I don't normally have a problem with espresso, the only problem being that there is n't enough of it in the thimble full that they serve you,a s if its some kind of liquid gold - even a double is no more than the smallest cup.



An "americano" made from one espresso and diluted by seven or eight more parts of water just below the level of steam is a travesty and more often than not undrinkable.



I have not yet had a bad cup of coffee in Spain or Portugal and I've never partaken of one inside a chain shop in those countries, on the other hand I made the mistake of trying a Greek coffee in Corfu expecting it to be full bodied and to my taste - wrong - fook knows what they make coffee out of and I don't want to know because I'll never have another, the first was weak down to the bottom but full of sludge in the bottom, my mistake was in thinking that it hadn't been stirred properly, so I stirred the next one and chewed a cup of horrible bitter sludge that tasted not of coffee but not of anything I'd ever tasted before either, horrible stuff.

My late mother-in-law used to buy Lyons Viennese Coffee, that had figs (or fig essence?) in it.

It used to come in a white tin with pink and/or blue lettering it.



So, I reckon that Viennese coffee might be the fig-flavoured coffee we are talking about in this thread.

From a supermarket? Could've been pig essence. Just sayin...

i'd be more concerned about the children used to build apple products in china.

We've a coffee shop near where I live (for those of you in the Shorpe area, 'Coffee at 43' in Ashby - if Starbucks, Costa and Nero can get adverts on here.....) which makes the best coffee I've ever made. I'm an unashamed espresso junkie, and this tastes just like the coffee I've drunk in Italy. Strong, bitter but not burnt, served at a drinkable temperature and NOT in the smallest possible quantities - their single is around the size of a Costa double. Sorry, 'douple'. It's served with a glass of water to refresh the palette in case you find it too strong, and it's priced at 50p less than a drink in the local Costa.



So why is the place always empty? Because it's not got a brand over the door, and therefore isn't cool.



I bet they pay their taxes though.

Simple.



Don't go and buy coffee there. Their franchise will fall and a smaller group or even local shops will replace them and pay their taxes, removing the corporate tax dodging scum.



In this scenario, the public really do have all the power, not the corporation. They don't have the public by the balls, we have theirs.



Fuçk em and let them sink. The employees will get new jobs in the coffee void created. Boycott them. Ain't hard.