McCafé vs Starbucks

There is a war going on, particularly in North America, and it is over coffee. (Actually there are probably several real conflicts going on in the world over coffee - but that's for another day.)

It would seem that Goliath is taking on Goliath for the title of most popular (ie. most sales) of espresso based drinks. Business analysts seem to suggest that the Hamburgler is stealing market share from the mermaid, but there is rarely mention of taste. So the good folks at Coffee Review decided to simply test a few drinks from both establishments - McDonald's McCafé and Starbucks.

Four drink types were tested: Cappuccino; Latte; Mocha; Caramel Latte.

You can read the full article here. Or if you can't be bothered I'll tell you the results.


When it came to price McCafé was always cheaper. But it would seem that you get what you pay for and Starbucks had the edge for quality. That said, the regular latte was rated as pretty much equal.

The research didn't take into account that compared to the "speciality coffee" sector neither of these companies produce excellent coffee. It was simply a test between brands.

You might like to have a go at this research yourself!

For what it's worth though, I'd take a Whopper with cheese over a Big Mac any day.

Flat White Cafe

This past week I was in London for a meeting. I managed to get over a little ahead of time (while the wife and kids were at home with a virus - oops) and decided to use those moments of solitude wisely...drinking coffee.

God bless the Interweb. A quick search for great coffee in London brought up a few choices which I was able to narrow down and plan a route from one to the next. I managed to have a couple of really good coffees, but the one that stood out for me was Flat White cafe. Run by some Aussies and named after a classic Oz style of coffee, the small cafe is located on Berwick Street in London's Soho district. The walk along the street takes you past such establishments as the Gourmet Hot Dog, Pastry Pilgrimage, and a collection of XXX clubs with peep shows for a fiver - do yourself a favour and spend the money on thrilling yourself with a couple of Flat White espressos.

Ah, the espresso. I placed my order and then asked them if they minded me watching them pull the shot. They were more than happy to and willingly answered my questions while doing so. The results were amazing (and I told them so). This short drink was the best espresso I've had - like the latte equivalent at Intelligentsia.

Many people would balk at the idea of drinking a double shot of espresso - too bitter. Not this one. It was smooth and bright, had a great crema and an incredible sweetness - almost too sweet. Delicious.

Of course, I also ordered a flat white. Also very good.

I'm back in London again this week with my (now healthy) family. If I can talk my wife into a visit...

By the way, a flat white is a bit like a latte, but with less foam on the top.

Bald Barista wins best espresso again!

I managed to get down to the Bald Barista again this evening - I've been a few times since I originally blogged about it. When I got there the man himself was particularly upbeat, and for good reason. The cafe has just today been voted as serving Dublin's best espresso according to The Dubliner magazine. The cafe won the same accolade last year from the Irish Times. However, this time the survey was done by a secret espresso drinker (can I have that job next year???) who discovered that attention to detail and quality is presented in every cup.

I have to say that the blend used does produce a flavour that I haven't yet experienced elsewhere in Dublin and after a few visits now it is growing on me more and more. Tonight's shot actually seemed that little bit extra special.

The article will appear in the special summer issue of The Dubliner - so I'd like to think that I might be blogging an exclusive breaking news story!

Anyway, congratulations to the Bald Barista. If readers are ever in the south inner city area of Dublin go check out the cafe on Aungier Street. It's about a five minute walk from St Stephen's Green.

An Apologetic for God

Sometimes when I take a book with me for coffee I hope to find something inspirational and thought provoking, but end up coming away disappointed. At other times I take a book or a magazine with no real expectations and come away with new insights or ideas. The espresso must have been good because the latter is what happened to me this evening. Reading a few remarks about suffering caused my mind to wander and think, ending in me formulating an apologetic for God (as if God needed someone like me to defend him - which is what an apologetic is, rather than apologising for God).

It went something like this.

When people experience suffering (in whatever circumstances it may be) there will always be some who blame God. Fair enough.

However, many people would cite suffering as proof that God does not exist:

"How can there possibly be a god when I see this child suffering from cancer?" Also understandable.

So I started thinking to myself, what if that same person imagined that God did exist? Would they resort to the same response as the first person above - namely to blame God for suffering? Quite possibly.

However, by their own admission God could not exist because of suffering, therefore who do you blame for the misery that envelopes so many people? Clearly not God because he doesn't exist. Yet suffering continues. It would just seem that bad things happen to some people (while others experience good).

So I began to wonder, would it be possible to bring God back into the equation despite the suffering in the world. Now God exists, but this time does not become the target of blame because stuff just happens. Suffering in the world can't be proof of a world without God.

Ah, but if there is suffering in the world and God exists, then why doesn't he do something about it? Why doesn't he cure that sick child? I suppose my honest answer is that I don't know, but that is wholly unsatisfactory. So perhaps I should answer that maybe God will do something about it.

St Paul wrote some famous words suggesting that despite what happens in life three things should remain: faith, hope and love. I like the idea of faith and hope. It has a particular optimism that says things could be different.

There was once a man in an ancient land who, for whatever reason, was sentenced to death. His pleas to the king for mercy where to no avail until he came up with an idea. "Your majesty," groveled the man, "if you spare my life for one year I will teach your horse to fly". Intrigued, the king granted a 365 day extension to the man's life. When questioned later by one of the servants as to why the man made such a ridiculous promise, the man replied, "In one year I may die anyway. Or the king may die! Or, who knows, I may even be able to teach that horse to fly."

To me this simple illustration speaks in someway about faith and hope in times of adversity. But what do we do in the meantime for those who suffer as we wait in faith and hope for a change of circumstances? What can we do? We love.

But is loving through suffering something God can relate to?

Not everything lucky is good for you

I sat at a table by the window this evening so I could occasionally watch the world go past my latte. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a cyclist seemingly toss a packet of cigarettes on to the roadside. I found this quite annoying and couldn't understand why he didn't just find a bin to throw them away.

A few minutes later a man came walking down the street, saw the packet and gave it a good kick a little further down the road. Now I was getting cross! How could someone take an interest in a piece of rubbish only up to the point of kicking it, but not disposing of it?

Soon enough another cyclist came across the packet, but this time he stopped and picked it up. Hooray! Someone with a social conscience for the well-being of our planet. Then this cyclist flipped open the lid, looked inside and smiled. He pulled out a cigarette, popped it in his mouth and cycled off.

I wondered, who was the victim of a negative outcome in that interchange?

Bob Dylan and my brother-in-law

If you're a fan of music that speaks to the deeper aspects in life you might like to head over to my brother-in-law's blog, Songs for the Journey.

Nick hasn't been blogging for a while, but the arrival of Bob Dylan's new record seems to have brought about the inspiration needed to get writing again.

For me, Songs for the Journey would go well with a nice flat white - good quality with no froth.

The Bald Barista

I've gone past it so many times. Sometimes in a car. Sometimes on a bike. Occasionally on a bus. Always in a bit of a hurry to get somewhere else. So last week I was determined to pay a visit to the Bald Barista - but it was closed. They, along with too many other cafes in Dublin, close at 8:00pm, so I opted for The Joy of Coffee instead as I hadn't been there in a while.

But this week I got the kids out of the bath a little earlier than they would have liked in order to get them in bed and get out! (I didn't leave them alone of course. My wife was home.) I headed on my bike for the couple of miles down to Aungier Street just in time to get in before they closed.

At the counter a sign proudly recognizes the cafe as serving 'Dublin's best espresso' as voted for by The Irish Times in 2008. Clearly this was where I should start. The barista, who wasn't bald, but for all I know could have been the man himself in disguise, pulled a nice looking shot of espresso and told me I couldn't have it until I named the band that was currently playing on the CD. I couldn't, and would never have guessed The Doors at all. Fortunately he was gracious enough to give me my little cup anyway, although this may have been because I had already paid for it - which at €1.50 for either a single OR double shot is certainly the best value espresso in Dublin!

I was just saying to my wife this afternoon that I'd like to attend some sort of coffee appreciation class, so I thought I'd have a preliminary go at picking out flavours in the cup. I stood at the counter and had a couple of slurps before chancing my arm and saying, 'There's quite a floral taste there, I think.' To which I fully expected the barista to say something like, 'No, you idiot. There's a caramel and honey base with a hint of cherry and some chocolaty notes with grapefruit riding through.' But he didn't. He just looked at me for a moment and asked, 'Is this your first time here?', then followed that up with a couple of extra stamps on my new loyalty card. The Gracious Barista.

As I watched (with interest and envy) as he poured me a great rossetta on my latte I quipped that it was a shame they closed at 8:00pm, but he didn't think so. I guess he was tired. Fair enough. Fortunately the cafe is located in Avalon House - a backpackers hostel. So even though the espresso stopped flowing I could sit in the cafe for another hour reading my book.

I'll definitely be back. Not just for the espresso, but because the international flavour of people watching is fun too.

Someone's painful road to Calvary

Life, as beautiful as it is, causes us to ask many questions. The life of faith, which can be just as beautiful, can also provoke the same reaction. For me, one of the greatest questions centres around the events that are remembered over the Easter weekend. The latter part of the celebrations, the resurrection, I actually have very little trouble with. It seems, in essence, a perfectly reasonable and (super-)natural way to end the story. It is, however, the events surrounding the cross that I find so hard. But I was reminded this week in a daily email subscription that the resurrection follows the crucifixion; it does not erase it.

So once again I am left asking the question, why did Jesus die? What was the meaning of his death? Although this is a topic I have wrestled with for many years it isn't foremost in my mind most of the time. But of course this time of year demands giving it some thought. (I did a little thinking last year too: Part 1 and Part 2).

Tonight I took along a book to my local coffeehouse that presents various views of the atonement (the meaning behind Christ's death) through history. For sometime now I have been wanting to study more about the idea of liberation and victory as a consequence of the cross. So I read a little about Irenaeus and his understanding of the atonement. This is a theory from the very early days of the church which grew in popularity up until medieval times, became almost extinct during the Enlightenment, but started to gain popularity again during the first half of the 20th Century through the work of Gustaf Aulen's book Christus Victor (ie. the victorious Christ). The theory goes something like this:

Whether through voluntary action or external coercion, human beings have "fallen" under the control of oppressive and dehumanising powers - typically described as sin, Satan and death. (The Bible presents this through the story of Adam and Eve and their willingness to submit to the seductive ways of the 'serpent'.) Therefore humanity forever struggles with the realisation that they too often do the things they know (somehow) that they shouldn't do, and too often don't do the things that they should.

Since people cannot free themselves from this cycle of being, Jesus Christ appears as the power of God to liberate human beings. God becoming incarnate (meaning 'in the flesh') was able to share in the life of his creation and become subject to those pressures and sufferings that all humans face - the ultimate pressure being death. But by going through death and into life (the resurrection) Christ is shown as victorious over all oppressive powers - even the sting of death.

By his life, death and resurrection, Jesus Christ inaugurates a new age and a new community of freedom, marked by inclusivity and equality. The Church is then meant to be the sign of this new age witnessing to the victory of God over the powers that attempt to pull us down.

I find this theory quite exciting, but very humbling. As the words Tim Rice put in the mouth of Jesus say, 'to conquer death you only have to die'.

I want to explore this area further looking into the theology of liberation, but as I was reading and thinking about these things this evening it struck me that theology is all well and good, but is of little use if it can't be rooted in real life:

For the last few weeks now I have noticed a small group of people enter the coffeehouse at the same time each Thursday. Not always the same people, but certainly a core group of them that I have come to recognise. I had wondered why they always seemed to show up with such regularity, thinking that they must meet there first before heading out to a pub or club somewhere. This evening I figured out the opposite was true. It became apparent that they had all just come from a local AA meeting. One young man in particular seemed to be receiving some extra support as the others offered him various prayer cards, mini rosaries and good luck trinkets to help him in his sobriety.

What, I thought to myself, does Christ the Liberator say to that man? It seems a little too easy to say (and perhaps a little trite) that claiming the all sufficient power of God can free you from your addiction. While I believe that liberation is possible the process has to start somewhere. I soon contemplated that for that man, and for myself, it starts with a deep surrender of ourselves and the painful road to a cross where I may need to die to myself in order for a liberated life to arise.

Shortest of stories

One of the community projects that we run as part of our ministry is a toddler group called Paintbox. As part of the morning I do some storytelling, usually along with whatever the theme was for the day. So, to help me prepare for telling the fable of the Wind and the Sun I took along a copy of Aesops Complete Fables to the coffehouse to read some of the other 357 fables.

They are quite nice to read because they are so short, but leave you with something to think about at the end. So here's a few for you:

The Traveller and Chance

A man was worn out after a long journey, so he threw himself down beside a well and went to sleep. He would have certainly fallen in, but Chance [Tyche] appeared and woke him up, saying:
'Hey friend! If you had fallen down the well you wouldn't have blamed your own foolishness - you would have blamed me.'

Thus, plenty of people who meet with misfortune through their own fault blame it on the gods.


The Flies

Some flies had found some spilled honey in a cellar and started to eat it. It was such a sweet feast that they couldn't stop. But their feet became stuck to the spot so that they couldn't take flight. And, as they began to suffocate, they said:
'How wretched we are! We are dying for a moments pleasure.'

Gluttony is often the cause of much harm.


The Man Bitten by a Dog

A man who had been bitten by a dog roamed far and wide, looking for someone to heal his wound. Someone told him that all he had to do was wipe the blood from his wound with some bread and throw the bread to the dog which had bitten him. To this the injured man replied:
'But if I did that, every dog in the city would bite me.'

Similarly, if you indulge someone's wickedness, you provoke him to do even more harm.


The Horse and the Groom

A groom used to steal his horse's barley and sell it. To make up for it he spent the whole day grooming and currying the horse, who said to him:
'If you really want to see me look good, don't sell the barley that is intended to feed me.'

Thus, greedy people trick poor people with their seductive talk and with flattery, while depriving them of their bare necessities.

Suggestion Box

The local coffeehouse that I most often go to has been under new management for a while - although there haven't been huge changes that I can tell. (Except they now sell homemade brownies instead of from some company, but manage to charge more!)

But on the way out this evening I noticed that they had a customer suggestion box on the counter. Suggestion boxes are a little odd I think. Slightly cruel. They seem to invite negative comments that are probably directed at people who probably never suggested having a suggestion box in the first place.

So I am facing a dilemma. Because, as it happens, this evening I did think to myself, there was way too much foam on my latte. Probably more that you should put on a cappuccino. I also noticed on the way out that the steam arm on the coffee machine wasn't getting cleaned right after it was used. Plus, (oh boy, I'm on a roll now) I think it would be worth their while grinding coffeebeans just before they are used - but that's starting to get technical and I'm not sure it is the kind of suggestion that they want. (But they do have the equipment to do it!)

The other dilemma is the placement of the box. You know full well that once you've paid for your coffee, dropped a note in the box and left that they will get it out straight away. There's no sense of anonymity.

Of course there's the question of would it make any difference anyway!?

Do you ever put notes in a suggestions box? Was it followed up?