Summet or other

Yesterday was a day of much travelling as I joined my wife in Brean, near Weston Super Mare and then drove back again (she went up with her family the day before.) This was a roughly 280 mile round trip (although the way there was about 16 miles more because I went wrong on some hideous diversions but that’s another story) and as usual in order to supplement my day I would be stopping at a service station and indulging in a brand-named coffee or two.

Now my favourite of the rival Costa and Starbucks coffee emporium brands that either-or appear at each service station is Starbucks and I am mostly a fan of the Starbucks Black Americano with an extra espresso shot, enjoying it’s slightly more bitter and to-me refreshing taste to the Costa Americano that I don’t get an espresso shot with (as I think it’s stronger to start with but I could be wrong) and sometimes makes me feel a bit belchy. However, after hideous diversion no. 1 on approach to M4 I decided to stop at whatever the first service station happened to be which ended up being a Costa one. So I popped into WHSmith, bought the latest Doctor Who magazine, and settled down with a black Americano, a gluten free brownie and my new magazine.

It was very nice but still bought on the belchiness so when I started flagging and stopped at my second and last service station which happened to be another Costa one, I decided that I didn’t want another coffee and I also wanted to get something cold so I didn’t hang around too long and wasn’t too late getting to Brean. However I still wanted something caffeinated as a pick-me-up so I thought I’d experiment – nothing ventured, nothing gained – so after finding out I now liked coffee flavoured chocolate, via Thorntons' yummy chocolate block, I thought I’d try an iced mocha and I’d also get a double espresso as a coffee hit just in case I didn’t like it.

I had no idea what to expect and they served up a glass which had brown liquid at the bottom (roughly a 1/3rd) and white stuff at the top. I asked “is that the mocha” when presented with it and was assured it was. First I had a bit of white stuff, not realising the spoon provided meant I was meant to stir it all together. Once stirred it was more yummy – refreshing and exactly what I hoped it would be – coffee with a hint of chocolate. The espresso was poopy in comparison.

So, on the return journey the first service station turned out to be a Starbucks one. As Woody didn’t want to get out of the car I thought I’d get a drink to go and while in the long queue saw that their café mocha could be served hot or iced, so assuming it’ll be in the same ball park as the Costa one I ordered an iced café mocha. I was asked if I wanted whipped cream I said no thankyou. (First worrying sign) I believe he put whipped cream on – then realised his mistake and then surrepticiously scooped it off. No matter, what I ended up with was pure dark brown. I gave it a sip – it was a lot more chocolately. I carried on sipping it on the way back to the car and as I got closer and closer to the car it became more and more apparent that this drink was completely minging, bared hardly any resemblance to coffee, instead tasting like a cold hot chocolate, a drink I’ve never liked hot or cold and clearly still don’t. It had to go in the bin - £3 also going metaphorically into the bin with it.

Luckily I still had some Dr Pepper in the car so this provided caffeine hit number one until I arrived at the second and final service station on way home. This again was a Starbucks one. Not wanting to repeat my heinous error of earlier and also fancying a sit down I went for my tried and trusted favourite of Black Americano with an extra espresso shot. It was delicious as usual.

While queueing up Woody suggested that the Starbucks equivalent to what I had at Costa might be their Macchiatos, but I disagreed saying that Macchiatos were something entirely different to Mochas although not actually knowing what they were. She also suggested that the white café mocha might be closer to what I had at Costa.

So this morning I decided to look up Café Mochas (both iced and hot) and see what I should have been served. The closest resemblance, according to Wikipedia seems to be the Costa one as Wikipedia quotes Mocha as;

"Like a caffe latte, it is typically one third espresso and two thirds steamed milk, but a portion of chocolate is added, typically in the form of sweet cocoa powder, although many varieties use chocolate syrup"

So that’s what that white stuff was! The cold hot chocolate I got at Starbucks doesn’t really resemble this, although it started the same. I saw the barrista put brown liquid at the bottom (again about a third) and then white stuff, and then whipped cream which was then removed. I guess it was then pre-stirred as it was take out rather than drink in. He definitely said Mocha to me when I picked it up so although it resembled a cold hot chocolate to my non-hot chocolate connosieur lips I don’t think that’s what it was!

So, should I mocha again! And how can the taste vary so extremely between one yummy one and one disgusting one! Was one of my drinks not really a mocha?

And Macchiatos turn out to be coffee with the merest hint of milk. That’s how I like my tea! So a Caramel Macchiato is a Caramel flavoured coffee with a little milk (????)

And white café mocha turns out to be a white chocolate mocha as opposed to milk or dark. Maybe the costa one used dark chocolate and the Starbucks one used milk?

This coffee stuff is confusing! I’m going back to Black Americano with an extra espresso shot – I know where I am with that!