Re: Practice the Black Arts in class, get fired.

David Harmon <source@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Wed, 14 May 2008 08:21:38 -0400 in rec.arts.sf.fandom, mike weber
> <fair****tfan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote,
>>And, in fact (having had a couple of moles inside McDonalds in recent
>>years) i am aware that is is not unusual - routine at at least one
>>location - for the coffee to be served even hotter than the McDonalds
>>standard.
> 
> 2007 - Consumer Re****ts rates McDonalds coffee best of all
> fast-food-chain coffee, including Starbucks.
> 
> 2008 - McDonalds announces that they will experiment with putting
> coffee bars with espresso machines and baristas in their stores.
> 
> What's wrong with this picture?

It's not really a surprise. With allowances for being a real-world
enterprise, I think that McDonald's tries to give their target market
what they think that market wants. Seeing the success of Starbucks and
its competitors McDonald's obviously decided that coffee might be
something they could sell other than as an accompaniment to breakfast.
I know that they made a move to higher-grade coffee a few years ago. My
experience is that their coffee varies from mediocre to pretty good,
depending on the individual restaurant, and is still generally served at
the proper temperature. As far as I can tell they basically kept the
temperature the same as before the suit and added warnings all over the
container. As far as the comparison with Starbucks, some people feel that
Starbucks over-roasts their beans resulting in an objectionable burnt
flavor. I don't personally mind it. McDonald's coffee isn't roasted nearly
so much but is still brewed to the proper strength. Unfortunately the
coffee
is one of the few things they have that I find good enough to stop for.
Judging from my parents coffee, which used the basic "one scoop per pot"
method, the problem with most fast food places is that they try to boost
profits by using as little coffee as possible, resulting in a product that
lacks everything except bitterness.

As far as the temperature discussion, I found an interesting link:
<http://www.bunnomatic.com/pages/coffeebasics/cb6holding.html>
It's Bunn's recommendations for holding and serving coffee. They suggest
an ideal holding temperature of 175F to 185F and an ideal serving
temperature of 155F to 175F. Their reasoning for the lower limit is:
"Many of the volatile aromatics in coffee have boiling points above
150F (65C). They simply are not perceived when coffee is served at
lower temperatures."

	Robert
-- 
Robert K. Shull                           Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot
com