[Closed] Coffee snobs, how do you cope on holiday?

You went to Italy, and complained they served espresso?

There's still time to edit the thread title to:

Coffee heathen, how do you cope on holiday?

One..... never have breakfast in the hotel. I think the most interesting part of the day in any place I go is breakfast so go out and find somewhere nice.

Two..... or make decent coffee in your room..... Stanley metal cafetière (light and won't get smashed in your luggage), some of your own beans, ground before you go, and cheap meat thermometer. Stick the thermometer in the spout of the kettle so you can choose you're temperature (I can actually hear when a hotel kettle is at 90deg now)

Three... don't piss about with milk.

Buy a Motorhome and take all your coffee paraphernalia with you.

need a large, very hot decent coffee in the morning.....one for hot milk, one for hot water and two with pissy little stovetop coffee makers

to each their own.
I cant get a tolerable coffee in the uk, pint+ of dishwater that no matter how you order it they want to add milk.
americano/italiano on the continent is roughly 1 part espresso 2 parts water, in the uk its 1 part espresso 20 parts water..... or you can pay another pound and they will make it 1:30

Having lived and traveled extensively in Europe, Italy is still the only place where I am yet to have a decent cup of coffee.

Couple of bags of pact coffee, which is posted flat, so doesn't take up much room in my luggage and an aeropress.

One of my favourite parts of any holiday is sitting on the balcony in the morning with a hot cup of good coffee.

I just suck it up and my cold-pressed malabar tastes 10x better upon return.

I take a v60, a made by knock grinder and a bag of decent beans, also speciality coffee is everywhere now so there is usually somewhere to go if I want a decent espresso or flat white. I use the ‘best coffee app’ which covers most of Europe.
Even traditional over roasted robusta Southern Europe cities have decent coffee, my partner was heading to Porto from Warsaw and I told her to buy beans before she left as there is no decent coffee in Portugal, she ended up staying above a roastery/cafe that had guest beans from all over Europe.
I also take UK tea bags, I don’t like those fiddly little Lipton ones you get abroad.

Peak STW right here folks.

Don’t go to Malaysia! Nescafé made with condensed milk 🤯

In other words; you can't get exactly what you want when you don't have access to your own kitchen?

It's OK to experience different things, you know? It's not a character flaw.

Don’t go to Malaysia! Nescafé made with condensed milk

You're clearly not going to the right coffee shops in Malaysia

You could try not being so pretentious and caffeine-dependent..? Just a thought..

It’s only a week maybe 2 if you can’t venture out and find somewhere that sells coffee then I’m sure it won’t ruin your holiday.

Don’t go to Malaysia! Nescafé made with condensed milk

I stopped at a cafe in Alness, ordered a latte and got instant coffee with elmlea 🙁

One….. never have breakfast in the hotel. I think the most interesting part of the day in any place I go is breakfast so go out and find somewhere nice.

Or find a better hotel 🙂

The one of the places i tend to stay in Barcelona(Barcelo Sants Hotel) has jura machines so I’ll overload on lattes and er have a few more breakfasts than usual.

I have took an aero press at the outlaws but couldn’t be arsed to ever do it in a hotel.

Spain seems to be generally pretty good for coffee and cakes thou, even the motorways stops seem to do not to bad coffee.

Then in the Refugios you get a luke warm tiny cup of tasteless froth

Complaining about the lack of decent coffee in a mountain hut is probably as close to peak STW as you can get. I do hope the woodburner was up to spec. 🙂

Complaining about the lack of decent coffee in a mountain hut is probably as close to peak STW as you can get

+1

And I love the coffee snob one-upmanship prompted by the OP.

I'm still struggling to understand why he's gone to Italy and then tried to make his own coffee.

Italy is still the only place where I am yet to have a decent cup of coffee.

Really? I'm not a coffee drinker usually but I do indulge in Italy 'cos it's so reliably nice there, and when in Rome...

I solved this problem by going on holiday to Costa Rica. They know how to grow and make damn good coffee.

You could try not being so pretentious and caffeine-dependent

Where's the fun in that?

Finding a coffee to my taste is part of the fun when abroad.

Don’t go to Malaysia! Nescafé made with condensed milk 🤯

Nescafe with condensed milk is normal but I never drink them. Also at least Nescafe has the coffee "taste" wait until you drink those really low grade coffee. Made of cheap coffee beans bulk up with other beans (not entirely sure what beans but not coffee beans) that are roasted darker than road tarmac, the taste is so vile when I drink it I nearly puke. I use to complain about it but after a while I just gave up drinking them. Cheap but taste of tar ...

You’re clearly not going to the right coffee shops in Malaysia

Yes, there are still some good coffee shops around but they are not easy to find.

You mentioned milk, so, you know,...

Good coffee can be made anywhere. Opening offer in the 'Good coffee, random places' thread. 4500m in the Tajik Pamir. Milk probably needs a chat with the local goat herd.

Peak STW right here folks.

Agreed, I thought it was worth a punt.

And now definitive peak as someone posts a reply without even reading the first line of the OP.

As above, I'm going to Cyprus in may with a chap who's flat contains "instant coffee".

I'm taking my aero press in my suitcase.

And now definitive peak as someone posts a reply without even reading the first line of the OP.

That's the problem with answering your question in the first line of the OP 🙂

A Bobble Presse is also pretty good when you can't be arsed with an Aeropress.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/taylors-rich-italian-coffee-bags/455016-589073-589074?

Italian coffee is largely terrible for a number of reasons, including the government mandated maximum price for an espresso, extreme culinary conservatism and their consequent tendency to roast coffee way too dark. It was only ever viewed as good because coffee everywhere else in the world was even worse in comparison.

Notable exceptions include roasters such as Gardelli, which we import.

JP

I think you have to be light on your feet and accepting of reality. I've been known to pack a Knock grinder and some decent beans. Occasionally an Aeropress. I've bought a cheap stove-top mokka pot in Spain. In Morocco, where the gite coffee was appalling, I bummed proper stuff off my mate who had a battery-powered stove-top thing with him. On the hill I've used the MSR Reactor's dedicated French press gizmo and a similar GSI coffee press mug.In hotels, on work trips, where there are bean-to-cup machines with not very good beans, I've improvised with triple espresso shots. Don't even ask about Nepal. Sometimes you just have to accept that it ain't going to happen, but it makes the first next decent cup you drink taste even better. As for Colombian coffee in Colombia, it used to be unbelievably bad, despite being the 'national drink', though I've read things have improved in recent years. Not particularly a 'coffee snob', but...

Colombia produces some of the world’s best coffee beans, but almost all of the good stuff is too expensive for the domestic market.

JP

Colombia produces some of the world’s best coffee beans, but almost all of the good stuff is too expensive for the domestic market.

Apparently things are changing, particularly in Bogota. eg:

https://theculturetrip.com/south-america/colombia/articles/meet-the-people-breathing-new-life-into-colombias-coffee-scene/

Some of this thread is comedy gold.

I don't have a problem but here are the incredibly contrived and exhaustive efforts I've gone to to get coffee. I'm definitely not addicted to it though.

I like a coffee but one of the joys of travel is embracing the difference. Shit coffee is an opportunity to explore other drinks or prove to yourself you're not addicted to it by abstaining for a bit.

You could try not being so pretentious and caffeine-dependent..? Just a thought..

Are you new here?

I like a coffee but one of the joys of travel is embracing the difference. Shit coffee is an opportunity to explore other drinks or prove to yourself you’re not addicted to it by abstaining for a bit.

Everyone is different, when I travel I look for good coffee as it’s different from the good coffee available round the corner, same for wine, beer and food which are some of the joys of travel.

Some of the best coffee I have tasted was in Singapore from Dutch Harbour roasters. I still like an Italian station standing up 1 Euro shot pulled on a lever machine though.

no matter how you order it they want to add milk.

What on earth?? You're too timid to say 'no milk please' when they ask you if you want milk?

Finding a coffee to my taste is part of the fun when abroad.

That's like eating sausage and chips or going to an English Pub when away. Drink what the locals drink. Coffee snobs seem to think there's only one singular way to enjoy the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, but there are many.

I was in Italy last week, several espressos a day cos it's Italy.

I just drink double expresso.

I told her to buy beans before she left as there is no decent coffee in Portugal,

Eh? There's loads of the stuff there!

Eh? There’s loads of the stuff there!

There is a bar on every street corner selling snacks,beer and cheap bulk roasted coffee from the likes of Delta (Nestlé) and a few other big brands.
Specialty coffee is growing but as with most Southern European countries with a long 2nd wave coffee history there is not the speed of change as seen in Northern Europe/America/Australasia.

There are 5 places of note in Porto, 4 more than I expected.

https://www.perfectdailygrind.com/2019/07/a-specialty-coffee-shop-tour-of-lisbon-portugal/

There are coffee ****ers and then there are STW coffee ****ers.

****ers.

Italian coffee is largely terrible for a number of reasons, including the government mandated maximum price for an espresso,

Is that a fact,,? Interesting. I was wondering why it was so cheap. €1.50 for a cappuccino on the slopes struck me as being seriously cheap. Alas it was also lukewarm so even three of the damn things didn't really hit the spot.

I recall getting an utterly contemptuous withering look from the woman serving in a coffe shop in Nu Zuland when I asked her if she was ok to heat the cup up before putting the coffee in.

Well of course I will mate, how the **** else would I do it...

Follow @BrianCoffeeSpot on Twitter. He is always prepared. It's a bit extreme to set up an Aeropress on your economy class flight fold down table though.

There are coffee * and then there are STW coffee *.

*.

Goes hand in hand with threads about camping stoves where some * *** strokes his * like a ** because modding a camping stove saves you 30 seconds when boiling water for your * coffee.
You are on holiday, you must be a special kind of ** to * about like that.

Maybe the forum needs a coffee and artisan stove section? It used to have one.

I think the most concerning thing about this thread is that you were all so caught up with the peak STW, coffee snobbery froth that you let this little nugget slide by without a smutty comment or double entendre...

some of your own beans, ground before you go

For shame, what has this place become...

Maybe the forum needs a coffee and artisan stove section? It used to have one

Did it?

This thread is the ultimate showcase for first world problemism.

You poor darlings having to endure such nasty and uncultured foreign hot beverages....

😉

Goes hand in hand with threads about camping stoves where some * strokes his * like a ** because modding a camping stove saves you 30 seconds when boiling water for your * coffee.
You are on holiday, you must be a special kind of ** to * about like that.

Maybe the forum needs a coffee and artisan stove section? It used to have one.

I've no idea what you're on about, but it sounds very much like you're a coffee ****er.

Buy a flair and take it with you, or just check out James Hoffman's video on making the best french press coffee 🙂

Did it?

Yes, back in the day. Was coffee ** only not for stove ****.

I’d love to try a (warmed) cup of coffee from some of the posters on this thread as it must be amazing but I fear I’d throw myself out of a window before I got chance to drink it.

I know Brian - way back in his Coffeespot site is a review of my old coffee shop.

JP

I’d love to try a (warmed) cup of coffee from some of the posters on this thread as it must be amazing but I fear I’d throw myself out of a window before I got chance to drink it.

https://www.samaritans.org/

No probs, holiday in Antigua, Guatemala.

Yes, back in the day. Was coffee ** only not for stove ****.

I think you're going have to explain this, because I don't understand what you're getting excited about.

I've not, as far as I know been involved in any stove modification stuff, so do explain...

Glad to read the comment about Costa Rica up there. We're off there tomorrow for a couple of weeks surfing and have been debating which coffee maker to put in the bag.

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A friend of mine is in Thailand. I’m not sure where, big he’s had to resort to using a sock to filter his coffee rather than drink Nescafé.

I'm genuinely happy if I pass a shop with a diet Redbull in stock in the morning.

Or much better, a cheaper own brand can of caffeine for 39p.

I'm booking myself it to a re-eduction camp tomorrow.

Malaysia.....Nescafe.....condensed milk

On the other hand proper vietnamese cà phê đá is ****ing amazing in hot and humid weather.

You god damn philistines don't know how to live in properly hot weather haha.

Greatest thing ever in the morning when it's cool outside (for the tropics) and the birds are chirping away.

I thought this was going to be slightly amusing before i opened it... but it's WAY WAY better than that.

STW, you absolutely kill me.

I also take UK tea bags, I don’t like those fiddly little Lipton ones you get abroad.

Presumably you only drink Tetley here?

There is more than just one brand of tea you know, the black tea you get in Germany and Denmark (at least) is superb.

Vietnamese coffee is great, not sure what I have but its rather sticky stuff?

As per others I just indulge in the local brews, seems a bit pointless being away otherwise.

Crap coffee is the universe telling you that it’s beer O’clock.

some of your own beans, ground before you go

Does this risk setting off the Dogs in customs?

Does this risk setting off the Dogs in customs?

Just disguise it with cocaine

I use a Nanopresso with capsule adapter. It makes real espresso, as it reaches pretty high pressures - unlike an aeropress which makes strong coffee.

It's super clean and super quick with the capsules. You just heat about 100ml of water, and pump out an espresso.

I use mine everyday at work now.

If you prefer proper ground beans, you can just pop some grounds in, but it is more messy.

Seriously though, it seems overkill, then you use it and you know why it's worth putting a bit of time into your coffee, needs a decent grinder (with an 'e') too of course. People think it's silly taking time over making an espresso, then they drink it and realise it's worth it 🙂 It's not for everyone though, I appreciate others have their own tastes.

I solved this problem by going on holiday to Costa Rica. They know how to grow and make damn good coffee.

Not sure where you went in CR but not my experience at all. They grow great coffee, they export great coffee and there's some excellent CR coffee to be had in the UK and elsewhere.
You can buy some of it at various plantations which are open to visitors.
They drank rubbish on the whole.*

Same in most coffee (tea etc) producing countries, the export market is simply too lucrative to use the decent stuff domestically.

*drinkable but certainly nothing to get excited about. The one hotel which did good coffee actually imported their CR coffee from a roaster in the US.

Just find your nearest Starbucks or McDs. They're all over the place these days.

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So, as I understand it, the OP went to Italy and is complaining that they serve short, dark coffee in small cup. Or Espresso as it's better known?
Odd, very odd.

If I'm on holiday, sat in the sun on a balcony with not a care in the world then I'm more than happy with a crappy Nescafe istant with a drop of milk in. I would happily have it with a capsule of UHT in it if that was what was available.
While Caira was battering the UK last week we had managed to escape to Portugal for a couple of nights and left the kids with their grandparents (first ever trip to foreign sun without them). No amount of bad coffee could ruin how relaxed I felt.

Odd, very odd.

Odd indeed. However, I did recently have a holiday in Italy and was served rubbish coffee the whole time, but that was in a hotel near Bolzano. I didn't get e decent cup til I was in Milan station on the way home 🙂

We were riding in Sospel a couple of years back. One of the trails ended just the other side of the Italian border. Tiny little cafe by the side of the road. Best Espresso of the week.

I spend half my life in UK hotels. Some actually have decent coffee. Others I just drink Tea 😉

Love trying coffee in the places that I visit, even if it doesn't quite match my 'ideal' cup. That said...

I'll usually take a wee coffee kit (the contents of which vary) away with me. I just like taking the care over a coffee. I used to get stressed over being able to make myself a perfect cup, but I realised that the process is more important to me than the actual coffee, so am pretty happy to make some compromises. I almost never take a grinder, for example.

Oh, and I was a bit underwhelmed by the coffees I had in Italy, but the pizzas more than made up for it.

I spend half my life in UK hotels. Some actually have decent coffee. Others I just drink Tea

idle question - are there tea snobs who want their leaves picked from specific plants facing the evening sun and then dried on organic hessian before being added to a tea pot made from NASA grade ceramics with natural spring water heated to precisely 100 degrees for 17 seconds before cooling to 98.2 degrees and being brewed for 3 minutes 27 seconds and poured into a pre-warmed china cup, with saucer.  If so, why aren't they as.... "vocal" as their coffee-gnoscenti counterparts.

idle question – are there tea snobs

Yes of course there are. There's a tea-shop-cafe in Manchester where not only is there a vast choice of different teas, they come with an egg-timer so you can optimise the extraction time.

If so, why aren’t they as…. “vocal” as their coffee-gnoscenti counterparts.

I don't know. But people banging on about coffee seems pretty harmless to me. I don't quite get why people get so worked about it. It seems, in all honestly, just mean spirited and a bit ****y.

If so, why aren’t they as…. “vocal” as their coffee-gnoscenti counterparts

Because historically if you drank tea you knew you were better than everyone else, you didn't need to argue about it to prove superiority. If there was any doubt you simply only used the leaves once and visibly allowed the staff to take the used ones.

Maybe it's worth asking why you drink the coffee..

Most likely

1 caffeine.. easy caffeine tablets or very concentrated energy drinks..I wouldn't usually say that as they are really bad for you but they work..

2 warm drink...why not tea or a hot chocolate or something...

3 a few minutes to yourself..you dont NEED a coffee for this just take your time your on holiday. .

Easy.. or just take your own personal coffee to solve this problem..

Well i did stay in some pretty fancy places to be fair which could account for the higher quality coffee. One place, grew and roasted their own beans.

Best coffee I can remember was at a roadside kahvila in Finland, deep in the forest on a road trip with my mate. Coffee and a korvapuusti, just us, the owner, and the woods.