Traffic to this blog is ever-increasing, and I've realized that there a number of you who don't really know who I am. For this reason, I am going to write a series of posts to give you an idea of things I like, and explanations to why I like them.
If you spend a lot of time around me, you have already heard me rant about these things, so don't complain if you've already heard it - because you've been given fair warning.
Thing I Like #1: Good Coffee.
You: "Andrew, everyone likes coffee. I like go to like Tim Horton's like twice a day!"
Me: "Tim Horton's does not serve coffee. Tim's serves coffee-like-beverage."
I drink good coffee. A general rule of thumb is that if you can't drink it black, it's very bad coffee (or you're not a real coffee drinker). I cannot drink Timmies coffee black, and I can stomach some pretty bad coffee. I discovered some time ago that proper coffee is not simply about getting your caffeine fix (although that's definitely a part of it), proper coffee is an experience. Much like a number of things you will read about in this list.
So far, the things I have said about good coffee don't really give an explanation of why I like it (which I promised), and I realize this. The reason I like good coffee is because I like the taste, and if you don't like the taste, I am by no means telling you that you should go out and drink a lot of strong black coffee. BUT, if you do like the taste of coffee - even a little bit - diluting it with milk/cream, and massacring it with sugar only hides/destroys that taste. If you need to hide/destroy the taste - then you don't like the taste. As I said, that's perfectly fine, but there are two reasons for you to not like it: (1) You don't like coffee, or (2) you're drinking bad coffee. If the problem is the former, then keep doing what you're doing, but if it's problem is the latter - you might not know it, but it may well be - then there is a solution beyond masking the taste. You need to broaden your coffee horizons. Look beyond Tim Hortons, Folgers, and insta-coffee. Open your mind, taste-buds, and soul to greener pastures.
This all being said, I want to make sure you understand the difference between good coffee and Starbucks. Yes, I drink many Starbucks coffees, and yes, Starbucks has some good coffee, but Starbucks coffee is not inherently good. For some reason, people always feel the need to tell me when they don't enjoy a cup of coffee there. This in no way surprises me - they have a number of coffees that are rather bad. The point is: going to an establishment that serves good coffee is not a guarantee that you will get good coffee.
Some good coffee establishments:
Huether Hotel Coffee Shop
Second Cup
Starbucks
Matter of Taste
Aroma Cafe
The Green Bean
Want to know why Tim Horton's sucks balls so much? For one, their beans are pre-ground - ground weeks before they are actually used. This time between grinding and brewing releases all the would-be flavour, leaving stale weak coffee as a result. As if that weren't enough, they realized that the the less grounds they use with respect to water, the more money they can make. So they use way too little grounds per unit water. The problem is, they discovered, that the coffee then had no flavour. At this point, instead of using more grounds, they gave the grounds more flavour. "But how did they do that?" Well with chemicals of course! Funny thought that comes out of this is that the disgusting flavour in each of those brown cups is the flavour they have designed.
To sum up: Tim Horton's coffee is weak, stale, chemically flavoured, disgusting fake crap, and there are alternatives.
