Finally, A Real Cup of Coffee!

I can't believe I'm blogging about a Starbucks.  Say what you will about cookie-cutter corporate stores and alleged employee abuse (prompting such sites as www.ihatestarbucks.com), at least they sell an honest-to-gawd cup of Joe.

This my friends is a real brewed cup of coffee.  In Europe they call it "Filter Coffee."  In two years of living here, this is the first time I have found a real brewed cup of coffee.  Every other coffee shop in Ireland sells something called an "Americano."  That's basically a watered down shot of espresso.  They just don't do brewed coffee here.  Nobody serves it.  Seriously.

Coming from California, I guess I'm jaded.  I'm used to buying Jamaican Blue Mountain and real Hawaiian Kona.  What's the point?  Why should anyone care?  Because brewed coffee has flavor.  Espresso beans are roasted to death.  It's like they were grown at a mountain-top leper colony and the factory was trying to burn the contagion away.  In contrast the brewed coffee beans are gently toasted so as to release the flavor locked inside the bean.  Mmm, flavor.

The upshot is that roasted (a.k.a. "Filter coffee") doesn't taste like tea made from charcoal.  Whether you love or hate Starbucks, I have to thank them for being brave enough to do what no other Dublin coffee shop will do:  Serve a real cup of Joe.  Someone please tell Europe that Americans don't drink Americanos.  Ok, rant over.