Great Western Coffee Shop

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I was up well before the crack of dawn this morning and travelling.  A couple of cups of coffee drunk during my journey and it struck me what a contrast there is in what we call "coffee".  Ignoring what you like added in terms of milk, sugar, cream, lemon, ice, sweetener etc, how strong do you like your coffee?

Whenever I am asked 'How do I like my coffee?', I give one simple stock answer [much to the annoyance of my colleagues!] and that is.....

"I do not mind how it comes. The only coffee I do not drink is Tea!"

Espresso and ideally with a glass of lightly sparking water on the side, as I have experienced in Italy.  So that I can can savour the full flavour of the coffee while also getting my hydration.

Too mean to fork out on an espresso machine I buy most of my coffee pre ground and made in a cafetiere or with a manual filter funnel with filter paper cone.
I've got a coffee grinder too for the occasions where I buy whole beans instead.
To me, the best results tend to be from the cone and filter method.
I tend to prefer Italian blends but have just bought some Spanish coffee at nearby shop specialising in groceries from Spain.  The beans are half ordinary roast beans and half "torrefacto" beans (sugar glazed during roasting).  The jury is still out on that.
A friend of mine who likes a good coffee not only has a more than decent espresso machine but likes a particular Milanese blend of Italian coffee, the beans of which he gets imported via a dealer in Germany.

I see just one choice - when the mood takes me a quite like an Expresso, but default to "on the strong side".

What I don't like is the bucket-sized card container of pale grey tasteless lukewarm liquid you sometimes get at certain chains or (all too often?) at those mobile units you get at outside events!

I very seldom drink coffee but make an exception if cream and brandy are added.

Have been known to enjoy drinking chocolate with brandy.

I recall enjoying "Bica Macieira" when in Portugal, a straight espresso served with an accompanying glass of Macieira brandy.

I have responded that I don't drink coffee.  Not always true. When in Portugal on business I did regularly (2 days a year typically) have an espresso after lunch along with the rest of the party and enjoyed it.  I no longer have business in Portugal so I no longer drink coffee. 

Had a very tedious time in Seattle a few years ago. I like my coffee strong and black; no ice, no slice and no cocktail umbrella. But they like to offer options, and for me it became a challenge to preempt everything when I ordered to try to cut out all this nonsense. In the end I would order a 10oz black coffee, just coffee, no milk, no sugar, nothing else just coffee.  But they had an answer, even to that: would you like space for milk? But they had every kind of milk imaginable, so why on earth would I want space for milk that I’d presumably brought myself? Argh!

I've recently gone back to drinking coffee in earnest, rather than getting a caffeine fix from fizzy pop. I have to avoid too much sugar and I've never really liked the taste of the artificial sweeteners used by the majority of pop manufacturers - acesulfame, sucralose and aspartame.

At home I use a cafetiere and whole beans that I grind with a manual grinder gifted to me at Christmas. I prefer a very strong, rich roast. I'm currently using Cafe Direct Mayan Gold beans.

I sweeten with Erythritol or Stevia. Occasionally I'll drink my coffee black and unsweetened, but I do like to add Coffee Mate whitener. Sacrilege to some no doubt, but it's my drink and I'll do as I please!

Bought a bean to cup machine several years ago, but don't use the milk steamer that came with it (too much hassle cleaning it!).
Prefer a 'light chocolate' flavour; microwave milk before stirring coffee into it.

That said, will take any shop offering when out and about - it's coffee.

Used to drink green tea (grapefruit & apple) from a flask when at work, but not done that so far this winter.  Just (still) water at work.

Used to drink only decaffeinated tea by the bucket but switched to coffee.

I suppose you could say I don't drink "proper" coffee. Your weak, looks strong compared with my half teaspoon of instant. Every now and again my other half persuades me to have a Balkan/Turkish coffee (it's her background), that disturbs my sleep patterns a bit.

I rarely drink coffee but in cafes the coffee is sometimes more to my palate than the tea (I drink quite a lot of tea). I like a fairly small coffee with milk but no sugar. Something like an americano or flat white. I'm not sure where that falls in term of the poll. Places like Costa and Nero want to make every drink as BIG as possible, but all this means is more water. You get a more dilute drink, with less flavour, and the same amount of caffeine if you're bothered about that. You then spend the next two hours peeing it out! And their options, with meaningless names attached, are not designed to inform.

I will drink pretty much anything, strong, but it has to be arabica. I think that Costa add a proportion of cheap and nasty robusta beans to their blend. Why, I don't know, but it seems to work for them commercially.

I drink coffee black (and also tea) and at cafes I always specify I want it black with no milk. Nevertheless, if it is a cafe where they bring it to you, I often find they also bring milk as well. This seems to happen especially where I meet up with friends who drink coffee with milk, and often they are brought black coffees without.

A special mention for an after meal coffee that I had in a pub in South Devon many years ago.  It was coffee infused with ginger, no milk and quite sweet.  Delicious!

How do you like your coffee??

1 - weak   - 0%
2 - on the weak side   - 0%
3 - moderate   - 10.8%
4 - on the strong side   - 27%
5 - strong    - 27%
6 - Espresso   - 8.1%

I don't mind - anyhow   - 2.7%
I don't drink coffee   - 24.3%

We love you on the forum - however you prefer it (and even if you only drink virtual coffee).   If I'm making a coffee for you, I'll make it like the one I had in Gloucester last Monday, or almost as strong.

The Gloucester cafe I head for when I go there makes the best coffee I know of anywhere.

Name and fame? I like Peppers on Bull Lane but I rarely if ever have coffee there.

'twas Poppins

The one I head for is The Square on Brunswick Road.

There's material for a comparison test.  :)

I too have enjoyed a cup of coffee in Gloucester.  The cafe was quite close to the Cathedral, just after I'd visited it but I can't remember it's name.  The staff were quite memorable though as they had a slightly "pagan" style to them.

There is a cafe just outside the cathedral gates, just off Westgate Street. I've been there too but can't remember what it's called. Not sure if it's the one you're talking about as I don't recall the staff seeming "pagan". In fact I'm not sure what that means in this context but it sounds intriguing!

Indeed, I was struggling a bit to find the right description but there was perhaps a bit of a wiccan look and feel to the place....and least that's how I remember it.

The Calf Shed at Horton Cross, Ilminster, serve strong black coffee with a small jug of hot water to dilute it to your preferred strength.
 

All this coffee talk has reminded me that I do rather miss the Coffee Trike that used to be such a treat at Redland Station.

Indeed. But there is a "coffee waggon" in Cotham Gardens just a short stroll from the station. I've never used it so can't comment on the coffee. It would be interesting to know why the operator decided to locate it there rather than at the station; I suppose there are more customers in the park than at the station.

Whilst I didn't go there for the coffee, a café by the main road between Rome and Umbria provides my own benchmark. I can't remember where exactly, but as I started in Rome and somehow found Assisi, it was on that road.  "Nondescript" is too descriptive. It was stand-up, although there were a couple of battered Formica tables to look at, but that espresso would have kept me going well into Switzerland. Thick black and truly aromatic, with an accompaniment of cold mineral water, it was superb. 

The worst coffee I have ever been served was actually in the cafe at the Swindon Steam museum about 5 years ago. I suspect they had used some cleaning solution in the coffee machine and hadn't flushed it out properly. It tasted really horrible and I shudder when I think about it to this day!

Which reminds me of:

"Waiter, waiter, this coffee tastes like soil".


"Well sir, it was ground this morning".

My old boss got similar in our office. My colleague had decided the office kettle was getting furred up, so filled it with descaler. Then he went out. Enter the boss, who took his coffee black, and was delighted to find the kettle was full...

The office closed some years ago. Those who worked there still talk about this. Not sure what happened to the boss.

Poor coffee at Swindon? Plus ça change.


That quote is from a letter sent in 1842 to the first refreshment room franchisee at Swindon station. The letter's author? One Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Phosphoric acid is the usual material used to remove limescale from kettles, coffee machines, water boilers and the like. It is only moderately toxic and unlikely to do any harm if ingested, unless in improbable amounts.
It is one of the ingredients in cola drinks.

I might be able to get a sample to analyse. Apparently, quite a lot was sprayed over the office wall.