When "coffee" is not coffee

A little rant today-I know I'm on vacation but this is something that irks me continually and today I have the time to bitch and moan about it.

I really love my coffee-I don't have many vices (hah-wouldn't you like to know!) but FRESH coffee is one of them. I buy my coffee from La Colombe,

and it's the best that I've ever had. (I've never been to Italy, so I'll reserve judgement on the best in the world).

La Colombe is served in all the best restaurants in Philly, and many in NYC (soon to conquer the whole East Coast!), and the blends are very good; my favorite is their Corsica blend, but they have a French Roast type, and a decaf as well as a couple others. However, the MOST important factor in a good cup of coffee is the FRESHNESS! It's not enough to grind the beans yourself, although that helps; the most critical element is when and where the beans were roasted. La Colombe roasts their beans right in Philly, a couple miles away from their shops on Rittenhouse Square and in Manayunk, and they sell a lot of it and fast; this is what makes it SO GOOD.

Okay-you're wondering about the supposed rant..well now that I've explained my coffee snob/purist secrets, the rant will make so much more sense.

When Starbucks and their ilk started peddling coffee to the masses, some marketing genius decided to give the people all the sweet, yucky shit they desired and call it coffee. I really don't have a problem with lattes or soy milk. but when they add all those flavored syrups and who knows what else to the poor coffee, IT'S NOT COFFEE ANYMORE!!! I know, they use cutesy names like Frappachino and whatever, but in their scramble to appeal to the masses, these boneheads/geniuses (take your pick) drowned out the coffee, and it pisses me off. WTF is this?

Pat and I went to the Main Street Coffee shop this morning, and the place was mobbed with people looking for some cold refreshment after standing outside in the sun at the auction. I ordered an iced coffee (which, yes, I put some sugar and cream in) and Pat an iced decaf latte, but the damn blender was whirring up a storm making all these syrupy sweet delights and I just had to shake my head at the inanity of it all. The coffee was fresh and good but these numbnuts were obliterating it-

again I say-it's NOT COFFEE!

Rant over-back to your regularly scheduled ponies.