Jump to content
  • Sign up for free and receive a month's subscription

    You are viewing this page as a guest. That means you are either a member who has not logged in, or you have not yet registered with us. Signing up for an account only takes a minute and it means you will no longer see this annoying box! It will also allow you to get involved with our friendly(ish!) community and take part in the discussions on our forums. And because we're feeling generous, if you sign up for a free account we will give you a month's free trial access to our subscriber only content with no obligation to commit. Register an account and then send a private message to @dave u and he'll hook you up with a subscription.

Coffee...


RJ Fan club
 Share

Recommended Posts

don't get me wrong I like the stuff. Some might even think that I'm a coffee snob as I have an espresso machine and refuse to drink instant. But is anyone else sick of the homogenisation and domination of our high streets by the numbers of coffee outlets? Its not the corporate dominance of Starbucks, Costa or Cafe Nero that arses me. Its the sheer number of all coffee shops including independents that bothers me along with the alfresco seating. I like the fact I can get decent coffee if I want, but on the whole I make mine at home.

 

What used to be nice places to walk and shop have become frustrating places to be by the number of coffee shops and seating areas; they are now forced pedestrian walking areas where you have to dodge and swerve out of the way of tables, people backing out of chair and doorways all while carrying steaming hot coffee ready to burn you. Half my shopping trips are spent being funnelled into a small passage, waiting around to allow other pedestrians though because of the dominance of tables and street furniture.

 

I have just been down to my local parade for a pint of milk and yep another coffee shop has just opened. What used to be a pleasant little strip of shops has been turned into a posers paradise. There must have been about 20 tables outside, they were all full. Is there anywhere consumption of coffee and alfresco drinking won't take over. Its gone from an easy place to pop in and get a paper, to a car lined street with hoards of posing twats. What do some of these people think they are doing? having a coffee on a Piazza in Rome? Fuck that, the reality is that they are drinking a skinny mocca caramel latte on a back street in Hove with seagulls shitting round them and car thundering past on the nearby high road.

 

Another thing that annoys me, when did it become acceptable to spend up to a grand a year on coffee? Do these people think it is an acceptable legitimate household expense? I base this sum on that some people I work with will get a coffee from a shop everyday and maybe a lunch time drink. At £2.50 a pop, sometimes twice a day, add some food occasionally and your over a grand a year. For that reason alone I invested in a decent machine an usually have a drink before I leave in the morning.

 

The expansion shows no abatement, if recession hits and these things survive we know our country is truly fucked.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The alfresco seating and the like doesn't bother me that much tbh, better to corral the fuckers in one place to keep them out of my hair. It's the walkers that really piss me off. I have a coffee before I set off to work and a coffee as soon as I get there. It isn't so arduous a journey that I feel the need to stop off on the way and pay an outrageous amount of money for another one.

 

Most of the fuckers I see mincing around town sipping three quid's worth of coffee from a one-pint paper baby's beaker whilst dodging the big issue sellers are far more concerned with how cool they think they look carrying that cup than they are with what's in it.

 

Back in the early nineties, I used to work with a bloke who walked across town every morning carrying his Filofax. When he arrived at the office he'd chuck it into his desk drawer and there it would stay until he set off home. I didn't see him write anything in it, or refer to it, during the two years I worked with him. These days, I bet he's got his Blackberry in one hand (because he wouldn't want to hide it away in his man-bag) and a Starbucks the size of a KFC bargain bucket in the other. I also bet that he's still a cunt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a coffee before I set off to work and a coffee as soon as I get there. It isn't so arduous a journey that I feel the need to stop off on the way and pay an outrageous amount of money for another one.

 

Most of the fuckers I see mincing around town sipping three quid's worth of coffee from a one-pint paper baby's beaker whilst dodging the big issue sellers are far more concerned with how cool they think they look carrying that cup than they are with what's in it.

 

Back in the early ninties, I used to work with a bloke who walked across town every morning carrying his Filofax. When he arrived at the office he'd chuck it into his desk drawer and there it would stay until he set off home. I didn't see him write anything in it, or refer to it, during the two years I worked with him. These days, I bet he's got his Blackberry in one hand (because he wouldn't want to hide it away in his man-bag) and a Starbucks the size of a KFC bargain bucket in the other. I also bet that he's still a cunt.

 

 

A mate of mine from Uni lives in New York now. She has quite a tidy job working for Reuters in Times Square and says she works with a load of sex and city wannabes. I met them once, they all have there crackberries in one hand and a skinny latte in the other for show. They blow 3/4 of their wages living in Manhattan, while trying to eek out an existence beyond work only affording to go out and eat on expenses. Luckily my mate hasn't got caught up in it and lives outside the city and only goes with them for work functions.

 

Louise, was telling me that when she goes the gym half the people are in there running with a half gallon mint cappuccino in one hand, then wonder why they don't lose weight. Fashion conscious wannabe twats all of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't get why people want to sit outside anyway. How can you enjoy anything with litter blowing past you, flies getting in your face and other crap which just detracts from the enjoyment of a meal?

 

I much prefer to sit in doors where I can enjoy the comfy seating and can snap my fingers at a passing waiter if I want something else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

homogenisation in any form is a sad sight. a starbucks in the forbidden city surely being the crudest manifestation of this.

its a societal thing and an image thing of course.

i pass a ridiculously expensive secondary school going into town every morning and every morning i see the insomnia outlet beside it crammed with 17 year olds being sophisticated spending their parents money on a frothy latte.

i mean, what the fuck happened to a packet of banshee bones and a can of coke?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

why the fuck anybody wants to sit outside in the UK amazes me. It's so fuckin cold your food must be freezing within 5 minutes. I walked past a place in Lord Street, Southport at 10.00am in March the temp must have been all of 3 degrees and there was this woman sat outside shivering over her cappucino.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

why the fuck anybody wants to sit outside in the UK amazes me. It's so fuckin cold your food must be freezing within 5 minutes. I walked past a place in Lord Street, Southport at 10.00am in March the temp must have been all of 3 degrees and there was this woman sat outside shivering over her cappucino.

 

Marlboro_Lights_And_Red_Cigarettes.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

why the fuck anybody wants to sit outside in the UK amazes me. It's so fuckin cold your food must be freezing within 5 minutes. I walked past a place in Lord Street, Southport at 10.00am in March the temp must have been all of 3 degrees and there was this woman sat outside shivering over her cappucino.

 

starbuck people etc are pretentious. example,,leeds town centre.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Starbucks tests super-sized Trenta

 

Starbucks is testing a super-sized cup for iced coffees and teas that measures close to a litre.

 

The new size, called a Trenta, is 31 fluid ounces or about 920 millilitres and is being introduced in Phoenix, Ariz., and Tampa, Fla.

 

The name follows the Starbucks tradition of using Italian words instead of plain sizes such as small, medium and large. Trenta is Italian for 30.

 

Until the Trenta appeared on the scene, the Venti was the largest Starbucks size, with the plastic cold-drink cup coming in at 24 ounces, or 710 ml. The Venti paper cup size for hot drinks is 20 ounces or 590 ml.

 

The Trenta, selling at $3.30 US for iced coffee and $2.60 for iced tea, was getting a good response in Phoenix. One customer enjoying a decaffeinated iced tea said he would be hesitant to drink a near-litre's worth of any caffeinated drink, according to the Arizona Republic newspaper.

 

Starbucks spokesperson Sanja Gould said the company is trying out the new size in response to customers who said they'd like larger servings of cold drinks.

 

An unsweetened Trenta has fewer than five calories. "But even a sweetened iced coffee or tea in a Trenta cup would be less than 200 calories," she said.

 

Starbucks is by no means the first company to push the envelope on cup size.

 

Iced drinks of similar size already are available at the Seattle-based coffeemaker's competitors, Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's.

 

The 7-Eleven convenience store chain set the bar for big drinks with its line of Big Gulp sizes. They range in size from 945 ml to a hefty 1.9 litres.

 

At Tim Hortons, the largest coffee size in U.S. outlets is the extra large at 709 ml. In Canada, the extra large is smaller at 590 ml.

 

Starbucks did not return inquiries as to whether the Trenta would be tested north of the border in the near future.

 

The average adult human stomach can comfortably hold about one litre of food and drink at any given time.

 

Read more: CBC News - Consumer Life - Starbucks tests super-sized Trenta

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All coffee sucks. The drink taste and smells of urinal worcester sauce. Don't get me started on sweets and beers that are coffee flavoured.

I've had 3 sips of coffee in my entire life - fucking minging.

Tea is where it's at.

Tea.

It's the taste.

 

chimpDM2503_468x452.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreeing with the OP, its the sheer number of them in the high street with pisses me of and the weaving around the fucking chairs on the pavement all the time so you end up walking on the road sometimes when there's heavy foot traffic. They are all so expensive too inc. the food they sell there which consists of muffins for 2.50 which are drier than Ghandi's flip flop.

Every town centre in the UK smells of coffee now, you can't get away from it.

I never go into one, my friends think i'm making some political statement about globalisation etc cos i dont go into Subway either but i don't go into these shops cos they are a rip off and what they sell is awful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some people like coffee, some people like getting coffee in town. Some people even like sitting outside to drink it. Deal with it, it's a free country! You sound like Victor Meldrew.

 

I think I posted this just as L1 was opening, and I have to say since then, about twelvety seven more have popped up around the place, so I take that back, they are rather annoying now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest PurpleNose
on saying that i do enjoy reading a newspaper in the sun with a good cup of coffee if i find a nice coffee shop whilst abroad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but thats completely different.

 

This is my view also. I like drinking good coffee abroad. Same with eating pizzas. They're shit here.

 

Italian cafe, copy of La Gazzetta, cup of coffee. Fucking bliss.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...