Coffee Again – The Present.
My love of coffee is almost all encompassing, insofar as I will drink most types, with the exception of one or two of the “Caterer’s blends” of instant coffee, which leave me wondering what they are actually made of, as there seems to be absolutely no similarity of taste with anything I know of that is actually made of ground coffee beans. A couple of the more peculiar brews that I like is again, a hangover from the furthest reaches of my past, which until the arrival of Instant Coffee in the late 1950s was all most Australians recognised as coffee, Coffee and Chicory Essence.
My first preference is for Espresso, or a short black as they are known in the more ‘yuppie’ coffee establishments, in my case, made from Arabica beans, as to my taste, these are sweeter. Ahhhh,…. and the smell is just, rapturous. That is about the only word that I can think of to describe it.
For a variation I often resort to a nice Cappuccino, which does not have the enchanting fragrance of the Espresso, but a more chocolaty smell, the taste being softer and milkier and of course the cup much larger and warming.
I know, when it comes to eating and drinking pleasures I am an absolute plebeian with the simplest of tastes. However, my occupation being what it was, I got to drink coffee all over the world in all manner of establishments, and although this has not necessarily made me a good judge of coffee, I now feel that I certainly know what I like, which has led me to some rather strongly held ideas.
My overall impression is that coffee drinkers are adopting the snobbishness of the wine buffs, particularly with “brand name” acceptance. Hell,… I had Starbucks coffee in the 1990s when it was the darling child of American coffee fanatics, my opinion, Blehhh,…. it was coffee, somewhat burnt tasting and not at all “nice”, and worse than that it was served, take away in a plastic cup at a highly over inflated price (for what it was).
I have drunk Bundy and Coke out of old pickle jars, and probably worse, and it had not the slightest effect on the enjoyment of the beverage, but coffee in a plastic milkshake sized container,… No Thank You!!!… to me that is like supping champagne out of Tupperware “sippy cups”. Y’know, those little cups with the tightly fitted lid and inbuilt spout for small children. Or am I just becoming a coffee snob?
I would say that in my opinion, the best place I have found to get cheap and consistently “nice” coffee would have to be in the Canary Islands where I once had the good fortune to be marooned at company expense waiting for a flight home.
Whilst there, I drank so many espressos that I literally could not sleep on the night before my flight left at 05:30am, and so I spent the wee small hours wandering the streets of Santa Cruz, drifting from one outdoor coffee bar to another, (they are everywhere) where I would sit and occasionally chat in broken “Spanglish” with other late night revellers. The late night people of Tenerife make very hospitable and pleasant companions at 3:00am 
It was not long after this that I had to go back to my hotel room and throw everything in my bag ready for a 4:00am cab ride to the airport, it was a great couple of days, nice weather, pleasant people, and excellent coffee.
