Starbucks Offers a Dash of Olive Oil With Its Coffee in Italy (reuters.com) 146
New submitter sit1963nz writes: Starbucks has launched a new drink that mixes coffee with olive oil, offering it initially in Italy as an alternative to the more standard espresso or cappuccino. The so-called "Oleato" beverages are made with arabica coffee "infused with a spoonful of Partanna cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil," Starbucks, the world's largest coffee chain, said in a statement. The price is between 4.5 euros and 6.5 euros ($4.80-$6.90) depending on the size of the cup.
[...] Company founder Howard Schultz, who has said a trip to Milan in 1983 inspired him to export Italian drinking habits to the United States, described Oleato as "the next revolution in coffee." The "Oleato" debuted in various forms, including caffe latte, a "deconstructed" option featuring lemon juice, and an "Espresso Martini" with vodka and vanilla bean syrup. The beverages will later be rolled out "in select markets around the world", starting with southern California in the United States in the spring and later this year in Japan, the Middle East and Britain, Starbucks said.
[...] Company founder Howard Schultz, who has said a trip to Milan in 1983 inspired him to export Italian drinking habits to the United States, described Oleato as "the next revolution in coffee." The "Oleato" debuted in various forms, including caffe latte, a "deconstructed" option featuring lemon juice, and an "Espresso Martini" with vodka and vanilla bean syrup. The beverages will later be rolled out "in select markets around the world", starting with southern California in the United States in the spring and later this year in Japan, the Middle East and Britain, Starbucks said.
Meh (Score:5, Funny)
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You aren't cool until you take break fluid instead of your coffee.
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You aren't cool until you take break fluid instead of your coffee.
I think a lot of people consider coffee to BE a break fluid.
I wouldn't recommend drinking brake fluid, though.
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My brake fluid always tastes burnt. Maybe I should drive with my foot off the pedal?
Not Addicted (Score:4, Funny)
Re: Meh (Score:2)
Rogan will just tell you to steep the coffee on a Trager grill.
But seriously (Score:5, Funny)
Why would you want a shot of olive oil in your coffee? What's next, coffee made from the urine of virgins collected during the dark of the moon?
I've always thought that the elaborate preparations some folks demand for their caffeine delivery fluid are just excuses to make the barista jump like a trained monkey. Dance monkey dance!
Not a shot at baristas, but those who want them to dance.
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What is the rationale behind all the coffee weirdness?
Why would you want a shot of olive oil in your coffee? What's next, coffee made from the urine of virgins collected during the dark of the moon?
I see someone might have read the old Satanic SysAdmin's page about how to deal with malfunctioning servers...
I'd say your posited coffee was ridiculous, but people do drink Kopi-Luwak. That's the coffee made from raw coffee beans cats poop out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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people do drink Kopi-Luwak. That's the coffee made from raw coffee beans cats poop out.
Though of the Feliformia [wikipedia.org] ("cat-like") suborder within the order Carnivora, they are not technically cats.
Lest anyone get the idea of harvesting tasty coffee beans from little Felix's litter box.
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Anyone who owns a cat knows that they're obligate carnivores. Show one a coffee cherry (assuming they're even for sale in that form, outside of the growing regions) and the cat will just look at you like "*sniff* What gave you the idea that I would be interested in this not-food thing, human?"
Now a dog on the other hand might eat coffee cherries, but I don't think "dog poop coffee" will ever be a thing. Even the actual stuff from the civets shouldn't be a thing.
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Cats have to eat meat, but they can eat a whole bunch of other stuff too.
Both of my cats eat the leaves on various plants entirely voluntarily. One also absolutely loves milk, cheese and pastry. He will also lick up oil and butter from pans. Obviously I don't feed him that, but he will destroy any packaging in the way, and push stuff off the counter to reach something edible.
My former cat went nuts for olives, and quickly learned to fish them out of a thin necked glass jar by hooking them up with a claw.
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My now-departed cat went nuts for cake blueberry donuts. I thought it was a bit weird. One time I was at the table eating one and reading. Not taking my eyes off the book, I went to take a bite and wound up with mouth full of cat fur. She wasn't about to let a good donut get away from her.
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Re:But seriously (Score:5, Insightful)
> Why would you want a shot of olive oil in your coffee?
Probably same reason some people put cream - coffee has oil-soluble flavors.
The cream has emulsification properties too, though, which olive oil does not.
Some people put butter and/or MCT in their coffee as well, for ketones.
I do take 1oz EVOO daily for nutritional balance, but not in my coffee.
Mostly Starbucks is about adding sugar and fat to cover up the burned notes of their low-quality beans and then charging a fortune for it. People get a short energy burst, then malaise, then diabetes.
McDonald's is charging $10 for a box of fried MSC in some locales too - people will pay a lot for bad food that gives them momentary pleasure. And if you tell them olive oil is health food they will overlook the 95% junkfood aspect. No, really, people are so silly.
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Starbucks aside, will stirring a teaspoon of olive oil into your (black) coffee make a nice drink? Or does it need a special machine to get it blended in or turn it to foam or whatever?
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I would also add to this, "wait, starbucks sells vodka?"
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You misspelt "monsters".
"People" don't add things to their coffee. They know how to make a flavourful coffee properly without resorting to this sacrilege.
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You misspelt "monsters". "People" don't add things to their coffee. They know how to make a flavourful coffee properly without resorting to this sacrilege.
An old habit on my part. My grams used to give us grandkids coffee with condensed milk and buttered soda crackers for a snack.
Nowadays I usually use cream, but occasionally have condensed milk for a blast of nostalgia.
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My grams used to give us grandkids coffee with condensed milk
Was she Vietnamese?
No, she was Hungarian.
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Olive oil is healthy.
All of the sugar and dairy that people put in coffee isn't healthy.
So olive oil would be better. (But I like my coffee without anything added to it.)
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Starbucks in Italy... Do they have a Domino's too?
So much great coffee and people choose to drink that.
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Starbucks in Italy... Do they have a Domino's too?
So much great coffee and people choose to drink that.
Good one, and well played indeed.
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Mostly Starbucks is about adding sugar and fat to cover up the burned notes of their low-quality beans and then charging a fortune for it.
I've always wondered about that aspect of Starbucks coffee. To me, it tastes an unpleasant combination of mud, mold, and burnt. Gross.
When I can, I drink Lacas (product from Philly)
Probably a variant of "Bulletproof Coffee" (Score:2)
I'm guessing that this is a variant of "Bulletproof Coffee", which has been popular (as a replacement for breakfast) for a couple decades now: Unsweetened black Coffee with unsalted grass-fed butter and some medium chain tryglyceride (MCT) oil, e.g. from coconut oil. Blend 30ish seconds until consistency of a late. See the net for exact recipes - and arguments pro and con.
Alleged benefits include being compatible with ketogenic (fat-burning low-carb high-fat) diet systems such as paleo and other low-carb
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> What is the rationale behind all the coffee weirdness?
Probably just an attempt to tug at cultural strings, but adding fat to a caffeinated beverage can perhaps smoothen caffeine absorption. Prior to this, a manufactured fad was "Bulletproof" coffee, with regular cow butter, claiming to mimick Tibetian coffee with Yak butter. "Rationale" is a strong word for these fads though, more like cultural or health halos.
The real rationale of most of these is to get you to pay more than the usual 100x the price o
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> What is the rationale behind all the coffee weirdness?
Probably just an attempt to tug at cultural strings, but adding fat to a caffeinated beverage can perhaps smoothen caffeine absorption. Prior to this, a manufactured fad was "Bulletproof" coffee, with regular cow butter, claiming to mimick Tibetian coffee with Yak butter. "Rationale" is a strong word for these fads though, more like cultural or health halos.
The real rationale of most of these is to get you to pay more than the usual 100x the price of what could just be 4-5 cents of caffeine (approx retail price of caffeine at 100-120mg).
Coffee such as it is, is an acquired taste. I have enjoyed it from childhood, when my grams gave us grandkids coffee with condensed milk and buttered saltine crackers. Interesting that there is some butter in that mix. I usually just have my coffee with cream and an artificial sweetener today. Every once in a great while, nostalgia hits.
But it's just like beer or tequila or bourbon. All acquired tastes. I probably drink too much, but I like running on fast forward.
It's healthy (Score:2)
What is the rationale behind all the coffee weirdness?
Why would you want a shot of olive oil in your coffee? What's next, coffee made from the urine of virgins collected during the dark of the moon?
Aside from discussions of taste and culture, olive oil in your diet is apparently very healthy.
In particular it contains omega-3 fatty acids (around 11%), which is what the brain is made of. Our bodies need Omega-3, but most of what we get comes from fish and our American culture doesn't consume much fish any more, so many people are deficient in this nutrient. A study of ADHD children in England showed that giving them Omega-3 supplements tended to cure their ADHD symptoms.
So there's the health aspect.
I do
Re:It's healthy (Score:5, Funny)
"olive oil in your diet is apparently very healthy."
So is asparagus, but I wouldn't put in my coffee.
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"olive oil in your diet is apparently very healthy."
So is asparagus, but I wouldn't put in my coffee.
Asparagus is one of those things that seems to be more yummy after you become an adult. I love it, buttered and grilled, wrapped in bacon and baked or if I have real tender stuff, raw in a salad. Doesn't get any better than that.
But oh that smelly side effect!
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Nope. I'm 45, and asparagus still makes me gag.
But then again, so does coffee. I'm a bit weird, I guess.
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Aside from discussions of taste and culture, olive oil in your diet is apparently very healthy.
This is true. I do a fair amount of Olive oil in my diet. I just don't want it in my coffee.
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What is the rationale behind all the coffee weirdness?
Because Starbucks understand that they have no idea how to make good tasting coffee and attempt to throw literally any ingredient at it rather than buying decent beans and training their baristas properly.
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What is the rationale behind all the coffee weirdness?
What would you like me to hand you first, a Starbucks menu, or their CEO's net worth?
Fucking seriously. What is the rationale behind you asking that question.
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What is the rationale behind all the coffee weirdness?
What would you like me to hand you first, a Starbucks menu, or their CEO's net worth?
Fucking seriously. What is the rationale behind you asking that question.
Ah, the old "eat shit - 50 million flies can't be wrong" argument. But it wasn't my point or counterpoint. You should pay attention to the rest of what I wrote - not chop it up to have something to go "fucking seriously" on.
What I was referring to as weirdness is the fad of demanding ridiculous things for your coffee. Here's some of the strangest things ordered. https://www.demilked.com/weird... [demilked.com]
Those orders are not really that far outside the norm if you ask me. I saw someone fill a tall cup of ice
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... coffee made from the urine of virgins
Sign me up if I get to collect it!
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... coffee made from the urine of virgins
Sign me up if I get to collect it!
Okay - but you do know they have to still be virgins after you collect it - right.. right?
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Elaborate coffee concoctions are for people who don't actually like coffee. Also for people who get off on forcing the staff to jump through hoops.
The 'staff' are charging you $7 for a cup of flavored sugar water. Who's smarter?
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Elaborate coffee concoctions are for people who don't actually like coffee. Also for people who get off on forcing the staff to jump through hoops.
The 'staff' are charging you $7 for a cup of flavored sugar water. Who's smarter?
Well - those of us who don't drink that kind of coffee.
Life is too short to spend half of it figuring out what the perfect cup is, then demanding it be made that way.
Me? regular coffee, a bit of cream, and a pack of artificial sweetener. Easy peasy, no drama and the caffiene is what I'm after, not silly little nuances that are wiped out by the water variances that go into it.
Coffee Drama? (Score:2)
Having been to Italy many times over the years (Score:4, Informative)
Assuming you are friends with some locals, you might have something like a cafe au lait in the morning. Doesn't matter if you stop in a Firenze cafe, or a station along the autostrada, they have little tubes of raw sugar they like to use in espressos. Usually you go to the bar, after paying, get your drink (oft an espresso) put in a single sugar, stir, and drink it before it gets cold. Even their drinks with milk in them have less sugar than almost anything Starbucks puts in a glass.
Be that as it may, I did travel from all over with friends and family... we never saw any region serving that combination. One my friends described the idea as patently ridiculous and more than a few pronounced: "What a waste of good olive oil!" Keep in mind that most of them still order olive oil from the producers directly by the liter per person in the family.
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It's just another way to make the oil and sugar that goes in the drinks sound fancy. People need something, mentally, to justify a $7 cup of coffee. I might try it next time I go into a Starbucks (so maybe in a year or two) but I doubt it will taste any different than a Crisco-based beverage, considering how much sugar and other stuff there is to mask the taste.
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I was given the Starbucks "Verismo" espresso machine a few years ago, from a roommate who worked at Starbucks. The pods had good coffee, but they were like $1 each. After a year of occasional use, the nozzle clogged up (hard water probably).
I'm glad I never went and bought their Starbucks-brand cleaning fluid, because another year later I heard they quit selling the Verismo pods, and had some new system for espresso at home. They really pulled out all the stops, even planned obsolescence.
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Yeah, the entire thing feels like... well, imagine Arthur Treacher's (the American "Fish and Chips" chain) deciding to expand into the UK and, as a special treat, offer cups of tea with added Marmite.
We call that Bovril.
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I'm convinced that everyone who claims to enjoy Starbucks coffee is just too embarrassed to admit it's horrible and bitter. Their friends are all the same and none of them wants to look uncool.
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I suspect they just can't taste anything. There's probably substantial crossover with the crowd that douses themselves in body product, and uses dryer sheets and scented laundry detergent. Until recently you could readily buy scented bumwipe...
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Maybe they never had good coffee and just think that's what it tastes like.
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Whenever the topic comes up I argue that Starbucks isn't a coffee chain but a milk-and-ice chain, and not many people disagree.
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no shit, what's next, ya going to tell us Pizza Hut is nothing like real Italian pizza?
Didn't Pizza Hut try something similar? (Score:2)
Didn't Pizza Hut try something similar? Go to Italy (home of pizza, you know) and try to tell them how to make pizza?
Same with this. Italians gave us espresso. What else is there? There's no higher form of cofffee. Who the hell does Starbucks think they are, going to the birthplace of the correct way of making coffe, and telling them "Here, put some oil in it?"
It'd be like GAP trying to tell Armani how to make a suit.
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no we didn't know Italy was the home of pizza, how dumb do you think we are? Also BTW no one was telling them HOW to make pizza, they tried it because generally brands from the United States do pretty well in Europe
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* Starbucks si riserva in collaborazione col governo Meloni di utilizzare l'olio di ricino come surrogato
Niiiiice... italian flamebait. How.. trite.
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I am italian... (Score:2)
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Italy has enough american tourists to keep starbucks afloat.
If you ever go to one you'll notice that a big portion of their clients are americans who are too afraid to taste local coffee. They need their huge cups of "american coffee".
News for Nerds? (Score:2)
Stuff that matters?
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The vast majority of nerds I know run on caffeine, including myself. Some are serious coffee fanataics, with burr grinders and espresso machines of their own.. and I don't mean those cheap sub-$100 "mr coffee" "espresso" makers. I mean Rancilio, Expobar and other serious hardware.
One VP in a place I was at had a manual espresso machine -- you had to pull the lever with enough ooomph to keep the gauge where it needs to be, you had to constantly monitor and adjust your pull as the shot went. Doesn't get mu
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– Alfréd Rényi
What the hell is WRONG with you? (Score:3)
Seriously, what's wrong with coffee tasting like COFFEE?
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This. So much. I prefer my coffee coffee-flavored.
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Seriously, what's wrong with coffee tasting like COFFEE?
Bean-infused bitter water, isn't just an aquired taste. It takes real social pressure to convince someone to drink that plain.
There's a reason you don't ever hear of an alcoholic starting off their habit slamming 151 chasers with dirty martinis.
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Bean-infused bitter water, isn't just an aquired taste. It takes real social pressure to convince someone to drink that plain.
Then all you know is American-style "coffee."
The better the coffee is, the less additives are needed... until you reach the point of nirvana.. espresso, no sugar. That's the test of the proper barista... if the coffee needs help, it's shit.
There's an Italian supermarket in North Miami.. Lorenzo's. In the middle of it, there's a restaurant. When I worked at a shop in N. Mimai, we used to go there. Lavazza two-headed machine, and a variety of coffees, to your taste, to your order. It's one of the few pla
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Good coffee isn't "just" bitter. It has a rich, complex flavor, actually, if your coffee is mostly bitter, whoever roasted it sucks at roasting coffee.
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Good coffee isn't "just" bitter. It has a rich, complex flavor, actually, if your coffee is mostly bitter, whoever roasted it sucks at roasting coffee.
Or you suck at making it. Bitter is a flavour that can result from attempting to extract more out of your coffee than you beans are capable of. I.e. low dose, high pour time, or over extracting the start of the pour. The result is that there's no flavour left in the grinds and your water is literally just stripping caffeine out of the beans and adding them to the cup. The best roast in the world doesn't fix that.
Bitter is a flavour that is greatly associated with those shitty pod / capsule machines when som
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Bean-infused bitter water, isn't just an aquired taste. It takes real social pressure to convince someone to drink that plain.
No sorry. Social pressure alone doesn't propel something to be the single most popular drink on the planet created by hundreds of cultures in hundreds of different ways.
But you make a good point. You used the word "infusion" which implies you drink shitty American peculated crap. I'm not surprised you find it bitter. Consider getting a French press if you don't want to make an espresso. Immersion coffee is already a great step up, if you don't want to invest in a pressurised extraction process that actually
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Seriously, what's wrong with coffee tasting like COFFEE?
The basic problem is that coffee tastes icky!
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Then drink your Monster and stop adulterating my coffee!
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People don't want coffee. They want morning dessert that has caffeine.
Can't imagine how the 300-pound diabetic ordering a vente caramel frap-triple-sugar-double-insulin-extra-cream would have suggested that...
Moties! (Score:3)
In The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle, the Mote home world had been through so many cycles of industrialization and collapse that all the "fresh" water had some hydrocarbons in it.
The Motie ambassadors took their coffee or hot chocolate with a drop of machine oil in it, to simulate the waters of the home world.
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What idiot would order Starbucks in Italy (Score:3)
No seriously. I get it in America it's about the best coffee you can buy. I mean sure it's still horrible garbage with nearly everything on the menu having more in common with a soft drink and more calories than an English breakfast, but who in their right mind would drink Starbucks when there's literally any suitable alternative, to say nothing of Italy, home of the espresso.
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I'm not saying the US is the best country in the world for coffee or anything but if you think Starbucks is our best coffee you either have fast food food tastes or not enough experience to talk on the subject. Given the rest of your post it sounds like the later for you.
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Wow, you've experienced the entire variety of American coffee have you? Tell me, exactly how long did it take you to accomplish this feat because I've lived my whole life here and traveled extensively and I cant even say that.
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Wow, you've experienced the entire variety of American coffee have you?
Thus proving the point I made above. If great coffee is some kind of local secret then your country can't be said to have any form of good coffee culture.
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And that means the best coffee in the US is Starbucks which is the claim at hand? You're clearly an idiot who wants to show off how worldly they are by repeatedly mentioning their "vast" experiencing elsewhere in a discussion entirely about US coffee and it's relative quality to Starbucks. Your European and Canadian experiences are completely irrelevant to this conversation but boy does your hipster ass want to bring them up.
If you actually knew anything about American coffee you'd know that much like with
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Yeah, & 'Murican coffee DOES suck balls. Most 'Muricans who've travelled will openly & frankly admit that. I'd bet you could pick any café at random in Europe & the coffee would be better by a long way than any café picked at random in the USA. Good luck finding your 'Murican "good" cafés known only by the special select few. Putting coffee into plast
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Hahaha, you're pathetic. At no point have I claimed the US has better coffee than anywhere else but you so desperately want that to be the conversation and now you're getting all triggered about beer. You want so bad for me to say the US does anything better than anywhere else so you can shut me down and yet I haven't once. What a small person you are.
Between your constant attempts to brag about your life, your ignorance of America while showing a truly impressive desire to bad mouth it, and your complete i
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No, literally what you said was that Starbucks was the best American coffee you can buy. Don't revise your stupid statement with a brand new position that you can actually defend and pretend that's what you were saying all along, that's dishonest.
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Given the rest of your post it sounds like the later for you.
You're absolutely correct. And that's my point. An inexperienced person in the USA gets bad coffee. Good coffee is something that needs to be hunted for in America with the overwhelming majority of places selling nothing but percolated shit or some concoction that has the high carbs and calories in it essential to make it palatable.
By comparison an inexperienced person in Italy can go literally anywhere and get a perfectly made espresso. You actually have to put in some serious effort to get a bad coffee. L
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That sounds closer to on the mark, it also depends on where you live though. Much like beer in the US the big national brands are typically shit, it's the small local roasters that make the good stuff so quality varies a lot by region. In the area I live we had a local roaster pop up a bit over a decade ago now that is now carried by quite a few local restaurants and cafes that's really quite good and compares very well to what I've had traveling in Europe. Of course it's only available in my own county and
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Dash!=Spoonful (Score:2)
4,50€ for a coffee?! (Score:2)
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Congrats on living somewhere cheap. Most coffees with milk will fetch between 3.50EUR and 5EUR in most of Europe. Even in Italy in many cities you struggle to get a plain espresso for under 2EUR.
Navy coffee (Score:2)
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I've heard of the salt trick, to kill the bitter of government coffee (hills bros, when I was in the usaf) but never diesel.
The trick to Navy coffee, as taught to me by a Navy chief petty officer in meteorology school all the way back in '93 is to simply rinse the pot out before making a new batch.. but never wash it.
Ditto your mug.
Yes, his coffee mug looked like a science experiment gone awry.
No, I didn't take his advice on coffee. Brilliant at teaching streamlining and single-station forecasting... but I
Starbucks in Italy is desperate (Score:2)
They're actually closing shops because they cannot compete with the ubiquitous cheap bars literally at any corner.
This is a desperate move to "differentiate".
As an Italian, the mere thought of olive oil in my coffee makes me gag.
Yer Funny, That's Over (Score:2)
Plenty of stuff going on at the dumpster fire of Twitter. That's a "tech" company. Crickets here. So sugary coffee it is. It is very American to fiddle and fart about unimportant stuff while shit burns.
Starbucks is not coffee but dessert (Score:2)
Starbucks is not coffee but rather a kind of liquid dessert, so maybe it is not that far fetched to also make it salad now with some olive oil!
Where? (Score:2)
I just got back from Napoli and Roma. As expected, there are no Starbucks stores in those cities. Why would Italians drink that crap when a real espresso is cheap and readily available?
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Mixing the two would certainly keep one's bowels regular...
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Why would anyone ruin a nice olive oil with coffee? Or is the oil to take away the taste of the coffee?
This is starbucks we're talking about. There's no coffee being added to the oil, but rather some brown murky gunk made of 50% molasses and 50% cream.
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Coffee already has oil in it; paper filters will diminish this. I would imagine the way they make it, and how fresh it is (or not), plays a role. They may be trying to put back something they removed.
Starbucks doesn't use paper filters, which is what robs the oil out of the coffee, as you point out. The one solitary single time I had starbucks it was made on a real espresso machine. (Had no choice, trapped in an airport departure gate and couldn't stray too far for too long). I had an americano (espresso base + shot of hot water) and it was as meh as any mediocre espresso.
The best solution is to use a stainless mesh filter.. or use a real espresso machine. I use a single-shot drip with stainless filt