The World Spins Madly On

Cappucinos! They're OK, but they're just not a Flat White.

New Zealand is probably one of the top places for coffee, up there with Italy. (Who also don't have flat whites, but they do have macchiatos, so I'll forgive them.)

It is astonishing how bad coffee can be, especially in England and the US. I have found a chain that do adequate coffee, but yeah. Sad, confusing, disappointing. Actually someone tipped me off to a decent indy coffee bar in Bath the other day. I must check them out.

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It makes me a bit sad that people miss out, but on the other hand I know how to make plunger/french press coffee, and I know a lot of friends don't really (it is so easy, I do not understand. Grind beans. Put in french press. Add boiling water. Press. Seriously people, it's not rocket science).

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No, I get struggling with it, because it's one if those things that's instinctive when you know how, but I don't think I even know what a french press looks like. And how many beans do you grind? Do you press straight after you add the water? How do you know when it's done? Oh wait. Is a french press the same as a plunger? See? Ignorance!

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A French press/plunger (I can't tell if you actually know what that is or not, so forgive if I'm being dumb):

I get that, totally, I guess it's just that once someone shows you once, it's not that hard? But still.

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Aha! Now when people talk about french presses I will know they mean plungers! My knowledge has increased today!

It so easy once you know what you're doing. I don't think I could tell amyone how to make macaroni cheese anymore, because it's so instinctive - you about that much butter, and add flour till it looks right...

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Ahaha, I'm with you - I find making a roux super easy, but I do know it can really exasperate some, for example.

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Sounds like someone who asked me how I made the satay chicken. (Family dinner.)

"Well.. I fried the chicken, added veges into it then made the peanut butter sauce and stirred it in into it was cooked and mostly soaked through into the veges/chicken."

"How do you know the peanut butter sauce is not to clunky and why those veges instead of the ones recommended".. Um it looked right? :)

That being said, I have never made macaroni cheese in my life.

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*laughs* Italy is one up on us here with the macchiatos- seriously, a lot of baristas do not understand fully what it is. Even I am a little unsure--just how much foam to you use to spoon on? (I tend to go with what looks right.)

THANKYOU ANNE. I seriously never knew a french press=coffee plunger. I was imagining like.. I don't know? Almost a sandwich press and couldn't understand how it could do coffee.

One question though, how do you grind the beans? Do you buy a grinder, or do you have ground-beans?

And I agree with Deb's questions! Especially since I am used to expresso coffee.

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Macchiato = espresso shot with about a teaspoon of foam on top, and maybe the tiniest drop of milk in it.

You get your own grinder and grind your own beans, or you can buy ground beans.

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I knew what a macchiato is, but I didn't realise how much foam on top--its says a "dollop" of milk and foam. And GUH. Sounds like its latte milk then. And a teaspoon.

Huh. I am presuming the big commercial grinder I'm thinking of is NOT what you buy. *goes browsing*

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You can get little grinders, benchtop ones. Ours is super old (as in, we've had it for as long as I can remember, and I remember it in my childhood), but this is it (please excuse the state of it's cleanliness. It's clean inside, but yeah, not so attractive on the outside, I know):

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Aaaah.

NOW that makes sense.

Sorry, I was imagining a commercial one and I just couldn't see how it would work. *grins*

Thankyou love.

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Hee, no problem :D

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Ahaha, you're welcome. It is weird though, most New Zealanders call it a coffee plunger, but yeah, that's the 'technical' name, I suppose.

I bet, I just bet that that's what Jack would think too. And Ianto left to clean up after that little conversation.

We have a grinder at my house, but that's mostly because we don't have coffee all the time, and the main issue with preg-ground coffee is that it goes stale much more quickly. On the other hand, if you buy beans and then store then correctly you can grind them fresh every time, and that makes your mornigns happy times for all :D

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