Espresso how you like it.

[ArabBeaker]

I tend to drink most of my coffee at home and make it from home roasted beans, although I do love visiting the occasional cafe and really look forward to sampling their coffee and enjoying their individualised version of cafe culture.
Mostly though I come away dissappointed, due mostly to weak, watered down (milky) coffee. Recently we visited Auckland and popped in to just a few of the hundreds of cafes on offer in the CBD, many of which are very quaint and extremely inviting.

Some time back I decided to get around the weak coffee problem by requesting a smaller cup for my cappuccino, flat white or what ever, a remedy which you would expect to be the most obvious way in which to overcome this issue. This worked to a certain extent, except when the barrista forgets to use the small cup I request and this has happened several times ! even when I pointed to and showed them the actual cup I wished them to use! It seems requesting a certain size cup is just too far outside the realms of possibility and remembering to do it for me, too much to ask for the busy barrista.

At last I have gotten around this very serious problem I have, by approaching it from a new perspective entirely: now I just ask for a short black with a tiny jug of steamed milk on the side. Simple.... oh so simple....I wish I had thought of this years ago.

Now I can go visit any darn cafe that looks inviting and where they have gone to great lengths to entice me inside to show what they can produce. I no longer do this with that great burden of fear I once had that their coffee will cause me to leave, head in hands, dissappointed with yet another sad, insipid version of the worlds' great drink.

 

[JoyceKaa]

Drinking what I call a true espresso can be very disappointing when it is weak. There are some options like you pointed out, but there are other options. If you travel a lot, France never disappointed me with my espresso. When I make my own it is never disappointed because I have made it "my way" so many times. By the way, this is my first post as I am new here. My name is JoyceKaa

 

[goldofcroesus]

I'm going to get made fun of for this! For me, espresso has always been more functional than enjoyed - an after-dinner digestive, a way to pull long nights in college and at work, a pick-me-up when I'm feeling sluggish.

I have put milk and sugar in occasionally, but I feel like that's heresy among the cognescetti. Lately, I've gone for the Americano

 

[JoyceKaa]

Like I said before, espresso coffee never disappointed me from Paris to Troyes and Claremont Ferrand. At home, my espresso is made how I like it and I think everyone should drink their coffee how they like. If not, what a disappointment, right.