Coffee. How do you take yours?

A short black? A latte, perhaps? Or the signature flat white?

Well, if you have a milk-based coffee, there's a cafe in Christchurch that will only serve you coffee made with full-fat milk. If you want a trim latte, well...on your bike, you can't get it. They won't serve it.

This is the Lyttelton coffee company. They say full fat apparently enhances the roast. It makes for a fuller flavour. In fact, there are a bunch of reasons why they will now only serve full fat milk.

I spoke to a barista about this yesterday and I suggested that we might be becoming a bit precious about our coffee. It wasn't so long ago that we were ripping into the Greggs - a nice cup of instant. And he said we're not becoming precious. Instead, he said we are becoming more "refined" and he drew some parallels with wine.

I like a good cup of coffee,but what is more important to me, I think, is the caffeine kick. It gets me up and running. But I do accept that if coffee is your thing, you roast it or you're a barista, you want to produce the best possible product.

It's not dissimilar to a wine-maker, or a chef in a restaurant who refuses to cook a steak 'well done'.

But what is interesting is that this is a service industry where, historically, the customer is always right.

So if you want your trim flat white, should you be able to get it?With a shot of vanilla? And soy milk? In a bowl?

I'm pretty sure you won't be able to get a shot of vanilla at the Lyttelton Coffee Company.

But I guess the question is, in a country that churns out a bit of dairy, should you be able to have your coffee, your way? Or do you accept that the barista, the expert knows best?

We're getting quite a reputation offshore for being pedantic about our coffee. I talked to Mike Hosking about this in the newsroom this morning and I asked how he takes his coffee. He doesn't drink coffee in the morning. Honestly. Who gets up at stupid o'clock and doesn't drink coffee?

He waits until the afternoon apparently, and then he has a short black.

But get this - he has cinnamon and tumeric in his short black. I know...

"it's good for you," he says.

So is garlic...