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Coffee Pollutant No. 1: Cream
By Oliver Schwaner-Albright
The New York Times
June 9, 2008
International’s instant Hazelnut Belgian Café than add soy milk. After all, we’re now in the age of microlot
coffee, when beans are harvested and handled with the same care that goes into making wine, and the
flavors of an exceptional cup of coffee can be as layered and complex as a glass of pinot noir. Cream would
just ruin it.
If it sounds snobby, consider this: would you dab a Peter Luger porterhouse with ketchup? A slab of well-aged
beef needs nothing more than salt, pepper and a good char. There’s nothing arrogant about leaving the
Heinz out of it.
I’ve always been a half-and-half partisan. (I grew up on the West Coast where cream is the standard; I still don’
t understood why New York is such a milk town.) But in the last few years I’ve tasted some outstanding coffees
from roasters like Blue Bottle, Gimme, Intelligentsia , Stumptown and Terroir, and I’ve been converted to the
cult of black coffee. With exceptions made for cappuccinos, dairy is no longer an option.
It’s been a hard habit to give up. I’m reminded of the dining scene in “Defending Your Life,” where superior
beings eat little piles of gray sludge and tell Albert Brooks’s character that the food, in fact, is delicious, only
he isn’t smart enough to appreciate it. Sometimes I drink a cup of black coffee and I savor the intricate flavors.
But there are times I don’t feel smart enough, and I wish I had some cream.
By Oliver Schwaner-Albright
The New York Times
June 9, 2008
- Cream, along
with sugar, is
one of the
most basic
condiments in
the coffee
universe. And
by cream, I
mean milk
and all its
variants: half-
and-half,
whole, skim,
nonfat, soy,
rice.
- But is pouring
any kind of
cream in your
coffee a
categorical
mistake?
International’s instant Hazelnut Belgian Café than add soy milk. After all, we’re now in the age of microlot
coffee, when beans are harvested and handled with the same care that goes into making wine, and the
flavors of an exceptional cup of coffee can be as layered and complex as a glass of pinot noir. Cream would
just ruin it.
If it sounds snobby, consider this: would you dab a Peter Luger porterhouse with ketchup? A slab of well-aged
beef needs nothing more than salt, pepper and a good char. There’s nothing arrogant about leaving the
Heinz out of it.
I’ve always been a half-and-half partisan. (I grew up on the West Coast where cream is the standard; I still don’
t understood why New York is such a milk town.) But in the last few years I’ve tasted some outstanding coffees
from roasters like Blue Bottle, Gimme, Intelligentsia , Stumptown and Terroir, and I’ve been converted to the
cult of black coffee. With exceptions made for cappuccinos, dairy is no longer an option.
It’s been a hard habit to give up. I’m reminded of the dining scene in “Defending Your Life,” where superior
beings eat little piles of gray sludge and tell Albert Brooks’s character that the food, in fact, is delicious, only
he isn’t smart enough to appreciate it. Sometimes I drink a cup of black coffee and I savor the intricate flavors.
But there are times I don’t feel smart enough, and I wish I had some cream.
Photo: Jamie Rose for The New York Times