Coffee houses

[Nick Armstrong]

... yes, but what value can we put on the judgment of someone who openly declares a preference for, ahem, "Milka" -

[Anna]

After mixing and matching, I get a 50-50 mix of their Santos&Java with another darker bean: currently I mix in their Espresso bean

Lovely! But us lesser Provincial mortals have only the choice (unless buying online I guess) of something that is readily available in a supermarket.

Pilchardman: My mum always used to use an Italian stovetop, but as I have a halogen hob I can't use one.

Patrick: For instant I use Nescafe Collection Espresso 100% Arabica, which hits the spot.

[Pilchardman]

Pilchardman: My mum always used to use an Italian stovetop, but as I have a halogen hob I can't use one.

Really? Good lord, I'll never buy one of them, then.

[vinteuil]

... as I have a halogen hob I can't use one.

.

That's bad. Do they alert you to this when you buy a cooker with halogen hobs {"Well, as you can see it's lovely an' shiny, an' it looks well pretty when it's turned on... (sotto voce) - don't expect to be able to use a coffee maker on it tho', nah, can't do that... "}

[Paul Sherratt]

Well we may have been risking the wrath of the health and safety gods but we used an italian pot and
halogen cooker combination for years ...

[Nick Armstrong]

an Italian stovetop, but as I have a halogen hob I can't use one.

Same here Anna...

[Anna]

Well we may have been risking the wrath of the health and safety gods but we used an italian pot and halogen cooker combination for years ...

Really? Without a diffuser? To be honest, I can't logically see why you can't because, when push comes to shove, what's the difference between a stove top coffee maker and a saucepan? <baffled emoticon>

[Pilchardman]

Really? Without a diffuser? To be honest, I can't logically see why you can't because, when push comes to shove, what the difference between a stove top coffee maker and a saucepan? <baffled emoticon?

That's what I was wondering. I thought maybe those were banned, too.

[kernelbogey]

Our high street in this little town has a sweet independent coffee bar. Next door is a newly opened deli serving coffee. There's another deli at the end of the street. Now Costa is taking over an empty shop, reportedly: this will destroy at least one and perhaps two of these. Another nail in the coffin of a traditional high street.

All the big chains follow a model of coffee-making which, I believe, emerged from Seattle. They take ages to make a bucket of indifferent coffee. In Italy you get an espresso within less than a minute of ordering, for about €1: a cappuccino takes only a little longer, is small, piping hot and full of flavour. No one in Italy would be seen dead drinking a cappuccino after noon.

They're almost worth flying over for the day to drink....

[Biffo]

I haven't been to Pret a Manger for years, not since I worked in the City. I found their sandwiches revolting; each one had 93 fresh ingredients, result - they all tasted the same.

[Don Petter]

Being an instant connoisseur I find that for home use the best bet is the blend I get in Lidl - 'Granaroma' - delicious. And it's half the price

Absolutely - we swear by Lidl's Granaroma. Great value and taste.

And when we want to use the cafetiere, we use one of Lidl's vacuum packs (currently 'Melangerie' Guatemala-Kenya-Columbia I see) - also much cheaper than elsewhere.

[johnb]

The coffee I use at home is usually Waitrose "Monsooned Malabar" or Waitrose "Sumatra Mandheling" with forays into other types in between.

I don't really enjoy expresso so I always use a cafetiere.

By the way, the coffees sold by the coffee shop that vinteuil recommended look very alluring .... I'm tempted.

[johnb]

Going a little off topic - one of the things that amazed me when I moved to Bristol in 1967 was the shear number of shops roasting (and grinding) coffee on site. There were at least three within 500 yards of where I first lived. Besides those, Cowardines had a string of shops all over the city which roasted and ground a very wide range of coffee beans on site at each shop and also sold a very wide range of teas - all of which they imported.

Very sadly, that has all totally disappeared. Such a pity!

[french frank]

>>>On Saturday, protesters picketed the unopened coffee shop claiming it would undercut independent cafes in the area, while Bristol West MP Stephen Williams has also written to the firm.

I've never seen ' Costa ' and 'undercut ' in the same world before ...

Not so much 'undercut' as take their business, I'd have thought. It's an 80-seat place which probably makes it the biggest on the street because most of the little café-bars have 20-30 maximum. My favourite seats about 12-15 or fewer. I expect if they have their own character (mine is run by a French chef-pâtissier who does all his own baking, including what I think are the best croissants locally) they'll be all right. The local bakers saw Greggs off last year

[barber olly]

The coffee I use at home is usually Waitrose "Monsooned Malabar" or Waitrose "Sumatra Mandheling" with forays into other types in between.

First find your Waitrose, nearest over 50 miles away!