REAL ENGLISH: Going to the COFFEE SHOP

Hi, welcome to www.engvid.com . I'm Adam.

In today's video, I want to talk to you about coffee.

Everybody drinks it -- well, not everybody, but many people all around the world drink coffee.

It's a lovely drink.

I drink at least one cup every day, it wakes me up a little bit and it tastes good.

So, I want to give you some of the words you're going to need to understand coffee a little

bit and how to order coffee.

We're going to look at how to order coffee a little bit later on.

First, you need to know some of the vocabulary that you're going to hear and are going to

be expected of you in a coffee shop, okay?

Especially - at least in Canada, anyway.

So, let's start with the process.

First, we have our raw beans, beans grow on plants, okay?

The raw beans are picked and then they are - basically, they are harvested, collected,

they're picked, usually hand picked by the people, the locals in the area.

The most common type of bean is arabica, and it's actually the best quality bean and most

places serve arabica or some sort of blend or arabica and some other type, okay?

Now, I want to talk you about fair trade a little bit.

Sometimes, you're going to go a coffee shop or a supermarket to buy coffee and the label

will say it is a fair trade coffee.

Fair trade means that they don't exploit the locals there.

They don't take advantage of the countries or the people working in the farms and the

fields where the coffee beans grow, because generally the best coffee growers are in poorer

countries, so the rich countries can exploit the situation and pay them very little.

Fair trade means they get the true value of the coffee beans and everybody's happy.

The growers are happy, the pickers are happy, the customers, wherever they are, are happy,

okay?

Now, so you have your beans, they're harvested, they're ready to go.

What do you do next?

You roast them, basically cook the coffee beans, get them ready to process into coffee,

right?

Once you roast them, there are different levels of roasting.

You can make them dark, medium, or light.

Dark is a very strong, full-flavored coffee.

Light is a little bit weaker for people who don't really love the taste of coffee, but

they want the caffeine or they want just a little bit of a hint of coffee, right?

And again, sometimes you'll have blends where they mix the different roasts to create a

different flavor.

Coffee has caffeine, that is the chemical, basically, that keeps you wake, gets your

blood flowing a little bit and it's actually quite addictive.

If you try to quit drinking coffee, for the first few days, you may have headaches, and

then it'll go away and you'll be fine, which is why a lot of people drink decaf, decaffeinated

coffee, where the caffeine has been taken out.

Now, just keep in mind, the darker the roast, the less caffeine, alright?

That's how they actually get the caffeine out of it.

Now, once these are roasted, they are ground.

Now ground like the ground, this a verb, to ground, means they become grinds, right?

So, the bean, okay, the bean is crushed in and made into little pieces that become coffee.

Now, you can have coarse or you can have fine.

So, you have different levels of how small you want the coffee - little coffee bean pieces

to be.

Fine, to be espresso, coarse, to be percolator, for example, depending how you're going to

cook the coffee.

But, again, we don't say "cook", we say brew.

You brew the coffee.

You also brew beer, but basically, you mean - it means you let the beans sit in hot, boiling

water for a period of time to get all the flavor out of them, okay?

Now, when you roast the coffee beans, when you cook - brew them, they give off an aroma,

so we don't say the smell of the coffee, we say the aroma, okay?

It means the smell.

In Canada, we also have a coffee chain called "Aroma", which is actually a very good name

for a coffee chain.

Now, so you have your coffee, it's all brewed, now you're getting ready to serve it, okay?

There are different ways to serve coffee, different coffee-based drinks you can make.

I put instant in paragraphs because some people don't consider this real coffee, okay?

It is real coffee, but it doesn't taste exactly like real coffee.

So instant, you put it into a cup, pour in boiling water, your coffee's ready.

Otherwise, you have to do it - make them in different ways.

You can have your coffee black, which means no milk, no cream, or nothing.

You can have white, but we don't really say white, but just so you have an understanding

of what it looks like.

So white basically means it has milk or cream or soy milk or almond milk, all types of different

ways to make it white these days, and if it's skinny, skinny coffee, it means low fat milk,

okay?

Low fat milk.

So, if you order a skinny coffee or a skinny cappuccino, they'll use low fat milk in that.

So, how are you going to drink your coffee?

Well, you can have an espresso.

Oh, I forgot the "o" here.

Espresso.

Notice it's not "ex-resso", there's no "x" in this word.

Espresso.

S, okay?

This is a very strong coffee, usually served in a little cup, a tiny little cup like this

in one shot, okay?

One shot of espresso can be used to make other drinks.

So, you can have a single shot, double shot, triple shot, or a quad.

Now, if you're having a quad, either you're having a very big coffee or you're getting

a serious caffeine buzz and you're going to be bouncing off the walls.

So, if you're going to be taking a test, just a little side note, don't have an espresso

before the test, because you'll be very energetic to start and then halfway through the test

you'll be like, falling asleep, so not a good idea.

So, shots.

You have long shot, you can have a short shot, okay?

Sometimes, people say double or they just say long.

Long means an extra shot.

Short just means a single shot, okay.

Now, you can also have an Americano.

Americano is an espresso with however many shots you want, plus extra hot water.

It looks like a regular drip coffee, like a regular coffee from the pot, but it's espresso

made in the espresso machine with extra hot water.

A latte basically means milk, so it's a coffee with a little bit of espresso, lots of milk

on top.

A cappuccino is basically the same as a latte, but it has espresso, the milk and then the

milk is steamed.

The milk is steamed, so it looks a little bit foamy.

Now, if you're not sure what foam is, think about a bubble bath.

In your bathtub, you put special soap and you have all these little bubbles, that is

called foam.

You can have the same foam, except not soap, it's just milk, but you can have the same

foam in your coffee, and that's your cappuccino.

Now, a lot of places will sell you gourmet coffee, okay, how do we pronounce this?

"Goor-may", okay?

It's a French word, it basically means extra good quality and extra good flavor, okay?

In many cases, it's just a promotion to change you more money.

In some cases, it's just higher quality coffee and whatever.

You can have all kinds of gourmet coffees with different mixes.

You can have it with alcohol sometimes, etc.

Of course, you can also have an ice coffee, which is generally coffee poured over ice

and you drink it cold, which is actually quite nice in the summertime.

Now, when we talk about coffee, just like we talk about wine, there's different levels

of quality, different levels of taste.

And we also talk about body, okay?

So, a wine has body.

A coffee also has body.

It means if it's like, rich, or if it's light, or if it's smooth, or if it's, etc.

Now, most coffee is bitter, which is why people put sugar in it, but the levels of bitterness change.

It could be bland.

Now, bland coffee is not really good.

But again, some people like it.

Some people order, like, light.

Like, if you go to Starbucks, for example, they'll call it a blonde.

But it just basically means light, it's not too much coffee flavor, not too bitter.

It could be earthy, which means it tastes like the earth, it has that hint of the plant

and the hint of the ground itself.

It could be fruity, depending what they mix the plants with, it has a little fruit flavor

to it, like wine.

And acidity, basically the sour taste of the coffee.

Now, I did forget to mention that all of these things you will be telling your barista.

A barista is the person who makes and serves your coffee in the coffee shop.

To be honest, I don't think this word became popular until just a few years ago, and again,

I think Starbucks started using it, but again, it's a coffee handler.

Just like a sommelier handles wine, a barista handles coffee.

Now, how do you make your coffee?

A few different ways.

You can use a drip, which is basically you have like a container with all the coffee

grinds, and water just drips on top of it, soaks inside the beans, and then comes out

the other end.

Filter is the same idea, you have like a paper filter and the coffee - the water just goes

through it.

Basically, filter - drip uses a paper filter, more or less.

A percolator, you have coffee on the top of your coffee pot, water underneath, the water

boils and as it boils, it basically like jumps up and down, so the water jumps up into the

coffee and soaks it and let it do this for a little while and all the flavor comes back

down into the water and then you pour your coffee and drink it.

And then there's the French press.

You basically - you put it into a container, put the coffee grinds, put the boiling water,

let it sit for a while, and then you press down with a mesh, okay, which is basically

a sheet of metal with lots of tiny little holes, so as you're pushing down, the water

can come through, but the grinds are pushed down to the bottom and then you pour your

coffee and drink it.

So, that's the French press.

Now, these are basically the words you're going to need to know in terms of coffee.

Now, let's look at how you're going to order one in a coffee shop.

Okay, so before I go on, let me just say one thing.

I may have scared you a little bit with all these words, but keep in mind that most people

are creatures of habit.

So, this is a good expression, meaning that you will probably do the same thing over and

over again and when you go order your coffee, you already know which one you like, that's

the one you should concentrate on.

Go to your favorite coffee shop, figure out which drink you like, and just learn how to

say that.

But still, good idea to know all the different words.

For me, I'm the easiest, black, no sugar, always.

That's what I drink, black coffee, no sugar, very simple.

Other people need a little bit more work.

So, first thing you're going to tell them is the size of the coffee you want.

You walk into a coffee shop.

Small, and again, some coffee shops have different words, so small is tall, medium is grande,

large is venti.

If you go to any particular stores that use those words.

Now, generally speaking, and again, this is more Canada and the US, they will very easily

understand you if you say, "I'll have a small, black, no sugar."

Easy.

"I'll have a small, black, two sugar".

Now, when you say "two sugar", it basically means two teaspoons, two teaspoons of sugar,

or two sweetener, two little bags of sweetener, whatever they use, right?

Now, if you say, "I'll have a small regular", regular means one cream, one sugar, okay?

If you say "double double", it'll be two cream, two sugar.

Keep in mind that if you don't say anything, they will give you cream.

If you don't want cream, but you want milk, make sure you say that.

I'll have a small, regular milk, okay?

The regular part stays the same, one and one, milk instead of cream.

I'll have a small double double with milk, or just milk is fine, and they'll understand,

two milk, two sugar.

Okay?

Now, if you want to get a little bit more fancy, like you have all these fancy drinks,

like just an example, medium cappuccino, extra shot, skinny.

Now again, I don't drink these types of drinks so I don't know all the language of the places

that have all these fancy drinks.

Learn the drink you like, learn the words you need to say them, to make sure the person

understands how to pronounce these words, like cappuccino, capp-uh-chi-no, right?

Go in, say it every time, and you'll be served fine.

Now, if you like to go to Starbucks and they have all these crazy things you can put into

your drink, that's a whole other language that I'm not very familiar with, but you know,

we'll try to make a video about this for you guys, so you can go order at Starbucks, but

for now, go into any coffee shop, say your double double, your regular, your triple triple

if you like it.

Now, if you're going to order a quadruple quadruple, you know, just order a glass of

milk and ask them to put a shot of coffee in it.

It'll be much easier.

Otherwise, go enjoy any one of these drinks or the ones we spoke about before and you'll

have a good time.

Anyway, if you have any questions about any of these words or expressions, please go to

www.engvid.com and ask me there in the comments section.

There's also a quiz there to make sure you understand all these new vocabulary.

And, if you like this video, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and come back for more

helpful videos to help you improve your English.

Until then, I'll see you.

Bye bye!