So, of course, my go-to beverage is Burge Meester, but sometimes you can’t enjoy a 12% whenever you want. Well, you could still try to enjoy it, but your colleagues or clients might judge you… So, to avoid any holier-than-thou comments or looks from people, you have to drink other things, and maybe you go for an iced coffee.
I used to like 7-11 iced coffee (iced lattes). I think they are called “City Cafe” but for our purposes we’ll just call them 7-11 coffees. Lately, however, I’ve noticed that many 7-11 outlets have ice machines that spit out ice into your (hopefully reusable) cup. This ice is often chipped ice, smaller than the normal ice cubes that came in the plastic bags they used to dump into your cup. Do you know what I’m saying? Instead of the plastic bags of ice, many stores are now using ice from a machine, and this new ice is not good for an iced coffee. I’m drinking a Coke or a Pepsi? I can have chipped (or whatever the term is) ice. I order an iced latte? Please give me ice cubes, thank you. How can Uni President be so obtuse, thinking people enjoy chipped ice in their iced coffee drinks? Or maybe their market research tested only psychos who like it? I really don’t know. Can you still ask for ice cubes?
tl;dr: I don’t like the new ice machines at the Seven. They are bad.
I also definitely noticed this and have been favoring the local store that–for now–still is using ice CUBES from bags. But I was at another store with a machine the other day, and the chunks seemed to be bigger. Not cubes, but not tiny chips. So maybe the machines are adjustable?
Adjustable would be good! Seems reasonable. I just prefer to be outraged than seek a possible solution, but to be fair, I really should ask. Thanks for the info!
Great! You’re not stuck, you’re a free agent. And you can turn this disappointment into an opportunity: to sample some of the products of the competitors. Who knows? You might find one, or three, that may be really good!
I’m sure they are good! Great even. But a latte at Louisa is, what, 90 NT? And it’s gotta be even more than Camma (Cama?) If you couldn’t tell from my handle, I like my beer cheap, and the same goes for my iced coffee!
Louisa! The key point with those guys is that they actually run two espressos: one is the basic cheaper blend of beans, the other costs I think NT$10 more and is called “zhuang yuan”—worth it, at least for me, for a pleasant nutty iced latte. Cost for a medium sized cup: NT$80, cheaper if you bring your own cup.
Cama is not, I think significantly cheaper than this, and I think their roasting is quite hit-and-miss. But they too have their fans, and who knows maybe your local branch does better work than the one near my office.
I’m not a massive drinker of iced coffee or 7-11 coffee, but I’ve had a couple of the iced strong americanos recently (because I needed to caffeinate before going into a bar and I didn’t want to wait for the hot versions to cool down), at I think two different stores, and I didn’t notice anything untoward.
I actually prefer the ice machine chipped ice (I always bring my own bottle which has a strainer). The reason is that they can better fit two large coffees + ice into my Hello Kitty 水壺.
I think that each 7-11 still has bags of ice cubes, if you ask. Last week I bought coffee (at a store that has previously been regularly using said ice machine) and they reached into their mini-freezer and retrieved ice cubes. They know my order and to use half a bag. I asked why not use the ice machine and they replied that both the machine and regular packs of cubes were viable options (strong paraphrase here, ).
P.S. 7-11’s 濃萃美式咖啡, in my unsophisticated opinion, is quite good! Who knew
But I want the ice to melt, so it cools the hot coffee down to ice temperature. Then I can slam the coffee within 3-4 minutes, chew a few of the ice cubes/chips, and throw the remaining ice away. And the strong americano offsets any wateriness.
I’m not Guy, all savoring it and looking for the floral notes and shit. I’m a functional coffee drinker.
Is that the one sold as “strong americano” or something like that, I think number 12 on the menu?
I noticed a couple of days ago in passing that “espresso” was mentioned at the bottom of the menu again, but it was only NT$15-ish so I’m guessing it was for an extra shot. I used to buy double espressos in Family Mart from time to time, but I haven’t seen them for ages.
I just usually order 濃美去冰. I think that’s “strong Americano” as you mentioned.
There’s very often a deal offered, such as buy 2, get one free. If I only can fit two in my bottle, they give me a receipt and write on it that I have one cup/serving left. I
I’m not sure if all locations do this, but I’ve seen many places where you can pre-order ~50 cups at a big discount. They’ll physically write down your purchase and deduct cups as you use them, giving you phone number when you come in to claim your coffee as you need/want. Maybe it’s a South-Central thing, but it definitely exists.
