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BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola

31 Aug 18 - 07:37 AM (#3947284)
Subject: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Mr Red

Story here

I admired Cosa's employment philosophy, but that is on hold.


31 Aug 18 - 10:17 PM (#3947393)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Donuel

Have you ever heard of Dieseldorf Coffee in Guatemala?

There is an interesting tale of a fleeing Nazi officer with his beauty queen wife joining his archeologist father and starting a coffee plantation that is still expanding. I should make it a mini series:^/


01 Sep 18 - 03:10 AM (#3947408)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Dave the Gnome

They are a perfect alliteration match!


01 Sep 18 - 04:00 AM (#3947409)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

Hahaha Dave, perhaps one should wear Coco Chanel perfume when in their café...
I never knew that Whitbread are actually the owners of Costa, Beefeater and Premier Inn

I drink neither coffee nor Coke, but my husband adores both. An amalgamation of the two (not in the same glass of course) would be his idea of bliss.
Being an old biddy, I've never managed to fathom what all the names of these coffees mean.
It appears there's latte, mocha, flat white (sounds like a rather bored Colonialist) americano, espresso and several others.

If we go in one of these places, I usually ask for a nice cup of tea and get the old eye-roll...


01 Sep 18 - 04:20 AM (#3947412)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Big Al Whittle

I don't get Costa Coffee.
They're all supposed to be barista's

Yet all the stupid barista's make coffee that tastes like soapy water.


01 Sep 18 - 04:34 AM (#3947413)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

That reminds me Big Al, what the blazes is a 'barista' when it's at home?
Also, surely a male one would be a 'baristo'?


01 Sep 18 - 05:37 AM (#3947420)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

My daily a.m. treat to myself, having walked four miles or so with my Border Terrier, is a medium skinny latté, which I get my local Costa to put in the Tim Horton's Thermos-cup that I brought home from my last trip to AB/BC. Still hot when I get it home, a very nice accompaniment to lunch.

My understanding from the staff at our Costa (whom I've become very friendly with, to the point of being given a freebie every now and again for being a 'regular') is that, although the business was owned overall by Whitbread, the retail units are franchised out and run as their own businesses by the franchisees.


01 Sep 18 - 06:10 AM (#3947425)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

Gawd Backwoodsman, you walk FOUR MILES with your dog? Crumbs! Respect!

I've often wondered about the word 'latte'. It's Italian, not a language I've studied. But it makes me smile when people here pronounce it as 'lah tay', the 'lah' bit rhyming with 'far'.
The vowel isn't as open as the French 'la', but nearly so.
It's more of a 'lat-eh' (rhyming with cat)

Far canal eh? :)


01 Sep 18 - 06:30 AM (#3947431)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

Absolutely correct about the pronunciation, Sen - 'Laaaah-tay' drives me nuts! My American ex-boss used to also talk about 'Paaw-staaw' instead of 'Pasta' with the open vowels. Aaaaarrgghh!

BTW, I usually do another mile-and-a-half with the dog in the evening. I confess that my morning dog-walk can be less than four miles, depending on the weather (he hates rain and hot weather equally) but it's always two-and-a-half miles at least. My philosophy with all things is "Do it while you can" - it won't last forever!


01 Sep 18 - 07:05 AM (#3947438)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: JHW

Sure I knew Whitbread own Costa (owned?) cos we don't go in pubs any more.
Hence the baristas are never called to the bar.


01 Sep 18 - 07:33 AM (#3947440)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Big Al Whittle

i like a bit more coffee in my coffee.


01 Sep 18 - 07:46 AM (#3947442)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Bonzo3legs

In Croydon you hear laaaaaaaaaartaaaaaay, as you do bruvaaaaaaaaar! I correct where possible!!!


01 Sep 18 - 07:51 AM (#3947446)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

"i like a bit more coffee in my coffee."

Me too. They give me an extra shot.


01 Sep 18 - 08:08 AM (#3947450)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Big Al Whittle

do they charge extra for the extra shot?


01 Sep 18 - 08:53 AM (#3947457)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

Well, we've just got home from Morrisons at Riverside (again!) and stopped for a drink and a snack in their Costa-type café.

Husband had another 'gingerbread latte' (no idea, don't ask) and a tiny weeny glass with about an inch of black coffee, which I think was an espresso. All that caffeine - just as well, as I've got him mowing the lawns now, and that should have pepped him up a bit!

I had a nice cup of tea and a slice of their heavenly coffee and walnut cake.
If I walked a dog like Backwoodsman does, 4 miles in the morning and another one-and-a-half in the evening, I'd have eaten the whole cake to give me strength.


01 Sep 18 - 09:31 AM (#3947465)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

"do they charge extra for the extra shot?"

Sometimes yes, sometimes no but, on the occasions they do, the reduction I get for using my own cup just about covers it.


01 Sep 18 - 09:35 AM (#3947466)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

Sen, diabetes has cured me of a number of sins, and given me some virtues. Not only am I now the man who can walk five miles a day, I can also eat just one biscuit, or one square of chocolate, or even say 'no' to cake! :-)


01 Sep 18 - 11:59 AM (#3947480)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

Ah, well done Bw! Have you lost weight after all this exercise and diet restriction?

'I'm the man who walks five miles a day!...

Daddle da-da! Daddle da-da! Dumdiddle dumdiddle dumdiddle dumdiddle dum!' etc
(Proclaimers)


01 Sep 18 - 12:34 PM (#3947485)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

I love The Proclaimers! And 'Sunshine on Leith' is one of my favourite songs and movies - the 'ensemble' performance of '500 Miles' at the end of the movie is stonkin'!

I lost six and a half stones through illness back in 2006, and I became T2 as a result of surgeryon my pancreas back then, but I've put one and a half stones back on. I have no problem holding my weight there, I think my improved diet due to my diabetes, my alcohol-abstinence due to my hepatobiliary system damage, and my enforced exercise regime to to my Border Terrier, all contrive to keep me fit and (comparatively) trim.

So not all bad news!


01 Sep 18 - 01:07 PM (#3947489)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

Goodness Bw, it sounds as though you've had a lot to cope with health-wise over recent years, but have surmounted it all and bravely 'kept on a-troshing' (Norfolk expression).
I really admire your determination.

PS Love 'Sunshine on Leith'!


01 Sep 18 - 01:53 PM (#3947492)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

A few tough times but hey, they breed us tough out here in the Backwoods! 'Count your blessings' is a good motto and, in very many ways,I'm blessed. ;-)


02 Sep 18 - 06:12 PM (#3947714)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: leeneia

Someday when you're bored, go on YouTube and search for Coca Cola hacks. There you will find people using Coca Cola as pesticide, toilet cleaner, gum remover, etc. Anything but drink it.


02 Sep 18 - 08:46 PM (#3947723)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Steve Shaw

I'm an inveterate inhabiter of coffee shops. Caffè Nero is our go-to as we often get to
to Truro, where there are two branches, and we get to the Barnstaple one quite often. The very best one for us is The Coffee Sack at the end of Scholes Lane in Prestwich. It's a bit like a pilgrimage to there when I go up north to visit my mum. The lady in charge is an absolute wonder, so friendly, and so kind to my old mum who struggles a fair bit these days. In fact, mum thinks that the lady and I have a sort of mutual "thing" going on. I wish! Don't tell Mrs Steve, but what a good idea that would be...Naturally, I'd have to consult the lady in question, thirty years younger than meself, though, well I mean, how could she resist my charms... Damn good coffee too! When I mentioned to her how good the coffee was she tried to sell me a huge sack of the beans that would have kept us going for a year or more. Sadly, coffee beans don't keep that well! Several years ago Mrs Steve and I clubbed all our Christmas money together and bought a bean-to-cup coffee machine, a Delonghi Caffe Corso, ESAM 2800. We'll never go back to any other way of having coffee. It's our main daily ritual these days!


03 Sep 18 - 04:06 AM (#3947750)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

Gosh, hasn't Britain changed since the end of the War Steve? I remember the fifties when nobody round our way ever drank coffee. It was tea all day and cocoa at night. We children also drank gallons of milk.

As a Brownie aged about eight, I was taken with my pack to the American airbase at Ruislip to meet American Brownies. I was struck by the delicious smell of the coffee offered to the adult leaders (our Brown Owl and Tawny Owl and theirs)


03 Sep 18 - 06:06 AM (#3947776)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Steve Shaw

I started drinking coffee only in 2011 after a trip to Italy that was a real eye-opener. I will not drink the diluted swill that comes out of a jar of freeze-dried dung known as "instant coffee." I'd sooner hack off the family jewels with a rusty machete.


03 Sep 18 - 06:15 AM (#3947778)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Bonzo3legs

Last time we stayed at Croyde Bay there were no decent coffee shops at all there. Perhaps it's changed now.


03 Sep 18 - 12:56 PM (#3947826)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Steve Shaw

Nice place though. I hope you took a stroll out to Morte Point and beyond.


03 Sep 18 - 01:54 PM (#3947842)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Jos

Years ago when you walked from Croyde Bay to Morte Point you would pass a huge whale's jawbone standing by the path. Last time I was there it was just a strange little lump by the side of the path and you wouldn't know what it was unless you had been there years earlier.


03 Sep 18 - 07:56 PM (#3947890)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Steve Shaw

I haven't been there for over ten years, but the whale's skull, or whatever it was, was pretty big back then as I recall. I'm not really a beach bum but I recall that coming off the beach at Croyde was a bit of a lug. The huge beach at Woolacombe looked lovely but we didn't go on to it. A couple of times we walked out to Morte Point and a few miles beyond on the coast path. Splendid. It's all a bit of a trek from Bude on annoying roads. Mrs Steve and I took our bikes for a ride round Braunton Burrows (pushing them responsibly on the nature reserve), which was good fun, and Saunton Sands are quite expansive. We actually live just half a mile from the coast path at Widemouth Bay and the coastal walking hereabouts is fantastic. You CAN get a decent cup of coffee in Bude, even a Costa if you want, but you'll have to go to Padstow, to the Chough bakery on the harbour front, for the finest pasty, and you can wash it down with a nice takeaway cup of tea that you can buy from a little hatch just up from the pasty shop. I buy the pasties then go and grab a bench while Mrs Steve fetches the tea. What's not to like. Watch those gulls with your pasty.


04 Sep 18 - 03:18 AM (#3947922)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Jos

For a child, Croyde was much more fun than Woolacombe. There were sand dunes to explore and hide in, rocks to scramble over and rock pools with shrimps and sea anemones. And a little 'shack' selling ice cream.
Woolacombe was just sand, sand and more sand, with nothing much to do unless you wanted to lie about and get a suntan.


04 Sep 18 - 03:58 AM (#3947930)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

I have to smile at those two adverts mocking pretentious coffee bars. One has the barista working lovingly over two minute cups, sprinkling various powders onto the coffee, and another customer is served his beverage in what look like three laboratory beakers.

In the other ad, the woman tries to explain what a 'flat white' is, by saying it's to do with the micro-bub-bubbles. The proprietor looks absolutely disgusted at the question, curls his lip and says, "Oh dear.."

Brilliant!

I'd like to take part in those ads, walk into the café and order "A nice cup of TEA please!"


04 Sep 18 - 04:03 AM (#3947932)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: David Carter (UK)

Coffee is made with ground coffee beans and water, nothing else. And the higher the proportion of the former, and the shorter the time between grinding and making, the better.


04 Sep 18 - 04:21 AM (#3947937)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Jos

I haven't drunk coca-cola for about 50 years. When I was a child I used to love Tizer, but I tried some recently and it was awful - just horribly sweet, no other flavour detectable. The drink I remember had a lovely, slightly sharp caramel-like taste.


04 Sep 18 - 04:28 AM (#3947940)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Jos

'Micro-bub-bubbles'?
Are you sure it was supposed to be coffee ... not prosecco?


04 Sep 18 - 04:55 AM (#3947947)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Steve Shaw

"Coffee is made with ground coffee beans and water, nothing else. And the higher the proportion of the former, and the shorter the time between grinding and making, the better."

Couldn't agree more. That's why we treated ourselves to a bean-to-cup machine. We don't use pre-ground coffee (how can that be "fresh" once the bag's opened?) and we keep beans in small amounts in an airtight tin in the fridge. Even then, the gloss on the beans from a newly-opened bag has gone by the next day. In the perfect world you'd want the coffee bean shop right door to your house, roasting to order and rushing the beans round to your house daily. You won't be seeing that in Bude any time soon!

There used to be a shop that supplied beans from all over the world, freshly-roasted by them, about 25 miles away, not cheap, but it's gone. These days we use Waitrose's Italian-style beans, strength 5. They seem to be at least as good as any of the other beans of that strength available in supermarkets. Those little valved bags definitely seem to do the trick when it comes to keeping the beans "fresh."


04 Sep 18 - 06:03 AM (#3947965)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Jos

Some years ago I bought some coffee beans from a shop in Guildford High Street where they had a wide range of coffee available and seemed to know what it was about.
The coffee was really not good - very little flavour other than a general staleness. I took it back to the shop the next week and told the man what I thought of the coffee.
He said, "I couldn't agree more" and gave me a replacement. I said, "Have you had a lot of people complaining about it, then?" He said "No, you're the only one."


04 Sep 18 - 08:30 AM (#3947995)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Rob Naylor

Sen: Gosh, hasn't Britain changed since the end of the War Steve? I remember the fifties when nobody round our way ever drank coffee. It was tea all day and cocoa at night. We children also drank gallons of milk.

In the late 50s my family pretty well all drank coffee (Mum, dad, 3 aunts and 2 uncles living on the same street). My Grandma drank " 'ot watter wi' a drop o' milk in" an another aunt rarely seemed to drink anything at all except a Mackeson at about 6pm. Tea rarely got a look-in.

When one of my aunts used to take us out for walks (I'm probably talking about 1959-63 here) we always seemed to end up in a "coffee bar" for a cup of frothy coffee and a Wagon Wheel!


04 Sep 18 - 08:49 AM (#3948004)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Steve Shaw

It was a mug of Horlicks for me as a little lad whenever we went to the greasy spoon just off the prom at Cleveleys, which was often. I can't stand the stuff now.


04 Sep 18 - 09:14 AM (#3948011)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

Oooh I remember Wagon Wheels! Lovely chocolatey biscuit things. They always seemed enormous to me.
Hated Horlicks Steve. Tasted of cardboard.
And I loved Tizer.

Rob, was this 'oop North'? In the early fifties, we honestly didn't have coffee round our way. But I do remember seeing something in the shops called Camp Coffee (for overtly gay people?) The picture on the front was a bit Colonial, with a Scots kilted soldier sitting drinking a cup of coffee with his Indian servant standing obsequiously beside him. They later changed the picture for political correctness. The Scotsman was now seated with a Rajah-type chap sitting beside him.
I think it was some ersatz muck, a sort of 'essence of coffee'. We never bought it.


04 Sep 18 - 09:27 AM (#3948012)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

My maternal grandparents lived in the house next door to wharf, where my grandfather was the foreman (our town is on a tidal river which used to have considerable barge and coaster traffic). Every morning at 10 o'clock he used to come in for his coffee-break - always 'Camp' coffee (which was no such thing - it was made from chicory!). His break was only fifteen minutes, so he always poured the 'coffee' from his cup into the saucer and proceeded to blow on it so that it cooled quicker. He would sit me on his knee and let me have an occasional sip - I loved it. Can't abide it now though!


04 Sep 18 - 03:07 PM (#3948104)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Mr Red

When I was a child I used to love Tizer, but I tried some recently and it was awful -
I am firmly of the opinion that apart from the inevitable when our pallet veers towards the bitter in old age, that modern concoctions have been made sweeter than 50/60 years ago. The relative cost of sugar is one reason. And "sweeteners" are cheaper still, some come from sugar refining so are a waste product with value. Sweeteners have a different taste, which affects the overall appeal (or otherwise). One reason I won't touch Bulmers cider, which amazingly has resulted in 20 years of relative freedom from headaches.

I am told by those wot tried Cadbury's cream eggs they are now made in eastern Europe and are sweeter and sickly as a result.
As an aside cheap Polo mints were, at one time, coming from the Phillipines and had that non-mint taste you get from TicTacs (yuk). I have noticed Polo have realised it was going to be a PR disaster. Just like when Coca0Cola changed the sweetener without telling anyone and for a while, Pepsi became No.1.

Sickly Angel delight is still sold, Instant Whip - where is that? Even as a kid I preferred the Whip - oooer.


04 Sep 18 - 03:32 PM (#3948110)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Jos

My children loved butterscotch Instant Whip, and I thought I was giving them something good as it was made up with milk, until my daughter developed an intolerance to tartrazine (E102), which provided the orange colour - with very unpleasant results. (This meant that waggon wheels were ruled out as well as they also contained tartrazine. Next time I see some in a shop I'll check the label to see whether or not they have now seen sense and used something sensible or simply not coloured them at all.)


04 Sep 18 - 05:05 PM (#3948129)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

I feel sorry for parents nowadays, as most of our food has been horribly tampered with. Blooming additives, chemicals and artificial flavourings. And if one has allergies in the family, I imagine it makes food-buying a nightmare.

I usually buy some Easter treats for our neighbours-across-the-road's two little children. (They can have chocolate) But I've noticed that Cadbury's cream eggs seem to have shrunk! So I get them a Lindt bunny each (the chocolate seems to be of a better quality) and a colouring book.

I didn't know Camp coffee was made from chicory!

I gave an ice-cold can of Diet Coke to our lovely window cleaner Andy and his assistant this morning. We always keep a few in the fridge for the postman if he looks a bit hot and tired, and any couriers who deliver a parcel, also the dustmen on Bin Day. Everyone seems to like a can of Coke!


04 Sep 18 - 05:20 PM (#3948130)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

Before I became diabetic as a result of pancreatitis and pancreatic surgery, I used to love Cadbury's Creme Eggs, but I stopped eating any chocolate products with less than 85% cocoa in them in 2007 (Green & Blacks 85% Cocoa Dark Chocolate is my affordable staple now - one square a day). Anyhoo, a couple of Easters ago perhaps, I decided to try a Cadbury's Creme Egg 'for old time's sake'. It was absolutely dreadful - so sickly and unbearably sweet - I'm guessing that's because my palate has changed now I don't eat 'normal' chocolate any more.

That will be my last-ever Cadbury's Creme Egg.


04 Sep 18 - 06:05 PM (#3948137)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

Ah, that was probably a good thing Bw. If the cream egg had been delicious, you'd have wanted more and more of them!


05 Sep 18 - 01:38 AM (#3948156)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

I would indeed, Sen! But my acquired Iron Will would have prevented me succumbing to temptation......I think!


05 Sep 18 - 03:33 AM (#3948171)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Rusty Dobro

Back on a coffee theme - since reading press reports that following the Hudson River air crash, Starbucks charged the rescuers for their coffee, I have always avoided using them unless it was absolutely unavoidable (ironically, that's usually in airport lounges).

Does anyone know if that actually happened, or is it another urban myth?


05 Sep 18 - 04:10 AM (#3948180)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

I've just looked it up Rusty, and the Guardian UK of 2001 says they charged rescue workers $130 for three packs of bottled water to administer to the survivors. The rescuers had to rummage in their own pockets to get the money together.
The boss of Starbucks later apologised profusely, refunded the money and gave out free coffee to them.
Not a very edifying example of common human kindness was it?

Bw, where can I obtain this Iron Will please? My Will is as wobbly as jelly!


05 Sep 18 - 05:59 AM (#3948192)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Jos

Eliza, just remember that it is YOUR body and YOU are in charge of it.
So show it who is boss.


05 Sep 18 - 07:36 AM (#3948217)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

"Bw, where can I obtain this Iron Will please? My Will is as wobbly as jelly!"

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you! :-) :-)


05 Sep 18 - 08:24 AM (#3948231)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Senoufou

Quite right Jos. I will put my foot down with a firm hand.

Bw, what you need is one of those little gadgets the Men In Black use to wipe the memory from people's minds.


05 Sep 18 - 08:32 AM (#3948234)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Backwoodsman

LOL! My answer would be that my Iron Will didn't exist until I became diabetic - that concentrated my mind a bit!


06 Sep 18 - 03:35 AM (#3948435)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Mr Red

Snopes on Stirbacks charging - it does not reveal a result on the Hudson River landing - note in the film they remarked it was not a crash but a water landing. A more accurate description.

Rusty Dobro - if you want their answers they would probably find them, as long as you ask. IME it has to be a US based question.


06 Sep 18 - 06:37 AM (#3948494)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Bonzo3legs

Best airport coffee I ever had was when I made up sachets of Gold Blend at home and just used hot water from the machine. I forgot to do that this time, but coffee in Vienna airport lounge was excellent. Tomorrow in Alicante airport lounge we'll see!


06 Sep 18 - 06:57 AM (#3948499)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Steve Shaw

From that we must conclude that you don't really understand coffee...


06 Sep 18 - 06:59 AM (#3948501)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Bonzo3legs

My wife thinks 13 years of statins have wrecked my taste buds!


08 Sep 18 - 02:48 PM (#3949062)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Thompson

It's all getting like the vaccuum creatures in the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, with one giant company sucking up another, then itself being sucked up by an even huger behemoth.


10 Sep 18 - 08:00 PM (#3949560)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Mr Red

You say that but CAMRA rather stuck it to the big beer companies. Lots of little boutique breweries.
And personally I avoid Stirbacks and No. 1 and Caffe Nero et al. Coffee is coffee. It is the making that matters and they all have those infernal machines now. Rare is filter coffee these days. If I ask for black coffee they look at me quizzically and suggest Americano. Don't they understand English? I even get asked if I want milk with that at times!


10 Sep 18 - 08:33 PM (#3949568)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Steve Shaw

You get far better coffee from freshly-ground beans made in an espresso machine than from any filter coffee.


10 Sep 18 - 10:27 PM (#3949579)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: robomatic

This probably deserves its own thread, but Starbucks just opened their first in Italy


11 Sep 18 - 01:52 AM (#3949583)
Subject: RE: BS: Costa Coffee sold to Coca-Cola
From: Thompson

Donuel - interested in your story about the fleeing SS man founding Dieseldorff Coffee, I had a look around the internet - only to find that the Dieseldorffs went to Guatamala in the 1880s and were Jewish!

My mother was a coffee fiend, and used to make delicious coffee, to which she added cream and dark brown sugar. I've only once ever found a coffee that tasted like hers; it was from El Salvador and had the same intense sweet darkness of flavour.