When Coffee was Coffee
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When I was young, a cafe in England would sell you coffee in two forms: black and white. If it was posh and Italian they might also do a cappuccino, too, but you wouldn't go to places like that. Yes, it tasted like mud and it came in a pyrex cup but it was wet and warm and it was all so EASY! "Black coffee, please?" "Here you go, pal. Forty pence, please" Job done. A few years on, I was at a railway station and say a coffee stall. "Hi mate, black, please?" "What do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? (insert five hundred other made up Italian words here)" "Just a coffee, please. Black." "Yes, but do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? ..." "Don't worry, mate, I've got a train to catch." Not sure that I've had a coffee since. Nowadays, this is the pattern everywhere from cafes to bars to coffee shops to food stalls, except that list of varieties has grown to the length of the Great Wall of China and can probably be seen from space. The pyrex is now polystyrene and the price tag now resembles a national debt. Oh yeah, and the waiters are now called barristas (which always sounds like a failed lawyer to me). Everywhere I go, I seem to be stuck in a queue behind some so-and-so whose order for caffeinated filth keeps me waiting for half-an-hour as I attempt to buy a beer or a sandwich. It's starting to get on my nerves. Is this fad for evermore elaborate coffees a global catastrophe or a particularly English disease? And when, oh, when will it end? P.S. A coffee shop near my office now advertises that their bacon is infused with coffee! THE BEAN-HEADS ARE EVEN MESSING WITH OUR BACON! THIS HAS TO END. NOW.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
Hipster'ism at it's best. Turning something simple into a ridiculously complicated mess so the modern guy (or gal) can proud themselves of knowing tons of useless stuff to geek out about among their peers. The latter part surely appears to everything, i.e. programming languages (and those also tend to get complicated for the matter of getting complicated), but I agree, the evil hipsters do to coffee isn't funny anymore. BTW, seen the Postal movie? There's a great scene where a dude in a coffee shop can't decide what to drink with the waitress finally handing him over a coffee. Just a normal hot coffee.
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When I was young, a cafe in England would sell you coffee in two forms: black and white. If it was posh and Italian they might also do a cappuccino, too, but you wouldn't go to places like that. Yes, it tasted like mud and it came in a pyrex cup but it was wet and warm and it was all so EASY! "Black coffee, please?" "Here you go, pal. Forty pence, please" Job done. A few years on, I was at a railway station and say a coffee stall. "Hi mate, black, please?" "What do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? (insert five hundred other made up Italian words here)" "Just a coffee, please. Black." "Yes, but do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? ..." "Don't worry, mate, I've got a train to catch." Not sure that I've had a coffee since. Nowadays, this is the pattern everywhere from cafes to bars to coffee shops to food stalls, except that list of varieties has grown to the length of the Great Wall of China and can probably be seen from space. The pyrex is now polystyrene and the price tag now resembles a national debt. Oh yeah, and the waiters are now called barristas (which always sounds like a failed lawyer to me). Everywhere I go, I seem to be stuck in a queue behind some so-and-so whose order for caffeinated filth keeps me waiting for half-an-hour as I attempt to buy a beer or a sandwich. It's starting to get on my nerves. Is this fad for evermore elaborate coffees a global catastrophe or a particularly English disease? And when, oh, when will it end? P.S. A coffee shop near my office now advertises that their bacon is infused with coffee! THE BEAN-HEADS ARE EVEN MESSING WITH OUR BACON! THIS HAS TO END. NOW.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
A few years ago I was in line at a Starbucks. The first person in line placed their order -- the order ran about 40 syllables and I understood enough Starbucks-speak to realize they were asking for something that had a minor amount of coffee in it. The barista listened carefully and provided the requested concoction. The next person in line did the same thing -- different words but a long string of what sounds like nonsense to the uninitiated. Then it's my turn: "vente coffee" (I am not fluent in Starbucks-speak but learned to order a large coffee). The barista just stared at me, no other reaction. The fans are loud so maybe she didn't hear me? So I repeated "vente coffee". She shook her head, like she was coming out of a mental fog, smiled, and got me my coffee. I realized she had put herself in a mental state to translate my order, when my order was only 4 syllables it did not compute. :laugh: A week later the same exact thing happened at another store.
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When I was young, a cafe in England would sell you coffee in two forms: black and white. If it was posh and Italian they might also do a cappuccino, too, but you wouldn't go to places like that. Yes, it tasted like mud and it came in a pyrex cup but it was wet and warm and it was all so EASY! "Black coffee, please?" "Here you go, pal. Forty pence, please" Job done. A few years on, I was at a railway station and say a coffee stall. "Hi mate, black, please?" "What do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? (insert five hundred other made up Italian words here)" "Just a coffee, please. Black." "Yes, but do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? ..." "Don't worry, mate, I've got a train to catch." Not sure that I've had a coffee since. Nowadays, this is the pattern everywhere from cafes to bars to coffee shops to food stalls, except that list of varieties has grown to the length of the Great Wall of China and can probably be seen from space. The pyrex is now polystyrene and the price tag now resembles a national debt. Oh yeah, and the waiters are now called barristas (which always sounds like a failed lawyer to me). Everywhere I go, I seem to be stuck in a queue behind some so-and-so whose order for caffeinated filth keeps me waiting for half-an-hour as I attempt to buy a beer or a sandwich. It's starting to get on my nerves. Is this fad for evermore elaborate coffees a global catastrophe or a particularly English disease? And when, oh, when will it end? P.S. A coffee shop near my office now advertises that their bacon is infused with coffee! THE BEAN-HEADS ARE EVEN MESSING WITH OUR BACON! THIS HAS TO END. NOW.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
The term is Hyper-Palatability... Coke has it, but coffee does not. Meaning you can get tired of drinking coffee, especially if you add FAT to it (real cream). So, by having so many flavors, it allows you to switch between different flavors of coffee, which creates a version of hyper-palatability. THUS allowing you to drink more coffee. I discovered this phenomena as I lost over 100lbs. One of the "tricks" was to limit your daily intake to 2 foods, high fat (bacon and avocado) for 2-3 days straight. SURPRISE, your ability to be full kicks back in, and you are no longer hungry all the time. (to be clear, for the first 30 days, your ADDICTION to carbs is begging you to carb up... But since you have limited your choice to specific foods AND you are really not hungry, you body tells you: "No Thankyou!"). So, it will continue to happen. Because it is a profitable thing to do, that keeps people eating. Now, I have all but stopped eating out (I prefer making my own food where I know/trust the ingredients). I no longer buy coffee (in the states, I always preferred Dunkin Donuts Coffee). And I am healthier now than anytime in the last 25 years! Don't let them HACK your brain with these choices. I bet you INTERNALLY KNEW it was a problem!
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When I was young, a cafe in England would sell you coffee in two forms: black and white. If it was posh and Italian they might also do a cappuccino, too, but you wouldn't go to places like that. Yes, it tasted like mud and it came in a pyrex cup but it was wet and warm and it was all so EASY! "Black coffee, please?" "Here you go, pal. Forty pence, please" Job done. A few years on, I was at a railway station and say a coffee stall. "Hi mate, black, please?" "What do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? (insert five hundred other made up Italian words here)" "Just a coffee, please. Black." "Yes, but do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? ..." "Don't worry, mate, I've got a train to catch." Not sure that I've had a coffee since. Nowadays, this is the pattern everywhere from cafes to bars to coffee shops to food stalls, except that list of varieties has grown to the length of the Great Wall of China and can probably be seen from space. The pyrex is now polystyrene and the price tag now resembles a national debt. Oh yeah, and the waiters are now called barristas (which always sounds like a failed lawyer to me). Everywhere I go, I seem to be stuck in a queue behind some so-and-so whose order for caffeinated filth keeps me waiting for half-an-hour as I attempt to buy a beer or a sandwich. It's starting to get on my nerves. Is this fad for evermore elaborate coffees a global catastrophe or a particularly English disease? And when, oh, when will it end? P.S. A coffee shop near my office now advertises that their bacon is infused with coffee! THE BEAN-HEADS ARE EVEN MESSING WITH OUR BACON! THIS HAS TO END. NOW.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
It's in the US too. I blame it on the hipsters (failed art school students to you Brits.) In New Orleans we take it with chicory been doing that for hundreds of years. That is our only vice. ;P
Give me my coffee and no one gets hurt ...
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The term is Hyper-Palatability... Coke has it, but coffee does not. Meaning you can get tired of drinking coffee, especially if you add FAT to it (real cream). So, by having so many flavors, it allows you to switch between different flavors of coffee, which creates a version of hyper-palatability. THUS allowing you to drink more coffee. I discovered this phenomena as I lost over 100lbs. One of the "tricks" was to limit your daily intake to 2 foods, high fat (bacon and avocado) for 2-3 days straight. SURPRISE, your ability to be full kicks back in, and you are no longer hungry all the time. (to be clear, for the first 30 days, your ADDICTION to carbs is begging you to carb up... But since you have limited your choice to specific foods AND you are really not hungry, you body tells you: "No Thankyou!"). So, it will continue to happen. Because it is a profitable thing to do, that keeps people eating. Now, I have all but stopped eating out (I prefer making my own food where I know/trust the ingredients). I no longer buy coffee (in the states, I always preferred Dunkin Donuts Coffee). And I am healthier now than anytime in the last 25 years! Don't let them HACK your brain with these choices. I bet you INTERNALLY KNEW it was a problem!
Low carb is the only way that I ever manage to lose weight (I think this is true for many on the diabetic spectrum) and I'm guessing that's maybe a bigger factor than the two-food approach - really can't comment on that as I've never tried it, but there could well be something in it. Huge congrats on losing 100lbs - that's not far off a small person!
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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It's in the US too. I blame it on the hipsters (failed art school students to you Brits.) In New Orleans we take it with chicory been doing that for hundreds of years. That is our only vice. ;P
Give me my coffee and no one gets hurt ...
Interestingly, in the UK chicory was mixed with coffee as an austerity measure in the war. It did stick around for a while after (we could still buy it in the 70's) but I think it just got stuck with that austerity tag and went out of fashion. Hipsters, I'm sad to say, are a problem on both sides of the pond. Why can't these people spend money on socks rather than mutilating their ear lobes?
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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When I was young, a cafe in England would sell you coffee in two forms: black and white. If it was posh and Italian they might also do a cappuccino, too, but you wouldn't go to places like that. Yes, it tasted like mud and it came in a pyrex cup but it was wet and warm and it was all so EASY! "Black coffee, please?" "Here you go, pal. Forty pence, please" Job done. A few years on, I was at a railway station and say a coffee stall. "Hi mate, black, please?" "What do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? (insert five hundred other made up Italian words here)" "Just a coffee, please. Black." "Yes, but do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? ..." "Don't worry, mate, I've got a train to catch." Not sure that I've had a coffee since. Nowadays, this is the pattern everywhere from cafes to bars to coffee shops to food stalls, except that list of varieties has grown to the length of the Great Wall of China and can probably be seen from space. The pyrex is now polystyrene and the price tag now resembles a national debt. Oh yeah, and the waiters are now called barristas (which always sounds like a failed lawyer to me). Everywhere I go, I seem to be stuck in a queue behind some so-and-so whose order for caffeinated filth keeps me waiting for half-an-hour as I attempt to buy a beer or a sandwich. It's starting to get on my nerves. Is this fad for evermore elaborate coffees a global catastrophe or a particularly English disease? And when, oh, when will it end? P.S. A coffee shop near my office now advertises that their bacon is infused with coffee! THE BEAN-HEADS ARE EVEN MESSING WITH OUR BACON! THIS HAS TO END. NOW.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
A coffee tastes like a coffee to me. There's no difference if it was prepared by myself or by a failed lawyer.
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Interestingly, in the UK chicory was mixed with coffee as an austerity measure in the war. It did stick around for a while after (we could still buy it in the 70's) but I think it just got stuck with that austerity tag and went out of fashion. Hipsters, I'm sad to say, are a problem on both sides of the pond. Why can't these people spend money on socks rather than mutilating their ear lobes?
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
Truer words were never spoken! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
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[Close](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf\_Hitler#Early\_adulthood\_in\_Vienna\_and\_Munich). He got rejected from art school multiple times, and it was suggested to him he instead go into architecture.
Yeah, he drew nice pictures of buildings. He just couldn't draw people. Makes you wonder how many 'failed Arts students' are marching in the streets today. Kind of disconcerting.
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When I was young, a cafe in England would sell you coffee in two forms: black and white. If it was posh and Italian they might also do a cappuccino, too, but you wouldn't go to places like that. Yes, it tasted like mud and it came in a pyrex cup but it was wet and warm and it was all so EASY! "Black coffee, please?" "Here you go, pal. Forty pence, please" Job done. A few years on, I was at a railway station and say a coffee stall. "Hi mate, black, please?" "What do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? (insert five hundred other made up Italian words here)" "Just a coffee, please. Black." "Yes, but do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? ..." "Don't worry, mate, I've got a train to catch." Not sure that I've had a coffee since. Nowadays, this is the pattern everywhere from cafes to bars to coffee shops to food stalls, except that list of varieties has grown to the length of the Great Wall of China and can probably be seen from space. The pyrex is now polystyrene and the price tag now resembles a national debt. Oh yeah, and the waiters are now called barristas (which always sounds like a failed lawyer to me). Everywhere I go, I seem to be stuck in a queue behind some so-and-so whose order for caffeinated filth keeps me waiting for half-an-hour as I attempt to buy a beer or a sandwich. It's starting to get on my nerves. Is this fad for evermore elaborate coffees a global catastrophe or a particularly English disease? And when, oh, when will it end? P.S. A coffee shop near my office now advertises that their bacon is infused with coffee! THE BEAN-HEADS ARE EVEN MESSING WITH OUR BACON! THIS HAS TO END. NOW.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
I hear you man and I feel your pain! I am also fed up with these places where you have to know a new language to get an overpriced cup of coffee either alto, benti, macciato,... WTH?! I ended up buyin a new coffee machine for my office that holds the coffee bens, grinds them, ads the water and brews a perfect cup everytime I please and exactly the way I want it. Now all my coworkers are standing in line to get a cup at my desk but I don't mind as long as they chip in for a new bag of grains every now and then. Life is simple and ggod. Good coffee does not need sugar and bad coffee doesn't deserve it! :)
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I keep it simple. I have finally devolved down to the simplest scenario. Grind the coffee coarse (has to be a conical type grinder, that's one thing that can't be skimped on, though they aren't expensive), pour it into a mason jar, pour in the just below boiling water, put the lid on. Wait 2 minutes, stir. Put some half-n-half in the still warm cup to warm up. Wait six minutes, pour through a filter into the cup. It's super-simple and you can make it a cup at a time, and it's really good. If you break the jar it's a couple bucks probably to replace. I used to use a press but this works even better and it's far less twitchy and breakable.
Explorans limites defectum
If it took more than one sentence it ain't simple. It's your ritual.
Here's simple:1. Put finally ground coffee (pre-ground or otherwise)
2. Add boiling water
3. Stir - when it settles, drink."The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Interestingly, in the UK chicory was mixed with coffee as an austerity measure in the war. It did stick around for a while after (we could still buy it in the 70's) but I think it just got stuck with that austerity tag and went out of fashion. Hipsters, I'm sad to say, are a problem on both sides of the pond. Why can't these people spend money on socks rather than mutilating their ear lobes?
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
In the states, coffee with chicory is a New Orleans specialty. "C&C" - and it's something just seem to have always done and continue to do. It' is even possibly to buy[^] (although not widely available) pre-mixed C&C. It does make a very smooth brew - a bit too smooth and the loss of caffeine is quite unacceptable.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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When I was young, a cafe in England would sell you coffee in two forms: black and white. If it was posh and Italian they might also do a cappuccino, too, but you wouldn't go to places like that. Yes, it tasted like mud and it came in a pyrex cup but it was wet and warm and it was all so EASY! "Black coffee, please?" "Here you go, pal. Forty pence, please" Job done. A few years on, I was at a railway station and say a coffee stall. "Hi mate, black, please?" "What do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? (insert five hundred other made up Italian words here)" "Just a coffee, please. Black." "Yes, but do you want? Espresso? Moccaccino? Frapuccino? Crapuccino? Americano? Latino? Chocamoccacccino? ..." "Don't worry, mate, I've got a train to catch." Not sure that I've had a coffee since. Nowadays, this is the pattern everywhere from cafes to bars to coffee shops to food stalls, except that list of varieties has grown to the length of the Great Wall of China and can probably be seen from space. The pyrex is now polystyrene and the price tag now resembles a national debt. Oh yeah, and the waiters are now called barristas (which always sounds like a failed lawyer to me). Everywhere I go, I seem to be stuck in a queue behind some so-and-so whose order for caffeinated filth keeps me waiting for half-an-hour as I attempt to buy a beer or a sandwich. It's starting to get on my nerves. Is this fad for evermore elaborate coffees a global catastrophe or a particularly English disease? And when, oh, when will it end? P.S. A coffee shop near my office now advertises that their bacon is infused with coffee! THE BEAN-HEADS ARE EVEN MESSING WITH OUR BACON! THIS HAS TO END. NOW.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
I agree with your observation 100%. I prefer black, coffee flavored coffee, as strong as possible. Also, size is small, medium, large, not venti, grande, or whatever. I enjoy irritating the Starbucks barista's with the size. Actually it's funny to listen to the Starbucks drive-thru customers ordering all the chemical concoctions from their cars. Drive-thru's are another nit I make fun of, but we can save that for another day.
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Two days to learn to make coffee? I guess it's a new twist on "Learn Java in a Week"
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
I would like to see an Abbot and Costello skit on making coffee in a modern coffee shop