Which country produces the best beer?
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@jon-nyc said in Which country produces the best beer?:
You can get decent espresso all over the country now, that wasn't true 30 years ago.
Not to mention a decent cup of joe at most convenience stores. For a buck.
The one thing I do not understand is McDonalds coffee. It has been uniformly awful for 50 years and people still buy it.
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I agree about the beer. The microbrewery scene in the US is amazing.
I'm not so sure about the coffee, though. Drip coffee still often tastes like dishwater. Starbucks, the big American coffee success story, produces something with the consistency of polyurethane foam for $7.
The one American coffee invention I like is the invention of the Ladybug Bikini Espresso Drive Thru.
@Klaus said in Which country produces the best beer?:
I agree about the beer. The microbrewery scene in the US is amazing.
When I was in the US almost a decade ago, I remember being very impressed by some microbrewery beers. Good stuff! And I’m a Belgian fond and proud of our local beers
The coffee… not so much… What came out of the coffee machine at my former employer’s offices was something hard to describe… the taste of coffee was in there somewhere, but it was mostly hot water. And my American colleagues drank it throughout the day as if they were addicted to that stuff. The 2 double espresso’s I went to buy there each morning at a local coffee shop, was decent though.
The Starbucks shops here in Belgium have good coffee too, but I’ll never EVER order an Americano again!!
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Indeed.
One big change that occurred in my lifetime was a vast improvement in the coffee and beer landscape in the US.
Really all beverage and culinary categories. But those two stand out.
@jon-nyc said in Which country produces the best beer?:
Really all beverage and culinary categories.
(Nodding.) Before the advent on the scene of James Beard and Julia Child, USA was nowhere. The French were top dog.
Then everything changed. <G>
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@Klaus said in Which country produces the best beer?:
I agree about the beer. The microbrewery scene in the US is amazing.
When I was in the US almost a decade ago, I remember being very impressed by some microbrewery beers. Good stuff! And I’m a Belgian fond and proud of our local beers
The coffee… not so much… What came out of the coffee machine at my former employer’s offices was something hard to describe… the taste of coffee was in there somewhere, but it was mostly hot water. And my American colleagues drank it throughout the day as if they were addicted to that stuff. The 2 double espresso’s I went to buy there each morning at a local coffee shop, was decent though.
The Starbucks shops here in Belgium have good coffee too, but I’ll never EVER order an Americano again!!
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(Nodding.) Before the advent on the scene of James Beard and Julia Child, USA was nowhere. The French were top dog.
Then everything changed. <G>
I think a lot of the folks in New Orleans and South Louisiana may not agree with you.
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@Jolly
No . . . I meant that before James Beard and Julia Child, the USA had no standing globally. Those two put the USA on the map.Of course there were important regional influences before their advent, but those were more among Americans than throughout the world.