Comments on: toward a beverage manifesto

By: Leelee

Leelee — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:03:30 +0000

Rather than add another drink to the list of 8+ ouncers, I’d rather take one away and remove beer. No drink other than water should be consumed in greater than 8 oz servings. Water is only drunk when thirsty. Everything else is a vehicle for sugar, fat, or drugs (caffeine, alchohol) and should be consumed in moderation as a treat and not as a cure for thirst. 8 oz is a good place to stop. Instead of juicing all your fruits and vegetables, eat them and get the full fiber benefits.

By: scott

scott — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:35:09 +0000

also telling, regarding the F*Bucks, is the fact that they don’t even advertise or, in some cases even know about, their smallest size (the short).

By: jon o

jon o — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 02:29:16 +0000

I’ll concur with the comment about iced tea, and add a well-made lemonade on a hot day to the list of beverages meant to be consumed in large quantities. Otherwise, your point is bang-on. On road trips I’ve had to get on my damn knees and *beg* at F*Bucks, which are the only purveyors of coffee for hundreds of miles, not to burn the milk and to pour me a simple 2:1 blend of foam and coffee. It constantly amazes me how addicted to sugar our culture is… cheers,

By: Elliott Perkins

Elliott Perkins — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 17:51:27 +0000

Hear, hear.

Your point about the freshness of roasted coffee resonates especially well with me. Too often, in the finest grocery stores, I see vacuum packed bags of roasted beans with no valve. Uneducated shoppers infer from the fact that there are no gasses in the bag that they are buying coffee in the best condition, when the correct interpretation is that the coffee has been packed stale, intentionally.

I am well aware that I have left the topic of beverages and their appropriate size. Allow me one more submission on the topic of coffee beans: many good coffees are hurt by over-roasting.

By: scott partee

scott partee — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 13:40:37 +0000

Great point! I was just explaining over IM how Starbucks claims to make various drinks, but they are all overwrought lattes in the end with far too much milk and/or water and, God forbid, sweeteners.

I think it’s not only our culture’s gluttony that has made this prevalent, but our pace. We want things we enjoy to last a long time, but we don’t have the time and patience to sit down and linger Vienna style over a single 8 oz espresso beverage. We lack the discipline, the time, and we crave too heavily to sip apace, and gulp. Therefore, we get more to make it last longer.

Where I work, in Midtown Atlanta, which is the most dense and urban area of Atlanta and also the most vibrant section, we lack a single cafe other than two Starbucks. Therefore, I make a few trips a week with work friends to release ourselves from the cubicle farm and enjoy a few moments. My friend from Brazil and I have tried to educate them on the fine points of the coffee drinks and was, for a while, even getting some goodish results at Starbucks. They even started keeping a few demitasse and cappucino cups handy for us instead of the paper cups. But somebody made off with them and they have no more. I was attempting to show them the proper proportions and to erase that whole “espresso is too strong” myth from their world view.

Alas, they order the grande or whatever the giant size iscoffee of the day without fail…

By: kyle

kyle — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 21:35:17 +0000

yes, the twelver does violate!

By: corrie

corrie — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 07:45:26 +0000

So, does my daily (read: NEEDED) 12 oz double shot violate the terms of your manifesto? And if I occasionally drown the poor shots in another 4 ounces of milk, it’s still one shot per 8 ounces, right? Anything to eke more coffee goodness from the morning without bringing on the jitters… ay, maybe I’m an American after all.

By: mantid

mantid — Mon, 06 Sep 2004 03:17:25 +0000

I’d agree with this premise, but submit unsweetened iced green or barley tea (the style found in asia, bottled by asahi, suntory, etc). On a hot Kyoto day, I could drink about about 2 liters of the stuff… maybe not all at once, but certainly 16 oz at a time. And I think it has about 0 calories.

By: vika

vika — Mon, 06 Sep 2004 02:04:49 +0000

Point taken, and even mostly agreed, but since you ask I submit unsweetened fruit and vegetable juices for candidacy to exception.