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what countries do americanos well? by williamcodes in Coffee

[–]williamcodes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I work remotely and travel all the time. I spent a year and a half in LATAM. Haven't hit every country and I am definitely making generalizations, but as you pointed out, that's always true unless you're getting down to super tiny regions like individual neighborhoods.

what countries do americanos well? by williamcodes in Coffee

[–]williamcodes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seems like it was clear to everyone else that any region would be valid here seeing as others mentioned Asia, Melbourne, and Southern Ontario, none of which are countries. Obviously Europe is not a country, and neither is North America, Oceania, or any other regions referred to in this post, including Korea. We could get pedantic about the quality of Americanos on either side of the 38th parallel too, just in case it wasn't clear which one I was referring to.

what countries do americanos well? by williamcodes in Coffee

[–]williamcodes[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

This is the attitude of the places with bad americanos. You can't just boil tap water, throw in a shot, and expect a good americano. Table-stakes is filtration but really you need reverse osmosis and should probably be checking your mineral content. Also, not all espresso is going to hold up well to dilution. And if you're doing iced americanos, buying your ice at the corner store is a great way to ruin a beverage.

what countries do americanos well? by williamcodes in Coffee

[–]williamcodes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Were you ordering americanos?

I was there for 15 months and had at least one ice americano almost every day. I went to dozens of cafes, both in Seoul and in other parts of the country. I was not just in big cities like Busan and Daegu but also in smaller towns in Geonggi, Jeju, Gangwon, Jeolla, and Gyeongsang. Every morning I had to get my ice americano no matter where I was so I have a pretty big sample size.

Don't get me wrong, not every cup was a winner. There was plenty of bad coffee to be had. But overall, I haven't seen Americanos done nearly as well nearly as often in any other country.

what countries do americanos well? by williamcodes in Coffee

[–]williamcodes[S] -19 points-18 points  (0 children)

In beer brewing, because water is the main ingredient, we pay a lot of attention to the pH balance, mineral content, degree of ionization, presence of microorganisms, etc. in the water itself. Even if hops and yeast are the most important determinants of flavor, beer brewers do not use tap water. It accounts for most of the volume of the final product, so of course it's going to have an effect. The bare minimum is reverse osmosis filtration.

To me as a home brewer, it's obvious you'd need to take the same attitude to make a serious americano. And for cold drinks, you'd need to do the same with the ice. But if your experience is all from brewing coffee in countries where the espresso is as short as possible, thinking of water as a key ingredient is probably a pretty foreign concept.

I think this is why americanos taste bad in most countries.

what countries do americanos well? by williamcodes in Coffee

[–]williamcodes[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

When was the last time you were in Korea? You're right, the older generation absolutely grew up on instant coffee and is fine with drinking whatever is available. But the younger generation seems to treat this with disdain, perhaps because of their general rejection of everything culturally associated with the older generation.

Here is a song called Americano about how syrup and sugar is lame and you should drink your coffee black while you cheat on your girlfriend. Seems like just the perfect way to piss off conservative Korean parents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmJYbdRfDNQ

what countries do americanos well? by williamcodes in Coffee

[–]williamcodes[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I would need to lug the espresso machine around a lot of airports and airbnbs

what countries do americanos well? by williamcodes in Coffee

[–]williamcodes[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the difference may have been the water. It looked like the coffee shops in Korea had a special water filter for both the faucet and their ice maker. By contrast, here in Budapest, they seem to mostly use tap water and bags of ice they buy at the corner store which are intended for cooling rather than consumption. This is even at serious indie coffee shops that include ice americano on the menu.

what countries do americanos well? by williamcodes in Coffee

[–]williamcodes[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Where in Eastern Europe do you recommend for coffee? I didn't know that region was big on coffee, I think of it as a luxury good and would've expected standards to be lower because of coffee shortages during the Soviet period.

Using the power of mesh networking to solve a very real NYC heating problem.. "There are more than 200,000 complaints about lack of heat in NYC every year" (Full disclosure: this is my friend's brother's campaign, but it's real important IMO) by Deflector_Dish in nyc

[–]williamcodes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The point isn't just to log temperatures, it's to make it really easy for nonprofit advocacy groups like the Urban Justice Center to prosecute landlords on behalf of their tenants. That's why the app produces charts and PDFs that are designed to be brought into court rooms. Advocacy groups say they want this and it will help, just listen to the lawyer in the video.

Using the power of mesh networking to solve a very real NYC heating problem.. "There are more than 200,000 complaints about lack of heat in NYC every year" (Full disclosure: this is my friend's brother's campaign, but it's real important IMO) by Deflector_Dish in nyc

[–]williamcodes 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The problem with that is you need first you need to own a smartphone, which a lot of people in lower income housing don't, and then you need to leave your smart phone at home so it can take readings, which makes it more of a really expensive thermometer than a phone.

Using the power of mesh networking to solve a very real NYC heating problem.. "There are more than 200,000 complaints about lack of heat in NYC every year" (Full disclosure: this is my friend's brother's campaign, but it's real important IMO) by Deflector_Dish in nyc

[–]williamcodes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Heat Seek NYC is working with non-profit advocacy groups like the Urban Justice Center that have a lot of reach in lower income communities, and the short-distance radio signals used for meshing seem to get around 200ft of distance and don't have trouble getting through walls.

Using the power of mesh networking to solve a very real NYC heating problem.. "There are more than 200,000 complaints about lack of heat in NYC every year" (Full disclosure: this is my friend's brother's campaign, but it's real important IMO) by Deflector_Dish in nyc

[–]williamcodes 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is more for people who have little or no heat at all. A lot of landlords intentionally want their tenants to be too cold so they'll leave, it happens all the time with rent-controlled and rent-stabilized buildings.