Winner!!! 35th Serious Compacts Challenge - I Love Coffee, I Love Tea!

My cup doesn't go out of focus until after I drink it. Irish coffee anyone?
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Coffee is one of my favourite gustatory delights. Can you smell the aroma??
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The glass cup filling the frame with promise of what is to come. The clouds of taste hovering under the creamy looking top. The drip from the machine. Separation from the background again concentrating on the beverage itself. I get a sense of the taste to the back of my mouth as well as aroma.
 
Absolutely, hot chocolate or whatever beverage of choice will do. Love those soft out of focus coloured bokeh. Really separates the main subject from the background to concentrate on the savouring of the sweet thick liquid. The size of the cup against the hand is an accurate estimation of just how much is being consumed there by that beautiful brown eyed child. The far away dreamy expression of concentration on the task in hand. That is a really, really very nice shot.


Thanks. This was one of my favorites.
 
I can't drink coffee first thing, for me it's got to be tea! This is one of the bug bears of travel, very few countries know how to make a decent cup of tea :( The sign of a good hotel is having The Knowledge..... :D I like my coffee later in the morning and will probably only have just the one good cup to savour :)
 
I can't drink coffee first thing, for me it's got to be tea! This is one of the bug bears of travel, very few countries know how to make a decent cup of tea :( The sign of a good hotel is having The Knowledge..... :D I like my coffee later in the morning and will probably only have just the one good cup to savour :)
Couldn't agree more. I can't function without my pint of tea at breakfast. Being forced to drink coffee with breakfast is one of the worst things about travel.
 
I can't drink coffee first thing, for me it's got to be tea! This is one of the bug bears of travel, very few countries know how to make a decent cup of tea :( The sign of a good hotel is having The Knowledge..... :D I like my coffee later in the morning and will probably only have just the one good cup to savour :)

I agree. My heart sinks to my boots when you ask for tea and you are served with an empty cup, a yellow label tea bag and a jug of just about warm water. That's not tea. That is an abomination! Lipton must be coining it in. Most hotels I have been to have it.
 
Couldn't agree more. I can't function without my pint of tea at breakfast. Being forced to drink coffee with breakfast is one of the worst things about travel.

Pardon the expression but; I swing both ways. I am happy with tea or coffee for breakfast. For tea though, I have to have something sweet after anything greasy or it makes me feel very nauseous.
 
My cup doesn't go out of focus until after I drink it. Irish coffee anyone?
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Now, this is an interesting take on the theme. You don't see this so often now in restaurants here in the UK . Liquor coffee! I think it went the way of prawn cocktail, steak and chips with black forest gateau to finish as a night out of; "ahem" sophisticated dining (In the UK at least) Drinking a sweet & flavoured hot coffee through the cold cream on top had a feel of luxury to it that I have forgotten about. It always finished off the meal
 
I deliberately captured this one out of focus to capture the feeling of sleepiness and half-squinty eyes that some feel before they've had their first jolt of the day.

View attachment 125044the first cup of coffee by Luke, on Flickr

Imaginative idea. Been there on a few occasions, mainly to do with the morning after the night before feeling. A hot cup of Joe being placed on the bedside cabinet by a sympathetic and sober wife. The aroma (of the Joe, not the wife) drifting across to the nostrils causing the reflex movement of the eyelids....1 after the other.....wondering if your stomach could take it before reaching out and taking the plunge....trying to sip it from the corner of your mouth with your head still flat out on the pillow; your headache daring it to move one centimetre. Then comes the comforting hit!
 
Sometimes, for me, the best moment is not the first sip...but the moment before that first sip when time seems to slow down and there is nothing but you and that small cup in front of you, with steam rising from it, and you can almost taste it...before you taste it. It's even better when prepared with love and skill by a barista at my local small-town Coffee refuge, and though they make a luscious latte and a compelling cappuccino, sometimes the minimalism of a macciato....makes my morning.

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Morning Macchiato by MiguelATF, on ipernity

I don't often order a macchiato. But when I do, I always enjoy it. The amount is just right when you don't fancy a heavy latte or cappuccino and an espresso is just too much on its own. The frothed steamed "stain" of milk moderates the taste of the espresso rather than overwhelming it, adding just a small touch of sweetness. Perfect!
 
Having said all that in praise of tea, this was a mighty fine cup of coffee... (emphasis on "was")
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_DSF4024-Edit-1.jpg by Martin Connolly, on Flickr

Ah! A "WOZZA" it wazza cup of coffee, but now it's gone. Looks like you licked the bowl clean.....but you missed the little bits on the spoon! What was it? Espresso? Macchiato? French Press? and what was on the plate next to the empty cup?
 
Ah! A "WOZZA" it wazza cup of coffee, but now it's gone. Looks like you licked the bowl clean.....but you missed the little bits on the spoon! What was it? Espresso? Macchiato? French Press? and what was on the plate next to the empty cup?
IIRC, it was a cappuccino with an extra shot. This was at the Granary cafe in Hay on Wye, and their cakes are, shall we say, eccentric. It was probably a coconut bakewell crumble tart or something equally bonkers.
 
IIRC, it was a cappuccino with an extra shot. This was at the Granary cafe in Hay on Wye, and their cakes are, shall we say, eccentric. It was probably a coconut bakewell crumble tart or something equally bonkers.
sounds right up my street. The thing is......I can never ever make up my mind what note to finish on. The coffee or the cake. Sometimes I finish off with both....the coffee to moisten the cake as it is swallowed!
 

Boars Head. A coffee chain? If so, I am not familiar with it. Coffee or tea to stay and a cup to go. Left by a previous customer? Contained a top up of milk for you? or hot water? Pray tell! OCD sugar collection! The upturned spoon over a holed napkin with a piece from one of the holes nearby. What's the story? I get the impression Boars Head is a dark place to be.
 
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