Nutraceutical is another term new to me. Add it to my growing vocabulary, along with prosumer, anosmia, autotomy, hyphenated, micro lot, and co-crops. Curious what nutraceuticals are? Read here. It has to do with using food as medicine.
But here’s another article to counter that, stating that coffee’s health benefits aren’t that straightforward.
Changing tack, have you ever heard of, or had, a flat white? I had never heard of it until I went to New Zealand in 2012. There, I had one, and then it was always flat whites while in NZ from that point on. I never had a bad one, and they seemed to be consistent no matter where I drank them. I like the coffee strength, the milk texture, the ratio of the two, and the amount of liquid to drink. I’ve tried them in many cafes in the US when I occasionally see them offered. But I was downright disappointed with many, and I have never been impressed, and they haven’t been consistent. I don’t care enough to drill down to the nitty gritties. I’m not a barista; I’m really just a casual customer. I just order it, drink it, and have my opinion about it. But I’ve been suspecting it might be the milk. New Zealand milk vs. US milk.
About consistency, maybe it’s an American thing? Take a scone. Here they can be cakey, bready, huge, mini, fluffy, dense, etc. I feel like they’re a more consistent product in the UK. A cappuccino in Italy seems to be more consistent than what you get in the US. Here there’s variation in the volume of liquid, the container it’s served in, the coffee strength, ratio, etc. Just my personal observation.
This article addresses what a flat white is and from where it debatably came.
In a more unusual direction, I came across this recipe for a lavender latte, with additional instructions for how to make an iced one. There was a pro tip that since “you’re adding so much flavor with the lavender simple syrup, this is not the time to pull out your expensive specialty light roast beans.” I had never heard of a lavender latte, and coincidentally a cafe near here posted a photo of theirs on Instagram, using their homemade lavender syrup. I haven’t tasted or created one. Maybe something for you?
I had a lavender latte recently with the flower pods sprinkled at the edge of the coffee. The heat of the coffee must have released the oils. It was like drinking aromatherapy. Lavender gelato is good too if you can find it.
Not sure if you enjoyed drinking aromatherapy, but since you said gelato was good TOO, I assume you did. I don’t think I’d enjoy it. 🙂