31–40 of 128 posts
Somehow, the modern world has fooled us into believing that this is a sufficient criteria to exist as an individual.
In India, there is an obvious lack of care for the quality of coffee (IMO). I found a few vendors to supply me beans, but it take time to find the right ones, mostly from a region called Coorg famous for it's coffee beans. I've been there and went to look at the coffee plantations and processing ( Chikmagalur is the also very common if you know India well). I love my coffee and take it seriously.
In India, coffee is typically packaged with a mix of chicory. Chicory is a root, that is meant to preserve the coffee longer. In the end, it's also way cheaper to make produce chicory, so the production cost is lower. I personally hate chicory with my coffee as it gives a weird "non coffee" taste to it.
What I've found ( anecdotally ), is that an often my conception of "good" or even "ok" coffee doesn't align with a typical India. Nescafe doesn't cut it. Sorry. And how Indians typically enjoy coffee ( with tons of milk and sugar ), always made me put coffee in almost the "dessert" category. When I try to share my coffee with them, it is usually wayyy too bitter for their preference. Of course, I know exceptions that like a good roast.
A few coffee bean shops have popped up to change the culture here: Blue Tokai being one of the more premium and popular coffee places. I live next to a coffee consulting business and visit them regularly. So it is growing. Starbucks is here as well, but WAY too overpriced relative to quality and local shops that do just as good a brew. A good, cup of coffee here at a premium place (Bangalore) is around 140-210 RS (or 2-3 dollars). A normal (Indian) cup of coffee costs 15-30 RS (or $0.20-0.50).
As much as I rag on Indian coffee sometimes with my friends and family (I'm married to an Indian), every once in a while I find myself picking up a cup of "sugar milk with coffee" on the street.Maybe there's something to it....
Even 'bad' coffee is now bad. I have a Krispy Kreme and Dunkin 5 minutes from my house and the quality has hit rock bottom since 2020. It's not even that cheap!
The volatility in quality labor and ingredient prices is wreaking havoc on the probability of receiving a satisfactory food/drink. If I am going to receive my food/drink with a mistake or just not made well 50% of the time, I will just go without. And/or I am getting older and turning into my dad, but I feel like all the staff turnover and increases in ingredient pricing must have an effect on quality of product and…
Anyone have links to what makes truly great coffee? I got a Jura machine for the office and I'm happy with the coffee (the machine seems to make a bigger difference than the beans). I'd like to understand better because I'm probably missing something
Meh. Complaining that coffee snobbery has got more accessible is like complaining that good cameras have got more accessible. Yes, there are some people whose expenditure outpaces their talent. But a lot of the original coffee snobs weren't people of great judgement either. And complaining about those kind of middlebrow coffee snobs in the same article where you talk about how you'd pick Dunkin over Starbucks is the…
This is like the Eternal September, but for coffee.
Before you know it, the only coffee you can buy is coffee with hazelnut syrups.
Meh. Complaining that coffee snobbery has got more accessible is like complaining that good cameras have got more accessible. Yes, there are some people whose expenditure outpaces their talent. But a lot of the original coffee snobs weren't people of great judgement either. And complaining about those kind of middlebrow coffee snobs in the same article where you talk about how you'd pick Dunkin over Starbucks is the…
Agreed, I think the average “coffee snob” really just wants people to enjoy coffee that doesn’t have to be 50% cream and sugar. Coffee doesn’t have to be that acrid tasting black water made from over-roasted, stale, coffee grounds that our parents often drank.