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Black coffee appreciation

#141
Downunderwonder said:
it does sound bogus but I have never tasted a totally perfect cup of coffee and never had one in Italy so I can leave your opinion unchallenged.
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I'm in the business and have spoken to the Director of Illy France, and reps and baristas from other companies from Switzerland, France, Sweden, the U.K. and so on, they all have the same opinion.

I also live an hour from the border and go there often for a day or more, the attention to detail in the preparation of food and drink, from production to preparation to packaging is spectacular. I feel at home there because you can talk to almost any Italian for hours about food and they will think it is not only completely normal but uncivilized to not be so interested.

The flip side is they are extremely rigid and usually resistant to eating or drinking anything not made the traditional way they are used to, making them terrible travelers, even if they are visiting the town next to theirs.
 
#143
-Asdfgh- said:
The best coffee I have ever had in the UK was out the back of one of those mobile coffee outlets in an old vehicle from a company based in Harrogate, and rivalled an Italian cup. It was at a festival and I think I had four or five cups over the course of the day!
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Of course the best coffee in the UK can be found chez moi any time of day. :-)
To be fair, good coffee is out there but can be a crap-shoot.
 
#144
Downunderwonder said:
Where do Italians get their beans? The rest is just time temp and pressure.
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Most cafes and restaurants use local to them roasters, and the coffe is delivered regularly in small batches to each outlet. Distribution in general is not very centralised in Italy and there are still multitudes of small companies that deliver drinks and food to the restaurants, just as many independent service companies exist to adjust and maintain the machines and grinders, when they check the hardness of the water and account for the humidity and air pressure, etc.

The size of the shot varies from region to region, but the constant is that the price per cup is very low and people prefer to have many perfect single shots a day than to order a double, for example.

One particularity is that sugar is almost always used in an espresso, to the point where it creates surprise if you drink one black.

No one would ever finish a meal with a Cappucino, and the milk in one is always lightly frothed to a dome, you never see mountains of froth.

The milk is also never over steamed or scalded and the drinking temperature is always perfect when the coffee is served, as meant to be. You never have to wait for it to cool, and it should be drunk immediately when the crema is fresh or the milk freshly steamed, whether in a macchiato, a latte, or a Cappucino.
 
#145
yup... black only for me if it's a non-espresso preparation. The flavor notes get completely lost in milk for pourover. Espresso I like straight or as a macchiato (just a tiny splash of microfoam) or cortado (a couple ounces of microfoam). Sometimes a really great espresso can also be magical as a macchiato.

It's gotta be good coffee prepared correctly though. There has been a time or two when I was so desperate for some coffee or for some caffeine that I bought some from Charbucks and it was so bad that I was forced to add a bit of cream to temper the nastiness.

To me dark roasts are for people who like the taste of carbon rather than the taste of coffee because that is what you get when you roast a coffee bean until it is mostly carbon. The longer you roast it the less you're tasting of the components of the coffee bean as they gradually burn off.
 
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#146
One Drop said:
and the milk in one is always lightly frothed to a dome, you never see mountains of froth.

The milk is also never over steamed or scalded and the drinking temperature is always perfect when the coffee is served, as meant to be. You never have to wait for it to cool, and it should be drunk immediately when the crema is fresh or the milk freshly steamed, whether in a macchiato, a latte, or a Cappucino.
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This is also true for any properly run independent coffee shop in the US though there are still plenty of bad ones. Typically if I'm in a coffee shop and I hear that high squeal accompanying the milk frothing I just turn around and walk out because the coffee will surely be bad.
 
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#147
In college it was coffee with cream and sugar, plenty of it. After graduation and doing some camping I decided to switch to black coffee only and never looked back- 25 years now. It is so much easier traveling, at my office (K Cups, no cream or sugar needed), etc.. I tell my wife it tastes better, as does tea but she isn't ready to pull the trigger,..........yet.
 
#148
SteveCS said:
Of course the best coffee in the UK can be found chez moi any time of day. :-)
To be fair, good coffee is out there but can be a crap-shoot.
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The little stall I referred too was really a massive step up from anything else I've ever had in any small boutique coffee place, or one of the national chains. I've only had a couple of cups in Italy, but it was entirely comparable. I'm not sure where the beans came from (i.e. I can no longer remember) although I did try to chase up via the festival organiser to try and work out the name of the coffee firm and find them, but without luck. It was just one of those perfect days until the torrential summer rain... Apart from given I was driving the craft beers were off limits (hence the coffee).
 
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#152
"No accessories in my coffee!"

I never put anything in tea. Always cream to cool off the coffee though. Then a few years ago, I thought I was having problems with dairy so I cut the cream out of the coffee. And I never went back.

Either slow drip or french press. Getting ready to enter the "grind your own beans" world next.
 
#156
For those wanting a good deal on a very good grinder I recommend watching the refurbished grinders stock at baratza.com. Not only do they have some excellent grinders as low as the $100 range they also are known for amazing service and support.

I have a Baratza Vario with Ditting burrs (Ditting = THE BEST for non-espresso preparations) which I got for a very nice discount by watching the refurbs there. The stock changes regularly.

And you're right.. there's no going back once you start grinding fresh. I cannot recall the last time I had preground coffee. I take a grinder everywhere.. a full-blown electric burr grinder if traveling by car and a hand-crank burr grinder when traveling by plane. Along with an electric kettle and Hario pourover setup.

brad
 
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#159
DigMe said:
For those wanting a good deal on a very good grinder I recommend watching the refurbished grinders stock at baratza.com. Not only do they have some excellent grinders as low as the $100 range they also are known for amazing service and support.

I have a Baratza Vario with Ditting burrs (Ditting = THE BEST for non-espresso preparations) which I got for a very nice discount by watching the refurbs there. The stock changes regularly.

And you're right.. there's no going back once you start grinding fresh. I cannot recall the last time I had preground coffee. I take a grinder everywhere.. a full-blown electric burr grinder if traveling by car and a hand-crank burr grinder when traveling by plane. Along with an electric kettle and Hario pourover setup.
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Yep, the Vario rocks. We use it too. The only thing better than the Baratza's is the customer service. Pierce and his son run an excellent operation, only about an hour from me.

-Mike
 
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