Just Sara » coffee

Things I’ve learnt – Part I

Sara — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:44:17 +0000

There is no such thing as a bad day. Days can be more or less entertaining, productive, funny, boring, relaxed, hectic, rainy and so on. Never bad per se.
Nerd trick to know if your heater is on: stick/pin a paper to the wall right above the heater. If the paper moves, hot air is going up, so the heater is working.
I cannot stick to the same handwriting for longer than 30 minutes.
Hi, my name is Sara and I am a film freak. And book freak, music freak, languages freak and maps freak.
I can last just about 1 week without coffee.
The silliest the status message you post on Facebook, the more chances you have people will write a comment. Serious stuff is boring.

(to be continued)

The uncertain future of good coffee

Sara — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:41:23 +0000

Excerpt: ”The industry that has been providing us with high quality coffee may seem to be doing well today, but it actually faces a combination of issues that may well render our lattes and cappuccinos a very expensive indulgence in the future. We will probably stop worrying about whether it is “Fair Trade” or “Organic” and worry about whether we can get it at all…”

via Care2.com

The Terminal – Minneapolis Chapter

Sara — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:42:09 +0000

About 6 months ago I mentioned the movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks, in one of my posts, referring to Starbucks. Well… here’s the story.

I was flying to Boise, ID, on early March 2005. There had been some terrible snow storms all over Europe so flights were delayed or even cancelled. My route was Milan Malpensa, Italy – Amsterdam Shipol, Netherlands – Minneapolis, MN – Boise, ID. Shipol and Paris were shut down for 24 hours because of the snow. Malpensa was still open but in a chaos. I can only fly to Amsterdam on the next day, same flight, 24 hrs later, basically. It does manage to arrive in Amsterdam with about one hour delay so I run and catch the other flight, Amsterdam – Minneapolis. I’m 99% sure the baggage was still in Amsterdam as there wouldn’t have been enough time to transfer it to the next flight. I arrive in Minneapolis, not even half an hour late and I go through the customs.

When you first arrive to the US, in any airport, even if you are in transit to somewhere else, be it the US or any other country, you have to go through the customs and passport check. You have to pick up your baggage, go through passport check, put the baggage back on another of those conveyors and then take your connecting flight. SO… I go pick up my baggage but of course it wasn’t on the flight. I see my connecting flight to Boise is boarding and I have 15 minutes left to take it. I explain the problem to the officer and the fact that by baggage is very very very very likely to be still in Amsterdam for this and that reason. He says he’s really sorry but I can’t get the next flight if I’m not 100% sure my baggage isn’t on this one I’ve just arrived with. To be sure, I have to stay there and wait for my baggage until there really are no more baggages on the conveyor. And that’s how I lost my connecting flight to Boise, ID. It was the last flight of the day to Boise, at around 10.30pm or something… Shucks!

So I go back to the check-in counter and explain the problem to the lady there. Lost my flight, need to take the first one next morning, blah blah blah… She offers a coupon for a hotel nearby. But I decide to ask her if I can stay at the airport. The next flight is at 7am, it’s almost midnight, I don’t know the town, I would have to take a taxi to go to the hotel and sleep a couple of hours and than come back. Mmm, I guess I can nap on the seats here… I’m not that tired, I slept on the flight across the Atlantic already.
She looks at me and says… “hold on a second, I’m gonna check something…” and she goes talking with a police officer at the gates entry. She comes back and starts typing on her computer, prints out some paper and then hands me the document: “ok, you can take this document and go to the gates entry. The police officer will check you with the metal detector and all, and you can stay inside the gates. Here, the check in area only has regular seats and it’s empty. Inside it’s more comfortable. The shops will be closed, but it’s safer than staying out here.” That was SO nice!! I go to the police checkin point, pass the check and all… and a police officer smiles at me and tells me there’s a family room with a couch and restrooms inside. She gives me the directions and says I can take some rest there, it’s quiet. So nice…

And that’s how I spent the whole night alone in the airport, haha! At 5am some janitor started touring the hallways, but the rest of the night had been very quiet and could take a nice power nap on that couch.

Then around 6am or so, Starbucks opened. The other shops opened later, Starbucks was the first and a few people had already checked in and were waiting for early flights. So I queued for a coffee. I definitely needed a coffee boost Right before me was standing a woman who ordered a vanilla espresso, double, with coconut cream topping. The thing was *huge*! Vanilla?! Coconut cream on top?! Yawk… I only got a double espresso. And it was still at least about 50 times larger than the double espresso you would get in Italy!

Silly little pleasures

Sara — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:35:45 +0000

I’m having my second cup of coffee today, or cuppa joe?! Had one this morning and now that I’ve just finished lunch, I’m gonna sip my coffee for a while.
I don’t remember when I started drinking coffee. It wasn’t before my 16-17 anyway. I like it in different ways, depending on mood and/or time of the day. When I’m eating out, I only take the espresso. I mean the *real* espresso, which is 2 sips at the most. And I like it with or without sugar. Most of the times I take it black, so I can taste how good is the brand of coffee they use. My grand father always took it black, but that was because he had diabetes. My father (his son-in-law) started taking black coffee after they met, “it tastes better indeed”. My science professor at high school also used to take it black, “the only way to taste the real taste of coffee”. I suppose she still takes it black now.
Anyway, I basically only put sugar in the “morning coffee” at home, which is brewed the American way: a *lot* more to drink.
So, today I had an idea. Given that I occasionally add just a little milk to my American coffee and I was out of fresh milk *and* there was a bottle of sugar-free spray cream in the fridge (odd thing here), why not trying that?! I spray some cream on the coffee, it melts and it does look yummy. I taste it. Holy skunk, tastes awful! This cream is really sugar-free! I had to add a little sugar, couldn’t help it.
Okay, it *is* silly to even think of trading sugar with (apparently sugar-free) cream, but well, my Italian friends already give me the yer-a-wacko look when I have a “long/large coffee” (how we call the American coffee). So, no big deal…
Then, as the cream was melting, I suddenly had the mental image of that woman who was right before me at Starbucks at the Minneapolis Airport a few years ago. She had ordered a tank of some coconut cream vanilla coffee or something… It was huge and the bare name of it almost gave me a diabetic coma. It all made me feel less guilty for my little coffee pleasure today.

Now, about Starbucks and Minneapolis Airport, that’s another funny story… I do think some of you have already heard of that adventure. Ever seen the film “The Terminal”, with Tom Hanks?
Stay tuned…