Re: Iced coffee.
I have a bit of time to post now and reply to a few posts. I tend to be a night-owl, and so I often do things like this in the middle of the night.
Okay - I dont know whether members of this forum are mostly Australian (as might be suggested by the forums U.R.L.), or whether it is truly international. I am in Australia, and there seems to be mostly just one basic way of making iced coffee (although with many variations), which is broadly speaking the way I make it myself. It appears from some replies to my post that there are plenty of very different methods in other countries, though. When I spoke about iced coffee earlier, I was probably carelessly assuming that everyone would interpret it the way I had in mind (the Australian way), and would understand what I meant.
To me, iced coffee is simply a cold drink with milk (either partly, slightly, or entirely), and with ice-cream added on top, and optionally cream too. I dont like iced coffee black (and never seem to encounter it anyway), and it is not complete to me without ice-cream. The cream is optional, but a little is nice if its a good-quality cream.
Different versions of iced coffee remind me of a day, probably in the 1970s, when I was taken out for my birthday by my parents. We had both lunch and dinner in Ballarat, and it was one of the least successful iced-coffee days I ever had. At lunch, the iced coffee I got was black (most unusually for Australia, it seems), and I didnt like it all that much. I seem to vaguely recall it was an American place, and I gather black iced coffee is quite common there. At dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant, and I made the mistake of asking for iced coffee there. What I got was simply a hot coffee with a spoonful of ice-cream in it, which ended up murky and lukewarm. I like Chinese food; but that taught me that Chinese places are not a good place to expect iced coffee.
I dont know. Probably not. I know what I like and dont like, but have never really developed anything like a "coffee philosophy" which relates to things like being purist.
This is how elementary my knowledge is: Im not sure if I know how to tell whether a coffee is espresso or not (other than reading the label). What basically is espresso, and how is it different from other types?
Yes. I dont usually add sugar, but I do require ice-cream, which of course makes it sweet.
I like flavoured coffee, and those usually seem to be sweeter varieties. I guess this makes me very much non-purist. Im not sure Id like caramel, but I do like chocolate-, hazelnut-, cinnamon-, and vanilla-flavoured coffees, and even a banana nut cream coffee I once found. They are not easy to find, though, and I know only two places that sell them, one of them a couple of hundred miles away. (Is it acceptable here to name particular places where you get coffee?)
Well, I dont like just any drink thats cold; but I tend not to like hot drinks (not even soup all that much, except for pea soup), so the drinks I do like are cold; and they are mostly sweet too. But there are probably plenty of cold drinks I wouldnt like. My favourite drinks are probably iced coffee and soft drink - the latter of which I dont have too much of, because I dont want to put on weight (or rot my teeth).
Ive never heard of that before. Do you pour it over hot or cold? (Im not mad on strongly melted ice-cream.)
I must be open-minded and consider things like this. I do tend to be set in my ways, and stick to what I know and like, maybe too much. But I will be interested to consider new methods anyone suggests.
Regards,
Michael.
I have a bit of time to post now and reply to a few posts. I tend to be a night-owl, and so I often do things like this in the middle of the night.
Originally posted by 71654F7422100 link=1243450886/2#2 date=1243469020
To me, iced coffee is simply a cold drink with milk (either partly, slightly, or entirely), and with ice-cream added on top, and optionally cream too. I dont like iced coffee black (and never seem to encounter it anyway), and it is not complete to me without ice-cream. The cream is optional, but a little is nice if its a good-quality cream.
Different versions of iced coffee remind me of a day, probably in the 1970s, when I was taken out for my birthday by my parents. We had both lunch and dinner in Ballarat, and it was one of the least successful iced-coffee days I ever had. At lunch, the iced coffee I got was black (most unusually for Australia, it seems), and I didnt like it all that much. I seem to vaguely recall it was an American place, and I gather black iced coffee is quite common there. At dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant, and I made the mistake of asking for iced coffee there. What I got was simply a hot coffee with a spoonful of ice-cream in it, which ended up murky and lukewarm. I like Chinese food; but that taught me that Chinese places are not a good place to expect iced coffee.
are you a purist:
shot of espresso (or better double ristretto base), on ice, with milk >> no other additives
or do you like it sweet: espresso base, flavoured syrup, blended ice, milk, cream, caramel .. etc etc.
I like flavoured coffee, and those usually seem to be sweeter varieties. I guess this makes me very much non-purist. Im not sure Id like caramel, but I do like chocolate-, hazelnut-, cinnamon-, and vanilla-flavoured coffees, and even a banana nut cream coffee I once found. They are not easy to find, though, and I know only two places that sell them, one of them a couple of hundred miles away. (Is it acceptable here to name particular places where you get coffee?)
or as hazchem said: do you like cold drinks in general:
ie: the affogato - espresso poured over gelato or ice cream.
I must be open-minded and consider things like this. I do tend to be set in my ways, and stick to what I know and like, maybe too much. But I will be interested to consider new methods anyone suggests.
Regards,
Michael.



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