When it comes to drinking a cappuccino, espresso, or any drink made from coffee I am very enthusiastic and opinionated. It seems that every fast food joint including McDonald’s has jumped on the coffee drinking bandwagon. And why not? Coffee is a big part of American culture. People used to think it was just the Europeans that were coffee snobs. I would tend to disagree now. I mean you can buy a decent cuppa coffee in America for less than two bucks and the same drink will probably cost you more than five dollars in most European countries.

I think drinking a cappuccino is romantic and fantastic. But it must be made right. Let me pick on Starbucks. The last time that he ordered a cappuccino at Starbucks it seemed that it was just all foam and very little espresso. And to make matters worse the espresso was burned and extremely bitter. It seemed to me that everybody that ordered a cappuccino drink at Starbucks had to dump about a half a container sugar to the drink just to make it drinkable.

I guess have to pick on the small mom-and-pop too. Many of the small coffee shops tend to have very stale coffee. Does it seem like I’m really picky about my coffee? Yes sir! The best cappuccino that I’ve ever had was from a small coffee cart located at the Embarcadero in San Francisco. The company is called Blue Bottle Coffee. The coffee was just amazing. It was freshly roasted and mind you not over roasted. Let me tell you again, it was not burned. It was the perfect balance of  milk, foam, and coffee. Blue Bottle Coffee is really coffee nirvana.

I must admit that I am a coffee addict but not a cappuccino addict. The reason being it is extremely complicated to make a good cappuccino at home. One needs an extremely reliable espresso machine that also has the ability to properly steamed milk. I think it would probably take more than 15 minutes to properly prepare a decent cappuccino at home. Let’s be honest, how many of us have that much time at home in the morning to make a decent cup of cappuccino? Not me!

I wish I enjoyed espresso as much as I do a cappuccino. It’s just not the same. To me a cappuccino is meant to be savored with a sweet scone and a nice book. Espresso on the other hand is meant to be slammed.

My alternative to my cappuccino addiction is to enjoy a nice cup of French pressed coffee.