Ordering a Drink

[BaristaHeart]

I am wondering what you go to a coffee shop what drink are you post likely to order (latte (iced or hot), frappe, tea(s), or good old fashion drip coffee. Do you order flavors in them? If so, what ones?

 

[namballe]

coffee drinks have really evolved in recent years, but i still prefer the old fashioned cup of joe :smile:

 

[John P]

If they are known for their quality, or appear to know their way around a portafilter, then a shot of espresso. If they can't do that, everything will be sub-standard. If the espresso is good, I'd follow with whatever craft-brewed Single Origin coffee they are offering.

 

[hgycta]

I usually order a hot flavored latte, or a hot macchiato if they have it!

 

[peterjschmidt]

If they are known for their quality, or appear to know their way around a portafilter, then a shot of espresso. If they can't do that, everything will be sub-standard. If the espresso is good, I'd follow with whatever craft-brewed Single Origin coffee they are offering.

I do just the opposite, simply because there's a few roasters in town who have OK coffee (some are better than OK), but their part-time baristas can't pull a good shot to save their lives. So I start with coffee, and if that's decent, then I know they have good beans and know that if the shot sucks it wasn't the problem.

 

[shadow745]

Technically it's all coffee whether drip, vacuum, espresso, press, etc. I can't agree as the steps needed to ensure good/consistent espresso are much more demanding than other methods. Just having quality/fresh coffee on site is no guarantee the espresso will be equally as good.

 

[peterjschmidt]

Technically it's all coffee whether drip, vacuum, espresso, press, etc. I can't agree as the steps needed to ensure good/consistent espresso are much more demanding than other methods. Just having quality/fresh coffee on site is no guarantee the espresso will be equally as good.

That's entirely true. But the "more demanding" steps needed for good espresso point to a greater possibility of barista error, and so if you get a bad espresso, it's very possible that it had nothing to do w/ the beans being used. It could be a great shop with great beans, and you'd give them a poor grade because of a poor barista.

But then, the OP probably wasn't asking about what criterion do we use for evaluating a cafe, and was most likely just curious about what we like to order when we're out and about. That said, Milwaukee only has a half-dozen decent cafes, and they serve coffee that's generally over-roasted, so I rarely go out for coffee, preferring to just drink at home.

 

[shadow745]

Definitely can't agree with the coffee not being to blame. In a commercial setting I often used the same coffee for espresso and drip as it worked very well for both methods. **Ended up dropping drip coffee altogether as Americanos simply made the most sense for our application** Same coffee, same batch, etc... If you were to leave that coffee in the bulk grinder and use it for drip even 1-2 days later no problem as most will never tell the difference and the degradation isn't readily apparent. That same coffee left in the espresso grinder even overnight was barely usable the next morning. Point I am trying to make is you can have the most flavorful/freshest coffee available, but if you don't utilize it in a decent manner in terms of storage, grinder cleaning, general equipment maintenance, etc. you won't have great coffee across the board. I don't ever bother getting coffee outside of my kitchen as I know 99.9999999999999% of what is out there tastes like flavored urine. I'd rather spend my money on a Monster till I can make it back home.

 

[peterjschmidt]

We might be saying the same thing... my point was if you have an espresso and the person making it is a dunce and can't produce a good shot, but the coffee is good, you wouldn't know it if all you had was an espresso.

I rarely roast specifically for espresso, but have plenty of good SO shots at home, because as you say the same coffee should work for both espresso and brewed. Maybe not some zingy Kenyas, but yeah, in general any coffee should make a good shot.