Coffee Shops In Chiang Mai

[Ulysses G.]

There is no way that Libernard is as expensive as Starbucks!

[cmsally]

Is it possible for anyone to be more expensive than Starbucks?

I had the worst cup of coffee ever in the Airport Plaza Starbucks. We could have chosen a million other places in there, but we're not picky. We happened to be just passing and we felt like coffee .

15 mins later I'm sipping lukewarm cappucino and wondering why I should be paying almost double for a Starbucks worlds most awful cappucino

I prefer Wawee or Black Canyon any day not to mention a million other smaller places that can serve up better than Starbucks.

[skylar]

Anyone been to any of the stores in the Black Canyon chain? My mother used to drag me there every time I went shopping with her. It was painful.

[Ulysses G.]

I prefer Wawee or Black Canyon any day not to mention a million other smaller places that can serve up better than Starbucks.

I always wonder if these coffee snobs have the slightest clue as to what they are going on about.

Almost anything will taste good with enough cream and sugar and this nectar of the Gods cr*p is a bunch of hooey.

Coffee is nothing but a cheap speed buzz!

[Bytes]

Start Quote:

I always wonder if these coffee snobs have the slightest clue as to what they are going on about.

Almost anything will taste good with enough cream and sugar and this nectar of the Gods cr*p is a bunch of hooey. Coffee is nothing but a cheap speed buzz!

End Quote:

Well Said:

[Steve2UK]

I prefer Wawee or Black Canyon any day not to mention a million other smaller places that can serve up better than Starbucks.

I always wonder if these coffee snobs have the slightest clue as to what they are going on about.

Almost anything will taste good with enough cream and sugar and this nectar of the Gods cr*p is a bunch of hooey.

Coffee is nothing but a cheap speed buzz!

Well, this coffee snob takes it black without sugar - so, yes, it does kind of matter to me what's in that hot water.............

[Puwa]

I also drink my coffee black, and unsweetened (except iced coffee, into which a dash of sugar goes). So the taste of the coffee does matter somewhat.

However, as with so many things in life, it is possible to take a taste for coffee too far, and convert a simple appreciation for quality into a neurotic obsession. It's not just that one cares about coffee too much, but that coffee (or anything) becomes an outlet for projecting a whole set of social, psychological, and emotional anxieties--do I know more than the next person? is my wealth and good breeding evident? am I too smart to be tricked? Recently I read that self-proclaimed audiophiles, when administered a listening test to rate speakers, actually had trouble distinguishing a $300 pair of speakers from a $3000 pair. Below about $300, the lack of quality was discernable to the ear; beyond that point it became purely subjective.

Likewise, I would say that there is an obvious quality spectrum across which practically anyone could identify better and worse tasting coffee. I mean, some coffee is just bad, plain and simple. And at the high end of the spectrum--beyond the quality equivalent of the $300 speakers--people who really want to discriminate will make fine distinctions, which may appear silly to the rest of us.

As we all know, deep observations on speakers and coffee were what prompted the Buddha to teach the Middle Way.

[Johpa]

I drink unadulterated black coffee too. I really don't care much for quality, I just want my caffeine fix in the AM when I wake up. Once in awhile I find a nice cup of coffee that stands out. Perhaps it is from someone who put in the cup just the right amount, solely by chance, of Nescafe. Or perhaps, soley by chance again, they put in just the right of amount of fresh ground coffee into the mix. I have had some very good cups of each type, but again soley by chance as most cups, whether instant of fresh ground, all fall into a undistinguished middle category.

The only truely noteworthy cup of coffee I have ever had in Thailand, or anywhere else in the world, was a cup from fresh beans that were grown in the village that I roasted myself. But even that may have been purely psychological, akin to how good your camp food always seems to taste after a day of hiking.

Discalimer: I have spent time in the military and time on a fishing boat and my standards may be lower than others who have never been in a situation where the only choice in coffee over an extended period of time was whether to drink it or toss it.

[Ulysses G.]

Honesty!

[p1p]

I prefer Wawee or Black Canyon any day not to mention a million other smaller places that can serve up better than Starbucks.

I always wonder if these coffee snobs have the slightest clue as to what they are going on about.

Almost anything will taste good with enough cream and sugar and this nectar of the Gods cr*p is a bunch of hooey.

Coffee is nothing but a cheap speed buzz!

I know you like to discount my experience in this field, but I hope you'll allow me this brief post in explanation.

There are a vast number of people out there, some have extrordinarily developed taste buds, others couldn't tell the difference between the main taste-bud flavours; salt, sweet, bitter, sour and umami - and have no sense of smell to discern the more aromatics, all of which combine to give appreciation of a drink or meal.

I have served people whose only point of reference has been whether it was hot or cold and attractively presented. As for flavours, I could have got away with chalk and soggy cardboard on the plate. Others have abilities to discern flavours I find difficult, if not impossible to find.

Coffee is one of the common drinks one finds almost everywhere. Good coffees can have an extraordinary depth of flavour and long aftertaste which is influenced by many factors, bean variety and depth of roast being but two of them. All are influenced by the microclimate and soil of the place the coffee was grown.

If we look at the depth of roast as just one factor. Mildly roasted coffee will have a nutty, acidic flavour. This acid and nut flavour will disappear as the depth of roast increases untill you reach an Espresso or a French roast, which will be both very oily and very bittersweet.

My personal favourite coffee combines a variety of different beans and a range of roasts for an extraordinarily complex and long-lasting flavour.

All coffee, however good the bean, can be ruined by being stored or brewed wrongly. Keep fresh beans too long and they will oxidise, losing all of the more volatile flavours and replacing them with unpleasant acids. Ground beans ocidise more quickly. You should therefore keep it in a vacuum pack or the deep freeze.

Make a pot of coffee and keep it for more than about ten minutes, the same thing occurs. Always try to make your coffee from freshly ground beans, use freshly boiled water and drink it as soon as it is ready. If I see a restaurant using these Cona style pour-over coffee makers, I go elsewhere for my "Caffeine Buzz"!

[Steve2UK]

I also drink my coffee black, and unsweetened (except iced coffee, into which a dash of sugar goes). So the taste of the coffee does matter somewhat.

However, as with so many things in life, it is possible to take a taste for coffee too far, and convert a simple appreciation for quality into a neurotic obsession. It's not just that one cares about coffee too much, but that coffee (or anything) becomes an outlet for projecting a whole set of social, psychological, and emotional anxieties--do I know more than the next person? is my wealth and good breeding evident? am I too smart to be tricked? Recently I read that self-proclaimed audiophiles, when administered a listening test to rate speakers, actually had trouble distinguishing a $300 pair of speakers from a $3000 pair. Below about $300, the lack of quality was discernable to the ear; beyond that point it became purely subjective.

Likewise, I would say that there is an obvious quality spectrum across which practically anyone could identify better and worse tasting coffee. I mean, some coffee is just bad, plain and simple. And at the high end of the spectrum--beyond the quality equivalent of the $300 speakers--people who really want to discriminate will make fine distinctions, which may appear silly to the rest of us.

As we all know, deep observations on speakers and coffee were what prompted the Buddha to teach the Middle Way.

Many a true word spoken in jest..............

A lot of years ago, a friend of mine asked me to take my amplifier & speakers to her place - so as to run my speakers and hers in different rooms for a party. I'd always thought my speakers were pretty OK while certainly not being really top end - as hers turned out to be. Setting up and switching between both pairs of speakers, I discovered that mine now sounded like they were buried in sawdust - by comparison. Never forgotten the lesson that that taught me - there's always something "better" and it can/will get under your skin - but only if you let it. I was still happy with my speakers when I got them back home.

Wandering back a bit closer to the original topic ( ).......... I've spent enough time on dive boats to really appreciate that welcome plastic mug of Nescaff dosed with plenty of "whitener" and sugar - fantastic! I just haven't found a really good scuba-minded coffee shop in Chiang Mai yet.........