I disagree, but think this is a fish in water issue, tbh. The anglophone countries tend to drink tea, except for the US and Canada, so the English vocabulary for coffee things developed based on North American coffee consumption. In the US, coffee means drip coffee (not trying to start a coffee snob war, French press or pour over or whatever also works here), and espresso is a separate thing entirely.
When I was 19, I studied abroad in Germany and after a couple of weeks, I complained to my housemate that I couldn’t find just plain coffee out* anywhere. It was all either espresso based or seemed to be halfway between espresso and coffee- not very much volume, noticeable crema, and concentrated taste. She was confused and tried to explain that that was plain coffee.
It’s just done differently here, but because I already considered espresso “other,” I just thought they didn’t really have coffee. Filter coffee is the term for drip coffee here, and it’s more common now, but I suspect that’s at least partially because it’s cheaper and I encounter free bad coffee (not all drip coffee is bad, but those fifty cup urns that scorch it after twenty minutes are) more often now than I did when I was a student.
*full disclosure, based on grocery store space allocation, I think at home coffee making is about 50:50 American style coffee from beans (though they could also be used in Mokka pots) and espressoier pads. This is purely about stopping for coffee somewhere.
There is a reason Americano is literally just a watered down espresso. It has a better flavour than making equivalent strength drip, French press or percolated brew and doesn’t require any equipment other than the far superior espresso machine.
There is also a reason why those other three methods exist (I’ve used/enjoyed all 3 so not entirely shitting on them) and it is a similar reason to why instant exists.
I disagree, but think this is a fish in water issue, tbh. The anglophone countries tend to drink tea, except for the US and Canada, so the English vocabulary for coffee things developed based on North American coffee consumption. In the US, coffee means drip coffee (not trying to start a coffee snob war, French press or pour over or whatever also works here), and espresso is a separate thing entirely.
When I was 19, I studied abroad in Germany and after a couple of weeks, I complained to my housemate that I couldn’t find just plain coffee out* anywhere. It was all either espresso based or seemed to be halfway between espresso and coffee- not very much volume, noticeable crema, and concentrated taste. She was confused and tried to explain that that was plain coffee.
It’s just done differently here, but because I already considered espresso “other,” I just thought they didn’t really have coffee. Filter coffee is the term for drip coffee here, and it’s more common now, but I suspect that’s at least partially because it’s cheaper and I encounter free bad coffee (not all drip coffee is bad, but those fifty cup urns that scorch it after twenty minutes are) more often now than I did when I was a student.
*full disclosure, based on grocery store space allocation, I think at home coffee making is about 50:50 American style coffee from beans (though they could also be used in Mokka pots) and espressoier pads. This is purely about stopping for coffee somewhere.
There is a reason Americano is literally just a watered down espresso. It has a better flavour than making equivalent strength drip, French press or percolated brew and doesn’t require any equipment other than the far superior espresso machine.
There is also a reason why those other three methods exist (I’ve used/enjoyed all 3 so not entirely shitting on them) and it is a similar reason to why instant exists.