Good stuff: Aldo Coffee Company
Posted by Tom Moertel Tue, 31 Jan 2006 02:57:00 GMT
I love espresso. It’s my favorite way to enjoy coffee. Even so, I almost never order espresso in coffee shops because, here in the United States, very few coffee shops have mastered the exacting process by which espresso is made. Dr. Josuma John of the Josuma Coffee Company writes that “more than 95 percent of North American espresso is poorly made, and, in fact, undrinkable.” My experience with Pittsburgh-area coffee shops in the last decade provides no evidence to refute Dr. John’s claim.
If espresso in the United States is so bad, why do Americans drink enough of it to support a Starbucks on every street corner? The reason is that Americans drink espresso almost exclusively in the form of milk-based beverages: cappuccinos, lattes, and mochas. Milk and flavored syrups are the main attractions. Espresso serves only as a coffee-flavored backdrop in which bitterness, a characteristic of poorly made espresso, complements the abundant sweetness of milk laced with sugar syrups. American coffee-shop owners thus have little incentive to offer better espresso to their customers – bad espresso is good enough.
Because of this sad reality, I have developed through hard experience the following reliable guideline for ordering espresso at American coffee shops: Don’t. The one exception I make is for new coffee shops, at which I will try a double espresso, just to see what I get. Almost always, I get a bad espresso, bitter and watery.
And that is what I had expected back in April 2005, when I spotted the brand-new sign for Aldo Coffee Co. in my home town of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, located in Pittsburgh’s South Hills. I went in, dragging my wife along, and placed my order.
Then something unusual happened. The barista asked me, somewhat hopefully it seemed, if I drank espresso regularly. When I said yes, she seemed pleased. When she followed up by asking me if I read alt.coffee, I was stunned. When I observed that she was timing my shot, my brain actually shut down for a few seconds while it forcibly recalibrated itself to accommodate the seemingly impossible: that I was standing in a coffee shop in my home town, conversing with a barista about alt.coffee, and mere seconds away from receiving what was very likely to be good espresso.
Read more...Posted in good stuff, espresso, pittsburgh
Tags aldo, coffee, espresso, mtlebo
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