Yesterday's post was monumentally serious. I need to follow it up with silliness... but in all seriousness, people in North America are clueless as to how to make an espresso. It is quite pitiful. The worse part is that they are completely unaware of their own ineptitude at making a decent espresso. So much so that, so called, espresso cafés like Starbucks now litter the landscape. Yet what people mainly order from these places is not espresso, but oddly concocted espresso drinks. You know all those latte/mochaccino type deals. I think they might be ordering all of those things because North Americans couldn't make a good espresso to save their lives and need to mask their bad espresso under all this foamy dressing. I know that's what I do when I'm at a café here. I am so sure that the espresso is going to be awful that I always order a cappuccino, because that will usually be drinkable.
This is NOT the case when I am in Portugal or at home. At my house I have a really great little espresso machine that I know how to use properly and Portugal has simply the best espresso I have ever had at almost any café in the whole of the country. See, your espresso SHOULD have a layer of tan coffee foam resting on the black espresso. This foamy tan stuff should be thick enough that it stays glued to the sides of your espresso cup as you drink it. If all you see is black when you look into your coffee cup you know you are in for some bad espresso. I don't think many people in North America understand this. So I am often invited to these cafés to have espresso drinks with people who think they like espresso, but don't really. In fact they usually say they don't actually like espresso, they just like these highfalutin espresso "drinks". Perhaps it is because they've never had a half decent espresso. Either way I would like them to stop talking like espresso some kind of phenomenon in North America, when they so clearly have no idea what good espresso is like! :P
This is NOT the case when I am in Portugal or at home. At my house I have a really great little espresso machine that I know how to use properly and Portugal has simply the best espresso I have ever had at almost any café in the whole of the country. See, your espresso SHOULD have a layer of tan coffee foam resting on the black espresso. This foamy tan stuff should be thick enough that it stays glued to the sides of your espresso cup as you drink it. If all you see is black when you look into your coffee cup you know you are in for some bad espresso. I don't think many people in North America understand this. So I am often invited to these cafés to have espresso drinks with people who think they like espresso, but don't really. In fact they usually say they don't actually like espresso, they just like these highfalutin espresso "drinks". Perhaps it is because they've never had a half decent espresso. Either way I would like them to stop talking like espresso some kind of phenomenon in North America, when they so clearly have no idea what good espresso is like! :P
Oh... and a picture of espresso in Portugal! Do you see the tan foam?
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