We were watching a DVR’d episode of Inspector Lewis last night, and a college professor had a French press on his desk. I couldn’t tell if it held coffee or tea. If it was coffee, it was too weak for my tastes.
I’m not keen on Kenco - don’t know why - and normally go for Percol Columbian instant. As to whether British instant coffee is a good as ground coffee I think it’s not a useful question. I find it best to think of them as two separate drinks and there are times when I want instant and time when I want “real” coffee. They’re linked but not to be directly compared. God knows there is crap instant coffee but there is a lot of god awful ground coffee out there as well.
ThelmaLou: Because I treat them as different drinks I hate the “whole bean instant” or “fusion instant” stuff that has appeared recently. To me it doesn’t taste like real ground coffee, it just tastes like not so great instant with some muddy coffee grounds in the bottom to spit out :dubious: As to kettles: the latest toy for the kitchen is the boiling water tap built in to the sink. Nothing on the work top at all and boiling water whenever you need it.
Johnny L.A.: Re. Lewis, probably coffee - it would be really unusual to make tea in a french press/cafetiere. The strength could be just the props department not doing a good job or - I have to admit it - some Brits make coffee far too weak.
I just can’t get my head round not having a kettle. How do you … gah … how?!
I worked for a couple of months in Atlanta. I got banned from making coffee as apparently I made it far too strong. The usual stuff they made tasted like ye olde British Rail coffee.
Like someone else said, I treat instant and “real” coffee as different drinks. I like both.
As a general rule, you’re not supposed to be able to see through coffee like that.
My first thought was the noise of a drip coffee maker; it isn’t a ‘normal’ sound in an English kitchen and might be a distraction to the viewer.
And kettles are ubiquitous in English kitchens (which usually aren’t as big as those I see on US programs), so a French Press is likely more common.
Personally I have a drip machine, a French Press and will soon invest in an espresso maker, but I’m considered a bit of a coffee snob amongst friends.
Most Americans have kettles, just not electric. It’s a nuisance. I bought an electric kettle years ago and would never go back. But most Americans don’t drink tea too often, so.
A French press is probably the best way to make good coffee for guests in a house that doesn’t regularly make coffee. The press is inexpensive, doesn’t take up much room, and if you’re already heating water for tea, it’s dead simple to make.
I have some instant (although I often forget about it), and some ground. I have a coffee drip machine, but it’s a bit bulky, and have recently acquired a manual drip (just a carafe basically you put a disposable paper filter on), which I like, so I am thinking of giving/selling the machine.
My wife is American and it’s amusing how she has an almost instinctive revulsion to the very concept of instant coffee. It was my staple growing up when it wasn’t tea. I don’t mind it, but ground is definitely nicer.
I just think its funny that British people universally say “oh you silly Americans, instant coffee is just fine!” … but if you ask them if they think tea made from instant tea powder would be good they have an aneurysm. Imagine an American toddling up and saying “Oh, I drink instant tea, it’s fine, but brewed is nicer”… does that sentence make ANY sense to British tea drinkers?
Instant coffee is horriffic for the same reason instant tea would be. It’s terrible 1. because nothing but the lowest grade coffee ever gets made into instant – good quality beans are worth way more than instant sells for, and 2. because the flavor is made up of volatile oils that don’t survive the processing.
For those interested in the “superfine coffee grinds” method of instant, Starbucks Via packets are made that way.
But we do nearly always make our tea with tea bags, so actually we do have “instant” tea. It’s just that leaves don’t work very well being made into granulated form. We know this because granulated tea does exist and it’s rank.
Eta: Have you ever tried instant coffee in the UK? Some of it is quite good, though really, like others said, it’s better to think of it as a slightly different drink to filter coffee.
I don’t drink coffee, but my experience is that people having instant will never have it black. When you’re using it just to modify the taste of milk (as in my mother’s manchados, which have more milk than coffee) or hiding it under a mountain of sugar (one of my former bosses was asked to please not assemble his concoction where other people could see it, as it made their blood sugar raise in sympathy), it doesn’t have to taste like good coffee - coffeeish is enough.
You seem to have missed the point of Hello Again’s argument. You saying “Some [instant coffee] is quite good, though really, like others said, it’s better to think of it as a slightly different drink to filter coffee” is pretty much exactly like someone telling you that some granulated tea is quite nice, though you should really think of it as a slightly different drink than leaf tea.
I do. Again, you just need to find an instant that tastes good on its own. I can think of only three that suit me (Taster’s Choice Red, Moccona Continental Gold, and Nescafe Gold).
Not at all. I was pointing out that instant tea, in tea bag format, is actually the most common way of drinking tea in UK homes. Therefore it’s not hypocritical if we also sometimes like instant coffee.
Our instant coffee also seems to not be the same as yours, so I’m not sure Americans who haven’t tried British instant coffee should be rushing so quickly to condemn it.
Eta: if anyone were crazy enough to like granulated tea, which really is unlikely, and they said it was just a different drink, I’d worry about their taste buds but think their point of view made sense.
That’s what I thought. Thanks.
As a general rule, your fork shouldn’t fall over in your coffee cup!
In the U.S., ‘instant’ tea means powdered tea. You put a spoonful of it into water (hot or cold) and stir. We call tea bags ‘tea bags’, and loose tea ‘loose tea’.
I haven’t tried British instant coffee, but I don’t mind instant coffee for a change. It doesn’t taste like ‘real coffee’, but it has a charm all its own. I forgot to quote Nava. Indeed, usually when I see people drinking instant coffee, they add cream and/or sugar.
Perspectives are always interesting. As a strong black coffee loving Brit, I’ve had some of the weakest coffee ever in the US, where filter machines often seem to be the favoured method. I loathe filter coffee, where the coffee is both frequently weak, and stewed.
For the record, I can’t stand instant coffee in any guise. And I don’t drink tea. I’m justing waiting for my deportation notice to come through.
‘Stewed’, to me, has a different connotation: The stuff being steeped is steeped a long time. Filter coffee isn’t steeped very long, as the water passes through and there are no grounds in the pot. I think percolator coffee would count as ‘stewed’, since the same water is passed repeatedly over the same grounds, all the while being heated by the heating element. Personally, I like percolator coffee. It reminds me of childhood. But I haven’t had any in 30 years.
As far as weak… I’ve found that restaurant coffee is usually OK. Not as strong as I like, but not offensively weak. But I almost never have restaurant coffee, unless I’m travelling. At home it’s Dark Roast or French Roast, with enough fresh grounds in the filter to make it strong and tasty.
Perhaps stewed isn’t the right term - I did hover over it but couldn’t think of another description, I guess it is more aptly applied to tea. But it’s that rather bitter taste you get from Filter coffee that has sat in the pot too long. Yuckety yuck.
Don’t get me wrong, I have had many a bad coffee served to me in the UK, most often for breakfast at chain hotels. In this respect, the move to using cafetieres has meant a general improvement from filter. Thankfully most pubs and restaurants now have decent Italian coffee machines.
I drink it anyway.
The SO turns the pot off if it gets to smelling too bad for her.
Of course I prefer fresh coffee. I just hate to waste any. 