Community for asking and answering any question related to the life, the people or anything related to the USA. Non-US people are welcome to provide their perspective! Please keep in mind:
None. Never got a taste for coffee and some (Starbucks) the smell alone actually nauseates me.
I will say, I'm in the camp of "I'll try anything once!" and while taking my wife to a Dutch Brothers saw they had something called "White Coffee" which I had never heard of.
https://www.dutchbros.com/news-events/what-is-white-coffee
It wasn't awful. I mean, it's still not something I would drink voluntarily, but as an experiment? It didn't feel like I had to choke it down or anything.
I visited Seattle and had a FANTASTIC Italian coffee there. Also Seattle's Best - another coffee shop that originated from Seattle - is kinda good. A ton of people (especially those from Seattle, it seems:-D) criticize Starbucks for (INTENTIONALLY!) offering its "burnt" style of coffee... and I agree:-). Though tastes are personal so if someone likes that, then that's great, but yeah I really do not. :-P
There are many other things to enjoy doing in the world, besides coffee.
My standard morning coffee is made in my AeroPress. Start with the piston in the press as far out as possible without leaking, place one full scoop of grounds, usually dark roast or espresso roast, then fill to the top (bottom) with ~150 degree water (just as hot as possible from our tap) and let steep for ~5 minutes. Then either put the stainless reusable filter or one of the paper ones on the strainer and press and flip the whole thing over onto your cup and press down.
I typically favor french or dark roasts but I also like chicory blends and occassionally dabble in Ethiopian beans.
5 minutes, wow - I'm used to more 1-2 minute black teas so that surprises me. TIL that coffee needs more time - probably it's putting in more love. 💕
I'm not timing it, its bacially however long it takes to make my breakfast before heading out. I think it helps with the lower temp water I use but who knows.
Ah, gotcha:-).
The AeroPress is pretty good! Very portable, so that was my daily thing when I had to work in an office.
At home I have a small Chemex, which is basically a nicely designed pour over with a complicated filter. I like it a little better than the Aero and it's a bit less fussy.
If I'm on the road, Casey's is my go to. I think I just like their machines.
Casey's cappuccino or whatever they call it is basically a shot of pure sugar & caffeine... so yeah me too:-).
Road coffee I like the LaColombe triples in the can.
Ah, I never tried those, but it seems that I should, next time I see one those.:-)
I love a good cappuccino. Mostly from home because most places get the ratio wrong add add way to much milk. I upgraded my machine to a Bezzera Duo MN and the foam that thing can make is amazing.
To be clear: the places that get it wrong aren't aiming it to make it more of a latte are they? The USA tends to do odd things, like make sushi sweet, or Italian foods sweet, or Chinese foods sweet - basically add a bunch of sugar to literally everything - and I wonder if even for that Italian-style drink if they tried to "Americanize" it?
It should be 1/3 each espresso, milk, and foam. Most places do 1.5 oz shot of espresso and then just fill an 8 oz cup with foamed milk in whatever ratio they made. So way to much milk.
Sushi should be a bit sweet. It literally means sour and is traditionally made with sweetened vinegar. Usually a 4:3 ratio of vineger⋮sugar.
I've always heard that "overly sweet" (so, a higher degree of such than merely "sweetened") sushi is the mark of a non-authentic restaurant, probably in an attempt to cater to a more Americanized audience. And similarly for Chinese foods as well.
I don't know why all the milk though - possibly it's cheaper and they are trying to skim some profits for themselves.
95% of my coffee consumption is HEB own-brand K cups. My nearest store has a half dozen or so different flavors, each named after a different city in TX. I rotate through flavors when I restock.
I’m not super picky. I get that because it’s cheap and convenient.
"cheap and convenient" is certainly a style, and if it works for you then imho that's just as valid as any of the other snobbier options:-).
Hrm, perhaps we can call that style "Zen":-).
What’s your favorite? I prefer the San Antonio flavor. I also prefer decaf nowadays, and I wish they had some of their other flavors in pre-ground form.
I don’t honestly have a favorite? I don’t have a super refined palate, so I can’t tell much of a difference between the flavors. I’m sure there is one, it’s just beyond my limited ability to perceive.
Rio Grande Roasters Pinon is my favorite, but I'm not picky at all. I tend to prefer light roasts for their higher caffeine content, and I also think they taste better than dark roasts. I usually add hazelnut creamer, but the coffee I linked above doesn't need it.
The brewing method is probably more important to me. I like pour-overs, but French press and cold brew are good too. Drip machines are fine, but they’d be my last choice.
At Starbucks I'd get an iced mocha frappe chino, but that's more like a dessert with a shot of espresso. Pastries are a must lol, just need to find a vegan one and I'm set.
Ooh I forgot to mention brewing method yes.:-)
I typically go for French Vanilla creamer but hazelnut is good:-).
I prefer a cappuccino, but I drink the usual machine filter coffee made from pre ground coffee everyday.
It is hard to beat convenience:-). I don't drink many cappuccinos - when I do I love them, but for whatever reason I just don't. Usually when I do, it is to sit down and chat with someone. Otherwise to-go it's a drip coffee or perhaps espresso or a full latte. There are so many varieties to choose from:-).
I make myself a single espresso allongé (run twice as much water through it as you'd normally do), using locally roasted beans. I like to try something different every time I run out, usually on the lighter side.
I found out I particularly like the "pink bourbon" variety, washed.
My partner drinks a semi-caffeinated blend, and I usually take a double-shot of that with me to work.
I can't stomach filtered coffee, it's a little too much caffeine for me.
Welp, just saw the name of the community, so you can discount my answer, I'm not in the US.
No way - you are just as welcomed here as anyone else!
I just wanted to help this community grow, and people in the USA tend to go more for coffee than Europeans, although as you are pointing out, the reverse is not necessarily true... :-D
I also liked how you pointed out that "coffee" can be a much more diverse variety of beverages than people may naively give it credit for being:-).
Well, you are still technically "asking USA" :)
Although to counter your Europeans statement, I hear the Swedes are absolute coffee fiends.
Yup.
Community for asking and answering any question related to the life, the people or anything related to the USA.
And your answer is related to topics that interest people in the USA!! 😆
I've always heard how Europeans like to talk about people in the USA who like their coffee. TIL otherwise - I guess Turkish coffee is a thing as well. Now I suppose there needs to be an AskEurope...?
The British are well known for their love of tea, but AFAIK most of the rest of Europe drinks mostly coffee, in one form or another. Usually very different than your usual diner's pitcher of endless refills though.
Just for the sake of clarity, I am originally European, but currently live in Canada, where I developed my love for espresso. So take everything I say with a grain of salt.
And I am from the USA, so my responses should have even more sugar, plus the salt too (/s - though American foods are extremely heavily sugared and salty, that's just a fact!:-P).
Do you know then why the British make fun of Americans for liking coffee, rather than making fun of like Europeans for doing the same? It might be if USA coffee is "weaker" than e.g. French coffee - I could see that.
I believe the main difference is the amount of coffee consumed, but I suspect the main culprit is the fact that Brits love to criticize the US (as does most of the world, tbh).
I have black tea.
I do that daily as well as coffee. I was thinking (more to help grow the community by giving it activity) to do a post on that as well today - but perhaps you'd like to beat me to it? 😺
Nah I'm scared of making posts. Commenters are so mean 😥
YOU WILL TAKE THE DOWNVOTES BC Im SuCh A nIcE gUy ThO!!! /s
Yeah we got some work to do in order to make Lemmy a nicer place. It's already more so than Reddit, but like barely and that's such a horrifically low bar.:-(
I don't drink much coffee but we have a nice expresso machine. Mostly black, sometimes milk and a sweetener.
Lavazza Crema e Gusto Classico or Tradizione beans are cheap on sale and I like it over any Dutch supermarket brands. We vary with Illy Classico, Intenso, Brasile beans.
For fresh roasts we need to drive to Maastricht...we don't do that often, but it's much nicer than all of the above.
It's hard to beat the freshest coffee - though I wonder how climate change is going to impact that, and it's always been difficult to attain "consistency" in single-origin material.
My main way of drinking it is French pressed w/ cream. I drink flavored coffee too. Decaf also. I just really like the taste. The supermarket near us sells a local brand of beans that I like, Mills Coffee Roasters
We also have a keurig so I'll sometimes drink that.
I drink coffee daily, between 2 to 5 cups depending on the day.
Oh wow that... sounds like a lot. Please be okay!:-) Though presumably some of that is the decalf you mentioned, and damn that does sound delicious...
Best I found so far is Gaviña Old Havana Espresso. I drink it about 3 times a day. Make it in espresso maker. Very smooth and smells great. I do like to experiment and buy random whole bean coffee, usually medium roast.
I make hot chocolate a healthy scoop instant expresso. I've never liked pure coffee, but I like being awake ~~sometimes~~.
I always used to think that way - until I got out in the world more and tried stuff until eventually I found stuff that I LOVED. You might have already tried and it just does not work for you, I'm just saying that there is a LOT of bad coffee out there masquerading as something that is worth paying even tiny amounts of money for:-).
That's what I've heard. One day I'll have to give it an honest try outside of, like, Dunkin Donuts or the gas station 😅
Ngl, both of those places have their roles - like in an airport or while driving, I've definitely enjoyed both of 'em.
If you ever go to like a college town coffee house where they really put some EFFORT into making the coffee great - not some minimum-wage person just trying to make it through the day but I'm talkin' bout a fuckin' barista here - it may change & blow your mind:-).
But not every place sells fantastic coffee, especially on the cheap:-|.
I have an espresso machine and I use it to make a cortado with almond milk and a small amount of brown sugar.
OMG that sounds AMAZING! Especially how the foam does not fully separate from the liquid as in a regular cappuccino or macchiato. I hope I get the opportunity to try one someday soon:-).
Since I have to do without caffeine, I drink coffee for the pleasure of it.
I don't really do any fancy brewing, just my one cup drip maker I got decades ago.
But I buy good beans, store them properly, and only grind in small batches.
Right now, I'm using an Ethiopian bean, dark roast. I take that with milk and a tiny bit of sugar. It takes the bitter down a notch, so you get all that earthy depth.
My favorite coffee overall is Jamaican blue mountain. And there is decaf of it available, though I lost the bookmark for the company. That I take black with just a hint of sugar. Normally, milk or cream mutes the bitterness of a coffee and lets you enjoy the other flavors, but blue mountain is so delicate and unbitter that it's better without. The sugar is just there to lift the floral aspects above the rest.
And that's really how I do coffee. I find one I like, fiddle with the additives until I get the best results for my tongue, and that's that.
Roast wise, I don't have a preference. I find that the roast matching the bean is way more important than a specific roast. Something like blue mountain taken to a dark roast is a waste of very expensive beans. You lose everything that makes it unique. Something like a kona can go pretty dark before that happens. And I find that robusto takes a dark roast better, and benefits from it, more than arabica regardless of region. The other varieties take dark roasting poorly, imo.