What's the worst coffee worldwide?

[Turnip]

For simple filter or Turkish coffee the results will be well sufficient imho.
For running a 5k€ Italian high gloss steamboat you’d need a captain’s patent for being allowed to even touch it, certainly less.

 

[tonyb]

Anyone knows, if simple cutting blade coffee grinder is really that worse? I just had the idea to maybe reactivate my Ma's simple drugstore grinder.

They’re good enough for most purposes.

Burr grinders allow for greater control, which matters for espresso machines. Too coarse a grind and the pressurized water flows through too quickly, resulting in a thin, watery shot; too fine and the water might not flow through at all, or at least too slowly and the pressure backs up.

I suppose a person could develop a touch with a cheap blade grinder. The longer you grind the finer it gets, right? So knowing when to stop would be the trick.

 

[Fifty150]

https://t.co/WciXr4y3iT

 

[tonyb]

It’s reheatable!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I wonder if the Sanka guy and the Hills Bros. guy ever got together for, oh, I dunno, a cup of tea...

 

[Fifty150]

That must have been a different time in America. Before I was born. When you didn't throw away the old coffee, and made a fresh coffee. I remember a guy who got a huge cup of coffee from 7-Eleven, drank it for hours, and microwaved it every 30 minutes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't remember people walking around in the street with giant coffees in their hands until the '90s. Maybe you might see workers at a construction site holding little paper cups of coffee from Dunkies, but as far as people walking around randomly in the streets slurping tall coffee drinks, that didn't exist before the "Starbucks era." Coffee was something consumed at home, at a restaurant counter or table, or at your desk -- and if at your desk, it was Maxwell House or Chase & Sanborn made in a dirty drip pot in the break room that always smelled burnt.

 

[belfastboy]

Anyone knows, if simple cutting blade coffee grinder is really that worse? I just had the idea to maybe reactivate my Ma's simple drugstore grinder.

I used a blade grinder for many years before deciding to splurge and buy a basic burr grinder ($125). I did notice a difference. The coffee from the blade grinder could have a slight bitter taste to it that was not present with the burr. I think the burnt taste could come from the high speed of the blade that the slower burr grinding speed.

 

[tonyb]

I used a blade grinder for many years before deciding to splurge and buy a basic burr grinder ($125). I did notice a difference. The coffee from the blade grinder could have a slight bitter taste to it that was not present with the burr. I think the burnt taste could come from the high speed of the blade that the slower burr grinding speed.

I’m thinking it’s the heat generated by the friction of that spinning blade as it reduces the beans into a finer and finer grind, whereas the burr grinds the individual beans in a single pass and doesn’t subject the beans to such repeated friction?

Maybe that’s hooie. Our current setup is a Breville espresso machine with a built-in adjustable burr grinder. It has proven satisfactory, as did the Breville that we used for 11 years before this one came into our lives. I had to replace a group gasket once, and I put in an aftermarket steam control lever after the original plastic knob broke in my hand. Opening the case voids the warranty, but that was expired anyway. The machines look beefier than they really are, but a decade or more of service ain’t so bad, as modern countertop kitchen appliances go.

 

[tonyb]

View attachment 445149
I wonder if the Sanka guy and the Hills Bros. guy ever got together for, oh, I dunno, a cup of tea...

Unopened.

Yours?

 

[belfastboy]

I’m thinking it’s the heat generated by the friction of that spinning blade as it reduces the beans into a finer and finer grind, whereas the burr grinds the individual beans in a single pass and doesn’t subject the beans to such repeated friction?

Maybe that’s hooie. Our current setup is a Breville espresso machine with a built-in adjustable burr grinder. It has proven satisfactory, as did the Breville that we used for 11 years before this one came into our lives. I had to replace a group gasket once, and I put in an aftermarket steam control lever after the original plastic knob broke in my hand. Opening the case voids the warranty, but that was expired anyway. The machines look beefier than they really are, but a decade or more of service ain’t so bad, as modern countertop kitchen appliances go.

The burr grinder we bought is at the low end of the market but our needs are simple. I think it is Italian - Saeco?. We use a French press most of the time but also have a Nespresso unit for mornings when I am lazy or late.
I think I read somewhere that the blade grinders can 'burn' the beans with the high speed required of the blades. I love my coffee but am far from being a snob or aficionado. I buy whatever beans are on coupon at Costco.

 

[Fifty150]

I don't remember people walking around in the street with giant coffees in their hands until the '90s.

http://coffee.caffetrieste.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffe_Trieste

My neighborhood had a "coffee culture". People did walk around with cups of coffee. Big cups and small. Although back then, nobody had a 32 ounce, quart size cup. Everyone that I knew, went out for coffee. It was a social activity. A trip to the cafe. They serve food and pastries, as well as wine and beer. It was like a neighborhood bar, that you could bring your kids to.

As a kid, it didn't seem so impressive that "famous" people and politicians were always there. But it was very impressive, to see Mr. Cosby. He was there quite a bit. What I remembered, was that Mr. Cosby was just like every other person. He mingled. Chatted with people in the crowd. And just like all the other regulars, he went behind the counter and helped himself when the line was long.

I grew up around the corner from Cafe Trieste. Maybe the best coffee I've ever had. Biased by childhood memories of the smell of coffee roasting. In my mind, the coffee is good.

I'm not an expert or afficionado. I drink coffee. Good and bad. To me, 7 Eleven coffee is just as good or bad as Starbucks. All mass produced, by the millions of pounds. No better or worse than Hills Bros., MJB, and Folgers. No different than coffee from a grocery store or warehouse club.

 

[Edward]

I don't remember people walking around in the street with giant coffees in their hands until the '90s. Maybe you might see workers at a construction site holding little paper cups of coffee from Dunkies, but as far as people walking around randomly in the streets slurping tall coffee drinks, that didn't exist before the "Starbucks era." Coffee was something consumed at home, at a restaurant counter or table, or at your desk -- and if at your desk, it was Maxwell House or Chase & Sanborn made in a dirty drip pot in the break room that always smelled burnt.

Where I grew up in Northern Ireland, there were always plenty of little cafes - from genteel tearooms to greasy spoons, and all points in between - where you could go for something short of a main meal at any time during opening hours. I remember the local chippies also all did tea and coffee to go, always in the same, 200ml polystyrene cups (many of which are doubtless still sitting, largely unchanged, in landfill somewhere today). Coffee houses as a sort of destination in and of themselves, as a place to actually socialise for anyone much under retirement age, an alternative to the pub, arrived in NI in, I suppose, the mid-late nineties. My undergraduate years. I remember the first one that was a dedicated coffee house. It was clearly very much modelled on the vibe of the one in the then still fairly "new hit TV show!" Friends. People made plans to go there as a night out, as an alternative to the pub. (Particularly popular among the large, more socially conservative elements of Belfast, many of whom were morally opposed to the idea of going to the pub, or, in some cases, consuming alcohol or entering any place where it was offered at all.) I think, though, it was only really after I moved to London in 1999 that I first encountered the idea of to go coffees as a sort of lifestyle thing. Certainly that's the period when I became aware of it as a branded thing. I don't like coffee, I'm a tea drinker. Tea is pretty much tea wherever you go, so I'm looking in on this as an outsider, but that was when I first encountered the idea of people wanting specifically a Starbucks or a Nero or whatever. I know folks who will eschew the free coffee in our office to go around the corner and pay for a Starbucks, and who have very firm preferences of Starbucks over Nero or vice versa. Sometimes it reminds me of cigarette brand preferences among friends who smoke. Or Pepsi versus Coke. But then I suppose that's part of a much longer, human tradition: I remember Mark Twain writing scathingly in Huckleberry Finn about a 'Case Knife', a very coveted brand by the boys in his tale, but which his narration makes clear was all fashionable brand and actually no good as a tool.

It's interesting to see what thrives where. Here in the East End of London, we have a vibrant mix of cultures, between a number of diasporas from parts of the world where alcohol is not habitually consumed, and a growing tendency among younger people in general to drink less. As the pub ceases being a default social norm, the older idea of the local where people went to drink is slowly fading, and the food is becoming more important, along with 'gourmet' alcohol options like craft beer. It's no longer unusual to see people in the pub not drinking alcohol. More significant, though, is the rise of the dessert bar. Places that sell nothing in the way of savoury food, but it's all ice cream, milk-shakes, cakes, waffles.... loads of them round here. Came in with particular diasporas, but now hugely popular more generally. A default social space for teenagers that can't get into the pub as well as those who prefer ice cream to alcohol. Not news in much of the US, I'm sure, but interesting as a more recent phenomenon away from the seaside towns in England. Sort of thing I'd have loved when I was a teen (and beyond) in a village in Ireland when there was nowhere to go and hang out if you weren't old enough or didn't otherwise care for the skanky local pub. That's all changed now too, as the Game of Thrones tourism and the villages' proximity to a major filming location has brought trade and thus a lot of businesses locals would never have been a big enough market for or otherwise prepared to support have arrived... (Yeah, one of those small villages where nobody wants to buy anything locally if they can avoid it because everyone then knows all your business.... part of why I ran away to the city... ).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Unopened.

Yours?

Nah, just an internet example, although I do have an unopened jar of Instant Sanka of about the same vintage in my cupboard. In case guests show up and want coffee, doncha know.

Sanka was the standard coffee in our family when I was little. My grandparents were strung out enough on Lucky Strikes and Pall Malls not to have any need for caffeine. For a while, though, they strayed to "Kava," the Acid-Neutralized Coffee, because of my grandfather's ulcers. Surely you remember the most annoying commercials of the sixties: "KAVA KAVA!"

 

[tonyb]

…

I love my coffee but am far from being a snob or aficionado. I buy whatever beans are on coupon at Costco.

My palate is sensitive enough to appreciate the difference between arabica and robusta or a dark roast versus a light roast. But beyond that it’s all pretty much the same to me. So I typically buy the two-pound bags of dark-roasted whole-bean store-brand arabica at Safeway. A year or so ago it was $15.99 at regular price and often on sale for $12.99. Last time I bought it, a couple weeks ago, I think it was $19.99.

 

[belfastboy]

My palate is sensitive enough to appreciate the difference between arabica and robusta or a dark roast versus a light roast. But beyond that it’s all pretty much the same to me. So I typically buy the two-pound bags of dark-roasted whole-bean store-brand arabica at Safeway. A year or so ago it was $15.99 at regular price and often on sale for $12.99. Last time I bought it, a couple weeks ago, I think it was $19.99.

Another of those essentials like gasoline, electricity that have gone up by just the 8. something% inflation rate??????

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Something like that, although I read that the overall inflation rate is fueled (groan) in large part by dramatically higher gasoline prices, from which we’ve gotten substantial relief in recent weeks.

I have had the great good fortune of not having to drive much (I go days on end without leaving home) and for that home to be quite affordable.

We, the lovely missus and I, have made some wise decisions and expended considerable effort to be so positioned, but we remind ourselves of how lucky we’ve been, too. And how our fortunes could change due to factors beyond our direct control.

But my visits to the supermarket have me hurting for those just scraping by. Empathy comes easy, seeing how those were my financial circumstances for most of my life.

 

[belfastboy]

^^^^^
Something like that, although I read that the overall inflation rate is fueled (groan) in large part by dramatically higher gasoline prices, from which we’ve gotten substantial relief in recent weeks.

I have had the great good fortune of not having to drive much (I go days on end without leaving home) and for that home to be quite affordable.

We, the lovely missus and I, have made some wise decisions and expended considerable effort to be so positioned, but we remind ourselves of how lucky we’ve been, too. And how our fortunes could change due to factors beyond our direct control.

But my visits to the supermarket have me hurting for those just scraping by. Empathy comes easy, seeing how those were my financial circumstances for most of my life.

Yes, we too put few miles on the car. A tank of gas lasts me the better part of a month now. And I too am very grateful to be relatively insulated from the worst effects of inflation, especially housing.

 

[Fifty150]

In case anyone here makes it out to The Far Left Coast

 

[Fifty150]

'gourmet' alcohol options like craft beer

For those who remember, the last 100 years or so, "craft cocktails" have been chic. As a young boy, we went to places like Tonga Room and Trader Vic's for colorful drinks with paper umbrellas.. There were "fern bars" like Henry Africa's. T.G.I. Friday's had a special menu of special cocktails - every bar was stocked with fresh tropical fruit and a blender. T.G.I. Friday's made popular what is now known as "flair bartending". There was also a revival of "classic cocktails" to go along with the revival of swing dancing.

Or maybe it was just me, who grew up drinking in bars. No kidding. Alcohol beverage control laws aside - when I was a kid, teenagers went to bars. Nobody checked ID back then. If you had money, they served you.

More significant, though, is the rise of the dessert bar. Places that sell nothing in the way of savoury food, but it's all ice cream, milk-shakes, cakes, waffles.... loads of them round here.

In Asian cultures, they've always had places that served only sweets. One of those delicacies has crossed over into mainstream culture by way of Tea Shops. Boba tea shops.

In my neighborhood, there are several Italian cafes which only serve sweets and desserts.

I'm a tea drinker. Tea is pretty much tea wherever you go

There are tea gourmets. It's cultural. There are many different types of tea, and methods of brewing. Some cultures have ceremonies. Tea aficionados are like other niche groups of people who favor cigars, wines, coffee, and such. They would be able to point out the differences between the different gourmet teas of the world, versus a bag of Lipton. At my house, I have Lipton.

It was clearly very much modelled on the vibe of the one in the then still fairly "new hit TV show!" Friends.

From what I remember, the creators and writers of that show, based the coffee shop on coffee shops they remembered going to as young people. Maybe it was only in large cities in the USA, like Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia. But that model of a neighborhood coffee house, with random second hand furniture, thrift store decor, bookshelves where people could take and/or leave books, a bulletin board, poetry readings, singers, and other unpaid performers, wasn't new. They were around when I was a boy. I guess the television show popularized that type of coffee shop worldwide. What that television show featured, which I had never seen before, was drinking coffee from a soup bowl. Those coffee cups were huge. They looked like they could serve Vietnamese Pho.