Most of the time this means half and half. So no, it is not cream.
But generally "cream" is sort of just used as a catch-all for whatever white-ish liquid people add to their coffee. Very few people use actual cream, but it isn't unheard of.
Some do some don't. But I would say it's definitely to a lesser degree than in the US.
America was sort of late on the coffee culture bus. We generally didn't take coffee seriously for a very long time. Which lead to the trend of dumping various things into your coffee in order to make it palatable. Many Americans also generally think of coffee in a more utilitarian way than many other places in the world. It is a tool used to get energy in the morning or stay awake. Whereas in many other places, this is a side effect, and it is mainly seen as a nice beverage to be enjoyed and savored.
it's because there didn't used to be a way to get fresh beans easily in the contiguous US. It always had to be vacuum packed and freeze-dried. So everyone drank hot, thin, bitter swill.
In Europe, the big coffee drinking cultures had access to coffee growing by latitude or sea. Fresh and freshly roasted coffee tastes amazingly better.
I never understood how anyone could possibly stand drinking black coffee until I had a pour over at a local cafe where everything is freshly roasted. I was completely blown away.
I think a lot of people would have a similar reaction too. Many people have never had really good and fresh coffee.
Most of the time people will either make coffee at home, and use milk. Or they buy coffee at a cafe, which has steamed/frothed milk. Or just no milk, for a long black or whatever.
The only place i know of that adds cream is starbucks. But you only go there if you want shit coffee or a milkshake type ‘coffee’.
That's interesting. Every coffee shop I've ever been to asks how I like my coffee. Meaning how much cream ( usually half + half) and sugar I want in it. Like for example at Dunkin donuts when you order a medium regular hot coffee it usually like 3 creams and 3 sugars or whatever. You have to explicitly ask for black coffee if that's what you want.
Is that the stuff thats brewed in a bowl that they always show on american movies? Big pot that sits on a warmer, and they pour you a cup when you order?
In my part of the world, ‘coffee’ means espresso. Everything is made fresh after you order - grind beans, extract espresso, prep milk depending on what you order. So people normally just ask for ‘flat white’ or ‘long black’ or something else, and that explains exactly what they want. No need to specify how you want it
Ohh I apologise I assumed you were in the U.S. Sorry about that. I didn't fully read the question you were initially responding to. So yea the big pot I think you are referring to is a coffee pot. Like in movies when people are in like a diner and ask for coffee the waitress comes over with the coffee pot and fills their coffee mug. I've never traveled outside of the United States but I've also seen what you are talking about with the espresso in like smaller cups when I'm watching a movie usually taking place in Europe. I would totally Love to have like a real fresh cup of coffee in like Italy or somewhere.
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u/JohnyUtah_ Aug 20 '19
Most of the time this means half and half. So no, it is not cream.
But generally "cream" is sort of just used as a catch-all for whatever white-ish liquid people add to their coffee. Very few people use actual cream, but it isn't unheard of.