Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Is Coffee Brewed In Japan?
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Mr. Oshawott
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Well...I've never been to Starbucks or any other coffee shop near my vicinity, so...no, never saw anyone drinking either (photos on social media being the exception). |
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s0nicfreak
![]() Posts: 21 Location: near Chicago |
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Interesting. Even if I don't go to a coffee shop, I see people walking down the street, riding the train etc. with coffee that has milk in it. If I go to a gas station that sells coffee, they have powdered milk, half-and-half, and creamer but never just cream. And every single convention I've been to has had a Starbucks inside the hotel or convention center, so people walk around conventions with coffee that has milk in it. I also see some people whose coffee could have cream in it and I wouldn't know, but I see coffee that clearly has milk in it way more often. |
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leafy sea dragon
![]() Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Before I say anything, I should mention that I am caffeine-sensitive, so I don't actually drink coffee. Never developed a liking for it, as a result. (I don't really like hot drinks anyway. I drink all my beverages ice-cold, even when it's ice-cold outside.) So my experience with coffee has mainly been via decaf, and the cold variants thereof. No one in my household drinks coffee, for that matter, so we actually don't have ANY appliances meant to make coffee.
What are the advantages of electric kettles over the traditional kinds you'd put on the stove? Is it a matter of space and portability?
Nope--I had done the hunt for hot water boilers for college myself. I was able to land a good deal, but they are on the pricey side in the United States. I don't know if it's due to its niche status (where the few people who'd buy them are desperate to have them) or if production of American ones are just more expensive, however. The reason behind their rarity in the United States is simply because, besides coffee, Americans don't boil water very often that isn't in a kettle or a saucepan. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and instant noodles are made for single servings and the hot water would be poured out of a kettle. We strictly buy our milk fresh in liquid form. And OTC medicines here are predominantly syrups or capsules. As for why Americans would have a device solely to make coffee, well, they do ask similar things about Asians and their rice cookers--non-Asian American households typically do not consume enough rice to justify a rice cooker, and any rice they make is boiled in a covered saucepan.
Yikes, that's how much an electric fan costs there? No wonder you always see people in Japan depicted as using the regular paper or plastic fans.
The other thing is that cream is denser. You can put a lower quantity of it into coffee to achieve the same effect as you would milk. Milk IS a popular thing to put into coffee, however, and no sane American will consider you strange for adding milk into coffee. But yeah, pure cream is actually quite rare to put into coffee, with half-and-half being much more common. But non-dairy creamer is definitely something that's really popular. I would suspect the reason why is because of the relatively high number of people whose religions prohibit consuming both meat and dairy in the same meal. If they're eating bacon and hash browns for breakfast, they can't have milk or cream in their coffee. Also because of the large amount of lactose-intolerant people. And also because some kinds of non-dairy creamer don't need to be refrigerated. |
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Alan45
![]() ![]() Posts: 9884 Location: Virginia |
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@leafy sea dragon
Nah, non dairy creamer is popular because it is cheap and doesn't spoil as fast as milk. As a result it can be left sitting out where people have a communal coffee pot. I doubt it tastes as good, but against the strength of the coffee flavor it may be hard to notice. Among the people I know, real cream in coffee has been a luxury ever since homogenized milk became a thing. They still call it coffee with cream since that is what they always did but, as people have mentioned it is usually with milk, half & half or non dairy creamer. I wouldn't be surprised though to find that in areas where the dairy industry is close, people still do use cream. |
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leafy sea dragon
![]() Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I see. For the record, non-dairy creamer is used at my workplace because there are a number of people whose religious beliefs do not allow them to drink coffee with dairy from cows for various reasons (it runs out REAL fast), so that's where I got the idea. So there was a time that cream was cheaper than milk? (I know that's the idea behind city chicken, that chicken was once more expensive than pork or beef.) |
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DerekL1963
![]() ![]() Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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It's not that cream is/was cheaper than milk - it's that separation and homogenization didn't use to be as efficient (and ubiquitous) as it today. (Plus, back then whole milk actually meant whole milk - cream and all.) So when you bought milk, cream was invariably included. If you let it stand a few hours, a layer of cream would rise to the top and could be poured off. Non dairy creamer didn't even become widely available until the 1960's. |
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Alan45
![]() ![]() Posts: 9884 Location: Virginia |
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@leafy sea dragon
DerekL1963 is correct. Back in the early 1950s my family lived in New Jersey across the road from a dairy farm. We got our milk direct from the cow. ![]() We drank milk with all three meals, soft drinks were very seldom and considered a real treat. Coffee was for adults, my mother didn't think caffeine was appropriate for children. |
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nargun
Posts: 926 |
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They're more convenient -- most people leave them part-filled with water, so all you need to do is press the button -- and they're actually faster than the stove top, because 2.4kW. |
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Zin5ki
![]() Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Precisely! The broadest ring on a gas hob would struggle to offer a rate of heat transfer offered by a typical electrical kettle. Should one only have an electric hob instead, the comparison is even more pronounced. (According to a documentary at which I once glanced, our national power grid incurs a pronounced spike in demand after the airing of a popular soap opera, simply due to its many viewers simultaneously and habitually running their kettles.) |
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Alan45
![]() ![]() Posts: 9884 Location: Virginia |
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If I need hot water for tea, noodles or coca, I just put the required amount in a glass container and pop it into the microwave. That happens once or twice a week, at most. Certainly not often enough to warrant keeping a dedicated kettle partially full of water.
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Nilrem
![]() Posts: 144 |
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Or 3kw for fast boil;) If you time it right you can pop the kettle on at the start of an advert break, go to the loo whilst it's boiling and make it back to the TV for the end of the break with a cuppa. They're also safer as they shut off automatically once boiled, so no chance of leaving it running long enough to boil dry and cause serious damage. I don't think I've been in many houses in the UK that didn't have an electric kettle, kettles on the hob tend to be something you see if the owner is really old fashioned, "hip" with an aga type stove, or there is a power cut and you've resorted to camping supplies. I think most of the electric kettles boil in about 3 minutes if full (usually 1.7-2L about 3 pints) or under a minute if they only have a cup or two of water in them. |
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leafy sea dragon
![]() Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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(alongside)
Huh, interesting. I actually didn't know at all about the mixing the cream back into the milk. I guess it was before my time.
I see. I noticed mine was pretty quick...then it went missing, possibly stolen. When I tried looking for another electric water boiler, I could only find them beginning at US$70, with most of them being in the range of US$100 to US$150. I that about how much they are in the UK? |
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zarzam
Posts: 19 |
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This is the way it used to be done in Brazil since coffee farming started, but with washable cotton filters (looks like a sock on a wire loop). Even now drip machines are not all that common. |
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zarzam
Posts: 19 |
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UK outlets have a crazy amperage rating (and they are 220v), so the appliances can be really high-power. You'd need a special plug to run a typical UK electric kettle at full power in the US. |
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DerekL1963
![]() ![]() Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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The only difference between US and UK kettles is the time it takes to reach a boil, both will boil quite handily. |
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