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Tearful multi-person sis-hug?

"Oh, hello! Welcome to Coffee of Doom unknown new customers!"

"Faye! Oh thank heavens you're still alive!"

Bubbles won't let anyone interact with Faye until she is satisfied that they are not 'a threat to my friend's emotional health'

Dora starts of snappy before getting progressively more tearful and embarrassingly self-condemnatory

Emily points to a sign that has Faye's picture and the message: "Do not serve by order of Deputy Manager"

Everyone acts as if she'd never been away and are unclear on her having ever been absent;

Everyone, curiously, skips over Faye's return in favour of gushing over her 'Kill-bot'

Emily makes Faye a banana smoothie

[oeoek]

quote from You've got mail:
"The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino. "

'I'll make you a nice espresso instead.'

[Morituri]

I recently discovered cold-brewed coffee.  I've always preferred it cold (keeps its flavor better that way) but cold-brewing was new to me. It's simple, really:  Put a pitcher of water, with coffee grounds poured into it, in your fridge overnight.  Or if you're making concentrate, use a lot of coffee grounds and leave it  a few days.  Don't use a plastic pitcher for this, BTW; it's really hard to get them clean afterward.

In the morning, strain the coffee grounds out and you've got a pitcher full of really excellent coffee.  It can be quite concentrated and flavorful without being bitter.  Well, without being more bitter than drip coffee, which isn't very concentrated or flavorful.

If you want it hot, I suppose you'd put it into a microwave, but I prefer to get a mug straight from the freezer, or if I happen to have some (about three days a week depending on when my groceries are delivered) I can pour it over dry ice.  I will never, though, pour it over water ice.  Well, not unless I'm just thirsty and want the extra liquid volume.

[Kugai]

The only true Coffee is Filter Coffee

Instant's OK if you're in a hurry though


Love how Emily calls bullshit on Fayes order in her typical fashion though. 

[bhtooefr]

I've tried cold-brewed, and it doesn't seem as strong to me, even if I let it sit for a long time. Then again, my cold brewing pitcher kit (basically it has a filter to hold the grounds in) basically said to go 12-24 hours to make concentrate, and I found I was drinking straight concentrate and getting almost as much caffeine as drip coffee, so maybe it needed to sit for longer.

[Carl-E]

I can't drink coffee. It does terrible things to me. It's not the caffeine - I can tolerate tea and sodas quite well. But there's something else in coffee - I don't know what - that I can't tolerate at all.

Apparently I suffer from a genetic reaction to an amino acid in coffee that burns iron.  For most people, it's not a big deal - not that much of a reaction.  But I was drinking 2 cups a day for a few months when I started grad school, and was passing out in the afternoon - in class, at my desk, during colloquia, wherever. 

Then one day I went to give blood.  The attendant pricked my finger, and let the drop into the little vial of blue stuff to test for iron (gives you an idea how long ago this was...). 

She looked at the  drop floating there on the surface, looked at me, looked at the drop again, and then asked me, "How come you're still conscious?" 

Turns out coffee - even decaf - makes me anemic.  Really anemic.  I drink lots of black tea to get my caffeine. 

When I started my new job, there was a free coffee machine that said it gave tea.  It tasted like coffee, and I assumed that was just traces from the last cup.  Turns out that they never put tea concentrate into the machine, just used watered down coffee.  After a week, I was passing out in the training sessions and my wife said I looked like a ghost.  I went back to real tea and recovered in a few days.  Then bitched a royal fit to the vendor. 

Just got word that they'll be replacing the coffee machines soon... probably not just me, though.  Lots of people complain about how temperamental it is... almost as bad as a real barista, but with worse coffee! 

[osaka]

You can always put ice in your coffee.

Well you physically can but I don't tolerate the cold at all and dropping two rocks of ice in my coffee would not help.

[Method of Madness]

Ahh. I drink iced coffee all year round because I just prefer it.

[anahata]

The only true Coffee is Filter Coffee

Debatable 

Instant's OK if you're in a hurry though

Burn the heretic 

[Tova]

The only true Coffee

No such thing.

[Akima]

I was really enjoying the anti-bullshit attitude of the Australians towards coffee, but

Anything with milk is right out.

That's a bit hard core even for me, though I will drink espresso if I need to keep myself awake on a long drive.

Heh... I'm not hard-core; I just can't digest lactose comfortably (like the vast majority of my ethnic group).

[jwhouk]

Akima would never survive in Wisconsin.

[Tova]

I have found recently I can drink and even enjoy a long black without sugar, but that's where you need to start being pickier about whom you have make it for you.

Luckily for me, I do enjoy a cafe fairly close by where I live that makes quite a decent long black.

[ankhtahr]

We usually leave our cold brew in the fridge for at least 48 hours. Until our newest flatmate introduced us to pressure infusion. Basically you make cold brew in a cream whipper, pressurised with up to three capsules of N₂O (that makes for about 40atm/580psi) which is the usual whipping agent, and you'll have really, really good cold brew in just 45 minutes.

[mustang6172]

Actually Australian's don't have much sized coffee. Most places you just walk into the cafe and say: "Gimme coffee" and the staff go "here" and give you a standard sized mug, with not a lot of variation between different franchises and stores. It's probably because we like strong flavoured coffee, and if you start mucking about the sizes you risk the flavour becoming overpowering or watered down, so having the same size mug is easier for the baristas.

[hedgie]

I was really enjoying the anti-bullshit attitude of the Australians towards coffee, but

Anything with milk is right out.

That's a bit hard core even for me, though I will drink espresso if I need to keep myself awake on a long drive.

Heh... I'm not hard-core; I just can't digest lactose comfortably (like the vast majority of my ethnic group).

They don't have soya in Sydney?  It's rather common around where I live, and I actually prefer it when I just need to add a splash of something to cool the drink down.

[Kugai]

If I have to have anything at a Cafe if it doesn't have Filter, I go for a Flat White.

[Akima]

They don't have soya in Sydney?

I never thought of that. I guess I'm just not in the habit of thinking of dairy products, or substitutes for them.

[anahata]

Heh... I'm not hard-core; I just can't digest lactose comfortably (like the vast majority of my ethnic group).

Ah - I knew that (about the general lactose intolerance), but I misread your post as milk being "right out" for Australians as a cultural thing, not for you in particular.
Apologies for the misunderstanding. If I ever visit Australia, now I don't have to worry about  being laughed at for asking for milk in my coffee.

[Tova]

Nah. Lattes are popular in Sydney. Even though 'latte sipper' is a terrible insult. But, you know. People.

Edit: But then there's flat whites, which are supposedly different even though NO BARISTA EVER MAKES THEM DIFFERENTLY.

[Consilium]

I logged in expecting opinions on whether Faye is pretending to be cool and is reeling herself in, or maybe just intentionally giving Dora a hard time regarding Emily.

So of course I was surprised when I found an entire page of discussion dedicated to coffee.
For the record I have weaned myself from sugar, trying to embrace the actual coffee's taste instead of disguising it.

Shame.

[cesium133]

I got out of the habit of putting sugar in my coffee after I started drinking Starbucks coffee in grad school. Mainly because their coffee is so bitter that nothing is effective at masking it, so there's no purpose in trying.

[Kugai]

I prefer it Milk and two Sugars

[katsmeat]

Can't help but think if a drink needs sugar to be drinkable, then the drink's being done wrong.

Who needs to put sugar in beer?

[Method of Madness]

I don't think Starbucks coffee needs sugar.

[JJCalem]

I don't have sugar in my coffee anymore, it does make you notice a bad cup that much more though.  I cannot tell you how more frequently I am disappointed in my coffee now that I don't have sugar in it.  It is better when the coffee is good, but I have yet to find a place nearby that is good all of the time.

[Tova]

Can't help but think if a drink needs sugar to be drinkable, then the drink's being done wrong.

Who needs to put sugar in beer?

I think it's fair to say that it's an aquired taste.

Even more so than beer.

I decided relatively late in life to acquire a taste for coffee (much to the bemusement of my partner). It took quite awhile.

[katsmeat]

Can't help but think if a drink needs sugar to be drinkable, then the drink's being done wrong.

Who needs to put sugar in beer?

I think it's fair to say that it's an aquired taste.

Even more so than beer.

I decided relatively late in life to acquire a taste for coffee (much to the bemusement of my partner). It took quite awhile.

That leads to the interesting thought that many, perhaps most, things are acquired tastes, with only a liking for sugar and fat being innate. Which gives rise to the sugary foods liked by children, as they haven't had a chance to acquire tastes for anything else.

But then, I think I have an odd relationship with sugar - my parents never allowed it in the house  When I was eight or so, I was aware it was a big deal with my contemporaries and  when I had the chance, tried it by putting some teaspoons of sugar in a glass of water. To paraphrase my thoughts...  "So this is what they mean by 'sweet'... wow it that it? Seriously unimpressed here."

[chaospersonified]

I decided relatively late in life to acquire a taste for coffee (much to the bemusement of my partner). It took quite awhile.

Yeah, it took a brain injury to get me into coffee.

I'm not even joking. I came out of a coma, and one of the first things I remember is really wanting a cup of coffee

[Is it cold in here?]

I wonder if that was some kind of adaptive response. In the wild, injured and sick animals are known to change their diet and eat things they don't eat when they're healthy.

[Morituri]

@bhtooefr - when cold brewing, definitely don't use a filter to keep the coffee grounds from mixing with the water while brewing.  You're absolutely right, it makes the resulting brew quite weak.  Or else it makes it take several days, take your pick.

@Akima - Yes, the ability to digest milk as adults is kind of bizarre for any mammal.  Humans (of some ethnic groups anyhow) are just weird that way.  I have known at least one person whose lactose intolerance would magically go away for a few days after she ate some live culture yogurt, but I'm not entirely sure what kind of lactose-intolerance she had, so it  might not work for you.  Ms. Lau used that trick because she had acquired a taste for pizza with real cheese.  If you don't have a reason to want to, there's no need to experiment. 

[imaginaryideals]

I worked as a barista for awhile at a locally-owned/operated chocolate and coffee chain in midwest America. Starbucks is the main competitor in that area. It wasn't Coffee of Doom, but it was fairly hipster for the midwest. Beans were locally roasted, etc.

Single/double/triple/quad refers to number of shots pulled. Without a size specified, a single is a small, a double is a medium, a triple is a large, a quad is a large with an extra shot. Generally.

Starbucks-ese also has cup sizes (fluid oz) for tall, medium, and venti. In normal sizes that would be small, medium, large. Specifying a cup size means x shots in that cup size.

Starbucks-ese bastardizes the actual meaning of 'macchiato'. Their version of a macchiato is baaaasically a latte. So what isn't shots in the cup, is milk or syrup.

A latte is a third espresso, a third steamed milk and a third foam. Americans also add syrup. A Starbucks caramel macchiato upside down would just have the coffee floating on top instead of at the bottom.

An actual macchiato is espresso with a dollop of foamed milk. An actual dollop. Of the foam. Doing this upside down would be really stupid.

Yes, Americans put caramel syrup in their coffee. They also put 50 other flavors of syrup in their coffee. Some Americans choose to drink coffee straight or without syrups. However, Americans are very unlikely to do this at Starbucks.

This is in part because Starbucks uses cheap beans and to compensate for the cheap beans, they tend to over-roast their coffee beans, leading a burnt taste. Starbucks coffee tends to be difficult to drink straight. I believe Folgers, the leading brew at home coffee company, also does this, but it's been awhile since I've thought about it.

Americans are not the only ones who put sweeteners in their coffee, but a regular cup of American joe is probably brewed a lot more weakly than European variants. The regulars who weren't American would have straight espresso, black coffee or cappuccinos. I got pretty good at making cappuccinos over time. I was told once by a regular couple that 'in Europe, they didn't need to provide free refills-- one cup of coffee was always enough'. American diners are all about the free refills.

Vietnamese coffee is also very sweet, due to using sweetened condensed milk as part of the recipe.

The more you know. Insert star rainbow here.

[Tova]

They don't have soya in Sydney?  It's rather common around where I live, and I actually prefer it when I just need to add a splash of something to cool the drink down.

Something I forgot to mention. It's not uncommon in Sydney to be charged extra for soy milk.

[Method of Madness]

Starbucks does that too. Then again, my usual order is four shots of espresso over ice.

[hedgie]

They don't have soya in Sydney?  It's rather common around where I live, and I actually prefer it when I just need to add a splash of something to cool the drink down.

Something I forgot to mention. It's not uncommon in Sydney to be charged extra for soy milk.

Same here if someone wants a latte or something similar with it, but I haven't seen anywhere that charges extra for just a splash in otherwise black coffee.  Granted, it costs more, but the amount of the charges for things like soya and syrup help the place stay in business.

[Kugai]

What is this Starbucks you speak of?

The only real Starbuck that I know of flies a Viper

[chaospersonified]

I wonder if that was some kind of adaptive response. In the wild, injured and sick animals are known to change their diet and eat things they don't eat when they're healthy.

Sort of. I actually know exactly what it was. I had about a week of technically being conscious before my memory started working again, and during that time, they had me shuffling between speech, physical, and occupational therapists, all of whom would let me take coffee breaks in the middle of their sessions. So I took a lot of coffee breaks.

The only real Starbuck that I know of flies a Viper

The real Starbuck hears nothing but the rain. The fake Starbucks get bad music playlists and the gentle drip of caffeine

[Method of Madness]

What is this Starbucks you speak of?

The only real Starbuck that I know of flies a Viper

That she does.

[Kugai]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiYIHbVfXto