# What is/was "Boston-style coffee"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** coffee\ **Created:** [June 4, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722 "2004-06-04T22:41:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/21 "2013-01-09T19:21:35Z")
> [@mark24c](#): > > What on earth is London Broil? A non-specific piece of roasted beef. Sometimes from the round or the sirloin, but there are a lot of different cuts used. It’s like a very thick steak, roasted or broiled, and sliced thin. Here’s a[thread from Cafe Society on the subject](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=593517&highlight=london+broil). **Scylla** put a great looking recipe in there. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/22 "2013-01-09T19:32:50Z")
That is a lot of cream for _double_ the price. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/23 "2013-01-09T19:42:09Z")
Two weeks ago at Dunkin Donuts in NJ, a “regular” coffee was still coffee, cream and sugar as it was 30 years ago at White Tower. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/24 "2013-01-09T19:46:39Z")
Perhaps the OP started folks wondering - I note that are are plenty of references to Boston Style coffee on Google today. On the first two results pages all references are created after date of OP. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/25 "2013-01-09T19:58:38Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > I think in New York a “regular” coffee is also with cream? So what’s with the “Boston” thing? You never get cream for your coffee unless you are in a fancier-than-coffee shop restaurant, and even then you usually have to ask for it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/26 "2013-01-09T20:00:47Z")
> [@Papermache\_Prince](#): > > **Postcards** has it right. Walk into a Boston area Dunkin’ Doughnuts, ask for a regular coffee, and you’ll be given one with milk in it. If you want it black, you’d better ask for it “black.” Whether that’s what the menu meant, I couldn’t say. I don’t think that’s so prevalent now, although maybe still in R.I. But it must be very confusing for someone back then to see “Boston Style” and “Regular” listed as separate items, with different prices. A few nights ago on Jeopardy, under the “American regionalisms” category, the answer was: A New England expression for what the rest of the country calls a milkshake. I knew the answer was “What is a frappe?”, but I would have been tempted to say “What is a cabinet”. The latter being a Rhode Island-ism and so maybe not qualifying as broadly New England. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/27 "2013-01-09T20:08:58Z")
Cabinet. Never, ever heard that. Etymology? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/28 "2013-01-09T20:20:59Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Cabinet. Never, ever heard that. Etymology? Few have. I think it is thought to be that the ingredients, or some of the ingredients, were kept in a “cabinet”. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/29 "2013-01-09T20:50:30Z")
Cabinet is Rhode Island, not New England? Sort of makes sense, as the only person I heard call it that was raised in the Attleboro area. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/30 "2013-01-09T20:50:31Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Few have. I think it is thought to be that the ingredients, or some of the ingredients, were kept in a “cabinet”. Yeah, one of those mysteries that will never be solved. Like why the state is called Rhode Island. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/31 "2013-01-09T21:04:33Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I knew the answer was “What is a frappe?”, How did they pronounce it? ---
**Author:** ![YourAdHere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/65b543/32.png) [@YourAdHere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YourAdHere)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/32 "2013-01-09T23:25:18Z")
> [@Papermache\_Prince](#): > > **Postcards** has it right. Walk into a Boston area Dunkin’ Doughnuts, ask for a regular coffee, and you’ll be given one with milk in it. If you want it black, you’d better ask for it “black.” Whether that’s what the menu meant, I couldn’t say. Slight nitpick - cream is default, not milk. Small hot regular = 2 (squirts of ) cream, 2 sugars Med regular (hot)- 3 creams, 3 sugars Etc Source - worked in a Boston area dunkin donuts in high school ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/33 "2013-01-10T01:02:19Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Cabinet. Never, ever heard that. Etymology? All you have to do is go down your local spa, probably right next to the packie and they will tell you. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/34 "2013-01-10T01:07:41Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m not so sure that’s true anymore. It was true maybe 30 years ago. It was definitely true 8 years ago! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/35 "2013-01-10T01:10:51Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Yeah, one of those mysteries that will never be solved. Like why the state is called Rhode Island. I know you are from Rhode Island but the full name of the state is the most descriptive of all states: Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. That about sums it up. You have Providence plus a whole bunch of large islands, the most important being Newport, that are close enough together to be connected by big bridges plus some that are offshore like Block Island. You could do some ocean filling to make it one contiguous land-mass but it wouldn’t do any good. It is still going to the smallest state by far. Some people have ranches bigger than that. Unlike #2 Delaware, though Rhode Island has personality and personality goes a long way. I can be at the Rhode Island border 15 minutes from now if I wanted to and it would be about the same thing crossing from Canada into the regular U.S. culturally speaking. That is one strange little state you have going there and I don’t mean that as a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/36 "2013-01-10T01:11:45Z")
OP here. Wow, blast from the past! No idea why I didn’t get the clam chowder joke; I got it this time around! Still wondering. The “extra cream”/“cream instead of milk” theory seems most plausible. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/37 "2013-01-10T01:21:05Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Unlike #2 Delaware, though Rhode Island has personality and personality goes a long way. We’d have to be talking about one charming motherfucking state. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/38 "2013-01-10T01:29:43Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > That is one strange little state you have going there and I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I don’t take it as a bad thing. As a matter of fact, it’s the reason I decided to stay here. > [@Lemur866](#): > > We’d have to be talking about one charming motherfucking state. Niecefucking state actually. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/39 "2013-01-10T06:41:36Z")
My neighborhood grocery store, here in Brooklyn, used to carry Autocrat syrup, but no more, alas. (There, that’s on topic whether we’re talking about coffee or Rhode Island.) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722/40 "2013-01-10T14:45:05Z")
Moved to Cafe Society. Colibri General Questions Moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-was-boston-style-coffee/248722.md?page=3)