Since shifting west along the mall several years ago, and expanding their bar and seating spaces, the team at OPB have overseen an equivalent development in their coffee menu.

Under a banner that was once synonymous with a shoulder-to-shoulder, stand-and-swig espresso setting, there is now a focus on a more complacent way to kick back with your favourite daily doses.

Spread out the front of the cafe amid the foot traffic are tables crowded with smoked salmon bagels, falafel wraps and sweetcorn fritters (all $14).

Beside the entrance an elderly couple take their time window shopping for biscuits and baked sweets. From a glass chest where everything sells for a fiver, between pyramids of sugar glazed assortments, berry danishes and chocolate croissants, two of OPB’s mighty cinnamon scrolls are carefully extracted for them by a patient waiter.

At a counter where there was once a queue of suits and a cluster of stressed baristas, there now seems to be more of a Sunday afternoon atmosphere. It almost lulls the customer into losing an hour picking crumbs off their crossword.

I did say almost. Venture a little further into Aladdin’s Cave and you will spot as many die-hard espresso heads staring at their laptops as retirees staring at their cinnamon scrolls.

As much as One Penny might have loosened their belts and spread themselves across the footpath, this is still an indoor epicentre for coffee and all its imaginable derivatives.

First up for me on the morning I visit, courtesy of Sydney roasters Life Science, is a rust-coloured piccolo of the house blend from Colombia, Brazil and Guatemala. Give yourself a 10-minute break from the world on Monday and keep your hand warm on one of these – they’re easily up there with the very best in town. 

If you would rather avoid letting milk get in on the finer points of your espresso flavours, a short black from the house single origin from Madding Crowd is the best a legal hit can get.

From the renowned Sidamo region in the Ethiopian highlands, where the farms are small and the harvests huge, these typical bean varietals are accompanied by some extraordinary tasting notes.

Whether or not you are an enthusiast for deconstructing your espresso experience into acidities, bodies and mouthfeels, this is a cup of coffee you just have to try. Drink two of these in a row and suddenly your crossword looks like it’s solving itself.

Head barista Josh Gibson might be metres away from my table, but by the time he arrives with this espresso its scent is already familiar. How these intensely floral and exotic flavours can be accurately described entirely escapes me. Printed on a playing card-sized note that Josh hands me are the words ‘butterscotch’ and ‘Christmas pudding’.

Is this possible? Can a coffee poured in Hunter Street Mall actually taste like this?

Only under the antique lamps in the caffeine cave can you find the answer.