Dear LPG, 

I am typically British, I suppose when it comes to my preference for morning coffee and afternoon tea. I try not to have too much of either because we all know about the caffeine content. When I am at home, I use decaffeinated instant coffee because when I fancy a cup, I think that the time it takes for the kettle to boil, put the four principal ingredients into a cup and swivel a spoon around in it is the maximum time that my taste buds are happy to wait.

Though I am not entirely ignorant, I have seen all those films and adverts on television which feature all the many Italian names and different accepted ways that it is officially served these days. Still, when my friends visit, that is how it used to come when requested.

I have a couple of friends, and we regularly go out and discover what the shops offer now that we can congregate again. We always have a rest in the middle of our window-shopping sessions and, one day not so long ago, rather than choosing our regular little cafe, the nearest place we could find for a sit-down and a drink was the local branch of a well-known coffee house.   It was a bit cold, and we older ladies needed to have a bit of a sit-down rest. 

We all wanted a cup of coffee, but even though everyone knew there were a few modern ways to drink the stuff, we had no idea how many varieties there were. We each had something different and a taste of each other’s, which, I admit, did educate my taste buds.  

I invested in a barista-style coffee machine straight away, and the first few times they visited after that, my friends had to wait for their coffee and help with the preparation as we went through some of the recipes to make sure we got them right, and getting the milky hearts, flowers and other patterns on the top is still an impossibility. 

Ultimately, we decided that an instant decaf cup, when needed, is more satisfying when you come in from the cold.  

So now, when shopping, we try all the exciting variations in the coffee house. At the same time, when at home, we put the kettle on and go with the classic watery version that we know and love, but it is a shame to do all that internet research and not share it, so I hope LPG will add some of the internet lessons we learnt as a link at the bottom of this message.

I mentioned before the four principal ingredients that I use, and it is interesting to note that one of them does not appear in any of the recipes I found online. This will be good news for diabetic readers, but I need a bit of sugar and am still unsure when you should add it.   

I am still just a coffee philistine. 

MF, Lewisham

MF shares a few modern coffee making methods…

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