Where have you had the best: Coffee • Tea • Chocolate?

[HeyMarlana]

Title says it all. Where in the world have you enjoyed the best coffee, tea, and chocolate? Did you travel to another country to find such pleasure, or did something from another country find its way to you?

For me, the best cup of coffee I've ever had was at a coffee stand in Puntarenas, Costa Rica in Muellero Park. The beans were so fresh, roasted perfectly, and (my preference, cafe solo) it was frothy, even though no milk or milk products were added. I was sitting in a white, plastic lawn chair with a cat named Marcelo to keep me company. I just regret not ever knowing what the name of it was.

Best tea: Okay I have two favourites. In Vancouver's Chinatown having a cup of jasmine tea. This is the type where the flower opens after the hot water is added. Also, a rooibos tea I purchased from Granville Island called Honeybush Chocolate. I drink either-or, depending on what I feel like.

Chocolate: While in Germany, my friends had some Ritter Sport kicking around in the kitchen. Compared to mass-produced cheap chocolate in Canada (and the US for that matter), even Germany's mass produced chocolate to me tasted very smooth and chocolately without the artificial tastes I had grown accustomed to.

[Explorer]

• I have this vivid memory of sitting at a small cafe on Rio de Janeiro's seafront promenade. There was a gentle breeze and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee was just incredible. I ordered mine with frothed milk on top, no sugar (because when the coffee is that good, you don't need to add anything else). It was smooth and absolutely perfect. Every time I make coffee at home I try to capture a bit of that magic. Oh, and I can't forget my lovely portuguese family, who every month sends me a kilo of café. Dark roast, made in Portugal with beans from Angola. Delicious.

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One of my coffee bags

• I've had a lot of great chocolate in my life, but hands down the best was probably in Belgium. I remember a chocolate shop in Brussels that had an insane variety of pralines. Like seriously, shelves upon shelves. You'd just grab a little box and tell the guy to fill it up with the ones that caught your eye. It was glorious. I ended up buying so many chocolates that I thought I was going to get stopped at the airport for chocolate smuggling. Don't worry, every single chocolate made it home safe and sound in my suitcase. Perks of traveling in winter.
  
  
• I don't drink tea.

[MoniqueMaRie]

Coffee:
there doesn't seem to be bad coffee anywhere in Italy. Even the smallest bar still offers a good coffee (espresso of cause).

Chocolate:
Know your brand! Mine in the last years is from Switzerland;

Tea:
When I start, I will write an essay; so I don’t. I'm a tea drinker. My favorite changes from time to time. Nearly always good: chinese white tea
Worst tea ever: in the USA. Someone there said: no wonder; since the "Boston tea party" we've hardly let any tea into the country. But in a small village in the US they indulged in English tea culture. Finally, proper tea for breakfast.

[MoniqueMaRie]

Best tea: Okay I have two favourites. In Vancouver's Chinatown having a cup of jasmine tea. This is the type where the flower opens after the hot water is added.

If you like flowers in your tea: try osmanthus. It is one of my favourite teas at the moment. Probably you'll get it nowhere in a tea salon.
It does not overpower the actual tea flavour as much as jasmine in green or white tea.
But I also sometimes kill the actual tea flavour: with rosebuds

[Basler Biker]

In Belgium you would in general not order just a cappucino...
The waiter will have you to choose between an Italian or a Belgian cappucino...
Difference?
Italian is with whipped milk, Belgian is with whipped cream, like you can have on Brussels waffles.

I think "best" is not just a quality thing, but also an environment setting for the occasion.
Who you are with, and where/when.

Maybe the nicest "tea" event was when walking in England, passing a gate leading to what seemed a very nice garden. The panel said "Tea with live music - free entry" ... so who wouldn't get in?
Visitors were seated in comfortable rotan chairs around a swimming pool, and next to it a violin quartet was playing soft classical tunes... of course we had tea and scones for the occasion - we never drink tea otherwise.

And chocolate is an habit embedded in our daily routine after a day out: coming home, sitting and relaxing and summarizing our adventure with a hot chocolate (simply Nesquick, good enough)

But ... the list could have mentioned beer or wine too...

PS: next Sunday 15-JUN-2025 is our last (of 5) Open Garden days with Live Music event
(a copy of what we experienced in England) with cello and guitar music on the programme.
And we'll have my homemade sour cherry cake with Belgian whipped cream served.

Cello:
Can't help falling in love, Elvis Presley
The hanging tree, J. Fraites, W. Schultz en S. Collins
The parting glass, traditional scottisch, arr Cliodhna Ni Aodain
The medaillon calls, pirates of the carribbean, H. Zimmer
Pur tu miro, Claudio Monteverdi, Laura Jekel
Perfect, Ed Sheeran
The sound of silence, Paul Simon
An Irisch blessing, James E. Moore Jr, arr Clidhna Ni Aodain
Tie a yellow ribbon, Levine Brown

Guitar:
The Godfather
Jeux interdits

[Basler Biker]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/j6odCVqeYumufT8J7

https://livinglondonhistory.com/decodin ... y 15, 2021

A Tea Adventure in London

On an occasional trip to London, my sister gave me a simple yet mysterious task: "Visit the Twinings Tea Shop and bring home some of their tea." She said it so casually, as if she had sent me to pick up milk from the corner store. Little did I know, I was about to step into a world far more intricate than I had imagined.

When I finally found the shop on The Strand, I was met with the most unassuming entrance—a narrow, two-meter-wide glass façade that looked more like a boutique perfume store than a legendary tea merchant. But as I stepped inside, the reality unfolded before me: walls lined with hundreds, maybe even a thousand, different teas, stacked in beautiful boxes and tins from floor to ceiling. The scent of bergamot, jasmine, and spices filled the air, and for a moment, I just stood there, overwhelmed.

A polite shop assistant approached me with a knowing smile. "What sort of tea are you looking for today?" she asked.

I hesitated. My sister, in her infinite wisdom, had not given me any specifics. No names, no flavors—just "some tea." I scanned the shelves, my eyes darting from Earl Grey Lavender to Dragonwell Green, from Masala Chai to White Peony. There were teas I had never heard of, blends from distant mountains, rare leaves that surely couldn’t be found back home in mainland Europe.

But I, a humble non-connoisseur, could only muster a helpless shrug. "Just… give me some?" I said, waving vaguely at the walls.

The shop assistant’s smile didn’t falter. "A classic English Breakfast, then?"

"Sure," I agreed, too embarrassed to admit I had no idea what made it "classic."

And so, I left with a modest box of perfectly good tea—completely unaware that I had just passed up the chance to bring home something extraordinary: a smoky Lapsang Souchong, a delicate Darjeeling first flush, or perhaps a blooming tea that unfurled like a flower in hot water.

When I handed the tea to my sister later, she sighed. "You were in the oldest tea shop in London, and you brought back… this?"

I grinned. "Next time, give me a list."

And just like that, I made a silent vow: one day, I would return to Twinings—prepared, curious, and ready to explore the vast, aromatic universe of tea.

The End.

My original anecdote : Speaking of tea ... on an occasional trip to London, my sister sent me to the Twinings Tea Shop near Fleet street, and asked me to bring home some of their tea. I went there: it's like a 2 meter wide glass "façade", but they have like 1000 or so sorts of tea.
The lady asked me what "sort" I wanted, ... but I had not been given specifics by my sister, so I looked around, admiring all these boxes filling both left and right wall, high up till the ceiling, then - not being a "connoisseur" myself - I said "just give me some..."

A missed occasion to bring home probably some very exotic ones, not to be found on mainland Europe...

[HeyMarlana]

But ... the list could have mentioned beer or wine too...

Don't think I haven't thought of that! But due to this guideline upon registering:
Minimum Age Requirement. By using the forum, you represent that you are at least 16 years of age....

it gave me second thoughts to include alcohol as the drinking age (for purchasing and consuming) for all of the US is 21, and for Canada it's 18 or 19, depending on the province. Right there, I thought it was possible to cause some offense since there are younger people use the forum, and it wouldn't be a discussion they can legally partake in if they're in one of those two countries.

[lrai]

I do like a good cup of joe each morning, but the best coffee ever was in Buenos Aires. I was there for the wedding of a college friend and took an early morning walk where I found a small cafe. I never order espresso but that morning I did and it was amazing. It wasn't bitter and I didn't have to add sugar or milk to it. Later on I had a cup of proper Argentine coffee and again I could drink it black and it was so smooth and rich. I have yet to ever have anything like it and that was back in 1986.

As for tea, well I live in China so that's easy, I love the jasmine pearl tea, each leaf is individually curled and when you pour the hot water over the tea pearls they open up and release a heavenly scent and light floral flavor. My second choice is from London M&S English Breakfast, it's the best ever black tea for daily cups. I don't add milk to my tea I prefer it plain.

Chocolate, well it must be dark and as long as it's dark chocolate any brand will do. I like Valrhona dark, but I guess my all time favorite which you can no longer get, was made by Barton's Kosher for Passover dark chocolate with marzipan. It's a fond memory of childhood for me.

[lrai]

Okay I am over 21 and the best wine I ever had was a bottle from Mastantuono Vineyards in Templeton, CA and it was their 1986 Centennial Zinfandel made from vines that were 100 years old and this was the last harvest from those vines. It was complex and you could even taste the "dirt" or so it seemed. It was also the most expensive bottle of wine I had ever purchased at that time, I think it was nearly $50 and this was 1989. I then found two more bottles at Liquor Barn that had been wrongly priced and I bought them both for $2 each. Yes, what a find! Growing up in California I loved that I could travel the state and taste some of our best wines. Before coming to China to teach I worked with the California Tourism Board creating AgTourism for the Central Coast of California in the late 1990s. I am a little biased but the Central Coast of California has some of the best whites and reds anywhere in the world. My favorite wine is Merlot...okay don't hate me but I do like it. I also like a well aged Chardonnay and the best sparkling wine I have ever had the pleasure of drinking came from Arroyo Grande, CA; Maison Duetz Winery and their au naturale style. I spent a lot of time at wineries creating marketing materials that were used to promote AgTourism for the Central Coast, those are some of my fondest memories of my past life.

[Linda7Italian]

Best tea, coffee and chocolate, the hot drinks? I don't do tea but the other two...Italy, senza dubbio! While going to "school in Lucca my "host" Cristina would not let me leave until I'd had at least two cups of her own special brand coffee, and I still don't know what it was to this day though Lavazza comes pretty close.

Methinks beer and wine probably needs a whole new thread;-)

[Linda7Italian]

And just this morning I was listening to the "wireless" and they were talking about how delicious is the new "mushroom coffee". The what?! I can't think of anything less delicious than mushroom coffee; I love all pasta with mushrooms (i funghi) or mushrooms on toast or even on their own but with coffee? If anybody has tried it, would you recommend it?

[lrai]

Don't know about mushroom coffee but I have had weasel coffee and it was actually pretty good.

[Linda7Italian]

Weasle, eek! Interestingly there are many Google clips with lots of sensible advice in view of the exhooorbitant price of mushroom coffee and its possible medicinal benefits. Not for me. I'm happily sipping my Lavazza from Torino as we speak

[MoniqueMaRie]

Mushroom coffee probably falls into the same category as Dubai chocolate...

[LICA98]

I only drink ice tea and ice coffee and those taste pretty much the same anywhere

[MoniqueMaRie]

I only drink ice tea and ice coffee and those taste pretty much the same anywhere

Are ice tea and ice coffee always sweetened?

[HeyMarlana]

@MoniqueMaRie In Canada, you can find bags or tins of iced tea, already in a mix, just add water. They're all sweet. Common brands are Good Host and Nestlé.

Some will have an option with less sugar or with an artificial sweetner, but the culture here expects iced tea to be sweet. I think in the US (though I'm not completely sure), some Americans will specify "sweet tea" when ordering out, so that what they are getting isn't just iced tea on its own, sans sucre.

As for iced coffee, rather the same, except most people will go out to buy a coffee, and it will be loaded with cream and sugar, if not with real ingredients then something similar to make it so.

[PtolemysXX]

Are ice tea and ice coffee always sweetened?

There is a Japanese type of unsweetened black coffee sold in tiny cans:

iced coffee no sugar.png (120.05 KiB) Viewed 90 times

It tastes like 3-4 cold espressos without sugar - kind of "hard core bitter coffee".
Then there is cold brew that can be drunk with ice and it tastes better without any sugar.

[Stasia]

The best coffee and chocolate that I tried are produced in the Quillabamba region of Peru, and they taste the best when you participated in the harvesting and processing of the cocoa pods and coffee beans. While most cities that I know have uninviting smells (like dust, pollution, and/or pee), Quillabamba smells like chocolate. If heaven exists, that's what heaven must smell like!

While coffee was domesticated in Ethiopia (Encyclopaedia Britannica), for chocolate the process happened twice, as the cocoa tree was independently domesticated in Central and South America (Nature). According to chocolate growers there is a subtle flavour difference between the Mexican and Amazonian chocolate, but I can't tell.