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« Blogging Notes | Main | Books and Sales »

August 22, 2006

And Just What is "Regular" Coffee?

Donald Pittenger writes:

Dear Blowhards --

Thanks to Starbucks, its lap-dog Seattle's Best, and its competition such as Peets, coffee has become complicated.

Before, say, 1990, things were simpler. One ordered a "regular" -- or something else.

But exactly what is a regular?

I grew up in Seattle back in the days before the place inexplicably became associated with coffee drinking. When I was 15 or 16 I had my first "adult" cup of coffee (not just a sip offered by a parent). Along with the coffee I had sugar and cream. When I had my second cup I dropped either the sugar or the cream -- can't remember which. Any my third cup (these cups were ordered days or weeks apart) contained black coffee only, which is how I've taken it ever since.

Five or six years later I began working in the Public Information Office at Fort Meade, Maryland's post headquarters. The sergeant sent the new PFC (me) down to the snack bar to bring back some "regular" coffees. In retrospect, I should have either (1) asked what was meant by "regular" or (2) told the gal at the snack bar that I wanted "regular." But no. I scratched my head and decided "regular" was straight black because that's what most people I knew out west drank.

Result: I got chewed out by the sergeant because everybody knows that "regular" means coffee with sugar and cream.

Let me quickly add that the sergeant was from the New York City area. Having been chewed out, I kept alert and soon realized that folks in the northeast tended to take their coffee with cream and sugar, unlike those of us from western states. So what was an exception to me was the norm to them.

Another New York City (and perhaps elsewhere nearby) peculiarity in those days was that hamburgers were cooked "medium" -- they were all pink and mushy inside [yuk!]. After discovering this, I had to make a point of telling the waitress that I wanted my burger well-done.

I haven't been to the East Coast much since around 1990, so I'm probably out of touch. Is the normal hamburger still under-cooked? Is coffee usually drunk with sugar and cream?

To some degree the coffee problem has been resolved by the emergence of Starbucks with its gazillion options; one is obligated to explain what is desired in some detail. And if you order drip coffee, they give you the option of "room for cream" and then you have to go over to the accessories stand and add the cream and/or sugar yourself.

Later,

Donald

posted by Donald at August 22, 2006




Comments

"Regular" indeed means with sugar and cream here on the east coast, but whether coffee in that style is more popular here than anywhere else, I haven't a clue. If anything, it's my impression that heavily sweetened beverages and foods are particularly popular in the southern states.
I've never heard of any regional differences in the way hamburgers are cooked. To the extent any such differences once existed, they've most likely been swept away by the fast-foodification of the hamburger, fast food of course being pretty much uniform everywhere. One rather quaint regionalism is the steamed cheeseburger, a popular (and tasty) delicacy in certain parts of central Connecticut, but once again I fear that it's becoming more and more a part of history.

Posted by: Peter on August 22, 2006 11:17 AM



In Boston, a "regulah" from Dunkin' Donuts will get you a cup of coffee with lots of sugar, and lots of cream.

I think it's a northeast thing.

Posted by: winterspeak on August 22, 2006 11:38 AM



I think of "regular" as "caffeinated."

When I was in the northeast, I got annoyed because they would ask if you wanted sugar or cream, and when I would say "sugar only" (I like maybe a half-teaspoon of sugar), they would dump the sugar in themselves. I'd never seen anything like that before.

And that "room for cream" question makes me nervous. Sometimes I think they should rephrase it more correctly as "Do you want three-fourths of a cup, or do you want your cup so full that you can't help but spill it all over yourself the moment you pick it up?"

Posted by: Waterfall on August 22, 2006 11:45 AM



My parents -- one from Brooklyn, one from Queens -- always maintained that "regular" coffee had cream and sugar. But I'll bet that that's gone by the wayside now that, as you point out, people at Starbucks are expected to add their own.

Posted by: missgrundy on August 22, 2006 12:47 PM



As one who likes his burger medium rare and lives on the East Coast, I can tell you that it is almost impossible to get a burger with a pink center. I'm not sure that this has been due to any change in tastes as much as the safety police who like to make sure that people are not subjected to a 1 in a million risk of minor food poisoning from "undercooked" beef. If you do ask for a medium rare burger, you're likely to get something that is medium at best. In fact, some chains will not serve a medium rare burger even if you ask for it.

As for coffee, I think most people on the east coast still take it with creamer (of some sort- half-and-half, milk, skim, soy...) and sweetener of some sort (sugar or sugar substitute). I very rarely see anyone get black coffee in the east.

Posted by: wph on August 22, 2006 3:22 PM



You'll be happy to know that on the East cost, a "regular burger" is no longer "undercooked." As someone who likes his burger medium rare, I can tell you that it is, in fact, very difficult to get a burger with pink in the middle. This is attributable more to the safety police than it is to any change in tastes. It has been decided that people should not be exposed to the 1 in a million risk of getting a mild case of food poisoning from "undercooked" beef. If you ask for medium rare, you are more likely to get something like a medium. In fact, some of the chains will no longer allow you to order medium rare, the lowest they go is medium.


As for coffee, I think it still holds that most rightcoasters take their coffee with some sort of creamer (halfandhalf, milk, 2 percent, skim, soy) and some sort of sweetener (sugar or sugar substitute.)

Posted by: wph on August 22, 2006 4:02 PM



In New York, where I live, "regular" coffee is also called "light and sweet," i.e., with cream and sugar.

Posted by: Gerald on August 22, 2006 4:04 PM



Up in Canada, we have the concept of "double-double". This is used at a particular doughnut franchise to connote, as you might expect, double cream, double sugar.

Our national comedic treasure and precursor to your more ascerbic Steven Colbert, Rick Mercer, once had an ongoing bit called "Talking to Americans" where he'd interview Americans and get them to say outrageous things about Canada that would point out how ignorant they were about us (I think he had the governor of some mid-west state say "Congratulations Canada on legalizing staplers" or 800 miles of paved road, or some such). At one point he told poli sci students at Harvard (or Princeton) that Prime Minister Jean Poutine (poutine being a Quebec dish of french fries, gravy and cheese curds) achieved concensus of both houses, a rare "double-double"

They then were made to say "Congratulations Prime Minister Poutine on your double-double".

Very funny to Canadians.

Posted by: tim h on August 22, 2006 5:46 PM



dunno 'bout regular, but up here in Canada we have a concept called "double-double".

Posted by: tim h on August 22, 2006 6:26 PM



Thanks to "Tim H" of that "particular doughnut franchise" for his "Timbit". (Happy to hear he survived the wreck after all.)

When I was stationed in New England I was told the locals took it "light and sweet". I concluded that I wanted mine very light and very sweet.

Here in the Twin Cities we have a situation unique in the U.S.-- Starbucks is #2. Our own chain Caribou has knocked them out of first place. A second local chain, Dunn Bros., is third.

These two also expect you to lighten and sweeten it yourself. However, they offer you something Starbucks doesn't-- honey! In a bear jar! (Dunn's adds two more quirks: real computer terminals rather than just Wi-Fi, and a policy that every franchise be decorated differently.)

My first cup recalls Donald's earlier question about plane travel. I was about eight, on a Pan Am flight to Honolulu. The stewardess asked my mom, "Do you let him drink it?" Well, not always, but at 30,000', why not?

Posted by: Reg Cæsar on August 23, 2006 2:12 AM



BTW, wouldn't "regular" coffee contain something like bran flakes or flax seed?

Posted by: Reg Cæsar on August 23, 2006 2:39 AM



Used to like Starbucks, but the brand is now so diluted due to piss-poor training and way too many facial metal accoutrements on the staff that ordering a coffee, whether it be regular or one of the hotsy-totsy have-to-bring-out-the-big-bills drinks, is a royal PITA (no, not the Greek bread).

Question: For those who do go to S'bucks on a regular (cream 'n sugar) basis, how many different pronunciaitons do you hear of:
1) Grande
2) Breve Latte
3) Mocha cappucino?

I can't take it! When the customer and the barrista (barrista!?!?! Give me a &^*^* break!) can't pronounce the product, something's off.

Posted by: DarkoV on August 23, 2006 9:19 AM



In Boston, a regular coffee is one with cream and sugar, and for some reason, Dunkin Donuts uses a shovel to measure out the sugar. In Chicago, this is sometimes called a "Boston coffee," with regular coffee meaning black.

Posted by: Mitch on August 23, 2006 10:22 AM



I seem to have double doubled my post. Sorry 'bout that -- there's a significant lag between posting and the post appearing.

Posted by: tim h on August 23, 2006 11:41 AM



Here in the cottswolds england a regular is a cup of dried coffe hot water and a dash of milk. insipid but at star bucks its the same as it is there, but an italian or french expresso is the best , no milk no sugar just the bittle dark taste of the sun . Now thats my regular

Posted by: widow twanky on August 23, 2006 1:17 PM



I first started drinking coffee at 16 while a counselor at a Boy Scout summer camp. The cook had been a mess sergeant in the armed services and the coffee was industrial strength, made in one of those old fifty-cup percolators. This was in Connecticut and I took it "regular" which is to say with lots of cream and sugar.

As I continued to drink coffee after that summer I discovered that diner coffee, made in smaller batches by a commercial drip machine, didn't need loads of cream and sugar. I experimented and settled for a while on a scant teaspoon of sugar that I added myself. In time, I dropped the sugar as well. In those pre-Starbucks days I had to remember to order it black to avoid the "regular" cream & sugar being added for me.

By the late seventies I'd graduated to preferring to make my own coffee at home with fresh ground beans and a Melitta filter or French press. After a brief fling with exotic beans I realized any decent, reasonably fresh, beans were fine. A supporter of local businesses and good coffee, I'm now a regular customer at a local coffee roaster, Coffee by Design; if it is one of the regular barristas they'll have my "usual" waiting before I reach the counter. A small, half light, half medium, no room (for cream.)

Posted by: Chris White on August 23, 2006 7:00 PM



In the mid-Atlantic region, or the corner of it where I've lived all my life, "regular" coffee is the opposite of decaf. And if, the caffeine issue settled, I asked somebody, "How do you take it?" and received the response, "Regular," he or she would get it black.

Posted by: camillofan on August 23, 2006 8:37 PM



Reg Caesar's "bran flakes" question reminded me of that place in "Portrait of a Dame in Interior" by H.Boll (umlaut missing), where the workers of the cemetery's flower service form a hierarchy based on the kind of coffee they drink. The one at the lowest step drinks almost 100% grinded barley, the manager - 75% real coffee. The heroine of the novel, an "independent spirit", couldn't deny herself a pleasure of a 100% well-roasted coffee, at the expense of all her other needs - to utter shock of her coworkers at such unbelievable insubordination! (the time is WWII Germany, of course)

No product of Starbucks, however creative with title-giving they might consider themselves, can't compete with regular Portuguese bica, served with a cinnamon stick instead of a spoon, a slice of lemon and cane sugar in lumps on the side...

Posted by: Tat on August 23, 2006 10:58 PM



Hey Dad,

I see you're having a great time blogging in Mexico.. you're welcome for all the wifi advice.

Your payment to me should be presents; anything decorative to add to my classroom or jewelry.

- The Daughter

Posted by: The Daughter on August 24, 2006 12:01 AM



"Tim H", are you sure double-double is particular to Canada? I've heard that for a long time in the States, too. First time I remember hearing it was about 18 years ago when I was dating a gal who worked at Dunkies. Hey, at least you're still unique with them loonies and twoonies of yours. ;-) But, now that we've got your stores down here, too, some of us are happier. hehehe

Donald, I think on the East, the norm has moved more towards medium, rather than rare for your hamburger. But, I've never heard that called a "regular" hamburger. I've always been asked how I want it. As for coffee, "regular" always meant one of two things: either it was referring to the size (the more common connotation I'm familiar with) or it's caffeine levels. But, when expressing how leaded you want your coffee, you typically call it either "coffee" or "decaf". The only time I really hear anyone call the non-decaf version "regular" is when the waitress is double-checking. "Coffee, please." "Regular or decaf?"

Posted by: Spoonman on August 24, 2006 8:44 AM



"Tim H", are you sure double-double is particular to Canada? I've heard that for a long time in the States, too. First time I remember hearing it was about 18 years ago when I was dating a gal who worked at Dunkies. Hey, at least you're still unique with them loonies and twoonies of yours. ;-) But, now that we've got your stores down here, too, some of us are happier. hehehe

Donald, I think on the East, the norm has moved more towards medium, rather than rare for your hamburger. But, I've never heard that called a "regular" hamburger. I've always been asked how I want it. As for coffee, "regular" always meant one of two things: either it was referring to the size (the more common connotation I'm familiar with) or it's caffeine levels. But, when expressing how leaded you want your coffee, you typically call it either "coffee" or "decaf". The only time I really hear anyone call the non-decaf version "regular" is when the waitress is double-checking. "Coffee, please." "Regular or decaf?"

Posted by: Spoonman on August 24, 2006 8:46 AM



spoonman -- I see you did the double double with your post as I (sort of) did. Didn't know you murkins had colonized double-double too. Sigh. What's next, color with a u? Calling soda, "pop"? Sitting on a "chesterfield"?

Posted by: tim h on August 24, 2006 11:41 AM



Well, Tim H, some Americans use British spellings, or at least used to (down south). And some Americans say "pop", I discovered when I lived in the States for a year. But using "chesterfield" for a "couch"? That'll never happen. (Nor buttertarts at 7-Eleven, nor vinegar sachets at McDonald's, Stateside. Only in Canada!)

Posted by: Maple Leaf Forever on August 28, 2006 8:52 PM






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