Favorite coffee?

[Former Member]

Hi all!

Today I was thinking about traveling and the amazing coffee I had on my last trip way back in 2019. My sister and I traveled from the US to four cities in Europe. We landed in Wroclaw then headed to Budapest from Budapest to Vienna, and Vienna to Prague. It was a whirlwind 10ish days of travel for us and my first time leaving the US. We had a blast and enjoyed great food and coffee along the way. My sister is not a huge coffee person, but she knew between the jet lag and my coffee habit we would have to at least start each day with a coffee.

My standard order is cold brew or iced coffee, something about not needing to wait for it to cool down plus the tons of sugar added. That being said, the best coffee I ever had was probably a cappuccino in Vienna pictured here.

Do you have a favorite caffeinated beverage? Is it something local to where you live? 

[manfredKlein]

Hi,

great choice of cities.

Yes, Vienna takes the coffee thing really serious. While in our parts you get coffee standard issue(Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato, etc.), they ask You if you want any special blend(Vienna Mélange, etc.). They seem to treat coffee similar to wine. That's real coffee dedication.

With Inflation going up, we had ourselves a coffee center for home office. Right now switching between Cappuccino and Coffee. It's a new take to find your favorite coffee beans. First we tried our local supermarkets. Next is Internet. Time to move on from Rookie to higher levels.

Nice weekend,

Manfred Klein

[Former Member]

Yes, absolutely coffee out is becoming a real treat with the way prices are. I can't say I have a favorite brand but I do like medium roast or blonde roast. 

[NTeunckens]

I'm a real coffee fanatic and we have a coffee / espresso machine at home. I love roasted coffee beans that are either rather sweet (for regular coffee and such) ór die-hard espresso-beans with a punch.

We tend to order from different brands online, but have settled more or less on a German(!) coffee brand that has a good sweetness to it at a fair price. For espresso, I tend to diverge a bit and try a lot of different brands and price-points.

I don't have my coffee in a coffeeshop but at home generally, and that gives me full control of what I'm drinking. So regular coffee and espresso (or rather : a "doppio" aka double espresso) for me, no milk, and a bit of sugar ... Those are my go-to's ...

Enjoy your coffee!

Nic T.

[Former Member]

I like to experiment more if I go to a coffee shop, for me at home I just do simple coffee and milk most days. Sometimes I add sugar that's about it. 

[KatherineKenneally]

Sounds like a great trip @Former Member !!

I like coffee but I tend not to drink too much of it, because I have to add sugar. I find it bitter otherwise. Maybe I just didn't find the right one?! My choice of drink would be tea with milk or herbal teas (like peppermint & licorice).

In our local pub/restaurant - they serve a Baileys coffee - a very nice for a treat after your dinner! There's also the Irish Coffee with whiskey added instead of Baileys Irish Cream!

[Former Member]

@KatherineKenneally yes it was! Milk in tea is not too common here. Do you drink black tea with milk usually or a specific kind of tea? 

I'll have to try Baileys coffee, I never have before but I have heard good things about it. 

[KatherineKenneally]

Yes, black tea with milk! There are lots of different brands, and it's quite common here in Ireland. Some people drink it just black with no milk.

I wish I had a photo to share of a Baileys coffee but I don't! Will keep it in mind!!

[Constance_K]

The bitter taste is the best on coffee 🙂

[CameronK]

My favorite coffee is at home coffee. I recieved an espresso machine with a milk frother and now I make myself a cappuccino every morning practicing my latte art! 😊 
I use a blend of dark roast usually ethiopian but I've been testing with different espresso blends. 
So far it's my favortie part of the day! 😎

[Former Member]

That sounds delicious! No need for the coffee shop when you can make a cappuccino at home. Sounds like you are already a bit of a coffee expert. 

[Constance_K]

I highly can recommend to you this brand: Passalacqua Cremador Espresso.

All time fav!

[sveabecker]

Thanks for sharing your Europe trip. Next time you are in Wroclaw (beautiful city!) you need to connect with @Vitaliy-R , @Former Member  😊

I am the tea person. Herbal tea in all variations, no black tea at all. I tend to put also milk and sugar into it from time to time.

I never drank and still don't drink regular coffee. A few years ago, I started with drinking espresso after lunch once in a while. Since my husband made me this lovely gift of an own espresso machine I cannot stand them anymore and need to drink at least one every day 😅 And then it is black and sweet ☕

[Former Member]

@sveabecker 😀 I talked to Vitaliy awhile back about the trip! It is a shame I didn't know him then to visit. 

It sounds like you have come around on espresso since getting that gift! I have to have cream of some kind with any coffee, I have only ever ordered black coffee by mistake.  

[qmacro]

I am somewhat of a coffee fan, and enjoy the ceremony of preparing it in the morning. I have a manual lever espresso machine from La Pavoni, and the appeal (beyond it making great espresso) is that it's hard to use, and you need to practise to see small improvements to your technique every day.

I get my beans from Heart & Graft, a local roastery just down the road from me, in Newton Heath, Manchester. 

I have written a few coffee related posts on my blog, in case you want to know more: https://qmacro.org/tags/coffee/ 

[Former Member]

It sounds like the practice & patience makes the experience that much better in your case. I like to have my coffee quickly, but maybe I lose something there in the overall enjoyment. 🤔 I'll check out your other coffee posts! Thanks for sharing.

[Constance_K]

Nice cup! 

[serkansaglam]

I was a tea-person approx. 10 years ago. Drinking too much tea (with sugar). I managed to stop consuming sugar. Only tea! I was happy. Day by day, coffee (consumption) started to became more popular where I lived especially in business/busy area. One of my colleagues who I worked with in a CRM support project take me to coffee shops at lunch times. After these repeated activities, now I am a coffee-person. 😂

I drink americano, lungo, or just black coffee. ☕

[Former Member]

Haha - interesting to see the journey from sugar in your tea all the way to coffee drinker. I have to say I started with very sweet coffee as my way into it. Without the sugar I am not sure I would have stuck with it. What is a lungo? I haven't heard of it before. 

[serkansaglam]

Hi @Former Member here is the definition from wiki -> Lungo (Italian for "long") is a coffee beverage made by using an espresso machine to make an Italian-style coffee – short black (a single espresso shot) with more water (generally twice as much), resulting in a larger coffee, a lungo.

I am not expert on "barista", but I enjoy when I drink a great taste coffee. And of course, I should try other alternatives 🙂

[Former Member]

Thanks for sharing. Haha I go back and forth between I should try something new & stick with my favorites. 

[serkansaglam]

🙂No problem as long as your all options include "*coffee*"

select coffee from coffee

[Vitaliy-R]

My story is nothing special, and rather weird for real coffee aficionados. I haven't drunk much coffee until 2007. I did not like it, I did not need it, and often I did not feel well after it...

Then in May 2007, I relocated from Poland to California to join the BW consulting team at HP Services after working in outsourcing (meaning from the office) for years.

On the very first day in the office, my team lead told me "Let's go have a coffee". "I don't drink coffee" -- was my reply. He looked at me and said: "You are in consulting now. You won't survive without coffee". 

We went to the nearby Starbucks at 11111 North Wolfe Rd at Cupertino, next to where our HP office used to be (now it is Apple's "Spaceship" location). It was my shock number two that day: I was not used to paying for a coffee outside if I have a coffee for free in the office. "I cannot drink office coffee," he said. Ok.

Since then Starbucks' "tall latte" became my drink. Ok, for 7 months it was "grande latte" after red-eye flights from San Francisco to Newark, where I was traveling every week for one of the projects. But I go to Starbucks only when I am in the US. Locals in California could not accept that, saying I should go to Peet's, but the coffee there was too strong for me.

Back in Poland, I don't go to Starbucks almost at all (btw, the first Starbucks in Poland opened in 2007, one month after I had left the country). I do not drink fancy coffee at home, usually, it is just Nescafe Crema Instant to irritate @qmacro on Monday morning with my red Nescafe cup.

But if I meet with friends here in Wrocław we usually go to a local chain, like Etno Caffe or Sowa for a cup of some great coffee and a tasty bite.

Otherwise, you find me in some local multitap 🍻 more often than in a cafe.

[Former Member]

@Vitaliy-R - haha there is nothing wrong with preferring a simple coffee especially to annoy coworkers with 😆 There was an Etno Cafe near where we stayed during our Wroclaw visit. We went there pretty much every day for breakfast & coffee. 

[sveabecker]

Where is the coffee @Former Member ? 😅

[Former Member]

@sveabecker It was the bottle of cold brew in this case 😆 It was not really as sweet as I normally go and I believe it was apple flavored. 

[sveabecker]

😂

[qmacro]

You succeed, always 🙂 

[Vitaliy-R]

The only thing I succeeded in was... getting my coffee on a way to SAP TechEd 2022

[Constance_K]

Starbucks is everywhere 😄 

[lenastodal]

I am also both. I drink more tea throughout the day (especially in the colder months of the year), but also enjoy a good coffee (kind of as a treat).
Similarly to @Vitaliy-R, I also got into the habit of drinking coffee through SAP, actually it all began on my very first day in the Walldorf office. The whole team always met after lunch in the coffee corner and enjoyed their coffee together, so I joined them, too. During the pandemic, I found myself going back to the roots, drinking more black tea with milk than coffee, and only occasionally had a "proper" coffee; in the rare moments when I met with friends for a coffee in a café or at their place. 
A while ago, I still went to the café around the corner to get my Latte Macchiato with oat milk. My boyfriend didn't find it very efficient (time-wise and money-wise), hence he went ahead and bought me (as he doesn't drink coffee himself) a bialetti, milk frother, and fresh ground coffee (from the café I used to go to). Since, I get my Latte Macchiato at home, without even having to leave the house, and it's even better than the one from the café 😉 

As mentioned above, I also love to drink black tea with milk a lot (preferably PG Tips or Yorkshire). I can only enjoy it with skimmed (cow) milk though, I guess because I am used to it that way. Anyone here that drinks their black tea with oat milk, almond milk, any other milk? 

[serkansaglam]

Coffee is all around. Fortunately, there is no war between coffee and tea. Both are friends.
Regarding your question, I tried tea with milk. It's really nice. Two more options I would count are "tea with lemon" and "tea with cinnamon".

[lenastodal]

+1! I definitely always put a little cinnamon on top of my coffee! Love it. 

[Former Member]

Its funny how much SAP has influenced the coffee drinking in many of us. I like both as well but for different reasons. I really like cinnamon in coffee too, when I make coffee sometimes I add some cinnamon to the grounds to give it that flavor, a tip I learned from a friend at SAP! 

[sveabecker]

I don't drink black tea at all @lenastodal but on the weekend, I make myself a Chai Latte: it's cinnamon tea with sugar and frothy milk and of course with a cinnamon/sugar topping.😃

Of course, you also get it at Starbucks but I go there more rarely nowadays.

[MortenWittrock]

Probably the best coffee drink I've had was a latte at a Blue Bottle by the pier in San Francisco. Incredibly smooth, ideal temperature, just perfect.

Nowadays I skip the milk and go for an americano instead.

[Former Member]

Sounds great @MortenWittrock ! I don't favor americanos not quite sweet enough for me and I prefer to have some kind of milk too. 

[sveabecker]

uh, I can really imagine sitting at the pier of San Francisco... I bet every drink tastes good overthere 😅

[MortenWittrock]

It was in fact right next to a Gott's Roadside burger place, where I had an equally excellent burger. So maybe it is in fact the pier working some magic 😄

[justyna]

Hi 😉

my favorite coffee is Cappuccino.

Wish you all only good coffee,

Justyna