Meanwhile in America:
as someone who doesn’t like coffee I can tell you what she’s drinking is also coffee
Coffee flavoured dessert.
When 90% is some form of cream or sugar, that’s not coffee
I don’t understand why anyone goes to Starbucks. I just go to the local coffee houses, and they are awesome.
It’s certainly not just a US thing.
I have this conversation with my wife. Her reply is that Starbucks has better ordering infrastructure where she doesn’t have to get out of the car when she has the kids. I get that.
I live in Hawai’i. We have locally grown coffee. We have chains that sell said locally grown coffee, located in malls. And you STILL see people lined up at the Starbucks. Branding is a powerful thing. Notice that people who get Starbucks will say “I need a Starbucks” and not “I need a coffee.” They’ve become conditioned to look for that green and that logo.
I don’t understand why anyone goes to Starbucks
Me neither. I still can’t figure out why they burn the fuck out of their beans, or who likes that flavor. Outside of some bottom of the barrel instant shit it’s literally the worst coffee I’ve ever had.
My guess is dark and medium roasts are more common than light roasts because it masks low quality coffee beans better.
Used to work there, that’s exactly right. Same reason McDonald’s makes their burgers so well done. What chains sell isn’t quality, but consistency, and it’s easier to produce a consistent overcooked food product
Yeah, also why it isn’t hard to outdo fast food with home cooking. The sauces might not be as good (since the food industry has those down to a science) but I made homemade meatballs on a whim last night and they were somehow both kinda bland as well as way better than any chain burger and comparable to premium burgers just from the cooking quality (despite the circuit breaker going off because my air fryer and freezer cycled on at the same time and having to guess at how much time was left on the timer lol).
Though IMO McDonald’s has the lamest patties out of all the fast food places. No idea how they got and stayed so big based on them. A&W and Wendy’s have far better burger patties, though even they are still a far cry from good homemade ones cooked well (but not well done).
Consistent but low quality is so boring.
Yes. Coffee is as susceptible to terroir as wine and can vary season to season. So lots of companies mix up their beans from different farms and over-roast them (reducing the caffeine in the process) in order to get a consistent flavor. And when I say “consistent” I mean they all effectively taste the same. I buy “medium roast” coffee from Costco from time to time. I’ve bought it from several different labels and the beans all taste the same. So I just took to mixing it all up into my “here’s what I’m drinking because I can’t spend more on good coffee now” bin. Which is clear. Before mixing it up it all looks the same as well. Hell, it might all actually just be the same coffee being sold under different labels!
Also burnt coffee is bitter and drives people to add flavor shots, etc to it. Which Starbuck’s likes because that’s where the money is.
Makes me wish producers were in the game to sell good products rather than to sell as much as they can of anything they think will make a profit.
Yeah, people forget the point of capitalism isn’t to satisfy the consumer. It’s to maximize returns to the current owners.
If they can do that with good products, they will. If they can make more money with a shitty product, the that’s what’s on the menu
What does the map show?
Shows some countries around Europe in Green
Countries that Starbucks had conquered in Risk. This means they get an extra 5 armies on their next turn.
Looks like countries in Europe and North Africa with at least one Starbucks store.
From my own experience living in a couple of those countries, this doesn’t mean much as Starbuck presence in some is pretty much residual with a handful of places in main cities or airports, serving mostly tourists (who, at least at first, don’t know they can get better and way cheaper coffee - not to mention pastries - in the local coffee shops which are all over the place)
For example, the UK (which has zero coffee tradition, though it does have the imported notion of patisserie in places like London) has lots of Starbucks whilst for example there are all of 11 Starbucks shops (almost all of which in tourist areas, two of which in the Airport) in Lisbon which is the capital of Portugal (a city of 1 - 2 million people), whilst there are thousands (probably tens of thousands, as they’re stupidly common) local coffee places just in Lisbon plus pretty much all local restaurants serve proper expressos made with properly roasted good quality Arabica beans (though Portugal does have a tendency for over-roasting) in Italian expresso machines.
That map most definitelly does not confirm the claim of Starbucks being a thing in Europe since a lot of that green is “is present”, not “it’s common”, much less “has a large market share”.
Having lived in multiple of those countries, lets just say that most of those greens aren’t anywhere as green as in a few others and even the most green of all (probably the UK) aren’t as green as the US.
For a lot of those countries (which have long traditions of good coffee), Startbucks have only a handful of stores in one or two major cities, mostly frequented by tourists since the locals can get better coffee from local coffee places and its way cheaper.
(Were I am now, Portugal, there’s a coffee place just about in every corner in any city, plus restaurants, all serving perfect expressos from Italian made expresso machines, with the most expensive cup in a place like Lisbon costing about €1.20)
You’re seriously deceiving yourself if you think there being and handful of Startbuck stores in touristic areas in a country with a strong tradition of coffee drinking is Starbucks being “a thing” there.
Last time I was in Portugal, 90% of the coffee was of the same aweful brand, think it was called Delta? Is that still as dominant?
Sadly, yes.
That’s the one which IMHO tends to be over-roasted.
Reminds me of this cyanide and happiness skit
Blacker than a moonless night. That is coffee.
Yes
I like coffe the same way I like chocolate, extremely dark. Not because I think it makes me better, I just like the bitter earthy taste of dark chocolate and black coffee :3
I mean, I prefer light roasts where the coffee is more dark brown. But coffee is coffee. It needs no additives. Unless you’re talking about a pinch of salt to add to a cold brew.
it’s spelled Rebbekahh.
Starbucks = hot Dairy Queen
America:
The same coffee + a gallon of water:
American coffee!
Not really, you’re forgetting half a galon of sugars, syrups, creams and spices
the americano is named for the us soldiers stationed in italy during wwii who would pour water into their espresso because it was “too strong”. it’s one part espresso to four parts water.
Probably not true? Though Wikipedia isn’t an authoritative source obviously:
There is a popular belief that the name has its origins in World War II when American G.I.s in Italy diluted espresso with hot water to approximate the coffee to which they were accustomed. However, the Oxford English Dictionary cites the term as a borrowing from Central American Spanish café americano, a derisive term for mild coffee, dating back to the middle of the 1950s. Its first use in English appeared in the Jamaican newspaper The Sunday Gleaner in 1964. The term caffè americano entered Italian later than the English or Spanish uses, suggesting the term originates outside of Italy.
yeeeeah but it gets their panties in a twist
This is the same logic that elected Donald Trump
i think we need to update godwins law
Fair enough :)
I always forget that sugar never left the Americas. But at least you get tea with gag milk!
Yes for the Starbucks addicts and electric wand users, but even black coffee consumers are drinking some mild bean water instead of proper coffee. Even our espresso is weak af most of the time.
how do you measure strength of coffee? caffeine content?
Yeah caffeine content for something you could measure but I was more talking about flavor. Shit beans are very common in the US but we also use more water and fewer beans so even when you get good coffee it just feels a bit diluted, even black. At least from restaurants and cafes, I’m perfectly happy with most home brewed coffee here as long as it’s not like foldgers from a clock/coffee maker combo, even some of cupped Keurig-like stuff is okay. I feel like our cold brews are decent too.
I just want something to sip on through my morning. 3 cups of drip coffee with milk lasts a few hours.
I do decaf when I drink too much regular coffee, it’s allowed 😺
I have a moka pot at home for an afternoon espresso, but when I have to plow through emails or set up files or drive to work, I want something that I can sip on for awhile. Sure I could have a tea, but drop coffee is very pleasant for that situation. It’s like nursing a beer versus a shot of vodka.
but not with milk after 11! 🤌
Of course not 🤌🏼 , only tourists do that!
Hydration is important!
At least we make real coffee instead of tea with coffee flavor
What’s “real coffee”
Coffee is made from ground up coffee beans steeped in water.
Do you just eat the beans?
Is this the European health secret?
No that’s health insurance leading to the ability to actually go to the doctor when you’re sick
I am European, I do drink a lot of coffee and will happily crunch through a handful of beans… I also started just eating spoonfuls of instant coffee…its great… probably healthy?
“Americano” got its name from US soldiers coming to France during World War 2. They didn’t like our coffee, it was too strong for them. So the French added water and named it “Americano” to mock Americans.
Ehhh, the French mocking people is hardly something to stand on as an argument. Other things the French will mock people for:
- pronouncing bread names wrong
- attempting to pronounce bread names correctly
- liking the Eiffel Tower
- not liking the Eiffel Tower
- speaking French
- not speaking French
An Americano is also not just coffee, it is espresso. This is like saying someone can’t handle their liquor because they ask for a cocktail they can sip on instead of straight shots of vodka. I do like shots of espresso as a pick me up sometimes, but other times I want something I can sip on whilst talking with a friend or working. Much like how sometimes I will slam back whiskey like it’s water, or make a nice cocktail if I’m taking it easy and want to enjoy myself.
FYI espresso is normal coffee.
It absolutely is not.
Here is a medium size from america:
Would you like fries with that? For $1.30 extra you can biggie size it….
Same amount of coffee, less water… This is efficiency.
I mean, unless you want have more liquid to drink and want it to taste good.
If you just want to consume caffeine as fast as possible, caffeine pills exist.
Ah yes, those Italians with their separate glass of water which they use to wash down the less-good tasting coffee that they are famous for.
I’m not saying European coffee is bad, I’m saying that if you’re you want a large amount of hot beverage then espresso is not the appropriate style of coffee, and that drip coffee can in fact be very tasty.
Drip coffee is much more common in the North America, and generally what people are referring to when they say “can I get a coffee”.
I’m not saying European coffee is bad,
Then why did you say:
And if you want it to taste good
It just comes across as bullish Americanism, you know?
I was referring to drip coffee tasting good, as in, a large amount of good tasting hot beverage.
Yes but it also has 3× the caffeine compared to an American large. They’re just efficient
🍺 vs 🥃
Yeah, no… I’m there all the time. The coffee is the same as far as caffeine goes by type or volume. An espresso is an espresso, an Americano is the same as a normal cup of American coffee. Europe doesn’t have “magic beans” with triple the caffeine, and no sane person is ordering triple-shot European “large” cups to go. I bring home ground or whole coffee all the time, it’s the same.
What Europe does do is put the shot of coffee in a smaller “large” so you can actually taste the coffee and not drown it in as much milk or put sugary crap in it. The American norm is the “dessert” in a giant cup nominally called coffee, which is essentially a flavored milk drink with a dash of coffee. “Why is the coffee so much better here?” is something I hear often enough in Europe, and that’s the answer. Less crap.
Energy drink time :3
Culture shock turns into an electric shock when the paramedics try to revive him
Potion of Ventricular Tachycardia (grande)
Reminds me of a buddy of mine who came to stay with me when I lived in Boca Raton. I dig the occasional cafecito and so I have a couple moka pots, one of which is big enough to make like six Cuban espressos. Braddah crams the thing full, presses it down, and crams more in (thought he was going to blow my moka pot because of how dense it was packed). He then found the biggest coffee mug I had and poured the contents of the moka pot into that mug once it was done brewing. Apparently this was a normal thing for him.
Pathetic
Because we have 2x the amount of beans. We dont drink «coffee», we drink ¡coffee!
Yeah, on this slightly newer table, the US is the 70th highest consumer of coffee per capita. The vast majority of European countries consume more dry coffee.
Espresso takes more coffee per serving than American drip, so comparing dry is going to he misleading.
That’s kind of the point.
Does nescafe even count as real coffee?
No. And it’s a crime against coffee and ecology.
Canada is the only non-European country in the top 10 coffee consuming nations
Hell yeah, let’s go Canada!
“Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death and sweet as love”
Coffee is brewed in ratios of beans:water that varies depending on the style being made. An espresso in Europe should be more or less the same size as an espresso in the states. Same for pour over, cold brew, lattes, etc
Americans: how many gallons of milk do you want me to put this burnt filter coffee in?
I’ve not been to the States, but is drip coffee likely to get over-extracted (which is what we tend to describe as “burnt”)? I would have thought that it would be stale from sitting on the hot plate, and flat if the water’s from a reservoir, but probably under-extracted unless the water’s too hot to start.
Burnt in this case would be leaving it on the hot plate for too long methinks
Partly over extraction, but mainly all of the “common” coffee here are medium dark or dark roast adjacent blends, which tends towards those maltier, burnt flavors and tends to be “smoother” when mixed with creme and sugar than more fruity light roasts.
There are plenty of light and medium roasts everywhere, but if you dont specify, you will get a darker roast.
As another commenter says, it’s their custom of making drip coffee and then leaving it on a hot plate to denature all flavour remaining after the aromatics have been cooked off
Listen. I am a coffee snob. I have friends who send me unique coffees from their travels, coffees that have light roasts and mangosteen flavor notes. I am adept at using a Hario pour-over, with a scale, and beans that I grind myself every morning. I know how to tweak my pours to change the flavor and body of my coffee, depending on the roast and bean. With all of that being said, I still have, deep in my heart, a love for that stale, black charcoal water that’s been sitting on a hot plate since time immemorial, poured into a scratchy ceramic mug and slid over to me with minimal effort and even an air of contempt by a woman who smells of Virginia Slim cigarettes and calls me “hon’” when impatiently asking me for my order. Nothing pairs better with crispy corned beef hash and runny eggs. Nothing.
I love the romance of that scene, and I do enjoy an American dinner, but I’m sorry that coffee is just dreadful
It does not.
That full to the brim mini-shot cup is literally more quantity than a short expresso.
The coffee machine at work allows you to queue up cappuccinos, so I can fill my mug with a double.
Espresso espresso cappuccino at my office. But no queue, just people giving me side eye as I keep pressing buttons.
Haha, amazing
the coffee machine has the button for a normal cup labeled “☕☕”
aggrandizing little shit.
