Coffee

[ahinton]

Finally, finally, I got round to looking up what 'Off the boil' means, which I've thought about every morning but have forgotten to check.

Optimum temperature for pouring on to coffee is 205º, so once the water boils, leave it for 10 secs or so to cool slightly before pouring on to the coffee. (Useful tip I didn't know, reboil the water and top up in cup if you really like it piping hot - which I don't. Can't stand the coffee shops that serve great mugs of coffee too hot to drink.)

Spot on!

[ahinton]

Around a decade ago an new coffee shoo "Brown Bag" opened near Windsor Castle. The owner had previously been a British Airways steward, trained by them in making coffee. He used a thermometer to judge the ;correct; temperature of the milk frothed for cappuccino. It;s not just the coffee itself must be off the boil..

Quite right too!

[jayne lee wilson]

Instant luxury....

One sachet Nescafé Azera Cappuccino
One dessertspoon Green & Black's Organic Hot Chocolate
One heaped teaspoon Lavazza Prontissimo! Intenso
Demerara Sugar to taste (I like a little coffee with my sugar...)

Optional: glug of Jersey Milk and/or Brandy**

Yes, Boilng Water, but allow froth to rise to the top before sprinkling on more G&B chocolate power.

Served up in a big glass mug - if that don't set ya up for the weekly shop, nuthin' will!

(**Optionally you can swig a quick one-(large)-part brandy to three-parts-boiling-water separately, before chasing it with the coffee)

***
My standard morning coffee remains the Lavazza Qualità ORO, unsweetened, with which I share a long and loyal bond.

[doversoul1]

On a very cold day in December, I was stuck at Sevenoaks station as there had been some incident somewhere along the line. They let me go out the gate, so I bought a ‘small coffee’ at Costa. It was a size of a beer mug and the ‘coffee’ tasted as if thoroughly burnt beans had been ground and brewed. I wouldn’t have recognised it as coffee. Still, holding the cup kept my hands warm. I wondered if this was what people called coffee these days.

[french frank]

On a very cold day in December, I was stuck at Sevenoaks station as there had been some incident somewhere along the line. They let me go out the gate, so I bought a ‘small coffee’ at Costa. It was a size of a beer mug and the ‘coffee’ tasted as if thoroughly burnt beans had been ground and brewed. I wouldn’t have recognised it as coffee. Still, holding the cup kept my hands warm. I wondered if this was what people called coffee these days.

On the odd occasion when it suits me to be in a coffee shop and buy a coffee, I only ever have a double espresso. If they don't have the facility to produce an espresso, I don't go in.

[teamsaint]

I mostly buy coffee out if work is paying.
I have recently taken to ordering, and enjoying, Americano with hot milk.
Does this make me a bad person?


Also, does anybody actually upgrade to "todays special bean?"

[french frank]

I mostly buy coffee out if work is paying.
I have recently taken to ordering, and enjoying, Americano with hot milk.
Does this make me a bad person?

I'm not sure about that. In fact, I've just remembered, I do go to a local café/pâtisserie once a fortnight to meet a friend and speak French. There I have a café au lait, which is apparently called a 'flat white' in English. I never knew that.

Also, does anybody actually upgrade to "todays special bean?"

Uh… pass. Anyone else?

[doversoul1]

I mostly buy coffee out if work is paying.
I have recently taken to ordering, and enjoying, Americano with hot milk.
Does this make me a bad person?

Also, does anybody actually upgrade to "todays special bean?"

Re: Americano. Once upon a time, in my youth, I worked in a coffee shop in order to earn money to pay a parking fine. In those days, Americano was a mug (not a cup and saucer) two thirds filled with filtered coffee and topped up with hot water and with a lot of milk. It didn’t make the person bad but we regarded him/her plain unsophisticated.

Re: special beans. Not quite today’s but once I was given a bag of Fortnum & Mason's Blue Mountain beans. I thanked profusely but I thought Sainsbury’s Kenyan beans were just as good. My loss, I'm sure.

[subcontrabass]

Re: Americano. Once upon a time, in my youth, I worked in a coffee shop in order to earn money to pay a parking fine. In those days, Americano was a mug (not a cup and saucer) two thirds filled with filtered coffee and topped up with hot water and with a lot of milk. It didn’t make the person bad but we regarded him/her plain unsophisticated.

Nowadays an Americano seems to be an espresso topped up with hot water to fill the mug.

[french frank]

Americano was a mug (not a cup and saucer)

I went off mugs a few years back. I don't insist on bone china, but I always use a cup and saucer (plain white from the Co op). I agree with scb - Americano is espresso topped up with hot water.

[Dave2002]

Finally, finally, I got round to looking up what 'Off the boil' means, which I've thought about every morning but have forgotten to check.

Optimum temperature for pouring on to coffee is 205º, so once the water boils, leave it for 10 secs or so to cool slightly before pouring on to the coffee. (Useful tip I didn't know, reboil the water and top up in cup if you really like it piping hot - which I don't. Can't stand the coffee shops that serve great mugs of coffee too hot to drink.)

205???

[Dave2002]

I'm not sure about that. In fact, I've just remembered, I do go to a local café/pâtisserie once a fortnight to meet a friend and speak French. There I have a café au lait, which is apparently called a 'flat white' in English. I never knew that.

I had come during recent years - perhaps mistakenly - to think that the French no longer use the expression " café au lait" - which is after all what I was taught many years ago for the English "white coffee". I think some prefer the term "café crème" - but what do I know?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

205???

Farenheit. (212 degrees F is the boiling point of water.)

I checked after being similarly puzzled by the number.

[jayne lee wilson]

I mostly buy coffee out if work is paying.
I have recently taken to ordering, and enjoying, Americano with hot milk.
Does this make me a bad person?


Also, does anybody actually upgrade to "todays special bean?"

See #318... if you're really desperate for (adopts Special Agent Dale Cooper voice) Co-ffee, co-ffee... out on the cold road somewhere, appointment just cancelled via mobile....or holed up for, like, ever, in a Hospital waiting room....just about any Costa or Starbucks can taste like Nectar - so long as there's enough sugar and/or chocolate in it, or on it....or a serious amount of whipped cream needing a teaspoon to eat...

Life, for a precious little while, becomes that bit more bearable.

[Dave2002]

Farenheit. (212 degrees F is the boiling point of water.)

I checked after being similarly puzzled by the number.

369.261 !!