No accounting for taste. Many think it heresy to use a Yirgacheffe for an espresso....

I found Arpi's posts and views interesting. I have belonged to several Forums and it takes the same form, a newbie, less informed person comes on the scene and challenges "common knowledge" based on the simplest of criteria, "his personal taste buds".... Like in a Stereo Forum where someone has a $10k Amp and the guy says he doesn't see a difference with his $350 kenwood.

What can one say ?

I have done a profound research in Italy as I live 1 hour from the border and travel all the time in Italia and speak Italian. Often when I am on the "Autostrada" I stop and take coffee, and often times am very very happy with the taste. I then ask the barman/women what coffee are they using and its almost always Illy or Lavazza commercial beans, used in top grinders Mazzers, Macaps and Machines always Cimbali, older Faema's or the like. It can be very very good, like a "blind tasting" you are surprised.

there are torrefazione where you can have fresh roasted beans in every town in Italy as well and really there can be no comparison.

You need look no further than looking at and smelling fresh roasted beans even before brewing to know what to expect.

I enjoy Lavazza on the Autostrada in Italia, but prefer fresh roasted when I can. I used to use lavazza at home before I became aware of the culture. In France where I live it is common in absolutely every town of certain size (not city) to have several Roasters. Even in my Town of Annecy France 50,000 there are many many Torrefication shops with more blends than I can go thru.

But don't deny Arpi the privilege of enjoying McDonalds Hamburgers over a Cotoletto di Vitello Italian style. My son prefers Frozen Pizza to Dover Sole. Its their inalienable right to choose and us to respect that choice.

Even though we know better

misterdoggy wrote:What can one say ?

One can say that some people just like to debate. I worked with a guy like that many years ago. In any discussion he instinctively took a contrarian position, and started firing salvos at the prevailing view. On the few rare occasions when he managed to convince the majority to change their opinion, he would then attempt to prolong the debate by reversing himself and second-guessing the new majority opinion.

What does this have to do with Arpi's posts? Maybe nothing, but I sure don't see any evidence of "okay, let's agree to disagree." Arpi's posts have sought to defend his position through scattershot salvos: appeals to pack mentality, bullying, dogma, the "staleness theory," sales figures ("looks like they do pretty good in Italy"), ratings at amazon.com, links to fellow contrarians, something called "psycomathematical proof," and even his own quotations -- which argue that there are so many degrees of freedom in taste that any conclusion is possible.

To me this is more heat than light, but hey: we can always agree to disagree.

Scott,

On Forums you're gonna find a lot of people that are on the outer edges of what you think is the way to behave, but you take it with a grain of sand (or a grain of coffee)

Don't fall in to anyones games, keep it fun, and don't take yourself or anyone else too seriously..

Just some friendly words of advice

Thanks for the sound advice, Bruce. Always a good idea to keep things light. And along those lines...

in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen wrote:
Mr. Bennet: For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?

Elizabeth: Oh, I am exceedingly diverted.

Ciao!

I prefer 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies', myself.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

From the back cover, "Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read. "

Of course, I keed.
Yeah, my take is that this guy has noticed a slump in his LaVazza sales in the US, and wants to try to get us to try some. I've had it as a gift, and as an emergency, and as the latter it beats Co-Cola, but I've always disliked sodapop.
I understand someone wanting to 'expose' coffee fanatics to something that he likes a lot, but I get lost when he insists that we're wrong when we suggest that we like other stuff.