Ahhh coffee. One of the world’s favourite drinks, though I don’t know if it’s more popular than tea.
But here in Pakistan, I do admire the way people have with coffee. They can make a cappuccino without a machine. Which is more than I can do. You mix your dry coffee with a couple of teaspoons of milk and beat hell out of it with a teaspoon until it’s peaky like heavy cream. Add hot water and yum-yum it’s delicious.
I’ve tried to do this myself and met with degrees of failure from horrible to marginal.
The king of coffees or not…this is my favourite
This afternoon I put two teaspoons of ‘Douwe Egberts’ (my coffee of choice)into a cup, mixed with two teaspoons of water, a little sugar and a dash of milk and began beating. It looked like melted chocolate but never thick cream. It even frothed for a moment when I poured in the water.
The flavour was no more than ok-ish. The froth didn’t last and the creamy, velvety consistency in my mouth was missing. My wife enjoyed it but I’m not satisfied. Next time, I’ll put in the coffee and sugar, mix that, add a teaspoon of milk and then beat the life into it. Or maybe I can buy an electric whisk to do the job for me.
I’m not a long time caffeine user. I only discovered the joys of the liquid form drug almost nine years ago. After that, there was no stopping me.
A supremely better coffee than I can make
Plain, cappuccino, mocha, latte…I love them all. But not espresso. Espresso is too intense, too bitter, too nasty for my mind to suck in. Over ten years ago I made the mistake of having a double espresso by accident.
It was a branch of Café Nero in Heathrow Airport. I was there for some time waiting for my Tube (the Underground system) connection to central London. I would kill time by trying this legendary hot drink. When it was my turn to be served I asked for the espresso only to be asked how many shots I wanted. Shots? Shots of what? I didn’t expect this so I asked for two.
I quickly learned why this is served in such a small cup. I drank it, took my time, I had to it was impossible to knock straight back. The bitterness, the pungency overpowered me. I spent the rest of the day trying to undo the flavour assault I’d subjected myself to. It was still on my tongue and in my stomach eleven hours later.
When I joined the rest of humanity in appreciating the finer powers of coffee, I made sure I kept off the rocket fuel espresso. Instead I fell for the more luxurious end of the market – mocha, cappuccino, latte, all full fat of course.
Of course it’s full fat! I’m drooling just looking at this…
Starbucks has no presence in Pakistan or in Lahore that I’m aware of. Instead, the most prevalent coffee chain is ‘Gloria Jean’s’, which I’d never heard of before I arrived here. A night out with friends put me in touch with their ‘Very Vanilla Latte’. What a coffee (albeit with enough sugar and fat to stop an elephant). Wow.
So now I am a confirmed coffee lover but not an addict because when I need to be refreshed, to get my thinking cap working, or just revive me it’s tea I turn to. That said I do love coffee because for me, it’s a great treat, something out of the ordinary, especially when it’s done properly.
So I just have to learn to do it, then don’t I?
Resident Alien 