HEAVENLY COFFEE

Thanks, Sprostoni. I should add that my dear husband bought some coffee at Sant' Eustachio and tried really hard to copy the one we had there... the result was not very satisfactory. I think it is very difficult to duplicate. It smells good, though.....

My 'house coffee' has been Kimbo "Black" for aeons. I would stock up on it whenever it came on 'special offer', and was delighted to get 250g for €1,99. So, my coffee supply had run out, and what price did I see - €3.19 for 250g. I'm sorry, that is just TOO expensive to contemplate, so I bought a pack of the Coop own brand espresso casa at €1,63 (plus a pack of Kimbo black in case the 'own brand' was undrinkable). Well, the Coop brand was certainly drinkable, and I would say a great deal less than €1,60 "worse" than the Kimbo (the difference in price benig about €1,60). So that was ten days ago, and the coffee stock situation was gettnig low - blow me if the Coop own brand hasn't gone above the €2,00 mark! I hear that in the commodities market coffee is 'on a run' - the crack is that this is down to 'speculators' - I dunno. But, do you know what unexpected consequences this has on the Italian economy? I'll tell you. It costs me 80 cents to drink a coffee in a bar.  I decide that, because it now costs me 60% more to make DIY coffee at home (due, possibly, to speculators) I will simply not buy coffee in bars, and if I drink two less coffees in a bar I can pay the extra €1,60 for the pack of coffee in the supermarket. This is all complete madness - the bar cannot up the cost of an espresso because the regione has 'fixed' it: does this mean they are still able to source coffee beans at the 'old price'? I doubt it.  They are not making as much profit as they did before on coffee, and people like me are nipping in to buy fags and not buying the coffee. Buying the coffee was a social thing - it used to be almost obligatory (because just nipping in for fags was a bit rude) - but everyody can cope with 'rude' when they have the piss taken out of them by the price asked for  supermarket coffee. Rant over - maybe it is called globalisation. But when your favourite bar closes the shutters finally, and there is nowhere for the ancients to socialise - it is something to regret, I think.