Substack diary no.150: Monday, 11th. May 2026

Sipping a ‘regular’ cappuccino this morning made me think about some of the snobbery surrounding coffee. I like most of it, but draw the line at a coffee imposter.

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For a few mornings now I have, on a whim whose origins I am unsure of, had a ‘normal’ cappuccino, much as you might in a café in France or Italy. A single shot of espresso with a similar amount of steamed milk in what most English people would consider a ‘small’ cup. I suppose I just fancied a change which, considering I have cappuccino every morning, is perhaps understandable.

When I say ‘most English people’ I know some who think that drinking a small quantity of coffee in what they consider to be a stupidly-small cup is just plain weird. That’s a shame, but each to their own. In practice, I veer towards the ‘English’ way and have a double-espresso cappuccino most days – obviously in a slightly larger cup which, if I am out and about, tends to reduce the opprobrium of some of those around me. I can drink my coffee in peace.

Americans take things, as so often they do, to extremes, with giant mugs of coffee that could contain an extremely expensive 6 or so espressos. It is not, of course, all coffee, but generally half-and-half coffee and water, a drink we might call a ‘Long Black’ – and I enjoy those too.

I generalise of course. There are plenty of British people and Americans who love espresso, lungo, cappuccino and so on. And, like me, they probably enjoy a long black or a filter coffee too. In my book, it is all good. However, I draw the line at something I grew up with as a child; something I simply cannot drink because of its peculiarly unpleasant taste. “Would you like tea or coffee?” is a greeting I hear when visiting someone I do not know very well, or at all. “Tea” is always the correct answer, just to be on the safe side. Were I to reply “coffee” I might be presented with an insipid brown liquid that I simply do not like the taste of; a sort of coffee imposter. It’s called ‘instant coffee’ and comes from a time when we were duped by marketeers into thinking ‘instant’ was ‘modern’. As a child I can remember other abominations, like ‘instant’ mash that tasted nothing like potato. So, in a strangers house, tea it is!