FAIL of the Week: Caffè Nero | Comments (3)
Posted in Life, humour on 2nd August 2008, 8:28 am by Stuart
So this week I’m nominating Caffè Nero for a cup of coffee so utterly failsome I don’t think someone with a kettle and frieze-dried coffee could do worse. What’s even more annoying is that this kiosk has a La Marzocco machine. La Marzocco are widely held to be one of the most competent coffee machine manufacturers in the world, so much so in fact it’s La Marzocco’s machines that are used for the World Barista Championships.
So why was it so bad? Well in this case the coffee tasted foul because the machine’s not being cleaned properly. Coffee oils go rancid very quickly which means you’ve got carry out regular cleaning routines and keep the machine in top working order.
It’s interesting that in this country we seem to be able to put up with bad coffee on a daily basis. From my experience I’ve got the point where I really appreciate good coffee. Now whilst I consider myself to be no more than an amateur home barista, to me majority of shots I brew taste better to me that the usual Nero or Starbucks. The differentiator for me is that if I brew a shot that’s crap I’ll discard it and start over. From watching baristas at work in chains they really just don’t have the knowledge and understanding to be able to make good coffee which is obvious when you watch the espresso piss out of the portafilter at a rate of knots.
What’s missing from the coffee chains is the passion. Just like anything, be it web-sites or coffee, to stand any chance of being good at something you’ve got to at least be interested in what you’re doing. It’s only in cafes like “Flat White”, “Fernandez and Wells” in soho and “Monmouth” in Seven Dials that you can really find coffee made with passion. These people care that the coffee that you consume is made from great beans and that it’s brewed to perfection by people that understand the chemistry behind the brewing process.
Coffee is an art form, from the grind to the tamp to the temperature of the water and consistency of the milk, each and every parameter has an effect on the result. Just like web developers; the very best developers I know have passion in spades, and they understand how to balance all of the aspects of web development to produce the perfect result.
Ha, that was late. I quit drinking Nero coffee about 4 years ago as it was worse than piss. It was such a failure that I had one sip and had to chuck it, which is such a rarity but I was pretty annoyed by it all that I vowed never to drink from Starfucks or Nero again. Thankfully Costas actually do a decent cup (go for the straight americano or in the summer the espreso Frescato) and of course trying the smaller coffee shops is always a good thing overall.
Caffe Nero are pretty good at receiving feedback so if you let their head office know which branch, something will be sorted out.
I’m not keen on Costa - the taste is really harsh.
Great rant. I live in Harrisburg, PA and there isn’t a single coffee shop that knows how to pull a decent shot reliably. It’s always hit or miss. A least going to Starbucks with their fully automatic toys, you can at least expect consistency.
At our office we have a huge 10-12 cup drip coffee maker and they usually buy massive tubs of Folgers. It’s just awful. If you look at the grounds, you can be certain it’s mostly sticks and the occasional insect. Myself and another coffee-appreciating associate brought in a little 2 cup coffee maker and bought a cheap burr grinder. It’s obviously not as good as a badass Americano, but it beats paying $5 for piss any day.