4 ms·
There are different styles of espresso, with roasters and barista optimizing for very different tastes - the Italian/Mediterranean style is one, the "third wave
by lytfyre 10y ago
There are different styles of espresso, with roasters and barista optimizing for very different tastes - the Italian/Mediterranean style is one, the "third wave" style that's more prevalent on the North American west coast and Australia (Seattle/Portland/Melbourne/London UK) is another, and Scandinavian/Northern European being a third.
Then there's the many people who go to a coffee shop for a drink with a ton of syrup in it, so don't really get as much impact off the taste of the coffee, and will generally care more about the atmosphere and service.
Between the two factors, general audience reviews like Yelp lose a lot of their value if you're particular about your coffee.
- tedmiston 10y agoSearching Foursquare / Yelp for "third wave coffee" vs "coffee" tends to turn up more relevant results for me. (But I still don't pay much attention to star ratings.)
- gwynplaine 10y agoCompletely agree, Italian espresso was considered great decades ago, but standards have risen faster elsewhere since then. Italy still makes the best espresso _machines_ such as Simonelli. My experience of coffee there is coffee roasted so dark as to be considered burnt. See the World Barista Championship winners, not a single Italian yet, unfortunately. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Barista_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Barista_Championship
- lytfyre 10y ago> Italy still makes the best espresso _machines_ such as Simonelli Even that I think they're losing ground on - Slayer or Synesso out of Seattle, or Mod Bar out of Indiana are pretty great, certainly right up there with any Simonelli or La Marzoco. For consumer level espresso machines, I think Breville (Australian) has been blowing away just about everything under 2k$. It's been interesting to watch them bring more modern control tech into the cheap market.
- arcticfox 10y agoAlso, I know some of the top Italian manufacturers have started sourcing at least some of their most technical electrical components out of Seattle already