Despite there always being a perculator on the stove in our house as a kid, it’s just never taken with me.

Love the odd espresso on holiday, a couple of black coffees during the week at breakfast.
It’s fine, and I’ll share a pot if it’s been made, but I much prefer tea.

Just use a caffetiere and tend to pick something strong in a shiny package.

Anyone else?

And can any one recommend a couple of reasonably priced decent coffees for a caffetiere that might change my mind?
Couple from different ends of the spectrum to give me an idea of what I might prefer?

I have no idea what a tamper is, but I do have a thumb.
🙂

Serious Q btw, the proper coffee threads are mostly over my head.
I have no idea how half the gadgets I own work as it is, so would prefer to keep it simple.

Ta!

alta rica instant here. paying a load for coffee is shit imho.

Tastes like burnt arseholes to me, can’t stand the stuff. I started to wonder when it became very ‘hip’ a few years ago to be overly fussy about it if I was missing out – tried it again, nope, still burnt arseholes.

Tastes like burnt arseholes to me

raises an obvious question that I’m not sure I want answered…

Some of those newer instant coffees work well for me (Millicano and the like).

Otherwise, Costa Americano in the Tassimo or the Cafetiere.

Love the smell but hate the taste.

arseholes or coffee?

Tastes like burnt arseholes to me

I assume a Ronson Lighter was used in the burning process.

Hate the smell and the taste makes me heave. Every coffee shop should be a marzipan shop. Now that’s what I call tasty! I also don’t drink tea.

You appear a lot more fussed about it than I am – I don’t have the couple of black coffees a week at breakfast (nor do I routinely drink tea). I’m not completely against it, simply a social drinker – if I’m out with people (or working with people) and they’re having tea or coffee I’ll join in. I even quite enjoy it – in much the same way I enjoy other things I do occassionally. Just never managed to get addicted I guess.

Anyone else not really fussed about coffee?

I always buy all my coffee beans from TK Maxx where some consider them stale, over roasted etc but I like them.

However, if you are an artisan coffee drinker then TK Maxx is not for you.

I started to wonder when it became very ‘hip’ a few years ago to be overly fussy about it if I was missing out – tried it again, nope, still burnt arseholes.

🙂

I thought I didn’t like whisky until I was 40, then someone bought me a bottle for Christmas.
What a waste.

Some reasonably sane people I know drink coffee regularly.
There must be something in it, surely?

I’m not a milquetoast when it comes to strong or bitter flavours and like developing a taste for things I previously didn’t enjoy.

It’s just a drink, after all.

for balance I’m not overly fond of tea, it’s watery, bitter, leaves a strange aftertaste, leaves me bloated.

Each to their own

‘Tastes like burnt aresholes’…..wow, your culinary experiences must be intetesting 😯

Love the smell but hate the taste.

^ this for me too

I drink instant at work and supermarket cafetiere stuff at home, but I’ve yet to be persuaded that the stuff I get served in coffee shops is amazingly better.

But tea is the devils wee wee. Hateful stuff.

As long as it’s not Mellow Birds or Maxwell House I’m easy

Love the smell but hate the taste.

I’m a big coffee lover, I’ll admit. The smell (like with many foods) is just incredible and I have to agree that the taste never lives up to it. I’ve come to realise that all the effort I go to in trying to get great coffee (grinding beans, schlepping an aeropress around with me etc.) is an endless pursuit of coffee that tastes like it smells. It’ll never happen, but it’s an enjoyable journey.

Funnily enough, the closest I’ve ever come was a fresh bag of beans I ground and aeropressed. They were Tesco home brand £2 beans.

There seems to be a lot of people into their tea, with all the artisan hype and paraphernalia that comes with, but oddly enough, I can’t tell a Tesco value teabag brewed in the mug from the finest hipster tea-house blend.

FWIW, when dragged into high street coffee places, I quite like the stuff from Costa and McD’s, but find the stuff from Starbucks a bit burnt and bitter.

I’ll have a cup in Italy, where it tastes nice and doesn’t cost much.

Though I have also been known to take my own teapot away, to ensure a decent supply of the good stuff.

I’ll have a cup in Italy, where it tastes nice and doesn’t cost much.

Though I have also been known to take my own teapot away, to ensure a decent supply of the good stuff.

Indeed. You can’t get a decent cup of coffee in the UK, and you can’t get a decent cup of tea abroad.

Every coffee shop should be a marzipan shop

I am not a fan of coffee shops but this is the worst suggestion ever posted on this forum.

They were Tesco home brand £2 beans.

they are surprisingly consistently good value, whoever chooses their beans knows their beans…

A few years ago I’d be a bit surprised if people said they preferred, say, Costa to Nero – it was all coffee to me. But now just recently the supply of the little coffee shops at work has changed from Costa to Starbucks and I was surprised at how bad the Starbucks stuff is.

Still I roll my eyes a bit if someone is sniffy about instant* at home!

*Not Mellow Birds and the like obvs- we like Kenco Millicano when we see it on special

I think every Coffee Shop should be remade as a Dutch Style ‘Coffee Shop’ I like the smell of both, don’t partake in either, but on balance I prefer the smell of Weed.

As for the burnt arseholes line – I’ve got a lively imagination, I’ve tasted burnt stuff and I’ve tasted…. anyway I’ve put 2 and 2 together.

If you’d like to know a few other things I think taste like improbable thing:

Bitter, Ale, Artisan small brew bullshit – all tastes like wood to me.

Cucumber – dirty rain water.

Tequila tastes like vomit, but in actual fact it’s the after-taste, I drink it, the second it touches my belly I throw up, so vomit.

Tastes like burnt arseholes to me

You might find a medium roast more palatable.

I was surprised at how bad the Starbucks stuff is

Starbucks has a reputation for over roasting its beans (if you look at them you will see that they are very dark with an oily surface sheen). As I understand it, it does this deliberately because the vast majority of the drinks it sells drown the espresso in milk. Over roasting will give them the consistantly strong bitter flavour which they want/need when diluting it in so much milk, whereas it will probably not taste good as a straight espresso. In short, Starbucks and the other chains probably sell >80%-90% milk drinks with a high milk to espresso ratio, and that is what their customers have become accustomed to.

It was not until I tried flat whites and straight espressos from a good quality independent coffee shop, that I realised how bad/mediocre the coffee served in Starbucks etc. was.

I think good espresso is very akin to nice dark chocolate, and I suspect if you like dark chocolate, then you will probably like good espresso.

I quite like the stuff from Costa and McD’s, but find the stuff from Starbucks a bit burnt and bitter

I think that often the best non-milk drinks from the chains are their filter coffees, because they are less likely to over roast those blends. McDonalds filter coffee is reckoned to be quite good and inexpensive.

Hate it vile stuff

I think there are a few people who need to cancel their Singletrack logins here

Not liking coffee ? Really ?

‘Tastes like burnt aresholes’…

I hate it when they are overcooked like that! Medium rare they should be, just a little bit pink on the inside

I hate it when they are overcooked like that! Medium rare they should be, just a little bit pink on the inside

Just how I like my steak, pink not bloody.

As an aspiring coffee/tea bore, I feel compelled to say that tea and coffee are both sensitive to the temperature of the water that you use.

100dC water is a good way to make tea that tastes of little more than tanin, and coffee taste like badly burned toast.

The high St chains are rubbish with Nero being the least worst (spot on slowster)

I find lavazza red a decent all rounder and not too pricy, I like the Italian style ones so kimbo and illy also suit me

I don’t like the McDonald’s coffee tho, just bland and thin

Coffee is ok, it’s coffee enthusiasts I struggle with.

^^^^

That’s pretty much sums up most things in life.

Addicted to it for waking up in morning. Almost certainly psychological as much as anything else. Much prefer ground over instant but beyond that can’t tell difference. Same with beer. I like an ale for under 3 quid a pint, but it’s increasingly hard to find a bog standard one.

Asda’s own £2 a bag. Re-use the grounds too…

Can’t stand the smell or taste of it, Starbucks can’t make a decent cup of tea either so at least they’re consistent

Pictonroad and Jam Bo spot on