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

****.

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 ****.

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.

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 **** 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.

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 ****.

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.