Coffee - It's Changed
First a little coffee humor:
But seriously, I think coffee is the new fast-food. (Well duh - there's a real insightful observation.) Here's what I mean. This is a totally non-scientific experiment, but I frequent enought different coffee shops to give the argument some validity. It's getting harder to find a good cup of cappuccino these days. As I understand it a cappuccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk, and 1/3 frothed milk. First it was the milk. The "baristas" seem to have a harder time frothing the milk. Lately it's usually just very hot milk with hardly any froth. When you add scalded milk to espresso the two mix immediately making some sort of hot coffee-milk drink.
I was sympathetic to the milk problem. If you went to the same coffee shop, the "new" baristas eventually "grew into" the job, learning how to properly heat milk. You knew they had "arrived" when they asked if you liked your drink "dry" - Yes, I do thank you. Lately, it seems that no one knows how to make good milk. The baristas turn over faster than their ability to master the milk steaming skill, or the customer base has become so pedestrian as to not know a proper drink when they taste one. Who cares if one guy gets all cranky and wants to lecture the staff about how to make the proper cappuccino - dry, no less.
Now, to add insult to injury, they can't even get the espresso right. I'm not sure what the problem is (because I'm not that much of an expert), but it doesn't seem "right". Maybe too much water? Not hot enough? Too hot? Whatever it is it has dealt the "double whammy" death blow to my coffee shop visits.
Have I stopped going to coffee shops? Well, no. Not quite ready to fill my thermos with Folgers everyday. There's always tomorrow when they just might ask, "Would you like that drink dry?"
Coffee. What an industry eh? Have young, *attractive girls sell a product that has been proven to be an addictive stimulant - genius.
But seriously, I think coffee is the new fast-food. (Well duh - there's a real insightful observation.) Here's what I mean. This is a totally non-scientific experiment, but I frequent enought different coffee shops to give the argument some validity. It's getting harder to find a good cup of cappuccino these days. As I understand it a cappuccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk, and 1/3 frothed milk. First it was the milk. The "baristas" seem to have a harder time frothing the milk. Lately it's usually just very hot milk with hardly any froth. When you add scalded milk to espresso the two mix immediately making some sort of hot coffee-milk drink.
I was sympathetic to the milk problem. If you went to the same coffee shop, the "new" baristas eventually "grew into" the job, learning how to properly heat milk. You knew they had "arrived" when they asked if you liked your drink "dry" - Yes, I do thank you. Lately, it seems that no one knows how to make good milk. The baristas turn over faster than their ability to master the milk steaming skill, or the customer base has become so pedestrian as to not know a proper drink when they taste one. Who cares if one guy gets all cranky and wants to lecture the staff about how to make the proper cappuccino - dry, no less.
Now, to add insult to injury, they can't even get the espresso right. I'm not sure what the problem is (because I'm not that much of an expert), but it doesn't seem "right". Maybe too much water? Not hot enough? Too hot? Whatever it is it has dealt the "double whammy" death blow to my coffee shop visits.
Have I stopped going to coffee shops? Well, no. Not quite ready to fill my thermos with Folgers everyday. There's always tomorrow when they just might ask, "Would you like that drink dry?"
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