er

[fahye]

"Tuesdays and Thursdays can be research days," my supervisor says.

"Come in at 9:30 on these days," he says.

It is 9:45. I am ALONE IN THE TRIAL OFFICE. I think maybe he has forgotten that nobody else does research on these days? And the proposal summary I was meant to be working on requires some things to have been emailed to the trial manager, and as she hasn't sent them to ME, I am assuming -- that didn't happen?

Oh well. Internet surfing for me.

I have sadly decided to boycott the cheap coffee place at the hospital because yesterday (in a vain, vain attempt to be given a fucking flat white) I asked for a cappuccino with no foam or chocolate. The guy made it. The guy handed it over. Patronising smirk.

"Darling," he said. "You have to order a latte."

"LATTES HAVE FOAM," I snapped, and walked out. Sure enough, it was a foamy, foamy latte.

DEAR ENGLAND: HOW FUCKING DIFFICULT IS THE CONCEPT OF HOLDING BACK THE FOAM WHEN YOU POUR THE MILK? YOU COULD BUILD AN EMPIRE AND YET YOU CAN'T MAKE MY COFFEE? SRSLY.

(I should note also that Starbucks now makes something they CALL a flat white, which I got very excited about, but it turned out to be a double-shot latte with not much milk at all, and it was so strong I almost couldn't finish it.)

So yeah, this morning I went to Caffe Nero, which is my favourite of all the chains because they make delicious cinnamon lattes <3 Now I am all caffeinated up with nothing exciting to do.

ETA: Oh good, everyone else has shown up now.

Comments

[ashen_key]

YOU COULD BUILD AN EMPIRE AND YET YOU CAN'T MAKE MY COFFEE? SRSLY.

*SNERK*

More seriously, ugh, what a prick.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

You have just summarised my attempts to get a drinkable beverage. I have literally stood there saying "stop, please, stop...STOP' as a daft person tries to fill my macchiato with milk. 'she knows how to make a macchiato' sneered her boss. 'well she's making them wrong' I snapped.

Until last year, it was possible to judge whether a coffee shop had decent (antipodean) baristas based on whether or not they offered flat whites. Now the chains think they are cool, which is fucking tragic.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

The idea that Australia should be the best place in the world for coffee is frankly baffling to me. One assumes it should at least be somewhere in Europe. BUT NO. WE ARE THE BEST.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Basically, yes. (Though don't make the error of thinking England is part of Europe, oh noes. And fwiw, I've never had a bad espresso in Paris...)

(need coffee icon...)

[fahye.livejournal.com]

(Oh, no, when I said 'Europe' I was definitely thinking about The Continent.)

[themis.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember Coffee Republic advertising a flat white this spring?

[setissma.livejournal.com]

I will say that I think this may be a regional difference in coffee shenanigans. Because with US espresso machine steam wands (or at least, when I worked as a barista) a latte and a cappuccino are basically the same base. A cappuccino simply has significantly more foam. So in the US, a latte with no foam and a cappuccino with no foam are the same drink*.

* That said, when I worked as a barista, if you'd asked me for a cappuccino with no foam, it would not have been a difficult prospect. And I'd have been polite about it!

[setissma.livejournal.com]

And ftr, I worked at a real coffee shop with a boss who took coffee very seriously - none of this Starbucks nonsense!

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Interesting! The bakery I worked at enforced differences between cappuccino and latte-making: with a cap you held back the foam until the last little bit of the cup, and then spooned stiff foam onto the top. With a latte you didn't hold back any foam at all when pouring, so that the entire drink was more foamy.

[littledust.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, that's how I was taught to make a cappuccino versus a latte. Of course, I did not work in a real coffee shop...

[setissma.livejournal.com]

To my recollection - and it's been a bit! - you'd hold back for both, and then finish it off by pouring/spooning the foam on top. So the distinction was that there was more foam in a cappuccino. Our steam wand had two settings, one for cap and one for latte, and the cappuccino one made more foam. So what was basically changing was the ratio of steamed milk to foam-on-top. But I suppose it could all be regional variation, etc!

[the-funmonkey.livejournal.com]

In Starbucks now they offer a plain old filter coffee. Hurray! And because I have soya they just hand me the carton and tell me to go wild rather than deciding how much I want for me.

I have had some horrific coffee in this country. It just isn't natural to us, I think...

[fahye.livejournal.com]

I got a latte at Pret the other day and it was actually undrinkable. I had to throw it out, it was so burnt, and so hideously bitter.

[silveraspen]

It's probably a bad sign that I had to look up "flat white," isn't it?

[fahye.livejournal.com]

I am more or less resigned to the fact that only Australians make/drink them. But it's weird, because a flat white is basically the default 'coffee' in Australia; it is very very popular! How did this manage to happen independently of the rest of the world?

Aussies, especially Sydneysiders (and, I would asssume, Melbournians) get very serious about their coffee. Long, happy arguments can be had about where to find the best flat white in the city.