Comment by sgc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sgc | Hacker News Reader

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The darkest Italian roast has nothing at all to do with what goes as dark roast - and especially not Italian roast - in the US. The absolute darkest roast I ever saw in Italy was with just a hint of oil showing on the bean, and I only saw that once. They drink a medium roast most of the time, although there are light roasts readily available. I have seen documentaries with Italian roasters from Illy and on down to smaller boutique roasters, who come to the US and just rip into the roasters for their crappy burnt coffee. These are their customers / business partners, but they just have to be honest to them about what they are serving. Turkish coffee likewise is not a dark roast, but a medium roast - just brewed quite strong. I can't speak to the others.

I am a grumpy old man and chase hipsters off my lawn, but this point ain't from them.

You have to understand though that Italians are predisposed to rip into all non-Italian food whenever they get the chance, even if it's better than the native Italian version.

Americans just have different tastes/cultures regarding coffee in general. Many of us (including myself) prefer a dark roast, it's nostalgic, consistent, and goes good with a generous amount of milk. I don't care if it's "hiding the flavor of the bad coffee" or whatever, I just like it. I've had coffee all over the world but I grew up with shitty burnt gas station coffee and instant coffee (or even cowboy coffee) made in a tin can over a campfire, and that's just as legitimate a culture as whatever the Italians are doing with their fancy espresso machines.

turkish coffee is also not only coffee. it's a mix with other flavors. so it's some sort of art. with each family having it's own recipe.

That's wrong. Turkish coffee is a coffee making technique, where you dissolve very finely grounded coffee (finer than espresso) in a boiling water directly. There are no filters or puck or anything alike. You get a very strong cup of coffee, similar to espresso, but tastes quite very different. Some people prefer to put sugar (because it's strong) or other stuff to make it taste less strong. But that's the exception (I live in Turkey and know the customs very well)

Turkish coffee is in general just coffee and water. Some drinks it with a little sugar.

There are varieties with cardamon or mastic but they are very rare.

please post links...I want to see these documentaries. And completely reject the premise of the article.

They are documentaries I saw on RAI (Italian TV).

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