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6 votes
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One Mai Tai, and hold the colonialism
4 votes -
Meet the Monster Energy elite: Inside the global community of collectors, reviewers and influencers hunting the world’s rarest Monsters
6 votes -
American connoisseurs have traditionally stayed away from German wine. A new generation of producers — and global warming — is changing that
6 votes -
This latte artist forms foam into flocks of birds
5 votes -
How tax policy gave us White Claw hard seltzer
7 votes -
Local coffee/tea cultures?
@cadadr's Turkey AMA coffee commentary got me curious about what coffee consumption and cultures look like among Tilders. If your principal national beverage is tea instead of coffee, feel free to...
@cadadr's Turkey AMA coffee commentary got me curious about what coffee consumption and cultures look like among Tilders.
If your principal national beverage is tea instead of coffee, feel free to comment on why you think that might have arisen.
I spent a bit of time chasing one of @cadadr's mentions about tasseomancy, and it's fascinating, so please describe if your coffee culture has any comparable rituals.
I grew up with my mother's Montreal Canadian coffee-drinking standards: starting around age 8 or so, a half-cup of stovetop percolated coffee with a half-cup of milk added, eventually graduating to full cups of strong black coffee by my teenage years. For most of my life, the commonest means of consuming coffee was via the Bunn restaurant coffee maker - a drip coffee maker with an electric burner that held the brew scalding hot, near-burnt.
The commonest U.S. home coffee preparation still uses a drip coffee maker. "Pod" coffee makers that use prefilled cartridges and a pressure boiler (lower pressure than espresso, but similar) are increasingly popular.
Practically all coffee in the U.S. is made from imported beans, with robust global supply chains. There's minimal boutique coffee production in the states of Hawaii and California, but the territory of Puerto Rico grows coffee for local use and premium export. Coffee is taxed at the same rates as other food products, and no import duties are levied, so it's incredibly cheap - usually $5 - 10 per 450g.
In the U.S., at least, there are now widespread corporate coffee shop chains - Starbucks, Peet's, Caribou, and others, which produce very standardized, uniform coffee, in pressure-expressed, brewed, and cold-process variations. They're often prepared with flavored syrups, and typically have dairy added, either as plain or steam-heated and frothed milk. Average cost for the fancier variations is around 5 USD, though a cup of plain brewed coffee is usually $1.50 - $2.00.
Even tiny villages have neighborhood coffee shops that serve plain brewed coffee and espresso drinks, teas, baked goods, and simple sandwiches. Local coffee roasters are relatively common, too. The coffee shops may feature their products, or the roaster may have its own cafe'. Most of the larger bookstores also serve coffee, teas, and espresso drinks in their own cafe's.
We usually drink our coffee relatively strong, around 10 - 15g of ground coffee per 200 ml of water for brewing, and dark roasts are preferred over mild ones.
Most U.S. cities support thriving international food and beverage cultures, so we get to try coffee variations from around the world. My personal favorites (aside from the obvious Italian espresso culture) are Turkish-style with cardamom, Ethiopian, and Cuban colada.
There isn't much of a national tea tradition here, though there's a common practice of herbal tisane use for health purposes.
I've visited around 43 of the 50 U.S. states and haven't noticed really distinctive regional variations, except for New Orleans chicory-flavored and New Mexico piñon-flavored coffee. My spouse adds chicory to coffee at home, and piñon coffee is delicious. We'll treat ourselves to shipments a couple of times a year. Hawaiian Kona variety beans are boutique-premium and there's some fakes, so we don't go out of our way to get it when fair-trade Ethiopian or Guatemalan varieties are better and cheaper. I try very hard not to think of the carbon footprint of any of this...
18 votes -
Drink up, stoners: Big Alcohol's pursuit to make weed beverages
8 votes -
It's six months until Christmas - perfect timing to start your aged eggnog
8 votes -
Home brew! Who's brewing up what?
The home brew community is one of those groups I just love. Everyone's enthusiastic, helpful, and excited. So... what are you working on? Got something in the fermentor? Something planned for the...
The home brew community is one of those groups I just love. Everyone's enthusiastic, helpful, and excited. So... what are you working on? Got something in the fermentor? Something planned for the weekend?
19 votes -
How the Goth pubs of Sweden transformed drinking in Scotland's industrial heartlands
8 votes -
The oral history of Four Loko in New York
7 votes -
It’s time to rethink wine criticism: Dreary scores and tasting notes are of little long-term use to consumers
3 votes -
Coffee: The muslim drink
12 votes -
Water conservation just got REAL. (or JUST got real?)
5 votes -
Tamale lager, anyone? Craft beer’s next frontier is a world of wild flavor
6 votes -
Beer archaeologists are reviving ancient ales — with some strange results
14 votes -
DIY 'Coke' cola recipe
6 votes -
How to make ginger beer at home
14 votes -
Weed drinks are set to dominate the cannabis market in Canada
4 votes -
Is coffee essential? Switzerland says no.
19 votes -
The end is near for 3.2 beer
10 votes -
Millennials are sick of drinking, but they’re not giving up booze just yet
6 votes -
Why drinking can feel isolating when you have 'Asian glow'
16 votes -
Decaf coffee's terrible reputation is outdated, but it's still scorned because of what caffeine represents
4 votes -
Why is your wine crying? Scientists say shock waves likely play a role
3 votes -
Boutique and established cooperages around the country are trying to reinvent the whiskey barrel
1 vote -
Why humans have evolved to drink milk
15 votes -
'Something needs to change': Woolworths drops $1-a-litre milk in Australia
5 votes -
Raw milk drinkers in nineteen states at risk of rare, dangerous infectious disease
10 votes -
What tea are yall drinking today?
For my daily tea-drinkers: What are you drinking today? Where'd you get it? How would you rate it? For my non-tea drinkers: Feel free to ask any questions you might have about the most widely...
For my daily tea-drinkers: What are you drinking today? Where'd you get it? How would you rate it?
For my non-tea drinkers: Feel free to ask any questions you might have about the most widely consumed beverage in the world (next to water). Share a time you had a good experience or a bad experience.
35 votes -
How to solve the world’s plastics problem: Bring back the milk man
21 votes -
During WWII, Bletchley Park was home to codebreaking and tea shenanigans
5 votes -
White gold: The unstoppable rise of alternative milks
9 votes -
Inside the great Italian-Australian Prosecco debate
Inside The Great Italian-Australian Prosecco Debate The EU and Australia fight over prosecco and parmesan naming rights In Vino Veritas? The Dubious Legality of the EU’s Claims to Exclusive Use of...
6 votes -
World's coffee under threat, say experts
8 votes -
Google drones can already deliver you coffee in Australia
4 votes -
Beer expert guesses cheap vs expensive beer | Price Points
6 votes -
Thanks for my coffee… On the great gratitude trail
6 votes -
Devoted fans pay thousands for this fermented tea, whose decades-old vintages are treated like wine
13 votes -
Stripping twenty-three master sommeliers of their titles was a tough call, but the right one
11 votes -
The oldest coffee in the world
8 votes -
The French town that throws wine in the sea
5 votes -
West Texas vineyards blasted by herbicide drift from nearby cotton fields
3 votes -
Brewing a great cup of coffee depends on chemistry and physics
9 votes -
This zero-waste distillery is turning Holland's iconic tulips into vodka
7 votes -
A beginner's guide to natural wine
5 votes -
Beer pairing 101: Crisp and clean beers
6 votes -
Let's talk about drinks
Some questions to get us started: Do you drink water? Does it taste like anything? Coffee or tea? What kind? Do you put milk in it? Do you drink the alcoholic beverages? What's your drink of...
Some questions to get us started:
- Do you drink water? Does it taste like anything?
- Coffee or tea? What kind? Do you put milk in it?
- Do you drink the alcoholic beverages? What's your drink of choice?
- Do you drink the carbonated beverages? What's your fizzy drink of choice?
- Do you drink the fruits or the veggie or the smoothie? How you drink it?
- Do you make a Drinky McDrinky Drink, what is it, how do you make it so I can drink it?
- Does the word drink sound funny now?
14 votes -
Oktoberfest in the West Bank: Brewers turn beer making into resistance against occupation
5 votes