service is fast and to your table. I generously recommend these guys, and give them very high props for doing coffee in Brisbane a very big favour. Definetely worth a Unilocal and definetely worth trying out when you’re in the valley.

In every city I visit, I try to find «my kind of places.» You know the type. Those places, whether they be shops, cafes, music venues, hotels, even parks, that simply and purely resonate with you and make you feel like you’re home, regardless of what city/​state/​country/​continent you may be in.
My radar honed in on One Drop last November. Before I knew about «The Valley» or the respective scene that came with it, I knew about One Drop, and I instantly knew it would be love. From the urban-​industrial chic bar, the open space in the foyer of the Cardno Building within the Green Square Development, the stunning architecture (check photos, like whoa), the all-​day breakfast that includes a breakfast burger, the fast and free wifi, and of course, the fantastic, fantastic, fantastic coffee.
And I’ve loved it ever since. Not only do they brew up a tasty, rich, almost chocolatey house blend, but they also have a rotating guest beans available. Recently? Proud Mary from Melbourne. All single origin of course, all fantastic. It’s my home away from home and also my office/​conference room/​breakfast-​for-​lunch go-​to here in Brisbane. Lobby coffee has never tasted better.

The people who work in the Green Square business district are lucky bunch. Especially when it come to cafés.
Encouraged to go and try, what was recommended as the best coffee in Brisbane by a particular caffeine junky of mine, I ventured down to do the flat white at One Drop Specialty Coffee.
Perhaps it was that time of day where workers from the surrounding buildings were at their desks, but I was very suspicious of the lack of patronage in the store. However, I went in and made my order and waited as the barista took helm of the coffee machine. I took in the modern simple and rustic décor and began to think maybe I was being a bit too harsh with my first impression.
With my cup delivered to me I took a seat and looked down at the rosetta the barista had made in my cup and took my first sip. I tell you what, even if there wasn’t anyone in that place, I was pretty positive that sometime during the day that One Drop was going to be packed.
In a matter of minutes my cup had been finished and I was up at the counter ordering another to take away. The barista, called Blair, smiled and asked how was the coffee. Without fail, I answered, it was the best in Brisbane.
Walking away, with my next fix in hand, I saw a group of about ten workers heading in the direction I had just come from. Sometimes, I thought, junkies are right.