Last week I decided to walk a few blocks from the uni to try out Starbuck's coffee. Until then I had always bought my coffee at the uni. It turned out their smallest cup is "tall" which is bigger than a medium and certainly more expensive. "No problem," I thought, "a bigger cup costs more." Because the uni cafes always added the sugar for me, I just took my cappuccino and left. I don't really mind sugarless coffee but the liquid in the Starbuck's cup tasted like hot coffee-flavoured water. It got better after I went through half the cup and it cooled down a bit, but overall it was not that great and the premium I paid for the Starbuck's brand was not really worth it. I was tempted to make a direct comparison to the uni coffee but in the spirit of fairness I had to compare apple to apple so this week I have been buying coffee at the uni without sugar. I will not go to Starbuck's again.
On the other hand, I don't think I'm in a hurry to return to sweetened coffee either. Latte has more milk so even without sugar it's easier to drink but cappuccino can be quite bitter at first. Nonetheless I found myself drawn to the supposedly unpleasant taste. Although my tongue tells me I shouldn't like the stuff I am able to pick up more of the "real" coffee flavour, previously masked by the sweet taste of sugar. The excitement generated by this discovery overpowered the tongue's reluctance for more bitter coffee, and is fuelled on by the thirst to find out even more. So far I have found out the same cup of coffee has very different tastes at various temperatures. The effect was not so pronounced before since it was sweet no matter how cold it got. I can't wait to try out other kinds of coffee and buy them at different shops. From now on, coffee will cease to be just another sweetened drink; it becomes a hobby, a field of study where I can have fun while learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment