Airport Coffee.
In the UK, so much of our coffee offerings are by chains, especially in airports. On a very recent trip to see family and friends in Australia, the need to communicate (or maybe even vent!) the highs and lows of buying coffee, whilst traveling became apparent. My frustration wasn’t about what was charged. Many before and after me will talk about being charged $70 UAE for two, 8oz (V60) coffees served in a paper cup. I had been offered a choice of a Ugandan and an Ethiopian coffee. The Ethiopian was promised as fruity and a random jar of coffee was presented. I paid the £16 and looked forward to being woken up some 20 hours into our adventure. When the coffees arrived the Ethiopian was flat as a pancake and as fruity as a cardboard box. Not being one to put up a fuss, I took my cup of coffee back to the counter and questioned the fact that this was supposed to be fruity. The server looked down his nose and said it was fine. I mentioned the fact that I have spent the last 25 years in specialty coffee as a buyer and he replied that I must just like dark-roast coffees. I was taken aback at this point. I am sure this may cause a little amusement to anyone reading this, who knows our coffee. You will be happy to know that I left it there. Lesson learned. This could have been a great exercise in customer service and delicious filter coffee.
Sometime later in the trip, we visited both All Press and Toby’s Estate at airports. Although the nearest thing on order to a V60 or filter coffee was a Long Black, both coffees that we had were decent. I gave in and opted for milk by this stage.
