Right, but "uniform espresso" is exactly what I mean when I say Italy has "decent espresso at every corner". In the Netherlands, where I live, it's "every place has a different variation of awful slop", except for a handful of good coffee places (that then may suffer from hipster problem of serving sour^H^H^H^H fruity coffee".
So yes, when people praise Italian coffee it's because you're pretty much guaranteed it will be ok.
Heh, I don’t know, uniform could be good if I could pay 2 Euros and get something that is not very bitter, or very sour, or the machine has not been cleaned, or… but uniform in style, doesn’t mean consistent in quality.
I’m also in NL and tbh while it goes sometimes horribly bad (also when visiting people, they offer you a coffee but you end up with a kut senseo…) it’s on average actually quite ok… but I only drink a regular “koffie” here unless it’s a fancy coffee place, so maybe that’s the secret :)
>that then may suffer from hipster problem of serving sour^H^H^H^H fruity coffee"
I learned to appreciate the fruity coffee of light roasts, but it is an acquired taste. If you want bitter roasts that tastes like burnt ash, get any Starbucks.
I’m sure one could learn to appreciate all the different aromas, yes, and hat doing so would be an amusing and interesting pursuit. However, I have enough hobbies and interests already and don’t need another one. I just want coffee that sort of resembles what you can get at every street corner in Italy.
Agreed on Starbucks being roasted too hard, though. I suspect that’s because most of their coffee will be diluted by large amounts of milk and sugary stuff and this way some of the bitter flavor people associate with coffee.
So yes, when people praise Italian coffee it's because you're pretty much guaranteed it will be ok.