Mine: Eight to 10 shots of espresso, and some turbinado sugar.
For the purposes of this thread, coffee made in a moka pot counts.
My standard drink is a double Ristretto (all the coffee but half the water of an espresso), brewed at home on my Rancilio Silvia, using freshly ground beans. When it is done well, it needs nothing else. Maybe about 3 of these a day.
Ditto this to the letter, with one exception: I need a bit of turbinado sugar in mine. Not a lot; just enough so that it reminds me of bittersweet chocolate.
Although I have recently grown addicted to a Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed sweetened milk in it - a “Sua Da”, though I’ll never pronounce it properly.
I thought about mentioning the Vietnamese coffee makers in the OP. (I have two of them.) Unlike espresso machines or moka pots, they don’t use pressure. But the brew is fairly strong, so why not include them?
Well, if we’re going to lower our standards like that ( 
) I’ll just mention that I’ll make a cup of coffee on occasion using my aero press and espresso beans ground very, very fine. Add some half and half and some vanilla syrup and it’ll do until the espresso machine heats up enough for my next ristretto.
Have at you! :mad:
The best brews require pressure! Why do you think they spent grillions of dollars on an espresso machine for the International Space Station?
Hey, that’s extremely cool.
Espresso con Panna, double. Not too much whipped cream, please.
I’ll be sneered at in this thread, but I always enjoyed an Americano every now and then.
Now, I have a-fib and can’t have them.
Did you at least find decently aged Swiss cheese?
Latte - minimal foam
Quad espresso over ice in a large cup.
If its Starbucks, that’s it. Anywhere else, sweet and low and half&half.
Have you guys slept at all since 1999?
A single espresso shot, if I’m drinking it right away. A long black/Americano (or whatever else you call espresso + hot water) if I’m taking it to drink later.
I find multiple espresso shots to be invariably awful. There’s really no good way to do it quickly without either overheating or overextracting the coffee.
A single espresso shot is the ideal way to judge a cafe. A good one is heavenly. They make a zillion shots every day. If they can’t do that well, they’re just making flavoured milkshakes.
I enjoy a nice plain latte at a neighborhood shop, an in-house mug so the ratios are right and the barista can make his or her design of the day on it. Sometimes I’ll indulge with a breve.
The new trend at some local shops is to offer only one size cup. I agree with this because those 20oz monsters at (ahem) some shops are not the right ratio of milk to espresso and are just big milky coffees, it would be cheaper to just buy drip and add a bunch of 2%.
I can’t be bothered to do more than French press at home, but going out for a latte is a treat.
This.
Most espresso in this country is horrible bilgewater. And sadly said bilgewater becomes the basis for so many expensive drinks. A place that makes a decent espresso needs to be treasured.
I have never gotten a decent shot of espresso at Starbucks.
We are starting to get some independent, artisan espresso joints around downtown San Jose. The young baristas are talented and know how to pull a ristretto. However, this is offset by the fact that the new trend is for coffee beans to have fruity, tangy, lemony flavors. Yuck! What’s up with that?
When I really want espresso, I’ll get off my butt and wander over to Dark Matter or Intelligentsia, but that takes so much doing.
I have a Bialetti Brikka “4-cup” (about 1.5 demitasse, so go figure on the name) that I’ll use on occasion for a simple “espresso” now and again. Always a pinch of turbinado sugar – not enough to taste sweet, just to round off the bitter end.
I used to drink moka pot coffee almost exclusively, but I’ve lately become addicted to vacuum pot brew, so I’ll see myself out.
Go for the 6-cup. It makes enough for one cup.