Coffee Makers
Apparently, one can purchase over 15 drinks, including shots, for under $75 US at Kibbutz bars. I made it a point to buy the first round on new years. There's something inherently gratifying about picking up the tab befo tore people can realize it – and doing it first is a great way to ensure future drinks purchased for you by others. Alcoholic dividends, I suppose (I guess it's not completely al-cohol-truistic.
I am continually struck by the similarities between Israel and California. Warm client, diverse terrain, driving everywhere, McDonalds all over...
Coffee-maker technology has seemed to escape the Israelis – everywher you go, it's instant coffee. With such devotion to the crap, it doesn't surprise me that Starbucks packed up and left.
Admittedly I haven't been going out as much as I would've thought, but that probably has a lot to do with the absence of places to go. Carlsberg Beer is fairly prevalent here – and it is quite good on tap. I shall have to remember to order it more during my next trip to the Brickskeller. I did finally get to try a Goldstar Lager, which was a dark beer. I was quite impressed.
As I type now, we're pulling away from the Galil Mountain Winery. Aside from an over the top, sexually charged, intro video – the wine was quite good. I wasn't too impressed with their Yiron blend – their flagship wine. But they had an excellent Pinot Noir, of which I picked up a few bottles.
One of the absolute best pieces of the trip is the friends I am making. While most of the people here are New Yorkers (which is really feeding a desire to move to NYC), there are at least a few people here with whom I'm fairly certain I will keep close contact. Many of the photos you see of me on here and Flickr were taken by my friend Stacy who is a professional wedding photographer. If you need wedding photos in the NYC area, let me know and I will put you in touch with her. I also know a good one in DC – but I digress.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Coffee Makers.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.mikesager.net/mt/mt-tb.cgi/16
I blame Israel's lack of freshly ground coffee on two factors: 1. Israelis are impatient and 2. Nestle. Nestle makes a fairly bad instant coffee branded "NesCafé", which, when roughly translated into Hebrew, means "MiracleCoffee". The Israelis loved this pun SO much, that "MiracleCoffee" (and it's generic knock-offs) ALL THE FREAKING TIME. It's the same with cellphones, which they call "PelePhone" instead of "Cellular Telephone" (again, roughly meaning "MiraclePhone"), which is why Israelis also NEVER STOP TALKING ON THE DAMN CELL PHONE. It's a strange country.
--Jeff
Sorry, Mike, but I take issue with your taking issue with Israeli coffee.
There are two amazing coffee chains in Israel: Aroma and Hillel. I prefer Aroma because they make a very yummy "Cafe Aroma" which involves chocolate, which can never be a bad thing. They melt a blob of chocolate praline into your coffee. Yum.
Also, you need to order "cafe hafooch." That's akin to a cafe americano / cafe latte, loosely. But it tastes close to an American coffee, but better.
Don't order the nes cafe powder stuff (unless you like that, which I sometimes kinda do, but that's because I learned to drink it on kibbutz at 5 am) or the cafe filter, which is kinda like American coffee filter coffee, but just for your own individual cup. They're cute, and not bad, but I suspect not what you're looking for.
Birthright just isn't clueing you in to the goodness that is Israeli coffee!