Fun Stuff > CHATTER
I want to talk about coffee.
Melodic:
--- Quote from: Jeans on 11 Oct 2010, 06:51 ---*I don't know if buying Fairtrade is an empty gesture or if it actually does anything, but I assume the farmers are paid before the coffee is sold to me, so they won't suffer because of the price cut, at least.
--- End quote ---
Fair trade, along with a few other umbrella terms like "organic", are almost completely meaningless, and it's almost a rule of thumb that the more of these kinds of titles are attached to your coffee, the crappier it's gonna taste. Fair trade, specifically, is a pretty dumb system anyway: although, yes, it means the growers get more dollar, it works in effect like a welfare system for coffee-growing nations, and attracts growers who aren't as interested (or, aren't as capable) in quality coffee.
--- Quote from: Inlander on 11 Oct 2010, 15:40 ---Normally I'm disgustingly snobbish about putting sugar in coffee and tea, but if you're drinking a shot of espresso it's traditional to put just a little bit of sugar in to cut the bitterness and bring out the flavour of the coffee. Go to Italy if you don't believe me!
--- End quote ---
Dude, there's a reason high-end espresso bars and cafes these days aren't traditional Italian ones: just because it's classic doesn't mean it's right! Traditional Italian espressos are, by today's standards, fairly diluted, using only about 6-8g of ground bean to a 1oz espresso, which makes a bitter, watery shot. In that situation, you might need a little sugar, yes. Does that mean you should do it in your neighborhood cafe (or, heaven forbid, your local specialty coffee bar)?
Hell no! Anyone with a modern espresso bar is dosing at LEAST 18g of dry ground bean to 1-1.5oz espresso (the cafe I work at, which just won the Krups Kup of Excellence Canadian independent cafe competition, doses between 22 and 24g for a "shot"). Higher dosing promotes a few things, not chief among them a velvety mouthfeel that you utterly destroy with any kind of hard sugar. Additionally, adding sugar to an espresso with proper crema is just going to make the drink over-sweet -- espresso is supposed to have that brightness at the beginning of your drink, and if you need to add sugar to get it you're at the wrong cafe.
[/rant]
On the subject of coffee-at-home, I can't really do it anymore. Although I still appreciate press-pot coffee, I've become completely addicted to the Clover (which is, in essence, a very expensive automated french-press/siphon-filter machine). If you can find one in your city, it's worth a trip to check out the smoothest "drip" coffee you'll ever have. Too bad Starbucks bought them out and halted production completely, or they might be a little more popular.
KharBevNor:
--- Quote from: Melodic on 14 Oct 2010, 10:41 --- it works in effect like a welfare system for coffee-growing nations, and attracts growers who aren't as interested (or, aren't as capable) in quality coffee.
--- End quote ---
So you're saying suffering and injustice produce good coffees?
What is the 'mouthfeel' of oppression?
peterh:
--- Quote from: Melodic on 14 Oct 2010, 10:41 ---Dude, there's a reason high-end espresso bars and cafes these days aren't traditional Italian ones: just because it's classic doesn't mean it's right! Traditional Italian espressos are, by today's standards, fairly diluted, using only about 6-8g of ground bean to a 1oz espresso, which makes a bitter, watery shot. [/rant]
--- End quote ---
I assume that you're talking about "traditional Italian" coffee shops in Canada, not about the country Italy... right?
Hugh B Hayve:
Arr-dee-arr Billy! I be likin' me coffee with a shot-o-Captain's don'tcha know. :-D
Ozymandias:
--- Quote from: KharBevNor on 13 Oct 2010, 03:18 ---I think it's fair enough to guess that Ozy made the Clarkson comparison as a snide way of decrying my fairly undemanding taste in coffee as priggish, boorish, unreconstructed, reactionary, middle class, witless, ugly and distasteful to civilized man. Which would indicate that socioculturally, drinking coffee which takes longer to prepare and is more expensive is judged as a sign of sophistication, which casts us back to a rather baroque view of taste, don't you think?
--- End quote ---
Nah, I don't give two shits about coffee. The comment was just very aggressively sarcastic and snide towards overly elitist trappings in a very Clarkson way.
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