Coffee, why is it better elsewhere?

If anyone is passing the Endsleigh Garden Centre on the A38 near Ivybridge, I can recommend Owens organic Coffee at the Roastery on the small industrial estate next door. They have their own cafe, and have various beans which they can grind to your requirements as you wait.
We had a Cortado each the other day, which was superb.
 
I used to enjoy Lavazza (still do) in either Coffee Press of Machine. Then I gave Aldi's Columbian a try and it's lovely, a smooth caramel nutty taste for less than £3 for a whole packet. Worth a try if you want a smooth, dark, less expensive coffee. You'll find it in a gold packet - beans or ground.
Aldi's Columbian Gold - not to be sniffed at.
 
Insider said:
Wondering why the same coffee tastes different in different places and it's not just the mood. Start watching James Hoffmann on YouTube. I've been buying the same coffee for the last ten years - French Roast beans - and I use a variety of devices to grind and a variety of devices to brew - gaggia classic pro, moka, aeropress etc and some days I get it right and it's WOW and other days I just cry. Even the "same" coffee from the supplier will have gone thru a slightly different roasting process next time you buy from them and I'll waste a few cups getting the grind size right to get the right pressure and thus flow rate theought the GCP. If I had to pick 1 method it would be moka with 1Zpresso manual grinder which also suits campervanning. Turkish is next on the list.
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Having been in the coffee industry for 30 odd years and now retired and motorhoming, I can offer some hopefully helpful views. Although I have ALL the kit you can mention, for simple pleasure with minimal fuss I have settled on a Clever Dripper with filter paper (let's face it, who doesn't just want to sit down at breakfast with a fine brew that's not taken much time?) Use just off-boiled water poured slowly over freshly roasted ground coffee = best aroma and flavour, perfect in the morning. Supermarket coffee should be avoided - it's usually roasted at least 2/3 months prior to shelf. Only use beans that have been rested 10 days or so after roasting. Look for reputable roasters online - I can recommend Read's of Sherborne, well priced and know their stuff. I grind the beans just at home just before we go, store in an airtight container and just enough for the stay away. I don't decry the use of Moka pots, Aeropress or B2C machines but you can get a delicious coffee using properly roasted coffee and just the Clever Dripper. More time to relax and savour the result!
 
Dubbaday said:
Having been in the coffee industry for 30 odd years and now retired and motorhoming, I can offer some hopefully helpful views. Although I have ALL the kit you can mention, for simple pleasure with minimal fuss I have settled on a Clever Dripper with filter paper (let's face it, who doesn't just want to sit down at breakfast with a fine brew that's not taken much time?) Use just off-boiled water poured slowly over freshly roasted ground coffee = best aroma and flavour, perfect in the morning. Supermarket coffee should be avoided - it's usually roasted at least 2/3 months prior to shelf. Only use beans that have been rested 10 days or so after roasting. Look for reputable roasters online - I can recommend Read's of Sherborne, well priced and know their stuff. I grind the beans just at home just before we go, store in an airtight container and just enough for the stay away. I don't decry the use of Moka pots, Aeropress or B2C machines but you can get a delicious coffee using properly roasted coffee and just the Clever Dripper. More time to relax and savour the result!
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Thanks. Might give a Clever Dripper a try. We are tea addicts which is quick to make in the mornings. We love coffee too, but rarely drink it before 10am. We have a bean to cup machine at home which is OK, but when away in the van I really enjoy my Moka ritual for that mid morning coffee.

We first tried the Moka years ago and no matter what coffee we used it was always bitter. Then, by chance, I came across a YouTube video about how to use a Moka pot correctly, a few more videos and a bit of practise, and we haven't looked back. Teasing the very best taste from a Moka is rather enjoyable. (y). I'll definitely be ordering some beans from Reads. Cheers
 
Jim said:
Thanks. Might give a Clever Dripper a try. We are tea addicts which is quick to make in the mornings. We love coffee too, but rarely drink it before 10am. We have a bean to cup machine at home which is OK, but when away in the van I really enjoy my Moka ritual for that mid morning coffee.

We first tried the Moka years ago and no matter what coffee we used it was always bitter. Then, by chance, I came across a YouTube video about how to use a Moka pot correctly, a few more videos and a bit of practise, and we haven't looked back. Teasing the very best taste from a Moka is rather enjoyable. (y). I'll definitely be ordering some beans from Reads. Cheers
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Yes, love a Moka stove pot, it's a brewing art form as you say. Most Italian homes have a version in the kitchen, enough said 👌

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Jabstatt said:
I have just gone from a bean to cup machine, my second, to a Nespresso Vertuo machine and it is great.
I agree about loads of coffee shops selling tasteless products.
My machine also does hot chocolate which is also amazing.

Tony
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I agree 💯 Tony.
The on-line ordering took a while to get sorted, but the choice and quality of the Nespresso coffee is excellent.
However, whenever I want a coffee in Newcastle, I always go to Orio inside John Lewis, it's superb coffee.
Let's face it though, reasonable coffee will always be enjoyable on our continental travels 😎
 
Best coffee I ever had was about 25 years ago. I was a surveyor and called at a house in Worcester. There were about 4 or 5 older gents around a table drinking coffee. The house owner asked me if I wanted a coffee, as the guys were obviously Italian I couldn’t refuse. I love coffee and this, as you can tell if I remember it after all this time, was brilliant. They also told me they imported a container load of Italian grapes and made their own wine. Didn’t get offered any of that. Upset a barista in M & S the other day as told him we called his coffee “ fortnight “ as it was just “ too weak” . He got the pun and agreed to put extra shots in.
 
Coffee is very subjective to each individual. I too have my own tastes and preferences. Mach Pichu is the present preference, but it does change over the years, though the preferred method remains the same. There are days when I really love it, and days when I barely can taste it.
 
Nanniemate said:
Maybe because this used to pass as coffee in UK
www.waitrose.com

Waitrose & Partners

Buy quality groceries and wine from Waitrose Partners
www.waitrose.com
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Can't drink most coffees, only Gay coffee it's called CAMP !! 🤣🤣

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Something that took me a while to discover: Darker, stronger roasts aren't necessarily better. The UK seems to think the more it tastes like "burnt", the higher the quality. There are loads of lighter and greener varieties and roasts. They are less bitter, sometimes sweet, sometimes tangy sour, some are fruity, some have spice, but so much more taste. Dark roasts can be good, but there's so much more to coffee.
 
Guigsy said:
Something that took me a while to discover: Darker, stronger roasts aren't necessarily better. The UK seems to think the more it tastes like "burnt", the higher the quality. There are loads of lighter and greener varieties and roasts. They are less bitter, sometimes sweet, sometimes tangy sour, some are fruity, some have spice, but so much more taste. Dark roasts can be good, but there's so much more to coffee.
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Mhor 84 at Lochernhead is good or anywere in Aus J D
 
Dorwyn said:
Coffee is very subjective to each individual. I too have my own tastes and preferences. Mach Pichu is the present preference, but it does change over the years, though the preferred method remains the same. There are days when I really love it, and days when I barely can taste it.
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I find that I'll finish enjoying one 1kg bag, and the next cup that I pull from the next bag of the same brand and variety that I bought only a couple of weeks later is flat and tasteless.
 
Grianan said:
The only place I’ve found that makes really decent coffee in UK is Torridon Stores and Cafe in Wester Ross. It’s the only thing which matches or even tops what we can make at home.

At home we use a Sage Barista Impress. We only use fresh beans (well we buy 2kg freshly roasted and freeze). Having tried many different roasts our favourite is the Edinburgh Blend from Gordon Street roasters in Glasgow.

For the van we have a moka pot. It’s not as good but better than Costa/Starbucks.
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We use the same machine. Worth every penny to us.
 
rosalan said:
I like coffee but wherever we travel it seems to taste better than in this country, why?
I went into a Tea Room cafe today and ordered an ‘American’ with almost no taste at all and asked for a replacement, which tasted the same. After 3 months touring Spain and Portugal drinking coffee at different places almost every day, we did not have one cup that was unacceptable.
At home we have 8 mockas (coffee makers) in different sizes, they make a fair drink. A few Cafetières which I am not fond of. For a short time we had a Jura bean to cup machine, poor results but discovered the grinder worn out. Who makes a good cup of coffee? Our Tassimo is fair but have to make it myself.
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What a generalisation of a complex subject!! First problem - you went to a tea room not a coffee shop.

It depends where you go. Where their beans are sourced from. Where the beans are roasted. How good the barista is. What form of coffer you order (espresso, flat white, cortado, Ristretto, Americano, AeroPress, Pour over etc etc)

There are so many variables. I mostly drink coffee made at home with coffee recently roasted by Horsham coffee roasters in Sussex. I make a flat white from my Rancillo Sylvia espresso machine and ground in my Rancillo rocky grinder. If drinking out I visit a quality 'artisan' 'speciality' coffee shop.

In London you are spoilt for choice.

Generally I find it harder to get decent coffee abroad - except places like Hong Kong, Sydney, San Francisco. Vienna. Europe is pretty rubbish unless in the big cities.

My favourite coffee place in Milton Keynes

www.outofofficecoffee.co.uk

Out of Office Coffee – Specialty Coffee Houses in Milton Keynes

Whoever you are, come here to dream, talk, read, work, or relax. It’s your space to do what makes you happy, we’ll just serve the coffee.
www.outofofficecoffee.co.uk www.outofofficecoffee.co.uk

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It has never ocurred to me to drink coffee and I'm not tempted to after reading all the options and variables to be considered in order to find one that suits. Is it all for real or are some folk just coffee snobs?
 
No matter what the drink; coffee, tea, wine, beer, or sprits, it always tastes better when one is on holiday, sat outside the motorhome, in the warm sunshine, it's even better with good friends and a convivial atmosphere.

Take the same drink back home on a miserable, wet January afternoon, and it seems to loose its flavour ?

Dunno why ?

;)
 
Not a coffee aficionado at all. I mostly drink my coffee without milk, but I do like a good cafe con leche when in Spain. Had a nice one this morning from the campsite bar along with a bacon con queso bocadillo for breakfast. Now all I need is for the sun to come back, it’s cold and wet here today on the Costa Brava.
 
Some of the best coffee I have tasted in the UK comes from the Stokes roastery in Lincoln. They also have two cafes in the city and the coffee there, particularly at Stokes Lawn behind the castle is consistently excellent.
Bizzarely, and much as I detest Starbucks' insistence on serving coffee in buckets posing as mugs, they do make a pretty good flat white, mainly because they use an appropriately sized cup. Much better than the Costa effort.
 
I am not an aficionado of coffee. Some just tastes nicer and it means I am not in England when it does, usually.
 
The reality is that all the time you are having 'flat whites' and all this other sh*t served up in the worst coffee houses in the world, you are not savouring coffee. Coffee is to be drunk solo (black) and nothing else. No sugar or any other stuff you'd put in a milkshake. Coffee only and if you don't like it like that, you don't like coffee, so go back to tea.

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Barriesimpson said:
The reality is that all the time you are having 'flat whites' and all this other sh*t served up in the worst coffee houses in the world, you are not savouring coffee. Coffee is to be drunk solo (black) and nothing else. No sugar or any other stuff you'd put in a milkshake. Coffee only and if you don't like it like that, you don't like coffee, so go back to tea.
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Meh. I agree that most big chain coffee shop stuff is derge. But you like what you like. I have a fresh ground espresso for breakfast. I know how to adjust the grind to get the correct pull time and volume. But I'll drink lattes in the day. Haven't bothered learning about latte art though.
PXL_20221031_101649738.jpg

(Yes, it's my own Starbucks mug. Don't like the coffee but my wife collects the mugs from places we've been.)
 

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