What I meant by Proper Coffee
I've been known to gush in the past when I find a coffee shop that sells what I consider to be 'proper' coffee. I'm also famous for my hatred of Costa and Starbucks. This is not an anti-capitalism thing, they simply sell coffee I consider to be very poor quality. Starbucks in particular are well known for their brewing method of burning the beans so that they can happily change bean or supplier and not affect the taste of the coffee, because all individual flavour and character from the beans is removed when they're burned. I don't know about Costa, but judging by the taste of the stuff they probably do the same thing.
It's also come to my attention that an espresso is nowadays considered to be a coffee. I disagree, albeit only in the way that a Coke is not a Pepsi. Yes, it's brewed with the same type of beans, but it's done at high pressure to get the maximum strength out of it. Italian coffee, usually brewed in this way, has come to be considered a deliacacy, but I personally can't stand it, in the same way that I don't actually like belgian chocolate. That's my personal opinion and I'm fine with the fact that I'm a minority. But espressos can be modified in so many different ways, to the point that trendy coffee shops simply sell variations of one espresso and call it variety, and it annoys me that so many so-called 'coffee shops' actually have bugger all in the way of variety, and society considers this acceptable.
Let's just have a bit of a rundown, shall we?
| Espresso | A small 'shot' of coffee, pulled at high pressure. | | --- | --- | | Lungo | An espresso with double the water | | Americano | An espresso with water added to it | | Latte | An espresso added to frothy milk | | Cappuccino | An espresso with frothy milk and chocolate on top |
See the pattern here? That's right, it's all just bloody espresso. I bring Starbucks and Costa into the argument because they take it to the nth level, you can get all sorts of weird and wonderful caffiene-based drinks and it's all made using the same coffee. It's like a pub only having one type of lager but claiming variety because they sell lager, lager shandy, lager and lime and lager tops.
So what do I consider a proper coffee shop? Well, one that serves more than one variety of coffee basically. I personally like my coffee either drip-brewed or brewed in a cafetiere. Good coffee is like good whiskey, you need to start with a good bean, and brew it properly. Also like whiskey, blends are acceptable. Personally I like medium roasted single-bean Nicaraguan coffee, but I'm quite partial to Taylor's Lazy Sunday as a blend. I do hate espresso though, and I certainly don't like the 'trendy' coffee shops that are becoming more common across the western world. It's a rare treat to be able to sit down and try several different coffees, I remember the most pleasant flight delay I ever had was at Cologne-Bonn Airport in 2011, the coffee shop there has coffee from all over South America. I recently found a similar cafe in Edinburgh. Sadly, for me at least, this is the exception rather than the rule - you ask for coffee in most places and you just get an americano. So next time I'm ranting about 'proper coffee', you know what I'm on about.