Back in America, land of ice. I ask my Europhile countrymen, not the slightly Europhilic but the sort who believe Europe can do no wrong, to consider that continent's complete lack of beverages with ice. Even an iced latte macchiato in Munich - tasty as it was - had at most a sliver of a cube. Europe has its benefits - (the better aspects of) socialism, the refusal to over-pasteurize cheese, the willingness of good-looking men to wear narrow-cut clothes - but the ice thing is kind of a problem.
I will now enter head-first into the frightening but familiar world of Duane Reade, Bobst, and apartment-hunting.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Ice
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8 comments:
There is now a Duane Reade in the Bobst sub-basement. Also an apartment-location service. One-stop shopping, at your service.
None of this would surprise me.
you're back -- hurrah! we have to get together before, you know, I leave... :(
I like not having so much ice. Seems like most vendors in America use it to cheap out on giving you a full cup of the actual beverage they're supposed to be selling you. My liking for a bartender is in inverse relationship to the amount of ice he puts in my drink, and the same goes for fast-food personnel and others tasked with giving me a beverage.
PG,
There are times when ice means being short-changed, but for that you can ask for less or no ice. Whereas in a land of no ice, it's tougher to get whatever amount you do want. (Plus, a watered-down gin-and-tonic is one thing, but there's nothing worse on a hot day than an iced tea or coffee that's already going warm, with just a couple cubes almost melted entirely.
My grandfather was appalled by the amount of ice in beverages in the US, in part because they were too cold, but in part because he did indeed see it as a way to cheat one out of all the rightful beverage one had paid for. I was never allowed to get ice in my beverage when I went out for a drink with them, consequently an iced beverage always seemed like a treat.
China is particularly egregious in the lukewarm "iced coffee" front, where iced coffee seems to mean: coffee poured over two ice cubes. The result is watery, warmish coffee. Real iced coffee is cold brewed, and should be cool even without ice cubes.
My grandfather was appalled by the amount of ice in beverages in the US, in part because they were too cold
My mother and grandmother have never adjusted to this, and always ask for beverages without ice. Sometimes they'll even send back water if it comes with ice -- it's uncomfortably cold in their mouths.
Real iced coffee is cold brewed, and should be cool even without ice cubes.
Yes, exactly.
I like cold-brewed iced coffee, but even that, if you take it outside for one moment on a hot day, becomes lukewarm - thus the need for ice. And for whatever reason, coffee is good very warm and very cold, but anywhere in between is, as far as I'm concerned, undrinkable. Of course, what these comments show is that how cold a drink needs to be to be 'cold' varies culturally.
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