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snorkie wrote:
My coworkers were complaining because we ran out of Starbucks coffee

Seriously?

Expensive overpaid 'coffee'.

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

We don't have Starbucks (well, actually we have only one, fairly recent) in Italy and to tell you the truth, it would be useless here. We have hundreds of cafès and if someone is on the move he will take a coffee directly at the counter (very common) in less than two minutes instead of taking away. It usually costs around 1€ that way, and pastries too, so it's cheap.

While I'm in London though Starbucks is a blessing: London requires an awful lot of walking and while being slightly warmer than the parts of Italy I come from it's also freaking windy and damp. Being able to keep on moving while holding a moderately sized cup of hot coffee is a real blessing from the skies - most of the time I'm not even interested in the coffee itself but anything warm would do. The usual italian way doesn't help as much since the coffee is extremely shorter and the few minutes in the heated cafè are never enough. Also the cities are smaller and more cramped so there is less to walk.

* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.

I loved travelling in Italy.

Every time the wife got attacked by a shop there would always be a cafe nearby where I could get the cheapest espresso that generally was better than most restaurant efforts.

Bouncing off the walls by the end of the afternoon Sigh | :sigh:

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH

Mycroft Holmes wrote:
cafe nearby where I could get the cheapest espresso that generally was better than most restaurant efforts.

That's a general rule actually, restaurant coffee usually is far worst than cafè ones as they usually have less specialized equipment and less trained personnel. It takes several months of training just to get the coffee right for a barman, it's not as easy as it seems.

When you're lucky restaurant coffee is barely drinkable, it's an additional service and overcharged for. Many people wait to get to the nearest cafè after a meal.

Mycroft Holmes wrote:

Bouncing off the walls by the end of the afternoon

Espresso is short but full of caffeine, without the digestion needed by the milk it gives less aftercrash. Makes people jump - which is needed given the usually relaxed lifestyle in Italy.

* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.

I found an espresso machine at Heathrow airport that had a sign "Not to be used by untrained staff". The coffee was still undrinkable.

We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.

Espresso in London tends to be undrinkable. The most common mistake is making it too long, thus washed out.

* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.

Ristretto Is the best café of the wolrd !!!

La entrada es gratis, la salida vemos....

snorkie wrote:
Starbucks coffee

Oxymoron

I kind of like Starbucks, unlike most of italians, but I can usually spot the differences between coffees. Starbucks has the advantage of using ludicrous amount of milk and sweet creams so that every fallacy in the coffee is drown - in fact it doesn't even need to be sugared to be drank comfortably.

With real espresso or moka coffee you end up feeling the differences much more markedly, even between different bars that use the same coffee (temperature, grounduing and set pressure of the machine change a lot).

* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.

I used to love the smell of cafes, while I was in Italy -- except in the early morning, when they smell like fifty flavours of after-shave.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

The coffee aisle in the grocery store is my favorite one. It smell way better than it tastes!

Hogan

That's spot on!

You can get beans that smell absolutely incredible, enough to make your eyes tremble, but then the drink tastes like nothing at all!

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

When I was a kid, you still had shops that roasted and ground their own coffee in most towns. (This was before "instant coffee" really took hold in the UK.)

The smell when you walked in was superb!

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

Cafè + early morning + Italy = one Hell of a crowd of groggy-looking people wolfing down pastries and coffee with barely a trace of dignity. That arrives some minutes later.

* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.

God, but I miss bomboloni breakfasts!

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

And I elephanting need to stop those before I become an elephanting pachyderm myself. Starbucks pastries are very good (but expensive) - I'm hooked on cinnamon buns.

* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.

den2k88 wrote:
Starbucks has the advantage of using ludicrous amount of milk and sweet creams so that every fallacy in the coffee is drown - in fact it doesn't even need to be sugared to be drank comfortably.

I don't know what's up with British coffee - it always tastes bitter to me. When I go to France, their coffee always tastes so much better - like you say, it's enjoyable even without milk or sugar.

Have you come across any coffee in the UK that's anything close to good (like in France)?

Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.

modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.

Brent Jenkins wrote:

Have you come across any coffee in the UK that's anything close to good (like in France)?

In central London there is Waterstones, an enormous bookshop. It has both a cafè and a restaurant... the cafè makes a passable espresso (but I only took it twice in several years). In the UK I usually binge on Starbucks given that it's an "exotic" experience for people who don't have that shop chain - in fact they're usually chock full of italians Big Grin | :-D

I was to try "Cafè Nero" but the pastries weren't interesting so I got out and sought a Starbucks. Cafè Costa is good but I only took a cappuccino once and that's very hard to elephant up - it takes an unusual amount of talent to make a bad cappuccino.

* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.

Thanks for the info.. to be honest I haven't found any UK outlet that comes close to any run-of-the-mill cafe in France.

I've recently bought a Tassimo machine which has one or two drinkable capsules (yes, I know!) but it's still not what I'm looking for. I might try another brand, but then it's on to grinding and mixing beans which seems a whole load of hassle I'd hoped to avoid.. Frown | :(

Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.

modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.

If you can find Lavazza coffee (I saw it sold in several markets, but outside of central London) and a decent moka you can rest assured of a good coffee. It's a bit costly Lavazza in the UK (~~2.75~~ 3.85£/250gr pack, almost double what we pay here) but in line with the prices of food with respect to ours.

I use capsules too (Nespresso), for when I forgot or couldn't prepare the moka coffee. I shave the wake-car time pretty badly so I don't have more than a couple of minutes to spare. I like only a few of them but in the morning it's survival - real survival, I wouldn't dream of driving while not a 100% efficiency.

* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.

modified 28-Feb-17 10:43am.

I bought a bean to cup machine and buy the Lavazza beans from Costco. Coffee is fantastic.

I know. I'm hardly a fidelized person when it comes to food but having tried most of the range of (affordable) coffees now I stick with Lavazza unless forced otherwise. Besides, it's so widely sold in Italy taht it's extremely easy to find it discounted somewhere. Last time I bought 5kg of it just to not having to worry for a while.

* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.

Sounds good.. I'll give them a try, thanks! Smile | :)

Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.

modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.

Sounds like it might be the way to go.. what machine did you get? I'm looking for something reasonably compact.. Smile | :)

Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.

modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.

Mine is a Krups one, I've been really impressed with it. They were selling them half price in Debenhams before Christmas but they seem to be back to full price at the moment. Worth keeping an eye out for them though when they go on offer.

Thanks, I'll keep a lookout for them Smile | :)

Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.

modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.

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