h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dmitri,

That's almost exactly how I became a coffee drinker! My grandmother gave me a cup of cafe au lait before sending me off to school each day. My teachers always gave good marks, commenting what an alert, attentive little nerd I was. How exceedingly clever of our grandmothers! I do remember the dire and accurate predictions about my growth being stunted, but I don't remember being cautioned about liver spots.

And I agree completely about Starbucks. That strange company over-roasts, that is, burns its coffee beans, which leads to the weird result you describe - consumers suffering under the delusion that coffee is supposed to taste bitter when an earlier generation of coffee drinkers knew that a bitter cup was poorly prepared. Other bizarre effects:

1. The more roasted the coffee bean, the less caffeine. The Starbucks customer drinks many more cups of that expensive brew in order to experience the same efficaciousness a proper cup provides.

2. The Starbucks customer often adds quite a bit of sugar in order to choke down the burnt flavor, or else orders one of those over-priced sugary beverages with the ridiculous names.

3. Real coffee drinkers refer to the company and its concoctions as Char-bucks, Star-yucks, or Star-burnts.

I remember the old slogan for Melitta Gold coffee in Germany, 'It's especially mild.' And the Germans *love* strong coffee.

How right you are. And how great grandmothers are.

My boss just read the entry, and liked it, but defended himself by saying that that Green Mountain Coffee is really too weak for the size of our coffeepots.

Love your story.
If memory serves me right, it was at my grandma's that I had me first cup of . It wasn't all that strong for us kids, there was lots of milk and sugar in it.
I've often wondered about the 'bitter (strong) = good coffee' equation. I first experienced this at my parents in law. Hard to swallow, their brew. Whenever we can, we politely decline my m-i-l's offer of a