Dunkin fanatic.

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

littlegreenparrot1 wrote: »

springlering62 wrote: »

BTW, if you’re American and don’t have an electric kettle, you’re seriously missing out. Also great for making jello, “clarifying” tap water to make yogurt etc, fast prep to boil water for pasta or soups. I don’t know why we’ve never caught on to them over here.

+1 to this. As a british person it is genuinely incomprehensible how people don't have a kettle

To add to the stereotype - tea is the choice for me. Some lovely earl grey with a slice of lemon.

What is the benefit of an electric kettle over a kettle I sit on my stove top burner? To me an electric kettle has more "moving parts" than an old-fashioned kettle I heat on the stove -- more things to go wrong. I used the same Corningware kettle for about 40 years, until it started to look like maybe there was some kind of wear occurring with the inner lining, and I chucked it just in case and got a new glass kettle with a whistle top. It probably won't last as long as the old one (new things never seem to), but at this point in my life it could still outlast me.

For small amounts of water, I occasionally just pop a measuring cup in the microwave instead of using the kettle.

Anyway, I'm seriously interested in what the benefit of the electric kettle is over the stove. If it's time, I generally use the time I'm waiting for water to boil to prep the coffee set-up (French press or pour-over) or to select my tea and measure it into the infuser, then maybe fixing some food to go with my drink, putting clean dishes away, washing up, etc.

An electric kettle is faster, and also uses less energy.

In 2012, I stayed with friends who had one, and have enjoyed one in my own home ever since.

neanderthin wrote: »

Give people a choice between a regular coffee or basically a dessert, I wonder what the popular pick would be. Espresso for the win.

I don't drink coffee and I almost never crave sweets, but if the dessert was Key Lime pie then it's a no brainer for me. I frequently call it Kryptonite pie. LOL. Oddly, the sweets I like aren't really sweets, I lean toward tart/citrus.

Sorry, for the slight topic derailment. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

I'm a coffee addict. I grew up in a household of coffee addicts where the pot was always brewing. And I couldn't even think of eating anything until I'd had at least 2 cups to start my day. At the height of my coffee addiction (well really my addiction to the stuff in the coffee) I was drinking like 8 cups per day, but I cut it down to 2 or occasionally 3.

Yummy always just got me in trouble, no matter what, lol. I've found that even artificial sweeteners, when you're getting like 6-8 packets of them and a whole bunch of creamer, makes for a pretty hefty chunk of calories out of my day.

For a while I got satisfaction just making coffee at home, or getting black coffee at Dunkin and bringing it home to fix up. I went the Torani sugar free syrups for a while, or I'd make iced coffee by blending it with ice, a packet of Spenda, a squirt of sugar free chocolate, some milk/creamer, & low fat cool whip.

That worked for me for the first 40 lb loss or so... until it didn't work for me anymore. With my blood sugar and food addictions, any artificial sweeteners were spiking me and kept triggering my sweet cravings leading to more cheats and stalls than I'd like.

I gave up all added sugars and daily artificial sweeteners, that scared me because of my coffee love and for a while I was just throwing back a couple of ounces of black coffee to keep from getting a caffeine headache. I found that with a little heavy cream, the creaminess flavor is more satisfying than the sugary flavor. So now I get it no sugar/2 tbsp heavy cream, or at DD I get it with 3 tbsp half and half in a small cup. Or if they're out of half and half I'll get it with coconut cream. By cutting out the sweets, my sweet tooth died down, so I don't miss the sugar anymore, but I gotta have it creamy.

My 1st coffee of the day now is my breakfast/coffee combo: In a cup I add a raw egg and a tbsp or two of butter and whip them with a stick blender. Then I slowly pour in boiling hot coffee while whipping so it cooks the egg but makes it creamy/frothy rather than scrambled. Sounded crazy to me at first but it's so delicious and frothy and satisfying... unless I'm fasting that's how I start every day now.

And that is my coffee ramble lol.

yirara wrote: »

Non-American here, thus please excuse my question: Why? It's just candy with (possibly) some caffeine. If I want something sweet I buy candy, and if I want coffee I cook it (Syrian with cardamom, without anything added). I to be honest also don't understand why to buy coffee. And then? Drink it while driving to work? Go there, stand about and drink, drive home?
/confused rant

I brew my own at home with an aeropress. I seldom buy it out unless I’m traveling, meeting someone social, or need a cheap excuse to take the dog the local bakery for a free squirrel dog cookie. I feel obligated to buy something. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think that a paper coffee cup is like a fashion statement for many here. It makes them look trendy having one in their hand.

There’s always laziness, or time constraint ,although I can’t fathom why, since the lines are incredible, and that’s if you do drive thru and don’t have to fight to find parking. We always goggle at the line wrapping around Starbucks

We just got back from visiting several countries in the Balkans, and there was very little “take out” coffee- just self-serve machines in the back of small groceries.

I think the whole concept is wasteful and extravagant. I don’t think people stop to figure that the 1,2, or 3 fancy cups they buy a day are maki g a massive dent in both their financial and calorie budgets.

My small touristy town has a Starbucks and two independent coffee shops on the small Square. All three do a booming business. The many, many trash cans absolutely overflow with coffee cups, even though Parks & Rec empties them several times a day. And people leave empties under benches, on the rim of the big fountain, on shop window sills, or in the gardens.

It drives me nuts!!!!

yirara wrote: »

Non-American here, thus please excuse my question: Why? It's just candy with (possibly) some caffeine. If I want something sweet I buy candy, and if I want coffee I cook it (Syrian with cardamom, without anything added). I to be honest also don't understand why to buy coffee. And then? Drink it while driving to work? Go there, stand about and drink, drive home?
/confused rant

Americans aren't a hive mind and all Americans don't like the same things. Some Americans order sweetened drinks at coffee shops; others order plain coffee. Or tea. Or milk. I would imagine the ones who order sweetened drinks do so because they like the taste. I would order a black Americano, which is espresso and hot water, because I like the taste. Each to their own.

I'm not sure what's confusing about buying coffee. Coffee is no different than any other food or drink which people buy in a restaurant or on the go.

yirara wrote: »

Of course not, but 'on the go' isn't really much of a thing here to start with. I guess the difference is that people sit down and eat and drink, as a meal, and not something inbetween.

@yirara - just wondering .. where is “here”?

Randomly … This morning I drank a black cold brew (caffè freddo) while walking down the Appia Antica on the outskirts of Rome. Admittedly I’m an American living part time in Rome.. but none of my Italian family gave me side eye 😒 lol (probably because my 89 year old Zia made it for me)

🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m old enough to remember those fancy instant (shudder) “international coffees” - late 1970s, from Maxwell House, maybe? One of my college roommates introduced us to them, and oh, my! We thought we were so sophisticated. She went on to start a very popular real coffee shop chain in a major US city; wish we had stayed in touch.

In my 20s, I drank 5-6 cups of home brewed coffee a day, with half-and-half. I eventually quit about a year after quitting smoking, tapering off first by going to regular milk, then skim, then nothing so it finally seemed pointless to keep drinking it. Now I have a very occasional decaf, always black. Whole beans only. I never used sweetener.

I’ve had coffee at Starbucks and found it the worst coffee I’ve ever had. It tasted burnt. Am I missing something? Is it the sweeteners that make it tolerable?

yirara wrote: »

Non-American here, thus please excuse my question: Why? It's just candy with (possibly) some caffeine. If I want something sweet I buy candy, and if I want coffee I cook it (Syrian with cardamom, without anything added). I to be honest also don't understand why to buy coffee. And then? Drink it while driving to work? Go there, stand about and drink, drive home?
/confused rant

When I had an office to go to, I didn't drive. I took public transportation. And you were subject to arrest if you consumed food or drink on the subway, or even in the station. (Never heard of it actually happening to anybody who stopped or threw it away when asked, but it did happen.)

So it was either drink really bad coffee with powdered "creamer" (which was a big impetus in my switching to black coffee) in the office, or get a decent coffee from a shop downstairs from my office. So I often bought a cup and took it up to the office.

Also, I would often end up working somewhere that wasn't my home or my office (even when I had an office), because my job requires me to go to lots of places. When the time and distance meant I had to find a place to work, the only options were often a coffee shop or very casual cafe (not something with table service) where they would let you camp out for a long time as long as you bought something. Cheapest option was usually a cup of coffee.

I generally drink it black. If it's too hot, too weak, or I need some calories, I'll put some milk or cream in it. Never sugar because to my taste buds mixing coffee's lovely bitter notes with sugar is ghastly and vile.

There's a TV commercial in the U.S. that started running recently for an old-school brand of coffee beans/ground coffee that shows people ordering things like "double sweet caramel peppermint soy lattes with sprinkles" in a Starbucks-like store, and the tag line, over the finished drink, is "That's not coffee."

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

There's a TV commercial in the U.S. that started running recently for an old-school brand of coffee beans/ground coffee that shows people ordering things like "double sweet caramel peppermint soy lattes with sprinkles" in a Starbucks-like store, and the tag line, over the finished drink, is "That's not coffee."

Oh gosh, that advert knows me!

I too love ice coffee and have used premier protein shake as my creamer , they have caramel flavor!! I usually use half in my coffee and drink other half at breakfast and I get a lot of protein in for the morning! Quick and easy!