… I suddenly feel like digging out some Gilbert O’Sullivan records circa 1975. Instant coffee … restaurants … absurd.
My local greasy spoon does Instant but I haven’t come across it anywhere else for a long, long time.
Instant would be an improvement in some greasy spoons in the US.
Denny’s, for example.
Sounds like a cafetiere is the same as a bodum.
As to the OP, one could also ask - why is stewed filter paper coffee so popular in North America? (stewed coffee is the type they serve in McDonalds where the coffee sits over a heater all day). This is one step better than instant but nowhere near as good quality as espresso.
It appears espresso coffee is rare in North America. I dont know why.
A lot of coffee shops in North America sell what they call espresso… it’s really strong coffee made fresh in a particular kind of machine (although I don’t know what goes on in an espresso machine) and served in teeny little cups because it’s so strong. Only the snooty expensive coffee shops like Starbucks do that, though. Most restaurants just sell paper-filtered or percolated coffee. What’s your definition of espresso?
Letting paper-filtered coffee stew in the carafe isn’t essential. They make it ahead of time and leave it on the heat so customers can get piping hot coffee instantly, but it tastes funny. Better to make the coffee, turn the heat off, and reheat it later one cup at a time.
An espresso machine is used to make the coffee drinks that you by in cafes.
Hot water is forced under pressure through freshly ground coffee beans and made into various coffee drinks - flat white, short black, cappuchino, etc
Here are some pictures. First thing I found. Google ‘coffee machine’ for other examples.
This gives a very flavoursome drink.
Not sure about other countries, but in Australia drip machines are rare. Most people use plungers at home (or instant). Cafes just use espresso machines.
I dont know why espresso is not bigger in NA - one of lifes mysteries.
It’s just considered to be a luxury fancy European thing here. 
Espresso as a small strong coffee shot, or espresso drinks made with a little espresso and a lot of milk and flavours (e.g. cocoa, vanilla beans, etc.) are expensive and yuppie.
Now, can someone confirm this for me: that in Japan, any kind of hot coffee in a mug is a very expensive treat of a beverage, while the inexpensive coffee that you drink on the train to work every morning comes in a can from a vending machine, and can be warmed or drunk cold? (I’ve had canned coffee; any grocery store in Toronto that has a reasonable selection of Asian grocery items will have canned coffee.)
It has become much more so. Starbucks is the great force behind it; when I was a teenager 20 years ago, I used to go to one of the three then in existence.
Oh, my how the world changes.
In most cities, any good restaurant now has an espresso machine, and many middling ones, too. Here in New York, some Greek diners even have them.
Hell, in 2001 I was able to get espresso in Fargo, for chrissakes.
Espresso is not a strong coffee shot!!! It is the drink of the gods! It is almost but not totally completely unlike coffee. The brewing process produces a wonderful drink with aromatic organic compounds found almost nowhere else!
Espresso yuppie? :rolleyes: Barbarian!! 
Indefatigable: My Japaneese friend just arrived back from Japan. Yes, they buy hot coffee in a can out of a vending machine.
Oxymoron: When I was in Canada and the US 3 years ago there was no real coffee available (ie espresso), just the stewed filter stuff. I guess we just looked in the wrong places.
Qadgop the Mercaptan: Thanks for the link to the interesting post.
As someone who prefers a double espresso (short) to coffee after a meal (with nothing to contaminate it, please), I always pay attention to whether any restaurant that I eat in has it. In Toronto (Canada), at least, I’d hazard a guess that more restaurants serve espresso and cappacino than don’t (if one excludes fast food, greasy spoons and pubs).
You might find its something to do with the fact that we are big tea drinkers rather than coffee drinkers (although this is starting to change - particularly in yuppy circles).
This means that if you go anywhere that caters for a middle to lower class audience (such as a café pronounced “caff”) then people are, to be honest, more concerned with getting a good cup of tea than a good cup of coffee.
Think of it like this -
your average Yank policeman goes to get breakfast and he orders “eggs and a cup of coffee” (if tv isn’'t lying to me )
your average Brit copper on the other hand is more likely to order “fry up and a cup of tea”.
that make sense?
It is funny that this topic has come up now…
I just got back to the UK from Canada (Calgary even) two days ago, and having been pleasantly surprised by how great the Starbucks coffee was there, I bought the exact same drink from a London Starbucks this morning.
Frankly, it tasted like freshly ground cowpat.
The only difference was I got it with milk instead of cream. Would this have made a huge difference or are we being subjected to a poorer standard of coffee or brewing techniques over here?
I want answers, dammit!
I had the same experience after a trip to the States where I bought a large pack of cinnamon coffee to bring back home (I think it was Dunkin’ Donuts coffee). It was gorgeous - everyone thought it was the best coffee they’d ever had. Tried the same product from a DD outlet over here and it was utterly vile. Having said that, I’ve bought fresh coffee from places like Wittards (own brand stuff) and online from Boaters and both has been of a typically high standard.
Can’t beat a good cuppa though…
No No NO!!! Costa or nothing, Starbucks is awfull.
Huh? Espresso and its ilk are wildly popular in North America. Have you never heard of Starbucks?
I will start a thread in MPSIMS “Coffees/teas of the world”.
[sup]17[/sup]And lo, it shall be a great and mighty thread.
Let’s get something straight right now;
Espresso is most certainly coffee. It’s coffee beans (generally lower grade) that are roasted to a darker, french or so, degree and ground fine. Espresso is the name of the method (it means express, or fast) more than anything else. It’s extracted, more than brewed. Espresso is generally lower in caffeine than other coffees.
Roasting to dark reduces caffeine.
I have beans, which I roast myself, which I would consider sinful to make espresso from. What a waste!
Starbucks? If you can’t get anything better, imo. They use automated brewing machines, fer cryin’ out loud. :rolleyes:
I do make a great espresso, with a pretty nice crema.
I can’t remember the last time I was offered instant coffee in a cafe/restaurant or even pub. At a greasy spoon, I wouldn’t dream of asking for coffee, though I have a feeling that my preferred establishment offers filter coffee.
You’d probably have to request filter coffee specially, though. Problem is, it’s usually been hanging around a while and I don’t like stewed coffee.
Even in a backwater such as Bournemouth, most places places offer either an expresso based coffee, or something made in a machine which seems to appoximate to filter coffee.
The nicest place to get coffee, and well worth the trek, was an Italian place the other side of town, which had a brilliant old expresso machine, with cherubs on it. They claim their new machine makes better coffee, but it just aint the same.
Instant coffee is the stuff I drink at work or home. I really can’t be bothered with other methods if I just want one or two cups. Some are nice enough. I don’t make tea in a pot either, for the same reason.
As others have said, instant coffee may be all that is on offer at some British establishments, but most would have at least filter coffee.
Remember that coffee is a less common drink in the UK, we are a nation of tea drinkers. Coffee in pubs is often made in a disposable container that has coffee and a fine filter at the bottom. The whole thing is put on top of a large coffee cup and filled with boiling water, fitted with a lid and served. The customer waits for the water to drip through the filter and then discards the whole gadget and is left with a reasonably acceptable cup of of coffee.
At work, we have the most excellent coffee machine. One inserts a sealed sachet into the machine - it is cunningly designed and probably quite expensive. Then the machine pierces the sachet and pumps in boiling water. Inside the sachet is a filter bag containing ground coffee. Under pressure, the bottom of the sachet splits open and freshly made coffe drips into a waiting cup. Different sachets are supplies to make various types of tea, hot chocolate and coffee. There is even a fair version of espresso, although it requires too sachets to give my morning jolt.
Both of the above are way better than weak, stewed filter coffee that I have been offered in the USA.
Too me, espresso coffee is the real thing. I have a little espresso machine at home. Great stuff.
A major source of irritation: people who will insist on pronouncing espresso as “expresso”. Am I the only one who gets this?