On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:22:03 +0100, Padraig Breathnach
wrote:
>It's not just an Ibis shortcoming. Many French hotels in the 2/3 star
>range serve coffee with breakfast that I find disappointing. In part
>it is because with breakfast French people seem to like a larger
>coffee than an espresso or an allongé (stretched espresso, with double
>the volume of water). So a filter machine is used. If your timing is
>unfortunate, you might get coffee that has been sitting a while on a
>hot plate for a while.
I remember fondly the coffee machine in the Dutch Statistical Bureau
where I worked in the mid 1980s. When you put in your coin, a cup with
a little individual coffee filter dropped into place and hot water
began to drip through it. The coffee was of good quality and it was
always fresh. Unlike the food in the lunch room, which largely
featured sausages that looked exactly like turds and sandwiches with
one paper-thin slice of ham between two thick slices of industrial
white bread.
Hot plates are the reason that you find such bad coffee in many
restaurants in the US. You can actually get very good coffee there,
but many restaurants consider the coffee a low priority. I used to say
that I wanted to open a restaurant with good bread, good soup and good
coffee, and that I was sure it would be a success even if it had
little else.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup |