On my recent trip to Mumbai, I had lots of great coffee. But on the menus of cafes I saw items that can only be described as crimes against coffee.
To kick off this thread, I offer up this abomination: Coffee Cosmopolitan.
Are Dirty Chais (for reference, masala chai with milk and a shot of espresso) popular in India?
I admit, I like them.
I also like their cousin, Dirty Horchatas.
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I do like boozy coffees with whipped cream, too, âŚ
but that Coffee Cosmo.
I would try the Coffee Cosmo if it was free, but Iâm not willing to pay for that! LOL.
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re: Tiramisu Bliss and Tiramisu Lattes more generally,
Non-Alcoholic Tiramisu Lattes are available in London, Ontario. Again, I would try one if it was free. Maybe Iâll even take one for the team and buy a Tiramisu Latte some day.
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I think Starbucks pioneered and has cornered the market on that genre already.
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Iâm shaking my head at the Coffee Cosmo.
But the others sound very goodâI love a good Irish coffee or Baileys coffee.
@ipsedixit I agree with you in general about Starbucks. 98% of the menu seems geared toward non-coffee drinkers. I do enjoy their Caffe Verona beans though, and thatâs my default coffee at home.
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Coffee Cosmo is dessert cocktail you see from time to time in bars and restaurants. Tried it once it is actually not bad - as always with cocktails it comes down to the ratios and cranberry works well with coffee if it is used in smaller amounts
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I nearly ordered a coffee sangria yesterday from our local Expensive Sandwich Joint:
Fresh-brewed coffee infused with fresh apples, oranges, apple cider, cinnamon, pomegranate juice, and maple syrup. Chilled and served over ice with a cinnamon stick and orange garnish.
I will say, as much as the sangria and the coffee cosmo (give me pause, I like coffee with lemonade well enoughâI think it was La Colombe that did canned coffee âshandiesâ a couple years ago?âand I love espresso and tonic, and this is sort of in the same ballpark. And Iâve loved coffee with orange ever since Sealtestâs Cubic Scoops ice cream, with coffee ice cream and orange sherbet.
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I should also confess that I love Starbucksâ apple coffee. I rarely get super sweet coffeesâand even this one I order as a flat white with four shots and half the default amount of syrupâbut there have been a handful of Starbucks offerings that really get me, and the two big ones are the apple and the juniper (which they never brought back). I canât defend it, Iâm just confessing it so that no one listens to my recommendations.
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I havenât seen tea and coffee mixed in India, but it is available in Vietnam.
Iâm not sure I would be into it.
Tiramisu type coffee drinks I can understand as coffee is an integral part of the tiramisu flavour profile. But the Cosmo sounds just awful - I wouldnât try it even if someone offered it for free.
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Totally agree. My family still tease me about an epic meltdown I had at a Starbucks when I ordered a flat white and got served some milky slop in a gigantic mug. The lone âbaristaâ offered to make it for me again if I wasnât happy with it and I said something to the effect of no, not if youâre going to be making it as you clearly know nothing about coffee.
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I do like Starbucks espresso (and by extension their Americanos).
Everything else? A travesty.
(Well, ok, their restrooms are pretty good too. Generally.)
I think itâs more about adding espresso to the milk and spices, than the flavour of the coffee and tea being mixed for most Canadian dirty chai afficionados. Maybe also the extra jolt of caffeine.
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The Starbucks lemon loaf and Cranberry Bliss Bars are pretty good.
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Milk, cream, sugar, syrup, spice - actually any add-in is a crime against good coffee. Of course, it actually has to be good coffee for there to be a crime against it. Starbucks is a travesty, so no holds barred on add-ins there. Same for Tim Hortons.
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Coffee + tea + milk is also a Hong Kong thing, obviously without the spices you see in chai.
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I find some of the Third Wave coffees so acidic that they need milk.
I donât know that I agree that milk or cream or sugar are necessarily crimes against good coffee.
I love Austrian coffee with milk, or Milchkaffee in Austria /Switzerland/Germany.
I love cappuccinos/flat whites /cortados /cortaditos.
I drink Turkish and Greek coffee with sugar, the way theyâre intended. I drink Vietnamese and Singaporean coffees sweet, too.
Espresso with sugar and a little lemon zest sometimes.
I donât typically enjoy black coffee.
I can tolerate espresso black without sugar but I enjoy it so much more with sugar added.
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I just think of it as a personal preference, since itâs a victimless âcrime.â
I agree with your general notion of this crime but there is very little coffee available that actually qualifies. Pretty much zero of the coffee ever served anywhere but a specialty cafe or the home of someone who is really into coffee. And at least at the cafe, theyâre going to make the crazy lattes with a more generic coffee and save the good stuff for pour overs. So I think this is a crime that never gets committed!
I had that convo with my bassist recently, who claimed that âpeople who add anything to coffee donât actually like coffee.â
I asked him if he ever added any sauce to his specialty bronze-cut pasta (he doesnât buy it, I do, but I was making a point), ruining the quality of that pasta. Or putting anything on really good bread â like butter, or cheese, or prosciutto.
Itâs so silly to turn a personal preference into a value judgement.
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Agreed 99.5% of the time. That 0.5% though⌠
⌠ice cubes in special wine or whiskey being my personal trigger. I wouldnât judge anyone for a splash of milk or spoon of sugar in coffee unless itâs really special coffee.
Ah, but a lot of whiskey drinkers and connoisseurs (myself included) will tell you that a lil bit of water / a rock really opens up the whiskey 
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