What's the worst coffee worldwide?

[Edward]

Never liked coffee, I'm a tea and diet coke guys so I can't help you on this topic.
But since you mentioned having had a lot of bad coffee I think I never had a (really) bad cup of tea...
Aren't there as big quality differences with tea than with coffee?

Apparently not... With tea, a decent leaf (and either filtered water or water from a non-hard water area) goes a long way, and it's hard to really screw it up. That said, the one place I find it almost impossible (outside McDs or Starbucks) to get a decent cup of what we would regard as regular tea is, ironically, China. There I instead go for a local variety; chrysanthemum tea is especially nice.

As a species, we tea drinkers tend not - in my experience, at least - to be as obviously picky about varieties and such as coffee drinkers, though in reality I suspect that's only because tea rituals haven't been profitably exploited here in the West to the same extent. Yet.

I've encountered a certain pretentious type on the British vintage scene who sneer at coffee because it's "American". Folks who don't know their history, of course, as coffee houses were huge in England long before tea was readily and affordably available. Funny how often pretentious ninnies' prejudices don't stand up to analysis...

Trash-talking Starbucks is a popular pastime among some of my hipper friends and associates in Seattle, where Starbucks got its start and where it is still headquartered, in what used to be the “main” Sears store.

It's fashionable in many quarters here to rag on them too. There are some fair criticisms of them - and I do tend to prefer an indy myself - but all the same they are better than many corporates for how they treat their workforce. Sometimes they're also preferable to going into a pub if you're not interested in drinking alcohol on a given day. I used to quite enjoy finding a window seat at the one on Oxford Street during Christmas Shopping Madness when I'd inevitably done my shopping in September, and sit and watch everyone else going nuts out the window.

A fair few little indy cafes and coffee houses have sprung up as my patch of East London has gentrified over the last couple of decades. I like to see them; I hope they survive the Covid / Brexit recession.

 

[Hercule]

Mug-brewed?

Nope. In a 2 quart deep sauce pan on the stove. Boiled it for about 6 minutes, poured a bit of cold water on top to induce the grounds to settle then poured off a clear cup of the best coffee I've had in a LONG time.

 

[Trenchfriend]

By the way:
I never had Espresso in a classic german restaurant, as far as I remember, but some times in the 90s and 2000s dripper coffee. Was always "watercoffee", as all family members confirmed.

Dripper coffee + too much water = double fail.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Apparently not... With tea, a decent leaf (and either filtered water or water from a non-hard water area) goes a long way, and it's hard to really screw it up. That said, the one place I find it almost impossible (outside McDs or Starbucks) to get a decent cup of what we would regard as regular tea is, ironically, China. There I instead go for a local variety; chrysanthemum tea is especially nice.

As a species, we tea drinkers tend not - in my experience, at least - to be as obviously picky about varieties and such as coffee drinkers, though in reality I suspect that's only because tea rituals haven't been profitably exploited here in the West to the same extent. Yet.

I've encountered a certain pretentious type on the British vintage scene who sneer at coffee because it's "American". Folks who don't know their history, of course, as coffee houses were huge in England long before tea was readily and affordably available. Funny how often pretentious ninnies' prejudices don't stand up to analysis...



It's fashionable in many quarters here to rag on them too. There are some fair criticisms of them - and I do tend to prefer an indy myself - but all the same they are better than many corporates for how they treat their workforce. Sometimes they're also preferable to going into a pub if you're not interested in drinking alcohol on a given day. I used to quite enjoy finding a window seat at the one on Oxford Street during Christmas Shopping Madness when I'd inevitably done my shopping in September, and sit and watch everyone else going nuts out the window.

A fair few little indy cafes and coffee houses have sprung up as my patch of East London has gentrified over the last couple of decades. I like to see them; I hope they survive the Covid / Brexit recession.

Since a hospital visit in early 2019, I quit with caffeine in general and became a teadrinker again. The reason was, that I hadn't problems with the decaffeinated coffee, they served to us patients for free at the ward. So first, I planned to go on with the decaffeinated stuff after hospital, but then I switched back to "tea first".

 

[Turnip]

Complete opposite here. When I was in hospital some time ago they had kind of a supply cart at the counter of the station where you could pick up water, coffee, tea...
The water bottles were placed in the „souterrain“ of that cart so I had to bend a bit for grabbing one. Doing so my nose came close to the drawer with myriads of teabags in it and that cacophonous stench made me instantly puke all over the cart...

The two best coffees I had so far have been at an Italian truck stop on the highway right on the southern side of the Brenner and on a French beach at the Mediterranean Sea from a plastic soup bowl they used in that coffee shack instead of porcelain bowls, along with the freshest thinkable Croissants.

 

[Harp]

Apparently not... With tea, a decent leaf (and either filtered water or water from a non-hard water area) goes a long way, and it's hard to really screw it up. That said, the one place I find it almost impossible (outside McDs or Starbucks) to get a decent cup of what we would regard as regular tea is, ironically, China. There I instead go for a local variety; chrysanthemum tea is especially nice.

As a species, we tea drinkers tend not - in my experience, at least - to be as obviously picky about varieties and such as coffee drinkers, though in reality I suspect that's only because tea rituals haven't been profitably exploited here in the West to the same extent. Yet.

I've encountered a certain pretentious type on the British vintage scene who sneer at coffee because it's "American". Folks who don't know their history, of course, as coffee houses were huge in England long before tea was readily and affordably available. Funny how often pretentious ninnies' prejudices don't stand up to analysis...



It's fashionable in many quarters here to rag on them too. There are some fair criticisms of them - and I do tend to prefer an indy myself - but all the same they are better than many corporates for how they treat their workforce. Sometimes they're also preferable to going into a pub if you're not interested in drinking alcohol on a given day. I used to quite enjoy finding a window seat at the one on Oxford Street during Christmas Shopping Madness when I'd inevitably done my shopping in September, and sit and watch everyone else going nuts out the window.

A fair few little indy cafes and coffee houses have sprung up as my patch of East London has gentrified over the last couple of decades. I like to see them; I hope they survive the Covid / Brexit recession.

East ender? How the Vid will match Brexit is an interesting thought. Micro and macro quite literally will upend
accepted norms, and I frankly doubt that large metropolitan commute will ever return to pre Covid levels.

 

[tonyb]

By the way:
I never had Espresso in a classic german restaurant, as far as I remember, but some times in the 90s and 2000s dripper coffee. Was always "watercoffee", as all family members confirmed.

Dripper coffee + too much water = double fail.

Drip coffee can be quite strong. All it takes is a higher ground coffee-to-water ratio. A finer grind would help, too, although too fine a grind might not allow the water to drip through the ground coffee, which, if it isn’t caught in time, will result in a BFM. I have seen this happen with home-duty drip coffeemakers.

 

[Edward]

East ender? How the Vid will match Brexit is an interesting thought. Micro and macro quite literally will upend
accepted norms, and I frankly doubt that large metropolitan commute will ever return to pre Covid levels.

Eastender by immigration; off the boat from Ireland in 1999, but never lost the accent. There's certainly likely to be a lot of folks backing off on requiring attendance in a centralised office block. The Mirror Group newspapers have announced that they will only maintain a series of meeting room hubs going forward, with all journalists working primarily from home. Other companies are following their lead or at least offering the option of more home-working. I can foresee myself heading on to a model of working from home as more of a default, seeking to stick to maybe three days in the office, depending on how my teaching is spread out. Now I have gotten used to working from home, I feel less inclined to go into the office for a day without classes or meetings. I keep most of my books there, but given the vast majority of my information regularly in use is now digital, it's not as much of a deal as it once was. Interestingly, it has also made me somewhat less attached to my office, should I be offered a 'bonus' to transfer out of it to one of the 'open plan' parts of the building (another part of the corporatisation of academia in recent years). A lot of our folks have for years worked partly from home, mainly because many of them live well outside London with a significant commute.

 

[Hercule]

Drip coffee can be quite strong. All it takes is a higher ground coffee-to-water ratio. A finer grind would help, too, although too fine a grind might not allow the water to drip through the ground coffee, which, if it isn’t caught in time, will result in a BFM. I have seen this happen with home-duty drip coffeemakers.

Especially if you make it according to the package instructions, which I have found to be quite ridiculous. I generally gave up grinding my own a long time ago (though I will on occasion, esp for the bean of the month club I often get at Christmas). I'm fine with Maxwellhouse Bold Smooth or French roast (one of the least horrific commercial French roasts in my opinion). 4 relatively heaping soup spoons makes a good 12 cup pot for me. I think the instructions call for 2tbs per cup which would be 24 for the pot. Sorry but that would be a little TOO thrilling for me.

 

[MisterCairo]

Anything made by or on behalf of the Canadian Army.

Unless you've been in the field for three weeks in March, then it's AWESOME.

 

[MisterCairo]

I quit with caffeine in general and became a teadrinker again.

Which one of us should tell him???

 

[Trenchfriend]

Which one of us should tell him???

I meaned peppermint tea, apple tea, mix herbal tea, lemon tea. Not green tea, seldom Earl Grey.

 

[MisterCairo]

I meaned peppermint tea, apple tea, mix herbal tea, lemon tea. Not green tea, seldom Earl Grey.

Ah!

 

[Turnip]

Long Island Ice is certainly the only tea I really like. Maybe also Lapsang Souchon, with a little shot.

 

[Harp]

Anything made by or on behalf of the Canadian Army.

Unless you've been in the field for three weeks in March, then it's AWESOME.

The Canadian Army has the reputation of being the best trained Army in the world. I would imagine that
you guys can brew a pot of coffee and scare up some Irish scones without too much difficulty.

 

[belfastboy]

Apparently not... With tea, a decent leaf (and either filtered water or water from a non-hard water area) goes a long way, and it's hard to really screw it up. That said, the one place I find it almost impossible (outside McDs or Starbucks) to get a decent cup of what we would regard as regular tea is, ironically, China. There I instead go for a local variety; chrysanthemum tea is especially nice.

As a species, we tea drinkers tend not - in my experience, at least - to be as obviously picky about varieties and such as coffee drinkers, though in reality I suspect that's only because tea rituals haven't been profitably exploited here in the West to the same extent. Yet.

I've encountered a certain pretentious type on the British vintage scene who sneer at coffee because it's "American". Folks who don't know their history, of course, as coffee houses were huge in England long before tea was readily and affordably available. Funny how often pretentious ninnies' prejudices don't stand up to analysis...



It's fashionable in many quarters here to rag on them too. There are some fair criticisms of them - and I do tend to prefer an indy myself - but all the same they are better than many corporates for how they treat their workforce. Sometimes they're also preferable to going into a pub if you're not interested in drinking alcohol on a given day. I used to quite enjoy finding a window seat at the one on Oxford Street during Christmas Shopping Madness when I'd inevitably done my shopping in September, and sit and watch everyone else going nuts out the window.

A fair few little indy cafes and coffee houses have sprung up as my patch of East London has gentrified over the last couple of decades. I like to see them; I hope they survive the Covid / Brexit recession.

We were in Paris a few years back and took the metro out to LaDefense to see the contemporary part of town. Stopped in at a Starbucks and in my terrible French (I wanted to ask for a sleeve for my coffee cup)....but I could not recall the French for 'sleeve' so being inventive a asked for a 'chemise pour la verre'. The barista looked at me, smiled, and replied with unaccented English...."It's a sleeve man, just a sleeve."

 

[Hercule]

I usually refer to the lid and sleeve as a hat and a scarf. Because lid and sleeve apparently aren't simple enough.

 

[1961MJS]

^^^^^
It’s been so long since I’ve had burnt pencils that I can’t say with any certainty how any coffee compares.

My mother had me addicted to the stuff in utero, although I didn’t resume the habit until a few years into breathing on my own.

Coffee was and is ever-present in my world. The percolator gave way in the 1970s to what we now call the auto-drip machine (think Mr. Coffee, Joe DiMaggio) with occasional forays into the more ritualistic and laborious pour-over drip (think Melitta, Joe Birkenstock) to the espresso machines, which are worth every single one of that mountain of pennies I’ve paid for them over the past couple-three decades.

Good coffee tastes good cold. Lesser coffees are generally okay hot and fresh. There’s something to be said for percolator coffee, provided it’s not more than an hour or so old. A pot (percolator) was pretty much always “on” at my childhood home and the homes of most of my relatives. Pouring out what remained of the old coffee and making a fresh pot was a daily ritual.

Hi Tony, thanks for being my straight man. I got my start on coffee at 3 or 4. I had to stay with Dad's parents for a week or two when Mom's dad had a stroke. Grandma's breakfast then was coffee cake and coffee made in one of those double boiler things. Cup at breakfast and lunch, that was half milk. We always had a percolator until we bought a Bunn. Springfield Illinois is where they used to be made and it as 30 miles away. it was still bad if it set too long. As to the addict part, I hung out with Dad for a week on a trip. Two cups of coffee for breakfast, two for lunch, one in the afternoon, two at dinner, and one before bed AND HE SLEPT WELL. When he left, I had cotton mouth and a splitting headache for 3 days. We always called Starbucks, Charbucks cause it tastes burnt. I can't do cold coffee, but a place down the street call "Cool Beans" in Norman, makes coffee, freezes it and grinds the ice. That I can handle. Oh, Dad used to put the grounds with the potato peels, orange peels, and other vegetable garbage in a container, let it ferment for a year and plough it under. We had a GOOD garden. We even had Morel mushrooms growing in that stuff.
Later Y'all

 

[Trenchfriend]

I would vote for that beeing the worst coffee, ever.

 

[belfastboy]

Complete opposite here. When I was in hospital some time ago they had kind of a supply cart at the counter of the station where you could pick up water, coffee, tea...
The water bottles were placed in the „souterrain“ of that cart so I had to bend a bit for grabbing one. Doing so my nose came close to the drawer with myriads of teabags in it and that cacophonous stench made me instantly puke all over the cart...

The two best coffees I had so far have been at an Italian truck stop on the highway right on the southern side of the Brenner and on a French beach at the Mediterranean Sea from a plastic soup bowl they used in that coffee shack instead of porcelain bowls, along with the freshest thinkable Croissants.

Many years ago when we travelled Europe for 14 months I had the best cup of coffee at a truck stop just outside Trieste. It was a tough day driving, lost track of the days and crossed into Italy on the evening of a holiday Monday....the border line up was huge. Finally, after dark crossed into Italy exhausted, pulled into a truck stop for the night. In the morning I went inside, ordered two cappuchinos , one to take back to my wife still in bed. That truck stop coffee was he best ever....before or since.