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

Petach

Hall of Famer
Location
UK, Essex
Name
Peter Tachauer
I Love Coffee, I Love Tea!

Coffee and tea making; a serious business for those who really enjoy it. The sound of tea being poured from a pot into a cup is one of the nicest sounds in the world. The coffee machine.....the shiny chrome, the complicated pipes and knobs, the sound of the milk frother and the bursts of angry steam filling the air.....the aromas. Independent coffee bars and tea houses.....a place to meet friends, to read or just to sit in the window and watch the world go by. The comfort of your own home or that of a friend or family member. Tea or coffee on the go, in your car or on the train or bus. Whatever!

Show me what you can do to make me feel the vibe, to catch the aroma....to hear the sound. If you don't drink tea or coffee just do what you can with your beverage of choice.

I am not a lover of coffee chains. I always support the independent where I can; especially where they make an effort against the homogenised taste from the chains.

The Challenge will run from Monday 24th April 2017 until Friday 12th May 2017

All the usual Challenge RULES will apply, including:

1. Either take pictures that match the nominated theme or select some from your portfolio. You must be the photographer that created the images in order to enter it.

2. Only one entry per salon, please. If you want to withdraw an entry and replace it with another, that is OK, but you must make it clear in the post containing your replacement pictures that this is what you've done. You can add or change the title and add to the edit line to let everyone know.

3. The decision of the curator at the end of the challenge is final - don't give him/her a hard time about it: this is just a friendly photo-challenge, after all!

4. The winner will assume the responsibility of curator for the next Salon Challenge, and as soon as possible post a message in a new thread in the SC Photo Challenges forum, with details of the new theme. Don't forget - that opening message must include a copy of these instructions, which also double as the rules.

5. The curator cannot enter his or her own salon

Looking forward to a lot of posts!
 
I shall begin with this one, not sure you can smell the aroma but I thought it was a pretty ritzy glass :) Taken at Cafe Husaren, Gothenburg.

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I shall begin with this one, not sure you can smell the aroma but I thought it was a pretty ritzy glass :) Taken at Cafe Husaren, Gothenburg.

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Just the sort of thing I am looking for. Great looking glass of Java....a glimpse of cake or pastry....the blur of the human hands. The story is there; but the beverage is the star! A great start to the challenge. Thank you.
 
I am a tea drinker but nothing is like a Turkish coffee:)

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But of course....how could I not have mentioned it before? I have been to Istanbul and loved the ceremony that goes with the making of the dark and thick liquid. Doesn't need coffee pods and filters and complicated machines. What it does need is the expertise of the human, perfectly timed judgement.......a decisive moment "a la Henri Cartier Bresson" Off the heat too soon or too late and it is ruined.
 
I have discovered that I can't have coffee the way its made in restaurants and coffee shops anymore. The flat white of my twenties (long black with milk) has disappeared into oblivion and has, instead, become a cappucino sans froth (if you're lucky). You cant get a drip coffee anywhere. Milk has tons of sugar in it and I detest the taste of it, so I have pure cream. Expensive, but worth every mouthful :)

Here's my morning coffee.

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I have discovered that I can't have coffee the way its made in restaurants and coffee shops anymore. The flat white of my twenties (long black with milk) has disappeared into oblivion and has, instead, become a cappucino sans froth (if you're lucky). You cant get a drip coffee anywhere. Milk has tons of sugar in it and I detest the taste of it, so I have pure cream. Expensive, but worth every mouthful :)

Here's my morning coffee.

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There is a lot to be said for drip coffee. As long as it is fresh and not left for hours and hours like my Father used to do. I hated that smell of bitterness, but the smell as it drips through......that's a whole different ball game. There is also the anticipation; almost a feeling of catharsis when you take the paper filter from the packet, open it out and trickle a few spoons of coffee into it before placing it in the filter holder......ready for the water to drip through. The gurgle as the water tank empties, the click click tick tick of the hotplate as it expands. Its a regime, where you can wait and listen to the radio or read the papers or a good book as you wait. Poor the cream in and watch it swirl as you stir.....lick the spoon! I dig the photo because it looks just as I remember from my parents house. The condensation on the jug, that unique browny/black plastic they all seemed to be made of. It is timeless. Takes me back......
 
I have discovered that I can't have coffee the way its made in restaurants and coffee shops anymore. The flat white of my twenties (long black with milk) has disappeared into oblivion and has, instead, become a cappucino sans froth (if you're lucky). You cant get a drip coffee anywhere. Milk has tons of sugar in it and I detest the taste of it, so I have pure cream. Expensive, but worth every mouthful :)

Here's my morning coffee.

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Huh. Most places in my part of the world have pots of plain drip coffee (regular, flavored, decaf) and a variety of expresso drinks. Of course, drip form the coffee shop is pretty strong.
 
Yeah, its still popular in the US, not in Australia though.
In the UK, most coffee chains will do a simple filter coffee, if you ask nicely, but it's usually been sitting around all day and tastes vile. They all want to sell you buckets of vaguely coffee-flavoured hot milk instead. However Starbucks does a very passable cup of tea :)
 
Does Hot Chocolate count

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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.
 
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
 
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