I love coffee. Not the frou-frou mocha/latte/espresso-with-an-s crap that passes for coffee in these benighted days, but a good cup of coffee like you get at a restaurant with waitresses who call you “Hon.” Bunn and Cory are the best; gently roasted to get a nut-like flavor without burning up the caffeine. Damn, you can drink that stuff by the gallon, and Betty behind the counter is glad to warm it up for free. Half and half or (sigh) real cream are best, but the powdered stuff will do in a pinch (no arguments from me if you are a black coffee drinker). Starbucks or any of its clones? Burnt and bitter and suitable only as a laxative. Flavorings? Only for dilettantes and children; good coffee doesn’t need flavorings. Sugar? Best added externally, like with pie or a Werthers in between your cheek and gum (I’m naming my first root canal Werther.)
As I lunch on vanilla wafers and Sam’s Club coffee (it’s what we have here), discuss your favorite coffees.
anything from a diner, greasy spoon, or highway restaurant bearing a woman’s name. oh yeah, hunting camp coffee from graniteware just might be unbeatable.
lieu, you are so right! Reading the OP, I was thinking, “Man, nothing beats a good cup o’ joe from Beth’s Cafe…” Then I read your post. Diner, check. Greasy spoon, check. Highway restaurant bearing a woman’s name, check. Beth’s is all of those things and so much more. I love it. Especially the coffee.
Man, if I didn’t agree so wholeheartedly with the OP, I’d be slinging this baby into IMHO so fast it’d cause nose-bleeds.
“It is not difficult to brew good coffee. A tablespoonful should be allowed for each cup. Good coffee can be made by starting to brew it in cold water, or it may be made with boiling water. Do not boil it for too long, as this brings out a bitter flavor. Bring it to a boil and then set in back on the fire to keep warm while the grounds settle.”
I’m not a big fan of coffee, but nothing goes better with a couple of scrambled eggs, some hash browns, and toast served in a greasy spoon than a steamy cup of java. If you have a slight headache and quesy stomach from drinking just a little too much the night before, all the better. You can then walk out into the bright light of day, breathe in the fresh air, and go home and take a good long nap.
We used to have great coffee like that at work. But it has long since been replaced by the “gourmet” stuff. $1.75 for coffee? And no bottomless cup? It’s an outrage! Gimmie a cup a joe any day.
[sub]I actually started a thread tangentially related to this a while back, but I’m far too lazy to search for it and besides, it would be presumptious.[/sub]
I second the OP. The best coffee comes out of a glass pot with a stainless-steel bottom poured by a peroxide blonde wearing a pink polyester dress and nurse’s shoes while a cigarette hangs from her lips.
That being said, I will step over my grandmother to get a cup of Cafe’ du Monde coffee with chicory, straight up. Keep the “au lait” for the pantywaists over there eatin’ cookies.
And skip the cup. Just shoot it right into my jugular there.
now admittedly sometimes in the morning i’ll slip a shot of baileys into my javatraveltanker on the way to work. it kinda takes that nuclear aftertaste out of the accompanying pop tarts. plus, it’s one of those things that you do because you can… you know, like when you sprinkle catnip on the dog’s testicles.
Hallelujah, I love plain old boring coffee. The best brew I can find comes from One World Cafe, on N. Charles Street in Baltimore. I buy a pound every few weeks and make a pot every morning (and on rainy afternoons too). I have a favorite B&N mug with some beloved writers on it, and a lovely silver travel mug from Starbuck’s. But I’ll have none of that fancy crap in either - just plain old, Sarah-style java. I’m drinking a cup right now.
I like it with extra half and half and a spoon of sugar. Light and sweet, yummy yum yum. It makes my morning far more hospitable.
There’s a great diner, Jimmy’s, in Fell’s Point that I frequent. Nothing like a greasy cheddar-and-bacon omelet, home fries, and thick, sweet coffee accompanied by a cigarette. And there’s nothing better than a bottomless cup.
My friends run to Starbucks in the morning and shell out $4.25 for a grande chocolate brownie mocha frappucino. I go to 7-11 and spend $1.50 TOPS on boring joe that’s much, much more delicious.
Glasgow, like the rest of the world, has been invaded by a plague of Starbucks and Seattle Coffee Co., and all their little brothers and sisters, like SubWay. I’ve nothing against it, heck, I even watch Friends.
But this is the United Kingdom. We are famous for having the worst food in the world. The WORLD, dammit. What is this country coming to when I walk into a shop on Byres Road - THE MOST DOWN-TO-EARTH STREET IN THE CITY - and ask for bread and butter, and they get snotty? These schmucks from Bearsden want to look down their noses at me because my pregnant wife needs bread and butter instead of a 6-inch snotwich? I want STALE BREAD and NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION BUTTER, savvy? The stuff that tastes of bromide.
I’m sorry. The best they could do was fresh bread and poncy edible cheese. £1 plus dirty look and badmouthing us to their regulars. Used to be you could eat a British Rail sandwich and lose your entire breakfast. Now you actually feel energised. Ah, phooey…
Hmmm. Hate to say it, but, while I appreciate the “Waitress with Maxwell House eyes and marmalade thighs”[sup]1[/sup] presentation you refer to, the French-roasted, espresso-grind, high-potency, the-stuff-should-be-able-to-dissolve-a-spoon versions of the “gourmet” coffee have spoiled me [sup]2[/sup]. I used to drink stuff like the OP refers to, but it usually seems awful weak to me these days. You can bloody SEE through it. Of course, it’s also the high-potency stuff that’s given me serious caffeine addiction. Drinking “normal” institutional coffee for years didn’t leave me in a condition that I get a blazing headache without my coffee. Of course, I try to stay out of Starbucks, and use the independent places. What really did me in was a local Bay Area institution called Peet’s[sup]3[/sup]. I used to work for a company that provided Peet’s, and I always buy it for home. I’ve always worked for companies that at least provided free coffee, but it ain’t Peet’s any more.
[sup]1[/sup] - Tom Waits.
[sup]2[/sup] - Not the frou-frou concoctions. The stuff dripped through nice oily beans ground to a fine powder rather than the gravel you find in “institutional” coffee packs.
[sup]3[/sup] - Peet’s has actually being doing the “specialty coffee” schtick since 1966. Notably, they’ve always focused on providing coffee and tea and not coffee flavored popsicles.
I’m with dropzone, keep that fancy-schmancy crap outta my cup. I ordered COFFEE.
At home, I have Stewart’s. I bought a can when my aunt died, because it was her “house brand” when I was growing up and it made me feel good to open the cupboard and see that plaid can. Plus it was really good, strong but not bitter coffee. After a year or so, my grocery store was temporarily out of Stewart’s, so I bought Maxwell House, and I have to tell you, that stuff doesn’t even smell like coffee to me anymore.
Let’s hear it for plain ol’ coffee. Reminds me of the days when a buddy and I drove big rig on the highways:
Waitress: “Whadalahave?”
Me: “Coupla joes. One regular, one double-double,”
Waitress: “Comin’ up.”
And it would appear, just as we asked. Ahhh, we were happy with it.
No pretence, no nothing, except good coffee the way we ordered it. That’s the way I make it at home, and that’s how I like it. In fact, the longer it stays in the pot, the better I like it. Burned and strong–works for me.
I’ll admit that sometimes, if all you’re going to have is one “cup,” and I have to credit Starbucks with spreading a gospel that holds as a central tenet that a demitasse ain’t enough of ANYTHING, you might be forced to go with what’s available, but did you know that French roasting reduces the caffeine? No, coffee should be lightly roasted and taken in large doses all day long. Or until noon, if I plan on sleeping that night.
Peet’s is awesome. Especially the Sulawesi. Go to Rome for espresso the way it should be. Man, I can slings shots back there, but Starbucks makes me gag.
I second lieu, any kinda coffee out in the woods is great stuff.
What’s this talk about “a cup” of coffee. My second pot just finished brewing. The can says Hills Bros. French Roast. Must have been on sale last trip to the store. May not be good, but there’s lots of it. And it’s not too weak to defend itself (to continue the TW connex.)
Oh, but all you poor Merkins don’t know what real espresso-machine coffee is meant to look like. I was in the states in January, and wherever I ordered capuccino, they gave me half a litre of warm milk with a shot of coffee in the bottom - eeurgh! You gotta believe me here, people, that’s not how it’s meant to be! (and I’m not even going to start on Starbucks…)
After a day or two in NY, though, I gotta admit, I gave up and started drinking filter coffee with my bagel like all the locals… ahh, bagels…
