{"id":172,"date":"2015-02-18T23:50:53","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T23:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/?p=172"},"modified":"2015-04-16T15:19:27","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T15:19:27","slug":"american-coffee-an-english-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/?p=172","title":{"rendered":"American Coffee: An English Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visiting student from the University of Birmingham, England<\/em><\/p>\n

Being English I am of course more inclined to choose tea over coffee but when I learned that I was moving to the land of the free for a year I thought that I better get used to starting my mornings with a cup of joe instead.<\/p>\n

I am from a small town called Chester and every street has an independently owned coffee house that is undeniably overpriced but each one has more quirks than the last. We even have our own Central Perk \u2013 Joey and Co. — eat your heart out. So what\u2019s the main difference between our coffee houses and those in America? Starbucks.<\/p>\n

Starbucks, Starbucks, Starbucks, with the odd Dunkin\u2019 Donuts thrown in. In all fairness though some of the Starbucks do have their novelties. Let\u2019s start with our very own homegrown branch right here at The Boilerhouse. Not only (in my opinion) do they make the best vanilla latte I\u2019ve had since I\u2019ve been stateside, but the guy in charge regularly shouts \u201cHarry Potter family!\u201d whenever I or one of my fellow Brits walks in. (Seriously though Daniel Radcliffe was born over 200 miles away from me\u2026get it right.) Anyway despite being accused of witchcraft whenever I fancy a hot beverage before class I like the bit of cheeky banter; Starbucks at home begrudge you a cup holder and a packet of sweetener.<\/p>\n

I grabbed a coffee in Chicago on Monday at the Starbucks (if you\u2019d believe it) on West Washington when all hell broke loose. I ordered my usual, re-ordered it twice when the barista had no idea what I was saying, and waited at the end for my order. I heard my name being called out and ran to my cup like a caffeine-addicted puppy when I saw it. McKayla. They had written McKayla on my cup like I was a new variety of English muffin on the McDonald\u2019s breakfast menu. Now Starbucks in the US is cheaper than at home so you can\u2019t moan at that but at least there is no one makes you sound like something you eat on the commute. Thank god the latte was good or it would have tipped me right over the edge.<\/p>\n

Another main difference between coffee shops in the US and England is the frequency with which they are used. At home I\u2019d meet my friends for a coffee because we hadn\u2019t saved enough money from our wages to do something more exciting so it becomes the social event of the month during tough times. From my caffeine based adventures in Illinois I\u2019ve noticed that you\u2019ll see the same faces everyday holding the same cup-don\u2019t you guys own kettles? I do. Seriously it was $17 at Target and it\u2019ll save you a fortune. Plus then you can make it to your own liking because a few of the cups I\u2019ve had here have been so strong I\u2019ve been shaking like a leaf for hours. Maybe you guys should try being the land of the caffeine-free for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visiting student from the University of Birmingham, England Being English I am of course more inclined to choose tea over coffee but when I learned that I was moving to the land of the free for a year I thought that I better get used to starting my mornings with a cup of joe instead. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}