Not actually that surprised as on my visit to the US, admittedly some time ago, I thought the coffee was poor.
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Yes, but I live in France. I drink French (supermarket) coffee. I don’t like it any better than the stuff in the US.
I wonder if @captainendeavour ever had the tea served that way when in Peshawar?….also very nice with a greasy but fresh samosa fresh from the rather dubiously sanitised food stand.
Did you like sweet or salty lassi?…I gotten used to it whilst playing a round of golf in the blistering heat in Karachi..nom nom
Sweet lassi for me, please.
I was quite happy drinking Berner whiskey (sweet tea) in Morocco.
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I like my lassi saltish (as they say). In Peshawar I drank a lot of falooda, plus milkless cardamomy green tea with Afghans and milky black tea with Pakistanis.
I had to go to the fort once and after having my passport perused and being asked if I was any relation, was given the most fantastic tea worthy of Browns or Fortnums by a couple of extremely senior army bods who had known a cousin of my grandfather’s in the dark ages, utter sweeties.
In Cairo you get your little cup of evil black coffee brewed up with cardamom too, very delicious. I do like Lebanese/ Turkish coffee masbout so bog standard really.
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I do hope you are writing a family biography - you seem to have a fascinating bunch of relatives. 
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I haven’t tried salt lassi as I usually want something sweet after a curry. Do you drink it with the food?
I’m not sure there are rules as such, but with food would have been how I saw it drunk.
I stuffed as many packets of ground coffee into my case this summer for the family as I had room for and paracetamol tablets. Shocked to see even the lower grade stuff in Kroger was around $15 for same weight. I did not like any of the commercial outlets like Starbu**s at all, just like muddy water to me.
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Isn’t that Swiss? 
I assume you meant “Berber whisky”?
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I don’t think that the majority of Starbucks drinks are actually coffee, they’re “coffee drinks”. So much sugar, syrup, cream, whipped cream, etc., are added that they just taste vaguely coffee-ish. Did you try Dutch Bros? The joke there is that they started as a drive through coffee chain, but they hardly sell coffee at all anymore. Smoothies, mochas, whatever. Coffee is a whole different thing in the US.
I started drinking coffee very late in life (like, mid-50s?) and I really don’t care for it, hence all the milk that I add. If I am at a cafe now, I usually order chocolat chaud.
It might be Irish. 
In Morocco? Are you perhaps thinking of that well-known Casablanca family the O’Mohammeds?
The spelling -whiskey. 
Correct. Mr. Fat Fingers on his Fone.
Any produced outside Scotland is, I believe, whiskey.
I don’t know - I always thought “whiskey” was the Irish spelling, taken across to the US by emigrants, hence “Tennessee whiskey” e.g. Jack Daniels.
There is English and Japanese whisky (no e). For example, authentic Cornish whisky (made from clotted cream and pasties by pixies)
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Apparently ‘it is complicated’
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Frankly, I don’t like the taste of any whisky/whiskey. Having said that, after 3 glasses I’m softening in my hatred and as the session goes on and on I find I’m actually enjoying the drink… but haven’t a clue how to spell it 
and who cares.. hic just pass the bottle (please)
EDIT re hot drinks.
when I order Hot Drinks I expect them to be HOT, then I can decide at what temperature I wish to drink …
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I can’t recall drinking anything there except San Miguel and water [boiled].
I did have tea with yak milk and salt in a Himalayan mountain village. Awful stuff. Undrinkable.
The standard Indian ‘chai’ - the first glass you think you’re in heaven. The second glass, you feel sick.
I’ve watched them make it on the platforms at Indian stations. A huge aluminium pot on a charcoal brazier, - +/- 25L water into which are thrown large bags of leaf tea, several kgs bags of sugar, loads of tins of condensed milk and sticks of cinnamon. This simmers away until the pot needs topping up again.
Apart from the absurd sweetness, the tricky bit is the glass they hand you. There are only three or four of these. They have been passed round a busy station all day …
My nerdish research into the right way to make coffee is that the ideal temperature for ‘coffee meets water’ is 86C. Boiling water scalds coffee and makes it taste bitter.* This is why the stove-top ‘Baletti’-type pot makes good coffee because the pressure gets to the right level to force the water thru’ the coffee before it gets too hot. I imagine the same applies to the capsule type machines.
I always hankered after one myself and discovered that Gaggia UK sold recon/returns at a heavy discount.
So there it sits, unemployed. I don’t have a use for milk, so cappuchino is out. I prefer an Americano/cafe longue to espresso. The stove-top does that perfectly. At some point, maybe when Plan A kicks off - the move south - it’ll go on LBC or on offer on SF.
- If the coffee tastes bitter it’s most probable that the water is close to/at 100C. Any coffee will taste bitter at that temp. If there’s a way to adjust the temp, reduce it. If you have a kitchen thermometer, test the water as it come out of the machine.
As for the coffee, I came across 3 x200 gms beans [got to be beans] in Carrefour reduced 50%. The coffee was from Malawi. The best coffee I’ve ever had. Just superb. I looked up Malawi as a producer: seems they are new to coffee production and somewhat in the ‘craft coffee’ category.
Malawi Coffee “Pamwamba AA Plus” Notes of hazelnuts and roasted almonds and a hint of licorice, intensity 6/10
I ordered 4 x 250 gms on 25/09 but it hasn’t arr’d. On 07/10 the seller ’ Cafthé’ said his roaster was waiting for stock… They have till the end of this week or it remboursement time.
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